The Fine Beauty of the Island November 18, 2011

Celtic harpist and storyteller Patrick Ball tells of his search for the origin and meaning of "The Vanishing," a strange, haunting tune chronicling the abandonment of inhabitants from a remote Irish settlement known as the Blasket Islands. Ball's journey takes him back not only to a Blasket Island community and culture "whose like will not be seen again," but to a long-neglected corner of his own past.