Robin Flower was Deputy-Keeper of Manuscripts in the British Museum from 1929 to 1944 and a lifelong visitor to the Blasket Islands in Kerry. His books include the Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum (Vol.II, 1926), The Western Island (1944), The Irish Tradition (1994) and a translation of The Islandman (1934) by Tomás O Criomhthain.