[citation needed] In the early-to-mid-1990s a team of archaeologists from University College Dublin began to study the monastic heritage of the island, long known for being the site of a monastery and settlement reportedly founded by St Feichin.

[3] John MacNeice, a Church of Ireland bishop famous for his opposition to the Ulster Covenant[4] was born and raised on Omey.

In the latter half of the seventh century, St. Feichin, the abbot of Fore, in Westmeath, found the inhabitants of Omey still pagans, and encountered violent opposition from them when building a monastery there..."[5] During the winter of 1880-81, Bernard Henry Becker, correspondent for the Daily Mail, toured Ireland and wrote about Omey Island: "Over against the inhabited part of the island is what is now a mere sandbank.

There is too much fresh air; for it blows so hard that people are afraid to disturb the thin covering of herbage which overspreads the best part of the island.

[3] The ruin of Teampaill Feichin, the medieval parish church, excavated from the sand in 1981, stands on the site of the abbey said to have been founded by Saint Feichín.

[3] For more than 30 years the only full-time inhabitant was the former stuntman and wrestler Pascal Whelan, who died in February 2017[8][9] [10] The Irish poet Richard Murphy lived for some time on Omey Island, where he built an octagonal retreat that still exists.

[3] In 2003, the Irish Artist Sean Corcoran witnessed a strange creature in the lake that he describes as being similar to a Dobhar-chu (Master Otter).