Island

Definitions from dictionnaries
Old English īġland. The S was added by confusion with French isle, which is not related but is instead from Latin insula. Cognate with German Aue, "water-meadow", and Latin aqua.

The first caracteristic of an island is to be surrounded by water. Indeed is not enough for give a full definition. Australia is surrounded by water but considered as a continent. AUstralia area is considered in geography as a limit for a land surrounded by water to be island.

The verb "-To island", that means make into a island, and isolate give a second important point. An island is an isolated piece of land. When the Eurostar began its service, the firts assertion done was: "England is no more an island."... Modern transport made islands piece of lands but no more islands, as construction of bridge between an island and a country (Ïle de Ré, Ile St Louis...).

Definition from symbols
In celtic spirituality islands are stability, irremovable in agitation. In the middle of the water, primordial element and passage obliged towards the Other World. It represents the original centre, the primordial spiritual centre that light and spread spirituality all over the world. Between the sky and sea, the island is where the holy, the sacred is condensed.

The north is where come from the knowledge, civilisation, as Tùatha Dé Danann and their science come from the north.

In the case of Tory, as an island in the north, it's easy to understand why it was considered as an Holy place. Tory Island placename explainaition

Definitions from imagination
The Island of Dr.Moreau (1896, Herbert Georges Wells), Treasure's islands, in movies and litterature islands are synonymous of adventure, dangers too, it's the place where things can be hided (canibals, monsters, treasures...)

The TV serie Lost, is interesting for this kind of representations. All the fears about islands are condensed in this serie. (Lost, without help, with an impossible menace...)

The exact opposite is find in a movie like The Blue Lagoon (1980) from the eponym book of Henry De Vere Stacpoole, or in Philosophy as for the Utopia of Thomas More, or the Supplément au Voyage de Bougainville of Denis Diderot. Then islands are innocence, a place where perfection is possible. Far of the Modernity (not the Civilisation), isolated and remoted place can give the best of the human being... They are kind of Heaven.

With Balor, Lug, Colmcille, Galeige and link to the past, Tory is the Island...