Aran Islands

Aran Islands , 18 sq mi (47 sq km), Co. Galway, W Republic of Ireland, in Galway Bay. The three islands are Inishmore (the largest), Inisheer, and Inishmaan. The islands are barren; farming and fishing prevail economically, and the knitting of woolen sweaters is an important cottage industry. Gaelic is the everyday language of most islanders. Many early Christian and prehistoric remains are there, and the islands have become a tourist attraction.

Aran Islands. A chain of islands that run 15 miles across the mouth of Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. The three largest islands are Aranmore (or Inishmore), Inishmaan, and Inisheer, a total of 11,578 acres. Because the Irish language has survived here well into modern times, many Irish people think of the Islands as the most Irish (or Celtic) part of Ireland, a perception enhanced by the writings of J. M. Synge (1871–1909) and others. On the west coast of Aranmore lies Dún Aonghusa, one of the most magnificent and dramatic prehistoric stone forts in all of Europe. The fort was named after a Fir Bolg chief, Angus (3), and strangely, considering its size, does not figure prominently in Island folklore. The Fir Bolg of the Lebor Gabála [Book of Invasions] fled here after their defeat at the First Battle of Mag Tuired (see CATH MAIGE TUIRED). The mysterious island in the Atlantic, Hy-Brasil, is sometimes identified with the Aran Islands. A ‘king’ of the Islands in several Irish stories is Ailill. These Irish islands are sometimes confused with the Scottish island of Arran in Argyllshire (since 1974, Strathclyde).

Bibliography

See P. A. Ó Síocháin , Aran, Islands of Legend (Dublin, 1963)

Aran Islands, limestone outcrops dominating the sea lanes and fisheries of Galway Bay. At the beginning of the Christian period great stone cashels, most notably Dún Aonghasa, were built; later St Enda's monastery attracted scholars and ascetics from all over western Europe. Because of their strategic importance they were fought over by the O'Flahertys and O'Briens in the Middle Ages and by the Confederate Catholics and parliamentarians in the early 1650s. In the 19th century Aran attracted archaeological, ethnographic, and philological interest. The Board of Works ‘restored’ the ruined cashels; writers such as J. M. Synge found inspiration there; and in 1932 Robert Flaherty made his famously contrived documentary film Man of Aran. Economically and socially this Gaeltacht area has suffered similar difficulties to other western parts, but now enjoys a thriving tourist trade on the back of a massive process of mythologization.

Hiram Morgan