Aran Islands Blog
AranLIFE features on Nationwide
All of last week’s Nationwide programmes broadcast on RTÉ 1 were recorded on the three Aran Islands. In case you missed any of them please see links below for all 3 programmes in the following order: Inis Mór, Inis Meáin, Inis Oírr. Patrick McGurn, AranLIFE project...
Mapping Aran Irish: A 25-Year Job!
Over 25 years ago, the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies asked me to document the spoken Irish of Inis Mór in the Aran Islands. No serious study of Inis Mór Irish had been done there since the Danish scholar Holger Pedersen and the German scholar Franz Nikolaus...
Generousness
Between night and dawn At dawn Another day, another pair. Even another colour. The same size though. Nearly every morning around the same time I lay down a different pair on the brown polished shelf. Pure pleasure it is for me to give them their nicely tugged in...
Home coming
Inis Meáin Puffing hole In fact it was only just a tiny little scrap out of your entire life time on the island that I got to know you. For it was here on Inis Meáin that you were born and bred. Amongst your family, your brothers and sisters and all those living...
Love, Relationships & Island Living
I called up to a friend of mine, called Niall some time ago and I could only say that Niall really is a man of Aran --- he is a first class fisherman, a champion oarsman, a builder of walls or indeed anything, he is a tremendous father and husband and I know he'd...
Pátrún Festival – Currach Men and Modern Men
https://youtu.be/c4AA0SUQ48w I remember years ago reading a story written by the Great Island Author, Liam O Flaherty in which he described the feelings of a newly wedded young man who was going to dig his potatoe ridges for the first time as a married man. He...
3 reasons to Rent or Hire a bike on Inis Mor (Inishmore)
Summer is upon us here on Inis Mor (Inishmore). We recently asked several people what were ‘the three best things about Renting a bike on Inis Mor (Inishmore) Island’. Here are the three main conclusions. 1. Renting a bike on Inis Mor (Inishmore) and cycling around...
If Aran was a man ……
Good Morning, At the very heart of this unique and beautiful island is community and the essence of community, is family. If Aran was a man ...... My father taught me, and more importantly, showed me that in a family,...
Inis Oírr – The Little Sister of the Aran Islands
There are three Aran Islands and the smallest – the little sister of Aran – is Inis Oírr (pronounced Inish Sheer). The name means “island of the east” and it is the most easterly of the three. It is not as popular as the largest island, Inis Mor – but if you love...
Best place to be
Sure he must have felt his reasons why he slipped in. Was it perhaps the light which shone so brightly from the inside or maybe the heavenly sounds elicited from the harp? Anyway both of them had the quality to prepare him a warm welcome. Actually thinking back, I...
Why Should One Visit Aran Islands Once In Their Lifetime?
The Aran Islands are a cluster of three islands located on the West Coast of Ireland at the entrance of Galway Bay. The three islands are namely Inishmore, Inishmaan and Inisheer of which Inishmore is the largest and Inisheer is the smallest. These islands are home to...
St. Patrick’s Day on the Aran Islands
St. Patrick’s Day – is probably one of the most well- known feast days throughout the world. It is celebrated in numerous countries outside of Ireland as well as here on the “Emerald Isle” and in many cases with...
The Aran Islands in the dead of winter – a life-changing experience
I’d been to Ireland dozens of times, but a winter’s day on Inishmore was something else entirely.Photo by: Arkell Weygandt “What if we just didn’t get on the ferry?” All three of us had been thinking it as we cycled the coast road of Inishmore back to the main village...
My Favorite Place in Ireland: The Wild West – By Andrew McCarthy
A couple peers over the Cliffs of Moher at the Atlantic Ocean below. (Photograph by Jim Richardson, National Geographic) An innkeeper, a painter, a bodhran maker. Almost 30 years ago on a chilly June night I stumbled into Ballinalacken Castle House Hotel in County...
Cliffs of Moher | Aran Islands Wedding | Laura and Mitch
Today, at long last, I want to tell you all about Laura and Mitch and their amazing wedding in Ireland. Laura and Mitch originally booked...
Mystery of the moving rocks off Irish island solved
Scientists have uncovered the mystery of the moving rocks on the rugged shoreline of the Aran Islands.Photo by: Tourism Ireland A mystery on the Aran Islands off the Irish West Coast has finally been solved by one of the world’s top geologists. Something had picked up...
Visitare le Isole Aran è stato un dono del cielo e dell’amicizia. (Italian & English)
Mi trovavo per concerti al mio terzo viaggio in Irlanda e nei giorni passati a Galway con mio cugino e Alessandro, un mio caro amico, ricevemmo la proposta di visitare un po' la zona. Alessandro era già...
Paradoxically our hearts are delicate yet robust
This morning as I finally decided that Xmas was over and that a form of routine was reluctantly the way that I could get in touch with the islands natural rhythm and introduce a bit...
Missionaries are Back – The Aran Islands
On the cliff tops, there we are, on the ancient fort of Dún Aonghasa, one of the most ancient ruins of Ireland. 21 young men from the French Foreign Missions of Paris looking at the sun set in the horizon. 21 hearts burning with the same fire that burnt the monks of...
FINDING LOVE ON THE ARAN ISLANDS
I was initially inspired to write this heading when i saw that there was to be a singles weekend in the Island's Hotel, and it got me thinking. I thought, imagined and, indeed, even reminisced about how the romance and magic of this Island can wrap a couple up...
A Day on Inis Meaín – From Dawn to Departure
I awake before dawn to almost complete silence. I strain my ears and barely hear the muted lowing of a cow and the muffled lapping of waves. I am enveloped in peaceful solitude. I am on Inis Meáin. I sit by the window and wait for day's first blush to appear and lose...
Aran ways and Aran Days
I was struck very forcibly while watching the epic hurling match on Sunday at how, we Irish are different to the rest of the world. I am sure that human nature is the same the world over but for many years we had a national inferiority complex and then...
Dara Molloy Celtic Priest, Aran Islands, Ireland
Dara Molloy Celtic Priest, Aran Islands, Ireland Dara Molloy is a Celtic priest whom I met this summer when visiting the Aran Island of Inis Mor, off Galway and the West Coast of Ireland. Dara authored “Legends In The Landscape, A Pocket Guide to Inis Mór, Árainn,”...
Aran Island Journey
The Aran Islands, they sound exotic, perched off the coast of Ireland, next stop Newfoundland. All I knew of them was the old black and white film, Man of Aran by Robert Flaherty. A dramatic soundtrack accompanying grainy images of rock strewn land, high cliffs...
End of Summer Season Fatigue on the Aran Islands is Real!!
Firstly, for the last few busy weeks of this summer season the rhythm of my island life consisted of; work, eat, sleep – on a loop!!! I found myself unable to access the real rhythm of this stunning island, even knowing it's powerful impact on my life, views and...
“A lot of things catch the eye – fewer catch the heart”
I wrote this heading last Wednesday and had a general idea about what I was trying to express based on my experiences traveling to many places all over the world and the memory of them will stay with me forever. My own experience of this beautiful island is that; it...
Aran Islands’ Inis Mor: Wind, Rock, Roots & Resurrection
The Aran Island of Inis Mor is a special place. On Inis Mor, you can see the wind. You can see it in the ruddy faces of the men who work outside. You can see the wind in the rose-tinged stone of ancient ruins, imbued with the color of the “red tide” algae, borne...
“I found me a diamond when I was mining for coal” – The Aran Islands
One of the really incredible aspects to living back on my beloved island is how on a daily basis, I find myself getting pleasantly surprised. It's fair to say that over the course of the years that I have seen almost all this wonderful island has to offer –...
“The truth is what you feel” – The Aran Islands
When you come to this wonderful island, one of the challenges that is worth facing and overcoming is; to give yourself permission to feel your feelings, tune into your senses - to dispense your mainland head, which is all shorthand for leaving aside your business...
‘It’s a place of heart” – The Aran Islands
'It’s a place of heart.” Máirán Uí Chomáin said to me recently when I explained why I made the trip to Inis Mor with my family. I couldn’t describe the Aran Islands better. I’ve been born and bred by the sea in the Dublin area. The sea dominates my life. At night I...
The Man of the Sea.
While I was sitting having my breakfast today I heard on the radio that there were to be a number of ceremonies, masses etc for the Irish people who participated in all the wars around the world. Closer to home there is to be a mass at 12 noon on the pier in Kilronan...
Gleann Na Ndeor – Inis Mór
I decided to embrace the rhythm of the island and sleep with the curtains open. The sunrise either crept in stealthily or else I was just nicely tired from the fresh air . But either way it was bright as I set off to cycle east in the early morning sunlight. Galway...
Arriving on wonderful Aran
There is something more than symbolic in leaving the mainland and traveling across to ocean to an offshore island, especially an offshore island off the West coast of Ireland. I already feel my thought process being slowly but purposely taken over by my senses, which...
Dún Aonghasa Update
Tourism season in full flow now as hundreds from all over world flock to us daily at Dún Aonghasa. Cliffs look magnificent in this great weather. Rare flowers such as Purple Milk Vetch out at present. Basking Sharks and whale sighted from Cliffs in last...
The Aran Islands: Our First Night
Before we embarked on our week long trip to Ireland, my friends and I did what most people do: We asked around for travel recommendations. "Oh, you totally have to go the Aran Islands," my friend Matt said. "It was one of my favorite places." Indeed, Matt was right....
The Aran Islands – “That Island Energy”
The Aran Islands are located just 20km off County Galway in the West of Ireland. Inis Mor which has a population of 800 left me thinking I not only had an island escape from the kaos and distractions from day to day living on the mainland, that I had been somewhere...
A Weekend on the Aran Islands, Europe’s Most Westerly Isles; By Russell Shortt
Inishmor is the largest and most accessible of the Aran Islands. You can reach Inishmor by plane from Connemara regional airport at Minna, near Inverin, about 35km west of Galway or by ferry from Rossaveal about 40km west of Galway. Inishmor, teetering on the very...
Visit the Aran Islands in Ireland By Patricia Mckinney-Lins
I love to visit the Aran Islands when I am near the west coast of Ireland. The three islands are Inishmore, Inisheer and Inishmaan. Inishmore is the largest and most popular for tourists. Inisheer and Inishmaan are less developed and also fun to explore. I have...
