Smaointe ar Árainn/Thoughts on Aran

John Millington Synge’s The Aran Islands has long been considered a definitive depiction of the Aran Islands, off the Connemara coast.  Less well known is that a young university student named Agnes O’Farrelly/ Úna Ní Fhaircheallaigh also travelled to the islands in the summer of 1898, lodged in the same fisherman’s cottage Synge had just vacated, and proceeded to write an Irish-language travelogue Smaointe ar Árainn about her experiences on the island.  O’Farrelly’s travelogue has now been republished with an English-language translation and critical introduction by Dr Ríona Nic Congáil, of the Irish Department, St Patrick’s College, as Smaointe ar Árainn/ Thoughts on Aran (Arlen House, 2010)  This publication is a social and cultural document which focuses primarily on Aran women and reveals the modus operandi of the Gaelic League as it simultaneously attempted to protect and to modernise the Gaelic culture of the Aran Islands at the turn of the twentieth century. 

 

 

 

Last Updated: Wednesday March 03 2010