Made it to Aran!

Well I made it over to Inis Mór [also known simply as Aran]!
What a simply beautiful place. It was a gorgeous day for it too! I could even tolerate the sea! I thought for sure, being the North Atlantic, I was going to have to sacrifice the contents of my stomach to Manannán [Celtic god of the sea]. Here's a bit of music reference for you: Cowell, wrote a piece called "The Tides of Manannán." Cowell is a modern composer so it may be completey different to most peoples ears but listen anyways. The tone clusters (the smashing of piano keys underneath) symbolize the rolling and turbulent waves of the North Atlantic while the Gaelic melody is played over the top. This piece belongs to a set of three pieces by Cowell depicting three Celtic legends; The Tides of Manannán, Hero Sun and The Voice of Lir.





I thought for sure I would want to rent a bike today but, I got over there around 1pm and had to leave on a 5pm ferry - only 4 hours. And knowing me, it would take me more than 4 hours to bike the length of the island and back (18 miles total) and stopping to see all the sites too...
Instead I took one of the local tour vans and he whipped us around the island in record time.




We first stopped at Dún Aonghasa [doon on husu, I believe is how it would be pronounced. I could be wrong...]. You would probably recognize it from this famous picture:

It was definitely a bit of a hike up [taken halfway there],

but it was totally worth it. There was a small museum at the bottom and at the very edge (yes you can walk up to it... no fence - just edge and hundreds of feet down) were grand sea cliffs [picture taken lying down at the edge of the cliff holding the camera over the sea - dangerous? yes. worth it? even more so]:

The fortress has three main rings - the innermost ring encompasses where a bronze age village would have stood - the original stone houses with thatched roofs. The second ring of stone was a further protection, and the ring after that encompasses 11 acres of land! Probably used for domestic animals (at least that's my guess). Another feature of the fortress is it's use of Chevaux de Frise - slanted pointed stones used as a defense against enemies. Just imagine how hard those would be to climb over while the inhabitants are hurdling rocks and spears at you! Intimidating indeed!

The Aran Islands are also known for their thatched straw roofed houses. The straw is collected from washed and dried up sea reeds on a close by island, aptly named Straw Island.

We then stopped by a seal colony, but unfortunately it was high tide - so no seals. We saw one or two of the seals pop their heads out of the water, but that was about it. Instead of an actual photo taken by yours truly, here's one from the interwebs!

Cute, eh? Let's imagine I saw that amount of cuteness instead of them just blowing water and snot out their noses at me.



Lastly, I will answer your burning question! NO. I did not get an Aran sweater. I had no need for one! It was 75oF and beautiful! I know, I know, that's beside the point but they're mad expensive anyways (the cheapest I saw was around 50 Euro, or in today's exchange rate $64.50, it has gone up to 1.29 from 1.22). Anyways I thought I'd share a tidbit about them with you.

Contrary to popular belief - Aran sweaters are not made from wool collected from sheep on the Aran Islands (in fact there are very very few sheep on the islands. The biggest industry is fishing and some people own cows or horses. I was told there were maybe 100 on the islands collectively while on the mainland there are over 5 million. 1 million more than the population of Ireland!), nor do they have to be made on the Aran Islands to be considered Aran sweaters. Aran sweaters are sweaters that use stitches originating from the Aran Islands. Some of these stitches include:
Cable stitches represent fishing ropes.
The plaited cable stitch evokes the powerful imagery of the interweaving of family life.
Moss stitches represent the rich and abundant growth of the mossy soil.
Diamond stitches signify the shape of the fishing net mesh, a symbol of wealth and success.
Honeycomb stitches represent the rewards of a good life.
Trinity stitches represent ancient and religious beliefs.
Blackberry stitches have religious and natural connotations.
Stitches such as lobster claw, spoon and basket are symbolic of the way of life of the knitters.
 (from http://www.omaille.com/stitches.htm)
 So in theory, one could make and authentic Aran Sweater out of steel wool in Singapore, so long as the original stitches are used. Though I'd much prefer the soft wool of Irish sheep and the care of hand stitching.

It is also thought that women would knit a plain sweater when they were married, and when their first child was born they would stitch a certain stitch into the sweater, and subsequently for each other child born. As such these sweaters and designs became icons of the oldest families on the islands. They were a family crest of sorts. These "crests" also helped to identify the bodies of dead fisherman. Sad, but useful.

For those of you who do not know there are three Aran Islands: Inis Mór [in-ish more] (Big Island) (the most popular island for tourists and where I visited today), Inis Meáin [in-ish mane] (Middle Island) and Inis Oírr [in-ish ear] (Small Island). There a small amount of very tiny sandbank like islands between them, but those are the three of which the name Aran Islands refer to.

The Aran Islands, being as small as the are (the largest is 9 miles long) have few modes of transportation. There are a few cars - and only diesel fuel is used on the islands. There are bikes and scooters but one of the favored ways of transportation, especially during tourist season is by horse and buggy!

The next video is of Dún Aonghasa [spelled both Aonghasa, Aoghasa and Aoghusu]. You can see the sea cliffs from the hike up, walking to the edge of the fortress and peering down at the turbulent waves crashing upon jagged rocks [and me cringing at how high up I was], the walls and buttresses and some of the Chevaux de Frise. The music is Wo Jaben, from their Album "Alalé." The song is called "Squealing Cats" (though it sounds much nicer than that to me). It's a great original reel.






One little bit I'd like to add: if you've watched the above video, and you've seen the picture at the end, I hope you will understand what I'm about to say. That picture is intimidating - just a vast blue nothingness. A vast blue nothingness of North Atlantic - known for it's ice bergs, destructive storms and downed ships. My ancestors came from Ireland, and upon setting out for the new world would have seen this vast blue nothingness. I would be terrified to get on a ship, stay for weeks out on the ocean to arrive in a land that would not understand my language or culture. It must have been a hard decision to risk crossing the rough and disease plagued waters rather than stick out the famine at home (I realize I "stick out" like it was an easy thing to do, but I think you get my point).
It was today that I realized the sacrafice that my, and many other Irish-American's ancestors made. We are the descendants of the truly brave and couragous - the descendents of a proud and hardy race - the descendents of people, who sacrificed all they knew and loved in the land of their ancestors, and came to America, in the supreme hope that their children, their children's children, and their children's children's children could lead a better life.

Could you do it?

My family's dream was accomplished. O'Donobhain.