The Aran Islands

Action shot on my bike.

On Saturday I travelled to the Aran Islands with a group of kids from Marquette to see what the place is like. They are a set of three islands off the coast in Galway Bay. The Aran Islands have an interesting history. I will give a two second recap about why they are worth visiting.
Until the 1930’s, the islands were completely untouched by the rest of the world and life existed like it had for hundreds of years before without any technological advances. People lived short lives fishing and farming wherever they could to survive. Then around the 1920’s, Ireland revolted against the English and got their own country. They still hated the English though and wanted to separate themselves as much as possible. This was hard to do however because there are no obvious differences between the two people. They are both pasty white people who predominantly speak English. So, in order to distinguish themselves as Irish, they did everything they could to encourage people to value the opposite things the English valued. Everything from language, literature, clothing, music and sport were evaluated and changed to counteract English influences. This is called culture nationalism and is just about the only new thing I have learned about in school.

The fort of Dun Aengus dates back to the bronze age. (about 3500 years ago)

I just thought this was a cool shot.

Well, the English valued industrialization, technology, and progress so the Irish decided to value hard work, rural living, and backwards progress. All the popular stereotypes that exist today about Ireland came from this era. Right or wrong, the creators of Irish cultural nationalism found the perfect mold for this new image on the west coast of Ireland and in particular the Aran Islands. They completely left out how horrible the islanders had it and romanticized their lives saying their way of life embodied the true nature of Ireland. Artists, tourists, and politicians visited the islands to understand how they lived. Ironically, this pilgrimage to the islands made the locals give up farming and speaking Irish until all that was left was tourism and that is where I come in.
We took a ferry across that took 40 minutes and rented bikes when we got there. Riding was slow with so many people and it rained most of the morning. Still, it was fun to dick around and watch the country role by. I decided I would never want to live there after the first few minutes. The land is incredibly barren and harsh. It is hard to imagine anything prospering there. We rode to an abandoned light house where the views were supposed to be spectacular but all we got was fog. Climbing through the ruins was entertaining though especially when we found the animals. People let their livestock wander anywhere within a series of stone walls so we found a pony and some steers living in and around the building. They eat anything they can find which isn’t much because everything is rock. There wouldn’t even be grass there if the stone walls didn’t keep the soil from blowing away. All the soil that is there was made by the islanders with sea weed. Obviously, these islands are in no way utopias.

These cows were at the lighthouse and were getting it on. Laughter ensued.

We also saw abandoned churches, ancient cliff-side forts, and ruins of one room homes which could have been occupied by 20 or more people hundreds of years ago. It was all cool to see especially after hearing so much about it from my professors. Any way you cut it, life must have been miserable there before tourists moved in and it is still pretty bland now. I’m glad I saw it first hand though if only to appreciate the hardships people faced and the complete misinterpretation the founders of the modern state of Ireland made regarding the place. Like America and every country, Ireland values an idea of its past that isn’t entirely accurate. In some sense I used to hold this against America, somehow feeling like society was blinded by our own self-admiration and glorification of the past. Through traveling frequently in the past few years I have forgiven America though and realized the rest of the world is just as full of shit. Ireland is no different but I don’t hold it against them. Well, that’s enough of my personal views and teaching lesson. Next stop, Amsterdam…

Me on a stone wall.