"Neither enough wood to burn a man, nor enough rope to hang him, nor enough water to drown him..."

Midway through my cycling journey, I'll be visiting the Aran Islands. I have been there twice before. The Arans are so uniquely beautiful and are one of my favorite places in Ireland. This time I'll be very lucky to visit for three reasons. First, I'll be over there with the cycling group. Back when I was in school at UCG, we took a day trip to the Arans. My friends and I thought it would be a brilliant idea to rent bikes and get around the island that way. It was the first time I had been on a bike since my days riding to middle school. It was fun but something I continually cursed the whole next day when my legs only moved by motions resembling an unoiled robot. I swore I would never get on a bike again. Times change, don't they? The second outstanding reason the Aran trip is so special is that I will be spending the night for the first time on the islands. I am looking forward to a night among the rocks and seals and stories. The number one reason this part of my trip will be so spectacular is that I will be meeting up with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. It will be wonderful to be on the islands again with my parents and I have not seen my brother since he and his girlfriend left back in June for their volunteer work tour of places like the Czech Republic, Germany, and Switzerland. I'm very excited to see them and spend time with them in this special place.

Now a little history sprinkled with facts and possibly some fables of the Arans, my friends-

The Aaron Islands are a group of three islands in the west of Ireland, at the mouth of Galway bay. The only way to arrive at the islands is by ferry boat. The individual islands are Inishmore, Inishmann, and Inisheer. Inishmore is the largest of the three and the main place for tourists to dock. Inishmann is the middle island and the second largest. Inisheer is the smallest and most east. The islands are made of limestone that has become squared and rocky from the fierce weather out of Galway bay. Today fewer than a thousand people live on Inismor whereas before the Great Famine, more than 2500 people called it home. Many of the current residents are fishermen or farmers, though the tourism community does bring in money. Many tourist come to the island to experience the traditional life, see the beautiful bay, and experience the many iron age forts.

Though there is certainly a great deal of evidence of people living on the islands as far back as 2300 to 2000 BC, the main immigration to the island happened by pure and malevolent force. When Cromwell began his conquest of Ireland in the 17th century, he passed a very harsh series of penal laws requiring the Roman Catholics to give up almost all of their land. The 'reconquest' of Ireland was tremendously brutal and historical information tell of the army's actions, which today would be categorized as war crimes or even genocide. Many Catholics were forced to flee as far west as they could but to be fair, they were given a choice. Cromwell is noted to have said, that they could go "to hell or to Connach". When many landed on the Arans, Cromwell decided that they had taken the first option. His army plundered only causally here, seeing the rocky coast of this area once know as a destination for religious penance pilgrimages, as completely uninhabitable. "Neither enough wood to burn a man, nor enough rope to hang him, nor enough water to drown him" Cromwell said of the land. He believe that life on the islands was close enough to a death sentence as he could give the Irish without soiling his own sword but Irish people on the islands went from mere survival to complete self-sufficiency. They created ingenious methods to turn the land from rocks and weeds to pastures and farms. They used what they had, mixing layers of sand and seaweed on top of the rocks, allowing them land for fertile land for gardens and nutritious grass for sheep and cattle.

The harsh conditions and way of life was documented in the 1934 film Man of Aran by Robert J. Flaherty. I have not yet seen this film but it is on my weekend viewing list and a copy is waiting for my pickup at my local library. In a later post, I will write about the largest of the iron age forts, Dún Aonghasa. I cant wait to post pictures of this beautiful area so you all can experience it with me!