July 2009 Archives

TODAY'S New York Times tells us that Martha's Vineyard is like a miniature Ireland -- roads wind among sheep, horses and cattle grazing in bright green pastures, and many of the farms welcome visitors. Sounds more like the Aran Islands to us, except we don't get the Kennedys, the Clintons and now Barack Obama coming on holidays.
Actually we get the better deal, who wants their holiday ruined by motorcades and men with wires hanging out of the their ears.....

 

The Aran Islands are on their way to having a full Primary Care Team unit, with the official opening of a new Health Centre on Inis Oírr.

Inis Oírr has a population of 247 (2006 census) and a range of health needs for a mixed age profile which ranges from the very young to the very old.

Currently the Health Centre is used by a GP who provides 24-hour medical cover for Inis Oírr and Inis Meáin and by the resident Public Health Nurse who provides a nursing service. Speech and Language therapy is provided in the Health Centre along with Chiropody and Podiatry Clinics which take place twice a year.

From the HSE:

"The development of the Island Primary Care Team will commence in 2010 and the new Health Centre will greatly enhance the opportunities for providing services for the local population. The Island Primary Care Team will be part of the Connemara Network of Health and Social Care Services which covers Clifden, South Connemara, Oughterard, Spiddal, Moycullen along with the Aran Islands . The Primary Care Teams in these areas are currently being aligned to include nursing, home help, community welfare and therapy services in conjunction with local GPs."

Photo by Jake Bouma
Linda Barnard July 23, 2009
Toronto Star

INISHMORE, Ireland-There's just one movie theatre on this windswept, rocky island 50 kilometres off the west coast of Ireland. And it shows only one movie.

The theatre is a more of an afterthought, built on the back of Gearoid Browne's Internet café - also the island's only one - in the tiny port town of Kilronan. The movie is Man of Aran, American filmmaker Robert J. Flaherty's stunning 1934 pseudo-documentary about how time has stood still in this isolated place.

The theatre has 24 genuine cinema seats, complete with cup holders, sent by a fellow in Dublin. And Browne starts each of the several 5-euro (about $8 Cdn) daily screenings with an introduction that explains how Flaherty moved here for two years to film in the early 1930s, hiring three locals who he thought best represented these rugged people to play wife, husband and son. As with his 1922 movie, Nanook of the North, Flaherty wanted to capture a vanishing way of life for the world to see.

It's important to Browne, 47, that visitors to Inishmore, or Inis Mór as it's called in the native Irish that is still the first language here, see the controversial movie, praised as a master work of filmmaking even while it is often decryed as a sham.

The pivotal scene of fishermen going out in a traditional canoe-like, flat-bottomed currach to bring down a massive basking shark for its oil to fuel lamps was completely fictionalized, Browne tells the audience of three for the 5 p.m. screening. Nobody had hunted basking sharks for decades; they had to be taught how to harpoon them and Flaherty demanded multiple takes for dramatic scenes.

But the heart-stopping moment when Maggie Dirrane struggles in the pounding sea, weighed down by long skirts, to retrieve a lost fishing net and is saved from being swept away by a man who grabs her by the hair and hauls her back, "that was real."

"It's based on the life here and it's hard here," says Browne. But he laughs when asked if he's obsessed with Man of Aran. "I have a passion for it, but I'm not obssessed."

The movie always prompts lively discussion among residents, most of whom have lived here all their lives. In a way it mirrors the debate over tourism; crucial to Inishmore and smaller sister islands Inis Oírr and Inis Beag. Without the day trippers from Galway who snap up famous Aran sweaters and rides in wooden traps pulled by stocky ponies, or weekenders cozied up in B&Bs in front of peat fires, life would be very tough here.

But tourists demand things like supermarkets, French wines, ATMs and WiFi, snap photos without asking (I met an elderly woman out walking her dog who was near tears after some lads took pictures) and clog the narrow roads with rented bikes, making Inishmore reflect the world they were supposedly seeking to escape.

I'd come here as part of a hiking tour organized by Dublin-based company called Extreme Ireland and after four days climbing challenging mountains and being awed by the stunning scenery of Connemara National Park, we had come to Aran to hike flat roads past patchwork fields marked with dry stone walls.

Accompanied by guide Emily McCullagh, an experienced mountain climber and trekker who had plenty of stories to share about the place, we explored this historic area that is home to hill forts and tiny stone ruins, some dating back 2,500 years. It was a completely different experience from our four days in green Connemara - this was true isolation and a glimpse of what Ireland looked like in the past.

The dry stone walls running all over the land - made without mortar to let the fierce winds pass through - were constructed because farmers had to put the rocks somewhere when they broke them up to clear places where they wanted to make dirt for their fields. That's right: make dirt.

Using seaweed and sand, mixed with whatever dirt they could find in crevasses in the rock, the farmers made soil to grow potatoes and grow grass to graze stock.

Inis Mor is just 14 kilometres long and about 3 kilometres wide, but our first hike of the western loop of the island would take seven hours, with frequent stops for photos and to scratch the heads of sweet-faced donkeys and friendly white horses that often met us at stone walls.

The rugged natural beauty of the island is stunning and when McCullagh led us off the roadway, we felt like we had it to ourselves. Stone fields were unlikely meadows, filled with tenacious wildflowers.

We carefully picked our way across a boulder-filled landscape to end up underneath a massive cliff. Below us, the sea churned into a natural near-perfect rectangle in the rock, dubbed The Worm Hole.

Our climb to Dún Aonghasa stone fort - a series of four semi-circle stone walls built about the time the Egyptians were thinking of putting up pyramids - was rewarded with a spectacular view down sheer 100-metre cliffs.

McCullagh encouraged us to lie flat on the stone and crawl to the edge, hanging our heads over to watch the crashing surf below.

"Feel how warm the rock seems," she said. It was true.

The next day, a heavy mist settled on Inis Mor and we rented bikes (10 euros a day) from one of several places in Kilronan to explore the eastern end of the island on our own.

The fog created a powerful sense of isolation and the road was deserted, the stone walls looking darker in the wet, the only bit of colour the bright green exterior wall of the Tigh Fitz pub.

I explored the funny little aerodrome where daily flights from the mainland touch down and walked along a deserted crescent of white sandy beach. On the way back to town, my thoughts turning to a plate of fried pollock and chips and a pint of Guinness, I stopped to chat with a farmer named Tom about his cow, who was due to have her calf any day now.

He'd never been on a plane, nor lived anywhere but here.

"I've never been away," he mused, using a term I'd last heard in Newfoundland.

"Somebody has to stay and look after things," he added in a gentle voice as he stared across the stone walls and misty field, his Aran woolen cap pulled low against the chill.

Linda Barnard is the Star's movies editor.

Mervyn Story,   the unionist politician in the mould of Ian Paisley, (thats him on the right behind Big Ian) is making his way to one of the fonts of Irish culture today when he arrive s on Inis Oirr.

Its an historic official visit to one of the Irish-speaking islands made famous by 'Father Ted'. The Islands are also hotbeds of Irish Republican sentiment.

Story is a Bible thumping creationist, and Inis Oirr has been home to all sorts of crackpot cults down the years. he should feel at home, at least in that regard.

Over the decades they have provided quiet hideaways for Republicans keeping their heads down during 'the troubles.'

Storey's fact-finding mission to Inis Oirr (smallest of the Aran Islands with a population of over 260 inhabitants) is with Gaeltacht Affairs Minister Eamon O Cuiv and Northern Ireland's Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy.

Storey is Democratic Unionist Party MLA for North Antrim, a creationist and a member of Ian Paisley's Free Presbyterian Church.

BACKSTORY

He was last in the news on 14 July after trouble flared in Rasharkin following a Twelfth parade as nationalists attacked police officers. They were pelted with petrol bombs and fireworks, while golf balls and other missiles were also thrown at bandsmen and Orangemen.

This video from Okinawa  of the Kuroshio Sea aquarium is quietly stunning. It was taken at one of the world's largest aquariums and matched with Barcelona's haunting "Please don't go."
The waters around Aran have their own astonishing under sea life (look here and here, but we like this a lot.
The Churaumi Aquarium is on Okinawa one of the hundreds of Ryukyu Islands which extends southwest from Kyūshū (the southwesternmost of Japan's main four islands) This single tank holds nearly two million gallons of water. The Kuroshio Sea has one of the largest viewing windows ever made. The tank holds a beautiful array of fish, sharks and rays. The amazing size of the tank gives them space to roam. And it's a beautiful sight. So, sit back and take it all in on the full screen of your computer.

Backstory:
"Kuroshio Sea" holds 7,500-cubic meters (1,981,290 gallons) of water and features the world's second largest acrylic glass panel, measuring 8.2 meters by 22.5 meters with a thickness of 60 centimeters. Whale sharks and manta rays are kept amongst many other fish species in the main tank.

The music is "Please don't go" by Barcelona. You can buy it at http://bit.ly/1zAVu Barcelona's website: http://www.myspace.com/barcelona

Tedfest is turning into Oz-fest  Down Under
(click here to see The Guardian's photos of the second annual Ted Fest)

The annual celebration of Irush cult comedy Father Ted, which starred the late Dermot Morgan and Ardal O'Hanlon, is going to Australia next Easter.

His Aussie fans will get a chance to enjoy the Lovely Girls Competition, Buckaroo Speed Dating and A Song For Europe in the one horse town of Parkes, New South Wales.

The first foreign Tedfest is appropriately taking place in a country famous for sheep and  WOOLLY JUMPER sales.

Traditional Aran sweater exports have fallen away in recent years (but the recession seems likely to bring them back) causing islanders to export their next most famous product.

 Cathal Jack O'Flaherty, CEO of the newly formed Aran Islands Export Agency said: "Sweater sales have declined over the last two decades and we needed to look at new industry."

"Tedfest has been a godsend to our economy in recent years." AIEA also hope to take Tedfest to such exotic locations as Latvia and Papua New Guinea.

After being rejected by RTE, the state owned Irish television channel, Father Ted ran on Channel 4 from 1995 to 1998, winning a BAFTA award, as did stars Morgan and Pauline McLynn.

Pauline this week recalled how food poisoning helped her get her Mrs Doyle role.

 "The upset stomach worked to my favour because I was grey and I looked older than I was at the time," she recalled.

Controversy contines to follow Father Ted.

The creators of the television series have denounced Ireland's proposed blasphemy laws as "insanity" and pledged to support a campaign to repeal them.

Arthur Mathews and Graham Linehan backed moves by a group of Irish secularists to challenge the bill against blasphemy introduced in the Dáil last week. Atheist Ireland said this weekend that it will publish a statement blaspheming all the major religions in Ireland, including Christianity and Islam. The group said it would be a calculated challenge to the law.

Under the Irish constitution, the state is obliged to have blasphemy laws. The bill going through the Dáil would amend the Defamation Act of 1961, which includes blasphemy as a crime. To abolish blasphemy laws, the government would have to hold a referendum to amend the constitution. The duo, who wrote a host of other TV comedies such as Big Train, described the blasphemy law contained in the new bill covering defamation in Ireland as "a return to the Middle Ages".

Linehan told the Observer that the justice minister Dermot Ahern, who introduced the bill, should be challenged to define what he meant by blasphemy. "This is insanity. Please, Mr Ahern, define the things we can't say, please! Can we say, 'Jesus is gay'? Or can we ask, 'Is God in a biscuit?' Could he tell us what it means? It is just insanity. After all, there are things contained in the holy books of one religion that are blasphemy to another religion. The logic behind this comes from Alice in Wonderland." He said the Irish blasphemy law was part of a trend in the west where freedom of expression was being attacked "to placate the craziest people on earth".
...

A CONTROVERSIAL plan to turn a historic 19th century Lighthouse at the highest point of Inis Mór in the Aran Islands into a teahouse has been approved, despite seriolus concerns about the plans.

The lighthouse is one of the dominant landmarks of Aran, beside Dun Eochla, a major prehistoric monument of the island. Eochaill ( Oughill ) derives its name from Dún Eochla, a late Bronze Age ring fort. The name means Yew wood "Eo Choill".

This fort commands some of Aran's most spectacular views. From here, on a clear day 5 counties can be seen, Kerry, Limerick , Clare, Galway and Mayo.

To the west is the old signal tower; built in 1799 after the 1789 rebellion to protect Ireland's west coast from Spanish or French invasion. Similar buildings can be seen on Golam Island and Inis Oirr. Signals were sent by light and semaphores - flags.

Beside this is the island's first lighthouse which began its short working life on a May Day 1818. Unfortunately the lighthouse was ill positioned and was blind to ships in the Gregory Sound and when rounding Earrach Island to the west. It was decommissioned when new lighthouses were constructed in Killeaney Bay and on Earrach Island to the west, though it was manned during both world wars. Hat tip Aran Pony & trap Tours

An appeal against the development by An Taisce, the national trust for Ireland has failed, and An Bord Pleanála has given the project the go-ahead.  A report by the planning inspector Louise Kiernan on 9 April last said "the proposed development would be contrary to the proper planning and sustainable development of the area."

As often happens in Ireland, political pressure led to Galway county council granting permission for the controversial plan last yea. An Taisce then appealed the decision only to be overruled by An Bord Pleanála last week.

 Dun Arann Signal Tower and Lighthouse, both of which are National Monuments and Protected Structures are close to the development which is located in a designated Natural Heritage area and Special Area of Conservation. The archaeological fort of Dun Eochla, which is also a National Monument is close by. There is also a wedge tomb located between the subject site and Dun Eochla Fort. 

An Bord Pleanála  previously ruled that "'The introduction of a modern house on the site of the Lighthouse and located in close proximity to Oghil Fort which is a National Monument, would be out of character with and seriously detract from the historical importance of the
Lighthouse and from the archaeological significance, natural setting and
tourism potential of Oghill Fort. "

It went on to say it would "would seriously injure the visual
amenities of the area and be contrary to the proper planning and development."

In her report Ms Kernan noted that the "Aran Islands by their nature are rich in archaeological finds. As such it is a very sensitive archaeological site.

Body confirmed as that of missing man

The body of a man taken from the sea at Inverin, Co Galway last night, has been confirmed as that of 42 year-old Joe Browne, a father and grandfather from Derry who had been reported missing on Inis Oírr last weekend.

Mr Browne had been holidays with his wife Denise on Inis Oírr. He was last seen half a mile west of the pier on Inis Oírr last Saturday night, and an extensive sea and land search was undertaken from Sunday when he had not returned.

His family believe he may have slipped on rocks while out walking in heavy weather. Mr Browne, an English language teacher, was a father of two and grandfather of three.

Jem Casey

A young basking shark was discovered caught in fishing net along Derrynane Long Beach in south-west Kerry.

The rare basking shark was found dead by locals Peter Sweeney, a photographer, and his friend Chris Gleeson on Sunday evening.

It is believed to have been an accidental "by-catch" by a fishing boat which died out at sea and was washed ashore where it was discovered.

The basking shark along with the great white shark are classed as vulnerable to extinction. The 1933 film Man of Aran by the American filmmaker  Robert Flaherty celebrated a hunt for the basking shark and was part of Hollywood's long infatuation with sharks and their supposed threat to man. The lastest of course was Jaws. In fact most sharks are harmless, especially the basking shark which does not even have teeth but filterfeeds. 

Basking sharks were once very common off Ireland but are rarely seen anymore

A major international campaign is now underway to protect sharks from commercial fishing. Some 70,000 sharks are taken from the world's waters eveyr year just for their fins which fetch $300 a pound, making them more expensive than caviar.

The sadndiscovery of a dead basking shark off Ireland  follows unusual events along the coast of Kerry where several bottlenose dolphins have died in Tralee Bay. A dead animal was also found floating off Fenit, while there was also another stranding off Camp.

The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) is appealing for any reports on stranded dolphins in the Kerry area, following the unusual sequence of marine mammal beachings over the last few days.

More at The Irish Times

About Flaherty's Man of Aran film

BSP's new score for Man of Aran

The Irish Coast Guard's Sligo-based Sikorsky helicopter yesterday flew a 39-year-old man injured in a fall on Rathlin island off the Co Antrim coast to hospital in Coleraine, Co Derry, writes Lorna Siggins.

Separately, a search continued on and off the Aran island of Inis Oírr yesterday for a Derry man reported missing since Saturday night. The man, in his mid-40s, was last seen about half a mile west of the island's pier on Saturday night in very heavy weather conditions.

The father of a Derry man missing, presumed lost at sea, off the coast of Inis Oirr, the smallest of the Aran Islands, says his family is "heartbroken" as they await news.
Asking to remain anonymous at this 'difficult time', the missing man's father told the 'Derry Journal' his 42 year old son went for a walk on the rocks late on Saturday night but didn't return.

"We are assuming that our son slipped on rocks and went into the water, he didn't go missing from the pier as some reports have suggested.

"We have no details at all except that the search of the coast and sea continued from 5am this morning with frogmen also being deployed.

"This is our youngest son and it is heartbreaking when children go before their parents."

The search, involving members of An Garda Síochána, the Irish Coastguard, the Search and Rescue Dogs Association (SARDA) and members of the public was sparked when the man was reported missing at 4pm on Sunday.

The man was holidaying on the island with his wife and she has now returned to Derry to be with other family members.

Divisional Controller with the Irish Coastguard at Doolin Station, John Falvey, yesterday described the search area as "considerable" and added, "the missing man had been in the water a long, long time."

"Local people and Garda had been searching since 9am this morning. Coastguard units from Doolin are currently searching around Inis Óirr and the Shannon based search and rescue helicopter, Rescue 115, continues to search the sea at low water."

In total, 20 members of the Doolin Coastguard plus six crew on the lifeboat and four manning the helicopter are involved in the search.

Mr. Falvey added: "The Doolin Coast Guard launched at 4.45pm on Sunday and proceeded to the Island where it began line searches alongside the Aran lifeboat. The Shannon Coast Guard Helicopter, Rescue 115, was also tasked to the search.

"More team members and a SARDA Dog team were transferred by Doolin Coast Guard Delta rib and commenced shore and land searches on the island. Teams stood down at 11pm on Sunday but resumed the search at 9am on Monday."

At the time of going to press the search was ongoing.



The full article contains 385 words and appears in Journal Tuesday newspaper.

The Doolin Coast Guard Delta boat went to Inis Óirr, the smallest of the Aran islands, this morning to continue the search for a for a visitor who went missing off the coast of Inis Oirr in the Aran Islands on Saturday night.

The alarm was raised on Sunday afternoon and helicopter, lifeboat and the coastguard, as well as gardaí and islanders, took part in the search.

More Coast Guard team members along with a SARDA Ireland Search Dog  also went across on a passenger ferry. The Doolin Coast Guard Delta and the Aran Lifeboat conducted line searches from Inish Óirr to Blackhead. The Shannon Coast Guard Rescue Helicopter also searched the area. Galway Sub Aqua Club a local boat and a boat from Carna also searched.

Coast Guard team members and the SARDA search dog searched the 10.2 km of coastline around the Island.

The man, in his mid-40s and from Derry, was last seen on the island's main pier at about 10pm.

John Falvey, divisional controller of Valentia coastguard, said the man was last seen on a pier at 2100 BST on Saturday.

"He wasn't seen entering the water at any location so we are searching the whole island as well as the sea areas off it."

RTE

The Pleasant Light of Day
Philip O Ceallaigh
Penguin, €16.89

By Emer O'Kelly
Sunday July 12 2009

When Philip O Ceallaigh's first collection of stories burst on the reading public, it had a fairly electrifying effect. The likelihood was that after Notes from a Turkish Whorehouse, his second collection might disappoint; and a dip would have been acceptable from such a disturbingly unique voice. But The Pleasant Light of Day merely confirms his reputation.

That, in itself, is phenomenal: to have become a respected fixture with only two books is, to say the least, unusual.

There are, by and large, three locales for this collection of stories (where there is a recognisable locale other than the uneasy world of a detached soul). They are set in Ireland, North Africa and eastern Europe, all made similar to each other by their individual narrators/central characters who obsessively seek salvation through a kind of grim self-sufficiency that withdraws fearfully from contact with the world.

From the student residences of Galway to the tourist hotels of Cairo and chalets of rest in the mountains of eastern Europe, the locale is actually a desert of the soul, a single journey of troubled longing, ending nowhere, but with arms still reaching out.

In Tombstone Blues, a man follows the reputed travels of St Antony to the roots of Coptic Christianity and settles in for what purports to be some research in a monastery library. Effectively, he is in retreat, indeed "on" retreat as Roman Christianity would put it. The supervising priest does not read the books which surround him. Questioned, he says merely, "I used to".

The pilgrim reflects on Athanasius' Life of St Anthony, in which the saint is mocked because he has no letters, and when he questions his mockers as to which is first, mind or letters of mind, they accept that mind is first and the inventor of letters. Antony tells them, "Whoever, therefore, hath a sound mind hath not need of letters."

The equating of anti-intellectualism with purity and peace of mind pervades most of the stories. That seems to be the universal search, broken only by a surging sexual desire that is almost profane in the context of its cold detachment. The narrator of Tombstone Blues seeks out a woman traveller he sees from his window, uses her as though she were hanging on a cross for him, but never wonders at the self-abasement of her compliance.

He makes no connection when she tells him she is dying of cancer; the darkness he later experiences when there is a power cut in his seedy Cairo hotel illuminates nothing for him: as long as he can locate the bottle beside him without knocking it over, it is enough. It's the light that is disturbing: when the power comes back, he is disturbed because the room is ugly.

In Uprooted, a young lecturer goes to a student party because, until he has tenure, he and his wife can't afford to live together, and he's lonely. The city is Galway, the hostess a young Circe who watches herself exercising power over men. There is damage in her smile, but Jonathan emerges relatively unscathed because he believes "the obstinate will inherit the earth".

Aidan, too, a sculptor at a loose end on a trip from Inis Mor, salvages his equilibrium with a return to the basics of collecting driftwood and preparing his barren island holding for planting after the visual and aural stench of the student party. Isolation is salvation.

Back in Cairo, in the story of the collection title, a man takes his small son to visit the museums, meticulously explaining the meaning of the words he uses to the avid youngster, combining truth with a tempering of realism.

When the boy asks why the ancient arrows on display are barbed, he tells his son it was "to hurt more", not that any attempt to pull them out would have ripped the flesh agonisingly. But he avoids the room of mummies, and as they sit to eat ice cream in the square named for the assassinated Anwar Sadat, he reflects that every generation goes about its business as if none of it had happened before.

This is O Ceallaigh's insistent, contradictory message. To find peace, the stories demand, man (and it is always man: women are receptacles in this strange world) must avoid analysis and immure himself in intellectual oblivion. But, by so doing, he condemns himself to learn nothing. And thus he remains an eternal traveller in a barren, unsure landscape of his own making, out of time and place.

It's a hell of a message; that O Ceallaigh delivers it so compellingly, enticing us, however reluctantly, into what he sees as its lonely certainties, is remarkable.

- Emer O'Kelly

RTE NEWS COVERAGE OF LAUNCH



Beautiful Ficker image of Aranmore from Maghery outside Dungloe, by Conal Houston of the Rosses in Co Donegal

By Eileen Magnier
The people of Arranmore Island off the coast of Donegal have launched a new development plan for the island. Residents of Ireland's second most populated island after Inis Mor, biggest of the Aran Islands, have warned that co-ordinated action is needed for a sustainable future.

The plan highlights the island's natural beauty but it also highlights a number of serious problems including its declining population, high unemployment and a decline in the Irish language.

There has been a steady fall in the population which now stands at 522 with most young people leaving as soon as they can for further education and better job opportunities. A quarter of islanders are unemployed and there is 56% male unemployment. Traditional fishing and agriculture have declined significantly. The age profile of islanders is increasing and there is a high dependency on social welfare and other state supports.

The level of fluency in the Irish language has dropped to 55% but the island's Co-op says there is great interest in the community in making Irish the main language of the island once again and they hope to employ an Irish officer to progress that.

The plan launched today, is described as a road-map for the future of the island which islanders themselves want to be part of implementing but they say they also need State support to make the plan a reality. They have identified nine areas to be addressed including the development of tourism and renewable energy projects and support for fishing and agriculture. Islanders say support is needed from State agencies to achieve their plan and Údaras na Gaeltachta Chairman Liam O'Cuinneagáin said he is optimistic the government will give its support. He said it is particularly important at times like this that we focus on creating employment and encouraging entrepreneurship.

Concubhar Ó Liatháin
Tógaigí strac fhéachaint ar seo - saothar nua a seoladh chugam le déanaí. Cluiche riomhaireachta atá ann agus má tá sé chomh spraoiúil is atá sé alainn le breathnú air, beidh sé ar fheabhas. An fhealsúnacht atá ar a chúl, úsáid a bhaint as na meain digiteacha chun spás a chruthú don Ghaeilge. Díreach an rud a bhí a rá riamh....Cuireann sé íontas orm go bhfuil an borradh seo ag teacht ar chúrsaí Ghaeilge ag an am seo - ach b'fhéidir go raibh sé ann riamh anall is nár thugas faoi ndeara é. Ba mhaith liom a thuilleadh a fháil amach faoin gcluiche seo agus lucht a dhéanta....

Beidh Cripil Inis Meáin á léiriú in Áras Inis Gluaire, Béal an Mhuirthead, Co. Mhaigheo, Dé Máirt an 21ú Iúil, ag 8.30i.n. I934. Tá scannán Robert Flaherty, Man of Aran, atá á dhéanamh ar Inis Mór, an áit a bhfuil sé suite ag cur iontais ar mhuintir Inis Meáin.

Tapaíonn an 'Cripil' Billí Claven a dheis éalú óna dhá aint atá ag coinneáil súil ghéar air, Kate agus Eilín, lena shaoirse a bhaint amach. Téann sé go hInis Mór ag tóraíocht clú agus cáil le cúnamh ón iascaire Bobby Bhobby in éineacht le cailín báire na dúiche, Helen agus a deartháir Beairtlín, a bhfuil dúil mhór aige i milseáin.

Idir an dá linn, is breá leis an bhfear beadáin Johnny Pheaitín Mhaidhc an deis cainte atá aige agus mearbhall ar mhuintir an oileáin faoi eachtraí an cheathrair agus imní orthu an mbeidh  an 'cripil', Billí, in  ann déanamh dó féin sa saol mór.

Is é Mícheál Ó Conghaile a d'aistrigh an dráma dorcha seo go Gaeilge agus is é Beartla M. Ó Flatharta atá ag déanamh an chéad léirithe riamh de. Baineann pearsantacht láidir agus domhain le carachtair Mhartin McDonagh.

Is taispeántas casta, gasta, greannmhar é seo a choinneoidh an lucht éisteachta faoi dhraíocht de bharr a spraoi agus an spleodar atá faoi.

Tá aisteoirí mór le rá rannpháirteach ann ina measc: Bríd Ní Neachtain, Darach Ó Dubháin, Bridie Ní Churraoin, Mícheál Seoighe, Mícheál Ó Dubhghaill, Brídín Nic Dhonncha, Seán Ó Flatharta, Breandan Murray agus Áine Ní Dhroighneáin. Dearadh Stáitse - Dara McGee agus Dearadh na Soilse ó John Comiskey.

Is é Máirtín O'Connor a chum an ceol agus is é Conor McBrierty atá i mbun Dearadh Fuaime.

Is féidir tuilleadh eolais a fháil agus ticéid a chur in áirithe ag Áras Inis Gluaire (097-81079), nó téigh chuig suíomh idirlíon na féile: www.feileiorras.org

 Solas Nua is a non-profit arts organization seeking  to support both feted and unknown work by contemporary artists in Ireland to promote awareness of modern Irish culture in Washington D.C.
 Solas Nua is the only organization in the United States dedicated exclusively to contemporary Irish arts. www.solasnua.org 

Aer Arann's very own Peggy Hernon has written a collection of short stories chronicling her experience working with Aer Arann Islands and life in Connemara. Peggy's colourful and descriptive style is sure to draw you in.
Peggy is a member of the Ground Operations staff at Inis Mor Airport. She was born in the Bronx in New York, attended NYU and worked on Wall street for 18 years. She moved over to Inis Mor in 1990 where she married Micheal Hernon, Inis Mor Airport Manager and has been living on the island ever since.
Below is a collection of some of her short stories of life on The Islands. We hope you like them!

Peggy's short stories

The Aran Islands lie eight miles into the Atlantic ocean, off the West Coast of Ireland, one the last remaining wild and natural environments in Europe.
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Scattered  between sea and sky Seamus Heaney describes the  Islands as "three stepping stones out of Europe".  The island population is about 1,000 peopel most of whom converse in the Irish language. Almost a million visitors come here every year. Most go to Inis Mor, a lot go to Inis Oirr and very few go to Inis Meain. Thats why we think of it as the real Hidden Ireland.
All three islands teem with wildflowers and birdlife and are also considered by many to be the last bastions of ancient Irish culture.

PANU PETTERI HÖGLUND, (Åbo Akademi University)
Of the 80 000 native speakers today, only 30 000 live in the traditional Irish-speaking districts in the west coast (called the Gaeltachtaí; the singular form Gaeltacht is frequently used collectively, to refer to them all together). The others probably live predominantly in the bigger towns and cities, where the networks of the Irish-speaking subculture might be numerically very strong - in Dublin (Baile Átha Cliath), Cork (Corcaigh), and Belfast (Béal Feirste), there probably are much more Irish-speakers (i.e. even more first-language speakers; active secondary bilinguals probably exceed the number of the first-language speakers anyway) in absolute numbers than in the west coast villages, but procentually speaking, they disappear among the urban masses. Instead of a language community, urban speakers live in a subculture of networks consisting of Irish-speaking families.
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Each of the Aran Islands has its own festival to celebrate its individual Patron Saint. Its an action packed weekend of currach races, swimming, Tug o' war, donkey racing, music and dancing on the pier. The high-light of the day is generally a Hooker Boat race in the bay.

• Patrún Inis Mór 2008 27th/28th/29th June
• Patrún Inis Méain 2008 1st/2nd/3rd August
• Patrún Inis Oírr 2008 15th/16th/17th August

LORNA SIGGINS Marine Correspondent The Irish Times

The Shannon rescue helicopter is taken for granted now in the skies above the west coast as it approaches its 20th birthday, but it took a series of tragedies before the crucial service was established

A HAG OR "cailleach" was chasing Cuchulainn across Loop Head, Co Clare, when he leaped onto a rock several metres offshore. She attempted to follow him, fell into the sea, and her body was washed up on the headland named after her.

Were she to repeat her unfortunate experience now, the "cailleach" might well have survived and found herself at the end of a winch suspended from Shannon's Irish Coast Guard air-sea helicopter.

Airman Jim O'Neill might even have told her a few jokes to calm her, having already spotted her in the briny with his heat-seeking infrared camera before leaving the aircraft by cable and karabiner with his bag of parademical gear.

For just as Hag's Head is a distinctive part of the southern Clare shoreline, so the Shannon rescue helicopter has become an institution - taken for granted now in the skies above the west coast as it approaches its 20th birthday.

On a Sunday evening training mission, its presence is a subconscious comfort for the novice surfers - resembling diving beetles - navigating the swell off Lahinch, and the passengers on the Doolin-Inis Oírr ferry. An indigo Atlantic seems deceptively tranquil as the Sikorsky S-61 sweeps over the weathered rock buttresses forming the Cliffs of Moher.

There's a constant patter on the high- frequency radio, with talk about results of football matches mingling with communications between Shannon air-traffic control and the helicopter, call sign Golf Charlie Echo. Should that call sign change to Rescue 115, it is a signal that the training run has become a rescue "tasking".

"Bring some money and your mobile phone," Capt Cathal Oakes had advised this reporter, before becoming airborne with co-pilot Micheal Moriarty, winch operator Ciarán McHugh and winchman Jim O'Neill. "Just in case we have to drop you down somewhere en route."

It didn't arise; but when Capt Oakes donned a pair of plastic glasses, almost completely covered in tape, it was a reminder that even a routine training flight is accomplished under pressure. The glasses simulate night-time conditions. There will be several more exercises by crew members, each having to update his skills constantly, before we land.

Ironically, the most successful missions are often those no one hears about. Only a fraction of the more than 3,000 rescue flights Shannon has recorded over the past two decades have made headlines.

IT WASN'T ALWAYS like this, as those who campaigned over decades for adequate aerial support for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) clearly remember. Back in 1958, the crash of Hugo de Groot , a KLM flight, off Galway, with the loss of 99 lives, prompted such demands.

"Many people will wonder why air-sea rescue operations should have to be co- ordinated from Scotland and southern England when the accident took place within the air-traffic control area of Shannon Airport. Had there been a helicopter in the Republic - not necessarily at Shannon - it could have searched the crash scene by mid-afternoon at latest," this newspaper reported on August 15th, 1958.

There were to be more such calls, particularly from the fishing industry, over subsequent decades. For although pioneering Air Corps pilots undertook many rescues from Baldonnel from as early as 1963, capability was severely restricted by geographical location and helicopter flying range. Much of the coastline was dependent on the goodwill of Britain, principally through the RAF.

It took the death of Donegal skipper John Oglesby on the deck of his boat, Neptune, off the north Mayo coastline in 1988 to change all that. Oglesby, whose son was among the crew, had his leg severed by a trawl warp.

The nearest lifeboat station at the time was Arranmore, Co Donegal. By RAF calculations, the vessel would have reached port before the closest available helicopter would have reached it. Oglesby bled to death within sight of land.

Joan McGinley was distraught and angry at the manner in which Oglesby, a close friend of her partner, had died. After a public meeting in Killybegs not long after the accident, McGinley established the west coast search-and-rescue campaign, run with a group of people including Aran Island GP Dr Marion Broderick, Joey Murrin of the Killybegs Fishermen's Organisation, Bryan Casburn of the Galway and Aran Fishermen's Co-op, former Naval Service commanders Eamonn Doyle and Paddy Kavanagh, former Air Corps pilot Comdt Fergus O'Connor and solicitor Peter Murphy.

Its single-issue focus yielded swift results. An interdepartmental review group, chaired by former garda commissioner Eamon Doherty, recommended that the Air Corps place a Dauphin helicopter on permanent 24-hour standby at Shannon as an interim measure - and so the first dedicated west coast air-sea base was in operation by September 1989.

A final report recommended that a medium-range helicopter service be provided to the State on contract from Shannon, with an operating radius of 200 nautical miles, and that the Air Corps Dauphin at Shannon be relocated to Finner military base in Co Donegal.

The Irish Coast Guard also owes its origins to that report, and to McGinley's campaign. The first coast guard director, Capt Liam Kirwan, effected a radical transformation of capability, assisted by the RNLI, which moved rapidly to open a new lifeboat station in Ballyglass, Co Mayo, as part of a further expansion.

NOW RUN BY Chris Reynolds, the Irish Coast Guard service can provide coastal, offshore, mountain and inland rescue. Aircraft cross the Border when requested and can assist Britain when required.

Shannon became a commercial rescue base within two years, with Irish Helicopters initially replacing the Air Corps. Air-sea rescue bases at Sligo (replacing Finner camp), Dublin and Waterford were to follow, with the contract for all four now held by CHC Helicopters.

Capt Dave Courtney, a former search-and-rescue pilot, recalls in his recent autobiography, Nine Lives , how operating procedures blended the best of experience from the RAF, Royal Navy, Air Corps, British Coastguard and commercial companies serving the North Sea oil industry.

Challenges, such as the near ditching of the Shannon helicopter shortly before Christmas 1993, helped to refine those procedures.

The S-61 had been called out to assist an Irish-registered Spanish fishing vessel, Dunboy , with 13 crew on board, which had lost engine power some 65km west of Slyne Head in winds of up to 150km an hour. Winchman John McDermott had just landed on the vessel's deck in a heaving sea when the boat listed 70 degrees, the cable broke and about 120ft wrapped itself around the aircraft's blades. A Mayday call was issued, but the helicopter, flown by Capt Nick Gribble and co-pilot Carmel Kirby managed to recover and fly to Galway, leaving McDermott to be picked up by the RAF hours later.

Not only has flying become safer, but the decision to approve paramedic training for use by winch crew on missions has also helped to save lives. "We used to scoop and run to the nearest hospital," O'Neill explains. "Now we can give certain types of treatment en route."

Even before that particular development, the Shannon S-61 had marked its first emergency birth. On March 17th, 1996, Sorcha Ní Fhlatharta saw first light of day in the helicopter cabin, when her mother, Mairéad, delivered her with the assistance of two nurses and the helicopter crew en route from Inis Oírr to University Hospital Galway.

"The crew were great and it was a sort of a distraction," the mother said some years afterwards. "I really didn't have time to think about the pain."

TRAMORE TRAGEDY: 'SERIOUS DEFICIENCIES'

Even as Shannon prepares to celebrate two decades serving the coastline, helicopter and maintenance crews will also remember the sacrifice of colleagues - notably the four members of the Air Corps who died 10 years ago this week in the Dauphin helicopter crash at Tramore, Co Waterford.

Capt Dave O'Flaherty, Capt Michael Baker, Sgt Paddy Mooney and Cpl Niall Byrne were returning from the first night of the rescue mission in the early hours of July 2nd, 1999, when their helicopter collided with a sand dune in thick fog.

The official investigation highlighted "serious deficiencies" in the support given the four crew.

The four had only learned on July 1st - the day the search-and-rescue base at Waterford Airport was converted to 24-hour cover - that there was no provision for after-hours air-traffic control. An agreement had not been concluded by the Department of Defence and the airport management.

The report by the investigation unit specifically noted that considerable pressure was brought to bear on the late Capt OFlaherty, as detachment commander, to accept the rescue mission in search of a small boat with four adults and a child.

In June 2008, Minister for Defence Willie O'Dea awarded posthumous Distinguished Service Medals to the crew of Dauphin 248.

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times