Way out West: a journey to Inis Méain

 

WB Yeats, John Millington Synge and James Joyce were all inspired by the starkly beautiful and remote Inis Méain. More recently the acclaimed international painter (MoMa, & webcast) Sean Scully and dramatist and filmmaker (In Bruges) Martin McDonagh, have turned to the this Aran Island for inspiration. Artists and photographers continue to be drawn by its wild beauty. Even today the small middle island remains the least visited. Acclaimed Irish writer (Brooklyn) Colm Tóibín recently  set out to discover its secrets. read on

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Synge's cottage museum

photos by Renaud Camus

 
Flickr photo by Renaud Camus
Above Treasa Ni Fhatharta at the half door of Synge's cottage,  now a small museum. This is where Synge lived for two summers at the turn of the last century. The museum is open to visitors during the summer months.
Le Jour ni l'Heure : à "Teach Synge", Inishmaan, la restauratrice du cottage, Mme Treasa Ni Fhatharta, arrière-petite-fille de Brid & Paidin Mac Donnchadha, les hôtes de John Millington Synge (1871-1909) entre 1898 et 1902 Read more from the photographer Renaud Camus

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 Writer's Haven on Aran

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Stay in an  environmentally friendly cottage (left and above right), a five minute walk from "Synge's Chair," where the dramatist wrote,  his notebook sprayed by the giant waves 300 feet below. Learn more  here






Address: Cinn and Bhaile, Inis Meain:
Details: Aran cottage;
Email:   AranIslands@hotmail.com 
Skype   inismeain.cottage
Calendar: Availability
Phone + 1 202 2484536


Teach Philomena

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Philomena's Cottage
At left, and extreme left above
call +353 87 6203426
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The Irish Times: Inis Méain A Place Apart. 
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The New York Times on "The Cripple of Inishmaan"
On a sparsely populated island off the west coast of Ireland, "Cripple" portrays the impact of the presence in nearby Inishmore of an American film crew (for the Robert Flaherty movie "Man of Aran") on the excitement-starved inhabitants of Inishmaan. Notable among them is Cripple Billy , an overgrown orphan whose chief hobby has hitherto been staring at cows. Martin McDonagh's play The Cripple of Inishmaan was staged on Inis Méain in 2005.
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Back in the day...in Synge's time and until relatively recently (the 1960s), the journey ashore at Inis Meain - where the harbour was tidal -  was a terrifying prospect, especially if a big sea was running. A Galway Hooker arrives at Inis Meáin. This photo from about 1910 shows the boat at anchor off the present day harbour. The islanders ferried the goods from the larger boat to the shore at a place called the Oiléan Dubh (Black Island). The islanders would throw the cargo to the waiting women who passed it in a chain to the shore itself.
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