So, I was backtracking a bit, reading the post I wrote about going to Inis Meáin and I thought that I should add to that. Inis Meáin is one of the three Aran Islands and it is almost entirely untouched by time. The only exception to this is the knitting factory that supplies the famous Aran Sweaters. As we walked around the Island and listened to our local guide , Maureen, I could not help but think about how surreal the whole idea of spending one’s entire life as a resident of this island seems to me. Our tour guide spoke English rather well I though, but she herself even said that she can only really express herself in Irish. There are some people on the island, and in other parts of the Gaeltacht, who have very little or even no English at all. It’s so hard to wrap one’s head around this. Most of Ireland speaks English, but if you know where to go, you will meet people who may not have but two words.

As Maureen described her life to us, I pondered in amazement. She lives alone, but insists that because she has the other 127 people of the island and her cats that she is not really alone. She is the librarian and is lucky to have a job. Most people are on welfare because there are very few facilities on the island. However, they do have constant access to a government-funded, very tiny plane that will take them ashore. So really, if one of them needs to go to the hospital in Galway, he or she will probably make it there faster than someone from the mainland.

I thought that needed to be shared. I visited a place that very few people have seen, and even fewer know exists. I feel that I am one of the privileged few that have been able to experience Inis Meáin in all of its timeless beauty.