The Aran Islands

Description

First published in 1907, this is a record of Synge's visit to the three islands off Galway in the west of Ireland in 1898-1901. The visit to the islands was at the recommendation of Yeats. It was not until Synge's first visits that Aran recovered some of its mystic status that it had enjoyed in previous centuries. The islanders found themselves viewed as the Celtic soul of Ireland. The living culture of Aran was seen as a repository of venerable antiquities. Synge listened to the islanders folktales and anecdotes, many of which he used for his play "the Playboy of the Western World". The book is in four parts, corresponding to the first four of his five visits and is an exploration of an island community living a traditional life, but with modern life beginning to invade.

Tim Robinson (External Editor, Introducer) A native of Yorkshire, Tim Robinson studied maths at Cambridge and then worked for many years as a visual artist in Istanbul, Vienna and London, among other places. In 1972 he moved to the Aran Islands and commenced a multi-decade project of mapping and writing about Aran and Connemara. He is the author of the two-volume Stones of Aran and the Connemara trilogy, each published to great acclaim. He died in 2020.