Talk:Aran Islands/Archive 1

Archive 1

How high are the cliffs?

Internet sources are giving both 100m and 100 feet! (30m) I will check the OS map tonight

Don't have the OS, but do have Tim Robinson's map. It says 286 feet not far back from the cliff edge.

About 60-80 metres if I recall my look at the OS map at the weekend (that would roughly fit with 286 feet). I think the Cliffs of Moher are about twice as tall. zoney ♣ talk 11:55, 10 Mar 2005 (UTC)

In The Book of Aran, Tir Eolas, 1995, they refer to the cliffs exceeding 120 m (394 feet). In The Aran Islands, Daphne Pochin Mould, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1972, she says the maximum height is 300 feet (90m). In A World of Stone, Curriculum Development Unit, O'Brien Press, Dublin, 1977, they say the highest is 124 m (406 feet). Confusing, isn't it? Aranman 19:39, 17 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Archive

Is Inis Oirr not the east island? Theas is the Irish for south, thoirr is ( i think ) the irish for east.

yes, East is correct. Oirthar = East. Thuaigh is south.

---

There is some (I remember vague) controversy about the names? The "Irish" names were actually made up later on; the original names were slightly different.

What do you mean by later on? Of course the Irish names were there before the English ones.

I think what he means is that 'Inis Mór' is an Ordnance Survey "correction". The big island was orginally just called Árainn and only the other islands had descriptive names.

Maps

Adding maps - good idea. Adding lurid huge maps? Bad idea.

A beautifully presented article has been hideously mangled by the addition of these maps.

zoney ♣ talk 10:15, 24 Jun 2005 (UTC)

• I like the maps! I am a schoolteacher of 7th Grade Social Studies in Washington D.C., and my students use Wikipedia in class. The kids like the maps; it tells them where something is located a lot easier than reading a text description. Now if someone lives in Ireland, they might not need the maps, but for someone in Maryland, Canada, Japan, China, India, South Africa, Argentina, etc., it is nice to have the maps. So for the school children and their teachers, we say ‘keep the maps’. A map is worth 500 words. Thanks Carol.

Non-lurid, sensibly sized and formatted maps would be nice, that's all. zoney ♣ talk 29 June 2005 22:38 (UTC)

Leaba an Ceathrar Aluinn (The Bed--maybe grave--of The Four Beautiful Ones)

Ar ár mbealach dho Dún Aonghasa dhúinn, ar Inis Mór Árainn--mé fhéin, mo bhean 'is m'iníon (ar rothrachaí)--sheasamar le h-aghaidh lón picnic ag áit ar a dtugadh Leaba agus Teampaill an Ceathrar Áluinn. An mbeadh duine ar bith i ndán a innseacht dhom cérbh iad an Ceathrar seo? Le mo bhuíochas,--PeadarMaguidhir 19:38, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

• Níl a fhios agam, but you might get more response asking in English. Níl Gaeilge ag gach uile duine anseo. User:Angr 20:31, 19 June 2006 (UTC)

While my wife, my daughter and I were cycling to Dún Aonghasa, we stopped for our picnic lunch at a place called Leaba agus Teampaill an Ceathrar Áluinn (The Bed--maybe Grave--and Church of the Ceathrar Áluinn--The Four Beautiful Ones). Could anyone please tell me who these Four Beautiful Ones were, and what they were doing on Inis Mór Árainn? Thanks in advance!--PeadarMaguidhir 12:23, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Further reading

Give me a chair, I need to rest after seeing that list. Honestly, who has ever seen a list that long for such a small island? Is it really necessary? Can it be pruned sensibly? If not, should it be lopped off altogether? Laurel Lodged (talk) 20:22, 9 April 2010 (UTC)

I'm usually tolerant of some excess content in shorter geographical articles, but I agree the section goes over the limit. The cotent was added here by User:Cybercobra as a result of an article merge. [1] They look to be actively editing so let's ask over there too? The information seems to overwhelm the article, but we don't necessarily want to lose it altogether. Franamax (talk) 01:41, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

It was merged from the mess of an "article" Aran Islands bibliography. I am of the opinion that bibliographies should not be independent articles (I can give my reasoning if you like), so I merged the content here as it's the most relevant related article. I fully support cutting the section down to size and would not oppose eliminating it entirely if need be. --Cybercobra (talk) 01:57, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Yes, a bit OTT. I'd suggest keeping a half-dozen or so of accessible books, though, and delete the rest. I don't see anything wrong with having a separate bibliography (but don't want to get into discussion about this). Hohenloh ⁺ 13:46, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Barony?

I don't agree with the editing of this article putting such emphasis on the fact that this is a barony (I believe this kind of editing has already been discussed in relation to another article). I suggest changing it back to what it was before Barony was mentioned, and if necessary, move the Barony information to somewhere further down. Hohenloh ⁺ 13:55, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

Total rubbish passing as fact

"Since the islands were first populated in larger numbers, probably at the time of the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland in the mid 17th century, when the Catholic population of Ireland had the choice of going "to hell or to Connacht", many fled to the numerous islands off the west coast of Ireland."

1. The only people told to go to Hell or Connacht were the confederate nobles who'd fought for the English Crown. Many Irish Catholics from the lower ranks actually fought for the New Model Army. Stop imparting bullshit passed to you by Priests as history. 2. The Aran Islands were occupied by the English from 1587 when they were granted to John Rawson by Lizzy I 3. The islands were garrisoned by Cromwell and many of todays islanders are actually descended from this garrison, there are numerous genetic studies that deal with this. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 109.78.6.244 (talk) 11:54, 2 September 2010 (UTC)

Unsupported value judgment

"Perhaps the best literary product of this third kind of visitor is An Aran Keening, by Andrew McNeillie" A value judgment of this sort should not be there without some supporting reference. Personally, I find that the work in question is written in a style that is over-literary, and that it tells me more than I wish to know about the author and less than I wish to know about the Aran Islands - in contrast to Synge's work which is simply written and tells me a lot about the islands and their inhabitants but less than I would wish to know about the author. --MWLittleGuy (talk) 18:58, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

Agree, WP:Be bold. cygnis insignis 18:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Isles of Arran

This title redirects here [now], a 1900 reference used the name in an unqualified manner. The Penny cyclopædia has this after the entry on "Arran",

ARRAN, ISLES OF, a cluster at the entrance of Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland, sometimes called the South Isles of Arran, to distinguish them from the island of Arranmore off the coast of Donegal, which is sometimes called North Arran.[2]

… so it goes. This needs some careful diambigs and notes [cross posted] cygnis insignis 18:20, 6 October 2010 (UTC)

Is Samus Aran related to the islands? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 88.165.153.174 (talk) 23:45, 19 April 2011 (UTC)

Organisation of pages Aran Island,s Inishmore, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, and the Burren

These all share more or less the same geology, flora and fauna. It might be worthwhile creating one page deveoted to all of them and dealing with these topics. cckkab (talk) 10:42, 30 August 2011 (UTC)

Árainn Mhór

Árainn Mhór is not a name of any of the Aran Islands. Árainn Mór is the name of an island off the coast of County Donegal. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 93.107.153.23 (talk) 02:03, 12 December 2012 (UTC)

Further reading

The article contains an excessive 'further reading' section which has been marked up for some years now without resolution. Wikipedia is not a directory, and there is no sign of the material's being used for anything in the article. The simplest resolution would be to cut it. Chiswick Chap (talk) 16:02, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

Given we've waited 4 years already, I've gone ahead and cut it, along with some of the POV and OR in the text. Chiswick Chap (talk) 07:20, 9 May 2014 (UTC)

Removal of the history segment

Removing the history segment "A Very Brief History of the Aran Islands" and showing it as an external link is, I believe, inappropriate. The entry at www.apricot.com which contains the history might disappear at any time but the text should not. Referring to it as a separate article within wikipedia would make more sense (assuming that it needs to be removed from this article at all). aranman 21:34, 29 July 2005

• A) Looks like someone needs to write some original material for a history in this article.
• B) You can copy the history to WikiSource and keep it there, then link to it instead of a third party website.
• WikiDon 04:38, 30 July 2005 (UTC)

I came here to find out information about the history of the Aran Islands and basically found nothing. A Wikipedia article about an inhabited place ought to have a history section. I have written the history section for three different towns I lived in. I have never lived in the Aran Islands or I would already know it's history. If small rural towns in the U.S. deserve a history section, why not an ancient group of Islands with a very long and rich history? My great grandfather was born there and now I wish I'd paid better attention when he went on for hours at a time about the ancient history of his home. Nothing, not even a single sentence? Anyone? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.190.53.6 (talk) 04:19, 6 June 2016 (UTC)

Aran Islanders, the population, the people.

Are Aran Islanders in any way genetically distinct from the people of western Ireland proper? There are those who say Aran Islanders have a specific phenotype, a look peculiar to them. If that's the case, maybe an Aran people type article could be made, somewhat like other such populations have besides just their locality (i.e. Ainu people) 67.5.157.117 (talk) 10:18, 15 June 2008 (UTC)

My great grandfather was born in the Aran Islands. When I was a child he told the most wondrous stories about his home. But I have never found anything anywhere either in libraries or on the internet to confirm anything he ever told me. One thing he told me was that his grandparents all spoke a unique language he insisted was the original language of the inhabitants of the Aran Islands and predated the Celtic invasion. He insisted that his ancestors had lived there for thousands of years and that they WALKED to Ireland from Europe before the seas rose. He absolutely insisted that Aran Islanders were Irish in nationality but ethnically were NOT Celtic nor British or anything similar though I never really understood what he was trying to tell me. I was around 12 when he died. I had a conversation with an elderly woman from Ireland about a dozen years ago who insisted that Aran Islanders were genetically very similar to Basques. She told me that they shared genetic features not found in other groups but this was before DNA genealogy was available and she was vague when she told me this. I have desperately searched and found nothing published on this topic. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 108.190.53.6 (talk) 04:32, 6 June 2016 (UTC)