The Aran Islands (Irish: Oileáin Árann — Aran Islands pronunciation: ) or The Arans (na hÁrainneacha — ) are a group of three islands located at the mouth of Galway Bay, on the west coast of Ireland. They constitute the barony of Aran in County Galway, Ireland. From west to east they are: Inishmore (Árainn Mhór/Inis Mór — or ), the largest; Inishmaan (Inis Meáin/Inis Meadhóin — ), the second-largest; and Inisheer (Inis Thiar/Inis Oírr/Inis Oirthir — or ), the smallest. Irish is the main spoken language on all three islands, and is the language used naming the islands and their villages and townlands. There are 1,200 people living on the islands and the overwhelming majority are Irish speakers.
Read more about Aran Islands: Location and Access, Geology, Climate and Agriculture, Flora and Fauna, Traditional Life and Irish Language, Sport, Popular Culture
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“The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color-line—the relation of the darker to the lighter races of men in Asia and Africa, in America and the islands of the sea. It was a phase of this problem that caused the Civil War.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)