History
The Aran Islands abound with evidence of their early inhabitants : the earliest ring forts possibly date from the Iron Age (circa 400 BC-500 AD), though recent research suggests that some of the larger structures may be even earlier, perhaps Late Bronze Age (circa 700 BC). The next group of people to figure are the Christians , who came here to study at the foundation of St Enda in the fifth century and went on to found Iona, Clonmacnois and Kilmacduagh. However, the earliest surviving ecclesiastical remains date from the eighth century. As Galway's trade grew, so the strategic importance of the islands increased, and in medieval times control of them was disputed by the O'Flaherties of Connacht and the O'Briens of Munster, the latter generally maintaining the upper hand. In 1565, Queen Elizabeth resolved the dispute by granting the islands to an Englishman on condition he kept soldiers there to guarantee the Crown's interests. In the mid-seventeenth century the islands lost their political usefulness; the Cromwellian soldiers garrisoned there simply transferred to the new regime after the Restoration and became absorbed into the islands' traditional way of life. After the decline of English interest and influence, the islands fell into poverty, aggravated in the nineteenth century by rack-renting. That rents should be levied on this barren rock suggests a cruel avarice and, not surprisingly, Aranmen were active in the Land League agitations: acts of defiance included walking the landlord's cattle blindfold over the Dun Aengus cliff edge. Despite this link with the general political movement on the mainland and the islands' use as a refuge for Nationalists during the War of Independence, it is their isolation that has allowed the continuation of a unique and ancient culture that proves so alluring to outsiders in this century.
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