Wait, what? Irish? Like, English, but with an Irish accent and Irish slang, right?
No. English has only been spoken widely in Ireland for a few hundred years. Ireland has two official languages -- Irish and English. More on this later.
The main industries -- and probably the only significant ones -- on the island are fishing and tourism. In the height of the tourist season, the summer, about 1500 tourists visit the island every day. That's almost double the population.
If I get rich, I'm building a summer home on Inis Mor, but I wouldn't want to live there. It's more small town than any town you've ever been to -- about 1 hour away from the mainland, one bank that is open one day each week. I was shocked when I found an ATM.
Dun Aonghasa is a fort that was built in about 500 B.C. We think it was used for defense and for ritual purposes but not much is known about who built it or why. It's high up on a cliff, but well worth the hike.
Me with my fellow UAlbany Great Dane, Connor.
These are from "The Seven Churches" which are actually just two churches, and were at one point used as a school. Now it's a resting place, with graves hundreds of years old as well as recent ones.
No trip to Ireland is complete without a sweater.
Aran sweaters are the real deal -- the traditional wool knit Irish sweaters.
These weren't made on the Aran Islands -- most were from Kerry or Kildare --
but we bought them there, so it still counts. This is my friend Ali trying one on, I ended up getting this same one.
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