Inis Oirr

This is the smallest of the three Aran Islands, and we rented bikes to see what we could see... There are only 350 residents on this island, most still speak Irish. This is hard to find in Ireland today. During the Irish cultural revival, there were organizations put together just to teach the Irish how to speak and write in Irish again. It was like a way of regaining what they felt was lost (unwillingly to the British). So many who did speak Irish didn't remain after the famine (either died or emigrated) and because Catholics were the ones who spoke Irish (not the Protestants coming from Britain) and were being suppressed by the English, the language was really dying for a while. Now it's mandatory in school for students and all the signs are in both Irish (first) and English.