The South Isles of Aran (County Galway)

Signs and tokens round us thicken, Hearts throb high and pulses quicken
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My dear Judge O'Hagan,
During the vacation of last autumn I applied myself to collecting as much information as possible concerning the South Isles of Aran, which I had visited in connection with the Land Commission in the previous month of July. Pressure of business and a severe illness compelled me to defer until recently the arranging of my notes, which, in the hope that they may direct the attention of those in power to the long neglected Islands, I have resolved to publish, and I look on it as a good omen of the success of my efforts that you have kindly allowed me to dedicate my work to you, who have won so high a place in law and in literature.
Believe me to remain Sincerely yours, OLIVER J. BURKE. Ower, Headford, Co. Galway, August 8, 1887 .

Oh, Aranmore! loved Aranmore, How oft I dream of thee, And of those days when by thy shore I wandered young and free; Full many a path I've tried since then, Through pleasure's flowery maze, But ne'er could find the bliss again I felt in those sweet days. Thomas Moore.
POPE GREGORY THE GREAT
The south isles of Aran, which shelter the Galway bay from the heavy swell of the Atlantic, are Inishmore, the large island, nine miles in length; Inishmaan, the middle island, two and a half miles in length; Inisheer, the lesser, two miles in length; Straw Island, upon which the lighthouse stands, and the Brannock Rocks or islands, all forming that group which to the west bounds the Galway bay, and the ancient jurisdiction of the Admiral of Galway. They lie in a line drawn from the north-west to the south-east from Iar Connaught to the county of Clare. Iar Connaught is separated from Inishmore, the largest and most westerly island, by the North Sound, five and a half miles wide, called by the natives Bealagh-a-Lurgan , Lough Lurgan way. Lough Lurgan was the ancient name of a lake that formerly lay west of Galway, and the tradition is that in the old times before us—213 years from the Flood—the waters of the Atlantic, sweeping in the full fury of their force across the Aran barriers, united with the waters of the lake and formed the Bay of Galway, leaving the islands of Aran the towering remnants of the barriers which were too strong even for the Atlantic billows to carry away. Between Inishmore and Inishmaan is Gregory's Sound, a mile and a half wide, called by the natives Bealagh-ne-Hayte , Hayte's way. The present name was given to it by the monks, who called the sound Gregory, in honour of Pope Gregory the Great, after he had converted or aided in converting the Anglo-Saxons to the Christian faith. Between the middle island, Inishmaan, and Inisheer, the eastern and smallest island, is the foul sound, four miles wide; and between Inisheer and the county of Clare is the south sound, four miles wide. This is the great waterway between the old sea, as the natives call the Atlantic, and the Bay of Galway.