Author : Bernard Byrom
ISBN : 9781840339482
Cover : paperback
Price : £11.95

The three Aran islands lie across Galway Bay on the west coast of Ireland. In 1916 the Congested Districts Board, founded in 1891 to alleviate poverty and congested living conditions by means of public works and projects, bought the islands on behalf of the islanders, established a knitwear industry and attempted to help the fishing industry, which with agriculture was the primary source of employment at that time. Now tourism is the mainstay of the local economy. In this illustrated history, old and not so old photographs, dating from the 1900s to the 1980s, are accompanied by detailed and lengthy captions. The author looks at the mostly ruined architecture of ancient forts and religious sites, but most of the photographs included are of the people and island life as it once was.