Arranmore Island (Árainn Mhór in Irish) is the largest inhabited island in County Donegal, and the second largest in all of Ireland, with a population of 528 in 2006, down from 543 in 2002, and over 600 in 1996. The island is part of the Donegal Gaeltacht. It is also known in English as Aran Island. In Irish the island was traditionally called Árainn the adjective mór (great) was added fairly recently. It was also sometimes called in Irish Árainn Uí Dhomhnaill the "Aran of the O Donnells".
The island was the first offshore island in the Republic of Ireland to get electricity from the Rural Electrification Scheme in 1957, but was amongst the last places in the country to get universally reliable piped water (in the 1980s) and an automatic phone exchange (in the 1990s). It went directly from a manual switchboard to an ISDN-enabled system, which had to be upgraded within weeks due to massive demand for consumer phone lines, as the previous exchange had been limited to issuing numbers to business ventures only, and only had 47 internal lines.
The island lies 3 miles off Burtonport and a ferry, that accommodates up to 128 foot passengers and all sizes of vehicles, runs daily all year. The trip to the island affords spectacular views and takes between 25-30 minutes passing a number of small islands before crossing a stretch of open Atlantic water. Most of the population lives along the southern and (comparatively sheltered) eastern coast. It has been settled since pre-Celtic times, and the few remaining signs of early settlement include a promontory fort to the south of the island and shell middens dotted along the beaches. Its position near the Atlantic shipping lanes was exploited, with a coastguard station and a lighthouse positioned on the most north-westerly point, and a World War 2 monitoring post set up to look out for U-Boats.
The island is home to Ireland's only island-based football team, and formerly Donegal's only non-inshore lifeboat service. The Arranmore station, with its Severn class lifeboat, remains the best equipped in the county.
It relies mostly on tourism for its income (fishing was the island's mainstay up to the 1980s but is no longer a significant industry), as well as the traditional Gaeltacht summer schools. In recent years, a local development co-op has encouraged the development of other industries on the island, such as a call centre and teacher training for Irish teachers. The island's many lakes provide excellent rod fishing opportunities.
With no less than seven pubs, Arranmore is a pub crawler's dream. Given that there is no permanent Garda Siochana presence on the island, the pubs are usually lax in adhering to closing times, if at all.
For a visitor, the island has a character distinct from Donegal, partly through its separation from the mainland and partly through its diaspora outside Ireland. The island, in common with many communities at the edge of Europe, has shed people to many parts of the English-speaking world. These are not lost, however, and many return for the summer school holidays, doubling the resident population. It can be surprisingly lively for teenagers!
The result is that a visitor is not conscious of being in the Gaeltacht and football - soccer - is preferred to GAA sports.