Aer Arann

by Peggy Hernon

I boarded the airport bus in Kilronan village and took a seat by the door. Chatter flowed behind me in French, Italian and Japanese from Aer Arann Islands passengers who were returning to the airport for their outbound flight. I was returning to the airport to work after a quick trip into the village for supplies. I swapped weather remarks with the bus driver in English until he answered a phone call in Irish on his mobile phone. The sound of many languages isn’t new here. Arain is sprinkled with ancient monuments from its rich history; add to that an elemental landscape of rock, sea and sky in abundance, and you have a combination that’s a magnet for visitors from all over the world.

We rolled along the main road and cameras clicked at Galway Bay on the left and rocky fields sloping upwards on the right. The bus passed a row of beached currachs and turned in the airport gate. I hopped off and trotted to the office where I stashed my purchases and then took my place at the airport desk. Pawel was already there, checking-in passengers for the 3:15 pm flight to the mainland. Pawel is from Poland, and is quiet and rather formal in demeanour; I’m American-born, chatty and casual. We balance each other and have worked together well for three years. Another bus with passengers turned in the gate and an aircraft could be heard approaching to land. Pawel and I agreed that I’d meet the arriving aircraft, he would continue passenger check-in at the office, and we’d handle the departing flight together. I grabbed the newspaper and headed out the door. Outside, I checked the position of the incoming aircraft in the sky and judged that I had about three minutes with the newspaper.

The Irish newspapers have been regularly reporting on major changes in population, the economy, and in social behaviour. Editorial consensus is that Ireland is on the threshold of a new era, projected to be less secure financially and less predictable socially.

Despite the headlines, I’m not worried about change on Arain. Since 1970, changes have occurred here that have altered island life more than in all the previous centuries – the arrival of electricity, the decline in the Fishing industry, and the introduction of fast boats and planes that enable large numbers of tourists to visit Arain daily. When I arrived here in 1990, a main concern was that the ever-increasing numbers of visitors would erode the ancient sites, culture and solitude of the island. But the islanders adapted to the surge in visitor numbers by developing tourism-related businesses and services to handle it, and they struck a balance between traditional and modern ways. It was nothing new. Islanders in Celtic times absorbed Christianity into their own culture when it was introduced by the monks in the 5th century AD. And the families and descendants of the English Protestant troops who came to Arain with Cromwell in the 17th century were assimilated into the island community. At all times, islanders live amid stone monuments that recall the distant past, and they live in an elemental landscape. Those factors, more than current change, help shape their character - enduring as rock, fluid as sea and unlimited as the sky.

The pilot of the inbound aircraft announced finals on the radio. I left the newspaper in the garage and joined the crew on the tarmac to meet the arriving passengers.