The Aran Islands: Another World

by Bill Doyle

This portfolio of 160 stunning photographs, drawn from the Aran Islands since the early 1960s, chronicles and records the daily life of the their seasons, harvests and festivities; their schooling, religion and politics; their fishing, folkways and pastimes. Photographic sequences depict events in the Aran year – St Bridget’s Eve (1 February) and St John’s Eve (11 June), the blessing of the currachs, the cead (a form of hurling) – and portraits of the Aran poets, Sean Keating the painter, and the coffin-makers of Inis Meain. These timeless, crystalline images by a master-photographer reconstitute and preserve a unique, largely vanished way of life in the most majestic of settings on Ireland’s western seaboard. An introductory essay, ‘The Light before the Bill Doyle, Photographer’, by broadcaster and documentary film-maker Muirís Mac Conghail, accompanies the photographs.

126 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2000

About the author

Author Bill Doyle was born in Michigan, and wrote his first mystery at the age of eight. He has gone on to write critically acclaimed and bestselling children's books, including stories of real-life war heroes in "Behind Enemy Lines: True Stories of Amazing Courage"; the pick-your-own-adventure "Worst Case Scenario Ultimate Adventure: Everest"; the historical fiction mystery series Crime Through Time; the Henry & Keats series including "Attack of the Shark-Headed Zombie"; the Scream Team series about Bad News Bears-type monsters playing sports; and soon-to-be released series "The Prizewinners of Piedmont Place."

Additionally, Bill has served as editor at Sesame Workshop, TIME for Kids and SI Kids. He's written for LeapFrog, Weekly Reader, Rolling Stone, Comedy Central, National Geographic Kids, and the American Museum of Natural History. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from the film school at New York University where he was taught by the likes of Arthur Miller and David Mamet.

Bill lives with two dachshund-headed canines in New York City, and you can visit him online at www.BillDoyleBooks.com.