Rosmuck 3.89

Rosmuc or Ros Muc is a village in the heart of the Conamara Gaeltacht of County Galway, Ireland. It lies halfway between the town of Clifden and the city of Galway. Irish is the predominant spoken language. The District Electoral Division of Turlough, Rosmuc, state that Rosmuc is the most strongly Irish-speaking area in the country.History and etymologyIt is estimated that people first settled in Rosmuc in 400, one hundred years before Naomh Briocán brought Christianity to the area. That is to say that there are people that have been in Rosmuc for one thousand five hundred years.It is believed that the name 'Ros Muc' comes from the old Irish "the peninsula of rounded hills", ros meaning "promontory | headland" and muc meaning "rounded hills" or "pig" as in the rounded hills on the horizon surrounding the ceantar look like the rounded backs of farm animals. The Irish word for peninsula is leithinis and seems to have a slightly different connotation than the meaning of ros.PopulationThe population of Rosmuc is estimated to be around four hundred fifty people. For the past thirty years there has been a decline in the population, this is mainly due to emigration, although the tide of emigration has subsided in recent years due to the robust nature of the Irish economy.Irish languageThere are 557 people living in the Ros Muc ED and 87% are native Irish speakers. According to an analysis of the census a total of 91.9% of adults over nineteen years old said they spoke Irish on a daily basis.The area has many literary figures, notably Irish revolutionary and education/language activist Patrick Pearse (Pádraig Mac Piarais) | (An Ṗiarsaċ) who had a summer residence there in the early 1900s (now a National Monument/Heritage Site open to the public), and who set many of his short stories in the area. Another writer was the prolific Pádraic Ó Conaire, who wrote 26 books, 473 stories, 237 essays and 6 plays partly set in the region, including M'asal Beag Dubh (My Little Black Donkey) and the novella Deoraíocht (Exile). The area is recognised as one of the strongest remaining Gaeltacht areas in South Connemara.