Ranafast

Ranafast Irish: Rann na Feirste Rinnafarset
Village
A view of Ranafast
Ranafast Location in Ireland
Coordinates: 55°02′04″N 8°18′22″W
Country	Ireland
Province	Ulster
County	County Donegal
Barony	Boylagh
Government
• Dáil constituency	Donegal
Population [1]	350
Irish Grid Reference	B847228
Rann na Feirste is the only official name. The anglicised spellings Rannafast and Rinnafarset have no official status.

Ranafast or Rinnafarset, officially only known by its Irish name Rann na Feirste (IPA: [ˌɾˠaːn̪ˠ n̪ˠə ˈfʲɛɾˠʃtʲə]),^[2][3] is a Gaeltacht village and townland in the Rosses district in the west of County Donegal in Ulster, the northern province in Ireland.

Name

Ranafast, or sometimes Rannafast or Rinnafarset, is the anglicised version of the area's original and official name Rann na Feirste.

Language

Ranafast is a Gaeltacht area, therefore the Irish language is the predominantly spoken language. According to the 2016 census 90.4% of the population of Ranafast could speak Irish and 66.6% of the population spoke Irish daily outside the education system.^[1][4]

Arts and culture

The writers Séamus Ó Grianna and Seosamh Mac Grianna were born in Ranafast.^[5][6]

The storyteller and writer, Mici (Sheáin Néill) Ó Baoill, was from Ranafast.^[7][8]

Education

There is a primary gaelcoil, Scoil Naisiunta Olibhear Pluinceid (Oliver Plunkett National School), located in the village.^[9]

Coláiste Bhríde is an Irish-language Gaeltacht College established in 1926.^[10][11] A number of notable people have attended the college including T. K. Whitaker, Éamon de Valera, Bernadette McAliskey, Phil Coulter, and Cardinal Tomás O Fiaich.^[11]

References

1. "Sapmap Area: Settlements Rann Na Feirste". Census 2016. Central Statistics Office (Ireland). Retrieved 13 May 2020.
2. "Rann na Feirste / Rinnafarset". logainm.ie / Placenames Database of Ireland. Retrieved 17 April 2021.
3. Placenames (Ceantair Ghaeltachta) Order 2004. The townland's name is also sometimes spelt in Irish as Rinn na Feirste.
4. "Irish Language and the Gaeltacht - CSO - Central Statistics Office". CSO. Retrieved 15 November 2020.
5. "Documentary about Irish language writer Séamus Ó Grianna to air on BBC Two NI". Northern Ireland Screen. 2 September 2021. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
6. McCallig, Elaine (1 November 2020). "Famous Ranafast writer's book translated into English for the first time". Donegal Daily. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
7. "Siúlach Scéalach - Oireachtas Gaeilge 1971". Raidió na Gaeltachta (in Irish). 2 October 2016. Retrieved 17 October 2024 – via RTÉ.ie.
8. Hughes, Art J. (2001). "Advancing the language: Irish in the Twenty-First Century". New Hibernia Review. 5 (1). Center for Irish studies at the University of St. Thomas: 114. doi:10.1353/nhr.2001.0019. JSTOR 20557690.
9. "S N OLIBHEAR PLUINCEID". gov.ie. Department of Education. 23 August 2024. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
10. "Coláiste Bhríde - Rann na Feirste". rnf.ie. Retrieved 17 October 2024.
11. "Coláiste Bhríde, Rann na Feirste". Raidió na Gaeltachta (in Irish). 30 April 2020. Retrieved 17 October 2024 – via RTÉ.ie.