Carna, County Galway

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Carna is an area in Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. It is located on the country's west coast in the Gaeltacht, about 50 km west of Galway city. Carna is an extremely small area, but as a focal point for the surrounding areas, it contains a Garda Síochána station, a Health Centre including a Rapid Response Ambulance, and an Irish Coastguard lifeboat. Carna is not located close to any villages. The population dramatically dropped from the previous average of 8,000 before the Great Famine. The age of the average resident is significantly higher than the Irish national average.^[1]

The National University of Ireland, Galway, has an Irish-language and educational centre (Áras Shorcha Ní Ghuairim) in Roisín na Mainiach, near Carna. It also operates a marine biology station Martin Ryan Institute in Maínis and an atmospheric research station at Mace Head, Carna, which is run by the university's experimental physics department.^[2]

There is a water reservoir in Carna that provides west Connemara, including Roundstone, with fresh water. A bus is also based in Carna that brings passengers between Carna and Galway City picking up passengers along the N59.

Following the Cromwellian War and the subsequent Down Survey based confiscations, many of the dispossessed settled in Connacht. The statement "to hell or to Connacht" originated in this migration.^[3] Carna is in a strong Gaeltacht region, so most of the people speak Irish at home. The population is almost totally (96% in 2006) bilingual with English being the second language spoken.^{[citation needed]}

During the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence and the Civil War, Carna was a major center for the work of the Irish Folklore Commission in recording Ireland's endangered folklore, mythology, and oral literature. According to folklore collector and archivist Seán Ó Súilleabháin, Carna residents with no stories to tell were the exception rather than the rule and it was generally conceded in 1935 that there were more unrecorded folktales in the parish of Carna alone than anywhere else in Western Europe.^[4]

There is an Irish language college for second level students located in Carna and Cill Chiaráin called Coláiste Sheosaimh.