BIO: John Millington SYNGE went to visit Irishmaan off the coast of Galway five times between 1898 and 1902, and the subsequent publication of his classic study of island life, "The Aran Islands" was published in 1907. "My Wallet of Photographs: The Photographs of J. M. Synge," introduction by Lilo STEPHENS, was published by the Dolmen Press in Dublin in 1971, but it may be currently out of print. It contained 23 Aran pictures taken by Synge with his Lancaster-Instagraphic "plate-and-bellows" camera of polished mahogany in a black leather case with eyeholes for lens and viewfinders, an apparatus now in the Trinity library. Synge was one of the island's first tourists, bringing with him the first clock to the island and also one of the earliest cameras. It was the poet YEATS who advised him, "Go to the Aran Islands and live there as if you were one of the people themselves; express a life that has never found expression." Two years later Synge acted on his suggestion a! nd abandoned his possibly unsatisfactory and mildly decadent big-city life and, though already conscious of his own serious ill health, sought a spiritual and physical renewal of sorts in Aran's primitive conditions. YEATS wrote of him: And that enquiring man John Synge comes next That dying chose the living world for text And never could have rested in his tomb But that, long travelling, he had come Towards nightfall upon certain set apart In a most desolate stony place, Towards nightfall upon a race Passionate and simple like his heart. A Dublin Protestant, SYNGE had studied Irish at Trinity, music in Germany , and Breton literature at the Sorbonne, all of which equipped him admirably for the task in hand. Aran was Irish-speaking, and his "fiddle" would ensure social acceptance. He was to call "The Aran Island," his first serious piece of work. He arrived on May 10, 1898, at Inishmore by steamer from Galway, spent two days at the grandly named, but really quite modest, Atlantic Hotel in Kilronan before moving on, by curragh, to the middle island, where the book really begins: "I am settled at least on Inishmaan in a small cottage with a continual drone of Gaelic coming from the kitchen that opens into my room" This was the MacDONAGH house, on the main island road below Dun Chonchuir, a short walk from the church and the post office. He described it: "My room is at one end of the cottage, with a boarded floor and ceiling, and two windows opposite each other. Then there is the kitchen with earth floor and open rafters, and two doors opposite each other opening into the open air, but no windows. Beyond it there are two small rooms of half the width of the kitchen with one window apiece...The kitchen itself, where I will spend most of my time, is fully of beauty and distinction. The red dresses of the women who ! cluster around the fire on their stools give a rich glow of almost Eastern richness, and the walls have been toned by the turf-smoke to a soft brown that blends with the grey earth-colour of the floor. Many sorts of fishing tackle, and the nets and oilskins of the men, are hung upon the walls or among the open rafters; and right overhead, under the thatch, there is a whole cowskin from which they made pampooties." (a word of Javanese origin, which are a type of shoe). "Every article on these islands has an almost personal character, which gives this simple life, where all art is unknown, something of the artistic beauty of medieval ife. The curraghs and spinning-wheels, the tiny wooden barrels that are still much used in the place of earthenware, and home-made cradles, churns and baskets, are all full of individuality, and being made from materials that are common here, yet to some extent peculiar to the island, they seem to exist as a natural link between the people an! d the world about them." Drowned men on these islands are identified by bits of their clothing. Women's red flannel skirts created a dramatic contrast to the surrounding world of grey. Synge commented that had "a strange sense of exile and desolation" as well as "tranquility" and he thought himself "a companion of the cormorants and crows." The island girls fascinated him - some were "tall girls" with frankness and modesty about them, an absence of self-regard that he found appealing and who "shared some of the liberal features thought peculiar to the women of Paris and New York." He did say that if there was tension or crisis in the air the women would become over-excited and speak loudly all at once; at those times he would take out his wallet of photographs and they would then clamber around him in an ordinary mood. Real Aran artificats were used in the first Abbey production of "Riders to the Sea," and members of the Druid Theatre were brought ashore before captivating islanders at a performance of Synge's "The Playboy of the Western World." Actor Macdara O FATHARTA has worked in several of Synge's plays including "The Well of the Saints," which is also Aran inspired. The MacDonagh cottage has been restored by London-based (1998) Treasa Ni Fhatharta the great-granddaughter of the family. Her brother is actor Macdara O Fatharta. Her mother, Maire Bean Ui Fhatharta, is granddaughter of the MacDonaghs whom Synge knew and lives next door to the MacDonagh cottage (now known as Synge's Cottage or Teach Synge) which remains in the family; her father's name is Micheal O Fatharta. In 1998 a Mairin CONCANNON apparently lived opposite the one pub. The island is only a distance of three miles from end to end, and the island church has a lovely CLARKE stained glass window. The late Maggie DIRRANE of Inishmore appears in both of these films - "How the Myth Was made," Prof. George STONEY of NY University's record of the making of "Man of Aran," Robert Flaherty's documentary classic. Tim ROBINSON's "Stones of Aran" volumes are another resource for researchers, as well as fine paintings by Sean KEATING. -- Excerpts, "Ireland of the Welcomes".