Creggan boasts a rich and long tradition of Irish music, song, dance, poetry and storytelling, a tradition which thrives to this day in the Ceili houses and pubs of the area. The everyday use of Irish language survived at Creggan until the 1950's and classes are regularly held in order to keep the tradition alive. (“An Creagán” means “the stony place” in Irish).
Traditional Irish festivals, celebrating all aspects of local and national Irish Culture, are staged throughout the year at An Creagán Visitor Centre.
Rural Tradition
The mountainous landscape of Creggan is dominated by bog, with dispersed settlements of small farms on gravel ridges and dotted with small lakes. From the 1700's to the beginning of the century, population pressure led to an inflow of settlers mainly from families who had moved from outside the area in the long aftermath of the plantation. These farmers stripped the bog making ridges which were treated with lime to reclaim the land for farming. The string of many clachans at the edge of the bog is evidence of this type of reclamation. Fields reclaimed in this manner have individual Gaelic names to this day. |
