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 a tiny, 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, an Irish Coastguard lifeboat and Conor Boyce. 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.
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.
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. 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.
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.
There is an Irish language college for second level students located in Carna and Cill Chiaráin called Coláiste Sheosaimh.
History
Early Christianity
Off the coast of Mace Head in Carna Parish is Oileán Mhic Dara (St. MacDara's Island). This is the site of a stone-built early Christian church and the cross of Saint Mac Dara, who is the Patron Saint of fishermen and sailors in the area. There is a pilgrimage to the Island once a year on 16 July followed by a race of traditional boats.
Another archaeological site in the area is a standing stone on Lake Scannive / Loch na Scainimhe.
Coastal defence
During the scatter of the Spanish Armada's around Britain and the west coast of Ireland, a Spanish ship, the Concepción de Juanes del Cano went onto rocks off the Carna coast in Mace. The sailors were brought to Galway and were publicly hung in Eyre Square by Governor Bingham of Connaught. No wreckage is left but it is believed that some sailors escaped capture and settled in Carna.
There are also the remains of the Martello Tower built during the Napoleonic Wars. These towers were erected to spot French ships off the coast. The tower on Coilín hill, a 5-minute drive from central Carnais, is now in ruins. The remains of what archaeologists think is a cellar can be seen as a hole extends downwards inside the ruins. Also out on Mace Headland 10 minutes from Carna, close to where the Spanish Armada ship went aground, there are the remains of an army bunker used by the Irish Defence Forces during The Emergency (WWII) to spot ships off the Irish coast.