| Ranafast | |
| Other Name: | Rinnafarset |
| Settlement Type: | Village |
| Pushpin Map: | Ireland |
| Pushpin Label Position: | right |
| Pushpin Map Caption: | Location in Ireland |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: | Ireland |
| Subdivision Type1: | Province |
| Subdivision Name1: | Ulster |
| Subdivision Type2: | County |
| Subdivision Name2: | County Donegal |
| Subdivision Type3: | Barony |
| Subdivision Name3: | Boylagh |
| Leader Title1: | Dáil constituency |
| Leader Name1: | Donegal |
| Unit Pref: | Metric |
| Population Footnotes: | [1] |
| Population: | 350 |
| Coordinates: | 55.0346°N -8.306°W |
| Blank Name: | Irish Grid Reference |
| Footnotes: | 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 (in Irish pronounced as /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.
Ranafast, or sometimes Rannafast or Rinnafarset, is the anglicised version of the area's original and official name Rann na Feirste.
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]
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]
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.