About Aran sweaters (and it's one r, for the Aran Isles - two r's and it's Arran off Scotland) - and the gist of it is, the Aran pattern isn't a great traditional Gaelic thing at all - there was someone went over to America in the early years of the century, and bought a book with knitting patterns back home to the Aran Isles, and they caught on. And here is a website telling all about this

The other thing, which puts a more serious spin on that is that one reason for having different knitting patterns in different places, which was a real tradition in many places, was so that when sailors and fishermen were drowned they'd know where they came from, and could let the family know. John Kirkpatrick wrote a great song about that. A shattering song in fact. (I think it's called something like "A twist of thread" - but someone else could correct me.)

Anyway, though they might be grand things to wear on a boat, they're the last thing anyone would wear on a sweaty stage unless they'd had their arms twisted.