I NDÍL CHUIMHNE AR
SHEÁN AN CHÓTA
1885 1947
AGUS AR MHUINTIR CHIOBHÁIN
ATÁ CURTHA ANSO
BEANNACHT DÉ LENA NANAM
Chatting with SOB on Saturday morning I learnt that both of Kruger’s brothers each wrote an Irish dictionary.
Séamus Caomhánach was a professor at UCC and was one of the authors of Hessen’s Irish Lexicon: a concise dictionary of Early Irish with definitions in German and English.
Seán Óg Ó Caomhánaigh wrote Croidhe Cainnte Ciarraighe. He led the Dún Chaoin company of Volunteers. He was a teacher who had Sean Moylan among his pupils. He is mentioned in the Bureau of Military History Witness Statement of Ernest Blythe,
I was told that Seán was generally known as ‘Seán an Chóta’ [Sean of the coat] and it would not have been unusual to have heard an expression such as ‘the coat is coming through the door’, such was the regularity of use of the nickname.
Any doubt I had regarding this story was dispelled when I spotted his headstone in Dunquin cemetery – the family name (Muintir Chiobháin) much less significant than the nickname.