I NDÍL CHUIMHNE AR Last weekend was spent in Ballyferriter improving my spoken Irish.
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. Just back from a weekend ag caint in Baile an Fheirtéaraigh.
On the way down, I stopped at St. Gobnait’s Well and Monument in Baile Mhuirne. Before heading back, I stopped at the Blasket Centre. I wondered if Santa’s robin was following me. We were in Doonbeg over the Easter weekend and walked out to Tra Bán / White Strand. There, just above the beach, is the monument to Pat McDonnell from Killard. Returning home, I found my copy of ‘Irish Athletes & The Olympic Games, Stockholm 1912’ and searched the web. I now know a bit more about the Olympic champion, World Record holder and winner of twenty-four American National Championships – the last at 54 years of age. The family emigrated in 1899. His sister was first in the queue at Ellis Island and the Immigration Officer heard ‘McDonald’ when she said ‘McDonnell’ so the name of the whole family changed. He joined the New York Police Department as Pat McDonald. Interesting to note that the plaque at Tra Bán has the original name. He weighed 300lbs – 21 st 6lb – which led to the nickname ‘Babe’ from ‘Baby Whale’. He was one of ‘The Irish Whales’. He was one of many Irish emigrants to win Olympic medals for other countries. He carried the U.S. A. flag at the 1920 Olympics – winning a gold medal to add to the gold and silver from 1912. The 1916 Olympics had been cancelled due to World War I.
“But the story-tellers are a vanishing race for they have lost their audience and the flow of words comes thin and seldom now. The radio has taken away their voices just as the printed page has taken away their memories, and the pictures that once were seen in a glowing peat-fire are seen more readily on the picture-screen today. The world has widened and the imagination of man has dwindled. For it is good communications, not evil ones, that corrupt good manners and local mores, and the better the roads that lead into the glen, the quicker the old language, the old customs, the old stories and poetry, run out of it.”
I have blogged on this spelling before. Working in construction, I thought that cill/sill and lintel/lintol were the two words where the spelling was in the hands of the writer but ‘extension’ may be creeping up…. This Volunteer station is in the entrance foyer at Galway University Hospital.
A number of thoughts came to mind: Why are there two chairs for one volunteer? The location of the sign could not be in very many more prominent locations – as one enters the main hospital block. I hope that the hospital is more concerned with their medical treatment than their spelling, but should they not be accurate in both? More than once before have I posted regarding public displays of poetry in Galway – I have yet to find anywhere in the country as enthusiastic for public reflection.
Paint and glaze a tile. Then stick to a wall. Not very expensive. The return from feelgood factor so outweighs the investment. Or maybe it is just me.
I must be getting old in my outlook.
I thought the marketing strategy was misplaced. The message might be a bit of fun in a sports bar, a nightclub or the like. But this was in a Country House. Maybe I just need to chill out.
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