The Coat Rests

I NDÍL CHUIMHNE AR

SHEÁN AN CHÓTA

1885  1947

AGUS AR MHUINTIR CHIOBHÁIN

ATÁ CURTHA ANSO

BEANNACHT DÉ LENA NANAM

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.

“Death of Sean Og O Caomhanaigh

Sean Og O Caomlianaigh (Sean a’ Chota), who died yesterday, aged 60, was a native Irish speaker from Dunquin, Co. Kerry. Early in life he joined the Gaelic League, and later became an itinerant teacher and organiser. He walked and cycled through many counties, particularly in Limerick and Laoighis, bringing the people into Irish classes in sheds, farms and school-houses, and organising Gaelic League branches.

Later he went to the United States, where he devoted most of his time to work in national movements, and to organising financial assistance for the struggle at home. He returned about 1919, and then took an active part in the Independence struggle in Kerry. Later he fought on the Republican side in the Civil War and was interned.

He was engaged for some years recently in compiling a Dictionary of Kerry Gaelic. He finished this about a year ago, and then was employed by the Department of Education in Dublin in compiling an exhaustive English-Irish Dictionary. He was working on this up to a day before he died.

He wrote a number of books, including translations into Irish of Aesop’s Fables and Arabian tales, “Fabhail-Scealta o Aesop” and “Briocht-Scealta na hAraibe”. He also translated the Psalms into Irish.

Author of many short stories and critical articles in Gaelic, he was a frequent contributor to the IRISH PRESS. In this most recent article he told how he rowed Miss Eveleen Nicholls from Dunquin to the Great Blasket on the day she was drowned. It was his intention to have these stories and articles collected and published in book form.

Many foreigners interested in the Irish language who visited Kerry sought out Sean to tell them traditional stories, and Sean in turn was always anxious to learn the folklore of the visitors. He taught Irish at St. Andrew’s College, Dublin, and the Masonic Schools, Dublin

He was a brother of Dr. Seumas Caomhanach, Professor of Old Irish in University College, Cork, and of Mr. M. (“Kruger”) Cavanagh, Dunquin, well known to visitors to Dingle.

The funeral will leave 98 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin, at 11.30 a.m. to-day for Kingsbridge, and burial will take place to-morrow at Dunquin, Co. Kerry.”

 

Irish Times obituary taken from

Thesis of Tracey Ni Mhaonaigh, B.A., M.Litt

“…Séan was already a timire (organiser) of the Gaelic League in Dún Chaoin…….He is remembered as the first to have introduced the bicycle to Corca Dhuibhne, and not alone that, but in later years as a scholar he named it “rothar”, a word which is still used today. Before this it was called “an capall maide” or the wooden horse….

…he had been involved in plans leading up to the Rising…

He returned in time for the Civil War, in which he took an active part on the side of the Republicans and was commander of the Dingle area. He was captured in Lispole and sentenced to imprisonment at The Curragh…

He had by this time become well-known as an Irish scholar. This led to his getting a special assignment from the Department of Education, the compiling of a dictionary of Kerry Irish. He left teaching to concentrate on this task, and the result is Croidhe Cainnte Chiarraí, all twenty-nine volumes of it now in the National Library. Those volumes contain above two million words….

He was nicknames “Seán an Chóta”, or “An Chóta” by locals when he took to wearing the kilt. The kilt, he held, was the proper garment for the Gael, just as it had been long ago….. The name held, however, and he liked it, often signing his name that way.

…His remains were brought back to Dun Chaoin, and he is buried in the old cemetery in Baile an Teampaill. A commemorative plaque was raised over his grave in 1987 on the centenary of his birth. Another plaque was raised to his memory on the same occasion on the wall of his old home in Baile na Rátha….”

A Dark Day on the Blaskets – Mícheál Ó Dubhshláine

Seán Óg Ó Caomhánaigh (1885-1946) also known as Seán Kavanagh, Seán a’chóta: Irish scholar, from Dunquin, Co. Kerry. The nickname ‘Sean a chóta’ means ‘of the petticoat’, and may be an allusion to his having been kept in girl’s clothing as was the custom for small boys in the Gaeltacht areas, but longer than was customary.”

Joseph Campbell’s Prison Diary – Eiléan Ní Chuilleannáin