Tenth Annual Barra Ó Donnabháin Lecture: Dr. Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh

Dr. Feargal Mac Ionnrachtaigh will deliver the tenth annual Barra Ó Donnabháin Lecture on “‘Ó Chumann Chluain Árd go dtí an LÁ DEARG’- Ag Tógáil Gaelphobail ón Bhun Aníos i dtuaisceart na hÉireann”; or, “From Cumann Chluain Árd to An LÁ DEARG: Building Gaelic Communities from the Bottom Up in the North of Ireland.”

Using research undertaken for his widely acclaimed book, Language, Resistance and Revival: Republican Prisoners and the Irish Language in the North of Ireland, Dr. Mac Ionnrachtaigh’s lecture will draw on his ground-breaking research on the bottom-up community language revival in the north of Ireland. He will discuss Northern Irish governmental policies on language and the roll of communities and activists, including the dangers of co-option and institutionalization. He will also look at the historical legacies of the Troubles and peace process, particularly the power sharing agreement at Stormont in 2007. Drawing on his direct experience as a full-time activist in the language revival movement, Dr. Mac Ionnrachtaigh will assess the political reawakening taking place amongst grass-roots activists and groups, as manifested in this year’s historic language rights rally, AN LÁ DEARG.

The Barra Ó Donnabháin lecture is an annual lecture established by Glucksman Ireland House NYU in 2006 to commemorate Barra Ó Donnabháin, a beloved and influential teacher and advocate of the language. Ó Donnabháin, from Leap, Co. Cork, took a degree in Irish and Latin at University College, Cork and immigrated to the US in 1963. One of the leading Irish linguists in the tri-state area, Barra wrote an Irish language column in the Irish Echo for many years as well as contributing essays and articles to a variety of other publications.

This lecture will be delivered bilingually in English and in Irish.

Introductions by Profs. Pádraig Ó Cearúill and Hilary Mhic Suibhne of Glucksman Ireland House NYU.