Collinstown-based author Manchán Magan has been named as an Ambassador for Seachtain na Gaeilge, which continues until St Patrick’s Day.
Speaking to the Westmeath Topic, Manchán said he wasn’t the first member of his family to play a prominent role in Seachtain na Gaeilge.
“It was exciting because I was aware of my great-granduncle and grandmother’s involvement in Seachtain na Gaeilge,” Manchán said.
“The O’Rahilly was on the founding committee of Conradh na Gaeilge, and Seachtain na Gaeilge was a key part of it. My grandmother Sighle Humphreys [The O’Rahilly’s niece] devoted her life to our Irish freedom and the Irish language following on The O’Rahilly’s footsteps. When they asked me to be ambassador, I thought: ‘my God that’s over four generations, I’m the third generation to do it!’ It was a nice connection.”
Widely-respected for his knowledge of the Irish language, Manchán is adamant that more emphasis needs to be placed on oral Irish than written Irish.
“All of us are petrified of making grammatical mistakes. I was recording my pieces for radio and I was thinking is it ‘an t-aonú lá déag’ or ‘an aonú lá déag’ and I just thought: there’s more important things.
“In the last two years, when I was going up to fishermen in Donegal, Mayo and Galway and asking them for Irish words for the sea life and coastal issues, they were nervous about their level of English.
“All of us are nervous, but we just need to get over that idea. This fixation on constantly writing is a problem with the whole education system. It’s about creating fodder for work and offices, instead of communicating with each other and trying to break down barriers,” he said
“It was exciting because I was aware of my great-granduncle and grandmother’s involvement in Seachtain na Gaeilge,” Manchán said.
