Plé:Misneach (grúpa)
oliticians has international parallels. For example, Chicagoans protested with placards reading, 'Healthcare Not Warfare' in front of the home of their Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, only a few weeks ago during the NATO summit there. In addition, I learned that the local activists took their lead from Mairtin O Cadhain, the famous Conamara writer, academic and radical socialist republican when they took their protest to the family homes of Derek Nolan and Brian Walsh. The journalist and historian Prionsias Mac Aonghusa spoke about Mairtin O Cadhainu's campaigning. This can be seen on YouTube. Reproduced here in English, is part of what he said: “The group Misneach (Courage), set up by Mairtin O Cadhain to agitate on Irish language issues, insisted that no agitation was out of bounds. Every opportunity to embarrass and shame politicians was justified, even if the tactics were not to the liking of everybody, as long as it highlighted a certain issue. An example of this is the action following a meeting at the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, in 1963. The meeting heard of the arrests of three fishermen for fishing in Inis Bear Chain, in the West of Ireland, without having paid rates. O Cadhain said that something should be done in solidarity with these men and so the whole meeting marched to the then Taoiseach Sean Lemass' house and held a protest outside. Interestingly, a garda helped the protestors find the house. O'Cadhain thought this didn't do any harm, but showed up the white vest brigade. In this particular case, the fishermen were released so the protest had been a complete success.” So protesting outside politicians’ homes has a great tradition in Ireland too! Is mise Muir Conway, The Crescent,
http://www.celebritynetworth.com/watch/7fqBPClCHgA/mairtin-o-cadhain-agus-misneach/
ye: Unsentimental realist
‘Ó Cadhain was a political and cultural activist, a rebel whose career was bound up with the cultural difficulties of the formation of the modern Irish state.’
Unsentimental realist RTÉ 1 Mairtín Ó Cadhain Directed by Seán Ó Cualain and Macdara Ó Curraidein TG4 There goes Cré na Cille Directed by Breandán Ó hEithir (originally broadcast in 1976) by Eamon O’Flaherty This year has seen the centenary of the births of Samuel Beckett and Mairtín Ó Cadhain, Irish writers who have had an enormously different impact on modern literature but who have both been seen as innovators whose work broke the boundaries of literature in their traditions. Because all his work was in Irish, Ó Cadhain’s influence has been confined to the relatively small circle of those who can access his writings. Yet the claims made for him are such as to arouse a curiosity about the man and his work that goes far beyond the world of modern Irish literary history. Ó Cadhain was also a political and cultural activist, a rebel whose career, rather like Flann O’Brien’s, was bound up with the cultural difficulties of the formation of the modern Irish state. The two documentaries reviewed here present quite different perspectives on Ó Cadhain, not least because they are separated by a gap of 30 years. Taken together, they add up to an interesting portrait of one of the most intriguing figures in twentieth-century Irish-language literature.
Mairtín Ó Cadhain was born near Spiddal in Connemara in 1906. His ancestors had moved from Moycullen to the Connemara coast as landless labourers over a century earlier, and the family had painstakingly assembled a small farm out of the stony fields of the district, creating fertile ground by the laborious clearing of stones from the land and literally making soil by cutting huge quantities of seaweed from the shoreline. Ó Cadhain’s family were also steeped in the oral tradition. The interviews recorded in the 1976 film described his father’s ability as a storyteller, which no doubt influenced Ó Cadhain’s enormous output of stories based on the life of the Connemara Gaeltacht. Ó Cadhain was a bright student who escaped the life of subsistence farming by becoming a schoolmaster, returning to the Gaeltacht after teacher-training in St Patrick’s, Drumcondra. His early work was a commission by An Gum, the state publishing house, to translate Charles Kickham’s novel Sally Kavanagh, but he also began to write short stories based on the harsh realities of rural life. The first of these, and one of the few to have been translated into English, The Road to Bright City, contains the characteristic elements of his early writing—an unsentimental realism in describing peasant life and a sympathetic focus on the harshness of women’s lives in this society. ‘Fearg, fearg, fearg’ (anger, anger, anger) was one of the features of Ó Cadhain’s personality throughout his work and also spilled over into his political life. From the beginning of his career Ó Cadhain was an activist. He joined the IRA in the 1920s and was also active in the Gaelic League. Like many radical republicans, he had a complex relationship with de Valera’s Fianna Fáil which deteriorated in the 1930s. In this period he was one of the organisers of Muinntear na Gaeltachta, which campaigned for better social conditions in the Gaeltacht and found an outlet in Seán Beaumont’s radical newspaper An tEireannach. He was sacked from his teaching post
in east Galway by the local parish priest in 1935, partly because of his outspoken admiration for James Connolly, and was interned in the Curragh in 1940. During his four years in the prison camp Ó Cadhain organised Irish classes and later began a new period of writing, which matured in the early post-war years after his release.
Gearóid Denvir identified four periods in Ó Cadhain’s literary life. The early short stories of Connemara life of the 1920s and 1930s were followed by a post-war period of activity that produced one of his most famous books, Cré na Cille, in which the themes were similar but Ó Cadhain was experimenting with form. A period of silence lasting from 1953 to 1961 was followed by a final period during which in a series of books, most famously An tSraith ar Lár, Ó Cadhain’s writing reflected other themes springing from his life in Dublin. After the war Ó Cadhain married and eventually found work in the translation department of the Oireachtas. This he found stultifying and it doubtless inspired his Kafkaesque satires on the civil service in later writing. But it was in this period that he deepened his engagement with European literature. Like many other Irish writers, Russian and French realism was an inspiration to Ó Cadhain. He
Breandán Ó hEithir, director of the 1976 documentary.
was also liberated from the editorial constraints of An Gum when he founded the independent Irish-language publisher Sairseil Agus Dill. Yet Ó Cadhain stopped writing for eight years after 1953, apparently depressed by what he saw as the terminal decline of the Irish language. By now there were many who realised the importance of his work and were also prepared to make allowances for the often gloomy side of his personality. A bright moment was Ó Cadhain’s appointment to a lectureship in Irish at Trinity College, Dublin, in 1956. Sympathetic Trinity supporters such as David Greene and Frank Mitchell managed to keep certain parts of Ó Cadhain’s CV from the older members of the college board, and Ó Cadhain entered into what proved to be the happiest period of his life.
‘Many who realised the importance of his work were prepared to make allowances for the often gloomy side of his personality.’
The final creative phase of Ó Cadhain’s career during the 1960s saw him produce a series of novels and stories that extended the range of his fiction. Some contributors plausibly suggested that Ó Cadhain’s pessimism about Irish was mitigated by the revival of activism in the 1960s. In organisations like Misneach, Ó Cadhain was able to join with other idealists to pursue his earlier commitment to justice for the Gaeltacht people and to campaign against the arid failures of the state’s commitment to the Irish-language revival. Taken together, both films gave us important insights into this important but, outside a small circle, largely unknown Irish writer. The use of actors and animation to dramatise parts of Ó Cadhain’s work gave some sense of how interesting they might be. The problem remains that, in the absence of English-language translations of almost all his work, Ó Cadhain remains a closed book to most Irish people. Surely it is time for Irish-language scholars to revisit their long-standing moratorium on the translation of modern Irish literature into English?
Eamon O’Flaherty lectures in history at University College Dublin.
http://www.iorarua.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&task=videodirectlink&Itemid=103&id=57
http://www.anphoblacht.com/features/edition/2007/10/18
Cúlchaint Le Seán Ó Donaile
Deasún Breathnach agus Misneach
Tugann bás Dheasún Breathnach chun cuimhne stailc ocrais i 1966 a rinne sé féin agus a chairde i Misneach, chun aire an phobail a dhíriú ar neamhaird an Rialtais agus poiliteoirí ar an Ghaeilge agus an Ghaeltacht. B’é Máirtín Ó Cadhain a bhunaigh Misneach eagraíocht bríomhar a bhí dírithe go diongbhálta ar athbheochaint na Gaeilge. Triúr déag fear agus cailín amháin a chuaigh ar stailc ocrais a mhair seachtain agus a chríochnaigh le preas agallamh ag Óstán an Gresham. Sliocht ón ráiteas a thug Misneach do na meáin roimh an stailc : “Leath chéad bliain tar éis Cáisc 1916 níl dhá theach as a chéile taobh amuigh den Ghaeltacht in a dteallaigh Gaeilge fós. Agus gur bás nó beo teanga achar leathchéad bliain. Ag comóradh na Cásca- ba é sás a comórtha é- a bhí an Cac-Pháipéar Bán siúd, céad slán dó ! Ag comóradh na Cásca a bhí Rialtais agus an tArd-Breitheamh, i láthair dóibh, agus ocastóireacht seo
sár-shamhail Chomóradh na Cásca.
Na daoine uilig a raibh sé ar a gcumas le leathchéad bliain an Ghaeilge a shlánú ach ar a shon sin mharaigh í, tá siad ag comóradh na Casca ag Ard Oifig an Phoist anois. Taoiseach gan Gaeilge. Stát-sheirbhísigh gan Gaeilge. Breithiúin gan Gaeilge. Scoláirí gan Gaeilge. An Gall McCourt. Dr. “Ireland of the welcomes” O’Driscoll. An Dr. Electricity...Iadsan Éire 1966. Go maire tú do chomóradh,
a Uachtarán, leath chéad bliain tar éis dhuit a bheith i do Cúchulainn cródha ar Áth Foraire Shráid an Mhóta. Eire na staire,
Éire an chian-thnútháin chun saoirse agus chun a bheith in a hÉire, Éire na Gaeilge........Anocht is uaigneach Eire.......” Aithnímid na fadhbanna agus na coinníolacha céanna i bhfeidhm sa lá tá inniu, eagraíochta Gaeilge ag streachailt de Rialtas atá naimhdeach don Ghaeilge, Roinn Oideachais nach dtugann aird ar bith ar an Ghaeilge agus Taoiseach a dhiúltaíonn ár
dteanga féin a labhairt.
Ráiteas ‘66 ar lean: “Da dtéadh an Piarsach isteach in Ard-Oifig an Phosta ar láthair na huaire ní fhéadfadh sé suim airgid a athrú i
nGaeilge i mBanc Taisce na hÉireann istigh ann. Tá na foirmeacha Gaeilge - le leathchéad bliain is cosúil- dhá n-ullmhú i mBeggars Bush. Dhá mbeadh sé tuineanta ar a cheart reachtúil a éiliú, déarfadh Stát-sheirbhíseach dualgas-dhilís leis an Rubar Stampa d’Aire in a chúl-toraic aige nach raibh riocht geilleagair
na tire in achainn......Mar mhúinteoir i Scoil Éinde, ní fhéadfadh an Piarsach fógra pinsin i nGaeilge a fháil ó Roinn an
Oideachais cúpla céim taobh thall.....”
I 1966 bhí Comóradh Oifigiúil an 50 Bliain ar siúl ag an Rialtas le paráideanna agus imeachtaí móra agus
bhí tuairiscí forleathan ar RTE agus na meáin. Le linn sin bhí imeachtaí speisialta agus paráiteanna da gcuid féin ag Poblachtaithe agus Gaeil agus iad ag cur in iúl a ndíomá leis an Rialtas fán neamairt i gcúrsaí náisiúnta,
cultúir agus Teanga. Ráiteas ‘66 ar lean : “Ag comóradh diol ár máthar an Cháisc seo i 1966. Marab ea, céard tá muid a chomóradh ? Ní hí Éire Cháisc 1916 atá muid a chomóradh, Éire “ní hé amháin saor ach Gaelach, ní hé amháin Gaelach ach saor” Tá an oiread baint ag comóradh seo 1966 le Cáisc 1916 is a bhí ag Iomarbháigh na bhFilleadh i dtús an 17ú le saol a linne féin, Iomarbháigh nach raibh dhá mhaíomh inti ach rudaí uilig a bhí in ainm is tarlú na mílte bliain roimhe sin.” Seo leanas sliocht ón bpreas agallamh sa Gresham : “Má leanann meath na Gaeltachta mar a léiríodh sa daonáireamh a fhoilsíodh le gairid-titim 30% i 15 bliana-ní bheidh Gaeltacht ar bith fanta i gceann 30 bliain eile. Ní raibh fhios ag an bpobal céard a bhí ar siúl ag an gComhlacht Comhairleach a bunaíodh tar éis fhoilsiú an Pháipéir Bháin- níor eisíodh aon ráiteas toisc nach raibh aon rud á dhéanamh chun a gcuid moltaí a chur i bhfeidhm.” Seo mar a rinne “Inniu” tuairisc san am: D’fhógair duine de na stailceoirí é seo ag an nuacht – agallamh a tionóladh tráthnóna Dé Sathairn seo caite in Óstlann Gresham sula dtáinig an stailc ocrais chun críche. Ag freagairt ceisteanna ó iriseoirí dúirt na stailceoirí gur theastaigh uatha
go dtuigfeadh daoine nach ar son an teanga amháin a chuaigh siad i muinín na stailce.
Thug Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh aitheasc gairid uaidh agus ghlac an slua le Mionn an Phiarsaigh. Proinsiasa Nic Uait a léigh é. Chuir sin deireadh leis an stailc agus chuaigh na stailceoirí ar ais chun na hÓstainne chuig a gcéad, bhéile-anraith de ghlasraí agus torthaí. Tá chuid de dhream na stailce ‘66 ar shlí na fírinne anois. Cuimhnímis ar Dheasún agus an grúpa sin agus bímis buíoch go raibh agus go bhfuil a leithéid de dhaoine fíreanna beo in ár measc.
Cúlchaint Le Seán Ó Donaile
Deasún Breathnach agus Misneach
Tugann bás Dheasún Breathnach chun cuimhne stailc ocrais i 1966 a rinne sé féin agus a chairde i Misneach, chun aire an phobail a dhíriú ar neamhaird an Rialtais agus poiliteoirí ar an Ghaeilge agus an Ghaeltacht. B’é Máirtín Ó Cadhain a bhunaigh Misneach eagraíocht bríomhar a bhí dírithe go diongbhálta ar athbheochaint na Gaeilge. Triúr déag fear agus cailín amháin a chuaigh ar stailc ocrais a mhair seachtain agus a chríochnaigh le preas agallamh ag Óstán an Gresham. Sliocht ón ráiteas a thug Misneach do na meáin roimh an stailc : “Leath chéad bliain tar éis Cáisc 1916 níl dhá theach as a chéile taobh amuigh den Ghaeltacht in a dteallaigh Gaeilge fós. Agus gur bás nó beo teanga achar leathchéad bliain. Ag comóradh na Cásca- ba é sás a comórtha é- a bhí an Cac-Pháipéar Bán siúd, céad slán dó ! Ag comóradh na Cásca a bhí Rialtais agus an tArd-Breitheamh, i láthair dóibh, agus ocastóireacht seo
sár-shamhail Chomóradh na Cásca.
Na daoine uilig a raibh sé ar a gcumas le leathchéad bliain an Ghaeilge a shlánú ach ar a shon sin mharaigh í, tá siad ag comóradh na Casca ag Ard Oifig an Phoist anois. Taoiseach gan Gaeilge. Stát-sheirbhísigh gan Gaeilge. Breithiúin gan Gaeilge. Scoláirí gan Gaeilge. An Gall McCourt. Dr. “Ireland of the welcomes” O’Driscoll. An Dr. Electricity...Iadsan Éire 1966. Go maire tú do chomóradh,
a Uachtarán, leath chéad bliain tar éis dhuit a bheith i do Cúchulainn cródha ar Áth Foraire Shráid an Mhóta. Eire na staire,
Éire an chian-thnútháin chun saoirse agus chun a bheith in a hÉire, Éire na Gaeilge........Anocht is uaigneach Eire.......” Aithnímid na fadhbanna agus na coinníolacha céanna i bhfeidhm sa lá tá inniu, eagraíochta Gaeilge ag streachailt de Rialtas atá naimhdeach don Ghaeilge, Roinn Oideachais nach dtugann aird ar bith ar an Ghaeilge agus Taoiseach a dhiúltaíonn ár
dteanga féin a labhairt.
Ráiteas ‘66 ar lean: “Da dtéadh an Piarsach isteach in Ard-Oifig an Phosta ar láthair na huaire ní fhéadfadh sé suim airgid a athrú i
nGaeilge i mBanc Taisce na hÉireann istigh ann. Tá na foirmeacha Gaeilge - le leathchéad bliain is cosúil- dhá n-ullmhú i mBeggars Bush. Dhá mbeadh sé tuineanta ar a cheart reachtúil a éiliú, déarfadh Stát-sheirbhíseach dualgas-dhilís leis an Rubar Stampa d’Aire in a chúl-toraic aige nach raibh riocht geilleagair
na tire in achainn......Mar mhúinteoir i Scoil Éinde, ní fhéadfadh an Piarsach fógra pinsin i nGaeilge a fháil ó Roinn an
Oideachais cúpla céim taobh thall.....”
I 1966 bhí Comóradh Oifigiúil an 50 Bliain ar siúl ag an Rialtas le paráideanna agus imeachtaí móra agus
bhí tuairiscí forleathan ar RTE agus na meáin. Le linn sin bhí imeachtaí speisialta agus paráiteanna da gcuid féin ag Poblachtaithe agus Gaeil agus iad ag cur in iúl a ndíomá leis an Rialtas fán neamairt i gcúrsaí náisiúnta,
cultúir agus Teanga. Ráiteas ‘66 ar lean : “Ag comóradh diol ár máthar an Cháisc seo i 1966. Marab ea, céard tá muid a chomóradh ? Ní hí Éire Cháisc 1916 atá muid a chomóradh, Éire “ní hé amháin saor ach Gaelach, ní hé amháin Gaelach ach saor” Tá an oiread baint ag comóradh seo 1966 le Cáisc 1916 is a bhí ag Iomarbháigh na bhFilleadh i dtús an 17ú le saol a linne féin, Iomarbháigh nach raibh dhá mhaíomh inti ach rudaí uilig a bhí in ainm is tarlú na mílte bliain roimhe sin.” Seo leanas sliocht ón bpreas agallamh sa Gresham : “Má leanann meath na Gaeltachta mar a léiríodh sa daonáireamh a fhoilsíodh le gairid-titim 30% i 15 bliana-ní bheidh Gaeltacht ar bith fanta i gceann 30 bliain eile. Ní raibh fhios ag an bpobal céard a bhí ar siúl ag an gComhlacht Comhairleach a bunaíodh tar éis fhoilsiú an Pháipéir Bháin- níor eisíodh aon ráiteas toisc nach raibh aon rud á dhéanamh chun a gcuid moltaí a chur i bhfeidhm.” Seo mar a rinne “Inniu” tuairisc san am: D’fhógair duine de na stailceoirí é seo ag an nuacht – agallamh a tionóladh tráthnóna Dé Sathairn seo caite in Óstlann Gresham sula dtáinig an stailc ocrais chun críche. Ag freagairt ceisteanna ó iriseoirí dúirt na stailceoirí gur theastaigh uatha
go dtuigfeadh daoine nach ar son an teanga amháin a chuaigh siad i muinín na stailce.
Thug Cian Ó hÉigeartaigh aitheasc gairid uaidh agus ghlac an slua le Mionn an Phiarsaigh. Proinsiasa Nic Uait a léigh é. Chuir sin deireadh leis an stailc agus chuaigh na stailceoirí ar ais chun na hÓstainne chuig a gcéad, bhéile-anraith de ghlasraí agus torthaí. Tá chuid de dhream na stailce ‘66 ar shlí na fírinne anois. Cuimhnímis ar Dheasún agus an grúpa sin agus bímis buíoch go raibh agus go bhfuil a leithéid de dhaoine fíreanna beo in ár measc.