Diarmuid O Donnchadha:DIARMUID Ó DONNCHADHA, who has died aged 82, made a lifelong study of Irish language teaching methods and as a young teacher in Limerick established a reputation for his innovative teaching of Irish to adults.
It was a reputation built on results. In the summer of 1968 he first taught his dianchúrsa Gaeilge (intense course) to a group of six US women undergraduates, and a school inspector who heard them conversing on tape positively identified Maya Tsuzi, a 19-year-old Japanese-American from San Francisco, as a native speaker from Connemara.
Kay Kent of The Irish Times attended a course in Dublin the following year, and was delighted at the progress she made. By the end of the course, consisting of five-hour sessions every evening for a month, she and her fellow students had a “working knowledge of the language” which they could “use immediately and build on at our leisure”.
This is precisely what Ó Donnchadha set out to achieve. An advocate of bilingualism, he believed Irish should be more widely spoken. He deplored the fact that people in responsible positions all over the country, including government and local authority officials, could not speak or understand even the most elementary Irish.
The ability to communicate with a hospital patient could be a matter of life and death, he said.
Gael Linn adopted the dianchúrsa and appointed Ó Donnchadha director of its language-teaching division Foras na Gaeilge, a position he held for 18 years. He devised a teaching syllabus for three levels of adult learner. Prospective teachers of the course had to successfully complete a demanding four-day training programme, which he taught.
Leagadh béim ar an teanga labhartha agus ar fuaimeanna na Gaeilge a bheith i gceart ag na foghlaimeoirí, agus cuireadh téipeanna agus treoracha ar fail do na múinteoirí.
Among the teachers who taught courses with Foras na Gaeilge were Michael Davitt, Pádraig Ó hAoláin, Máire Ní Fheinneadha and Liam Ó Cuinneagáin.
Ó Donnchadha was academic director of the coláistí samhraidh established by Gael Linn in the 1970s. By the summer of 1975 there were 20 courses for young people in progress in 13 towns throughout the State. Also in 1975 the course was made available by Linguaphone in conjunction with Gael Linn.
Is i Ráth Luirc, Co Corcaigh, a rugadh Diarmuid Ó Donnchadha sa mblian 1930. Bhí sé ina múinteoir, ag obair ar son coiste gairmoideachais cathair Luimní, sar ar ceapadh é ina stiúrthóir ar Foras na Gaeilge.
I measc na leabhair a scríobh sé tá Múineadh na Gaeilge (1964) agus An Ráleabhar Gaeilge: The Irish Phrase Book (1986).
I 1992 foilsíodh úrscéal leis, Ardfhear. Ach thug Bord na Gaeilge treoir don Áisínteachta Dáiliúcháin Leabhair gan an t- úrscéal a scaipeadh, cé nár mhínigh an Bord cén fáth gur cuireadh bac ar dháileadh an leabhair.
Dúirt an scríbhneoir Risteard Ó Glaisne ag an am gur docha go raibh níos mó cóipeanna den leabhair díolta ag an fhoilsitheoir ó “leagadh cos air”, ná mar a dhíolfadh sé murach é. Dár leis, níorbh leabhar é a tharraingeodh trioblóid ar an té a sheasódh leis, “an foilsitheoir, na dáiltheoirí, Bord na Gaeilge ná eile”.
Having moved to Corca Dhuibhne in the early 1990s, in 1998 Ó Donnchadha founded Feileastram Teo, offering residential courses in Irish for adults in Dún Chaoin.
A lifelong republican, he delivered the oration at the funeral of IRA member Seán South, who was fatally wounded in an attack on Brookeborough RUC barracks in 1957. He is survived by his wife Áine, sons Fiachra and Rónán and daughter Órla.
Diarmuid Ó Donnchadha: born April 28th, 1930; died May 6th, 2012.