Dr Eoin Devereux is a lecturer at the University of Limerick. He is a media-sociologist who writes and publishes on the Irish broadcast and print media. His maternal uncle was Seamus O Cinneide, a legendary journalist in the Limerick area and a pioneer of the local historian's art.
His eulogy to his uncle has just been published by the University of Limerick Press. It's called Last Word by the Listener - Seamus O Cinneide's Journalism and Local History. O Cinneide epitomised the manner in which a local journalist can contribute to his own place.
In the introduction Dr Devereux writes: "For over 30 years Seamus O Cinneide contributed much to Limerick's cultural life in his work as a journalist, local historian and Gaelic scholar. Often a figure of controversy, his journalism chronicled Limerick's history as well as taking a usually wry look at local political and cultural affairs. This collection underlines O Cinneide's important contribution to the cultural life of Limerick and his importance as a local historian."
And he goes on: "It is perhaps something of a contradiction to say this in the context of introducing a selection of print journalism, but Seamus O Cinneide's greatest strength as a local historian was in the vast amount of oral heritage which he had. Even in the final years of his life and in spite of ill health, he had an incredible power of recall on almost any local historical issue. This ability had served him well on his legendary walking tours of Limerick, in his interaction with other Limerick citizens, in the many public lectures which he gave, and ultimately in his print journalism."
Writing about his school hurling days and the Kilkenny-born Christian Brother who coached the youngsters, O Cinneide reminisced: "He was a whimsical class of a tyrant where hurling was concerned. From the first autumn day we were in his class, he conscripted the whole lot of us up to the Claughaun field near Ballysimon. A few of what he scathingly called `sissies' and two or three from snob suburbia - where families never had a hurler in them - tried to dodge the draft by coming back at lunchtime without camans, as sternly ordered. He fixed them.
"The school maintenance man (from the Pike, Claughaun territory, where boys used to be born with a caman clutched in their infant hands) ran some extra hurleys into the classroom."
O Cinneide wrote for the Limerick Leader as well as the Irish Press, Inniu and Rosc. He lampooned those he thought needed lampooning, in his quirky, inimitable style. This collection does justice to his memory.