When University College, Galway, where the policy was to introduce teaching through the medium of Irish, established two classical lectureships on that basis in 1931, an Englishman named George Thomson, who applied for one of them, astonished the interview board with a flow of Blasket Irish. He got the post.
The story of how Thomson attained his fluency in Irish is probably well-known to many students and historians of Irish but still makes for intriguing reading, especially when told by the man himself. His Island Home: The Blasket Heritage (Brandon, £7.99) was first published in 1988 and includes a memoir on Thomson, his work and his influences by Tim Enright, as well as many photographs taken by him on the Blaskets and some drawings by Muiris O'Sullivan.
George Thomson, son of an Ulsterman of Orange stock, was born in London in 1903 and inherited an early interest in Ireland from his parents. He learned his first rudimentary Irish at Gaelic League classes in London before studying Classics at King's College, Cambridge. After taking First Class Honours in the Classical Tripos he won a scholarship to Trinity College, Dublin, where he worked on his first book, Greek Lyric Metre. He began visiting the Blaskets in the early Twenties and immediately noted the similarities between "Irish peasant poetry" and speech and the Greek vernacular of Homer.
It was Thomson who persuaded Muiris O'Sullivan to write Fiche Blian ag Fas, and who later translated it into English. He made a major contribution to the revival of Irish as editor and translator of Greek classics for the Department of Education, all the time maintaining his prominence as the most outstanding Greek scholar of his time. A Marxist, he gave the royalties from the sales of the second edition of Fiche Blian ag Fas to the Maynooth journal An Sagart - a gesture typical of this multi-talented, many-faceted friend of Ireland. He died in 1987 but this country is still measuring the scope of his contribution to Irish culture. This book will help in that assessment.
A memoir of another culture is Charleyhorse Rider - Tales of the Winding Erne, by Sean McElgunn (published by the author, no price given), a well-written account of life over the last sixty years in a part of Cavan that adjoins the Erne and Fermanagh.
McElgunn is a good story-teller and catches the flavour of local rural life with its numerous characters, often ribald speech and country lore. The title derives from Charley, the horse that pulled the McElgunn milk delivery cart. The author also has an ear for dialect and reproduces the sayings and songs of Belturbet in fine style. There is a helpful glossary of dialect words and phrases for the non-native.
First published in 1972, The Road to God Knows Where, by Sean Maher (Veritas, £7.99), is yet another memoir of boyhood - this time of a young traveller, or tinker as he once would have been known. In a foreword, Monsignor Tom Fehily recalls the days when "People were glad to avail of [travellers'] services in repairing utensils that were not easily replaced. As society became wealthier and plastic replaced tin and glass, the travellers became more and more isolated." Books like this should help the rest of us to understand travellers better and to appreciate their culture and traditions. Such traditions are many, as Sean Maher demonstrates in this lively account, and merit preservation.
The photograph of the author on the back of Not Under Oath - Alfie Allen Remembers (Tower Books; no price given) shows a man with a quizzical look, as if caught in wonder at life and its oddities. This book reflects that look, with a considerable garnishing of humour, as Allen, a farmer from near Ovens, Co Cork, muses in prose and verse about country customs and characters (sowgelders and higglers included). Among the many hilarious anecdotes and bits of information is the fact that goats can breath through both ends. To strangle a goat, therefore, it is necessary to block the rear end, Honest; Alfred Allen says so on page 48.
Life in the Liberties of Dublin in the 1930s and '40s is vividly recalled in Hanbury Lane from Whence I Came, by Tommy Phelan (LUTU, Department of Geography, Maynooth University; no price given). Phelan has a flair for recording the racy speech of the Liberties and uses all the big occasions in a youthful existence (school, First Communion, election, mitching, Confirmation, first job) to illustrate the colour and richness of the local idiom. There are drawings by Patrick Malone and some family photographs, to make this an attractive (though oddly-shaped) book.
By way of contrast, and as an example of how "the other half" lives, Westport House and the Brownes, by Denis Browne, tenth Marguess of Sligo (no price given), tells the story of one of Ireland's "big houses" and the family who owned it - and still do. Originally published in 1981, this edition has been produced by Westport House where the author's son, Jeremy, now lives. The Brownes of Westport have weathered many storms, political and economic, and Denis Browne is justifiably proud of their achievements. He is also disappointed that the State has not shown any enthusiasm for the preservation of Westport's books and documents, from many of which this interesting book has been compiled.
Finally, a word or three about the production of local publications. Many of these are printed locally and without the advice of typographical experts. The results are often self-defeating and unattractive. Entire texts are printed in sans serif type-faces, with minimal margins and little paragraphing. Such local publications could be made much more saleable if the right advice is sought and applied. And why not print the retail price somewhere as well?