Presbyterians and the Irish Language, originally published in 1996, is the first to establish the rightful place of the Irish language in the Presbyterian heritage in Ireland. It traces the Presbyterian Irish-speaking tradition from its early roots in Gaelic Scotland through the Plantation and Williamite War periods to its successive revivals in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Our Tangled Speech: Essays on Language and Culture
Our Tangled Speech: Essays on Language and Culture provides a comprehensive overview of the Irish language revival north and south, examining its successes and failures. It gives a fascinating account of historical attitudes towards the Gael and examines the complexities of linguistic and cultural identity.
About the Author
Aodán Mac Póilin
AODÁN MAC PÓILIN (1948–2016) spent his life working with and for the Irish language. He was by his own admission a ‘late bloomer’, having learned Irish as an adult. He moved, with his wife Áine Andrews, to the Shaws Road Gaeltacht in west Belfast in the mid-70s and was proud that Irish was their daughter Aoife’s first language and that she is passing it on to his grandchildren. He was actively involved with the Irish-speaking community there and was Chair of the first Irishmedium school in Northern Ireland at a critical period in its development. He was also a founding member of Comhairle na Gaelscolaíochta. Aodán, as Director of the ULTACH Trust (1990–2014), laid much of the groundwork for cross-community engagement with the Irish language in the early 1990s. He was a passionate and articulate advocate for the language, making significant and strategic contributions in a variety of areas, including Irish-medium education, language planning, the arts and Irish-medium broadcasting. He represented the Trust on a wide range of organisations, including the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, Colmcille, The BBC Northern Ireland Broadcasting Council, Foras na Gaeilge, The Seamus Heaney Centre and was Chair of Ciste Craoltóireachta na Gaeilge. Aodán wrote and lectured extensively on many aspects of the Irish language, literature and culture. He edited Styles of Belonging: the Cultural Identities of Ulster (1992), Ruined Pages, New Selected Poems of Padraic Fiacc (1994) and The Irish Language in Northern Ireland (1997). He was a member of the editorial panel of The Great Book of Gaelic (2002) and co-edited Bás in Éirinn (2012). He was also a highly accomplished translator of Irish language prose and poetry.
Roger Blaney
Roger Blaney son of Mary Ellen and William Patrick Blaney of Lurgan, Co. Armagh, was educated in Lurgan, Armagh and Queen's University Belfast where he qualified in medicine in 1957. After a number of hospital appointments, including three years in Guy's Hospital, London, he specialised in public health medicine and was head of the Department of Community Medicine at Queen's University before he took early retirement in 1988.
His publications include papers in the medical press, co-authorship of books on public health and he is author of Belfast: 100 years of Public Health (1988). He has written on the history of the Irish Language and has contributed to An tUltach and the newspaper LÃ. He is married to Brenda Quinn, has two sons and three daughters and lives in Holywood, Co. Down.
