Ballinahown academic reflects on varied career

Cathal Ó Háinle from Ballinahown village has been reflecting on an impressively long, wide-ranging academic career after developing his childhood love of Irish through his studies over the years.

Having hoped to become a priest, Cathal originally studied at Maynooth College where he was awarded a Bachelor's in Celtic Studies and a Bachelor of Divinity in Theology. He worked as a professor in Maynooth from 1967 to 1977.

He was ordained a priest in 1965 but sought laicisation from the priesthood in 1977 which was granted and then married his wife Íde. He was appointed to a lectureship in Irish in TCD at the same time.

“As professor of Modern Irish in Maynooth I was domiciled in Maynooth College. As such my life was the same as that of any other university academic. This meant that I had almost no priestly functions and I believe it was why I sought laicisation,” stated Cathal, who now lives in Portmarnock in Dublin.

The Westmeath native said that the fact that his father Thomas was a teacher had an impact on his childhood. He taught him for his final two or three years at St Colmcille's NS, Ballinahown.

“He used to do some algebra and geometry with me at home. He had a great fondness for the Irish language which he spoke fluently and wrote elegantly. This influenced his teaching in school and our life at home. In our teens he brought us to Inis Meáin, Aran, on holiday so that we could experience the language in its native social setting.”

“My undergraduate lecturing was on medieval and modern literature in Irish. The modern literature in question was that of authors such as P.H. Pearse, Pádraic Ó Conaire, Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Seán Ó Ríordáin. I published many essays on those authors and several of these are collected in three of my books.”

The three books Cathal wrote consist of collections of essays mostly about modern Irish literature: Promhadh Pinn (1978), Scáthanna (2008) and Ceann faoi Eite (2013)." He also corrected and published a book of Irish poems called 'Stór na Síthe written by Conleth Ellis. He also published a new edition of Padraig Pearse's short stories in 1979 and a new edition of Máirtín Ó Cadhain's famous novel 'Cré na cille'.

He also served on a number of TCD and Royal Irish Academy committees; was active in the Scottish Irish Academic Initiative from 1994 and in the Bardic Poetry Initiative from 1999 to 2010.

Cathal, who is the son of the Thomas Ó Háinle and Nora Hughes, also published an essay on the history of St Columcile's Church in Ballinahown in 'A pilgrim People' (The Lemanaghan Parish Millennium Committee, 2000) and a piece entitled 'An unrecorded seventeenth-century Clonmacnoise chalice' in Clonmacnoise Studies vol. 2 (ed. H.A. King 2003). This chalice is currently located in the church in Ballinahown.

Fr Joseph Plunkett wrote up notes in 1955 which provided a complete inventory of the parish lands and buildings and listed the 'Mass Requisites' in St Columcille's church, Ballinahown as: 'two chalices and patens, one of these dated 1647. Still in use in station box. These are all silver.'

Commenting on this Cathal explained: “In the course of research for my essay on the history of St Columcille's church which was published in 'A pilgrim people: stories from Lemanaghan parish in 1999', I came on these notes by Fr Plunkett. When I enquired of Fr Aidan Ryan, whether this chalice were still in the church, he confirmed that it was, and was kind enough to make it available for inspection.”

“The date 1647 may be significant, for in that year the Catholic Vicar General of the diocese of Clonmacnoise, Charles Coghlan, had the Cathedral of Clonmacnoise restored at his own expense. It seems that Eleanor Callanan, who had the Ballinahown chalice made, was a Dominican nun and a relative of of another member of the Coghlan family, and therefore presumably also of Charles Coghlan,” Cathal said in a leaflet about the chalice entitled 'A Ballinahown Treasure' published while he was in Trinity.

During his younger years he also played minor football for Westmeath and played on Athlone's senior football team, winning two county medals with the club.

Speaking about his contribution to academic writings, Cathal added: "I have to say that I was one of very few academics who in the second half of the 19 hundreds began to write about creative writings in Irish as creative writings. As a result, I was one of the leaders rather than one who had to follow others."

A festschrift in Cathal's honour, edited by two of his former colleagues, was published in 2012. A festschrift is a book which honours a respected person, especially an academic and is presented during their lifetime. "I felt very grateful to have had a festschrift published in my honour. "It was recognition of my academic work. Rather than single out a particular piece of academic writing that I am proud of, I would like to say that I am proud of the books in which I have published collections of my essays."

As part of the Dublin-based man's academic career he had the opportunity to travel abroad. “I spent a week in the US in the 1980s giving lectures under the auspices of the Irish American Cultural Institute; I lectured in Ottawa at the 1991 Conference of the Canadian Association for Irish Studies, in Edinburgh at the Tenth International Congress of Celtic Studies and in Oslo in 2005 at the Eight Symposium of Societas Celtologica Nordica.”

While the accomplished academic retired in 2004, he has continued to publish writings since then and is currently working on publishing a version of a manuscript of the poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire the Lament for Art Ó Laoghaire by Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill. He is also writing an essay on two short stories by Máirtín Ó Cadhain.