Irish Language: Let me declare an interest. Breandán Ó Doibhlin officiated at my wedding; I played a very small part in publishing three of his books with a different publisher; he has spoken as my guest at the John Hewitt International Summer School and, on the occasions we meet (regrettably few), I value his company. I knew him before I met him, however. I read him first while an undergraduate 20 years ago and treasure still discovering his collection of essays, Aistí Critice agus Cultúir, and his novel, An Branar Gan Cur, two seminal works.
And here he is, 73 years young, conferred the titles of Chevalier de l'Ordre National de Mérite and Officier de la Légion d'Honneur by the French government for his contribution to the culture of that country and still writing and translating for the benefit of the Irish people.
Manuail de Litríocht na Gaeilge is the first in a promised series of manuals on Irish literature: translations in Modern Irish from the travels of Marco Polo sit side by side with the stories of Diarmuid and Gráinne, Clann Lir, devotional material and poetry from the 16th century. The aim, writes Ó Doibhlin, is to give young people access to their literary heritage and, ever loyal to the Socratic principle, Ó Doibhlin ends each short passage with a few questions. His aim of helping people discover the "Gaeltacht of the mind, the Gaeltacht of memory; the Gaeltacht whose spoken language was its Irish- language literature; a Gaeltacht which is broad, cheerful, lasting" is amply realised in his selections.
Ó Doibhlin knows, as a creative writer of excellence, the value of good contemporary literature too. Drago Jancar is a Slovenian author of whom this reviewer knows little. However, his collection of short stories, Dalta an tSeoighigh, is excellent and provides a window, through the lives of individuals, into the great events which affected Mitteleuropa. James Joyce gives the book its title story. Teaching English in Trieste, Joyce touches the life of one of his students. Politics and the aftermath of war provide the background as the same student tries to make sense of his life and, indeed, simply survive. It is a wonderfully enigmatic piece of writing. Irish culture is the richer for having Jancar's evocative work, in Ó Doibhlin's masterful Irish, as part of its canon. We are witnessing a small act of renewal and the beginning of an intimate acquaintance.