AN HONORARY doctorate was conferred yesterday by NUI Maynooth on the oldest native Blasket Islander for his services to the Irish language and his campaign spanning six decades to preserve the Great Blasket.
Micheál Ó Ceárna, (Mike Carney) who on his 89th birthday was awarded the honorary degree Doctor of Literature, D.Litt., at the Blasket Interpretive Centre in Dún Chaoin which looks onto the now abandoned island off the coast of Kerry.
Mr Ó Ceárna, an American citizen, lives in Springfield, Massachusetts, where he emigrated in 1948. He was surrounded by family and friends yesterday. It was Mr Ó Ceárna approach to the then taoiseach, Éamon de Valera that ultimately led to the evacuation of the Blaskets in 1953.
In early 1947 with the island cut off from the mainland because of bad weather his older brother Seáinin died from meningitis without the services of a priest or a doctor.
Only a break in the weather allowed the islanders to bring his body for burial to Dún Chaoin, four days after he died. Mr Ó Ceárna wrote to the then taoiseach Éamon de Valera imploring him to help his parents and to visit the island, telling him the old people “can’t walk against the hill anymore.” Yesterday Mr Ó Ceárna said he had learned governments moved slowly but welcomed the acquisition by the State of most of the island.
He has never lost his Irish and his six children were also taught the language in Springfield
Deputy president of Maynooth, Prof Jim Walsh said it decided to confer the degree because of the relationship between place and literature and the understanding place conferred on literature and Micheál Ó Ceárna’s tireless contribution to preserving the island.