THE unexpected death of Dr Damien Ó Muirí at his home in Walkinstown on December 21st after a sudden heart-attack at the age of only 62 came as a terrible blow to his family and many friends.
Damien was a noted Irish scholar and for many years, until his recent retirement, Leachtóir na Gaeilge at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (since 1997, the National University of Ireland). But he also had a keen interest in the law, being called to the Bar in Dublin in 1995 and to the State Bar of California in 2003.
He studied at UCD, from where he obtained a BA in Celtic Studies, and an MA and PhD in Modern Irish. He won the Mansion House Fund Scholarship in Irish (for being placed first in the NUI in the subject) and the JH Curran Scholarship. These achievements resulted in a studentship in the school of Celtic studies of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
His law studies at the King’s Inns, Dublin, led also in time (in 2002) to the award of a further degree from UCD, an LLM. Damien was a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, and an accredited mediator. In addition, Foras na Gaeilge recognised him as an accredited translator in 2006.
Damien, from boyhood, had also been very interested in oriental matters. He ran extra-mural courses at Maynooth in Japanese studies and Oriental studies. He was vice-president of the Ireland-Japan Society, director of its language school, and (on two occasions) chairman of the Friends of the Chester Beatty Library.
He was an ardent organiser and canvasser for the interests of Fianna Fáil in Dublin. He was both amused and perturbed by the trend of the Haughey years, viewing this as an aberration that would pass – as indeed it did. But the recent crisis was a more serious matter: he felt uncertain and indeed betrayed by what his party had brought to pass.
For Damien’s view of politics was of community help and involvement, in the best and Christian sense, as was emphasised by Fr Micheál MacGréil, SJ, in his funeral homily. He was a good person to know simply because he was so invariably kind and helpful to his friends, always with a twinkle in his eye.
His published work includes articles on Criostóir Ó Floinn, Eoghan Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird and O'Growney, and on the Irish dialect-forms of Gweedore, Co Donegal. Most recently, in 2010, he had published (with Susan McKenna-Lawlor) An English-Irish Lexicon of Scientific and Technical Space-Related Terminology.
The real and abiding tragedy is that Damien has died relatively young, with so much of his best still to give, both to Irish studies and to law.
The large gathering at Damien's funeral mass at Walkinstown Church included family and friends, and colleagues from Maynooth, law, and politics. Music included the "Ó Riada Mass", Panis Angelicus(César Franck), Ave Verum(Mozart), Abide with me(Lyte/Monk) and Requiem aeternam(Bruckner's Requiem).
Luíonn corp Damien anois i reilig Glais Naoín lena athair Leo agus lena mháthair Bridie.
Damien and Bríd Clarke were married in 1985 in the picturesque church at Glencullen in the Dublin mountains. To Bríd now and their three children Bláthmhac, Ornat and Aonghus go out our deepest sympathies.
Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.
– MP