Darach Ó Séaghdha
Born20th century Edit this on Wikidata
Rathfarnham Edit this on Wikidata
OccupationWriter, podcaster Edit this on Wikidata
Signature

Darach Ó Séaghdha (pronounced [ˈd̪ˠaɾˠəx ˈʃeː]; born 5 November 1977)[1][2][3] is an Irish writer, podcaster and Irish language activist. He is the author of Motherfoclóir: Dispatches from a Not So Dead Language, which won 'Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year' in the 2017 Irish Book Awards.

Biography

Ó Séaghdha grew up in Rathfarnham, a suburb of Dublin, in a multi-lingual household. His father, a linguist, and mother used to speak Irish together but spoke English to their children. When Ó Séaghdha's father became very ill, Ó Séaghdha became interested in learning Irish and used Twitter to share interesting Irish phrases and words he came across.[4][5]

Ó Séaghdha describes Irish as "the amazing buried treasure".[5] In his writing he wants to show people how they, through Irish, can make sense of the world around them, through words and phrases that do not exist in the English language.[5] In the 2017 Irish Book Awards, his book Motherfoclóir: Dispatches from a Not So Dead Language (Head of Zeus, 2017) won the award for Ireland AM Popular Non-Fiction Book of the Year.[6]

The follow-up to Motherfoclóir, published in 2018, which carries the name Craic Baby: Dispatches from a Rising Language, explores the very new and very old parts of the Irish language from a personal perspective, covering the topics multilingualism, Brehon Law, Gaelscoileanna and especially lexicon.[7]

He runs the popular Irish-language-trivia Twitter account The Irish For.[8] He is also the main host of the podcast Motherfoclóir,[9] part of the Headstuff Podcast Network.[10]

References

  1. Séaghdha, Darach Ó. "The Irish For: What do these popular boys' names mean - and what can we learn from them?". TheJournal.ie.
  2. @darachos (27 April 2020). "@truestorydesu My first book was published weeks before my 40th birthday!You'll get there 😊" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  3. @darachos (6 November 2019). "Thank you all for the very thoughtful birthday messages yesterday" (Tweet) via Twitter.
  4. Ní Chonchúir, Sharon (28 August 2017). "Darach Ó Séaghdha's complicated history with Gaeilge". Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  5. 1 2 3 Murray, Sean. "Irish is a dead language? Judging by your punctuation, English isn't far off either". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 20 April 2018.
  6. Barry, Aoife (28 November 2017). "These are the best Irish books of 2017". TheJournal.ie. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
  7. Ni Dhuibhne, Eilis (22 September 2018). "Craic Baby: Dispatches from a Rising Language". Retrieved 3 January 2019.
  8. "The Irish For 🥃✒ (@theirishfor)". Retrieved 25 April 2018 via Twitter.
  9. "Motherfoclóir Archives". Headstuff. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
  10. "Home". Headstuff. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
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