Tomás de Bhaldraithe | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Born | (1916-12-14)14 December 1916 Ballincurra,County Limerick |
| Died | 24 April 1996(1996-04-24) (aged 79) |
| Spouse | |
| Children | 9 |
Tomás Mac Donnchadha de Bhaldraithe (bornThomas MacDonagh Waldron; 14 December 1916 – 24 April 1996) was an Irish scholar notable for his work on theIrish language, particularly in the field oflexicography. He is best known for hisEnglish-Irish Dictionary, published in 1959.[1][2][3][4][5]
Tomás de Bhaldraithe was born on 14 December 1916 in Ballincurra,County Limerick. He moved toDublin with his family at the age of five. He was named afterThomas MacDonagh one of the signatories of theProclamation of the Irish Republic, who had been executed after theEaster Rising earlier that year. He adopted the use of theIrish language version of the name in both Irish and English. He received his second-level education atBelvedere College in Dublin.
His stance on standard forms and spellings was supported byÉamon de Valera despite opposition from traditionalists in the Department of Education, and the work is widely seen as an important benchmark in Irish scholarship.
In 1942, he was appointed a professor at theDublin Institute for Advanced Studies in the department of Celtic Studies. In 1960 he was appointed professor of modern Irish language and literature inUniversity College Dublin, where he developed an impressive archive of material on Irish dialects. Much of the material in this archive was later used as the basis ofNiall Ó Dónaill'sFoclóir Gaeilge-Béarla, published in 1978, for which he was consulting editor. Also during the 1970s, de Bhaldraithe translated theIrish languagediary ofAmhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin into English. It was then published byMercier Press as "The Diary of an Irish Countryman."
The language laboratory which he set up in UCD was the first of its kind in any university in Ireland. His interest in seanchas (folklore) led to his publication ofSeanchasThomáis Laighléis in 1977, while his earlier work includes the ground-breaking study of theCois Fharraige dialect (a variety ofConnacht Irish),Gaeilge Chois Fharraige: Deilbhíocht. In later years he worked extensively on the definitive Irish dictionary,Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge, which remained unfinished when he died in 1996, but which is still in progress today.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
