Dé do Bheathasa – Hello!
My name is Dónall and I am the elected head of the North American Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area), and I wanted to reach out to share our virtual exhibition with you just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, as Hamilton features prominently in the exhibit. I have worked with several museums and archives in Canada and Ireland, including the Hamilton library and the Bishop Farrell archives, to be able to present artefacts and composition surviving from the Irish oral record, as well as hand illuminated manuscripts, poems, and stories.
This exhibit is based on peer-reviewed research and brings emphasis for the first time to the works of the many Irish speakers right across Canada, from 1563 through to today. Featured are numerous Ontario speakers, and this story would be incomplete without that of Hamilton-born Cornelius Donovan. Working from the print offices of the Hamilton Times, Donovan (1847-1895) strongly advocated for his language, the Irish language, and published lessons across North America in his periodical “The Lamp.” Donovan was deeply respected by Hamilton’s Irish community, which by 1871 was around 13% of Hamilton’s total population.
I do hope that you will find interest in this exhibit, which we have made free and publicly accessible online at https://www.gaeilge.ca/irish-language-in-canada-intro, and hope that it will help to bring much more attention to the Hamilton’s and Canada’s Irish Gaelic heritage, revealing a core but unrecognized part of the Irish-Canadian experience. If you know of others who may be interested in this research, please do not hesitate to pass this information along.
The material on Donovan can be accessed here: https://www.gaeilge.ca/culture-public/author-donovan
Le meas is fiche
Dónall Ó Dubhghaill
