Sceulta Micil An Rinn
All who have been to Ring Irish College have pleasant
memories of the daily lesson that consisted of the telling of his life’s
adventures at home and abroad by Micil O Muirgheasa, the college Seanchaí.
These stories were written on the blackboard by one of the professors and
copied into their notebooks by students. Many an earnest student had found
material for a writer’s study of Irish the notebooks containing Micil’s
stories. The wish was often expressed that some person would collect these
stories and have them published in book form before Michil, who is now 73 years
old, would pass away.
The task was taken up by ‘An Fear Mór’
[Seamas Ó hEochadha] of Ring College and this week we got the
fruits of his labour in a handsome book published by the Educational Company of
Ireland, containing twelve of Micil’s stories, and adorned with two striking
photographs of Michil, one on the outer cover representing him in repose, and
another as a frontispiece in which he was snapped relating on of his stories
with a characteristic gesture and striking facial expression. That the twelve
stories in the book are word for word as they came from Micil’s lips is all
that need be said by way of recommending them as Irish of the first water. A
striking feature of the language in the stories is its simplicity – a feature
of all language spoken naturally and spontaneously in Irish is an interesting
and helpful feature of the book. It runs to 75 pages and costs only 1/6.
