seamus dubhghaill

Promoting Irish Culture and History from Little Rock, Arkansas, USA

Tag Archives: Coláiste Íosagáin


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Birth of Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, Gaelic Games Commentator

Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh, an Irish Gaelic games commentator for the Irish national radio and television, RTÉ, is born in Doonshean just outside Dingle, County Kerry, on August 20, 1930. In a career that spans six decades he comes to be regarded as the “voice of Gaelic games.” He has been described as a national treasure. His prolific career earns him a place in Guinness World Records.

Ó Muircheartaigh grows up on the family farm and is educated locally in Dingle. In September 1945, he begins studying at Coláiste Íosagáin in Ballyvourney in the County Cork Gaeltacht where he trains to be a teacher. It is at this all-Irish language school that his name changes from Michael Moriarty to the Irish version Mícheál Ó Muircheartaigh. He says that Irish is his stronger language. In September 1948, he begins the final year of his teacher training at St. Patrick’s College of Education in Drumcondra, Dublin.

In early March 1949, Ó Muircheartaigh, along with ten other students from the college, and several from other colleges, do a test commentary on a hurling match at Croke Park. Each student has to commentate for five minutes in Irish and the most successful is to be selected for further commentary work. Up to this point, he has never seen a game of hurling before in his life. He is the one selected and his first assignment is to provide an all-Irish commentary on the 1949 Railway Cup final on Saint Patrick’s Day.

Ó Muircheartaigh graduates from St. Patrick’s College a little later and also completes a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Dublin (UCD) in 1952. He also completes a Higher Diploma in Education in 1953. He teaches economics, accountancy and Irish in both primary and secondary schools throughout Dublin, the majority of which are run by the Christian Brothers. He continues teaching up until the 1980s, when he becomes a full-time broadcaster with RTÉ.

For the early part of his broadcasting career, Ó Muircheartaigh commentates on Minor GAA matches, in the Irish language. He also replaces the legendary Michael O’Hehir when he is not available to commentate. Eventually when O’Hehir is forced to retire in the mid-1980s Ó Muircheartaigh takes over as the station’s premier radio commentator. He develops his own inimitable style of commentary, and his accent is unmistakably that of a native Irish speaker. He is a true lover of Gaelic Athletic Association, and it is reflected in the enthusiasm he brings to matches. His unusual turn of phrase makes him a much-loved broadcaster and often imitated character. He becomes particularly famous in Ireland for his unusual turns of phrase in the heat of the moment while commentating. Towards the end of his life, he commentates on RTÉ Radio 1. In 2004, he publishes his autobiography, From Dún Sion to Croke Park.

On March 5, 1988, Ó Muircheartaigh presents the Saturday Live show on RTÉ 1. In 1990, he holds an impromptu interview with Britain’s Prince Edward, after his greyhound had won at the English Greyhound Derby qualifier when he was commentating.

Ó Muircheartaigh’s commentaries for RTÉ Radio 1’s Sunday Sport show win him a Jacob’s Award in 1992. He is also the Parade Grand Marshal for the 2007 St. Patrick’s Festival, having been given the honour by the chairman of the festival in recognition and appreciation of his unique contribution to Irish culture. He is the Parade Grand Marshal for the 2011 St. Patrick’s Parade in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, also in recognition and appreciation of his unique contribution to Irish culture.

On September 16, 2010, Ó Muircheartaigh announces his retirement from broadcasting. The last All-Ireland he commentates on is the 2010 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Final on September 19, 2010.

On October 29, 2010, it is announced that the 2nd International Rules test at Croke Park would be Ó Muircheartaigh’s final broadcast as commentator on RTÉ Radio 1. The following day he commentates his final commentary alongside RTÉ’s pundit and former Meath footballer Bernard Flynn.

Ó Muircheartaigh is contracted to officiate at the 2011–2012 Volvo Ocean Race finish in Galway where he commentates on the finish to the round-the-world race, giving it a uniquely Irish conclusion. Sailing is his longtime hobby.

Ó Muircheartaigh writes a weekly sports column for Foinse, the Irish-language newspaper free with the Irish Independent each Wednesday. He is invited to read out a piece in Irish and in English at an event called “Laochra” in Croke Park on April 24, 2016, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising.

In 2007, Ó Muircheartaigh is awarded the UCD Foundation Day Medal. His nephew by marriage, John McGuire, has presented several programmes on RTÉ.

Ó Muircheartaigh dies in hospital in Dublin at the age of 93 on June 25, 2024.

Ó Muircheartaigh is awarded an honorary doctorate by NUI Galway in 1999 for his lifetime service to broadcasting. Shortly after his 90th birthday, he is awarded the only GAA GPA All Stars Award of 2020. No further All Stars can be awarded as competition is suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and only completed that December.


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Death of Irish Language Writer Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin

Diarmaid Ó Súilleabháin, Irish language writer whose chosen theme is contemporary urban life, dies on June 5, 1985. He is acknowledged as an important Irish language modernist. He is also active in the Irish republican movement and a member of Sinn Féin.

Ó Súilleabháin is born on the Beara Peninsula in County Cork on July 29, 1932. His mother, Máire Áine Ní Dhrisceoil, is a primary school teacher and his father, John O’Sullivan, is a small farmer. He marries Úna Ní Chléirigh on October 28, 1954, and they have two sons and three daughters.

Ó Súilleabháin is awarded a scholarship to Coláiste Íosagáin, a Catholic secondary school in Ballyvourney, where he is influenced by Friar Peadar Ó Loingsigh, and qualifies as a primary teacher in St. Patrick’s College, Drumcondra. He devotes his life to teaching. He settles in Gorey, County Wexford, and works there as a primary teacher for the Christian Brothers school.

Best known now for his literary work, Ó Súilleabháin writes ten novels, two of them for teenagers. Maeldún (1972) is a pioneering Irish novel that explores sexuality. He writes seven unpublished plays but most of them are shown in Damer Hall and the Peacock Theatre. Three plays that he writes include Bior, Ontos and Macalla and he writes a collection of short stories, Muintir (1970). A story from Muintir called ‘D’ is translated into English and adapted for the stage by Vivian McAlister and is performed by the Dublin University Players in May 1977.

Like Eoghan Ó Tuairisc, Ó Súilleabháin “challenged the critical orthodoxy by openly proclaiming that their standards could not be those of the Gaeltacht and by demanding a creative freedom that would acknowledge hybridity and reject the strictures of the linguistic purists.” He and Máirtín Ó Cadhain are considered the two most innovative Irish language authors to emerge in the 1960s. He often writes in a stream of consciousness, and his style influences younger writers. His writing “explores the problem of recovering idealism and cultural wholeness in an increasingly shallow and materialistic Irish society.” He is elected as a member of the Irish Academy of Letters and wins more literary prizes than any other living Irish author.

Ó Súilleabháin writes a collection of poetry, Cosa Gréine, which is published and launched in Dublin in 2013, twenty-eight years after his death.

Ó Súilleabháin is an active Irish republican, particularly in publicizing the republican struggle, and is a member of Sinn Féin’s ruling body beginning in 1971. He spends short periods in prison because of activities related to his political beliefs.