The editors of An Chonair Chaoch examine the language specifically in the context of the Gaeltacht and bilingualism. Unsurprisingly, the view of parents, legal issues, language planning, education, and their effect on a very fragile linguistic region, are studied in great detail here.... Many of the conclusions make for stark reading and give the lie to the oft-repeated slur that Irish speakers live in cloud cuckoo land when it comes to Irish.
William Desmond's essay in intellectual autobiography is the fourth in a series of research papers commissioned by the Centre for Irish Studies at the NUI Galway.
"This idea of being in the middle or 'being between', of moving between different sets of extremities — between countries (Ireland and America), between religion and science, between philosophy and poetry, between knowledge and perplexity, between the particulars of reality and the universals of thought, between receding youth and approaching age — is a constant motif throughout his work." — Thomas Duddy, NUIG.
A handsomely produced book with a wide variety of material, including original work by Máire Mhac an tSaoi, Aifric Nic Aodha, Seán Mac Mathúna, Séamas Mac Annaidh, Gordon McCoy, Diarmuid Breathnach, Séamas Ó Ssiocháin, Mícheál Ó Suilleabháin, Éamon Ó Cuív, Proinsias Mac Aonghusas, Mícheál Ó Cróinín, Alan Dukes, Biddy Jenkinson, Máire Ní Annracháin, Liam Mac Cóil, Darach Ó Scolaí, Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Sean Ó Curraoin, Seán Mac Réamoinn, Robbie Hannann, Méabh Ní Chléirigh and others, and essays on subjects from the unification of Ireland (Éamonn Ó Cuiv) to the Treaty of Amsterdam (Alan Dukes).
In this beautifully presented book, not only is Stanford's music and Gaelic music examined, but also Stanford's cultural background. Indeed, it is not often we get an Irish book which examines Englishness, as is done in this book which gets to grips with both the Irish and the English question, and what it means to be an anglophonic Englishman, and what it means go be a Gael.
