This Monday, November 4, the Galway Archaeological and Historical Society will hold a talk on Micheál Ó Lócháin from Milltown, Co Galway, founder of An Gaodhal newspaper. The venue is the Harbour Hotel.
Lecturer Deirdre Ní Chonghaile will discuss the importance of An Gaodhal, founded by Ó Locháin in Brooklyn, New York, in 1881, and edited by him until 1898. Ó Locháin came to be regarded as the father of the Irish language movement in America, a movement that would inspire the emergence of the Gaelic League at home in Ireland.
The contents of An Gaodhal reflected the cultural interests of Irish speakers in New York, Ireland, and the wider diaspora; Irish-American life; New York history; and the development of the Irish language during the Celtic Revival period.
Ní Chonghaile is a writer, musician, broadcaster, and curator from the Aran Islands. Her award-winning book, Collecting Music in the Aran Islands: A Century of History and Practice, was published in 2021.
In an innovative partnership between the University of Galway and New York University, Dr Ní Chonghaile has been working on producing a searchable digital edition of An Gaodhal by training artificial intelligence how to read the Cló Gaelach script.
