Turas Siar 305 - Agallamh suimiúil a rinne Caitlín Nic Conghóile leis an Dochtúir Séamus Ó Catháin, a chaith blianta fada ag bailiú béaloidis i gceantar Dhún Chaocháin.

Johnny Byrnes ansin bhí sórt

Johnny Byrnes then was a sort.

Bhoil, bhí Johnny ina chomharsa agam anseo agus bhí 'chuile scéal ag Johnny, ní raibh seanscéalta ná mórán.

Well, Johnny was my neighbor here and Johnny had every story, there weren’t old tales or much...

Mórán spéise aige iontu bhí spéis aige b'fhéidir sa bhí spéis aige sa teanga. Bhí bhí cur amach aige iontach aige ar an teanga agus ar na nósanna a bhí anseo agus cuid acu atá anseo i gcónaí.

He had little interest in them, he had perhaps an interest in, he had an interest in the language. He had great knowledge of the language and of the customs that were here and some of them that are still here.

Agus is cuimhneach liom lá amháin istigh ansin.

And I remember one day in there..

Tá leabhar againne a dtugann siad The Hanbook of Irish, foclóir air, ag ionsaí 700 leathanach ann agus tá cur síos ar 'chuile ghné den traidisiún ann.

We have a book that they call The Handbook of Irish, a dictionary, with about 700 pages in it and there is a description of every aspect of the tradition in it.

Agus chaith mé lá istigh ansin le Johnny éigin.

And I spent a day in there with some Johnny..

Agus ag dul ó leathanach go leathanach agus bhí sé ag rá ní raibh a leithéide de rud anseo óh bhí sé sin anseo agus seo mar a bhí sé agus rinne sé cur síos iontach ar na rudaí sin. Bhí teanga mhaith

And going from page to page and he was saying there was no such thing here oh that was here and this is how it was and he gave a wonderful description of those things. There was good language.

Gaeilge ag Tommy agus

Irish with Tommy and.

Agus bhí spéis aige.

And he was interested..

6 In ann léamh chomh maith.

Able to read as well..

Áh bhí agus in ann scríobh agus bhíodh sé scríobhadh sé agamsa i gcónaí i nGaeilge.

Ah, he was and able to write and he would always write for me in Irish.

Áh bhí agus

Ah, there was.

Agus tá cnaplitreacha agam a scríobh sé agus scríobhfadh sé an teanga díreach mar a labhraíodh sé.

And I have notebooks that he wrote and he would write the language just as it was spoken.

Scríobhfaidh sé go han-éata ar fad agus

He will write very slowly indeed and.

Go leor acu sin a scríobh i nGaeilge.

Many of those wrote in Irish.