Sunburnt Irish: A to Z, first volume
by Greg Byrnes, Robert Lindsey, Val Noone and Colin Ryan
In April 2022 an exciting Irish book was launched by four Australian writers, Gaeilgeori and historians. The contains windows into the use of Irish since the early days of European settlement, well into the modern era.
Brollach / Preface
This 108-page mini-encyclopedia records some of the findings of four Australians about the history of the language and culture of the Irish in this country. It is written throughout in Irish and is the first, and only, such book about the topic. Indeed, it is the first book written by Australians entirely in Irish and published in Australia. Gaeilge Ghriandóite, means Sunburnt Irish Language, that is, the Irish language as spoken and written in Australia and adapted to a new environment. Readers will find that over the past two centuries there have been dramatic breaks in continuity but also common threads. We are writing about a small and endangered seedling. Hence, the need for this book.
In recent years a number of Australian scholars have studied the fate of the Irish language and culture in Australia in manuscripts, print and electronic media, monuments, and inscriptions. The four authors of Gaeilge Ghriandóite: A go Z a hAon – Greg Byrnes, Robert Lindsey, Val Noone agus Colin Ryan – have been prominent in this development. Our findings are laid out in 195 useful entries about women and men, activities and customs, magazines and newsletters, film and television, organised alphabetically from A to Z and illustrated with 70 images. The book concludes with a bibliography, which in itself could become a collector’s item.
Our audience is every Australian involved in cultural repossession, those in the Irish Language Association of Australia, the Irish Language School of Sydney, and those who attend the annual summer and winter schools. Moreover, we hope to reach out to Irish-speaking people living in Australia with whom the organised groups do not have firm links. And, third, we seek readers in Ireland and around the world. The entries cover the three main phases of the history of the Irish language in this country: the survival of the language and culture after the early immigrants hit the coast; the attempted salvage operations in the late 1800s and early 1900s; and the new forms of organisation of the current era.
The alphabetical order of entries makes it easy to find topics and invites comparisons between the different eras. The text is designed for the general reader without neglecting details such as lists of sources needed by those with a special interest. The entries are wide-ranging with surprising twists and turns as well as many gaps. You the reader may well be able to help with this. As the proverb says,“Tarraingíonn scéal céal”, that is, one story draws out an answering story. Who knows, perhaps readers may lead us into a second volume.
A word about our credentials. Thirty years ago Greg Byrne pioneered research into our topic. Robert Lindsey, the youngest of our foursome, has broken new ground regarding the early 1900s. In 2012 Val Noone published a relevant detailed study, Hidden Ireland in Victoria. Colin Ryan has produced a fortnightly newsletter for more than a decade and has his short stories and poems published in Ireland. Further details
on each of the four are included in the entries in the book. At a meeting in August 2019, triggered by positive responses from both experts and general readers alike to talks and papers all four had given on the topic, the authors decided to improve their collaboration. All four are Irish speakers yet the language skills among us are uneven. Thus Val Noone and Robert Lindsey have relied on, and wish to express sincere thanks for, translations and corrections by Colin Ryan and from precision in research and writing
from Greg Byrnes.
We are well aware that the history of human languages in Australia is at least 60,000 years old. We lament the dispossession of the Bunducasaigh Astrálaigh, that is, the Indigenous Australians, and the accompanying loss of some 200 languages, though thankfully not all. We pay our respects to their elders past and present, we support their demands for justice and their work on maintaining and reclaiming their
languages. Indeed, by better understanding our own heritage we can better understand the First Peoples of Australia.
The authors have financed the production of the book themselves, and are reliant on sales in order to cover costs of printing and distribution. In putting this book together we have had lively discussions and learned much. Our hope is that you who read it will find enjoyment and encouragement from what it records.
- Greg Byrnes, Robert Lindsey, Val Noone, Colin Ryan
Price: $25 posted anywhere in Australia, or $20 if purchased personally, and $35 if
posted overseas.
Publishers: Mary Doyle & Val Noone, PO Box 51, Fitzroy, Vic 3065,
macmic@netspace.net.au.