Tomás de Bhaldraithe facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Tomás de Bhaldraithe
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| Born | 14 December 1916 Ballincurra, County Limerick
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| Died | 24 April 1996 (aged 79) |
| Spouse(s) |
Vivienne Ní Thoirdhealbhaigh
(m. 1943) |
| Children | 9 |
Tomás de Bhaldraithe (born Thomas MacDonagh Waldron) was an important Irish scholar. He was born on December 14, 1916. He is famous for his work on the Irish language. He was especially good at creating dictionaries. His most well-known book is the English-Irish Dictionary. It was published in 1959. This dictionary is still very important for learning Irish today.
Contents
Tomás de Bhaldraithe: A Language Hero
Early Life and Education
Tomás de Bhaldraithe was born in Ballincurra, County Limerick. When he was five years old, his family moved to Dublin. He was named after Thomas MacDonagh. MacDonagh was a hero of the Easter Rising that happened earlier in 1916. Tomás later chose to use the Irish version of his name. He went to Belvedere College in Dublin for his secondary education.
His Important Work
Tomás de Bhaldraithe became a professor in 1942. He worked at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. He was part of the Celtic Studies department. In 1960, he became a professor at University College Dublin (UCD). There, he taught modern Irish language and literature.
He collected many materials about different Irish dialects. These materials were later used to create another important dictionary. This was Niall Ó Dónaill's Foclóir Gaeilge-Béarla. It was published in 1978. Tomás de Bhaldraithe helped as a consulting editor for this book.
Tomás de Bhaldraithe also translated a famous Irish language diary. It was the diary of Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin. He translated it into English during the 1970s. The book was then published as "The Diary of an Irish Countryman."
Making Irish Easier to Learn
Tomás de Bhaldraithe believed in having standard ways to spell and use Irish words. This idea was supported by Éamon de Valera, a former leader of Ireland. Even though some people disagreed, his work became a key guide for Irish language studies.
He set up the first language laboratory in an Irish university. This was at UCD. It helped students learn languages using new technology. He also loved seanchas, which means old stories or folklore. He published a book of these stories called Seanchas Thomáis Laighléis in 1977.
Earlier in his career, he wrote a detailed study of an Irish dialect. This was the Cois Fharraige dialect from Gaeltacht Cois Fharraige. His book was called Gaeilge Chois Fharraige: Deilbhíocht. In his later years, he worked on a very big Irish dictionary. It was called Foclóir na Nua-Ghaeilge. He passed away in 1996 before it was finished. However, work on this important dictionary continues today.
