Commemoration of Cavan gaeltacht college proposed
A proposal has been put forward for the council to explore ways to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the last formal classes taught at the short-lived ‘Irish College’ in Glangevlin, the last Gaeltacht to exist in County Cavan.
Ardscoil Bhreifne, also known as the Fr. Michael MacLoughlin Memorial College, was established circa the early 1920s by members of the Gaelic League, and ran until 1925 says Fianna Fáil’s John Paul Feeley, who put forward the motion at the April monthly meeting of Cavan County Council.
His enthusiasm for the project, not least being a native of the area, is supported by the recent republication of a near 100 year old collection of prayers collected from the local area, re-edited by University of Galway lecturer Dr Nollaig O Muraile, and launched by Monsignor Liam Kelly.
The booklet entitled ‘Night prayers collected in Glangevlin’ was sold to raise money for the fledgling college, and contained devotions printed in English and in Irish with phonetic spelling for a now defunct Southern Ulster dialect.
The college was named after Fr. Michael McLoughlin, a native of Drumkeerin and curate in Glan from 1905-1908, who founded feiseanna, Irish classes, camogie clubs and he urged the young people to speak the Irish language.
Cllr Feeley noted that the college started on July 11, 1921, in the midst of the Civil War. This though was a day of Truce and taken as a free day, and the first lessons commenced the following day, July 12.
He suggested that the Civil War played a role in the downfall of the college. Many of the teachers, he said, were anti-Treaty. Another factor was that the college was being run on a voluntary basis with the activism of Conradh Na Gaelige, but that the teaching of the language soon became “professionalised” and people who came as volunteers “stepped back”. Cllr Feeley went on to welcome, in more recent times, the decision by Cavan County Council to purchase the derelict former post office in Glangevlin as well as an area of surrounding land with a view to developing a tourist information point, toilet block and related facilities.
The commemoration of Ardscoil Bhreifne then, he felt, required “more” than merely erecting a plaque.
He said the college is an important part of the “social history” of Cavan and the west of the county, and the hope was that by remembering its legacy it would encourage more people to speak their mother tongue.
The motion was supported by his party colleague Áine Smith who had Dr O Muraile as a lecturer in college. She said the launch of the prayer book had been a “lovely occasion”, and she remembered how the late Senator Séamus O’Dolan was among the last native Irish speakers to leave the area. It was critical as a county, she continued, to promote what was unique about Cavan. Sinn Féin’s Stiofán Conaty also backed the motion. He said that Irish was spoken socially in communities across Cavan right up to the 1960s and ‘70s. “We should do something to carry on the work that was started,” he urged.
That the Irish as a language was forced to the “edge of the district” all those years ago he felt was an indictment of negative influence. Separately he called on the council to push forward the application to appoint an Irish Language Officer for the county. The council was also reminded by elected members of its responsibility to provide bi-lingual signage where possible.