Fond memories of a truly great Gaelgoir
The late Raymond Ó Baoill.
Like so many friends who have paid tribute to Raymond Ó Baoill on his sudden death, I too felt such a gnawing sense of shock that the passing of more than a week has failed to lift the gloom of loss that leaves me with memories rooted in the now distant occasion of his inviting me to celebrate Bastille Day by delivering a lecture on General Humbert and the 1798 Rebellion in Mayo. The only difficulty in my doing so was that the audience would be composed of Irish-speaking business executives and that in spite of my having lived and worked in Dublin as a journalist since 1972, I had singularly failed to learn even the ‘cúpla focal’.
In his capacity as Foras na Gaelige director of a Gradam session on July 14, 1996, Ray resolved our linguistic dilemma by proposing I should open the talk with a few words in Irish which he would write out phonetically. This ruse worked so well that RTÉ’s Liam Ó Murchú, famous for the bilingual chat-show , congratulated me afterwards for “speaking Irish with the Polish sonorous gravity of Pope John Paul II".
Ray’s taking early retirement and his return to the West of Ireland removed his gregarious presence from the Dublin social scene where we had met regularly in La Cave in Duke Street. We kept in touch at Humbert Schools. The possibility, however, of holding a session in Irish failed to materialise on account of the lack of financial sponsorship. This missed opportunity embedded in my mind the literary image of Raymond cast as MacCarthy, the poet-schoolmaster in Tom Flanagan’s epic novel, representing the dying old Gaelic world associated with the failed 1798 Rebellion and General Humbert’s invasion to liberate Ireland from feudalism.
My heartfelt condolences to Paula, Doireann, Iseult, Cathal and Bróna. I have fond memories of an occasion years ago when a gosling Cathal did a splendid mimic of a Scotsman attempting to speak Franco-Irish.
So long, Monsieur Raymond, who will long be remembered as Ballina’s learned Seanachí in the mould of Master McCarthy.
