The purpose of this blog is to document features of the Irish dialect of Kilkenny. Prior to the Great Famine of the 19th century, Irish (or Gaelic) was the dominant language of parts of Kilkenny and surrounding regions. We would today call this dialect 'Ossory Irish', based on the ancient Gaelic kingdom of the same name. Irish was used in these communities by some parts of the population (older/rural people) in this region until around the end of the 19th century and maybe a bit longer. Irish survived longer in Kilkenny than any other Ossory Irish speaking area and died finally with the presumed last native speaker, Pádraig de Paor. He is also known by his English name, Patrick Power.
I will be using this site to document resources I encounter including texts written in the dialect, information from oral history, notes about features and any audio I may get access to.
I will try my best to compare this dialect with specific examples from other parts of the country but my knowledge of linguistics and my scope of experience with Irish dialects is small and limited to mostly Connacht. I will, however, have the help of a number of people who are so kind as to always help me with the questions I have.
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