Known Irish speakers from Kilkenny in the 20th century

Update 8/1/2022: Margaret Cody recording

The Irish language survived in the mouths of some people in Co. Kilkenny until the 20th century. Who exactly the last speaker was and when he/she died is not something I'm able to answer. Different people may argue over who does and doesn't count as 'the last speaker' and personally I'm not interested in getting into that. I think personally that debating over who counts as a speaker of a language in an environment where it is dying is not particularly productive and takes away from discussing other interesting things.

This post lists all the known speakers of Ossory Irish or native Irish speakers from Kilkenny that I have any information about. I will be updating this post with more information in time. The speakers are listed alphabetically by their first name.

I will give as much information as I am able. Since this is a lot of work I'd just ask that if this information is used elsewhere that you credit me for it.

I have tried to be organised with my place names and list the area somebody is from as well as the townland and any additional information provided by sources. I will give whichever original Gaelic name and anglicisation that are on logainm.ie as well as any other alternatives that I see in my sources.

Native speakers of Irish in County Kilkenny survived without a doubt into the 20th century, although they numbered very few. In 'Travels in Ireland in the Year 1822', Thomas Reid writes of a fair day in Kilkenny city that "conversation appears to be carried on principally in the Irish language" and that Irish was "invariably used whenever they have to express emotion or passion"

The census 1851 shows a large, rural Irish speaking population centred in the southern half of the county. It is clear also that up until roughly the Famine, this population confined itself mostly to Irish using English rarely between themselves. There were 21,000 Irish speakers counted in this census making up 15% of the total population with 104 individuals given as being monolingual. Although this is high (higher than the number of native Irish speakers in any county today apart from Galway), this figure is generally accepted to be an underestimate. In 1891, the number had dropped to 4,000 making up 5% of the population with none of them being monolingual.

As this crowd of last remaining speakers was entirely elderly, the language soon plummeted to its death in the county. From the information roughly outlined above and in other sources (which there will soon be a post about), I would say that while English has been creeping in for centuries, the Irish began its final decline in the 19th century. In its strongholds, Irish likely started its final decline around the 1820s or earlier until the very final native speakers were born around the 1850s with it continuing to be a community language until around the 1870s. Varying reports suggest that older people speaking Irish amongst themselves were last to be heard in the 1900s-1920s. This is just my estimate based on the material presented but I am not qualified to make judgements like this nor have I done enough research on language death to say things like this confidently.

Here are the speakers:

Margaret Cody, Mrs Cody (née Breathnach)

Area: Mulach na Cilla/Mullinakill. Townland: Cúil na hÁithe/Coolnahau (Coolnahaw).

She was 78 years of age in 1933 when an audio recording was made of her by Canon William Carrigan so she was presumably born sometime around 1855. The following is written in Séamus Moylan's 'The Language of Kilkenny' p. 387. The quotes are from Eoin O'Kelly's 1969 book 'A History of County Kilkenny'.

"Along these hills also died the last remnants of native spoken Irish," writes O'Kelly (1968:108) about Tullaher, and again (Ibid. 165, under Coolnahau): "Irish survived as a spoken language among some of the older generation in this hill area until this century and Canon Carrigan interviewed old native speakers ... in Coolroebeg, Mullinakill, Listerlin, Brownstown, Weatherstown, Kilbraghan and Ballyverneen as late as 1920. A dictaphone recording of the Ossory dialect was taken in 1933 from the late Mrs. Cody (nee [sic] Breathnach) of this townland.... She was then 78 years of age and Irish was the language of her home in Mullinakill until she was 20 years old. She had a limited knowledge but retained the 's' sound of this dialect...." A short prayer-stanza taken from this informant is reproduced by Ó Ceallaigh (1964:7) in illustration of the distinctive palatal r sound in local Irish (cf. Ch. II, parr. 2.30-2.32).

Searching in the 1911 census, I was able to find one Margaret Cody aged 56 living in Coolnahaw (Coolnahau nowadays) which matches perfectly with the information above. I have no doubt this is Mrs Cody since I find it very unlikely that another woman the same age with the same surname was also living in Coolnahaw/Coolnahau and just happened to be dodged by the census, especially since there were only 37 people living there between 10 households. Nothing is written in the column designated 'Irish Language'. No information was collected from this area in 1901.

I have contacted St. Kieran's College in Co. Kilkenny to see if they still have this recording made by Canon Carrigan and for to see if I would be able to I would be able to hear it if it is still usable. The college, as far as I know, has all of Carrigan's notes stored from his research in Ossory so if the recording does still exist it's likely to be with them.

Update 8/1/2022: I meant to update this several months ago, apologies! Unfortunately, it would seem the recording does not still exist as per this email:

Thank you for your email. You are correct the College has a good number of the notebooks upon which Canon Carrigan relied in writing his history of the Diocese of Ossory. These however are not indexed, but they are available to view from the College archive. 

Sadly however we don’t have any audio recordings relating to Canon Carrigan’s work and I am unable to direct you to such audio recordings as presumably if they are not stored with these notebooks, they were not retained. 

Matthew Byrne, Matty Byrne, Matthew Ó Broin, Maitiú Ó Broin. 

Townland: Tulach Bhrain/Tullowbrin (Tulach Uí Bhroin/ Tullowbran/Tullabrin)

An extract is also listed in 'Labhrann Laighnigh' under 'Baile an Phoill agus Tobar Eoin Bhaiste' (Ballyfoyle and Johnswell), two areas which are quite close to Tulach Bhrain/Tullowbrin. 

Died in 1942 aged 84 according to 'The Language of Kilkenny', presumably born sometime around 1858. I was able to find Matthew Byrne living as a farmer in 'Tullowbrin' in 1911 aged 55 with his son Gregory (22) and sister Mary (38). Matthew is given as speaking both Irish and English.

Micheál Builthéar, Micheál de Buitléir

Towland: Tobar Eoin/Johnswell (Tobar Eoin Bhaiste/Tiobar Eoin Basite).

Material that Séamus Ó Casaide collected from Micheál around the year 1910 is available in 'Labhrann Laighnigh'.

Pilib Cuisín

Townland: Gráig na Manach/Graiguenamanagh.

Pilib is mentioned as the source for some material in 'Labhrann Laighnigh' based on collections by Conchúr Ó Muimhneacháin and Eoghan Ó Ceallaigh.

Pádraig de Paor (see my blog post here for additional names)
Area: Baile Shéamac/Baile Shéamais/Jamestown. Townland: Gleann Mór/Glenmore.

Born in 1852 according to dúchas.ie with his age as 85 with the stories written down in 1936. It is unclear when he died but he was alive in 1936 for a recording made by Séamus Ó Duilearga for the Irish Folklore Commission and lived to at least be 92 years of age as that is the age he is given in LASID Vol. I. De Paor is recorded in the 1911 census as 55 years of age which doesn't match the 1852 as a year of birth. Himself, his wife Margaret (56) and son Walter (23) are all given as being able to speak both Irish and English however his daughter Bridget (18) has nothing written in the column designated 'Irish Language'. 

De Paor was a farmer all his life and by the time he was visited by Ó Duilearga and Breatnach (for his thesis) he had retired and was living with his son and daughter-in-law. Breatnach writing in 'Iarsmaí de Ghaeilig Chontae Chill Choinnigh' in Éigse, gives the son's name as 'Uaitéar' whereas the census gives it as 'Walter'.

Breatnach in 'Iarsmaí de...' had this to say about Pádraig's language ability.

"Béarla a labhras leis an bPaorach i dtosach, ach ba ghairid an mhoill gur thuigeas ná raibh aon leisce air chun dul ar an nGaeilig liom. Agus is aige a bhí sí go lán-nádúrtha. Ní nach iontach, d'uireasa taithí agus de dhruim díchuimhne, ní raibh a chuid Gaeilge saor ar fad ó mhiontuaiplisí deilbhíochta agus comhréire. Ach le hais leis an gcumas a bhí ar an dteangain aige agus a éascaíocht a tháinig sí leis, ní miste neamhshuim a dhéanamh dá leithéidí (rud a dhineas féin agus na téacsaí laistíos á gcóiriú agam). Bhí breis is leathbhliain roimhe sin caite agam ag fiosrú agus ag cur tuairisce seanchainteoirí dúchais Gaeilge ar fuaid an chontae, ach dob é an duine seo an t-éinne amháin dár bhuail liom go raibh an teanga aige go lánéifeachtach ina meán conbharsáide. Níor bhraitheas aon easnamh ná lagar cumais sa tslí sin air ach amháin nuair a thugadh sé faoi ghiota filíochta a aithris gur róbhaol do mearathal agus díchuimhne á bhaint dá threoir. Ach is féidir an méid sin a chur i leith na haoise. Má b'é an cainteoir donn deireanach é a thug Gaeilig Cho. Chill Choinnigh leis ó dhúchas — agus is dóichí gurbh é — níor mhídhiongbhálta an tOisín tar éis na bhFian é Pádraig Paor. Solas na bhFlaitheas is radharc na Tríonóide go raibh aige i gCathair na Glóire (mar a déarfadh sé féin)."

Séamus Moylan in 'The Language of Kilkenny' p. 387 wrote that de Paor was "evidently from the same place as Ó Broin [Matthew Byrne]" but he was not.

Risteard Ó Súilleabháin
Townland: Baile Hugúin/Hugginstown.

Mentioned in 'Labhrann Laighnigh' as a farmer Baile Hugúin who provided material that Fionán Mac Coluim collected for the Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann/National Folklore Commission. This same material is reproduced in the book.

Séamus Breathnach/James Walsh. 

Area: Sliabh Rua/Slieveroe. Townland: Cill Mhuire/Kilmurry.

Alive in the Summer of 1938 where Risteard Breatnach took down a corrupted song from him available in Éigse Vol. 1, part IV p. 276, presumably for his thesis (the Kilkenny thesis which I still am not able to access). Possibly the same person as W.

Tomás 'ac Óda.
Area: Coill Fhearna/Kilfarney. Townland: Baile an Phoill/Ballyfoyle.

Material that Séamus Ó Casaide collected from Tomás around the year 1910 is available in 'Labhrann Laighnigh'.

W

Townland: Possibly Tullowbrin.

W is mentioned in Heinrich Wagner's LASID Vol. II under the information for Kilkenny which originally comes from R. Breatnach's thesis. W is not listed as an informant in LASID Vol. I but Matthew Byrne and Pádraig de Paor are. W is also said to be from the same place as Byrne and where there are differences in grammar or pronunciation, W and Byrne usually have the same where de Paor has something different. I would assume that W is the same person as Séamus Breathnach/James Walsh since W=Walsh and also because Breatnach visited him as a. James Walsh is listed in two sources (Language of Kilkenny p. 387, Éigse Vol. 1, part IV p. 273) as being from Sliabh Rua which contradicts Wagner's statement in LASID.

I don't doubt that there were other speakers that I have missed, I'd be quite sure of it. I know for a fact that some of the people who Seosamh Laoide, an tAthair Micheál Mac Craith, Risteárd Ó Séaghda and others met and gathered information from were unfortunately not mentioned in the works they wrote in newspapers or journals. And with that, it is also likely that plenty of known Irish speakers were mentioned in obituaries from the time but I have no way of checking.

That was significantly longer than I expected but I hope you've enjoyed or got some use out of this. I know I haven't put up anything recently but I plan on writing a few things soon.