Ríona Nic Congáil edits Irish language children's classic

Posted on 26 January 2017

Almost 100 years after its original publication, Ríona Nic Congáil, Elevate Marie Curie International Fellow in the Department of English and Related Literature, has edited this Irish language children's classic, 'Jimín Mháire Thaidhg' by An Seabhac, now published for the first time in an unabridged and illustrated edition.

In 1919, An Seabhac, an Irish-language activist, editor and writer, began to publish a serial story about the daily triumphs and tribulations of thirteen-year-old Jimín Mháire Thaidhg as he grew up in the Kerry Gaeltacht.

The edition of Jimín Mháire Thaidhg read by Irish school children throughout the twentieth century was a sanitised and abridged version of the original serial story, with references to matchmaking, adult relationships, and death having been removed. The original text is presented here and provides a more insightful and more humorous overview of Gaeltacht practices and culture in the early twentieth century.

This elegant new edition of Jimín Mháire Thaidhg features Andrew Whitson’s remarkable illustrations that illuminate the world of Jimín and his friends. In a scholarly introduction, Ríona Nic Congáil discusses the background to Jimín Mháire Thaidhg and the significance of the changes that were made following the first edition of the book.