Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam…
July 8, 2010
Whether he likes the title or not, Matt Nolan is Mullingar’s point of contact when it comes to Irish language and culture.
A fluent speaker, he is intimately involved with Mullingar’s Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann branch, and has played a leading role in furthering gaelscoil education in this part of the county. He is also a broadcaster, bringing snippets of local history ‘as Gaeilge’ to listeners of Raidió na Gaeltachta.
It’s a resumé fit for a native-speaking Gaelgóir, but what’s remarkable is that Matt has only been speaking Irish fluently for around twenty years.
Born on a farm in Ballygar, Co. Galway, Matt’s earliest memories of the rural life involve cutting turf, saving hay and bringing cattle to the fair.
“My people always had a huge interest in fishing,” he said. “I was reared on the banks of the River Suck, so I always had an interest in fishing myself,” Matt said. “I have great memories of catching bream, tench and roach. “Life was very simple in those days. We thought the Suck was something like the Danube!”
Matt attended both primary and secondary school in Ballygar – a town about the size of Kilbeggan – and went to work in forestry, before obtaining a dream job in the Inland Fisheries Trust. He became a fisheries officer, and worked on waters in Cavan, Monaghan; the canals of Dublin and Kildare, and as far afield as Cork and other parts of Munster.
“I always think that the Munster Blackwater is the greatest fishing water in the country,” he said. “It’s different to what you’d see in the Midlands. It runs through the middle of a rich Munster valley, with the Knockmealdown Mountains dominating the landscape. The river itself is rich, and full of the finest salmon and trout.”
One of Matt’s first postings with the Inland Fisheries Trust was in Cavan Town. “It was around the time of the Bloody Sunday incident, and there was a civil rights group in Cavan. After Bloody Sunday happened, I joined the group, and we went up to Derry and finished the march,” Matt said, describing his part in reaction of hundreds of Irish south of the border who were shocked at the massacre of thirteen people in Derry. “Of course, I didn’t realise the Gardaí were watching everybody going across the border!”
Relocated to Mullingar later that year, and here ever since, Matt started off as a junior fisheries officer locally. He now has responsibility for coordinating fisheries activities in the Upper Shannon region, working with angling and environmental groups in the Midlands.
Matt settled in well, and quickly became a part of the local community. He became very much involved with the Junior Chamber of Commerce, St. Dominick’s Community Council, and local sporting and cultural groups. He threw himself, body and soul, at Mullingar’s thriving Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann branch, augmenting his love of Irish culture, music and the language. But it wasn’t until his daughter, Irene – now a television personality with TG4 – attended the Gaeltacht in Connemara during her teens that Matt was driven to learn more about the Irish language.
It all started with a visit to the native Irish-speaking island of Inis Meáin, and Matt has not looked back since. “It was about twenty years ago, and I joined a course which was being run in Mullingar by Anne Harrington. I started listening to Raidió na Gaeltachta, and put a couple of programmes on tape. “I’d write them down then, using all sorts of dictionaries and translators, and broke down the programmes bit by bit until eventually, I had them learned off by heart.” One particular programme stuck in Matt’s mind: a series of interviews with renowned Connemara storyteller, the late Nan Tom Phaddy MacDiarmada. “I listen to everything she said, and eventually I knew everything she was saying, and I learned the various nuances of the language.” Matt returned to Connemara one weekend, and decided he would track down Nan and meet her. “Seeing as I knew every bit about her life and all the stories she told, I had to meet her,” Matt said. “I went up to the door of her house, and met her husband Tom. I didn’t really know what to say; so I just said, ‘Tá mé ag foghlaim Gaeilge’, and he asked me to come in. “I told Nan I had listened to her on the radio as I tried to learn Irish, and she was fascinated by that. So I gave her the tape, and for years after that our families became great friends.”
Going back and forth from Connemara to Ráth Cairn in Co. Meath, and after five or six years of intensive exposure to the language, Matt learned how to converse comfortably with native speakers. He is now trying his hand at French, although our native tongue is first and foremost in his affections.
After acclimatising himself to a new language, Matt joined a number of dedicated Mullingar Irish speakers in cultivating a love of Gaeilge here in north Westmeath. He was a member of the original Coiste Bunaithe (founding committee) for Gaelscoil an Mhuilinn, Mullingar. “Before the long the demand for Gaelscoil places was so much that people approached us about the possibility of getting a second school. The result was the Gaelscoil at Cullion, and it caters for around 110 kids. They recently won the All-Ireland Scoildrámaíocht competition, which was a great boost.”
It doesn’t stop there; Matt revealed he is also the chairman of a working group which is “scoping out” the establishment of an all-Irish secondary school for Mullingar. “We’re working with the Department of Education on a lot of feasibility stuff, and that should be concluded by 2011,” he said.
Even without a dedicated Irish secondary school in the town, Matt maintains that the standard of Irish teaching in Mullingar is “extraordinary”. “Both national and secondary schools in the area have very high standards of Irish teaching,” said the Galwayman. “My daughter Irene is now a presenter on TG4, and she came out of Loreto with excellent training in the language. I would go as far as saying that Irish teaching in Mullingar secondary schools is as good as any Gaeltacht school. We’re trying to add to that by setting up a school which will give people a choice to allow their children’s access secondary education through the medium of Irish.”
Matt is the Rúnaí (Secretary) of Áras an Mhuilinn, the new nerve centre for Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann, the organisation dedicated to the preservation and promotion of Irish traditional music, which was founded in Mullingar in 1951. “This regional centre is fantastic for Mullingar, where CCE was set up 60 years ago,” Matt said. “I’m delighted to see it open. Mullingar is to Comhaltas what Thurles is to the GAA, it’s the ‘tobar’ of Comhaltas, if you like. And the best thing is that all of the Comhaltas branches across Ireland and indeed across the world know how important Mullingar is to the organisation.”
Matt, who lives at Ballagh, Mullingar, is married to Rosemary. They have four children, and three grandchildren. When not keeping watch on the waters of the Upper Shannon region, or involving himself with Comhaltas, he is a keen GAA supporter, photographer, writer and broadcaster. A loyal Galway GAA follower who once played minor football for the Tribesmen, he also supports Cullion Hurling Club.
Whenever he gets a moment, he enjoys “real Ireland” photography. Matt is also the author of ‘Mullingar: Just for the Record’, a compendium of photographs and interviews with local characters, and a history of the Inland Fisheries Trust. He is currently working on a book detailing a 75 year history of the Gaeltacht in Ráth Cairn, and from time to time he contributes articles to respected journals and magazines.
Since becoming ‘líofa le Gaeilge’, Matt enjoys a regular spot on Raidió na Gaeltachta, where he discusses local history and other items. He will now be able to do this from a recording studio at Áras an Mhuilinn, which is to be permanently linked up with RnaG and RTÉ.
Westmeath Examiner
08 Iúil 2010
