Thursday, 7 August 2008

Aloysius O'Brien


...de la St. John’s Telegram:

A St. John's man believed to be the last speaker of an obscure dialect of the Irish language died Wednesday morning.

Aloysius O'Brien was 93.

O'Brien, a St. John's farmer, spoke Leinster Gaelic - or Irish of the books - a dialect now extinct in Ireland, which was passed down to him from his Irish-born grandmother.

The Leinster dialect became extinct during the 20th century, and O'Brien was thought to be the last person in the world who could speak it….

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Somebody got plenty of recordings of this man speaking, I hope.

(Since the article says he taught and promoted the language, I don't think he would have found that to be an imposition.)