"Our Gaelic Department": The Irish-Language Column in the New York Irish-American, 1857-1896

Abstract

Advisor: Dr. Natasha Sumner Matthew Knight

“Our Gaelic Department”: The Irish-Language Column in the New York Irish-American, 1857-1896

Abstract

This dissertation provides a narrative history of “Our Gaelic Department,” an Irish-language column that ran in the New York Irish-American newspaper for nearly forty cumulative years. This was the first weekly column printed in the Irish language in the world; “Our Gaelic Department” not only provided a weekly forum for Irish immigrants to discuss and debate issues of Irish language, nationalism, and politics, it also assisted in forming an international public sphere, in which students and scholars could participate in the development of a transatlantic Irish identity. The department was instrumental in providing educational material for the Philo-Celtic Societies, and it offered an outlet for members of these Irish organizations to submit written Irish. Although often neglected in the scholarly record, the Irish in America were forerunners in what became known as the Gaelic Revival, with the publication of “Our Gaelic Department” helping to forge a revivalist consciousness among the Irish in America, as well as in Ireland. Appended to the dissertation is an index of nearly 1500 first lines of poetry printed in the Irish-American. Many of these poems have not been previously indexed. Also appended is a selection of Irish prose compositions to “Our Gaelic Department,” including manuscript transcriptions, folklore, translated literature, and formal Irish-language addresses.