Séamas Ó Neachtain (Jim Norton) is an Irish-American writer who has published journalism, poetry and fiction in the

Irish language Irish ( Standard Irish: ), also known as Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Insular Celtic branch of the Celtic language family, which is a part of the Indo-European language family. Irish is indigenous to the island of Ireland and was ...

. Ó Neachtain is an American of Irish descent whose family have been in America for over five generations. He first learned of the existence of the Irish language in college. Over a number of years he attended classes in

Long Island Long Island is a densely populated island in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York, part of the New York metropolitan area. With over 8 million people, Long Island is the most populous island in the United Sta ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, acquiring a mastery of the language and then teaching it himself. In 2005 he became president of the

Philo-Celtic Society The Philo-Celtic Society (Irish: Cumann Carad na Gaeilge) is a North American society founded as part of the Gaelic revival in 1873. Its aims are the promotion of the Irish language as a living tongue in America and throughout the world, and the r ...

, one of the oldest Irish-language organisations in North America. He has appeared on Raidió na Gaeltachta and on

TG4 TG4 ( ga, TG Ceathair, ) is an Irish free-to-air public service television network. The channel launched on 31 October 1996 and is available online and through its on demand service TG4 Player in Ireland and beyond. TG4 was formerly known ...

(Irish-language television). He helps run the Gerry Tobin Irish Language School and has been a teacher there since 2009.Gerry Tobin Irish Language School: http://www.scoilgaeilge.org/ He began writing a regular column in Irish for the ''National Hibernian Digest'' in 2002 and in 2004 published ''An File ar Buile'', a book of prose and verse. In 2008 he published ''Cogadh Dearg'', an historical novel. He also established ''An Gael'', a quarterly Irish-language periodical which publishes prose and verse by writers from all over the world. He has published poetry, fiction and articles in Irish in such journals as ''

Feasta ''Feasta'' is an Irish-language magazine that was established in 1948. Its purpose is the furtherance of the aims of Conradh na Gaeilge (Gaelic League), an objective reflecting the cultural nationalism of the language movement, and the promotion ...

'' and ''

Comhar ''Comhar'' (; "partnership") is a prominent literary journal in the Irish language, published by the company Comhar Teoranta. It was founded in 1942, and has published work by some of the most notable writers in Irish, including Máirtín Ó Cadha ...

'', and is also active on the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

. Before his involvement with the Irish language he was a composer of music.

Published works

* ''18 Modern Compositions & Etudes for Electric Bass'' (Mel Bay 1984) * ''An File ar Buile'' (Ó Neachtain 2004) * ''Cogadh Dearg'' (

Coiscéim Coiscéim (; "Footstep") is a prolific Dublin-based Irish-language publisher founded by writer, historian and language activist Pádraig Ó Snodaigh in 1980. With over 1,500 titles Coiscéim have published the largest number of titles amongst the 2 ...

2008; published in translation as ''Red War'', 2009) * ''An File agus Araile: Another Round of Poems in Irish and English'' (Ó Neachtain 2012

References

External links

Website of ''An Gael'', international literary journal

{{DEFAULTSORT:ONeachtain, Seamas American magazine founders 21st-century American poets American people of Irish descent American poets of Irish descent Founders of schools in the United States 21st-century Irish-language poets Living people Irish language activists Year of birth missing (living people) American Irish-language poets