Diarmaid Ó Muirithe (11 November 1935 – 11 July 2014) was an Irish lexicographer, journalist and author.

Biography

Ó Muirithe was born in

New Ross New Ross (, formerly ) is a town in southwest County Wexford, Republic of Ireland, Ireland, on the River Barrow on the border with County Kilkenny, northeast of Waterford. In 2022, it had a population of 8,610, making it the fourth-largest t ...

County Wexford County Wexford () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster and is part of the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern Region. Named after the town of Wexford, it was ba ...

, attending

Trinity College Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Unive ...

and the

National University of Ireland The National University of Ireland (NUI) () is a federal university system of ''constituent universities'' (previously called '' constituent colleges'') and ''recognised colleges'' set up under the Irish Universities Act 1908, and signifi ...

, before working as a primary school teacher, a freelance writer, and newsroom journalist at

RTÉ (; ; RTÉThe É in RTÉ is pronounced as an English E () and not an Irish É ()) is an Irish public service broadcaster. It both produces and broadcasts programmes on television, radio and online. The radio service began on 1 January 1926, ...

. He later became a senior lecturer in Irish at

University College Dublin University College Dublin (), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a collegiate university, member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 38,417 students, it is Ireland's largest ...

, as well as a Fulbright Professor of English in the United States, as well as chair of Irish Studies in St Mary's University, Halifax, Canada.

Maurice Manning Maurice Manning (born 14 June 1943) is an Irish academic and former Fine Gael politician. Manning was a member of the Oireachtas for 21 years, serving in both the Dáil and the Seanad. On 12 March 2009 he was elected Chancellor of the Natio ...

described Ó Muirithe as "an internationally respected expert on dialect based on his knowledge of English dialect and what has now been recognised as a distinct field of study, Hiberno-English". Ó Muirithe came to wider public notice in 1991, when

Irish Times ''The Irish Times'' is an Irish daily broadsheet newspaper and online digital publication. It was launched on 29 March 1859. The editor is Ruadhán Mac Cormaic. It is published every day except Sundays. ''The Irish Times'' is Ireland's leading n ...

editor

Conor Brady Conor Brady is an Irish journalist, novelist and academic. He was the editor of ''The Irish Times'' between 1986 and 2002. Early life Brady was born in Dublin and spent his early childhood in Tullamore in County Offaly, Ireland. He received ...

asked him to submit "a few pieces" on Irish, which became the regular column ''Words We Use.'' The columns were later collected into a short series of books. The column ran until December 2013. It focused on the

etymologies Etymology ( ) is the study of the origin and evolution of words—including their constituent units of sound and meaning—across time. In the 21st century a subfield within linguistics, etymology has become a more rigorously scientific study. ...

of words used in Ireland:

The English we speak in Ireland has been influenced by Latin, Old Norse, Norman French, Scots, the English dialects and, of course, Irish. So the words we use in Ireland reflect the social history of the island. It is an extraordinarily rich language.

He died in and was buried in

Vienna Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...

, where he had lived with his second wife. Poet Séamus Heaney called him a " eper of Ireland’s word-hoard".

Select bibliography

* ''The Dialect of Forth and Bargy'', with

Terence Dolan Terence Dolan (8 April 1943 – 20 April 2019) was an Irish lexicographer and radio personality. He was professor of Old and Middle English in the School of English and Drama at University College Dublin. He acted as the School's Research Co-or ...

* ''The Wexford Carols'', 198

* ''The Folklore of County Wexford'', with Deirdre Nuttall) * ''A-Z of Irish Names for Children'', 2007 * ''From the Viking word-hoard A dictionary of Scandinavian words in the languages of Britain and Ireland'', 2010 * ''Words We Don't Use (Much Anymore)'', 2012 * ''A supplement to the dictionary of Scandinavian words in the languages of Britain and Ireland'', 2013 * ''A dictionary of Anglo-Irish: Words and phrases from Gaelic in the English of Ireland'', 2013 * ''Last Words''

References

External links

Diarmaid Ó Muirithe
– Bibliography of Irish Linguistics and Literature {{DEFAULTSORT:Ó Muirithe, Diarmuid 20th-century Irish writers 21st-century Irish writers Scholars and academics from County Wexford Irish lexicographers Linguists from Ireland Academics of University College Dublin The Irish Times people Alumni of Trinity College Dublin Alumni of University College Dublin Saint Mary's University (Halifax) alumni 1935 births 2014 deaths People from New Ross