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 Irish Gaelic or simply Gaelic ( ), is a Celtic language of the Indo-European language family. It is a member of the Goidelic languages of the Insular Celtic sub branch of the family and is indigenous ...

. 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 continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...

, New York, acquiring a mastery of the language and then teaching it himself. In 2005 he became president of the Philo-Celtic Society, one of the oldest Irish-language organisations in North America. He has appeared on Raidió na Gaeltachta and on TG4 (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'' and '' Comhar'', and is also active on the

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

. 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 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 poets of Irish descent Founders of American schools and colleges 21st-century Irish-language poets Living people Irish language activists Year of birth missing (living people) American Irish-language poets