Irish-language activist and writer Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha died on 19 November 1964.
Irish-language activist and writer Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha died at home in Dublin on 19 November 1964. He was born in the Gaeltacht near Dingle in Co. Kerry in 1883. Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha went on to become an organiser for Conradh na Gaeilge, cycling all over the countryside to set up branches and promote the Irish language. As a writer, he took the pen-name 'An Seabhac', the Hawk, writing books including 'An Baile Seo ‘Gainne' (1913) and 'Jimín Mháire Thaidhg' (1921), both of which drew on his Dingle youth and were later published in one volume as 'Seoda an tSeabhaic'(1974).
An Seabhac reminisces about Christmas in Dingle at the turn of the twentieth century in this extract from 'Cuimhní Nollag'. Bhí draíocht sa Nollaig nuair a bhí sé óg. Is cuimhin leis na hullmhúcháin go léir, maisiú na tithe agus gléasadh speisialta na coinnle.
'Cuimhní Nollag' was four short talks by well-known figures from the Irish-language movement, broadcast on radio on Christmas Day 1951.
The photographs above show an Seabhac, Pádraig Ó Siochfhradha and the Dingle Peninsula captured by John Rowe in 1988.
