Seán Ó hEinirí (Seán Ó hInnéirghe, 26 March 1915 – 26 July 1998), known in English as John Henry, was an Irish

seanchaí A seanchaí ( or – plural: ) is a traditional Gaelic storyteller/historian. In Scottish Gaelic the word is (; plural ). The word is often anglicised as shanachie ( ). The word ''seanchaí'', which was spelled ''seanchaidhe'' (plural ''se ...

and a native of

Cill Ghallagáin Cill Ghallagáin (anglicised as Kilgalligan) is a small Gaeltacht coastal townland and village in the northwest corner of Kilcommon Parish, County Mayo, Republic of Ireland, an area of in size. Off the northern coast of this townland lies ...

County Mayo County Mayo (; ga, Contae Mhaigh Eo, meaning "Plain of the Taxus baccata, yew trees") is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In the West Region, Ireland, West of Ireland, in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Conn ...

. He is known for his storytelling. Notably, Seán was a monolingual speaker of 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 ...

Early life

Ó hEinirí was born in

(Kilgalligan),

, to Michael Henry and Mary (Connolly). He was from an early age determined to collect as many ancient legends and traditional stories as he could. He was a currach-using fisherman, and a skilled rower.

Contributions to the Irish language

He became known as a talented

, and the folklorist Proinnsias de Búrca (1904–1996) collected from him in the days of the

Irish Folklore Commission The Irish Folklore Commission (''Coimisiún Béaloideasa Éireann'' in Irish) was set up in 1935 by the Irish Government to study and collect information on the folklore and traditions of Ireland. History Séamus Ó Duilearga (James Hamilton Dela ...

(1935–1971). In later years, he was recorded by Séamas Ó Catháin of the Department of Irish Folklore from 1975 for more than ten summers. A great deal of this work was published in "Scéalta Chois Cladaigh" ("Stories of Sea and Shore") in 1983 by the Folklore of Ireland Council (Comhairle Bhéaloideas Éireann). Ó hEinirí also provided a large number of words and expressions to the lexicographer

Tomás de Bhaldraithe Tomás Mac Donnchadha de Bhaldraithe (born Thomas MacDonagh Waldron; 14 December 1916 – 24 April 1996) was an Irish scholar notable for his work on the Irish language, particularly in the field of lexicography. He is best known for his ''Engli ...

, who incorporated these into his influential ''English-Irish Dictionary'', published in 1959. In addition to this, he gave over 800 minor place-names to

Patrick O'Flanagan Patrick O'Flanagan (born 1947 in Dublin, Ireland) is an Irish geographer and academic. Career He is emeritus professor of thDepartment of Geographyat University College Cork, Ireland. He was the former Head of this department. At present, he co ...

of the Folklore Commission for the 1974 book ''The Living Landscape, Kilgalligan, Erris''.

TV appearances

Ó hEinirí was filmed for the 6-part BBC documentary ''

In Search of the Trojan War ''In Search of the Trojan War'' is a six-part BBC TV documentary series written and presented by Michael Wood, first broadcast in 1985 on BBC2. It examines the extent to which historical and archeological evidence matches the tale of the Troja ...

'', which was broadcast in 1985. According to the documentary, he was illiterate. He also featured on a Morning Ireland report broadcast on 25 July that year. In 1986 Ó hEinirí featured in Episode 8 of the Emmy-award winning series ''

The Story of English ''The Story of English'' is an Primetime Emmy Award, Emmy Award-winning nine-part television series, produced in 1986, detailing the development of the English language. ''The Story of English'' is also a companion book, also produced in 1986. ...

'', also produced by the BBC, which discussed the Irish influence on the English language.

Linguistic significance

It was estimated by Whitley Stokes that there were around 800,000 monolingual Irish speakers in 1800, which had declined to about 320,000 by the end of

the famine The Famine was an American death metal band formed in Arlington, Texas in 2007. They were signed to Solid State Records. History Formation and three-song EP The band initially formed with three of the original members of Embodyment in ...

, and to less than 17,000 by 1911. Monolingual speakers remained in the 1950s, but by the 1980s and 1990s they had all but disappeared. Ó hEinirí may have been the last monolingual speaker of the

Later life and death

He remained in the village of

, where he was known as a ''seanfhondúir'' ('old-timer, original inhabitant'). He died on 26 July 1998 and was survived by his wife, Máire (who died in 2001). He is buried in Kilgalligan Cemetery.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:OHEiniri, Sean 1915 births 1998 deaths People from County Mayo Irish-language writers Irish folklorists Storytellers