Proinsias Mac Aonghusa

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Proinsias Mac Aonghusa ( en, link=yes, Francis McGuinness; 23 June 1933 – 28 September 2003) was an Irish journalist, writer, TV presenter and campaigner. Born into an Irish-speaking household, Mac Aonghusa became one of the most noted

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 ...

broadcasters and journalists of the 20th century, appearing as the presenter of Irish-language programming for RTÉ, UTV and

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

and as a journalist for newspapers both domestic and international. Influenced by family friends

Peadar O'Donnell Peadar O'Donnell ( ga, Peadar Ó Domhnaill; 22 February 1893 – 13 May 1986) was one of the foremost radicals of 20th-century Ireland. O'Donnell became prominent as an Irish republican, socialist activist, politician and writer. Early life Pea ...

and

Máirtín Ó Cadhain Máirtín Ó Cadhain (; 1906 – 18 October 1970) was one of the most prominent Irish language writers of the twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his 1949 novel ''Cré na Cille'', Ó Cadhain played a key role in reintroducing literary mod ...

as well as his own parents growing up, Mac Aonghusa pursued Irish republican and socialist politics as an adult and was heavily involved in the Labour Party during the 1960s, at one point serving as its vice-chairman. However, Mac Aonghusa's engagement in factionalism and infighting saw him expelled in 1967. Following the Arms Crisis of 1970, Mac Aonghusa became an ardent supporter of

Charles Haughey Charles James Haughey (; 16 September 1925 – 13 June 2006) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Taoiseach on three occasions – 1979 to 1981, March to December 1982 and 1987 to 1992. He was also Minister for the Gaeltacht from ...

, a relationship which later proved highly beneficial to Mac Aonghusa when Haughey gained control over

Fianna Fáil Fianna Fáil (, ; meaning 'Soldiers of Destiny' or 'Warriors of Fál'), officially Fianna Fáil – The Republican Party ( ga, audio=ga-Fianna Fáil.ogg, Fianna Fáil – An Páirtí Poblachtánach), is a conservative and Christia ...

in the 1980s and appointed Mac Aonghusa to a number of state-run positions. A prolific writer throughout his life, Mac Aonghusa continued to publish books up until his death.

Biography

Early life

Born in

Salthill Salthill () is a seaside area in the City of Galway in the west of Ireland. Lying within the townland of Lenaboy (''an Léana Buí''), it attracts many tourists all year round. There is a 2 km long promenade, locally known as ''the Pro ...

Galway Galway ( ; ga, Gaillimh, ) is a city in the West of Ireland, in the province of Connacht, which is the county town of County Galway. It lies on the River Corrib between Lough Corrib and Galway Bay, and is the sixth most populous city on ...

, County Galway in 1933, Mac Aonghusa was the son of Criostóir Mac Aonghusa, a writer and Irish language activist, and Mairéad Ní Lupain (De Lappe), a nurse and native Irish speaker. The eldest of four siblings, Mac Aonghusa grew up speaking Irish as his first language and allegedly did not learn English until the age of eleven. The Mac Aonghusa parents were left-wing Irish republicans who supported

(his father at one time was a Fianna Fáil councillor) and associated with the like-minded

and Peadar O’Donnell. Mac Aonghusa's parents split when he was ten years of age; his mother took his siblings away to Dublin while Mac Aonghusa and his father remained in

Rosmuc Rosmuc or Ros Muc, sometimes anglicised as Rosmuck, is a village in the Conamara Gaeltacht of County Galway, Ireland. It lies halfway between the town of Clifden and the city of Galway. Irish is the predominant spoken language in the area, wit ...

, a remote village and part of the Galway

Gaeltacht ( , , ) are the districts of Ireland, individually or collectively, where the Irish government recognises that the Irish language is the predominant vernacular, or language of the home. The ''Gaeltacht'' districts were first officially reco ...

. As a teenager he was educated at

Coláiste Iognáid Coláiste Iognáid SJ ( en, link=yes, Ignatius College), a bilingual secondary school, is located on Sea Road in Galway, Ireland. It was founded in 1645 and has had numerous locations over the years before its current home. The college is a co- ...

(also known as St. Ignatius College), a bilingual school in Galway City.

Broadcasting and journalism career

Upon leaving school, Mac Aonghusa first worked as an actor at the

Abbey Theatre The Abbey Theatre ( ga, Amharclann na Mainistreach), also known as the National Theatre of Ireland ( ga, Amharclann Náisiúnta na hÉireann), in Dublin, Ireland, is one of the country's leading cultural institutions. First opening to the p ...

in Dublin, performing in Irish language productions. In 1952 Mac Aonghusa became involved in

Radio Éireann Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmit ...

, first as an actor but later as a reader of short stories before advancing to becoming a newsreader, presenter and interviewer. As Mac Aonghusa advanced his career, he would work for RTÉ, UTV and

...
television from the 1960s. In 1962, Mac Aonghusa began presenting "''An Fear agus An Sceal''" (The Man & his Story) on RTÉ television, an Irish language show which saw Mac Aonghusa interviewing a different guest of note about their life each episode. That same year Mac Aonghusa would win a

Jacob's Award The Jacob's Awards were instituted in December 1962 as the first Irish television awards. Later, they were expanded to include radio. The awards were named after their sponsor, W. & R. Jacob & Co. Ltd., a biscuit manufacturer, and recipients ...

for An Fear agus an Sceal, which he continued to host until 1964. As well as attracting awards, An Fear agus an Sceal also brought controversy; two interviews, one with Máirtín Ó Cadhain, one with Con Lehane, both criticised the measures practised by the

government during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

to suppress and imprison Irish republicans. In response, the Fianna Fáil government intervened with RTÉ and those episodes were not aired. This was not to be Mac Aonghusa only run-in with the Fianna Fáil government; after Mac Aonghusa recorded a programme in which he questioned the effectiveness of Ireland's civil defence measures in the face of nuclear war, then Minister for Defence

Kevin Boland Kevin Boland (15 October 1917 – 23 September 2001) was an Irish Fianna Fáil politician who served as Leader of Aontacht Éireann from 1971 to 1976, Minister for Social Welfare from 1961 to 1966 and 1969 to 1970, Minister for Local Governm ...

had the episode suppressed. Mac Aonghusa once again ran afoul of the Fianna Fáil government when after he criticised the party in his anonymous weekly political gossip column in the Sunday Independent, then Minister of Agriculture

Neil Blaney Neil Terence Columba Blaney (1 October 1922 – 8 November 1995) was an Irish politician. He was first elected to Dáil Éireann in 1948 as a Fianna Fáil Teachta Dála (TD) representing Donegal East. A high-profile member of the party, Blane ...

saw to it that the column was dropped. Mac Aonghusa was not deterred and returned anonymously as "Gulliver" in the ''Sunday Press'' and a gossip column on the back page of

The Hibernia Magazine ''The Hibernia Magazine'' was a magazine published in Ireland, initially as a monthly magazine then fortnightly. The Magazine was started in 1937 had a Catholic ethos, being supported by the Knights of Saint Columbanus It was edited and owned by ...

. The latter half of Mac Aonghusa's 1960s/70s broadcasting career was primarily associated with the Irish language current events show ''Féach'', which he both presented and edited. Mac Aonghusa resigned from Féach in 1972 following a bitter dispute with the broadcaster and commentator

Eoghan Harris Eoghan Harris (born 13 March 1943) is an Irish journalist, columnist, director, and former politician. He has held posts in various and diverse political parties. He was a leading theoretician in the Marxist-Leninist Workers' Party of Ireland, p ...

Political activism and career

Influenced by O'Donnell and Ó Cadhain in his youth, Mac Aonghusa also pursued left-wing republican politics as an adult. In 1958 Mac Aonghusa became, alongside

David Thornley David Thornley (31 July 1935 – 18 June 1978) was an Irish Labour Party politician and university professor at Trinity College Dublin. Life Born in Surrey, England, David Thornley took out Irish citizenship. He received a BA and PhD at Trini ...

, Noel Browne,

Owen Sheehy-Skeffington Owen Lancelot Sheehy-Skeffington (19 May 1909 – 7 June 1970) was an Irish university lecturer and senator. The son of pacifists, feminists and socialists Francis and Hanna Sheehy-Skeffington, he was politically likeminded and as a member of t ...

, and

Desmond Ryan Desmond Ryan (1893–1964) was an Irish writer, historian, and in his earlier life a revolutionary in Sinn Féin. Life Ryan was born in London, on 27 August 1893, son of the Templemore, Tipperary-born London journalist William Patrick Ryan, ed ...

, a member of the "

1913 Events January * January 5 – First Balkan War: Battle of Lemnos – Greek admiral Pavlos Kountouriotis forces the Turkish fleet to retreat to its base within the Dardanelles, from which it will not venture for the rest of the ...

Club", a group which sought to ideologically reconcile Irish nationalism and socialism. In 1959 Mac Aonghusa wrote a series of six articles for the

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

in which he vehemently opposed the Fianna Fáil government's proposal to abolish

single transferable vote Single transferable vote (STV) is a multi-winner electoral system in which voters cast a single vote in the form of a ranked-choice ballot. Voters have the option to rank candidates, and their vote may be transferred according to alternate ...

in Ireland in favour of

First past the post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast thei ...

voting. Mac Aonghusa contended that First-past-the-post voting gave too much influence to party bosses, while proportional representation gave even small minorities representation, preventing them from feeling excluded by the state such as nationalists in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In the referendum held on the matter on 17 June 1959, voters rejected first past the vote by a margin of 2%. Fianna Fáil would attempt to repeal proportional representation again in the late 60s, at which point Mac Aonghusa once again threw himself into the fight, leading a group called "Citizens for PR". In the referendum of 1968, voters rejected the first past the post system by over 20%. Mac Aonghusa would later recall that his defence of proportional representation was his greatest achievement in politics.

Member of the Labour party

In the 1960s both Mac Aonghusa and his wife joined the

Sean Connolly Sean Connolly ( ga, Seán Ó Congaile) was an Irish republican, socialist and Abbey Theatre actor who took part in the Easter Rising. He was a captain in the Irish Citizen Army and was the first rebel to be killed during the Rising. Early lif ...

branch of the Labour Party in Dublin. The branch had established a reputation as a haven for intellectuals who wanted a branch to themselves away from the many other Labour branches dominated by trade unionists. The branch came to advocate for expressly socialist policies (something previously avoided by the Labour party in conservative Ireland) combined with on-the-ground grass-roots campaigning. Through the Sean Connolly Branch, both Mac Aonghusa and his wife began to develop significant influence over the leader of the Labour party

Brendan Corish Brendan Corish (19 November 1918 – 17 February 1990) was an Irish Labour Party politician who served as Tánaiste and Minister for Health from 1973 to 1977, Leader of the Labour Party, Minister for Social Welfare from 1954 to 1957 and from ...

. In the

1965 Irish general election The 1965 Irish general election to the 18th Dáil was held on Wednesday, 7 April, following the dissolution of the 17th Dáil on 18 March by President Éamon de Valera on the request of Taoiseach Seán Lemass. The general election took place in ...

, Mac Aonghusa stood on behalf of the Labour party in the Louth constituency, but was not elected. In 1966 Mac Aonghusa published a book of speeches by Corish, the speeches themselves mostly having been ghostwritten by his wife Catherine. The introduction of the book proclaimed that Corish had developed a "brand of democratic republican socialism … broadened by experience and built firmly on Irish‐Ireland roots" and had rid the party of "do‐nothing backwoodsmen", thereby becoming the "first plausible and respected Labour leader in Ireland". It was at this same time that Mac Aonghusa was elevated to vice-chairman of the party. As vice-chair, Mac Aonghusa tried to convict Corish to stand in the

1966 Irish presidential election The 1966 Irish presidential election was the fifth election in Ireland and was held on Wednesday, 1 June 1966. Incumbent president Éamon de Valera, 83 and with a rapidly deteriorating eyesight, standing for Fianna Fáil was narrowly re-elected, ...

. When he failed to do so, he supported Fine Gael's

Tom O'Higgins Thomas Francis O'Higgins (23 July 1916 – 25 February 2003) was an Irish Fine Gael politician, barrister and judge who served as Chief Justice of Ireland from 1974 to 1985, a Judge of the European Court of Justice from 1985 to 1991, a Judge of ...

(considered to be on the left of that party) in his bid for the presidency. O'Higgins came within 0.5% of beating the incumbent, an ageing

Éamon de Valera Éamon de Valera (, ; first registered as George de Valero; changed some time before 1901 to Edward de Valera; 14 October 1882 – 29 August 1975) was a prominent Irish statesman and political leader. He served several terms as head of govern ...

. It was around this same time that Mac Aonghusa became active in the Wolfe Tone Society; a republican organisation linked almost directly to

Sinn Féin Sinn Féin ( , ; en, " eOurselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active throughout both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The original Sinn Féin organisation was founded in 1905 by Arthur G ...

. Mac Aonghusa suggested that republicans with "progressive views" should join the Labour party. In 1966, alongside Máirtín Ó Cadhain and other Gaeilgeoirí, Mac Aonghusa counter-protested and disrupted the Language Freedom Movement, an organisation seeking the abolition of compulsory Irish in the education system. For this, Mac Aonghusa and his allies were criticised as acting

illiberal An illiberal democracy describes a governing system in which, although elections take place, citizens are cut off from knowledge about the activities of those who exercise real power because of the lack of civil liberties; thus it does not c ...

ly, while Mac Aonghusa maintained that those who opposed the Irish language were "slaves" unworthy of tolerance.

=Support of Labour Youth League and expulsion

= Mac Aonghusa's open disdain for the conservative and trade union wings of the Labour, as well as his open embrace of republican sensibilities and tendency to make pronouncements on Labour policy without first consulting the party's structures, brought him many internal enemies. An attempt was made to censure Mac Aonghusa for backing breakaway trade unions, but he was able to survive this. In 1966 Mac Aonghusa encouraged the formation of the Young Labour League, an unofficial youth wing of the party led by Brian Og O'Higgins, son of former Sinn Féin president

Brian O'Higgins Brian O'Higgins ( ga, Brian Ó hUigínn; 1 July 1882 – 10 March 1963), also known as Brian na Banban, was an Irish writer, poet, soldier and politician who was a founding member of Sinn Féin and served as President of the organisation from 1 ...

. Mirroring Mac Aonghusa's own position, the Youth League were Corish loyalists that open rebelled against the views of Labour's conservative deputy leader James Tully. When the youth league began publishing their own weekly newsletter, Labour's administrative council condemned it after discovering material which was "violently" critical of Tully and other Labour conservatives. An ensuing investigation into the newsletter led to Mac Aonghusa admitting that he had financed it and written some of the content, but not the anti-Tully material. After Mac Aonghusa refused to co-operate with further investigations into the matter, he was expelled on 12 January 1967 for "activities injurious" to the party. In the aftermath, Mac Aonghusa portrayed himself a left-wing martyr purged by a right-wing " Star chamber", a tactic that garnered him sympathy. Nevertheless, his expulsion was confirmed at the October 1967 party conference, despite one last appeal. His wife Catherine left the party alongside him.

Return to journalism, writing

In the aftermath of his expulsion from Labour, Mac Aonghusa expressed an interest in the social democratic wing of Fine Gael, which had been developing under Declan Costello since the mid-1960s. However, he did not join the party and instead ran as an independent candidate in the 1969 general election in Dún Laoghaire–Rathdown. When he was not elected there he began to refocus on the revival of the Irish language and with nationalist politics rather than being elected himself. Upon the onset of

the Troubles The Troubles ( ga, Na Trioblóidí) were an ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998. Also known internationally as the Northern Ireland conflict, it is sometimes described as an " ...

, Mac Aonghusa was initially supportive of

Official Sinn Féin The Workers' Party ( ga, Páirtí na nOibrithe) is a Marxist–Leninist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It arose as the original Sinn Féin organisation founded in 1905 by Arthur Griffith, but took ...

, however by 1972 he came to resent them and, through the Ned Stapleton Cumann, their secret influence over RTÉ. During the Arms Crisis in 1970, Mac Aonghusa supported

and

, who stood accused of arranging to supply weapons to the

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

, in the pages of the

New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British Political magazine, political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney Webb, Sidney and Beatrice ...

and other left‐wing journals. In this time period, Mac Aonghusa warned editors not to reprint his material in the Republic of Ireland as there was a de facto ban on him, and indeed, official attempts were made to block the transmission of his telexed reports. Despite his earlier famed stark criticism of Fianna Fáil, Mac Aonghusa's defence of Haughey led to a friendship between the two men which resulted in Mac Aonghusa becoming one of his loudest defenders throughout the rest of Haughey's career. Mac Aonghusa's columns in the

Sunday Press The ''Sunday Press''Sunday Press
was a weekend Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspap ...

and Irish language paper ''Anois'' were accused of descending into self-parody in their stringent defences of Haughey. During the 1970s, Mac Aonghusa wrote a number of books covering significant figures in Irish republicanism; in order, he released books on

James Connolly James Connolly ( ga, Séamas Ó Conghaile; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the a ...

Patrick Pearse Patrick Henry Pearse (also known as Pádraig or Pádraic Pearse; ga, Pádraig Anraí Mac Piarais; 10 November 1879 – 3 May 1916) was an Irish teacher, barrister, poet, writer, nationalist, republican political activist and revolutionary who ...

Wolfe Tone Theobald Wolfe Tone, posthumously known as Wolfe Tone ( ga, Bhulbh Teón; 20 June 176319 November 1798), was a leading Irish revolutionary figure and one of the founding members in Belfast and Dublin of the United Irishmen, a republican soci ...

and

. In his work on De Valera, Mac Aonghusa emphasised what he perceived as the more radical aspects of the Fianna Fáil founder. During 1974 and 1975, Mac Aonghusa worked as a

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...

Special Representative to the Southern Africa region with

Seán MacBride Seán MacBride (26 January 1904 – 15 January 1988) was an Irish Clann na Poblachta politician who served as Minister for External Affairs from 1948 to 1951, Leader of Clann na Poblachta from 1946 to 1965 and Chief of Staff of the IRA from 19 ...

, where they involved themselves in the

South African Border War The South African Border War, also known as the Namibian War of Independence, and sometimes denoted in South Africa as the Angolan Bush War, was a largely asymmetric conflict that occurred in Namibia (then South West Africa), Zambia, and Ango ...

, and during which time Mac Aonghusa became involved in setting up a radio station in

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

, linked to the SWAPO nationalist party. In the 1980s, Haughey twice appointed Mac Aonghusa to the Arts Council as well as naming him president of Bord na Gaeilge (1989 to 1993). This was an issue as Mac Aonghusa was already president of

Conradh na Gaeilge (; historically known in English as the Gaelic League) is a social and cultural organisation which promotes the Irish language in Ireland and worldwide. The organisation was founded in 1893 with Douglas Hyde as its first president, when it eme ...

; being head of the main Irish language lobbying body as well as the state body responsible for the Irish language had an obvious conflict of interest. In 1991, following the announcement by Haughey that the government was to fund the creation of an Irish-language television station (launched in 1996 as Teilifís na Gaeilge), an elated Mac Aonghusa suggested that Haughey would be "remembered among the families of the Gael as long as the Gaelic nation shall survive". In 1992 there were calls for Mac Aonghusa to step down from Bord na Gaeilge after he pronounced that "every respectable nationalist" in West Belfast should vote for Sinn Féin

Gerry Adams Gerard Adams ( ga, Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh; born 6 October 1948) is an Irish republican politician who was the president of Sinn Féin between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and served as a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth from 2011 to 2020. ...

over the

SDLP The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) ( ga, Páirtí Sóisialta Daonlathach an Lucht Oibre) is a social-democratic and Irish nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. The SDLP currently has eight members in the Northern Irela ...

candidate

Joe Hendron Joseph Gerard Hendron (born 12 November 1932) is a Northern Ireland politician, a member of the centre-left Irish nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP). Hendron, also a local GP physician for 40 years, was first elected as a poli ...

in the 1992 UK general election as Mac Aonghusa considered a defeat for Adams "a victory for British imperialism". Nevertheless, Mac Aonghusa simultaneously advised voters in South Down to vote for the SDLP's

Eddie McGrady Edward Kevin McGrady (3 June 1935 – 11 November 2013) was an Irish nationalist politician of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for South Down from 1987 to 2010. McGrady was also a Member ...

over Sinn Féin. Mac Aonghusa railed against his detractors at the Conradh na Gaeilge árdfheis that year, declaring that "The mind of the slave, of the slíomadóir, of the hireling and the vagabond is still fairly dominant in Ireland". As of 1995, Mac Aonghusa continued to label himself a socialist. In the forward to the book he wrote about James Connolly he released that year, Mac Aonghusa declared that However, with the recent

collapse of the Soviet Union The dissolution of the Soviet Union, also negatively connoted as rus, Разва́л Сове́тского Сою́за, r=Razvál Sovétskogo Soyúza, ''Ruining of the Soviet Union''. was the process of internal disintegration within the Sov ...

in mind, Mac Aonghusa declared that the Stalinist regimes of Eastern Europe had not been socialist, and argued that the social democracies of

Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Swe ...

(the Nordic model), were what James Connolly had envisioned as the desired socialist society. In the same text, Mac Aonghusa accused the Irish education system as well as Ireland's media of obfuscating Connolly's views on socialism and nationalism. Mac Aonghusa battled through ill health in his final years but remained able to continue writing a number of books. His last publication, ''Súil Tharam'' in 2001, came just two years before his death in 2003.

Personal life

In 1955 Mac Aonghusa married Catherine Ellis, a member of the

Church of Ireland The Church of Ireland ( ga, Eaglais na hÉireann, ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Kirk o Airlann, ) is a Christian church in Ireland and an autonomous province of the Anglican Communion. It is organised on an all-Ireland basis and is the secon ...

from

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdom ...

; for her married name, Catherine chose to use "McGuinness", the English language equivalent of Mac Aonghusa.

Catherine McGuinness Catherine McGuinness (; born 14 November 1934) is a retired Irish judge who served as a Judge of the Supreme Court from 2000 to 2006, a Judge of the High Court from 1996 to 2000, a Judge of the Circuit Court from 1994 to 1996 and a Senator ...

would go on to become a Senator and a Judge of the Circuit Court, High Court and Supreme Court over the course of her legal career. Together they would have three children together.

Bibliography

*''Súil Tharam'' (An Clóchomhar, 2001) *''Oireachtas na Gaeilge 1897-1997'' (Conradh na Gaeilge, 1997) *''Daithí Ó hUaithne: Cuimhní Cairde'' (An Clóchomhar 1994)(edited with Tomás de Bhaldraithe) *''Ar Son na Gaeilge – Conradh na Gaeilge 1893-1993'' (Conradh na Gaeilge, 1993) *''Ros Muc agus Cogadh na Saoirse'' (Conradh na Gaeilge, 1992) *''Ón gCrannóg'' (An Clóchomhar, 1991) *''Gaillimh agus Aistí Eile'' (An Clóchomhar, 1983) *''Éamon de Valera – Na Blianta Réabhlóideacha'' (An Clóchomhar, 1982) *''Aeriris'' (An Clóchomhar, 1976) *''What Connolly Said'' (1995) *''The Best of Tone'' (1976) *''The Best of Pearse'' (1972) *''The Best of Connolly'' (1967) (edited with Liam Ó Réagáin) *''Corish Speaks'' (1967) (a collection of speeches by

, edited and introduced by Proinsias Mac Aonghusa *''Proportional Representation in Ireland'' (1959).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Macaonghusa, Proinsias 1933 births 2003 deaths 20th-century Irish writers 21st-century Irish writers Irish language activists Irish republicans Irish socialists Irish male writers Irish-language writers Jacob's Award winners Labour Party (Ireland) candidates in Dáil elections Writers from Galway (city) RTÉ Radio 1 presenters RTÉ television presenters UTV (TV channel) people Broadcasters from Galway (city) People educated at Coláiste Iognáid Irish columnists