Martin Gaughan

Martin Gaughan - Irish Language Teacher 1882-1959

By Monica Paton.

My father, Martin Gaughan (left), who taught the Irish Language for 40 years, was born in 1882 in Blacksod, County Mayo. He was a native Irish speaker, as were his parents and his six brothers. He won prizes at local Feiseanna in Mayo in 1904, when two of the adjudicators were Douglas Hyde and Patrick Pearse, and no doubt this encouraged him to train as a teacher at Tourmakeady Irish college.

Before taking up his appointment as an Irish Teacher in the Vocational School in Roscommon town in 1930, he worked for the Gaelic League as a travelling teacher throughout the towns and districts of north Roscommon. There he attended and taught the language in a good many schools, scattered over a wide area, whilst conducting a number of teachers’ and Gaelic League classes. Like many travelling teachers he covered these distances by bicycle in all kinds of weather. In 1908 he was teaching at Ballaghaderreen, Carracastle and Gurteen, when An Claidheamh Soluis reported that ‘Martin Gaughan was working away as hard as ever’ at his teaching programme. In 1922 the County Gaelic League Committee appointed him to teach at Mantua, Elphin, Creeve and Aughrim, where he continued his busy teaching schedule in conjunction with acting as a delegate representing Elphin on the Gaelic League County Committee and acting as secretary of the county Feis there. He also held classes in Strokestown and organised a Feis there in 1923, donating, as reported by the Strokestown Democrat, a gold and silver medal as prizes at his own expense. His work at St. Nathy’s College in Ballaghaderreen continued until his appointment to the Vocational School. (He is going to be commemorated in a book being published for the bicentenary of St. Nathy’s.)

His hard work and organisation skills, together with his success as a teacher, were recognised and reported in local newspapers. The National Board Inspector who examined the certificate teachers attending his classes in Strokestown was reported as saying to the reporter of the Strokestown Democrat “that the senior class of teachers taught by Martin Gaughan passed with distinction, paying a special tribute to his teaching”. The Roscommon Herald in 1928 praised his teaching at Ballaghadereen, urging “anyone who desires to improve his knowledge of the mother tongue should not allow this opportunity to slip by, more especially as Mr. Gaughan is an Irish teacher of more than ordinary ability”.

When he went to live in Goff Street, Roscommon, he had married Mary McGarry of Frenchpark in 1924, and my brother, Francis was born in Tulsk in 1927. In Goff Street my sister Maureen was born (she died aged 2 years 9 months), followed by my brother Martin Ignatius and myself. In Roscommon town he took the leading role in organising Feiseanna and ceilidhs in the Harrison Hall, which in the late 1930s were well attended due to the impetus given by the recent Feiseanna and promoted by the local Gaelic League. He was active in the politics of the period and was a friend of Dan O’Rourke, TD and secretary of the Connacht GAA. He was delegated to organise an Airiedheacht with Mr. O’Rourke, at which Irish dancing, hurling, football and ceilidh bands competed. My brother Frank was at an age when he could take an active part in the activities of the GAA. He played football for Goff Street in the Street League Teams, for the CBS in the 1940s, and for St Coman’s minors. He was mentioned in the history of the Roscommon Town GAA, amongst a few others, as one of "the fine players" in the juniors in the late 1930s in the Roscommon Handball Club and represented the county at minor level. He also became a member of the Local Defence Force (below).

Frank Gaughan as a member of the Roscommon L.D.F.

My mother enjoyed greatly the social life of the town, particularly the Christian Brothers carnival in 1945 to raise funds to reduce the debt incurred by the building of the new school. A great deal of money was raised for this. She was a member of the catering committee that provided suppers for the many dances during the carnival, she made jam and cakes for the stalls and won prizes at the whist drives organized to raise additional funds (below).

Mary Gaughan, in a group photograph from 1945.

In 1937 when De Valera attended the Roscommon Feis my father acted as secretary of it and was introduced to him. His contribution to the Irish language movement was recognised when my parents received invitations to the President Douglas Hyde’s Garden Party in 1938 and 1939. The 1939 Feis Cruachain, of which he was again secretary, was glowingly reported in the Roscommon Herald as demonstrating a “Wonderful Progress of Language and Native Culture Evident at Feis Cruachain”. Cannon Cummins thanked both my father and the Hon. Father Mahon for getting through a tremendous amount of work in an efficient manner. The brunt of the work fell on these but although they had to work hard late and early they had the satisfaction of seeing their efforts crowned with a success that even the most optimistic never anticipated.”

My father was a Commissioner for Oaths and a Justice of the Peace and we remember the Gardaí often visiting our house to have prosecutions and other papers signed. He taught them the Irish language at night school in the Vocational School, where he also taught the Christian Brothers. My father was the only Irish-speaking Commissioner in Roscommon and there were many calls upon his time to sign documents to be served from outlying districts as well as the town. Our neighbour in Roscommon who worked for a solicitor in the town often brought documents to him to be served and she said that he often obliged people without accepting payment.

His continuing success as a teacher can be seen by the fact that, in 1947, one of his pupils won the Gaelic League county medal for the best individual performance in a Gaelic play and six of his pupils won Irish scholarships. In August the same year "The Roscommon Herald", carried a report of the Roscommon County Vocational School Committee where tributes were paid to my father. The CEO, Mr Mescal said “Mr O’Gacháin had been a very successful and enthusiastic teacher taking an active part in the promotion of Feiseanna, ceilidhe and Irish cultural activities in general”. In his youth when the teaching of Irish was not as popular as it was now and it was difficult to get classes together, “Mr O’Gacháin had a very fine record”. Mr Hegarty said that my father’s “services were ever there and were given gladly when required. Mr O’Gacháin had done a tremendous amount of hard work for the language under the Gaelic League when it was not the spoken language of the people”. Father Crehan added “he was one of the few pioneers of the movement, that it was twenty years since he attended one of his classes and for as long as he could remember he had listened to aunts and uncles in praise of his work for the Irish language”.

One of his pupils, Finnuola McCrann paid tribute to my father in the 1983 edition of the Vocational School Student Magazine. She encapsulated his unfailing love of the language when she wrote, ‘I learned to love my native tongue - taught by a Mr. Gaughan, a gentleman in every sense, who loved the language for itself and impressed upon us that it was our language and as such we should cherish it. In my days at the other schools, I also learned Irish, but my love for it was fostered in the Vocational School’.

After his retirement Martin Gaughan moved to Dublin as it afforded better employment and education opportunities for his children. His legacy to us stemming from his life long commitment to education and Irish culture saw Frank and Martin obtain degrees studying in the evening at Trinity College and both entered the teaching profession in England. My brother Frank died sixteen years ago. Martin was awarded a PhD in Art History and lectured at university in this field. He and his wife, Nuala live in Oxford. She was awarded a D.Phil at Oxford University for her thesis on some Irish women authors. They attend the Irish seminars organised by Oxford University and my brother is secretary of the Trinity College Dublin Association (Oxford). As a mature student I studied at London University obtaining a PhD. in social history. I am sure my parents would have considered these achievements as a continuation of his commitment to education.

For more information on the Irish language and the rise of Sinn Féin in Roscommon see Monica's extracts from the local newspapers. Follow the links below for the following:

The Roscommon Herald: February 1919 to May 1920.

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