German recordings from a forgotten Gaeltacht

Abstract In the first half of the twentieth century, Irish continued to be spoken as a community language in Ballybacon, south-west Tipperary, Ireland. A commission, Coimisiún na Gaeltachta, was appointed in 1925 by the three-year-old Free State government to designate Gaeltacht (Irish-speaking area) boundaries and to recommend social, economic and educational improvements therein. Ballybacon (Baile Uí Bhéacáin), was part of its remit and the commission deemed it to be 66% Irish-speaking; as the government had set an 80% threshold for full Gaeltacht status, Ballybacon was deemed to be a breac-Ghaeltacht or ‘partly Irish-speaking district’. The recording work of Albert Doegen (1877–1967) is discussed with particular reference to a single Ballybacon native, James Lyons or Séamas Ó Liatháin (1877–1934), who is placed in his linguistic, geographical and social context and in the context of state policy towards Irish-speaking districts. The recordings made of his speech by Doegen have been transcribed and translated.