Irish Language Expert Returns to Massachusetts

Willialm Mahon, an expert in the Gaelic language, is the author of a publication about Irish-speaking people of Lawrence, Mass. (photo: IrishEmigrant.com/boston)

The following article is from IrishEmigrant.com/boston,
posted on its online issue for the week of Sept. 11, 2008.

Dr. William Mahon, an Irish-language scholar with strong local roots, will speak in Lawrence, Mass., this Sunday [Sept. 14, 2008] to discuss his most recent publication: "Thomas Griffin and the Irish Speaking People of Lawrence."

Mahon's return to the Boston area is eagerly awaited by many, including musicians, fellow scholars and the Irish community.

"His return to Lawrence is a little of bit of a homecoming really," said Michael Quinlin, president of the Boston Irish Tourism Association.

Born in Patterson, N.J., Mahon attended Princeton University before moving to Boston for graduate study at Harvard's Celtic Languages and Literatures Department, from which he acquired his PhD.

He lived in Cambridge until moving to Somerville, Mass., after marrying in 1991, becoming a well-known figure in the local traditional music scene.

"We know him mostly in Boston as a great flute player and singer in Irish," Quinlin said.

Known affectionately to friends as "Willie," Mahon taught himself to speak and read the Irish language, having developed a fascination with it as a child.

This was later complemented by a formal course in the language while at Harvard, as well as frequent contact with local native speakers.

Mahon turned this experience toward teaching the language in night classes for Cumann na Gaeilge and the Ancient Order of Hibernians, as well as for Harvard, Stonehill College and Boston College.

"I made many friends in those classes," Mahon recalled in an e-mail. "An elderly woman in Belmont [Mass.] once asked me: ‘My mother from Cork always used to say this to us in Irish, "Go mbeire a' di'al leis tu!", could you tell me what it means?' She was horrified, of course, when I told her that it means ‘May the devil take you with him!'"

Mahon's expertise soon led to his present position as a lecturer in Celtic Studies with the Department of Welsh at Aberystwyth University, where he now lives with his wife Trish (also a Gaelic speaker) and their two sons.

Mahon's book on Thomas Griffin delves into the relatively unknown fact that Lawrence was once a bastion of Irish-speaking immigrants during the second half of the 19th century.

"The Irish community in Lawrence at the turn of the century was extremely robust and vibrant," said Quinlin. "They even had an Irish newspaper."

source:  IrishEmigrant.com/boston

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