Dr. Ken Ó Donnchú, lecturer in the Department of Modern Irish, has received an IRC New Foundations Award to support his research on Irish literary translation. The award funds a bilingual international conference that will take place in UCC in May 2021. Tintúd – Aistriú: Irish Literary Translation through Time will create a space for much-needed discussion and re-analysis of the scholarly consensus on Irish literary translation.

Throughout recorded history, translation has been one of the natural mechanisms through which Ireland maintained a place in European civilization that belied its peripheral geographical location. In the modern era, the practice of translation has continued, with the added feature of the translation of Gaelic material into other languages, as international appreciation of Gaelic literary creativity grows. Recent translations by UCC scholars highlight the vitality of Irish as both source and target language. These include Emeritus Professor Alan Titley’s The Dirty Dust, a translation of Máirtín Ó Cadhain’s masterpiece Cré na Cille, and Dr. Ailbhe Ní Ghearbhuigh’s Irish renderings of the Egyptian Francophone poet Andrée Chedid.

Currently Dr. Ó Donnchú is editing the sole surviving pre-20^th century secular translations from Spanish into Irish, those of the prolific if elusive Fr. Maghnus Ó Domhnaill, active at the close of the 17^th century. Research on these, and other exciting aspects of Irish literary translation, such as the award-winning Czech translations of Ó Cadhain, Pádraic Ó Conaire, Liam Ó Flaithearta, Séamus Ó Grianna and others will be presented at Tintúd – Aistriú.