RAIDIÓ Fáilte will today (Thursday) broadcast a programme dedicated to the memory of pioneering Irish language campaigner Tomás Ó Monacháin who passed away in August 2023.

The programme has been compiled by Máirín Hurndall and contains interviews with Tomás before he died about his early days growing up in Belfast following the violence of partition, his work in the 1940s and 1950s with Cumann Chulain Árd and how he and other Cumann Chulain Árd activists pooled together and used his architectural expertise to help the community rebuild following the burning of Bombay Street in 1969.

The programme will also feature interviews with two of Tomás's close friends from the Irish language community, Seán Mac Seáin and Séamas Ó Donnghaile.

Tomás was born in 1927 and his family moved to Belfast in 1932 where he grew up in the Lower Falls. Two uncles, Ailbhe Ó Monacháin and Cathal Ó Monacháin, were involved in the 1916 Easter Rising. Ailbhe helped raise Volunteers in Galway and Cathal drowned along with two other Volunteers in Co Kerry whilst en route to link up with Roger Casement.

In 1966 Tomás participated in a hunger-strike organised by the activist group Misneach in Belfast and in Dublin to highlight Irish government failures regarding the Irish language and the lack of official support for Gaeltacht areas during the state's 50 anniversary celebrations of the Rising.

In Belfast in 1969 he was also instrumental in helping to establish the Shaws Road Gaeltacht with other Irish speaking families which coincided with the opening of the fledgling Bunscoil Phobal Feirste.

Moving with his family to Gaoth Dobhair Gaeltacht in Donegal in 1973, Tomás again became involved in Irish language rights when a court dispute over the parking of a caravan led to him insisting the case be held in Irish. He was then refused and fined.

Refusing to pay the subsequent fines, he was eventually arrested and imprisoned in Mountjoy Prison but was soon released, Tomás insisted that the Irish State had failed in its duty to appoint an Irish-speaking judge in the Gaeltacht.

Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Máirín Hurndall said she became fascinated in Tomás story after reading about his steadfast non-sectarian approach to the teaching of the language.

Maírín said: "Tomás left behind a great legacy, he is also the father of two current TG4 news reporters Ailbhe O Monacháin and Sorcha Ní Mhonacháin. I myself am an East Belfast Protestant, whose father started of life as a shipwright in the Shipyard and Tomás was well-known for championing the inclusivity of the Irish language to all.

"I saw that his story was also in many ways the story of the Irish language movement in Belfast and it was an honour to speak to him before he passed away. It was the privilege of my life to make a programme about this great man, his language and his city."

The programme will be broadcast on Raidió Fáilte on Thursday 5 September from 9am to 10am.