TRIBUTES have been paid to Irish language luminary and former Antrim GAA star Máirtín Mac Grianna who passed away peacefully in hospital on Saturday, aged 79.
Born in North Queen Street, Máirtín was the son of the eminent Irish language writer and translator Dónal Mac Grianna of Rann na Feirste, Co Donegal. Dónal's brothers were lrish literary masters, Seosamh Mac Grianna and Séamus Ó Grianna.
Máirtín taught Irish at both Cumann Chluain Ard and Ulster of University, and was amongst a generation of Gaeilgeoirí who helped inspire Belfast's language revival. He also worked for the exam board CCEA, and gained renown for his literary adaptation of Irish folk tale, Deirdre an Bhróin.
He worked closely with fellow-North Belfast native Albert Fry, who passed away earlier this month, for many decades in promoting the Irish language through Cumann Chluain Ard, with Albert as Cathaoirleach and Máirtín as Cisteoir.
Together, they made a formidable team and helped positively shape the lives of hundreds of Irish speakers.
A formidable footballer, Máirtín Mac Grianna played for Pearse's GAC and Antrim in the 1960s, and went on to teach Physical Education at St Thomas' Secondary School on the Whiterock Road.
St Mary's University Irish Medium Post Primary PGCE coordinator, Dr Seán Mac Corraidh, who was taught by Máirtín at Cluain Ard in Hawthorne Street, told how his mentor had shaped the city's Irish language community in "an unassuming way".
"I first met Máirtín when I was about 15," he reflected.
"I was walking up the Grosvenor Road and I met a girl who knew I was interested in Irish, and she said I should go to Cumann Chluain Ard.
"I went to the Cumann and I started a class with Máirtín on the Thursday night.
"Most of the class were about 20 years older than me and they were reading a book called Bean Ruadh de Dhálach, and it was actually written by his own uncle, Séamus Ó Grianna, so you could see how proud he was when we were studying this. I stayed in that class when I was doing my A-Levels, and it was like being at university before you went to university.
"When we were doing our A-Levels on a Monday night there was a crowd of us, and most of that group are now working in third-level teaching Irish. We would study books by his other uncle Seosamh Mac Grianna like 'Mo Bhealach Féin' and 'An Druma Mór', and he would just unpack every sentence. You might not have gotten to the end of the book, but you certainly got what the writing was about and it gave a great start for third-level education and it gave you a great start in understanding life as well. We're very, very grateful to him."
He continued: "The work he did, he did very quietly. He wasn't blowing his own trumpet. In order to have a language community you have to have speakers, and he was central to the creation of a very fluent and rich community of speakers and writers of Irish.
"A lot of the people he taught would have gone on in their professional lives to be translators, to be writers, to be teachers, and to work in the Irish language sector. He had a big impact on people's attitude to Irish in a very quiet and unassuming way."
Patrick Pearse's GAC said it is "saddened to hear of the loss" of Mac Grianna.
"Máirtín will forever be remembered for playing a major part in the 1968 Antrim Senior Football Championship winning team," the club said in a statement.
"Our thoughts are with Máirtín's family."
Máirtín Mac Grianna is survived by his wife Deirdre, children Máire, Róise, Gráinne, Conall and Éamonn and four grandchildren.
His remains will arrive at St Mary’s Church Chapel Lane on Thursday for 11am Requiem Mass, followed by burial at Milltown Cemetery.
