Remembering former Meath writer-in-residence, Manchán Magan

Untimely death of writer, broadcaster, naturalist and Irish language advocate

Paul Murphy's piece on Manchán Magan's talk at Meath County Library in October 2022

For a man who is the great-grand nephew of the prominent 1916 figure The O’Rahilly, Manchan Magan had let much of the 2016 centenary of the Rising pass him by.

While it was all right to talk about Padraig Pearse and The O’Rahilly and others, there was much, much more to history – there was the women’s history, the history of poor people, the social history, the history of the land, he said.

Magan, a writer and documentary maker, is the Meath County Council Writer-in-Residence, an initiative funded by the Creative Ireland Programme, and he was delivering a lecture at Navan Library on 'The importance of family archives from a family perspective'. He was introduced by the Meath County Archivist Patricia Fallon.

The more went on telling the history of “figureheads” like the 1916 leaders, in the same way as Britain tells the stories of its kings, we were just repeating, and ignoring a good dal of the truth. In his new book “Listen to the Land Speak” he had tried to explore that theme. “When we look at our personal and family archives we are not looking for someone who was just out in 1916, or someone who knew De Valera. That is a narrow, linear history. There is so much more to it than that”.

We were coming to a very unusual time in our culture, he said. At the time of Covid, and even before it, we as a nation appeared to be getting much more interested in history. There was always a cohort of people who had been interested in culture, interested in the landscape but there were many more people now who wanted to look at TG4 progammes or listen to podcasts or in some way to immerse themselves in the culture of Ireland. Whether that was because we were at a time of new changes, and the demise of some things like Christianity, like an economy that was stable, like even or climate or our landscape – maybe we think we should lie back on our oars of tradition and heritage.

He said some of the changes in our attitude to history and culture could be tracked in the pages of national newspapers. He had worked with the Irish Times as a freelance since the mid-2000s and it seemed to him that the rival newspaper the Irish Independent never wanted to hear from writers like himself talking about trees, the Irish language landscapes or culture. But that had changed with the influx of some young Irish columnist. And while the Irish Times had its own elitist view and was “up its own little alleyway”, the Independent seemed to be more in tune with what was going on in the nation.

Meath had been a pioneer in this time of realising that now was the time we should root into our culture. The key initiative was the field names project that inspired so many other counties and regions and villages to do the same, to realise that in our most obvious things – place names, minor place names and our field names – we had “a massive amount of lore”.

Each piece of information unearthed was like a little nuggets or a little Japanese cone that can be unpacked to tell us how our ancestors lived, our parents lived, how our grandparents survived on a pretty wild Atlantic Ocean island, continuously here and thriving for 4,500 years.

“We are the Bronze Age people, the descendants of the people who arrived here so long ago”.

He said his grandmother more or less devoted her life to the events of 1916 and in the coal hole of her house were all the important papers about that period – “generations-worth of papers from 1850s onwards” – were in there. Eventually, when his grandmother moved to his (Magan’s) own family home, all the boxes of papers were moved to the Magan coal hole. And his relative Aodghan O’Rahilly gave him the job, at 14 and 15 years of age, of going through the family archive and putting them in order – all for £1.25 an hour!

“All this meant that I knew the archive probably better than anyone else. The archive was moved from the coal hole to a coachhouse in the garden and I remember all these people like Tomas O Neill, biographer of De Valera and so on were coming down the garden to view the papers.”

Statement by President Michael D Higgins on the death of Manchán Magan

3rd October 2025

It is with the deepest sense of sadness that I, like so many others, have learned of the death of the incomparable writer, broadcaster and documentary maker Manchán Magan.

Manchán was a truly singular person. It is hard to imagine how anyone else could have made such a broad and engaging contribution in bringing the beauty, depth and vitality of the Irish language to so many people, in Ireland and beyond.

Manchán truly lived an inspirational life and helped so many people to find a deeper meaning in their lives.

Through his work, Machán inspired so many people, across every generation, to engage more deeply with our native language, its cultural richness, and through it to engage with, respect and learn from our natural landscape and environment.

While rightly proud of his family’s contribution to Irish culture and history, including his great-granduncle The O’Rahilly and his grandmother Sheila Humphreys, Manchán’s vision and understanding was not limited to Ireland or the Irish language, but to what we share and are connected to with all forms of life that live within native and indigenous cultures, languages and communities across the globe. I have no doubt that his influence will continue to live with all those whom he met in all corners of the globe.

I had the privilege of first meeting Manchán 30 years ago and of engaging with him and his brother Ruán on many occasions over the years.

Last autumn and winter I had the honour of welcoming Manchán to Áras an Uachtaráin on two occasions – when he read a wonderful poem which he composed for our event in the Áras to mark Culture Night, and again later in the year for a podcast which we recorded about the Irish language and culture for The Trailblazery.

As ever, his endless sense of interest, joy and wonder was a pleasure to be around and his interest and support for my Presidency was something I sincerely valued. I will fondly remember all of our collaborations and all of our deeply enjoyable conversations on so many topics.

I recently wrote to Manchán and took the opportunity, as President of Ireland, to acknowledge the immeasurable contribution which he has made to the Irish language and culture, opening up our collective heritage to more people than could ever have been imagined.

It is a contribution for which all of us who love the language will forever be in his debt.

He will be deeply missed.

May I express my deepest condolences to Manchán’s wife Aisling, who has herself made such a valuable contribution to so many communities, to his mother Cróine, to his brother Ruán and his other siblings, to his extended family and to all his many friends, admirers and collaborators in so many parts of the world.”

Ráiteas ón Uachtarán Micheál D Ó hUigínn ar bhás Mhancháin Magan

3ú Deireadh Fómhair 2025

Ba mhór an chúis bhróin dom féin agus do a lán eile cloisteáil faoi bhás Mhancháin Magan, scríbhneoir, craoltóir agus léiritheoir cláracha faisnéise nach raibh a shárú le fáil.

Níl amhras ar bith orm ach gur duine ar leith a bhí i Manchán. Is deacair a shamhlú go bhféadfadh aon duine eile an méid céanna a bhaint amach ar bhealach chomh leathan agus chomh tarraingteach, le háilleacht, doimhneacht agus beocht na Gaeilge a thabhairt chuig oiread daoine in Éirinn agus níos faide i gcéin.

B’inspioráideach go cinnte an saol a chaith sé agus é ag cabhrú leis an iliomad daoine brí níos doimhne a aimsiú ina mbeatha féin.

Trína shaothar, spreag Manchán an oiread sin daoine ó gach glúin le dul i ngleic ar shlí níos doimhne lenár dteanga dhúchais, lena saibhreas cultúrtha, agus tríd sin, tuiscint agus meas a fháil ar ár dtírdhreach nádúrtha agus ár dtimpeallacht agus foghlaim uathu.

Ba dhual dó a bheith bródúil as a ndearna a shinsear roimhe fad is a bhain sé le stair agus le cultúr na tíre seo, a shin-seanuncail The O’Rahilly agus a sheanmháthair Sheila Humphreys san áireamh. Ach ní raibh fís agus tuiscint Mhancháin teoranta d’Éirinn ná don Ghaeilge ach oscailte do na ceangail sin a bhaineann leis an mbeatha agus leis an mbeocht i gcultúir agus i bpobail dhúchasacha ar fud an domhain. Níl aon amhras orm ach go leanfaidh a thionchar ar aghaidh ina measc siúd ar fad ar bhuail sé leo i ngach cearn den domhan.

Bhí sé de phribhléid agam féin bualadh le Manchán den chéad uair 30 bliain ó shin, agus bhí mé gafa leis féin agus lena dheartháir Ruán go rialta ina dhiaidh sin in imeacht na mblianta.

Ba mhór an onóir dom fáilte a chur roimhe go hÁras an Uachtaráin chuig dhá ócáid ar leith i bhfómhar agus i ngeimhreadh na bliana anuraidh. Léigh sé dán iontach a chum sé mar chuid d’Oíche Chultúir agus thaifead muid podchraoladh níos deireanaí sa bhliain faoi theanga agus cultúir na hÉireann don tsraith The Trailblazery.

Ba mhór an pléisiúr agus an t-aoibhneas a bheith ina chomhluadar agus an spéis gan teorainn a bhí aige i ngach ní. Ba mhór agam an tsuim a chuir sé i m’uachtaránacht agus an tacaíocht a thug sé dom i gcónaí. Mairfidh na comhfhiontair ar fad a rinne muid le chéile i m’intinn chomh maith leis na comhráite fíorshásúla a bhí againn ar réimse leathan ábhar.

Scríobh mé chuig Manchán le gairid agus thapaigh mé an deis mar Uachtarán na hÉireann aitheantas a thabhairt don mhéid a rinne sé do theanga agus do chultúr na hÉireann agus é ag roinnt ár n-oidhreacht choitianta leis an oiread sin daoine nach féidir a shamhlú.

Beimid ar fad a thugann grá do theanga na nGael faoi chomaoin an-mhór aige go deo.

Braithfimid uainn go mór é.

Ba mhaith liom mo chomhbhrón a chur in iúl dá bhean chéile Aisling, bean a bhfuil oiread maitheasa déanta aici féin do phobail éagsúla, dá mháthair Cróine, dá dheartháir Ruán agus do bhaill eile na clainne agus don teaghlach i gcoitinne, chomh maith lena chairde ar fad, a lucht tacaíochta agus iadsan a chomhoibrigh leis i gcuid mhór áiteanna ar fud na cruinne.