Blackrock man was a renowned Gaelic scholar
There has been widespread sorrow following the death of Blackrock native Dr Fiachra Mac Gabhann last Thursday, who had been reported missing from his Co Mayo home earlier that day.
Fiachra was a well known and highly respected Gaelic scholar, teacher and traditional musician.
Son of Caitlín, a retired home economics teacher, and the late Frank Mac Gabhann, he inherited his love of the Irish language, music and culture from his parents and had attended Colaiste Bhride, Rannafast as a student and later as a teacher.
He attained his first degree in Irish Folklore in 1992 in UCD before moving to Queen’s University in Belfast, where he achieved further degrees in Celtic Studies. He worked in the Northern Ireland Place-Name Project in Queen’s in the 1990s and published a volume on the place-names of north Antrim in 1997. Later, he was awarded a Government of Ireland Fellowship under the auspices of NUI Galway, which allowed him to engage in full-time research that led eventually to the publication of the ten-volume study Logainmneacha Mhaigh Eo in 2014, which was the largest book in the Irish language. He was also a member of the National Folklore Foundation,
He had lived in Mayo since 2001 and was a popular teacher at Castlebar College of Further Education, which closed as a mark of respect last Friday.
He is survived by his wife Clodagh, children Conall, Fianach and Tuathla, mother Caitlin, sisters Ciara, Aenat and brother Feilim, parents-in-law, Des and Betty Doyle, brothers- and sisters-in-law, nieces, nephews, relatives, neighbours and friends.