A review of Darach Ó Séaghdha’s 'Motherfoclóir: Dispatches from a not so dead language'

Motherfoclóir, the first of Ó Séaghdha’s two books to
date, was that Blindboy Boatclub was part of the
@theirishfor’s Twitter “following”.
The word Motherfoclóir itself is a neologism, as well
as a good example both of an interlingual pun, and a
highly suggestive portmanteau. ‘Foclóir’ is the Irish
for ‘dictionary’ and is not to be confused with an
English expletive to which it bears a tad bit of
sensationalistic resemblance.
Motherfoclóir, the book, mirrors much of the earlier
Twitter content. The first appearance of the
eponymical refrain “the Irish for” informs the reader
that “the Irish for Donegal is Tír Conall [sic]”. All well
and good, except that “Tír Conall” should be “Tír
Chonaill” and is actually a rather nuanced
toponymical term which encompasses only part of
the overall landmass of Donegal, or “Dún na nGall” as
a Gaeltacht native from that county might have said,
had they been consulted. Speaking of counties, the
Irish for Clare is given its genitive case form “an
Chláir” instead of the nominative “An Clár”. The
implications of this error are better appreciated
through comparison with an equivalent situation in
English: imagine somebody explained to you that
Shannon Airport was in “Clare’s”.
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