'Teach Yourself Meath Irish'

Ok, this has little to do with Clonduff, BUT, Clonduff existed in a wider Gaeltacht, made up by Oriel and Meath.

Meath has two Gaeltachts today but both of these are made up of people for the most part whose ancestors came from the West of Ireland.

But it is erroneous to connect Gaelic with the West of Ireland alone, the Meath Gaeltacht survived well into the 20th Century and well after many places further west had succumbed to English.

In fact, native Irish survived longer on the plains of Meath than in the mountains of Mourne.

Unfortunately, no recording survives but we do have a kind of 'Teach Yourself Meath Irish' in the book 'Mion-chaint na Midhe agus Uladh' (1905) by Pádraig Ua Dhubhthaigh.

The book has been digitised by the Royal Irish Academy and is available in full here.

The dialect of Meath differed little from Oriel, of which Co. Down Irish is considered apart of. Well worth a look.