Liam Mac Con Iomaire, Seosamh Ó hÉanaí: Nár fhágha mé bás choíche. Cló Iar-Chonnachta, Indreabhán, Galway, 2007, 521 pp, with CD, €35

Seán ‘ac Dhonncha, Máirtín Byrnes, Seosamh Ó hEanaí and Liam Ó Murchú (Photo © Nutan)

Tomás de Bhaldraithe used to tell a story recalling an encounter in New York in the late 1960s. After delivering a lecture at Fordham University in the Bronx, he had a couple of hours to spend in Manhattan before catching his flight home, and was astonished to be addressed in Irish as he walked up the west side of Central Park. One of the uniformed, peak-capped doormen, who spend their days hailing taxis and performing other services for residents of those fine apartment buildings, greeted him by name, and he recognised Seosamh Ó...