Carl Marstrander - article in 'Ireland's Own' magazine.

Carl Marstrander was born in Kristiania (Oslo), Norway in November 1883. He studied Old and Middle Irish as an undergraduate in Oslo. Marstrander then visited the Blasket Islands in August 1907 to learn modern Irish. His teachers were the islanders themselves, whose mother tongue was Irish.

The Blasket Islands lie just off the coast of County Kerry in the west of Ireland. They were inhabited until November 1953, when the Irish government decided to move the population to the mainland, due to declining population and the hard living conditions there. I have just written an article in the magazine, Ireland's Own, about the celebrated Norwegian linguist, Carl Marstrander, and his connection to the Irish language and to the Blasket Islands. Read it here.

Cartoon of Carl Marstrander (1883-1965). Image source

Marstrander and the other Celtic scholars and linguists (Robin Flower, Kenneth Jackson, and Marie-Louise Sjoestedt, to name but a few) who visited the Blaskets in the early 20th century had a big impact on the Irish language and on the Blasket islanders.

Following on from the interest shown in their language and culture and heritage by all these outsiders, the islanders gained a new found sense of self-confidence. This can clearly be seen in the many of the books that the islanders produced in subsequent years about their unique way of life. These are a couple of the books Fiche Blian ag Fás [Twenty Years A-Growing] (1933) by Muiris Ó Súilléabháin and An t-Oiléanach [The Islandman] (1934) by Tomás Ó Criomhthain.

When Marstrander died in 1965, the historian Daniel Binchy said "almost everything written by Marstrander on Celtic matters is of lasting significance". A student of Marstrander's in Oslo, David Greene (who became Professor of Irish at Trinity College Dublin), praised Marstrander's approach to research saying that he was an expert "without becoming a narrow specialist" and that he "was never worried that he might make a mistake". But perhaps the best praise came from islander who taught him Irish, Tomás Ó Criomhthain, who said "Ni fear go dtí é" [He is without equal].