Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review – commemorates the life and legacy of Manchán Magan
‘SPACE BECOMES PLACE AS WE GET TO KNOW IT AND ENDOW IT WITH VALUES’ – Yi-Fu Tuan
Despite the increasing secular and scientific nature of contemporary Western society, with its dependence on technological advancement, it is still the case that our values and environment shape our worldview. The impact of language on how we experience life and attribute meaning is understood in Ireland, as in many colonised countries. Thus it was to a listening and comprehending audience that Manchán Magan spoke, when he talked about the Irish language being ‘an accumulated knowledge of a people’ who have lived on this land for millennia. The author, documentary maker and broadcaster died in October 2025 and the winter edition ofStudies: An Irish Quarterly Review commemorates his life and legacy.
Tom Casey SJ, in an extended version of his homily at Manchán’s funeral, describes him as one who ‘speaks with the voice of the spirit into the silence of our forgetfulness’; Liam Mac Amhlaigh writes of Manchán as a prophet and a ‘disciple of the language’; Nuala King explores resonances between the ‘deep ecological consciousness embedded in Irish myth and language’ and the Aboriginal concept of Kanyini; and Siobhán McNamara pays tribute to Manchán’s energy, sincerity, creativity and eloquence.
Other essays in this issue include Bryan Fanning writing about the significant level of community care that faith-based organisations provide for vulnerable migrant groups; Kevin Williams observes that religion continues to have a prominent place in French public culture, despite the country’s official policy of laïcité; Martina Lawless and Tara McIndoe-Calder chart the shifts in the Irish population since the Great Famine; Carmel Gallagher reflects on Ireland’s failure to value the work and experience of missionaries; James Kelly posits that in order to stem discord and decline, the Catholic Church will have to be more open, inclusive and dynamic; Kate Costello-Sullivan engages with As You Were, Elaine Feeny’s 2020 novel about a group of women who find themselves in the same hospital ward. Two review articles complete the winter issue of Studies: Peadar Kirby argues for a radical socio-economic transformation in response to the rise of the far right; and Ursula Halligan reflects on the continued failure of the Catholic Church to see and treat women as equal members of the Body of Christ.
Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review, winter 2025, Tributes to Manchán: Language, Spirit, Place is published by Messenger Publications. Priced at €10.
Carolanne Henry
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