Osborn Ó hAimhirgín/Osborn Bergin (centre), i mBéal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh/in Ballingeary,1912
(Cóipcheart/credit: Barra Ó Suibhne; Dathadóir/colourised: Matt Loughrey, 2020)
Osborn Ó hAimhirgín / Osborn Joseph Bergin (1873–1950)
Saolaíodh i gCorcaigh é is bhain a mhuintir le Cumann na gCarad. Bhog a mhuintir ó Bhóthar Thobar Rí an Domhnaigh go Bóthar an Choláiste nuair a bhí sé óg. Fuair sé a chuid oideachais ag Scoil Cork Grammar agus Ollscoil na Ríona Chorcaí mar a bhí ar Choláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh ag an am; áit gur dhein sé staidéar ar na clasaicí (BA 1895). Scoláire mór ceilteach ab ea é agus file ab ea é, leis.
Chuaigh le Conradh na Gaeilge agus bhuail sé le Pádraig Ó Laoghaire thiar i mBéarra. B’é an Laoghaireach a mhúin an Ghaeilge dó, idir labhairt agus scríobh gan trácht ar an léitheoireacht. Bhí Gaeilge den scoth ag Pádraig Ó Laoghaire. Ag an gcéad Oireachtas na Gaeilge sa bhliain 1897 bhain an tAimhirgíneach bonn óir as 3 dhán dá chuid i nGaeilge.
Sa bhliain 1904 d’fhreastail sé ar scoil shamhraidh Scoil an Ard-Léinn, a bhunaigh Kuno Meyer sa bhliain 1903, agus bhronn lucht na scoile scoláireacht air an bhliain chéanna.
Chuaigh sé chun na Gearmáine chun a chuid staidéir a dhéanamh faoi Heinrich Zimmer i mBeirlín agus faoi Rudolf Thurneysen in Freiburg. Bhain sé a dhochtúireacht ó Ollscoil Freiburg (1906).
Chreid Bergin gurbh í Gaeilge na Mumhan an chanúint ab fhearr de bharr a dlúthcheangail le Gaeilge chlasaiceach liteartha an 17ú haois déag.
Sa bhliain 1907, tháinig sé ar shlí in éineacht le Shán Ó Cuiv agus leis an Dr Risteárd Ó Dálaigh chun córas litrithe na Gaeilge a shimpliú.
Mhúin sé gramadach stairiúil na Sean-Ghaeilge ag Coláiste na Mumhan sa bhliain 1909.
Baineann Dlí Bergin le tráchtas gramadaí de chuid na Sean-Ghaeilge.
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Born in Cork city to a Quaker family, Bergin was educated at Cork Grammar School and QCC, where he studied classics (BA 1895). He was a Celtic scholar and poet.
He joined the Gaelic League and met Páedar Ó Laoghaire who taught him to speak, read, and write excellent Irish. In 1897, at the first Oireachtas na Gaeilge, he was awarded a gold medal for three poems in Irish.
In 1904, he attended the summer school of the School of Irish Learning, founded in 1903 by Kuno Meyer, and was awarded a scholarship by the school in the same year.
He travelled to Germany to study under Heinrich Zimmerin Berlin and under Rudolf Thurneysen in Freiburg; he received his doctorate from the University of Freiburg (1906).
Bergin believed that West Munster Irish was the best dialect to learn because it was the closest to the literary classical language of the 17th century.
In 1907, he began to devise a simplified spelling for Irish along with Shán Ó Cuiv and Fr Dr Risteárd Ó Dálaigh. He taught Historical Irish Grammar at Coláiste na Mumhan in the 1909 session.
Bergin’s Law is a grammatical law of Old Irish.
Foinse/source: Ainm.ie [ar líne/online]: https://www.ainm.ie/Bio.aspx?ID=0122 (ceadaithe/accessed 20/10/2020); L. de Roiste, Colaisde Muinteoireachta Na Mumhan (Unpublished, n.d.); T. Garvin, The Lives of Daniel Binchy: Irish Scholar, Diplomat, Irish Intellectual (Dublin: IAP, 2016).
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