Gearóid Mac Eoin
| Gearoid Mac Eoin | |
|---|---|
| Born |
25 January 1929 County Limerick, Republic of Ireland |
| Occupation | Lecturer, Professor of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology |
| Years active | 1957-1959, 1959–1994(Retirement) |
| Spouse(s) |
Guðrún Helga Hallgrímsdóttir (1959–2007, her death) |
| Children | 4 |
Gearóid Mac Eoin (born 25 January 1929) is an Irish academic whose studies have focused especially on aspects of Irish language, literature and history.
Mac Eoin was educated in Limerick and New Ross, where he attended St Augustine's and Good Counsel College, New Ross. In 1947 he went to National University of Ireland, Galway, on scholarship, took courses in Celtic Studies, archaeology, history and the classical languages, and graduated with an M.A. in 1953. He was then admitted to the University of Bonn, Germany, for a PhD position and obtained his degree in 1955 for a dissertation on "Das Verbalsystem von Togail Troí (H. 2. 17)". Back in Ireland, he found employment as a radio host on RTÉ Radio.
In 1956, Mac Eoin spent a few months working at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS), but left for Iceland when he accepted a scholarship to study Icelandic language and literature at the University of Iceland. Meanwhile, his position at the Institute was reserved for him, but when in 1957 he returned to Dublin, he obtained a post at the Uppsala University to teach Celtic Languages and Folklore (1957–1959).
While in Reykjavik, he met his future wife Guðrún Helga ('Gimma') Hallgrímsdóttir. They married in Uppsala in 1959 and had four children.
Mac Eoin returned to Ireland in 1959 to serve as Professor of Irish at St Patrick's College, Dublin. In 1961, he co-founded Studia Hibernica, an academic journal for Irish studies published by the College, and for a time served at the editorial board (1961–1965). In the 60s, he also became President of Comhar na Múinteoirí Gaeilge, which had just been founded to promote the use of the Irish language at schools, both as a teaching medium and a subject in itself.
In 1963, Mac Eoin began working again for the Dublin Institute, this time as Assistant Professor. Three year later, he became Professor of Old and Middle Irish and Celtic Philology at National University of Ireland, Galway, which would become the longest-held position of his career (1966–1994).
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