Interview with Maura Donegan, 2019
Item Information
- Title:
- Interview with Maura Donegan, 2019
- Description:
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BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE: Maura (Máire Ní Choncheannain) Donegan was born and raised in Aille (Na hAille), Inverin (Indreabhán), Cois Fhairraige, Co. Galway, in 1955. One of four daughters and a son (deceased early) to John Mhicil Sheáin and Máire Neilín Ní Neachtain (Naughton) Concannon, Maura helped with the family farm while attending the Sailearna and Immaculate Heart of Mary schools locally before matriculating to University College (now NUI) Galway. She emigrated to the United States in 1978 and earned a bachelors degree while serving as an instructional assistant at the University of Nebraska, where she met her future husband. After two years in Rochester, New York, where she taught continuing education for Eastman Kodak, and a year in Galway City managing a café, she married cardiac surgeon Desmond Donegan, M.D. in Ireland. The couple moved to Cape Elizabeth, Maine, south of Portland in 1984, and are the parents of two sons and two daughters who are employed in the community, fire safety, and health professions. Maura travels back to Ireland often, and is closely involved with developments in Irish-language culture. SUMMARY: Parents and siblings. Work on the farm with hay, peat, and gardening. Maura’s sisters who work in health care and teaching (through Irish) for the Leaving Cert. Local teachers and schooling with cocoa and a peat fire for warmth: a scholarship to Immaculate Heart of Mary College. How her parents met at a neighbor’s house where many would visit for hospitality and entertainment. Her father’s skill making creels and repairing shoes. Butter churning while learning to read English. Harvesting limpets, carrageen, and strawberries. The “Tomato Plan.” Shore fishing and curing the fish. Boglands and borders. Neighbor-gatherings to mill oats. Emigration to Omaha, Nebraska: midwestern winters and culture, broadening one’s curriculum, and tutoring football players. Meeting her husband, years in Rochester, NY, and work teaching evening courses. A visit to Maine causes homesickness for Cois Fharraige. A year of work in Galway, a wedding back in Ireland, and a new home on the Maine coast. Portland’s Irish physicians. Affinity for small communities that resemble home in Ireland. Children, their education and professions. Plans for a family wedding in Salthill, Galway. Changes in Portland and Irish-speakers from Cois Fharraige. Teaching Latin locally drawing on a beloved Irish-language textbook. Irish taught and spoken by sisters and nieces she skypes with. Good Friday pilgrimages to Maumeen with a close friend. Keeping in touch through cultural events and online resources. Pride in Ireland’s identity within the EEC, in the language, and in the strength of Irish-language culture. Mutual friends in Loughaun Beg (Inverin). The mine that exploded there during WWI and the town’s eventual by-name. Commemorations and the dune for unbaptized infants. More Irish-language literature and theatre. Cultural haunts in Galway City. Stories told by her father. Her father’s visit to Maine, meeting with local friends, and agricultural interests. A later visit by her mother, adventures at a casino, presents, and three aunts in Boston. The Boston and the Irish Language project investigates the unique importance of Irish in forming persistent bonds among and between Connemara emigrants living in Boston with their families and communities in Ireland through recorded personal interviews. Questions explored include: upbringing through the Irish language, economic and social conditions in Ireland, reasons for emigration or return, adaptation to and participation in life within the United States, changes experienced since arrival, and current use of Irish. The project is sponsored by Cumann na Gaeilge i mBoston (The Irish Language Society of Boston), and supported by a Mass Humanities project grant and the Emigrant Support Programme of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ireland.
- Contributor:
- Donegan, Maura Concannon
- Contributor:
- Concannon, Máire
- Contributor:
- Connolly, Michael
- Date:
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June 15, 2019
- Format:
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Documents
Film/Video
- Location:
- University of Massachusetts Boston, Joseph P. Healey Library
- Collection (local):
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Oral History Collections
- Series:
- Boston and the Irish Language: Fifty Years of Cultural Connection in Oral History
- Subjects:
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Cape Elizabeth (Me.)
Boston (Mass.)
Galway (Ireland)
Galway (Ireland : County)
Rochester (N.Y.)
Irish language
Gaeltacht (Ireland)
Irish Americans
Ireland--Emigration and immigration
Donegan, Maura Concannon
Donegan, Desmond
- Places:
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Maine > Cumberland (county) > Cape Elizabeth
Ireland > County Galway (county) > Inveran
New York > Monroe (county) > Rochester
Massachusetts > Suffolk (county) > Boston
Ireland > Galway City (special city)
- Link to Item:
- https://openarchives.umb.edu/cdm/ref/collection/p15774coll11/id/167
- Terms of Use:
-
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