Manchán Magan wordsmith

Introduction

One particular news report grabbed my attention on Friday morning 3 Oct.  The Irish Times carried the sad story of the death of the broadcaster and writer Manchán Magan (1).  Despite accounts only three weeks ago of a deterioration in his diagnosis with an aggressive form of prostate cancer, the news stopped me in my tracks.

Manchán was a literary and creative genius with an unparalleled ability to convey his enthusiasm for his chosen topic to his audience, both listeners and watchers of documentaries, talks and podcasts and also through his writings.  His interests ranged from travel abroad and home, to nature and the environment and linguistics. He regularly linked travel and language together by exploring fascinating connections between words used in different countries. 

His verbal communication technique combined academic erudition and stand-up comedy - he was both entertaining as well as factually intriguing.  The last time I heard him speak live was at a packed gig in the atmospheric and convivial setting of the appropriately named Black Box in Belfast.  The occasion, in March last year, was his launch of a series of new limited edition lavishly-illustrated hard-backed books about our linguistic legacy. 

Books 

His passing is being acknowledged on social media by a wide range of organisations from libraries and theatres to environmental and cultural organisations and from rock stars to the President of Ireland.  One tribute included this picture of Manchán's books.   

He was due back in Belfast city centre again in a few weeks time at the MAC theatre, presumably to launch his latest work, "Ninety-Nine Words for Rain (and One for Sun)."

I recall his first book which was published (2) in 2020. "Thirty-two Words for Field" set the tone for future projects.  Sparing no detail and peppering every sentence with wry humour, he describes a huge panoply of long-lost words for field, gradually leading on to loads of other topics in both the natural and man-made landscape.  

With great eloquence, this 375-page epic announced the arrival of a new voice, a wordsmith well able to remind his audience with great authority of the dangers posed by any prospect of our losing personal connections with our past.  Single-handedly he has ignited a spark to revive civic pride in our archaeology, in place-names and in Irish - whether we speak the language or do not (3).

His next book "Listen to the Land Speak" hit the newsstands (4) a couple of years later.  It deals with the largely pre-Christian myths and legends of the island, dinnseanchas, or what academics refer to as the lore of notable places.  Stories, legends and folk tales from all across the island abound and spell-bindingly told by the master of folklore.

Before I detail the three newer illustrated books that he launched in Belfast, allow me to summarise one of the many tributes to a great man of words.  This extract comes from Kathy Scott, the creative director of the Munster-based Trailblazery cultural and yoga centre (5), one of many establishments supported strongly by Manchán.  Among other things, she said that

"Manchán's legacy is vast and immeasurable. His creative output was prolific with multiple books, films, plays, radio shows, podcasts and art projects. His work opened vast territories from the vision encoded in the Irish language, deep ecology, quantum physics, women’s words (focail na mban) and the mysteries of the Otherworld.

"Manchán honoured his ancestors. He carried us from the holy wells and sacred sites of Ireland to Himalayan peaks and the Arctic. He found parallels from Ireland to India to Iceland yet he always came back to Muiríoch, West Kerry, where his roots and his grandmother’s house anchored him. "Together in 2020 we createdScoil Scairte,an Irish language immersion that has touched many lives across the globe. We shared stages, fields and mountaintops from Inis Oírr to Croagh Patrick, from Dublin to New York. We filmed him at home in Westmeath in bogs, lakes and forests and with his beloved hens and bees. Our most recent film project was a powerful conversation withMichael D Higgins, the President of Ireland, released in January 2025."

A third book published by Manchán, Focail na mBan Women's Words, gathers no less than 93 words in Irish for vaginas, vulvas, clitorises and periods.  Every page includes a specific artistic representation of each word.  Part of the book's purpose is to correct a gender imbalance in previous such books about places and landscapes.  As he describes it as "an incomprehensive collection" of such words, others are encouraged "to dive further into this rich realm of linguistic insight."  That's quite a challenge - especially after the author's passing.

The other books launched that day were both limited edition works (and not included in the earlier photograph shown above).  Both editions are limited to 200 copies only.  And as with the Women's Words book, the text is amplified by the use of artistic images (7).  One is "Dána Gránna Nasty Words for people;" the other is called "Sea Tamagotchi." 

Tamagotchi is the Japanese word which, used to describe toys, means that they need to be nurtured to survive.  The author applies the metaphor to the selected 38 terms that local folklorists and fisherman shared with him.  To quote Manchán - "losing even a single word can result in a disruption to the transfer of knowledge across generations." 

Parting thought

Considering the originality and varied roles of Manchán Magan in the cultural renaissance afoot in this western outpost of Europe, the idea of a posthumous presentation with a literary award may not seem a far-fetched suggestion. 

© Michael McSorley 2025 

References

1. Irish Times 3 Oct 2025 https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/2025/10/03/manchan-magan-writer-and-documentary-maker-dies-aged-55/

2. Thirty-two Words for Field. Lost words of the Irish Landscape Manchán Magan Gill Books 2020

3. https://michaelmcsorleylanguage.blogspot.com/2017/05/the-irish-language-belongs-to-everybody.html

4. Listen to the Land Speak. A journey into the wisdom of what lies beneath us Manchán Magan Gill Books 2022

5. https://www.thetrailblazery.com/about

6. Focail na mBan Women's Words 2023 Mayo Books Press

7. Dána Gránna Nasty Words for people; Sea Tamagotchi May 2023, both Redfoxpress