Attorney Domhnall Ó Catháin has a perpetually busy brief as President of the Brehon Law Society of New York and a personal injuries lawyer but he still makes time for his other passion: the Irish language.
Inspired by the Brehon Laws of Ireland — the ancient Irish legal system passed down orally from one generation to another, with the first law texts written down in the 7th century A.D. — the Brehons of New York pledge "to use their talents to protect, defend, and to extend human rights, principally – but not exclusively – in Northern Ireland.”
Ó Catháin, who hails from Cork, has kept the Brehon spotlight on civil rights abuses and government collusion cover-ups in the North of Ireland throughout his tenure.
“I had a very strong interest always as a kid in matters in Northern Ireland, throughout Ireland, to be honest and even an interest in British politics too,” says Ó Catháin.
Save the dates for @McguinnessNyc dinner and walk. Join us in September. Register here: https://t.co/fM78ea99e8 pic.twitter.com/4VuQ1vsyCR
— Brehon Law (@BrehonLawNYC) July 10, 2024
Growing up, his family home was alive with discussion on Irish and Anglo-Irish politics.
“It was just something that always fascinated me and still does,” adds Ó Catháin.
“Going back, my family, on both sides, would have been involved, back in the early 1900s, in what we call the revolutionary stuff."
Scholars of the Brehon Laws say they differ from the legal systems of today's western world in that, according to Professor Fergus Kelly of Trinity College Dublin, “they devoted a great deal of attention to how things should be in society, and this provides the historian a wealth of information revealing the underlying ethos of a society.”
The founders of the Brehons in New York certainly took that sense of fair play — cothrom na féinne — to heart. Bohola, Co. Mayo men, Paul O’Dwyer and his nephew, Frank Durkan, both immigrants to New York and American trained lawyers, always fought for the underdog. Indeed, the Brehon Society members played a central role in many extradition and deportation cases involving alleged IRA members in the 1980s and 1990s. Likewise, they defended stoutly many Irish Americans accused of assisting the struggle in the North.
Domhnall's family home echoed to the sound of the Irish language, and he is passing on that legacy to a new generation of Irish speakers in the USA.
“I was raised with Irish. My mother's side of the family would be Gaeilgeoirí going back a few generations, with my mother's father's side, going back all the way through,” says Ó Catháin.
“My father learned his Irish through college and did a degree in Irish. He is passed now but they both would have been particularly good Irish speakers,” he reflects.
Domhnall went to the local Gaelscoil at elementary level and then continued his secondary education through Irish in Cork city.
“I went to the Gaelscoil in our town of Ballincollig and was in the very first class when it opened. Then in secondary school my parents sent me into Cork, to the North Monastery school where the curriculum was taught through Irish as well."
While Domhnall has been out of Ireland for over 20 years now, he has lost neither the fluency nor lilting cadence of the language when he speaks as Gaeilge. Using the language and regular contact with home helps keep his language skills sharp.
“People talk about losing the language. I don't think I ever left the language or lost the language,” he says. “And I speak to my mom on the phone all the time.”
Domhnall is sharing the language with his children now. He and his wife — and law partner — Francesca, have one birth child and two adopted children from China. They gave all their children Irish first names, and, with his two China-born children, retained their Chinese names as their middle names.
While his wife is not a Gaeilgeoir, she can understand quite a bit of what he says. And their children? Well, like all children, they can hear and understand what suits them!
“The three kids, I speak to them, I'd say, 95% in Irish. They don't quite always speak back to me unless they really want something!” he laughs.
“I'm not forcing it on them. It's just something they hear when I speak to them. That's what daddy speaks. And I think, bit by bit, that might be working, in its own little way. So, the environment is very much: they listen to it, they hear it. And the hope is that over the course of time, they'll bring it where they need to bring it,” says Ó Catháin.
And Ó Catháin’s love, and command of the Irish language has given him the opportunity to often write about the Society’s stance on the Irish language in relation to the north, including the Irish Gaelic and Ulster Scots language legislation of 2022.
He wrote in both Irish and English as the Society welcomed the legislation from Westminster on the language, but also warned that they would be monitoring its progress.
In 2009, he visited Belfast to attend a test case on Irish language rights in the High Court and maintains close relations with the burgeoning Irish language community in the North.
“For centuries, British Governments have made every effort to destroy the Irish Gaelic language. The Brehons will continue to closely monitor matters to ensure that Irish America will be aware of any attempts to undermine the legislation by people who are determined to suppress Irish Gaelic,” wrote Ó Catháin in a statement on May 26, 2022.
Every year, the Brehon Law Society offers an internship to a law student to spend 3 summer months working on human rights in the law offices of KRW Law in Belfast. Candidates should be attending an ABA-accredited American law school and have an interest in Ireland from 1969 to today.
This year, McKenzie Gallagher of Butte, Montana, was awarded the legal internship in Belfast.
“Most of the candidates who apply have an interest in Northern Ireland, a specific interest in that,” says Ó Catháin. “So, you want two things. You're looking for somebody with that interest and somebody who's going to do a service for whoever they're working with for the summer as well.”
“And that's the kind of person we want, that it's an opportunity, not just for the candidate, or the resumé, not just an opportunity for the law firm, but also an opportunity for us to invest in our future and who's going to be committed to helping us in the future and what we believe in today.”
Through all their social media platforms, the Brehon Law Society New York monitors and comments on all new changes in government and legislation in the North - bringing an international spotlight to British Government and unionist efforts to undermine the human rights provisions of the Good Friday Agreement. COTHROM NA FÉINNE: Domhnall Ó Catháin visiting Belfast in 2009 to attend a High Court test case on Irish language
That approach has been welcomed by Irish language attorneys and human rights lawyers in the North. But it's Domhnall's ability to combine his legal nous with his indepth knowledge of Irish which has made the New York Brehons allies of Gaeilge campaigners in the North.
"Lawyers in the North of Ireland are indebted to the Brehon Law Society for their support and encouragement over the years," Belfast attorney Michael Flanagan told the Irish Echo (in Irish). "In particular, I would like to thank Domhnall Ó Catháin for raising the issue of the status afforded the Irish language in the North when very few, in the US or in Ireland, were committed to resolving this human rights issue." Additionally, Flanagan, who took a string of pioneering Irish language rights cases to the courts in Northern Ireland paid tribute to O Catháin for his "advice and counsel".
And Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin of the Fís an Phobail advocacy group in West Belfast, also speaking in Irish, gave the thumbs-up to Ó Catháin's support for the Irish language rights movement. "Irish language campaigners had to take to the courts many times to fight for their rights. Thanks to the Brehon Law Society and leaders like Domhnall Ó Catháin, we were able to challenge the authorities on their denial of rights to the Irish language community - and score significant victories."
That view was echoed by civil liberties lawyer Niall Ó Murchú who heads the Ireland's Future campaign. Domhnall is the personal embodiment of the ethics of the Brehon Law Society," he told the Echo. "He has been a steadfast, eloquent and robust advocate on behalf of families pursuing access to justice in the Northern courts against a cruel and vicious Tory regime."
"I'm only remaining true to the ethos of Cumann Dlí na mBreithiún," says Domhnall, using the Irish title of the Brehon Law Society. "Our founders would expect no less".
Statement by @BrehonLawNYC President @DomhnallOCathin regarding the New Government in London. pic.twitter.com/5gbXFrXZCu
— Brehon Law (@BrehonLawNYC) July 10, 2024
