When University College, Galway, where the policy was to introduce teaching through the medium of Irish, established two classical lectureships on that basis in 1931, an Englishman named George Thomson, who applied for one of them, astonished the interview board with a flow of Kerry Irish. He got the post.
The story of how Thomson attained his fluency in Irish is probably well-known to many students and historians of Irish but still makes for intriguing reading, especially when told by the man himself. His Island Home: The Blasket Heritage was first published in 1988.
The book includes a memoir on Thomson, his work and influences by Tim Enright. It also has many photographs taken by him and drawings by Muiris O’Sullivan.