Thomas Francis O'Rahilly, also Tomás Ó Rahille, born 1883 in Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland; died 1953 in Dublin, was an influential scholar of the Celtic languages, particularly in the fields of Historical linguistics and Irish dialects. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy. 1883 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar). ... Listowel (Irish: Lios Tuathail) is a market town in County Kerry, Ireland, and is situated on the River Feale, 27 km (17 miles) from the county town, Tralee. ... County Kerry (Irish: Ciarraí) is a county in the southwest of Ireland, in the Munster province of the Republic of Ireland, the county is informally referred to as The Kingdom. ... A true colour image of Ireland, captured by a NASA satellite on January 4, 2003. ... 1953 is a common year starting on Thursday. ... Dublins Hapenny Bridge. ... Proto-Indo-European Indo-European studies Celtic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages. ... Historical linguistics (also diachronic linguistics or comparative linguistics) is primarily the study of the ways in which languages change over time, by means of examining languages which are recognizably related through similarities such as vocabulary, word formation, and syntax, as well as the surviving records of ancient languages. ... Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... A dialect (from the Greek word διάλεκτος) is a variety of a language used by people from a particular geographic area. ... The Royal Irish Academy (RIA) is one of Irelands premier learned societies and cultural institutions. ...

Educated at the Royal University of Ireland, he held professorships in Irish at Trinity College, Dublin (1919-1929), and in Celtic languages at University College Cork (1929-1935) and University College Dublin (1935-1941). He was director of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies from 1942 to 1947. The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin or more commonly Trinity College, Dublin (TCD) was founded in 1592 by Queen Elizabeth I, is the only constituent college of the University of Dublin, Irelands oldest university. ... 1919 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... University College Cork - National University of Ireland, Cork - or more commonly University College Cork (UCC) - is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland located in Cork City. ... 1929 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin - more commonly University College Dublin (UCD) - is Irelands largest university, with over 20,000 students. ... 1935 was a common year starting on Tuesday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1941 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ... The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (Irish: Institiúid Ard-Léinn Bhaile Átha Cliath) at 65 Merrion Square, Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time Eamon de Valera. ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... 1947 was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar). ...

O'Rahilly was known for his sometimes controversial theories of Irish history. In his book Early Irish history and mythology, first published in 1946, O'Rahilly developed a model of Irish prehistory based on critical reading of early Irish literary sources, involving four waves of Celtic-speaking invaders (see Early history of Ireland). In a lecture publiched in 1942 he proposed that there were two Patricks. 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... The Mesolithic (8000 - 4500 BCE) What little is known of pre-Christian Ireland comes from a few references in Roman writings, Irish poetry and myth, and archaeology. ... 1942 was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... Statue of Saint Patrick Saint Patrick (died March 17, 462, 492, or 493), is the patron saint of Ireland. ...

His views on language contact and bilingualism were equally controversial. In Irish dialects past and present (1932) he wrote the following about Manx: Language contact occurs when speakers of distinct speech varieties interact. ... The term bilingualism (from bi meaning two and lingua meaning language) can refer to rather different phenomena. ... 1932 is a leap year starting on a Friday. ... Manx (Gaelg or Gailck), also known as Manx Gaelic, is a Goidelic language spoken on the Isle of Man. ...

From the beginning of its career as a written language English influence played havoc with its syntax, and it could be said without much exaggeration that some of the Manx that has been printed is merely English disguised in a Manx vocabulary. Manx hardly deserved to lived. When a language surrenders itself to foreign idiom, and when all its speakers become bilingual, the penalty is death. (p. 121)

Other publications include and a series of anthologies of Irish verse published between 1916 and 1927. He founded and edited Gadelica: a Journal of Modern Irish studies, and edited the journal Celtica (1946-1950). 1916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January-February January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. ... Events January 7 - First transatlantic telephone call - New York City to London January 9 - Military rebellion crushed in Lisbon January 14 - Paul Doumer elected president of France January 19 - Britain sends troops to China February 12 - First British troops lad on Shanghai February 14 - Earthquake in Yugoslavia - 700 dead February... 1946 was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... Events January January 5 - US Senator Estes Kefauver introduces a resolution calling for examination of organized crime in the USA January 6 - The United Kingdom recognizes the Peoples Republic of China. ...

External links

• T. F. O'Rahilly Papers (http://www.archiveshub.ac.uk/news/0502orahilly.html)
• Thomas Francis O'Rahilly - a family history page (http://computing.dcu.ie/~humphrys/FamTree/ORahilly/thomas.francis.html)
• T. F. O'Rahilly (http://www.pgil-eirdata.org/html/pgil_datasets/authors/o/ORahilly,TF/life.htm)