Mexico photo from 1890s recalls key moment in Irish revival

A man with a sombrero in a Mexican photo studio might not look like having much to do with the Irish-language revival but the image recalls a key moment in its early days.

It was in Mexico in the 1890s that Aran Islands-born Tomás Ó Coincheanainn first learned that his native language could be written down. Travelling the US and Central America as a rubber salesman, he saw an Irish magazine printed in New York and decided to teach himself to read and write it.

He would go on to help others do the same for more than a decade with Conradh na Gaeilge — then a fledgling organisation trying to revive the language at home.