Is le Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann an pioctúir seo.
According to the information recorded on the Doegen speaker questionnaire in September 1931, Eóin Ó Cianáin was born in Formil, near Greencastle in County Tyrone, and was aged 74 at the time of recording in 1931. His father was a farmer from Formil and his mother came from Greencastle. In response to questions, he stated that he spent all his childhood in Formil and attended primary school at Greencastle. His adult life was spent partly in Formil and partly in Creggan, where he was living in 1931. His occupation was given as a farmer. Irish was his mother language, and he could also speak English from the age of 10 years old. He could read and write English but not Irish.
The above information is supplemented by that given on pp xlvii–xlviii of Éamonn Ó Tuathail's Sgéalta Mhuintir Luinigh, 1933 — a book for which Eóin provided the greater part of the content. Eóin was born on 14/10/1857 at Aghascrebagh, the native place of his mother, Anna Nig Cuirc, who had "gone home" for the birth. Anna had "only a limited knowledge of English". His maternal grandfather, Eóin Mhag Cuirc, was "something of a poet" in Irish. On the other side of the family, the speaker's father knew Irish and English, and a near relative, Proinnsias Ó Cianáin, known as Frank John Tarry, was a noted story-teller. An uncle, Peter Keenan, is named as Eóin's source of a couple of the stories in Sgéalta Mhuintir Luinigh (pp 185, 196).
Some of Eóin's cylinder recordings for Éamonn Ó Tuathail are preserved in Cnuasach Bhéaloideas Éireann — see Cuach mo Lon Dubh Buí and Gabha an tSoic
Eóin Ó Cianáin was raised by his parents in Formil, which is a large rural townland between Greencastle and Creggan. It is remarkable how many of the late speakers of Tyrone Irish turn out to be natives of Formil, whatever part of the district they eventually settled in. One of them, Mrs Mary Anne Bradley, Crockanboy (1880–1953), née "Micky Hamish" McCullagh, Formil, told how Formil people were "the last in the parish who spoke Irish regularly among themselves" and how they used to gather outside Greencastle Chapel on Sunday.
Eóin married Mary Mallon or Mellon of Creggan at Carrickmore on 23/08/1898. Monica Haughey writes that Eóin had been hired in Mallon's. The family were living at Formil in 1901: Eóin's father, Thomas (75), Own (40), Mary (35) and daughter Alice (1); only Thomas was noted as speaking Irish. Eóin's mother Anna Nig Cuirc had died on 12/07/1899, reportedly aged 55. Alice had been born in 1900; two more daughters soon followed, Anne, born in 1901 and Mary, born in 1903. Thomas Keenan died on 13/07/1906. He was known as Tam Ruadh, whence our speaker was Oynie Tam.
