This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Lesa Ní Mhunghaile. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Born: 11 October 1911, Ireland
Died: 24 December 1976
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: NA
In 1928, Maire Ní Ghuairim was instrumental in bringing her younger sister Sorcha Ní Ghuairim (1911–76) (b. 11 October 1911) to Dublin and assisting her to obtain a teaching post with Conradh na Gaeilge. Sorcha studied with Tomás Ó Máille at UCG and was later employed as an Irish teacher by the CDVEC. Like Máire, she became active in promoting Irish. Initially a columnist using the pseudonym ‘Coisín Siúlach’ for the newspaper the Irish Press, she subsequently became editor. She also contributed a regular column for the children’s page under the pseudonym ‘Niamh Chinn Óir’. These contributions included a series of stories for children entitled Eachtraí mhuintir Choinín and Sgéal Taimín Mhic Luiche. Together with Pádraig Ó Concheanainn she translated Charles McGuinness’s adventure story Viva Irlanda for publication in the newspaper. The translation was later published under the title Ceathrar comrádaí (1943). She was appointed lecturer in spoken Irish in TCD in 1941 and the same year was awarded an MA jure officii. She remained in the post until 1955. She began a weekly refresher course on Radio Éireann in 1944, ‘Is your Irish rusty’, for the benefit of those who had learnt Irish but through lack of practice had forgotten much of it. But she is best remembered for her sean-nós singing and made her first record (Folkways Records FW 861) while visiting her brother in the USA in 1945.
Sorcha Ní Ghuairim moved to England around 1955, spending the rest of her life there. It seems that by then she had become disillusioned with the future of the Irish language, particularly as a result of the decline of the gaeltachts, the standardisation of the language and the introduction of roman print. The exact date of her death is unknown as when she was found in her London apartment she had been dead for some time. She was buried in Carna, Connemara, 24 December 1976.