[sw-l] introducing SW to Northern Ireland

[Valerie Sutton]

SignWriting List
November 6, 2004

Shane Gilchrist Ó hEorpa wrote:
> thank you for your welcome.
>
> yes, Pat Matthews is doing a PhD on SignWriting - I believe Helena 
> Saunders
> *did* introduce SignWriting to Ireland but I am not sure about this - 
> as i
> am a born-again convert (if we can use that together!) on this (by the 
> way,
> Matthews isnt one of our leaders - hes just a Deaf academic :-) )

Smile...I didn't realize that Pat was doing his PhD with SignWriting. 
How nice! And yes...I remember sending SignWriting materials to Helena 
Saunders...and I believe you are correct that she was the first to try 
it in Ireland. There were several others who began with SignWriting, 
including Hugh Buckley...I can look up our history ...The grant that 
was received at the Linguistics Institute of Ireland under the 
direction of Eoghan Mac Aogáin, helped stimulate interest in 
SignWriting for awhile...and that is where Pat started working with 
SignWriting I believe. Were you involved with those SignWriting 
workshops? One of our List members, Ingvild Roald from Norway, taught 
SignWriting to the group in Dublin at that time...

Pat came to visit me with two Irish hearing people, back when there was 
the Deaf Way II Conference at Gallaudet University a couple of years 
ago. They attended the conference and then flew here after the 
conference. (I live in La Jolla California)...They stayed with me for 
two weeks....which was a wonderful memory. Plus we had other Deaf 
people visiting at the time...from Norway and Switzerland.

Please forgive my comment about leadership...That is my 
hearing-person's misunderstanding. I had been told that by his hearing 
illustrator who was one of the other guests at that time...but what do 
we know? smile...Nothing wrong with being a Deaf academic 
though...smile

So you are a born-again convert? which means you knew SignWriting 
before?

By the way, here is our page on SignWriting in Ireland. If you would 
like to contribute information about your work later, that will be 
great:

SignWriting in Ireland
http://signwriting.org/ireland/ireland.html

More soon -

Val ;-)


Valerie Sutton
Sutton at SignWriting.org

1. SignWritingSite
http://www.SignWriting.org
Read & Write Sign Languages

2. SignBankSite
http://www.SignBank.org
Sign Language Dictionaries

3. DanceWritingSite
http://www.DanceWriting.org
Read & Write Dance
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