PROF Tomas de Bhaldraithe, who collapsed at a function in Dublin last night and later died, was a distinguished scholar with an international reputation. He was 79.
During a long career his contributions to the study of Irish dialects and his work in compiling dictionaries helped to develop the language as a modern medium. He is best known for his English Irish Dictionary, published in 1959, which forced a resolution of many longstanding controversies about the literary standard for Irish.
His stance on standard forms add spellings was supported by Eamon de Valera despite opposition from traditionalists in the Department of Education, and the work is widely seen as an important benchmark in Irish scholarship.
In 1960 he was appointed professor of modern Irish language and literature in UCD, when he developed an impressive archive of material on Irish dialects. Much of the material in this archive was later used as the basis of Niall 6 Donaill's Focloir Gaeilge Bearla, published in 1978, for which he was consulting editor.
The language laboratory he set up in UCD was the first of its kind in any university in Britain or Ireland. His interest, in seanchas (folklore) led to his publication of Seanchas Thomais Laighleis in 1977, while his earlier work includes the ground breaking study of the Cois Fharraige dialect, Gaeilge Choice Fharraige: An Deilbhiocht.
In later years he worked extensively on the definitive Irish dictionary, which is still unfinished.