About 30 years ago I stumbled upon this medal in a big of rough ground near a church in Donegal. I was trying to discover a bit about its history.

Hopkins and Hopkins were the jewellers who crafted the Sam Maguire cup but I don’t think they operate anymore.

In terms of the Irish, the best I can make out with Google Translate is…

Teanga na heireann
Irish language

labair eitne gaedilg le na clann
speak Irish with the children/family

crann eitne
An oak tree

I don’t know who it is thsh dipicted on the medal nor do I know who it was awarded to. It feels like a lightweight metal, maybe tin or something, I’m not sure.

Long shot if anybody knows anything about it but chancing my arm.

by spacesnowman

5 comments

  1. ‘Crann Eithne’ being an Oak Tree seems odd to me.

    Would it be Eithne’s Tree?

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eithne

    Perhaps a local story behind it, and that’s who’s depicted on the medal?

    Great find!

    edit: Perhaps it’s this Eithne: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eithne_(opera)

    edit 2: Oh, here’s the music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTtCcOwmIXo

    This wiki trail is all your fault OP 😄

    edit 3: Some info on H&H

    >Hopkins and Hopkins, jewellers , silversmiths, and watchmakers, 1 O’Connell [formerly Sackville] Street Lower, Dublin.
    This shop, located at the corner of O’Connell Street and Eden Quay, was occupied by members of the Kimmage Garrison, a group of Irish Volunteers mainly from Scotland and England, during Easter Week 1916. Burke knew the shop’s then and managing director, Diarmuid F. O’Leary, and recently deceased founder and owner Myles R. Hopkins, through their mutual friendship with Sinn Féin founder, Sean T. O’Kelly (1882 – 1966). Hopkins was one a number of friends who acted as financial backers for Sinn Féin’s weekly newspaper

    https://www.omnia.ie/index.php?navigation_function=2&navigation_item=%2F139%2F_vx02dv70x&repid=1

  2. The dot above the letters substitutes for a h in old Irish, so yeah, looks to be in promotion of speaking Irish with the family

  5. Crann Eithne was an Organization setup to revive the Irish language in Donegal!

    ​

    *’For many years a special effort has been made under the guidance of the Most*

    *Rev. Dr. O’Donnell, Bishop of Raphoe, to safeguard the language in the homes*

    *by the use of Irish during an hour each day, with good results. Six years ago*

    *Dr. O’Donnell appointed an Irish-speaking priest to act as organiser to the*

    *Crann Eithne organisation. In this organisation every parish in the diocese of*

    *Raphoe and practically every school district was dealt with. During the day the*

    *children attending the schools were exhorted to learn their native tongue and*

    *take a patriotic pride in its use. At night, assemblies of the parents and adults*

    *were held in the schools and parochial halls. In this way between thirty-five*

    *and forty thousand Gaelic speakers in Donegal were specially exhorted to keep*

    *the native tongue alive for at least one hour each day. The good effect of this*

    *practice is felt to the present day in the number of Gaelic speakers and the*

    *enthusiasm for the language produced…’*

    ​

    [See more here](https://aran.library.nuigalway.ie/bitstream/handle/10379/1448/An%20Crann.pdf) and [here.](https://www.doaghbeg.com/doaghbeg-school)

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