Is mór an brón a chuir sé ar Chomhaltaí an Tighe seo a chloisint gur cailleadh Colm O Murchadha, Cléireach na Dála.
Is maith is eol dúinn agus ba mhór againn go léir an obair mhaith do rinne sé i gcúis na hEireann agus an bhaint do bhí aige leis an Tigh seo ar feadh na mblianta fada. Iarraim ort-sa, a Chinn Chomhairle, a thabhairt go gcuirfear sios in Imeachta an Tighe seo a mhéid is méala linn a bhás, an meas mór atá againn ar a shaothar, agus a thruaighe linn a bhaintreach agus a ghaolta.
Colm O Murchadha devoted a large part of his relatively short life to the service of the national cause. Both in a military and in a civil capacity his record in the struggle for independence was a distinguished one.
During the period of almost 18 years in which he has been the Clerk of the Dáil, he was known for his quiet and thorough competence and his profound knowledge of Parliamentary procedure, as well as for his unremitting devotion to his duties. He has justly earned the highest praise for his scholarly knowledge of Irish and for his work as a teacher and a writer in the language. As the directing mind behind the work of the translation staff of the Oireachtas he achieved a remarkable success in adapting the language to modern usage and, in particular, to the extremely technical and difficult work of translating Acts of the Oireachtas and other legal and official documents into Irish. The value of his work in this regard was not, I think, as fully appreciated in his lifetime as it deserved to be, but I am confident that the future will prove him to have been a pioneer of unusual foresight and tenacity. It will, I believe, be found that, in the unassuming way which was characteristic of him, he made what is probably the greatest individual practical contribution of our time to the development and advancement of the language.
I ask you, a Chinn Comhairle, to have the appreciation of Dáil Eireann recorded in the Journal of the House.