Sir, - Tomas Uas O Duinn's "An Irishman's Diary" (St Patrick's Day) implies that "Foras Feasa ar Eirinn" was written in Middle Irish. Seathrun Ceitinn wrote it 400 years after the end of that period, so it is the Early or Classical Modern Irish that has come down to our time.
At UCD some years ago, I argued in favour of an tOllamh de Hindeberg's proposition, but no one was interested (sorry about that, Mairin). The argument was that the thousands of words added to the language would not permit its usage, but if Latin can be adapted to absorb words like "computer" and "tank" then I can see no problem.
The present Caighdean Ofigiul has Munster folk usage saying "cinne me", "ta maid" and abandoning "maith dhuinn ar gcionnta mar a mhaithimid do chach a chionntaionn in ar n-aghaidh" in the Our Father. Ceitinn's Irish would not affect the present dialects, as it is free of any dialect. Furthermore, he did not disturb the etymology of the language, faithfully incorporating the major developments from Middle to Early Modern.
Contrast this with today's illogical Caighdean. For example, there is "duirt" but not "tuirt", yet the "b" of both "dubhairt" and "tabhairt", along with "r", is the root "ber" of both verbs.
Thanking an tUas O Duinn for his interesting article. - Le gach deagh mhein.
Bothar Naomh Mhuire,
Dun Dealgan.