 Though he was clearly a master of English, his diary is mostly in Irish, with occasional business-related entries in English (probably so that such transactions could be verified by others).He mostly eschewed the archaisms favoured by other writers in Irish, writing in a fluent, flexible, colloquial style which could encompass both concision and literary elaboration.His diary shows him to have been deeply involved in the life of the poor but to have been well acquainted also with local notables.