Richard Irvine Best (1872-1959)

Life

[usually R. I. Best;] b. on Bishop St., London/Derry, Richard Irvine Best, Londonderry; ed. Foyle [Presbyterian] College; worked in a bank; moved to Paris to study Old Irish [Goídelc or Old Gaelic] in Paris, 1902; met Synge and Kuno Meyer; his trans. of also trans. D. Arbois Jubainville’s Le cycle mythologique irlandais et la mythologie celtique, was serialised in the United Irishman in 1903; appt. Asst. Dir. of the National Library 1904; m. Edith Oldham, musician and dg. Professor C. H. Oldham of UCD, 1906, with whom he shared the organisation of Feis Ceoil; appt. Dir. National Library 1924-40; ed. Lebor na hUidre [Book of the Dun Cow] with Osborn Bergin (RIA 1929); Snr. Prof. Celtic Studies, DIAS, 1940; chairman of MSS Commission and Hon. Fellow Bib. Soc. of Ireland; elected Pres. of the RIA, 1943-46;

received Leibniz Medal of Royal Prussian Academy, 1914; hon. docts. NUI & TCD; issued The Martyrology of Tallaght (1931); and The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Nuachongbála (1954-67), with Bergin and O’Brien; read a tribute written by George “AE” Russell at the funeral of George Moore; retired from Nat. Library, 1947; served as Chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission, 1948-56; d. 25 Sept., at his home, 57 Upr. Leeson St.; Best is a character in the National Library Scene of James Joyce’s Ulysses (“Scylla and Charybdis”) - a treatment which he disliked; a portrait by W. R. Rodgers was omitted from the Irish Literary Portraits issued by his wife Marianne (1972), but is available in PRONI. DIB DIH DUB OCIL

Works
Bibliography of Irish Philology and of Printed Irish Literature (Dublin: DIAS 1913); Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature, Publications 1913-1941 [2 vols.] [Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies] (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1942).

Also trans. The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology, by D. Arbois Jubainville, with additional notes (Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1903, 1905) [add. notes, pp.225-30]; [?with Bergin and O’Brien], ed., The Martyrology of Tallaght (1931).

Lebor na hUidre [Book of the Dun Cow], ed., with Osborn Bergin [RIA] (Dublin: Hodges Figgis; London; Williams & Norgate 1929); Preface [v]-vi; Contents [vii-viii]; Introduction [ix-xliv; + 2 centre-fold pls. with blank 2-p.verso]; Text [1-338]; Corrigenda [339-40], 1p. CONTENTS: List of Abbreviations for works cited [viii]; Introduction [ix]; Sex Aetates Mundi [1]; Lebor Bretnach [7]; Amra Choluim Chille [11]; Scél Tuain meic Cairill [42]; Dá Brón Flatha Nime [47]; Mesca Ulad [50]; Táin Bó Dartada [54]; Táin Bó Flidais [55]; Immram Curaig Maíle Dúin [58]; Fís Adomnán [67]; Scéla Laí Biátha [77 Scéla na Esérgi [82]; Aided Nath í [90]; Aided Echach meic Maíreda [95]; Fotha Catha Cnucha [101]; Serglige Con Culainn [104]; Senchas na Relec [127]; Genemain Aeda Sláne [133]; Tucait Indarba na nDésse [137]; Táin Bó Cúailnge . [142]; Togail Bruidne Dá Derga [207]; Fled Bricrend [246]; Siaburcharpat Con Culaind [278]; Cath Cairnd Chonaill [288]; Comthoth Lóegairi [293]; Fástini Airt meic Cuind [296]; Echtra Condla Chaím [302]; Cethri Arda in Domain [305]; Imram Brain meic Febail [306]; Tochmarc Emere [307]; Compert Con Culaind [320]; Tochmarc Etaíne [323]; Compert Mongán [333]; Mongán 7 Aided Fothaid Airgdig [334]; Scél Mongán [336]; Tucait Baile Mongán 337]; Cind Erred Ulad [338]; Corrigenda [339]; PLATES I. Táin Bó Cúailnge, p.55; II. do. p.73. [A copy held in National Library of Scotland is available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 20.04.2024.]

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References

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS], 1996 Catalogue lists: Bibliography of Irish Philology and of Printed Irish Material (Dublin 1913; 1992) [rep. with augmented indexes; orig. 1913)], xii, 339pp. 1 85500 159 4]; The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Núachongbála, 6 vols. [1 85500 036 9]: Vol. I, ed. Best, Osborn Bergin, and M. A. O’Brien (1954). xxvi, 260pp., pls. [1 85500 037 7]; Vol. II, ed. and O’Brien (1956). xi, 261-470pp., pls 1 85500 038 5]; Vol. III, ed. Best & O’Brien (1957), xix, 471-760pp. 1 85500 039 3 B 3.2.4]; Vol. IV, ed. Best and O’Brien (1965). xvii, 761–1117pp. [1 85500 040 7]; Vol. V, ed. R. and O’Brien (1967). xvi, 1119–1325pp.; [1 85500 041 5]; Vol. VI, ed. Anne O’Sullivan (1983), xv, 1327-1708pp. [0 901282 76 6]; also, with M. A. O’Brien, ed., Togail Troí from Book of Leinster (1966), 1063-1117pp. [1 85500 071 7] [diplomatic edition without translation or commentary, from The Book of Leinster (2965 edn., as supra), Vol. IV].

De Burca Books (Cat. 44; 1997) lists with Rudolf Thurneysen, Facsimile in Collotype of Irish manuscripts - The Oldest Fragments of the Sencas Mar with descriptive introduction (Dublin: Sol. Oif. 1931), xv, 56 [ltd. edn. 360].

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Notes
James Joyce: Richard Ellmann writes, ‘After his [Joyce’s] death, when the [BBC] was preparing a long program about him, its prerpresentatives went to Dublin and approached Dr Richard Best to as him to participate in a radio interview. “What makes you come to me?” he said truculently. “What makes you think I have any connection with this man Joyce?” “But you can’t deny your connection”, said the men of the BBC, “After all, you’re a character in Ulysses.” best drew himself up and retored, “I am not a charater in fiction. I am a living being.”’ (Interview with John Garvin, 1953; supported with minor demurs by Best in interview with Ellmann; quoted [from Ellmann, in Carol Shloss, ‘Chioce Newseryreels: James Joyce and the Irish Times’, in James Joyce Quarterly, p.326.)

Flann O’Brien [as Myles na Gopaleen], “Binchy and Bergin and Best”

My song is concernin’
Three sons of great learnin’
Binchy and Bergin and Best,
They worked out that riddle
Old Irish and Middle,
Binchy and Bergin and Best,
they studied far higher
Than ould Kuno Meyer
And fanned up the glimmer
Bequested by Zimmer
inchy and Bergin and Best.

They rose in their nightshift
To write for the Zeitschrift,
Binchy and Bergin and Best,
They proved they were bosses
At wrastling with glosses,
Binchy and Bergin and Best,
They made good recensions
Of ancient declensions,
And careful redactions
To their three satisfactions
Binchy and Bergin and Best.

[...]

—The Best of Myles, London: Grafton 1987; Paladin edn. 1992, pp.266-67; also quoted in Pól Ó Dochartaigh, ‘The Source of Hell: Professor Julius Pokorny of Vienna in Ulysses’, in James Joyce Quarterly, 41 (2003-04), pp.825-29, citing The Irish Times (18 March 1942), p.2. [See full copy under Flann O’Brien, Quotations - as infra.)

Henri d’Arbois de Jubainville: an authority on Celtic languages, literature and law, he was appointed to the newly founded professorial chair of Celtic at the Collège de France in 1882.

Portrait: a drawing of R. I. Best by Seán O’Sullivan in lead pencil, dated July 1938, is held in National Gallery of Ireland. A wash-and-brush port. of Mrs. Best by Sarah Celia Harrison is likewise held in NGI.

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