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Life
| 1827-1914 [Patrick Weston]; b. Glenosheen [var. Ballyorgan], nr. Ballyhoura Mts., S. Co. Limerick; br. of RD Joyce [infra]; educ. in ‘hedge-school’ and at Kilfinane, Kilmallock, Galbally (Co. Limerick), and Mitchelstown, Co. Cork; later at TCD, BA 1861, MA, 1864; at first taught in Clonmel; mbr. Society for Preservation of the Irish Language; entered Commission of National Education, 1845; appointed to a commission charged with reforming the management of the National Schools, 1856; head of Central National Model Schools, 1860; MRIA, 1863; Pres. Royal Soc. of Irish Antiquarians, 1906-08; Principal of Marlborough St. Teacher Training College, 1874-1893; |
| chiefly remembered for Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (1869, 1875, 1913), significantly founded on the records of the Ordnance Commission’s Topography Dept. and later cited facetiously by James Joyce in “Gas from a Burner” [‘Joyce’s names and places’]; Irish Local Names Explained (1870) is simply a listing; he also issued Ancient Irish Music (1872), published by subscription; A Handbook of School Management (1876); How to Prepare for Civil Service Examinations (1878); issued Old Celtic Romances (1879); The Geography of the Counties of Ireland (1883); Irish Music and Song (1888); A Child’s History of Ireland (1898; Longmans 1903); |
| also A Reading of Irish History (1900); A Social History of Ancient Ireland [2 vols.] (1903-1920), described as ‘an unfortunately uncritical work’ by Liam de Paor (Early Christian Ireland, 1958); The Story of Ancient Ireland (1906); A Small Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906); The Story of Ancient Irish Civilisation (1907); English as We Speak It in Ireland (1910), based on a lists supplied by D. A. Simmons; The Wonders of Ireland and Other Papers on Irish Subjects (1911); Outlines of the History of Ireland (1894); |
| also ed., Old Irish Folk Music and Songs ([q.d.]; NY: Cooper Sq. Pub., 1965); his br. was Robert Dwyer Joyce; his son, also Robert Dwyer Joyce, wrote Alfred Lord Tennyson, A Memoir, 2 vols.; his library is held in the Cregan Library of St. Patrick’s Teacher-Training College [DCU], Drumcondra; incls. an MS copy of Echtra Cormaic itir Tairngiri agus Ceart Claíd Cormaic (Adventures of Cormac in the Land of Promise), from the Book of Ballymote, in his own hand. CAB PI JMC IF DIB DIW DIH OCEL DIL FDA OCIL |
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Works
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Bibliographical details
Irish Music and Song: A Collection of Songs in the Irish Language / Set to Music / edited for / The Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language by P. W. Joyce [... &c.] [1888; new edn.] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son 1901), vi, [ii], 44pp. CONTENTS: Ode in Praise of the Irish Language (air: The Princess Royal); Dan-Mholadh na Gaedhilge (air: Bainphrionnsa Rioghamhuil); ’Be’n Eirinn I; ’Be’n Eirinn I; Eoghan Coir; Eibhlin a Ruin; Eileen Aroon; Eibhlin a Ruin; Eileen A Roon; An Raibh Tu ag an gCarraig?; Have You Been at Carrick?; As Truagh gan Peata an Mhaoir Agum; I Wish the Shepherd’s Pet Were Mine; Rois Geal Dubh, An; Paistin Fionn; Fair Young Child, The; Jimmy Mo Mhile Stor; Jimmy Moveela Sthore; Seaghan O Duibhir an Ghleanna; John O’Dwyer of the Glen; Dia-Luain, Dia-Mart, agus Dia-Ceadaoin; Ar Eirinn Ni ’Neosainn Ce hI; For Ireland I’d Not Tell Her Name; Binn Lisin Aerach an Bhrogha; Melodious Airy Little Fort of Bruff; Grainne Mhaol; Fainne Geal an Lae; Dawning of the Day; Tighearna Mhaigheo; Ban-Chnoic Eireann Ogh (air: Ullachan Dubh O); The Fair Hills of Holy Ireland; Ban-Chnoic Eireann Ogh; The Fair Hills of Holy Ireland; A Chuisle Mo Chroidhe Cread I an Ghruaim Sin Ort?; O, Pulse of My Heart, Why Do You Frown?; Druimfhionn Donn Dilis; Drimin Dhown Dheelish; Moirin Ni Chuillionain; Moreen O’Cullenan; Maire Bheil-Atha-hAmhnais (air: Port Gordon); Mary of Ballyhaunis [all songs with music and words].
Available at Gutenberg Project English as We Speak it in Ireland - online The Story of Ancient Irish Civilisation - online Available at Library Ireland A Concise History of Ireland (1910) - online
Digital versions available at ITMA > Joyce, Irish Music and Song (1888; 1901) [ Index ] To access these copies, download and install Sibelius Scorch - online. Note: The online addresses appear to have been altered at current date. Find Irish Music and Song (Joyce) at new link (accessed 04.03.2023)
See “P. W. Joyce - Irish Music Microsite” at Irish Traditional Music Archive/Taisce Ceol Dúchais Éireann - online
[Site message - ‘This plug-in is not supported’ - at 11.08.2020]
Online Index of publications by W. B. Yeats available at Internet Archive - Supplied by Clare County Library Old Irish Folk Music and Songs, a collection of 842 Irish airs and songs, hitherto unpublished
by P. W. Joyce
Published: 1909, Longmans, Green, and co.; [etc., etc.] (London, New York)
Contributions: Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland.
Statement: ed., with annotations, for the Royal society of antiquaries of Ireland, by P.W. Joyce ...
Pagination: xxxvi, 408pp.
Subject: Folk songs, Irish
Music — Ireland
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A Short History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1608 / by / P. W. Joyce, LL.D., T.C.D., M.R.I.A., / One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland; author of Irish Names of Places, Old Celtic Romances, and other works relating to Ireland / with a map (London: Longmans, Green, & Co.; NY: 15 East 16th St. 1893), vii, [i], 565pp. See copy of formerly belonging to Henry Morse Stephens, California Library [LA]. [See extract - infra; also full-copy verson - as attached.)
[See also extract on St. Patrick - as attached. The copy in the University of California [sic] with the bookplate of former owner H[enry] Morse Stephens and catalogued as DA910 J62 is available at Internet Archive online; accessed 10.01.2011. The Index also available at Open Library - online.] Outlines of the History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1905, by P. W. Joyce, LLD, MRIA, One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland [author of A Social History of Ireland, A Child’s History of Ireland, Irish Names of Places, Old Celtic Romances, Ancient Irish Music, A Reading Book in Irish History, and other works relating to Ireland / Longmans, Green and Co. London, New York and Bombay, Dublin: M. H. Gill and Sons 1910. [other edns. 1914; 1921.]
A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland: Treating of the Government, Military System, and Law; Religion, Learning and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life, of the Ancient Irish People (London: Longman, Green; Dublin: M. H. Gill 1906) [See table of contents, attached].
English As We Speak It In Ireland (London: Longmans, Green, & Co. 1910), x, 356pp. [18cm.]; Do. [2nd. & 3rd Edns.] (also 1910); Do. [?3rd edn.] (Dublin: Talbot Press; London: Longmans & Co. [1920]), x, 356pp.; Do. [facs. rep.] (Detroit: Gale Research 1968); & Do. [facs. of 2nd. edn], with new introduction by Terence Dolan (Portmarnock: Wolfhound Press 1979), xxviii, x, 356pp., ill., 1 pl., port. [21cm.], and Do. (Dublin: Wolfhound Press 1987), xlii, 356pp. (Available at Gutenberg Project - online.]
The Origin and History of Irish Place Names[1st Edn.; spine: Irish Names of Places] (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill 1869), xiv, 530pp.; Do. [2nd edn.; enl. & corr.] (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill, 1870), xviii, 571pp.; Do. [3rd edn.] (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill 1871), xviii, 573pp.; Do., 3 vols. [4th edn.] (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill; London: Whittaker & Co.; Simpkin, Marshall & Co., 1875), xviii, 593pp., [Pref. dated Dublin, March 1875; 17cm. - available at Internet Archive online]);Do. [another edn.], 2 vols. (Dublin: M. H. Gill; London: Whittaker, Simpkin, Marshall; Edinburgh: J. Menzies 1883) [18cm]; Do. [5th edn.], 2 vols. (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1887) [18 cm];Do. [another edn.], 2 vols. (London: Longmans, Green 1910-13) - Vol. 1, 1910; Vol. 2., 1912; Vol. 3., 1913); Do. [another edn.], 3 vols. (Dublin: Educational Co. of Ireland, 1898-1913) [Bibl., Vol. 3, pp.ix-x]; Do. (Dublin: Phoenix Publishing Co. 1913), Pref., v-xiv; [text:] 531pp. + Index of Names (pp.533-82); Index of Root Words (pp.583-89) [spine: Irish Names of Places - available at Internet Archive online]; Do., 3 vols. (Dublin: The Educational Company of Ireland [1925]), 19cm. - of which Vol. II, 538pp.; Do. [rep. of 4th edn.; McGlashan & Gill, Dublin, 1875] Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (Wakefield: EP Publ. 1972; 1976), viii, iii-xviii, 593pp. [Bibl. pp.ix-xii]; Do., as Pocket Guide to Irish Place Names, [by] P. W. Joyce. [Appletree Guides] ((Belfast: Appletree Press 1992), 96pp.; Do., as Irish Names of Places [another edn.] with a new introductory essay on P.W. Joyce by Mainchín Seoighe, 3 vols. [facs. edn. of orig. edn. 1869-1913] (Dublin: Éamonn De Burca 1995) (1) xl, 589pp.; (2) viii, 538pp. (3) x, 598pp.; Do. [Kessinger Publishing’s rare reprints; facs. of 3rd edn., 1871] (Whitefish MT: Kessinger Publishing [2006]), xviii, 572pp. [23 cm.]. [also known as Irish Names of Places; see extracts under Quotations, infra.] Note: often with spine-title as Irish Names of Places.
Irish Names of Places, Vol. I (Dublin: Phoenix Publ. Co. 1913) - CONTENTS PART I - THE IRISH LOCAL NAME SYSTEM.
CHAPTER I. How the Meanings have been ascertained, [1]
CHAPTER II. Systematic Changes [17]
CHAPTER III. Corruptions [47]
CHAPTER IV. False Etymologies [69]
CHAPTER V. The Antiquity of Irish Local Names [76]PART II - NAMES OF HISTORICAL AND LEGENDARY ORIGIN.
CHAPTER I. Historical Events [86]
CHAPTER II. Historical Personages [121]
CHAPTER III. Early Irish Saints [142]
CHAPTER IV. Legends [159]
CHAPTEK V. Fairies, Demons, Goblins, and Ghosts [178]
CHAPTER VI. Customs, Amusements, and Occupations [200]
CHAPTER VII. Agriculture and Pasturage [227]
CHAPTER VIII. Subdivisions and Measures of Land [ 241]
CHAPTER IX. Numerical Combinations [ 246]PART II - NAMES COMMEMORATING ARTIFICIAL, STRUCTURES.
CHAPTER I. Habitations and Fortresses [268]
CHAPTER II. Ecclesiastical Edifices [312]CHAPTER III. Monuments, Graves, and Cemeteries [329]
CHAPTER IV. Towns and Villages [347]
CHAPTER V. Fords, Weirs, and Bridges [353]
CHAPTER VI. Roads and Causeways [370]
CHAPTER VII. Mills and Kilns [374]PART IV - NAMES DESCRIPTIVE OF PHYSICAL FEATURES.
CHAPTER I. Mountains, Hills, and Rocks [378]
CHAPTER II. Plains, Valleys, Hollows, and Caves [ 422]
CHAPTER III. Islands, Peninsulas, and Strands [440]
CHAPTER IV. Water, Lakes, and Springs [446]
CHAPTER V. Rivers, Streamlets, and Waterfalls [454]
CHAPTER VI. Marshes and Hogs [461]
CHAPTER VII. Animals [408]
CHAPTER VIII. Plants [491]
CHAPTER IX. Shape and Position [622]INDEX OF NAMES [533]
INDEX OF ROOT WORDS [583]-p.xiii-[xiv] - go to Internet Archive online; accessed 27.10.2015
See digital copy of P. W. Joyce’s The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places (1875 M’Glashan edition) - available at Internet Archive as pdf; also Do. (Dublin: Phoenix Publishing Co. 1913) - at Internet Archive online]. Note: The two editions cited above - 1875 and 1913 - show numerous differences in the the prefatory materials and table of contents, suggesting constant revision amounting to re-writing over the years. (The 1875 edition is styled “2nd Series”.) The number of volumes associated with the book from printing to printing is highly variable and has been notarised here primarily from COPAC records (Coordinated Online Public Access Catalogue, UK).
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A Social History of Ancient Ireland, treating of the Government; Military System, and law; Religion, Learning, and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life, of the Ancient Irish People, by P. W. Joyce, LLD Trin. Coll., Dubl.; MRIA, one of the commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland; Vol. I [prev. imp. 1903; 1913] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son 1920), 632pp.; includes dedicatory page, ‘The Place, Time, Author and Cause of Writing, of this book, are:- Its place is Lyre-na-Grena, Leinster-road, Rathmines, Dublin; its time is the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and three; the author is Patrick Weston Joyce, Doctor of Laws; and the cause of writing the same book is to give glory to God, honour to Ireland, and knowledge to those who desire to learn about the Old Irish People; also incl. acknowledgement to Kuno Meyer, ‘now our greatest and most accomplished Irish scholar’, or notes made while reading the first edition on its first appearance, then transmitted to Joyce. Contents list Parts I and II; Part III (Chap. XIX, ‘The Family’, &c.) ensue in Vol. II (1903, 1913, 1920), 608pp. [Full-text version in progress.]
Old Irish Folk Music and Songs / A collection of 842 airs and songs hitherto unpublished / edited, with annotations, / for the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland / by / P. W. Joyce L.L.D., M.R.I.A., / President of the Society / Longmans, Green and Co. / 39, Paternoster Row, London, / New York, Bombay, and Calcutta, / Dublin, Hodges and Figgis, & Co., Ltd., / 1909), xxxvi, 408pp. All rights reserved. [verso:] printed at Ponsonby & Gibbs. [Part I & II: songs from Joyce’s own collection; Part II: Irish folk songs in the English language; Parts III; collection of the Cork musician William Forde; Pt. IV, collection of John Edward Pigot. Preface cites his own Ancient Irish Music and Irish Peasant Songs in the English language as source of songs in Pt. II. [See account in Ask About Ireland > Irish Libraries [online]; also given there in pdf;]
Preface: ‘[...] The book that [...] I was most careful about in the great collection of Dr. Petrie’s airs recently edited for “The Irish Literary Society, London,” by Sir Charles Villiers Stanford. [...] The gross number of airs in the “Stanford-Petrie” Collection (as for convenience I call it throughout this book) is 1,582; and making allowance for those already published, as stated, and for some inadvertant repetitions in the book itself, we have a large residue of airs never previously published - the largest collection of the kind that has ever appeared - a noble treasure-store of Irish melody. I read every one of the 1,582 airs in this book, and, so far as lay in my power, I have avoided repeating any of them, excluding even those contributed by myself to Dr. Petrie more than fifty years ago - a very large number - nearly 200 - most of which bear my name all through the book.
[...]
I have examined the collection lately published by Captain Francis O’Neill of Chicago - “The Music of Ireland” - and I do not think I have reproduced any of his airs. But it was only when a good part of this book of mine was printed that his second volume - “The Dance Music of Ireland” - came into my hands; and I find that one or two of his dance tunes have been repeated here, though in different versions.’ (p.vi; see further extracts from the Preface - as supra.)Ancient Irish Music containing one hundred airs hitherto unpublished. Many of the older popular songs. And Several New Songs. Collected and Edited by P. W. Joyce (L.L.D., M.R.I.A.) The Harmonies by Professor Glover (Dublin: McGlashen & Gill; London: Simpkin, Marshall, &c.; Edinburgh: John Menzies 1873), ix, 104, 6pp. [list of subscribers]; Epigraph [t.p.]: ‘—some notes we used to love / In days of boyhood’; 5pp. of subscription names. Several of the airs are noted down from James Buckley, a Limerick piper, others from the whistling of Joseph Martin and still others from the singer Davy Condon. Numerous other donors are cited including a servant named Mary Hackett in Limerick (p.92), another called Jane Murphy of Layton near Drogheda (p.94), and Peggy Cudmore, ‘a little girl gifted with extraordinary natural musical talent’ (p.85). End-paper advertisement notices St Patrick at Tara, a Cantata with full vocal score and pianoforte accomp. by Prof. Glover (just published and ded. to HRH Prince Arthur Patrick. Pub. by Duncan Davidson (London) and Glover & Co. (Dublin).
[Sources: 1] See interactive copy in ITMA - online. 2] Another copy at Ask About Ireland > Irish Libraries - online [signed copy to William H. Grattan Floyd, with compliments from P. W. Joyce, 25 May 1898; held at The Central Irish Library for Students, Dublin; contains num. annotations presum. by Grattan reflecting familiarity with the material, incl. the date of 1854 inserted after Joyce’s remarks on the transcription of a Peggy Cudmore, ‘a little girl gifted with extraordinary natural musical talent’ - No. 84, p.85]. 3] another copy at Internet Archive - online; accessed 08.04.2024.)
Text includes this footnote to No. 63: ‘I had learned this fine air in my childhood, with a few verses of an English song, the burden of which I have retained as the name of the air. When, about 1852, I began to write down from memory all the airs I had learned in early days, I recollect the first part of this melody, but was unable to recall the second part; for I had neither heard nor sung the tune for very many years. One cold dark evening in November 1852, I was walking through Clanbrassil-street in Dublin, when I heard the air sung sweetly and correctly by a [64] poor woman with a child in her arms; and the first note or two of the second part immediately flashed the whole thing on my memory. I give a song of my brother's composition with the air. “Along with My Love I’ll Go.” [‘My love has an eye of brightness, An arm of valour free; My love has a heart of lightness, But ever true to me. / The pride of my hear unchanging, His black locks’ martial flow, And away to the wild wars ranging, Along with my love I'll go. &c.’ (pp.63-64.) Another note refers to information about a stick used to plant cabbages or potatoes (Bata na bplandaighe) received conversationally from Sir William Wilde (p.66).
“Barbara Allen”: ‘The English and Scotch have each a ballad named Barbara Allen; and the words of the two ballads, though differing considerably, are only varieties of the same original. Goldsmith, in his second essay, after speaking of the pleasant retirement of his early life, says: — “The Music of the finest singer is dissonance to what I felt when our old dairy-maid sung me into tears with Johnny Armstrong’s last good night, or the cruelty of Barbara Allen.” These words would lead to the belief that a version of Barbara Allen was current in the midland counties of Ireland, in the time of Goldsmith’s childhood; and this belief receives some confirmation from the fact that I have heard the ballad among the peasantry of Limerick. In the year 1847 a young girl named Ellen Ray, of Glenroe, in the county of Limerick, sang it for me, with such power and feeling, that the air became at once stereotyped on my memory. I did not take a copy of the words, which I now regret very much; but I remember two lines, which vary from “And every toll that the death-bell gave / Was ‘I died for you Barbary Ellen.’” The air to which the ballad is sung in England is quite different from that which they have in Scotland: the Irish air differs from both, and may I thmk, compare favourably with either.’ (p.79.)
Old Celtic Romances, translated from the Gaelic [3rd ed., rev. and enl.] (London: Longmans, Green 1907); Do. [another edn.] (Dublin: The Education Co. of Ireland, Ltd., 88 Talbot Street; London: Longmans, Green and Company, 39 Paternoster Row 1920), 474pp. [Notes, 455; Alphabetical list of principal proper names [...], 471ff.; epigraph: “I shall tell you a pretty tale” - Coriolanus; copy at UCLA available at Internet Archive - online]
See a digital copy of P. W. Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances (1907; 1920 Edn.) at Internet Archive - online; also available at Gutenberg Project - online.
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Commentary
Ernest A. Boyd, Ireland’s Literary Renaissance (Dublin: Maunsel 1916, rev. 1922): ‘[...] P. W. Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances (1879), “the first collection of the old Gaelic prose romances that has ever been published in fair English translation,” as the author described it in his preface. The book had none of the fire and poetic imagination of O’Grady’s epic history; it did not, therefore, appeal in the same way to the young poets of the Eighties, but it was the forerunner of the popular literature of heroic Ireland. Its many editions prove that it can still survive the competition of numerous successors [...]’ (p.394; see full-text copy at RICORSO - as attached.)
| Fairy lore: ‘There is a hideous kind of hobgoblin generally met with in churchyards, called a dullaghan, who can take off and put on his head at will - in fact you generally meet him with that member in his pocket, under his arm, or absent altogether or if you have the fortune to light on a number of them you may see them amusing themselves by flinging their heads at one another, or kicking them for footballs.’ |
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A Short History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1608 (1893): ‘The chiefs not only submitted to the king’s temporal authority, but they also, to a man, acknowledged his spiritual supremacy. This was included in the declaration of submission signed by each individual. It may be urged in extenuation of their easy compliance on this score, that the subject of spiritual supremacy had not been brought much under notice in these countries up to that time; the chiefs hardly understood its full scope; and they did not think themselves the worse Catholics for renouncing the [387] supremacy of the Pope. It did not much disturb their consciences, and it satisfied the king. Besides it was an empty formality - mere ink and paper - and so no doubt they considered it: they were not called upon to change in any particular their creed or their mode of worship; and they still followed the ministrations of their clergy, who of course were faithful spiritual subjects of the Pope. / But this spiritual submission, even such as it was, was confined to the chiefs, who were only a few individuals. The mass of the people made no such submission - knew nothing of it; and the attempt to impose on Ireland the doctrine of the king’s spiritual supremacy was - then, as well as before and after - a failure.’
[Further:] ‘With the career of Henry III in England we have no concern here: I am writing Irish, not English, history. Putting out of sight the question of supremacy and the suppression of the Irish monasteries, Henry’s treatment of Ireland was on the whole considerate and conciliatory, though with an occasional outburst of cruelty. There was indeed in his time a great deal of foolish and harassing legislation regarding dress, language, customs, &c., all aiming at an impossibility - to anglicise the native Irish. But he never contemplated the expulsion or extermination of the Irish tribes to make room for new colonies, though often urged to it by his mischievous Irish executive. These officials were all for starving, burning, killing, and extirpating the natives, and bringing in English people in their stead; and they gave the king much bloodthirsty advice, which he steadily disregarded. His policy, as carried out by Sentleger, was thoroughly successful; for the end of his reign found the chiefs submissive and contented, the country at peace, and the English power in Ireland stronger than ever it was before. Well would it have been, for both England and Ireland, if a similar policy had been followed in the succeeding reigns. Then our history would have been very different; and the tragical story that follows would never have to be told.’ (A Short History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1608, 1893; “The Period of the Invasion”, Pt. III; Chap. XIX: General Submission [p.387ff]; See full-text version - in Library > Classics > P. W. Joyce - infra, or as attached.)
Land tenure and tenant relations in Gaelic Ireland and Anglo-Ireland compared (Short History, 1893) The tenants of all kinds were protected - more or less - by old customs and by the Brehon law, which also safeguarded the rights of the landlord as well as those of the tenant. The law expressly provided that the chief should not exact excessive rent or subsidy from the tenants. Nevertheless the state of things described in the last few pages obviously tended to increase the power of the chiefs and to throw the land more and more into their hands; and the movement in this direction was accelerated by the English settlement. For when the English lords and undertakers settled down on their Irish estates, they found it more convenient to adopt the native customs of receiving rent, as squaring in with the habits of the people and consequently giving less trouble. But while they carefully preserved the landlord rights, and went even further by imposing various tributes unknown to the ancient Irish, they disregarded the rights of the tenants as laid down in the Brehon law: and the neighbouring Irish chiefs readily followed their example.[O’Donovan in Book of Rights, Introd, xvii. to xxii]. The ancient rights of the tenants, i.e. of the ceiles or freemen, as may be gathered from the preceding part of this chapter, were chiefly three: - A right to some portion of the arable or tribe land, and to the use of the commons: a right to pay no more than a fair rent, which in the absence of express agreement was adjusted by law: a right to own a house and homestead, and with certain equitable exceptions, all unexhausted improvements.- Unless under special contract in individual cases the fudirs had no claim to these - with this exception how^ever, that the saer fudirs had a right to their unexhausted improvements. Among those who held the tribe land there was no such thing as eviction from house or land, so that all had what was equivalent to fixity of tenure. If a man failed to pay the subsidy to his chief, or the rent of land held in any way, or even the debt due for stock, it was recovered like any other debt, by distress, never by process of eviction. When the authority of the Brehon law became weakened — chiefly through the influence exerted by the English settlement - the tenants lost their best support, and all their rights were gradually swept away, till land, houses, and improvements of every kind came - in the absence of express contract - to be considered as the exclusive property of the landlords; and the tenants were nearly all driven into the position of the fudirs of old. The fudirs in fact never died out, but rather increased and multiplied under the combined influences of perpetual social disturbance and force from above. The tenants at will, who were so numerous within our own memory, were fudirs under another name, with no rights worth mentioning. They were indeed altered in many ways by the modern conditions of society, but not altered at all in their helplessness and misery. [All citing Brehon Laws.] But customs that have grown up slowly among a people during more than a thousand years take long to eradicate. They subsist as living forces for generations after their formal abolition; and notwithstanding the lapse of three centuries, there has remained all along, and remains to this day - lurking deep down in the minds of the people - a sort of unconscious memory of the old right to subsistence from the soil, and a disbelief in the landlord’s absolute ownership of the land. The people never in fact quite forgot or quite relinquished their old Brehon law claims; and the cruel land war went on and became more bitter with lapse of time - the tenants ever getting the worst - till -recent legislation restored to them a portion of their lost rights and privileges. (p.82-83.)
Irish Names of Places (1869), Preface: ‘The local nomenclature of most countries of Europe is made up of the language of the various races [...] In our island, there was scarcely any admixture of races, till the introduction of an important English element, chiefly within the last three hundred years - for, as I have shown, the Danish irruptions produced no appreciable effect; and accordingy, our place-names are purely Celtic, with the exception of about a thirteenth part, which are English, and mostly of recent introduction. This great name system, begun thousands of years ago by the first wave of population that reached our island, was continued unceasingly from age to age, till it embraced the minute features of the country in its intricate network; and such as it sprang forth from the minds of our ancestors, it exists almost unchanged to this day.’ Further: ‘This is the first book ever written on the subject. In this respect I am somewhat in the position of a settler of a new country, who has all the advantages of priority of claim, but who purchases them too dearly perhaps, by the labour and difficulty of tracking his way through the wilderness, and clearing his settlement from primeval forest and tangled underwood.’ (pp.vi-vii; quoted in Thomas Hofheinz, Joyce and the Invention of Irish History, Cambridge UP 1995, p.[83].)
Irish Names of Places (1869) - cont.: ‘Indeed my notes on this subject from an sources would be enough to astonish any person looking through them - enough indeed to alarm one at the idea of classifying and using them [...] The great name system, begun thousands of years ago by the first wave of population that reached our island, was continued unceasingly from age to age till it embraced the minutest features of the country in its intricate network, and, such as it sprang from the minds of our ancestors, it exists almost unchanged to this day.’ ‘These volumes comprise what I have to say conceming Irish Local Names; for I have noticed all the principal circumstances that were taken advantage of by the people of this country to designate places; and I have explained and illustrated, as far as lay in my power, the various laws of name-forrnation, and all the important root-words used in building up the structure’. (Cited in De Burca Catalogue 44, 1997[,] p.32.)
Irish Names of Places (1869) - cont.: ‘The face of a country is a book which, if it be deciphered correctly and read attentively, will unfold more than ever did the cuneiform inscriptions of Persia, or the hieroglyphics of Egypt. Not only are historical events, and the names of innumerable remarkable persons recorded, but the whole social life of our ancestors - their customs, their superstitions, their battles, their amusements, their religious fervour, and their crimes - are depicted in vivid and everlasting colours. The characters are often obscure, and the page defaced by time, but enough remains to repay with a rich reward the toil of the investigator. Let us hold up the scroll to the light, and decipher some of these interesting records.’ (q.p.; Quoted in Richard Kain, ‘“Nothing Odd Will Do Long”: Some Thoughts on Finnegans Wake Twenty-five Years Later’, Jack P. Dalton & Clive Hart, eds., Twelve and a Tilly: Essays on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Finnegans Wake, London: Faber & Faber 1966, p.95.)
On dinnsenchas: ‘[T]his great name system, begun thousands of years ago by the first wave of population that reached our island [and] continued unceasingly from age to age, till it embraced the minutest features of our country in its intricate network’. (Quoted by Trevor Joyce on Facebook, 21.11.2018 - citing Alan Counihan. [Cf. A Field Name Research Handbook [q.d.] - pdf online.] )
[For full-text version of Joyce’s Preface to the Irish Names of Places (1869, &c.) - see attached.]
See minor extracts from Old Celtic Romances, 1907; 1920 Edn., under James Macpherson [as infra] and Brian Merriman [as infra].
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A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906), Preface: ‘[...] it seems to me very desirable that a good knowledge of the social conditions of ancient Ireland such as is presented here, should be widely diffused among the people; more especially now, Chap. II - Govt. / Classes of Kings: ‘The government of the whole country, as well as that of each division and subdivision, was in the hands of king or chief, who had to carry on his government in accordance with the immemorial customs of the country, or sub-kingdom. And his authority was further limited by the counsels of his chief men. The usual name for a king in the ancient as well as in the modern language is [ree], genitive [ree]. A queen was and is called riogan [pro. reean]. Over all Ireland there was one king who, to distinguish him from [the others] was called high-king [ard ri]’.
A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906): ‘Dr. Todd tested the statement in the Annals regarding the full tide at the start of the battle of Clontarf by calculating with Rev. Samuel Haughton [on the calendar].’ Further: ‘As to the general moral tone of the ancient Irish tales, it is to be observed that in all early literatures, Irish among the rest, there is much plain speaking of a character that when there is an awakening of interest in the Irish language, and Irish lore of every kind, unparalleled in our history.’ (p. ix);
A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906) - more [would now be considered coarse, and would not be tolerated in our present social and domestic life. But on the score of morality and purity the Irish tales can be compared favourably with the corresponding literature of other coutries, and they are much freer from objectionable matter than the workds of many of those early English and continental authors which are now regarded as classic.’ (p.237; quoted in Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, Calif. UP 1994, pp.309-10.)
Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: A Collection of 842 Irish Airs and Songs hitherto Unpublished; edited, with annotations, for The Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland (Dublin, Hodges, Figgis, & Co. 1909): ‘[...] I spent all my early life in a part of county Limerick where music, singing, and dancing were favourit amusements. My home in Glenosheen, in the heart of the Ballyhoura Mountains, was a home of music and song; they were in the air in the valley; you heard them everywhere - sung, played, whistled; and they were mixed up with the people’s pastimes, occupations, and daily life. Though we had pipers, fiddlers, fifers, whistlers, and singers of our own, wandering musicians were welcomed; and from every one some choice air or song that struck our fancy was pretty sure to be learned and stored up to form part of the ever-growing stock of minstrelsy. As I loved the graceful music of the people of my childhood, their songs, dance tunes, keens, and lullabies remained in my memory, almost without any effort of my own: so that I ultimately became, as it were, the general, and it be said the sole, legatee of all this long-accumulated treasure of melody.’
Further: It will be seen then that my knowledge of Irish music, such as it is, did not come to me form the outside in after-life, or by a late study, as a foreign language is learned, but grew up from within during childhood and boyhood, to form part of my mind like my native language.
When I came to reside in Dublin, and became acquainted for the first time with the various published collections of Irish music, I was surprised to find that a great number of my tunes - many of them very beautiful - were unpublished, and quite unknown outside the district or province in which they had been learned. This pleasant discover I made in the year 1853 through my acquaintance with Dr. George Petrie - the founder of scientific Irish Archaeology - who was then engaged in editing his Ancient Music of Ireland. Mainly through his example, and indeed partly at his suggestion, I set about writing down all the airs I could recollect - a task followed up for years, and which in fact is hardly yet ended. Then I went among the people - chiefly in the sourt - during vacations, noting down whatever I thought worthy of preserving, both music and words. In this way I gradually accumulated a very large collection. All these I placed in Dr. Petrie’s hands from time to time, [vii] down to about 1856; and I have good reason to believe they are still among the Petrie papers. But I kept copies of all, as a precaution.
[...]
These personal details, and like them through the book, will I hope be excused; inasmuch as they are given simply as a necessary part of the history of the airs in this volume. They may be turned to use at some future time by students of Irish Music. (pp.vii-viii.)On musical settings [“Narrative airs”]: We know that most or all Irish airs, like the popular airs of other countries, have various settings or versions. In most cases these are the result of gradual and almost unintentional alterations made by singers and players; just as the words and phrases of a living colloquial language become gradually altered. But it is highly probable - indeed, I might say it is certain - that some versions were directly and deliberately made by skilled musicians, who changed the time, or rate of movement, or both, with more or less change in the individual notes, often with the result of wholly altering the character of the air. In this manner - as I believe - one of each pair of the following tunes was formed from the other: but it is not easy to determine in each case which was the original: - Thaumamahulla (Moore’s “Like the bright lamp that shone"), and Seanduine Crom (p. 13, below); Patrick’s Day and the Bard’s Legacy (Moore’s “When in death I shall calm recline “); “Air bhruach na Carraige baine" (Petrie’s Anc. Mus. of Irel., p. 142), and the Foggy Dew (p.31, below); Slainte Righ Philip, and An Gamhuin geal ban (p.12, below). And it would be easy to select other pairs similarly related." (p.xiii.) [See bibliographical details under Works - as supra; available at Internet Archive - online.]
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A Child’s History of Ireland (1910)
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Outlines of the History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1905 (1910) - Joyce writes of Parnell: ‘For a considerable period, very unfavourable rumours about Mr. Parnell’s personal character had been going about: but he persisted in declaring them false, and that when the proper time came he would prove them so. But when the proper time did come, it was found that [145] they were all true. On this, the Irish Catholic bishops and the majority of his followers, declared that they would no longer have him as leader: but a section of the nationalists took his part and determined that they would still follow him. So the Nationalist part became broken up into two sections, Parnellites and Anti-Parnellites, who were bitterly opposed to each other [...] later the bishops issued a manifesto declaring Parnell and unworthy leader, and appealing to the people to sever themselves from him.’ (p.146). Further [on the Wyndam Act]: ‘By this Act a free grant (or “Bonus” as it is usually called) of twelve millions was given by the Government to enable the two parties to come to an agreement [...] A vast sum was also set apart for lending to tenants, to eable them to buy, which they are to pay back in installments, as in the Ashbourne Acts. This Act is working very successfully. Great numbers of tenants are buying out their farms, so that in the a few years most of the land of the country will belong to “Peasant Proprietors”. Provision is also [159] made to enable the landlords to keep their own homes and demesnes, and live in Ireland - a thing much to be desired. So far (i.e. to 1905) nearly all the landlords who have sold out have elected to remain.’
[Outline of Irish History - Sect. 316:] ‘From this brief narrative of the events of the last thirty years or so, it will be seen that much has been done to remedy the evil effects of the unjust and ruinous laws described at pages 100 to 103. But much remains to be done, both by the Government and by the people themselves. On the part of the people, what they need most of all is to avoid intemperance, and to help the cause of Temperance by every means in their power. Another most necessary thing is that those of all parties and religions, throughout the four provinces, should unite for the common good, and should pay more attention to the encouragement and development of industries, so as to give increased opportunities of employment to the working classes, and induce them to remain at home. This desirable state of things is slowly but surely coming about: matters are gradually improving year by year; and those who have the welfare of the country at heart entertain strong hopes that the time is not far off when the people of Ireland will be prosperous and contented.’ [END; pp.159-60.]
His saga translations: ‘Ihe originals are in general simple in style; and I have done my best to render them into simple, plain, homely English.’ (Old Celtic Romances, p.vii; quoted in Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, California UP 1994, p.308.)
Further: ‘As to the general moral tone of the ancient Irish tales, it is to be observed that in all early literatures, Irish among the rest, there is much plain speaking of a character that would now be considered coarse, and would not be tolerated in our present social and domestic life. But on the score of morality and purity the Irish tales can be compared favourably with the corresponding literature of other coutries, and they are much freer from objectionable matter than the workds of many of those early English and continental authors which are now regarded as classic. (Smaller Social History, p.237; Tymoczko, op. cit., 309-10.)
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References
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904) gives extracts from Old Celtic Romances; A Child’s History of England; also ‘Oisin in Tirnanoge’.
[ See alsoIrish Book Lover, Vols. 2, 3, 4. ]
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), one of the most extraordinary Irish scholars, b. Ballyorgan, Co. Limerick; ed priv. and TCD; LL.D., 1870; held post as Princ. of Commissioners’ Training Coll., Dublin, till 1893; his Old Celtic Romances (1879) incl. the translation used by Tennyson in his ‘Voyage of Maeldune’ (1880); cited in Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press 1979), under ‘P.W. Joyce’ [see OCEL].
Margaret Drabble, Oxford Companion of English Literature, ed.(OUP: 1985), refers to the above works, together with Social History of Ireland (1903-20), as all being highly influential in the Irish revival. For material from the Small Social History of Ireland (1906), including remarks on high kingship, &c., P W Joyce A Small[er] Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906), being a synopsis of his Longer work of that title. [Note var. title History of Irish Names of Places (1869).]
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, notes that he shared in the belief that the ‘ancient’ music of Ireland had to be transposed if it was to survive [Seamus Deane, ed.] 76; Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin: McGlashen 1873), cited in ‘Traditional Songs’ bibl. in ‘Poetry and Song’ Sect., 98; Joyce, ‘Gas from a Burner’, ‘... Talk about Irish Names of Places!’, 772n.
Belfast Public Library holds standard works including Old Celtic Romances, Child’s History of Ireland, Irish Placenames, Illustrated History, and Irish Grammar (1896); Concise History of Ireland (1897); Atlas and Geography of Ireland (1903); English As We Speak it in Ireland (1910); Irish names of Places, 3 vols. [n.d.]; Social History of Ireland (1912); Story of Ancient Irish Civilisation (1907); The Wonders of Ireland ... papers (1911); but no fiction. Belfast Linen Hall holds Irish Battles and Battlefields (188[?], reprint).
Ulster Univ. Library, Morris Collection, holds A Child’s History of Ireland (1910); Atlas and Geography of Ireland, IV (c.1883); English as We Speak It in Ireland (1910); A Grammar of the Irish Language (1892); Irish Local Names Explained (1902); Old Celtic Romances (1907); Outlines of the History of Ireland ... to 1905 (?1894).
Herbert Bell Library (Belfast) holds The Wonders of Ireland (London 1911); A Smaller Social History (London 1906); A Concise History of Ireland (Dublin 1900); Old Irish Folk Music & Songs (London 1909); Irish Local Names Explained [n.d.].
Whelan Books (Cat. 32) lists Concise History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1908 (Gill 1912).
Hyland Book (Cat. 220; 1996]The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (1910, 1912, 1913) [prob. err. 1910, 1912]; another edn., 2 vols. [complete to date] (1902); Hyland Books (Cat. 214) lists A Short History of Gaelic Ireland from the earliest times to 1608 [n.d.]
Roberts Wholesale Books lists Reissue of P. W. Joyce Old Celtic Romances, 474pp., incl. ‘The Children of Lir’, ‘The Pursuit of Dermat and Grania’, ‘Connla of the Golden Hair and the Fairy Maiden’, ‘Oisin in Tirnanoge ’; preface giving background and provenance of the tales and a section of explanatory notes [£8.99].
Patrick MacGahern Books (Cat. 169; 2004) lists Philip’s Handy Atlas of the Counties of Ireland, revised by P. W. Joyce, with consulting index (London: George Philip & Sons 1881), 12mo., 33 maps, 41pp.
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Notes
John Colgan (1590-1658): Joyce cites Colgan on the superstitious belief in the sidhe (fairies), and adds a ftn. to the effect that this superstition is shown to live on in Scotland, as evidenced by [Walter Scott’s] Rob Roy, Chap. XXVIII [n.H.].
D. A. Simmons supplied the collection of words and phrases incorporated in Joyce’s English as We Speak It, previously printed as A List of Peculiar Words and Phrases Formerly in Common Use in County Armagh Together with Expressions at One Time Current in South Donegal (Dublin 1890), 20pp. [cited in Michael Montgomery, ‘The Lexicography of Hiberno-English’, in Irish Studies: Working Papers, 93:3, Nova Southwestern, 1993, pp.20-35; p.26.]
Eoin MacNeill dismisses the ‘Rob Roy’ theory of Irish clan systems - so-named after Walter Scott’s novel - and related versions of Irish society are dismissed as ‘moonshine’, with particular reference to P. W. Joyce, in the preface to his Early Irish Laws and and Institutions (Dublin: Burns Oates & Washbourne 1933).
W. B. Yeats: ‘The Host of the Air’, printed as ‘The Stolen Bride’ in The Bookman (1 Oct. 1893), with notes citing Dr. Joyce: ‘of all the different goblins [air demons] were most dreaded by the people. They lived among clouds, and mists, and rocks, and hated the human race with the utmost malignity’ (from ‘Fergus O’Mara and the Demons’, in Good and Pleasant Reading, 1892; also selected by Yeats in Irish Fairy Tales, 1892; see A. N. Jeffares, New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1984, p.49.]
A. P. Graves: Graves sent Tennyson a copy of Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances in response to a request for an Irish subject for a poem; Tennyson produced “The Voyage of Maeldun” from it. (See Robert Graves, Return to All That, 1930).
Baile atha Cliath: Cliath said to be cognate with clitellae, an ox-pannier, and the Fr. clai, a hurdle, wattle, or screen. (Joyce, Irish Names of Places, Vol. 1, Pt. 3, Cap. 5. [George A. Little, Dublin Before the Vikings, 1957, p.61.]
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