John O’Donovan (1806-61)

Life

b. 25 July 1806 [err. 1809], Attateemore, parish of Slieverue [S.E.], Co. Kilkenny, to Catholic farming family of mixed Irish and Anglo-Irish stock; raised on family farm up to death of his father in 1817; moved to rented farm with his eldest brother in proximity to an uncle, Patrick O’Donovan, an Irish speaker who had travelled in Europe and who influenced him much in scholarship and whom he later called ‘the living repositiory of the counties of Kilkenny, Carlow, and Waterford’; ed. in private school in Waterford, 1821; established his own school at Balynarg, Co. Waterford, at the age of nineteen [var. 16]; moved to Dublin, 1823, and taught [attended] at a Latin school on Arran Quay, up to 1827; declined a post at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth, secured for him by James Hardiman;

taught Irish to Lieut. Thomas Larcom, director of Irish Ordnance Commission, 1826 [aetat. 20]; employed by James Hardiman, then Sub-Commissioner for Public Records in Ireland, to copy Irish MSS and extracts from legal documents, 1827; transcribed Peter O’Connell’s Irish Dictionary [BML Egerton MS 84, 85]; gained work in Irish Records Office, 1826, forming acquaintance with O’Curry and later George Petrie; ed. facsimile copy of Book of Fenagh, and subsequent English translation, 1828; succeeded O’Reilly as Gaelic advisor to the Survey; appt. to historical dept. of Irish Ordnance Survey on death of Edward O’Reilly, becoming the resident ‘expert’ in August 1830; met Petrie in 1831, and began to publish articles in the Dublin Penny Journal, the first being a translation of an 11th-c. poem ascribed to Alfred, 7th c. king of Northumbria, as a student in Ireland;

employed by the Ordnance there to investigate history and orthography of Irish placenames (toponymy), 1830-1842; his letters from the field to Larcom survived in typescript copies, bound in volumes by county, covering every county of Ireland except Antrim, Tyrone, and Cork, all but a few written by O’Donovan between 1834 and 1841; began his field-work in Co. Down, March 1834; listed 62,000 Irish place-names and sourced 140,000 Irish placenames in situ, acting as ‘a kind of one-man local history department’ - acc. J. H. Andrews; provided the English translations (or transliterations) for very many place-names, subsequently inscribed on Irish maps; prepared analytic catalogue of TCD Irish MSS, 1836 and years following; co-fnd. Irish Archaeological Society with Eugene O’Curry and J. H. Todd, 1840 [var. 1841 DIH]; m. Mary Anne Broughton, a sister-in-law of O’Curry, Jan. 1840, with whom he had nine children, four of whom died young and none of whom spoke Irish; one son, Edmund, a war-correspondent, died with Hinks Pasha in Sudan;

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published his many works chiefly under the Society’s imprint; wrote topographical and historical essays for Petrie’s Dublin Penny Journal, and later for the Irish Penny Journal; issued The Banquet of Dunagay and the Battle of Moira (1842) on which Ferguson based Congal (1872); issued Tracts Relating to Ireland (1843); also The Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, commonly called the O’Kelly’s Country (1844), and a Grammar of the Irish Language (1845) - the last in response to Todd’s requirement for St. Columba’s College; ed., with others, The Book of Rights [Leabhar na gCeart] (1847), taken from the Book of Lecan and the Book of Ballymote; elected MRIA, 1847 and awarded the RIA Cunningham Medal, 1848; ed. Annals of the Four Masters, as Annala Rioghacta Eireann, Annals &c, 7 vols. (Dublin: Hodges, Smith 1848-51), with a new type-font designed by Petrie, dedicated to Capt. Larcom, and which included an extensive appendix on the history of his own family; invited to rectify orthography of Irish patronymics in The Spirit of the Nation prior to publication (1844), and gave Irish lessons to Thomas Davis, William Smith O'Brien and others, early 1845 - poss. forming nucleus of the Celtic Society;

entered the bar, 1847; issued supplement to O’Reilly’s Irish Dictionary [being] a version of the dictionary of Peter O’Connell (1828); other works include translation and edition of The Tribes of Ireland by Aonghus Ó Dálaigh (1852); appt. Professor of Irish Language [var. Prof. of Celtic Studies] at Queen’s University, Belfast, Aug. 1849, continuing till 1857 when the chair without students was removed by a Royal Commission; joined Commission for Publication of Ancient Irish Laws, est. 1852; with O’Curry and others, worked on edition of Seanchas Mór, transcribing nine vols. of material; received honorary LL.D. from TCD, 1850; elected to membership of the Royal Prussian Academy of Sciences at instance of in 1856 Jakob Grimm; issued Three Fragments of Irish Annals (1860);

his last years were marred by a quarrel with O’Curry over the editorship of the Brehon Laws; he is regarded as a founding father of the Gaelic revival in Ireland; d. Dublin, 9 Dec., and bur. in Glasnevin; survived by his wife for 32 yrs; his Letters, written during the Ordnance Survey, were edited by Fr. Michael O’Flanagan as John O’Donovan’s Archaeological Survey (52 vols., 1924-32); there is an oil portrait of O’Donovan at 32 by Charles Grey in the NGI. ODNB JMC IF DIB DIW DIH DIL RAF FDA OCIL

See standard lives ...

“Seán Ó Donnabháin (1806-1861)” [in Irish] by Diarmuid Breatnach and Máire Ní Mhurchú, at Ainm.ie - online.
“John O’Donovan” by Diarmaid Ó Catháin in Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - online; both accessed 24.04.2024. ]

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Works

General Titles

ed., The Tribes and Customs of Hy-Many, commonly called the O’Kelly’s Country (Dublin: Irish Archaelogical Society 1843) [occas. cited as The Annals of Hy Maine, 1843)].
The Book of Rights [Leabhar na g-ceart] now for the first time edited, with translation and notes, by John O’Donovan, Esq., MRIA, barrister-at-law [Publications of the Celtic society, No. 1] (Dublin: Printed for the Celtic society 1847), x, lxvii, 326pp. [Printed at University Press by M. H. Gill; t.p. verso]
The Tribes and Customs of Hy-Fiachrach, commonly called the O’Dowda’s Country (Dublin 1844).
ed., Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616, 7 vols. (Dublin: Hodges Smith & Co. Grafton St. 1848-1851; 2nd Edn. 1856) [6 vols. + 1 vol. App.; see 2nd edn. details].
ed., ‘Docwra’s A Narration of the Services done by the army ymployed to Lough-Foyle’, in Miscellany of the Celtic Society (Dublin 1849).
The Tribes of Ireland: A Satire, [by Aenghusa O’Daly], with poetical trans. by the late James Clarence Mangan, and a historical account of the O’Daly family [by John O’Donovan] and an introduction to the history of satire in Ireland (Dublin: John O’Daly 1852), 112pp. [var 266pp.: RAF].
ed., Topographical Poems John O’Dubhagain [O’Dugan], and Giolla na Naomh O’Huidrin [O’Heeren] edited in the original Irish from MSS in the library of the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin 1862) [cited in P. W. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 1867].
ed., The Ancient Laws of Ireland, 4 vols. Ancient Laws of Ireland [posthum. publ. by Robert Atkinson] (Dublin 1865-1901) [see details].

Correspondence (Ordnance)

Graham Mawhinney, ed., John O’Donovan’s Letters from Co. Londonderry, 1834 (Ballinscreen Hist. Soc. 1992).
The Letters of John O’Donovan from Co. Fermanagh, 1834 (St Davog’s Press, Belleek 1993).
Letters Containing Information Relative to the antiquities of the County of Kerry: Collected During the Progress of the Ordnance Survey in 1841 [‘reproduced under direction of Rev. Michael O’Flanagan’] (Bray: 1927), xxvi, 222pp., ill. & maps [62 pls.].

Miscellaneous

‘On the Divisions of the Year among the Ancient Irish’, by Dr John O’Donovan, from Book of Rights, intro. p.xlviii, rep. in Gaelic Journal, Leab. 2 [Vol. 2, 1882-83], pp.221-24 [see extracts].

Reprint Editions

Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616 [facs. rep. of 3rd Edn.], 7 vols. (Dublin: De Burca 1990) .
[with Eugene Curry,] The Antiquities of County Clare: Ordnance Survey Letters of 1839 (Ennis: Clasp Press 1997), 335pp..
The Banquet of Dun na n-Ged and the Battle of Magh Rath [1st publ 1842] (Felinach: Llanerch 1996), 360pp.
Origin and Meanings of Irish Family names including a Description of the Families of the Maguires and O’Reillys: Extracted from “The Irish Penny Journal” 1841, & “Duffy’s Hibernian Magazine”, 1861, ed. G. H. O’Reilly [Irish Genealogical Sources, No. 30] (Dún Laoghaire: Genealogical Society of Ireland 2003), 108pp., ill. [21cm]. 108pp. [viz., Irish Penny Journal, Vol. I, pp.326, 330, 365, 381, 396, 405, 413].
Ancient Laws of Ireland, ed. & trans. by John O’Donovan, with Eugene O’Curry, William Neilson Hancock, Thaddeus O’Mahony, and Alexander George Richey [MOML] (Gale Publ. 2013), 354pp.; Do., [another edn.] (Andesite Press 2015); Do., Published under Direction of the Commissioners for Publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland; Vol. 6 [another edn. (Creative Media Partners 2018), 802pp.; other edns. by Nabu (2010); Palala (2015).

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Bibliographical details
Annala Rioghachta Eireann/Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616, edited from MSS in the library of the RIA and of Trinity College, Dublin, with a translation, and copious notes, by John O’Donovan LLD, MRIA, Barrister at Law [epigraph Olim Regibus parent … &c. Tacitus, Agricola c.12]; 2nd edn. (Dublin: Hodges Smith & Co. Grafton St. 1856), 7 vols; vols. 1-6, & INDEX; vols. 1 and 2 pagination 1-568; vols. 3-6 paginated 2,498pp. Note: The Four Masters were Mícheál Ó Cléirigh (a Francisan friar), assisted by Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh, Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire and Cú Choigríche Ó Duibhgeannáin. Publication of the work was prevented in the lifetimes of the compilers by the criticism of Tuileagna Ó Maol Chonaire.

CONTENTS: Vol. 1 (2242 BC - AD 902); Vol. 2 (AD 903-1171); Vol. 3 (AD 1172-1372); Vol. 4 (AD 1373-1500); Vol. 5 (AD 1501-1588); Vol. 6 (AD 1589-1616), with an Appendix containing genealogies several families of the Gaelic aristocracy, pp.2,377ff.; Vol. 7, indices. [The whole available at CELT - online; accessed 29.10.2011.]

A Primer / of / The Irish Language / with Copious Reading Lessons; for the use of the students / in / The College of St. Columba (Dublin: Hodges & Smith 1845), 117pp. - ‘... not intended as a grammar, but as a supplement to a grammar’ (Preface, p.v.); ‘Mr. O’Donovan’s Grammar, now in the course of publication at the expense of the College, will afford the means of completing the original design more perfectly [...]’ (Ibid., p.vi.) Preface signed R. C. Singleton, making thanks to Mr. O’Donovan and Dr. Todd of TCD for reading the proofs. (21 Feb. 1845.) [With an end-page publisher’s notice of A Grammar of the Irish Language for the use of the Students in the College of St. Columba by John O’Donovan Esq. shortly to be published ...

Note: The latter, which appears to be the work for which the former is intended as a supplement, is ded. to James Henthorn Todd DD FTCD ‘as an humble testimony to the great value of his exertions in preserving and illustrating the monuments of the history and language of Ireland [...]’ and for ‘assistance derived from him in compiling the following pages.’ [p.[v].] [Available at Google Books - online.]

The Ancient Laws of Ireland, ed. & trans. John O’Donovan with Eugene Curry, 6 Vols.; publ. posthumously by various editors appointed by the Commission for the Publication of the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland (1865-1901) - Texts incl. Senchas Mor; Book of Aicill; Din techtugad, and Uraicecht bess [Auraicept beg]. [VOLUMES & THEIR CONTENTS LISTED BELOW.] See also the Report of the Brehon Laws Commissioners for 1888 - available at Internet Archive - online.

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Vol. I: Senchas Mor, and Athgabhail, or Law of Distress, as contained in the Harleian Manuscripts; published for the Commissioners for Publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland] (Dublin: Her Majesty’s Stationary Office; printed by Alexander Thom; Hodges, Smith, & Co.; London: Longman, Green, Roberts, and Green 1865), 335pp. [Index,, 307ff.]; Editorial epistle, signed W. Neilson Hancock and addressed to Dean Graves; p.[iii]]. Preface, v-li.] Seanchas Mor [pp.1-306].

[Vol. I - Editor’s Epistle to Dean Graves (Brehon Law Commission Office, TCD:] ‘[...] In pursuance of the authority thus intrusted to the [4] Commissioners, they employed the late Dr. O’Donovan and the late Professor O’Curry in transcribing various Lawtracts in the Irish Language, in the Libraries of Trinity College, Dublin, of the Boyal Irish Academy, of the British Museum, and in the Bodleian Library at Oxford. / The transcripts made by Dr. O’Donovan extend to nine volumes, comprising 2,491 pages in all; and the transcripts* [*referred to throughout this volume by the page only, with the initials O’D. and C. respective!y] made by Professor O’Curry are contained in eight volumes, extending to 2,906 pages. Of these transcripts several copies have been taken by the anastatic process. Afber the transcription of such of the Law-tracts as the Commissioners deemed it necessary to publish, a preliminary translation of almost all the transcripts was made by either Dr. O’Donovan or Professor O’Curry, and some few portions were translated by them both. They did not however, live to revise and complete their translations. / The preliminary translation executed by Dr. O’Donovan is contained in twelve volumes, and the preliminary translation executed by Professor O’Curry is contained in thirteen volumes. / When the translation had so farr progressed, the Commissioners employed W. Neilson Hancock, LL.D., formerly Professor of Jurisprudence in Queen’s College, Belfast, to prepare the first part of the Senchus Mor for publication, in conjunction with Dr. O’Donovan. The steps taken by Dr. Hancock' in carrying out the directions of the Commissioners, first with Dr. O’Donovan, and after his death, with the assistance of the Rev. Thaddeus O’Mahony, Professor of Irish in the University of Dublin, are fully detailed in the preface to this volume.’ (Unsigned; Trinity College, 30 Jan. 1865.)

Preface [Vol I]: “The Senchus Mor has been selected by the Commissioners for early publication, as being one of the oldest and one of the most important portions of the ancient laws of Ireland which have been preserved. It exhibits the remarkable modification which these laws of Pagan origin underwent, in the fifth century, on the conversion of the Irish to Christianity. / This modifícation was ascribed so entirely to the ÍAfluence of St. Patrick that the Senchus Mor is described as having been called in after-times “Cain Patraic,” or Patrick’s Law. / The Senchus Mor was so much revered that the Irish Judges, called Brehons, were not authorized to abrogate anything contained in it. / The oríginal text, of high antiquity, has been made the subject of glosses and commentaríes of more recent date; and the Senchus Mor wouldappear to have maintained its authoríty amongst the native Irish until the beginning of the seventeenth century, or for a períod of twelve hundred years. / The English law, introduced by King Henry the Second in the twelfth century, for many years scarcely prevailed beyond the narrow limits of the English Pale (comprísing the &c, the present counties of Louth, Meath, Westmeath, Eildare, Dublin, and Wicklow).* Throughout the rest of Ireland the Brehons still administered their ancient laws amongst the native Irish, who were practically excluded from the [vi] privileges of English law. The Anglo-Irish, too, adopted the Irish laws to such an extent that efforts were made to prevent their doing so by enactments that passed at the Parliament of Kilkenny in the fortieth year of King Edward III, (1367), and subsequently renewed by Stat. Henry VII., c. 8, in 1495. So late as the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth years of the reign of King Henry VIII (1534), George Cromer, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland, obtained a formal pardon for having used the Brehon laws. [*Patent and Close Rolls of Chancery in Ireland, 24 & 25 Hen. VIII]. In the reign of Queen Mary (1554), the Earl of Kildare obtained an eric of 340 cows for the death of his foster brother, Robert Nugent, under the Brehon law. The authority of the Brehon laws continued until the power of the Irish chieftains was finally broken in the reign of Queen Elizabeth [...]. *Ftn. Stat. 18 Hen. VIII, c. 8. (1522) recites that at that time the English laws were obeyed and executed in four shires only. — Vide Sir John Davies, Discovery, &c., in Thom’s Reprint of Irish Tracts, Vo. i, p.693. But Meath then included Westmeath, and Dublin indnded Wicklow. (p.vi.) [Paragraph breaks are marked here by slashes [ / ] to save page-space in RICORSO: BS.] (Available online at Internet Archive; accessed 24.04.2024.)

Vol. II: [no details].

Vol. III: Senchas Mor [conclusion]; Book of Aicill (Dublin: HMSO; printed by Alexander Thom; publishers London, Longman, Green, Reader and Dyer 1873); Pref. letter to Lord Bishop of Limerick of the Commission signed Thaddeus O’Mahony and Alexander George Richey [eds.], dated 20 Jan. 1873. General Preface [v]-xl; Intro. to Part III of the Senchas Mor known as “The Corus Bescna”, [xli]- lxxxvi; Intro. to the Book of Aicill [lxxvii]-clxiii]; Appendix to Preface: “[...] The text of the volume now given to the public has been settled on the plan so fully described in the prefaces to the two volumes already published. The whole of it (with the exception of a few short and comparatively unimportant passages) has been taken from Dr. O’Donovan’s transcripts. [xlxix] It has been carefully collateJ with the origiBal MSS. in every instance. The interpolations are all such as that distinguished scholar recammended, and are placed where according to the best of his judgement they ought to be introduced. The lengthening out of the contractions which occur in the original MSS. has been given everywhere on his authority and that of Professor O’Curry, who were perhaps of all men that have lived within the last two centuries, the best authorities on all matters connected with our Irish MSS. preserved in this country. / With respect to the translation of the present volume, it is to be understood that the preliminary translation made by Dr, O’Donovan for the Brehon Law Commissioners has been made, throughout, the basis of that now published. The translation of the first tract, the Corus Bescna, or customary law, he did not live to revise. It has however been carefully revised throughout; some words and phrases left untranslated have been rendered into English after mature consideration, and a diligent examination of all available glossaries, as well as of passages elsewhere occuiring in the Irish laws wherein the words and phrases in question were to be found. [...]’ (xlviii-xlxix; available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 24.04.2024.)

Vol. IV: Din Techtugadh / and Certain Other Selected Brehon Law Tracts [Published under the Direction of the Commissioners for Publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland] ( Dublin: Printed For Her Majesty’s Stationery Office; published by A. Thom & Co., 87, 88, & 89, Abbey-Street; Hodges, Foster, & Co. 104, Grafton-Street; London: Longmans & Co.; Trubner & Co.; Oxford: Parker & Co.; Cambridge: Macmillan & Co. Edinburgh: A. & C. Black, and Douglas & Foulis 1879), 423pp. [Index, 389ff; Proper Names, p.432]. Editor’s Epistle [to Bishop of Limerick, Secretary to the Commission; addressed from 27, Upper Pembroke-Street, 1 Sept. 1879]: ‘Having been requested by the Commission ... to edit such of the Brehon Law Tracts translated by the late Dr. O’Donovan or Mr. O’Curry as might be most suitable for publication, the Rev. Dr. T. O’Mahony and myself proceeded to prepare for the press the text and translation of the several Brehon Law Tracts contained in this volume. / The Rev. Dr. T. O’Mahony, in consequence of ill-healt, was unfortunately obliged to retire from all connexion with the editing of this volume before he had finally revised the entire text. I am much indebted to the kindness of Mr. W. M. Hennessay, who corrected for the press that portion of the original text which had not been finally revised by the Rev. Dr. T. O’Mahony. / The notes appended to the texst, except mere references, were selected by the Rev. Dr. T. O’Mahony from those appended to the manuscripts of the original translators. / For the introduction I am exclusively responsible. The Index and Synopsis have been prepated by Mr. P. Bagenal. / I am, my Lord, / Your Lordship’s Obedient Servant, / Alexander George Richey.’ Introduction, pp.vii-ccxxx]; Synopsis of Introduction [ccxxxi-iv]; Matters treated: I. Present volume of tracts selected as illustrating land laws in early Ireland; II. On Taking Lawful Possession; III. The Fine and the Geilfine System; IV. On the Incidence of Fines and Compensations for Crimes; V. The Succession to Land; VI. Judgements of Co-tenancy; VII. Bee Judgements; VIII. Rights of Water; IX. Precincts; X. Divisions of Lands; XI. Crith Gabhlach; XII. Sequel to Crith Gabhlach; XIII. Succession. Din Techtugad - On Taking Lawful Possession; ... [other texts with Irish names corresponding to the translation-titles already listed as I-XIII - ending the unnamed Tract entitled ’ ... [sic. 371]; General Index of the Text. [Available at Internet Archive - online.]
Vol. V: Auraicecht Becc / And certain other selected Brehon Law Tracts / Published under the Direction of the Commissioners for publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland. / Dublin: Printed for Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, by Alexander Thom & Co. (Ltd.); E. Ponsonby; London: Eyre & Spottiswoode; Edinburgh; Oliver & Boyd 1901), 595pp. Ed. Robert Atkinson [Epistle:] 7 Trinity College, Dublin; signed Oct. 1901: ‘[...] The translation is based upon the translations made by Dr. O’Donovan and Professor O’Curry’; addressed to Rt. Hon. Lord Ashbourne, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, President of the Commission .. &c.] CONTENTS I. Uraicecht Becc - Small Primer [1]; II. Sechta - Heptads [117]; Index to Heptads [374]; III. Bretha im Fuillema Gell - Judgement on Pledge-Interests [375]; IV. Do Fastad Cirt ocus Dligid - Of the Confirmation of Right and Law [425]; V. Do Tuaslucad Cunrad - Of the Removal of Convenants [495]; Index [523ff; vailable at Internet Archive - online.]

Vol. VI: Glossary to I-V (Dublin: printed for His Majesty’s Stationary Office, by Alex. Thom; for E. Ponsonby; London: Eyre & Spottiswoode; Edinburgh: Oliver & Boyd - 792pp. [Index, p.781ff.] Printed for Her Majesty’s Stationary Office by Alexander Thom & Co., Abbey St.; to be purchased [...] from E. Ponsonby, 116 Grafton Street; or Eyre & Spottiswoode (London); Boyd (Edinburgh) 1901), 792pp. [Robert Atkinson, Preface, [v]-vi; signed; Trinity College, Dublin; n.d.]; Glossary, pp.1-780; Index, 781ff.; available at Internet Archive - online.]

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Index of works available at Internet Archive with links supplied by Clare County Library

A grammar of the Irish language, pub. for the use of the senior classes in the College of St. Columbia.
by O’Donovan, John
Published in 1845, Hodges and Smith (Dublin)
Statement: By John O’Donovan
Pagination: 2p. l., [vii]-lxxxviii, 459pp.
Available at Internet Archive

The Book of Rights / Leabhar na g-ceart, now for the first time edited, with translation and notes, by John O’Donovan.
Published: 1847, Printed for the Celtic society (Dublin)
Contributions: John O’Donovan, ed. & trans.
Series: Publications of the Celtic society, [no. 1], Publications (Celtic Society) — no. 1.
Pagination: x, lxvii, 326pp.
Available at Internet Archive

Ancient Laws of Ireland [6 vols.] ed. and trans. John O’Donovan; Vol. VI: Glossary to Vols. I-V,, ed. Robert Atkinson.
Published in 1901; Commissioners for Publishing the Ancient Laws and Institutes of Ireland.
Other titles: Senchus Mór; Book of Aicill; Din techtugad; Auraicept beg.
Statement: Published under direction of the commissioners for publishing the ancient laws and institutes of Ireland.
Pagination: Vol. VI - 792pp. [Index, p.781ff.]
Available at Internet Archive

Copies held resp. in Toronto UL (Kelly) and Boston College Library; unknown

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Criticism

Monographs

Eamonn de hOir, Seán Ó Donnabháin agus Eoghan Ó Comhraí (1962) [i.e., O’Donovan and O’Curry].
Patricia Boyne, John O’Donovan 1806-1861: A Biography (Boethius: Irish Studies 1987).

See also Rachel Hewitt, Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey (Granta 2010), 436pp. [remarks that O’Donovan say the Ordnance Survey as an opportunity to resurrect the face of the nation as it appeared before the arrival of the English and the ensuing traumatic history of plantation; vide. Irish Times review, by William J. Smyth (4 Dec. 2011), Weekend, p.11.]

Articles

J. T. Gilbert, On the Life and Labours of John O’Donovan, LLD (London: T. Richardson & Son, Dublin & Derby, 1862) [rep. from Dublin Review, with a prospectus of the Irish Arch. and Celtic Soc. and an appeal for O’Donovan’s family, acc. Catalogue of Henry Bradshaw Collection of Irish Books, Cambridge, 1916].
Helena Concannon, ‘John O’Donovan and the Annals of the Four Masters’, in Studies, XXXVII (1948).
Ruaidhrí de Valera, ‘Seán O’Donnabháin agus a Lucht Cúnta’, in Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, LXXXIX [79] (1949), pp.146–59.
R. B. Walsh, ‘John O’Donovan, The Man and the Scholar’, in Talamh an Eisc: Canadian and Irish Essays, ed. Cyril J. Byrne & Margaret Harry [Irish Studies St. Mary’s Coll.] (Halifax Can.: Nimbus Publ. Co. 1986), pp.119-39 [incl. photo. port.].
Cathy Swift, ‘John O’Donovan and the Framing of early Medieval Ireland in the Nineteenth Century’, in Bullán: A Journal of Irish Studies, 1, 1, Spring 1994), pp.91-103.
Michael Herity, ‘John O’Donovan’s Early Life and Education’ [intro. to], Ordnance Survey Letters, Down, ed. Herity (Dublin: Four Masters Press 2001), xlvi, 94pp.
Mary Daly [chap. on John O’Donovan], in Alvin Jackson & David N. Livingstone, eds., Queen’s Thinkers: Essays on the Intelelctual Heritage of a University (Belfast: Blackstaff Press 2008), [q.pp.]

See also John H. Andrews, A Paper Landscape: the Ordnance Survey in nineteenth-century Ireland (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1975), and Do. [2nd edn.] (Dublin: Four Courts Press 2001); Vivian Mercier, Modern Irish Literature, Sources and Founders (OUP 1994), and Barbara Hayley, ‘Irish Periodicals’, in Anglo-Irish Studies, ii (1976), pp.83-108. Gillian Doherty, The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory (Dublin: Four Courts 2004); Stiofán Ó Cadhla, Civilizing Ireland: Ordnance Survey 1824-1842: Ethnography, Cartography, Translation, foreword by Eamon Ó Cuiv (Dublin: IAP 2007).

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Quotations

O’Donovan supplied genealogy of the O’Reilly family to William Carleton in connection with the latter’s Willy Reilly and His Coleen Bawn [1855] (2nd Edn. 1857). The genealogy is included in the Preface prefixed to the reprint of that work [as attached].

Dun na nGed (Dunagay): ‘The clear-watered, snowy-foamed, ever-roaring, parti-coloured, bellowing, in-salmon-abounding, beautiful old torrent, whose celebrated well-known name is the lofty-great, clear-landed, contentious, precipitate, loud-roaring, headstrong, rapid, salmon-ful, sea-monster-ful, varying, in-large-fish-abounding, rapid-flooded, furious-streamed, whirling, in-seal-abounding, royal and prosperous cataract of Eas Ruaidh.’ (AP Graves quotes from his The Banquet of Dunagay and the Battle of Moira [Magh Rath], quoted in A. P. Graves, Irish Literary & Musical Studies, p. 87. [Cited as The Banquet of Dun na n-Ged and The Battle of Magh Rath in Oxford Companion to Irish Literature, ed. Robert Welch, 1996.]

The Four Masters - James Godkin, Ireland and Her Churches (London: Chapman & Hall 1867), quotes O’Donovan’s edition of the Four Masters: ‘“Nothing is clearer,” says Dr. O’Donovan, “than that Patrick engrafted Christianity on the Pagan superstitions with so much skill that he won the people over to the Christian religion before they understood the exact difference between the two systems of belief; and much of this half-Pagan, half-Christian religion, will be found not only in the Irish stories of the Middle Ages, but in the superstitions of the peasantry to the present day.&”’ (Godkin, op. cit., p.26; citing Four Masters, p.121.)

Fault-finders: ‘Let those who find fault with it remember that no human production under the sun is without mistakes, and that frequently good workmanship is unjustly blamed through envy and hatred of enemies, and also through their ignorance’ (Note in Irish at the end of the Uí Fiachrach volume, 1844; quoted in Paul Walsh, 1947, p.168.)

Review of Zeuss: O’Donovan’s review of Zeuss’s Grammatica Celtica (1853), in Ulster Journal of Archaeology (Belfast 1859), is quoted in Alfred Webb, Compendium of Irish Biography (1878): ‘It contains proofs of the purely Japetic origin of the Celts. It demonstrates the following facts: (1) That the Irish and Welsh languages are one in their origin; that their divergence, so far from being primeval, began only a few centuries before the Roman period; that the difference between them was very small when Caesar landed in Britain — so small, that an old Hibernian most likely was still understood there; and that both nations, Irish and British, were identical with the Celtae of the Continent - namely, those of Gaul, Spain, Lombardy, and the Alpine countries. This is, in fact, asserting the internal unity of the Celtic family. (2) That this Celtic tongue is, in the full and complete sense of the term, one of the great Indo-European branches of human speech ... There must now be an end to all attempts at assimilating either Hebrew, Phenician, Egyptian, Basque, or any other language which is not Indo-European, with any dialect of the Celtic. The consequence further is, that, as far as language gives evidence, we must consider the inhabitants of these islands strictly as brethren of those other five European families constituting that vast and ancient pastoral race who spread themselves in their nomadic migrations, till in the west they occupied Gaul, and crossed over to Britain, and to Ireland, the last boundary of the old world... The Irish nation has had no nobler gift bestowed upon them by any Continental author for centuries back than the work which he has written on their language.’ (For longer version, see under Zeuss, q.v., [espec. Webb, attached].)

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Neglected: ‘I have been lying here these nine days without a single visit from any of these literary men who pretend to be so much my friends; and George Petrie, who lives within a musket shot of me, has neither come to see me or even enquired after the state of my health since I left him. This is true antiquarian friendship.’ (Letter to Hardiman, Feb. 1840; cited R. B. Walsh, ‘John O’Donovan, The Man and the Scholar’, in Cyril J. Byrne & Margaret Harry, eds., Talamh an Eisc: Canadian and Irish Essays, Halifax (Canada): Nimbus Publ. Co. 1986), pp.119-39 [note that this article includes confirmation of the birthdate date 1806, the other being due to an error in the parish record].

Scribblers: ‘Our Irish writers of the last century have been a set of ignorant and dishonest scribblers without one manly or vigorous idea in their heads. Vallancy, Beauford, Ledwich, Roger O’Conor, &c., were all either fools or rogues who were by no means fit to demonstrate the truth of ancient or modern history.’ (Ordnance Survey Letters, typescript, Meath, pp.191-92; cited in R. B. Walsh, ‘John O’Donovan, The Man and the Scholar’, Cyril J. Byrne and Margaret Harry, eds., Talamh an Eisc: Canadian and Irish Essays, Halifax (Can.: Nimbus Publ. Co. 1986, pp.119-39.)

Lamented: ‘When my grandfather died in Leinster, in 1798, Cleena came all the way from Tonn Cleena, at Glandore, to lament him; but she has not been heard ever since lamenting any of our race, though I believe she still weeps in the mountains of Drumaleaque in her own country, where so many of the race of Eoghan More are dying of starvation.’ (O’Donovan, letter to a friend, quoted in Dublin University Magazine, and cited by Yeats in ‘Irish Fairies, Ghosts, Witches, &c.’, article in Lucifer [Theosophical Magazine], 15 Jan. 1889; rep. in John P. Frayne, ed., Uncollected Prose of W. B. Yeats, 1970, p.130ff; p.136.

Name-change: In a letter written to Larcom, O’Donovan outlined the damage done to the Irish language by generations of English soldiers, administrators and planters. It was not only place names that had been affected, O’Donovan discovered, but the surnames of the Irish themselves. “People frequently took great licence when changing names”, writes Doherty …’ (Eileen Battersby, review of Gillian Doherty, The Irish Ordnance Survey: History, Culture and Memory, Dublin: Four Courts, in The Irish Times, 6 Nov. 2004.)

The Spark (Fermanagh; q.d.): Ist serialisation of letters of John O’Donovan written during his participation in the Irish Ordance Survey in Fermanagh. ‘The Great Irish Speaking Archaeologist’ was remembered by William Copeland Trimble who ran the letters in The Impartial Reporter (Enniskillen) in 1934; now rep. in The Spark. The first letters are dated Oct 10th, 12th, 1834. Specimens, 1] ‘I have caught a slight cold and will remain within door tomorrow, to arrange all my papers. I shall have a great many further questions to ask about the Annals of the IV Masters. O’Keefe has done his business right well and satisfactorily. hat are you doing with Derry? O’Keef has not sent me all the passages from the Annals about Devinish. Let him do so immediately that I may lose no hint.’ 2] Item 6, 12 Oct., ‘Tir enda. I am inclined to think that the tir enda of the Annals is the barony of tir Kenedy in the Co. of Fermanagh. Where does Harris or the Abbé Mac Geoghegan place this territory?’ 3] ‘Send every passage in the Annals relating to the twenty-four places above mentioned. Send me also that part of O’Dugan’s Topographical Poem which treats of the families and sub-divisions of Fermanagh. It will be found in O’Kane’s MS, which Mr Petrie has at present.’

Further [Serialisation 2] (Spark, 4, March 1993), 15 Oct., 17th, 20th. On the first date, he calls on Thomas Maguire, shopkeeper, the Maguire and lineal descendent of the Irish lord of Enniskillen. He makes reference to one topographical word frequent in local place-names, viz tate (taite, tatty), ‘I know that Vallancey explains it in his Collectanea, but in what part I do not remember. Perhaps Petrie may remember. I think that Tatte is much the same as Carrow or quarter of land and may perhaps be a corruption of Latin, stadium, but this I give as a wild conjecture. I wish you could send me Vallancey’s definition of it.’ O’Donovan gives a list of the succession of the Maguires, lords of Enniskillen, down to Connor Maguire, the last, who was executed at the Tower, 1644. Nowhere in this reprint of the letters is the name of the correspondent given, by O’Donovan, Trimble, or the current editor.

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Leabhar na g-ceart
THE BOOK OF RIGHTS

NOW FOR THE FIRST TIME EDITED

WITH TRANSLATION AND NOTES,

JOHN O’DONOVAN, ESQ., M. R. I. A,

Barrister at Law.

DUBLIN:

PRINTED FOR THE CELTIC SOCIETY.
1847.

verso:

PRINTED AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS,
BY M. H. GILL.

OFFICERS elected at the formation of the Society - President, Aubrey de Vere, Bart.; Vice-Presidents, Isaac Butt, LLD, Edward Gustavus Hudson, Sir Robert Kane, William Monsell, William Smith O’Brien, Daniel O’Connell, Very rev. Lawrence Renehan. Trustees: Henry Hudson, Thomas Hutton, Walter Sweetman. Treasurer: Sir Colman Michael O’Loghlen. Secretaries: Samuel H. Bindon, Patrick Robert Webb. Council: Michael Joseph Barry, Rev. George Crolly, Charles Gavan Duffy, Samuel Ferguson, Rev. Charles Graves, James Hardiman, William Elliot Hudson, Rev. Matthew Kelly, Joseph Le Fanu Sheridan, Michael Felix MacCarthy, William Torrens MacCullagh, Rev. James MacIvor, John Mitchel, Very Rev. Edward Nowlan, Isaac Stoney O’Callaghan, Thomas O’Hagan, John Edward Pigot, Digby Pilot Starkey, Edward King Tenison, Robert Tighe, William Robert Wilde. Assistant Secretary: John Daly. Corresponding Secretaries: John Windele (Cork), Robert Cane (Kilkenny), Thomas Francis Meagher (Waterford), John Corry (Armagh). Corresponding Associate Abroad: R. R. Madden.

[facing Contents:]

The Council of the Celtic Society having intrusted me with the superintendence of this volume in its progress through the Press, I hereby certify that it is, in all respects, conformable to the rules of the Society. I also take this opportunity of expressing, upon the part of the Council, their thanks to the Royal Irish Academy, for the permission to print this work from their most valuable MSS.; to the Provost and Board of Trinity College, for access to their Manuscript Library; and to the Rev. Doctor Todd, for facilities in the consultation of it which he was kind enough to afford. To John O Donovan, Esq., our thanks are pre-eminently due, for the learning and zeal which he has exhibited in the editing and general arrangement of the work. In it will be recognized a further proof of the critical and profound knowledge which he possesses of the language of our country, as well as of its topography and history. The services of Mr. Eugene Curry have been invaluable, and I am happy to record that his intimate knowledge of our ancient literature has throughout the work been made available.

I cannot close these observations without tendering our warm gratitude to the distinguished artist, Frederick W. Burton, Esq., R. H. A., whose pencil has graced our title-page with a group as classic as it is Irish, and which cannot fail to excite, in every Irish mind, true feelings of pride and satisfaction. It is to George Du Noyer, Esq., that we owe the drawings of the ancient chess-king from the cabinet of Dr. Petrie, which will be found in our Introduction; and to Mr. Hanlon we are indebted for the woodcuts used there as well as in our illustrated title-page.

William Elliot Hudson
Member of the Council

27 July-21st December 1847

CONTENTS

Introduction.		[xii-lxvi]
	Of Leabhar na g-Ceart Of the Saltair Chaisil Of the will of Cathaeir Mor, and other pieces introduced into Leabhar na g-Ceart Of the References to Tomar as King or Prince of the Galls of Dublin Of the Tract prefixed to the Book of Rights, entitled “Geasa agus Buadha Riogh Eireann,” Of the Division of the Year among the ancient Irish Of the Chariots and Roads of the ancient Irish Of Chess among the ancient Irish On the Irish Text and Translation	i xxii xxxiii xxxv xliii xlviii lxi lvi lxv
	Geasa agus Buadha Riogh Eireann
	Prose Poem - A fhir ain iadhas in teach	2 8
	[...]
	Leabhar na g-Ceart
	[...]
	Introduction
Of Leabar na g-Ceart
Two ancient vellum copies of this work are in existence, one in the Leabhar Leacain (Book of “Lecan”) which was compiled from various other MSS., by Giolla Iosa Mor Mac Firbisigh of Leacan, in the county of Sligo, chief historian to O’Dubhda (O’Dowda) in the year 1418. This copy begins at folio 184, and ends at folio 193, comprising thirty-eight closely written columns of the book. The other copy is preserved in Leabhar Bhaile an Mhuta (Book of “Ballymote”) which was compiled by various persons, but chiefly by Solamh O’Droma, from older MSS., about the year 1390, for Tomaltach Mac Donnchadha (Mac Donough), then chief of the territories of Tir Oiliolla, Corann, Airteach, Tir Thuathail, and Clann Fearn-mhaighe, extending into the counties of Sligo, Roscommon, and Leitrim. This copy begins at folio 147 and ends at folio 154 a, col. 2, comprising thirty columns of that book. Various modern paper copies are extant and accessible, but they have been found, on comparison with the two vellum ones just referred to, to be of no authority, as they were evidently made, primarily or secondarily from either of them, with several corruptions of the respective scribes, none of whom thoroughly understood the language, as is quite evident from the nature of the corruptions (or, as they fancied, corrections) of the text made by them. (p.[1])
[...]
Dr. O’Brien appears, from various notices throughout his Irish Dictionary, to have thought that the race of Oilioll Olum never submitted to the race of Conn of the Hundred Battles; for he speaks of Conn himself, and of his grandson Cormac, and even of Flann Sionna, who defeated Cormac mac Cuileannain in 908, as kings of Meath, and of the two northern provinces. But in this and other respects Dr. O’Brien has been led to make assertions relative to the Irish monarchs which cannot stand the test of true criticism, for though it must be acknowledged that the Irish monarchs had little influence in Leath Mhogha, or the southern half of Ireland, still we must believe that, since the introduction of Christianity the Irish monarchs were principally of the race of Niall of the Nine Hostages, the ancestor of the O’Neills and their correlative families. In the ancient Lives of St. Patrick it is stated that when the Irish apostle came to Aileach, he predicted that sixteen of the race of Eoghan, the son of Niall, would become kings of all Ireland; and though we need not believe in this as a prediction, it is reasonable to conclude that those kings were well known and acknowledged; and the fact is that they are mentioned and [xiv] called kings of all Ireland even by the Minister writers themselves, whatever authority they may have exercised over the chieftains of Munster. (pp.xiii-xiv.)

Mr. [Thomas] Moore, however, will not allow any monarch of all Ireland to the race of Eibhear, or the people of Leath Mhogha, or Munster, from the time of St. Patrick till the accession of Brian in 1002. [xv] is a fact on which he frequently and emphatically speaks. See especially his History of Ireland, vol. ii. pp. 142, 143. (pp.xvi-xvii.)

[Ftn. - regarding Feidhlimidh (Femily):] Mac Curtin, in his Brief Discourse in Vindication of the Antiquity of Ireland, p. 175, asserts that this Feidhlimidh was not king of Ireland, as Cambrensis erroneously styles him, in his History of Ireland, but that he was king of Munster for twenty-seven years. But Mac Curtin should have known that this should not have been attributed as an error to Cambrensis, as the older Munster annalists mention Feidhlimidh as one of the five Munster kings who obtained the monarchy of all Ireland, subsequently to the introduction of Christianity; and it is quite evident from Mac Curtin’s own account of Feidhlimidh’s regal visitation of the provinces of Connacht, Ulster, Meath, and Leinster, to whose kings he made the usual monarchical presents, and from whom he received the entertainments due to the Irish monarchs, that he was considered the ard ríg, or sole monarch of all Ireland. Mac Curtin’s remark, that his progress through Ireland “had success upon account of the union and amity the Irish princes had among themselves at this time,” is beneath criticism; for it is distinctly [p. xvi, col. 2.] stated in the old Annals of Innisfallen, that Feidhlimidh, the son of Crimhthann, received homage from Niall, the son of Aedh, king of Teamhair, in the year 824 (a mistake for 840), when Feidhlimidh became full king of Ireland, and sat in the seat of the abbots of Cluain Fearta (Clonfert); and in an Irish poem purporting to give a regular account of Feidhlimidh’s circuit through Ireland, it is distinctly stated that he remained half a year in the plain of the River Finn, plundering the Cineal Chonaill, and that he also plundered Dal Riada and Dal Araidhe, and that he remained a whole year at Ard Macha, during which he preached to the people every Sunday. The words of Giraldus are as follows: ”Igitvr a tempore Felmidii Regis, et obitu Turgesii, vsque ad tempus I’otherici: Conactiæ regnum durauit (Qui vltimus de hac gente monarcha fuit, & vsque hodie Conactia; prsesidet: Cuius etiam tempore, et per quern Rex Lageniae Dermitius scilicet Murchardi filius, a regno expulsus fuerat) septendecim Reges in Hibernia regnauerunt.” — Topographia Hibernicæ, Dist. iii. c. 44. [xvii]
[...]
It is remarkable that [John] Colgan, who had that notice in the Life of Benignus before him, takes no notice of it, but in another place (Trias Traum., p. 205), ascribes the writing or compiling of the Psalterium Cas« liaise to Cormac Mac Cuileannain. His words are as follows: “S. Cormacus Rex Momoniæ, Archiepiscopus Casselensis, et martyr, qui in patriis nostris annalibus peritissimus Scotorum appellatur, scripsit de Genealogia, Sanctorum Hibernia?, lib. i., et, de Regibus aliisque antiquitatibus ejusdem, nobile opus quod Psalterium Cassellense appellatur, et in magno semper habetur pretio. Passus est S. Cormacus an 903, vel ut alii 908.” Keating, in his History of Ireland, Haliday’s edition, Preface, p. xcvi., makes a like allegation in a passage which we shall presently cite. Notwithstanding this testimony of Keating and Colgan, who seem to have been well acquainted with the literary monuments of their native country, we are informed by Council Mageoghegan, in the dedication of his translation of the “Annals of Clonmacnoise” to Terence; Coghlan, dated April 20th, 1627, that the “Psalter of Cashel” was compiled by the order of the great Irish monarch, Brian Borumha. His words are: “Kinge Bryen seeinge into what rudeness the kingdome was fallen, alter setting himself in the quiet government thereof, [...] (p.xxiii.)
See subsequent reference to John Lynch (p.xxvi), Geoffrey Keating (idem.), Sir James Ware (p.xxvii), Lhwyd, Edward William Nicholson and Charles O’Conor (idem. & p.xliv), Dr. J. H. Todd (p.xviii-ix), Roderic O’Flaherty (p.xxxv), Edward O’Reilly (idem. & xliv.), John Lindsay (p.xxxvi)
For a brief account of the poems ascribed to O’Lochain the reader is referred to O’Reilly’s Irish Writers, pp. 73, 74. The first poem there mentioned has since been published in Petrie’s Antiquities of Tara Hill, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xviii. pp. 143. Charles O’Conor of Belanagare, in an anonymous pamphlet written by him in 1749, against Sir Richard Cox’s Appeal on the Behaviour of Dr. Charles Lucas, writes as if he had in his possession some MSS. of Cuan O’Lochain. It appears from the Memoirs of his Life and Writings, written by his grandson, the late Dr. Charles O’Conor, p. 211, that Mr. O’Conor would never have acknowledged this pamphlet to be his production, were it not that his correspondence with Reilly, the publisher of it, obliged him to acquiesce. In this pamphlet Mr. O’Conor says: ”What I have advanced on this subject I have extracted from our ancient MSS., the only depositories of the form of our ancient constitution, and particularly from the MSS. of Cuan O’Loghan, who administered the affairs of Ireland on the death of Malachy II. Anno Domini 1022.” Having premised thus much with regard to the author of the poem, we may now say something as to the subject of the tract; and first of the words used.(p.xliv.) Geaxa: in the Sing., Norn., geis, Gen. geise (fern.) — This word is in common use in the sense of conjuration or solemn vow; cuirim sú gheasaibh tú, “I conjure thee,” is a common saying. — See tale of Deirdre, in the Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin, p. 23, where O’ Flanagan translates it “solemn vow,” and “injunctions,” in a note on the word. In this tract, however, the word is clearly used to denote “anything or act forbidden, because of the ill luck which would result from its doing:” “Aruspex vetuit ante brumam aliquid novi negotii accipere.” — Terence. It also means a spell or charm. It is used here as the opposite or antithesis of buadha, and synonymous with Urghartha: O’Reilly gives a word urgharta (s.m.), which he explains, “bad hick, misfortune, fatality;” [...] (p.xlv.)
On the Division of the Year among the ancient Irish (xlviii)
As the seasons of the year are frequently mentioned in this book, it will be well here to add a few words on the divisions of the year among the ancient Irish. Dr. O’Conor has attempted to show, in his Rerum Hibernicarum Scriptores, Epistola Nuncupatoria, lxxi. et seq., and in the Stowe Catalogue, vol. i. p. 32: 1. That the year of Pagan Irish was luni-solar, consisting, like that of the Phoenicians and Egyptians, of 365 days and six hours: 2. That it was divided by them, as it is at present into four ratha or quarters, known by the names of Samh-ratha, Foghmhar-ratha, Geimh-ratha, and Iar-ratha, now corruptly Earrach, or summer, autumn, winter, and spring; the first of these quarters commencing at the vernal equinox, the second at the summer solstice, the third at the autumnal equinox, and the fourth at the winter solstice; 3. That at the beginning of each of these ratha a religious festival was celebrated, but that the periods when they were celebrated were changed by the early Christians, to agree with the Christian festivals, and to obliterate the recollection of the origin of the Pagan rites which they were not able utterly to abolish. That such a change was made he infers from a passage occurring in all the old Lives of St. Patrick, which states that Patrick lighted the Paschal fire at Slane in 433, at the same time that King Laeghaire was celebrating the festival of Bealltaine at Teamhair; which would be fair enough if the fire were [xlix] called Bealltaine by any of Patrick’s ancient biographers; but it is not, and therefore Dr. O’Conor’s inference wants the vis consequentiæ. In the oldest Life of St. Patrick extant, namely, that by Mocutenius, preserved in the Book of Armagh, the fire lighted by the king of Teamhair, and Patrick’s Paschal fire, are mentioned as follows : ”Contigit vero in illo anno, idolatries sollempnitatem quam gentiles incantationibus multis, et magicis inventionibus, nonnullis aliis idolatrias superstitionibus, congregatis etiam regibus, satrapis, ducibus, principibus, et optimatibus populi, insuper et magis, incantatoribus, auruspicibus, et omnis artis omnisque doli inventoribus doctoribusque vocatis ad Loigaireum, velut quondam ad Nabcodonossor regem, in Temoria, istorum Babylone, exercere consuerant, eadem nocte qua Sanctus Patricius Pasca, illi illam adorarent exercentque festivitatem gentilem. Erat quoque quidam mos apud illos per edictum omnibus intimatus ut quicumque in cunctis regionibus sive procul, sive juxta, in ilia nocte incendissent ignem, antequam in domu regia, id est, in palatio Temoria?, succenderetur, periret anima ejus de populo suo. Sanctus ergo Patricius Sanctum Pasca celebrans, incendit divinum ignem valde lucidum et benedictum, qui in nocte refulgens, a cunctis pene plani campi habitantibus vissus est.” — Book of Armagh, fol. 3, b. It is also stated in the Leabhar Breac as follows : [Irish language & script in Petrie’s fonts:] “Teith Pátraic iar sin cu Ferta fher Feicc. Adhantar teinidh occa ls in inud sin fiscor na Cáse. Fergaither Loegaire ód chí in tenidh, ár ba h-ísin geis Temrach oc Goedheluib; ocus ní lámhadh nech tenidh d’fatódh i n-Éirind is ins lou sin, no cu n-adhanca h-i Tempaigh ar túr is in sollamhain.’ -; Fol. 14, a 1. [trans.:] “Patrick goes afterwards to Fearta Fear Feicc. A fire is kindled by him at that place on Easter eve. Laeghaire is enraged as he sees the fire, for that was the geis [prohibition] of Teamhair among the Gaedhhil; [l] and no one dared to kindle a fire in Ireland on that day until it should be first kindled at Teamhair at the solemnity.” Now, however these two passages may seem to support Dr. O’Conor’s inference, it is plain that the fire lighted at Teamhair is not called Bealltaine in either of them. It should be also added that it is not so called in any of the Lives of Patrick. According to a vellum MS. in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin, H. 3. 17, p. 732, the fire from which all the hearths in Ireland was supplied was lighted at Tlachtgha [at Athboy] in the Munster portion of Meath, and not on the first of May, but on the first of November; while, according to Keating, the author of the Dinnseanchus, and others, the fire called Bealltaine was lighted at Uisneach, in the Connacht portion of Meath, on the first of May, which for that reason is called La Bealltaine to the present day. The probability then is, that the fire lighted at Teamhair, on Easter eve, A. D. 433, was not the Bealltaine, but some other fire, and it is stated in the second life of St. Patrick, published by Colgan, that it was the Feis Teamhrach, or Feast of Teamhair, that Laeghaire and his satraps were celebrating on this occasion; while the author of the Life of St. Patrick in the Book of Lismore, asserts that Laeghaire was then celebrating the festival of his own nativity, which appears to have been the truth, and if so it was not the regular septennial Feisa, which met after Samhain, but one convened to celebrate the kings birth-day. From these notices it is quite clear that O’Conor’s inference, that the Bealltaine was lighted on the 21st of March by the Pagan Irish, is not sustained. In the accounts given of the Bealltaine [li] in Cormac’s Glossary, and in H. 3. 18, p. 596, as quoted in Petrie’a Antiquities of Tara Hill, no time is specified for the lighting of it, nor could we be able from them, or from any other written evidence yet discovered, to decide in what season it was lighted, were it not that the first of May is still universally called in Irish La Bealltaine.
[Ftn.:] This is usually called triennial, as in the passages quoted from Keating, &c, above, p.25, 26, gach treas bliadhain; but it is every seventh year in this work, in the prose of L. at p. 6, and in the Various Readings of B., p.272; and in the poem of L., p.22, though the other reading there in B. makes it every fifth year, p.273, n.46. See also the poem, p.240, infra, where both copies, L. & B., have each seachtmhadh San na, i. e. every seventh Samhain. [2cols.; foot of p.l.]
But Dr. O’Conor argues that this name was applied in Pagan times to the 21st of March, and that it was transferred to the first of May by the early Christians, to agree with a Christian festival. This, however, is contrary to the tradition which still prevails in many parts of Ireland, namely, that the fires lighted in Pagan times, on the first of May, were transferred by St. Patrick to the 24th of June, in honor of St. John the Baptist, on the eve of whose festival they still light bonfires in every county in Ireland, and not on the first of May, except in Dublin, where they continue to light them on the 1st of May also. The observances still practised on May-day (which have no connexion whatever with Christianity) and the traditions preserved in the country respecting it, found a strong argument that it must have been a Pagan festival, while the 21st of March is not remarkable for any observances. The same may be observed of Samhain, the 1 st of November, on which, according to all the Irish authorities, the Druidic fires were lighted at Tlachtgha. The Editor is, therefore, convinced that Dr. O’Conor has thrown no additional light on the division of the year among the Pagan Irish, for his conjecture respecting the agreement of the Paschal fire of St. Patrick with the Bealltaine of the Pagan Irish is visionary, inasmuch as it is stated in the second life by Probus that it was the Feis Teamhrach that Laeghaire was then celebrating. The words are given in very ancient Irish, as follows, by the original author, who wrote in the Latin language: “[Irish script],” i. e. “It is in that time indeed that the Feis Temheadi [lii] was made by Loegaire, son of Niall, and by the men of Eire.” — See Colgan’s Trias Thaum., pp. 15, 20. The fact seems to be that we cannot yet determine the season with which the Pagan Irish year commenced. As to Dr. O’Conor making earrach, the spring, the last quarter, because, in his opinion, it is compounded of iar and ratha, postremus anni cursus, it can have no weight in the argument, because there is not the slightest certainty that this is the real meaning of the term, for in Cormac’s Glossary the term is explained urughadk, i. e. refreshing, or renewing, and it is conjectured that it is cognate with the Latin ver: it may be added that it is almost identical with the Greek [Gk script]. That the Pagan Irish divided the year into four quarters is quite evident from the terms Earrach, Samhradh, Foghmhar, and Geimhridh, which are undoubtedly ancient Irish words, not derived from the Latin through Christianity; and that each of these began with a stated day, three of which days are still known, namely, Bealltaine, otherwise called Ceideamhain, or beginning of summer (see p.20, infra), when they lighted fires at Uisneach, in the beginning of Samhradh; Lughnasadh, the games of Lughaidh Lamh-fhada, which commenced at Taillte on the first clay of Foghmhar, the harvest; and Samhain, i. e. Samh-fhuin, or summer-end, when they lighted fires at Tlachtgha. The beginning of Earrach, the spring, was called Oimelc, which is derived from oi, ewe, and melc, milk, because the sheep began to yean in that season, but we have not found that any festival was celebrated. [...] (pp.-lii.)
Of Chess among the ancient Irish (p.lxi-iv)
The frequent mention of chess in this work shows that chess-playing was one of the favorite amusements of the Irish chieftains. The word fithcheal is translated “tabulæ lusoriæ,” by O’Flaherty, where he notices the bequests of Cathaeir Mor, monarch of Ireland, Ogygia, p. 311. In Cormac’s Glossary, the fithcheal is described as quadrangular, having straight spots of black and white. It is referred to in the oldest Irish stories and historical tales extant, as in the very old one called Tochmarc Etaine, preserved in Leabhar na h-Uidhri, a Manuscript of the twelfth century, in which the fithchel [sic] is thus referred to: [Irish script, followed by translation:] ‘“What is thy name?” said Eochaidh. “It is not illustrious,’ replied the other, “ Midir of Brigh Leith.’ “What brought thee hither?’ said Eochaidh. “To play fithcheall with thee,” replied he. “Art thou good at fithcheall?” said Eochaidh. “Let us have the proof of it,” replied Midir. “The Queen,” said Eochaidh, “is asleep, and the house in which the fithcheall is belongs to her.” “There is here,” said Midir, “a no worse fithcheall.” This was true, indeed: it was a board of silver and pure [lxii] gold, and every angle was illuminated with precious stones, and a man-bag of woven brass wire. Midir then arranges the fithcheall. “Play,” said Midir. “I will not, except for a wager,” said Eochaidh. “What wager shall we stake?’ said Midir, “I care not what,” said Eochaidh. “I shall have for thee,” said Midir, “fifty dark grey steeds, if thou win the game. ‘" The Editor takes this opportunity of presenting to the reader four different views of the same piece, an ancient chess-man — a king — found in Ireland, which is preserved in the cabinet of his friend, George Petrie, LL.D.; he has never discovered in the Irish MSS. any full or detailed description of a chess-board and its furnitureb, and he is [lxiii] therefore, unable to prove that pieces of different forms and powers, similar to those among other nations, were used by the Irish, but he is of opinion that they were. ] [...; engraved. ills. of a unique king piece viewed from four angles made of bone given here, with two symmetrically in body text on each page, pp.lxii, lxiii.] [Further:] Dr. Petrie’s specimen was given to him about thirty years ago by the late Dr. Tuke, a well-known collector of antiquities and other curiosities in Dublin; and, as that gentleman stated, was found with several others, some years previously, in a bog in the county of Meath. (p.lxiv.)

On the Irish Text and Translation
On a careful comparison of the two vellum copies of which we have spoken in the opening of this Introduction, it was found that the copy in the Book of Leacan, though not free from defects and errors, is by far the more correct one, and it has, therefore, been unhesitatingly adopted as the text of the present edition. Sentences, words, &c., omitted from the copy in the Book of Leacan, and found in the other copy, have been supplied [in brackets] to the Irish text; and the more remarkable varies, lectiones have been added for the inspection and consideration of the critical scholar at the end of this volume. It has not been considered necessary to notice the omissions of the Book of Baile an Mhuta in all cases. The exact orthography of the Book of Leacan has been preserved throughout, [...; p.lxv.]
—Available at Internet Archive - online; accessed 24.04.2024.

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References
Patrick Rafroidi, Irish Literature in English, The Romantic Period, 1789-1850 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1980), Vol. 2; notes Correspondence, ed. Father O’Flanagan, 50 vols. (1924-1932).

Seamus Deane, gen. ed., The Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2; coverage limited to secondary references at pp.6, 44n, 206, 990.

Diarmaid Ó Catháin, “John O’Donovan”, in Dictionary of Irish Biography (RIA 2009) - on The Ancient Laws of Ireland

Since the founding of the RIA various proposals had been made for the publication of the unique and large body of material on the ancient laws of Ireland extant in manuscripts. The British government made £5,000 available for the project and appointed a commission to oversee it in 1852. O’Donovan, who may have had better political skills than O’Curry, was initially appointed editor with O’Curry as an assistant. O’Curry refused this and they were then made co-editors, but O’Donovan seems to have been accorded some precedence, and relationships between the two suffered. The history of the project was unhappy. It would appear that academic politics resulted in the two scholars being subordinated to people of lesser knowledge who were not competent to deal with the archaic and technical texts. Great delays resulted. O’Donovan continued to work on this while he lived. An unreliable edition of The ancient laws of Ireland appeared after the deaths of both scholars.

Available online; accessed 24.04.2024. ]

Ulster Libraries
Belfast Public Library holds (1851); The Book of Rights (1847); Celtic Records of the Past (1870); Letters Relating to the Antiquities of Ireland, 41 vols. (1839); Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland by the Four Masters, 4 vols. (1856).

University of Ulster (Morris Collection) holds Letters containing information relative to the antiquities of Co. Fermanagh collected during the progress of the ordance survey in 1834-5. Typescript. 63pp.; An Irish-English Dictionary … with Edward O’Reilly (Duffy).

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Notes
Birthdate? - F. Carroll, ‘Mangan’s Age Complex’, Irish Book Lover, [Vol. XXXII], Sept. 1957, writes (p.134): ‘On the 8th of December 1843 John O’Donovan addressed a leter to the Rev. Dr. J. H. Todd which commenced as follows: “I was born on the townland of Attatimore (Áit an Tighe Móir) n 3rd of August 1809 (Journal of the Royal Soc. of Antiquaries of Ireland, July 1884, p.348.) The exact date of O’Donovan’s birth does not appear to be know, but he was baptised on the 26th July 1806.’ (Bibl., ‘Entries, relating to John O’Donovan and his immediate relatives’, JRSAI, Sept. 1915.)

Portraits: There is a monument of O’Donovan in O’Connell circle, Glasnevin, records b. 9 July [copied in DIB], and by his own accounts he was born on 26 July, or 3 August, 1809; but his brother’s baptism entry shows b. 10 Feb 1810, which renders these dates impossible [see Henry Dixon, in Leabharlann, Apr. 1906, and Fr. Sweeney in A Group of Nation-builders (CTS 1913), p.5; both noted in Fr. Paul Walsh, Irish Men of Learning, as below.

Hardiman’s hope: In Ancient Irish Deeds and Writings (1835), Hardiman adds a footnote at the end of the prefixed lecture-cum-introduction expressing the hope that the translation of both the Annals and the Brehon laws will be undertaken by one James Scurry - a project which, in the event, fell to John O’Donovan and Eugene Curry: ‘It is anxiously hoped by many of Mr: Scurry’s friends, that his capabilities may be called forth, in the national task of translating the Brehon laws, the greatest desideratum, next to the publication of the Annals, in Irish literature.' (Op. cit., p.13.)

Ordnance: Fellow-members of the Ordnance Commission incl. Thomas O’Conor, languages teacher, and William Frederick Wakeman, artist.

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