Life
?1802-?1865 [var. Kearney]; b. Thomastown, nr. Dundalk; issued the Prophecies of Columbkille, later exposed as forgeries; his verse includes “Ar sáile anonn” and “Cumha na Mathara”; member of Ossianic society and editor of texts for John O’Daly and that society. IF OCIL
Works
The Prophecies of Saints Colum-Cille, Maeltamlacht, Ultan, Senan, Bearcan and Malachy, as compiled, translated and annotated by … N. O’Kearney, &c. (Dublin: J. Duffy & Co. 1925) [printed in Holland], xii+137pp.; 8o. [BML].
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Criticism
Seán Ó Dúfaigh & Diarmaid Ó Doiblin, Nioclás Ó Cearnaigh, Beatha agus Saothar (Baile Átha Cliath: An Clóchomhar 1993).
References
Ireland in Fiction, ed. Stephen Brown (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), The Battle of Gabhra (John O’Daly 1853), edited for the first time and printed for Ossianic Society with intro. and trans. [Fianna finally defeated by Cairbre, King of Leinster, 283 AD]; The Story of Conn-eda, or The Golden Apples of Loch Erne, from the Irish (London: J. R. Smith 1855), 17pp., rep. from Proc. of Cambrian Arch. Assoc.; The Festivities at the House of Conan of Ceann-Sleibhe (Dublin: John O’Daly 1855); also ed., Transactions of the Ossianic Soc. I (1854).
Hyland (Cat. 224) lists The Festivities of Conan of Ceann-Sleibhe in the County of Clare [Trans. of the Ossianic Soc.] (1855), copy owned by Edward Fitzgerald of Youghal, with his annotations.
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Quotations
‘Feast in Conán’s House’ [The Festivities at the House of Conan of Ceann-Sleibhe, 1855]);: ‘Tell me,’ said Conan, ‘which are the sweetest strains you ever enjoyed?’/‘I will tell you,’ replied Fionn. ‘When the seven constant battalions of the Fenians assemble on [one] plain (and raise their standards of chivalry above their heads), then when the howling, whistling blast of the dry, cold wind rushes through them and over them, that is very sweet to me. (When the drinking hall is furnished in Almhuin, and the cup-bearers hand the bright cups of chaste workmanship to the chiefs of the Fenians) the ring of the cups, when drained to the last drop, on the tables of the Bruighin, is very sweet to me. Sweet to me is the scream of the seagull, and of the heron, the roar of the waves on Traigh-lidhe [Tralee], the song of the three sons of Meardha, the whistling of Mac Lughaidh, the Dord of Fearsgaradh, the voice of the cuckoo in the first month of summer, the grunting of the hogs on Magh Eitne, [the thudding (of the hooves) (?) of the stag of Ceara in Cnocroe and the cry of the hunt of Derrynish]’ (Cited in ‘Comparatively Untapped Sources’, in Anne Clune & Tess Hurson, eds., Conjuring Complexities , 1997, p.25.)
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