George T. Stokes (1843-98)

Life
[George Thomas Stokes]; b. Athlone, ed. TCD, DD, 1886; vicar of All Saints’, Newtown Park [Blackrock], Co. Dublin, 1868-98; canon of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, 1893; Prof. of Ecclesiastical History, TCD, 1883; librarian of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, 1887; issued Ireland and the Celtic Church (1886), which ran into several edns. incl. the 6th edn. rev. by Hugh Jackson Lawlor (1907 &c.); issued Ireland and the Anglo-Norman Church (1889); wrote papers for Royal Irish Academy and Royal Society of Antiquaries; d. Dublin. ODNB DIW

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Bibliographical details
Writings of St Patrick, the Apostle of Ireland, a revised translation, with Notes, critical and historical, by the Rev. George Thomas Stokes, DD., professor of Eccles. History in the Univ. of Dublin, Libr. of St. Patrick’s Public Library (Primate Marsh’s Library) and Vicar of All Saints, Blackrock; and the Rev. Charles H. H. Wright, DD, of TCD, MA, Exeter Coll., Oxford [etc.], incumbent of St. Bethesda Church, Dublin, London: James Nisbet & Co.; Dublin: Hodges Figgis & Co. [publ. to the Univ.] 1887; 79pp. incl. lists. Stokes noticed as auth. of Ireland the the Celtic Church: A History of Ireland from St Patrick to the English Conquest in 1172; also noticed in end list: Wright, A Grammar of the Modern Irish Language designed for the use of the Classes in Univ. of Dublin, 2nd edn. rev. adn enl., London: Williams & Norgate; Dublin DF 1860, and coms. on Hebrew versions of Book of Ruth; Genesis; Zechariah and his Prophecies, and The Book of Koheleth called Ecclesiastes, considered in relation to Modern Criticism and to the Doctrines of Modern Pessimism (Hodder & Stoughton, 1882). Introduction, pp.1-18 [subscribed Charles Wright; 33 Mespil Rd., Dublin]; Miss Cusack’s Life [1871] called ‘work of special importance, not only because it is the fullest work on the subject written from a Roman Catholic standpoint, but also because it contains “The Tripartie Life of Saint Patrick, Apostle of Ireland, Translated from the Original Irish by W. M. Hennessy, Esq., MRIA” [as Cusack pp.369-502], along with the latter’s trans. of Confession and Epistle to Coroticus, 571-620, and based on the transcription of the Book of Armagh copy [deemed by Ferguson to be an abridgement] by Thaddeus O’Mahony, Prof. of Irish at TCD, 1859-71 [Stokes, p.7]. Epistle to Coroticus contained not in Book of Armagh but in Cottonian MS and two Bodleian MSS; also in Bollandist version contained in Acta Sanctorum, supposed to have perished in the French Revolution, and gen. regarded as a fifth version; Bibl., R. Steele Nicholson, MA TCD, St Patrick: Apostle of Ireland in the Third century (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill 1868) [incidentally disproved by several of the historical points noticed by Prof. Stokes; ftn. 9.]; Rev. Thomas Olden, BA, MRIA [vicar of Ballyclough], The Epistles and Hymn of St Patrick with the Poem of Secundinus, trans., Dublin: Hodges Figgis: 1876); A. F. Foster [author of Chambers Latin-English Dict.], ed. The Confession of St Patrick: or St Patrick’s Epistle to the Irish People in the Third Century [sic], trans from copies in British Museum and Bod.; Glasgow: Robert Machlehose (for Univ. Press) [deemed inaccurate]; also cites translation in English blank verse by ‘lately deceased and much to be regretted Sir Samuel Ferguson’, LLD, Pres. RIA; Transactions of RIA, Vol. XXVII [Polite literature adn Antiquities], VI (Dublin: RIA 1885). For longer extracts, see under St. Patrick, “Commentary”, supra.

Noticed in endpapers: Stokes’ Ireland the the Celtic Church: A History of Ireland from St Patrick to the English Conquest in 1172; also noticed are: Wright, A Grammar of the Modern Irish Language designed for the use of the Classes in Univ. of Dublin [2nd rev. enl. edn.] (London: Williams & Norgate; Dublin: Hodges Figgis 1860), and a commentary on Hebrew versions of Book of Ruth, Genesis, Zechariah and his Prophecies, and The Book of Koheleth, called Ecclesiastes, ‘considered in relation to Modern Criticism and to the Doctrines of Modern Pessimism (London: Hodder & Stoughton 1882).

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References
Booksellers: Various catalogues incl. Hyland Books, 219 (1997), list Ireland and the Celtic Church (1886), and Do., another edn. (London 1892), 356pp.; Ireland the Anglo-Norman Church (1888); ‘Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles,’ for Expositor’s Bible (1891); Ireland and the Celtic Church (6th Edn. 1907); with Charles H. H. Wright, The Writings of St. Patrick: A Revised Translation (1887), 79pp.

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Notes
Hugh Jackson Lawlor: Lawlor, who revised the 6th edn. of Ireland and the Celtic Church in 1907, was sometime Dean of St Patrick’s Cathedral.

All Saint’s (Blackrock/Stillorgan): The parish of All Saints" was created in 1868 in a newly built church designed by the architect John McCurdy (c.1824-1885). The church was consecrated on 21 April 1870, nearly two years after the foundation stone was laid. The trowel used is enscribed:

‘Presented to Matthew Pollock Esq. on the occasion of his laying the Foundation Stone of All Saint’s Church Newtown Park 15th Sept. 1868. Genesis 28.22: “And this Stone which I have set for a Pillar shall be God’s house.”’ The vicar George Stokes was presumably present.

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