DOCSLIB.ORG

Another Martyr for Old Ireland

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Another Martyr for Old Ireland University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1996 Another martyr for old Ireland. Sharon Leigh Williams University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Williams, Sharon Leigh, "Another martyr for old Ireland." (1996). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 1233. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/1233 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. UMASS/AMHERST ANOTHER MARTYR FOR OLD IRELAND A Dissertation Presented by SHARON LEIGH WILLIAMS Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY May 1996 History @ Copyright by Sharon Leigh Williams 1996 All Rights Reserved — ANOTHER MARTYR FOR OLD IRELAND A Dissertation Presented by SHARON LEIGH WILLIAMS Approved as to style and content by: CI Maria Tymoczko, Chair Carlin Barton Member I Charles Rearick, Member — llA(K^ Joh^ Bracey, Membe^r Bruce Laurie, Department Department of History For my Mother ABSTRACT ANOTHER MARTYR FOR OLD IRELAND MAY 1996 SHARON L. WILLIAMS, B.A. , MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY M.A., MIDWESTERN STATE UNIVERSITY Ph.D., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Maria Tymoczko This dissertation proposes a paradigm in which the political martyrs of Ireland serve as a continuous reproduction of a heroic pattern of martyrdom. Within this model are contained particular mythic patterns of thought. By studying these patterns in relation to Patrick Sarsfield, I intend to show that in the creation of Irish political martyrs a mythology of martyrdom was fashioned and refashioned continuously in different periods of Irish history. This work is an interdisciplinary study, comprising of the history, mythology, and literature. An examination Sarsfield legend reveals that the stories of Sarsfield image of provide a reassuring connection to an established an heroic and glorious Irish past. Irish nationalists have utilized the image of an heroic Ireland, struggling to free itself from centuries of oppression, as part of their construction of martyrs. The transference of characteristics associated with ancient warrior and kingly classes in Ireland to modern nationalist martyrs allows or the continuous witnessing of the tradition of Irish martyrdom. The construction of a mythology of martyrdom serves the needs of a particular community which feels the need to reaffirm or reestablish their identity. The martyrs serve as a continual reaffirmation of communal identity. The Sarsfield stories show that each historical generation reinterprets the deeds of the man in relation to their own perceived circumstances. In this process of creation, the complexities of the individual are simplified, as each martyr must fit a certain mask of martyrdom. An examination of Sarsfield and his legend shows that this method of historical and literary analysis reveals a "demythologized" Sarsfield, and a "mythologized" Sarsfield. Each version is equally valid and useful in understand a communities perception and creation of their identity. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABSTRACT v Chapter Introduction 1 I. THE PATRIOT GAME: THE CONSTRUCTION OF A MARTYR . 6 II. THE WAR OF THE TWO KINGS: SARSFIELD AS HERO . 27 III. THE "REBEL" AND THE "FOOL": TONE AND PEARSE . 78 IV. WOULD THAT IT WERE FOR IRELAND: THE CREATION OF A MARTYR 131 V. "THE CIRCUS ANIMALS": SYMBOLISM AND CONTINUITY FROM EARLY IRISH LITERATURE 192 VI. A NATION ONCE AGAIN? THE PRICE OF SALVATION . 238 BIBLIOGRAPHY 258 vii INTRODUCTION The 1689 wars begat the 1798 Rising which begat the Fenian movement of the 1850's-60's which begat Patrick Pearse and the Easter Rising. This genealogy of Irish nationalistic history is simplistic and naive, and yet there is a psychological justice to it. The rebels and martyrs of Ireland were the continuous regenerations and reproductions of a heroic pattern, mothered by particular mythic patterns of thought. These mythic patterns and the ways in which they were realized in molding the development of the legend of Patrick Sarsfield are the subject of this dissertation. I began writing this work with the intent of discussing Sarsfield and his contributions (or lack thereof) to Irish nationalism. I was intrigued by a man who accomplished little of military or political value yet became admired by a large segment of the Irish population. Sarsfield, while being included in the canon of Irish martyrs, seemed a very inadequate and unlikely martyr. The war he involved himself in was not, at the time, a war for Irish freedom. Only subsequent nationalist writers would make it so. Additionally, Sarsfield did not die in of Ireland, but on the Continent, fighting in the service — 2 Louis XIV of France. How then did he become incorporated into the pantheon of Irish nationalistic martyrs? Did his life before death even matter? As I progressed in my studies, I came to realize that with Sarsfield as my focus, I was studying the creation and recreation— of a martyr. By studying the transformations of the legend of Sarsfield, I was analyzing the making of what we term history. A comparison of Sarsfield's life and the creation of his legend, through the telling of the stories and ballads about martyrdom, with the lives and legends of two other famous Irish martyrs (Theobald Wolfe Tone and Patrick Pearse), allowed me to explore the generation of popular history. Roy Foster has questioned why popular or mythic history has not followed professional history in revising its view of the past. He answers his own question when he comments, "The depressing lesson is probably that history as conceived by scholars is a different concept to history as understood at large, where myth is probably the correct, if over-used, anthropological term" ("History and the Irish Question" 192). At the beginning of my academic career, I conceived of history as a field of study which could be examined objectively and in isolation from other areas such This as literature, anthropology or political science. "history" was an independent entity which could be annals, adequately documented with written sources such as Such manuscripts, legal texts, letters and journals. 3 acceptable sources for historical research would allow me to discover how a society functioned. Popular materials, or sources enjoyed by the "masses", such as folk ballads, popular songs, or mythic stories, fell outside of the legitimate scope of historical research. Mythology, though entertaining, was properly studied in a literary field, as mythology consisted of stories where meanings were not clear and could not be reduced to a clear narrative or chronological form. I discovered however, that stories and songs, even without "documentary evidence", contain valuable historical evidence. Robin Ridington, in Trail to Heaven, explains a vision story of a Dunne-za, or Beaver Indian, who tells of experiencing a world in which foxes wear clothes and teach songs, and frogs gamble under a pond. Ridington argues: There is no documentary or scientific evidence to indicate that frogs really sing and dance and gamble beneath the waters of a pond, but the old man said he experienced this, too. There is no documentary evidence of foxes who live like people. Because we lack documentary evidence, we are compelled to class his second story as myth. In our though twor Id, myth and reality are opposites. Unless we can find some way to understand the reality of mythic thinking, we remain prisoners of our own language, our own thoughtwor Id. ... In the Indian thoughtworld, stories about talking animals and stories about the summer gathering are equally true because both describe personal e.xperience. Their truths are complementary. (71) Ridington constructs a compelling argument for two complementary worlds, or realities. In my study I discovered Sarsfield operating in two such complementary 4 worlds: a *'mythic" Sarsfield, developed through the repetition and expansion of songs and stories, and an "historical" or perhaps, "demythologized" Sarsfield, much harder to find, buried as he was under the mythic personae, but documented in journals, letters and diaries of the time. But which Sarsfield is the "authentic" Sarsfield? Searching for an "authentic" Sarsfield implies that one version is true and one is false. Just as I believed history and myth to be opposites, I examined the two Sarsfields to discover which one was "true", I came to the same conclusion as Ridington did in studying the Dunne-za: both are equally true, equally valid. The "historical" Sarsfield allows us to glimpse the actions and thoughts of the people immediately involved in the late seventeenth century; the "mythic" Sarsfield affords us an understanding of the popular interpretations of those actions over the centuries. The popular interpretations conditioned people to fashion their worldview in specific ways, and the continual reinterpretation of the events in turn created a mythology of heroic sacrifice. This work then, will historicize the mythology of heroic sacrifice. The structure of this work may appear confusing to of some readers; I would like to give a brief explanation the choice of chapter divisions. Chapter I is a broad contextual chapter which lays the theoretical framework f contexts of the dissertation. Focusing on the successive 5 mythology, there follows in Chapter II a detailed biography of Sarsfield the man as conceived by objective history. In Chapter III, I examine the lives and legends of Theobald Wolfe Tone and Patrick Pearse in relation to Sarsfield and the framework of modern Irish nationalist ideology, so as to give a point of comparison to other nationalistic martyrs, in order to judge the development of the Sarsfield myth. In Chapter IV I examine the stories and songs of Sarsfield in order to show the transformation of Sarsfield to a martyr figure.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • W.I.S.E. Words Index 1999-2015
    W.I.S.E. Words Index 1999-2015 f W.I.S.E. Words is the quarterly newsletter published by the W.I.S.E. Family History Society, Denver. Index compiled by Zoe Lappin, 2016 Table of Contents, 1999 edition Names . 1 Places . .2 Topics . 2 Book Reviews and Mentions . 3 Feature Articles . 3 Table of Contents, 2000-2015 editions Names . 5 Places . 25 Topics . 32 Book Reviews and Mentions . 41 Feature Articles . 48 W.I.S.E. Seminars . 50 WISE-fhs.org W.I.S.E. Words Index 1999-2015 W.I.S.E. Words Index 1999-2015 Campbell, Robert Issue 3: 6 1999 Celestine, Pope Issue 2: 6 Charles, Lewis Issue 2: 4 W.I.S.E. Family History Society – Wales, Charles, Mary Issue 2: 4, 5; Issue 4: 4, 5 Ireland, Scotland, England based in Denver, Crown, James Issue 4: 4 Colorado -- began publishing a newsletter in January 1999. Its title was W.I.S.E. Drummond Issue 3: 5 Drummond clan Issue 3: 4 Newsletter and it was a bimonthly publication Drummond, Donald MacGregor Issue 3: 4 of eight pages. Each issue started with page 1 and ended with page 8; there was no Forby, George Issue 1: 4 continuous numbering throughout the year. It lasted one year and in January 2000, the Gregor clan Issue 3: 4 society started over, publishing a quarterly Gregor, King of Picts & Scots Issue 3: 5 with a new format and new name, W.I.S.E. Griffiths, Griffith Issue 4: 4 Words, as it’s been known ever since.
    [Show full text]
  • Saint Patrick: Issues of Translation & His Enduring
    SAINT PATRICK: ISSUES OF TRANSLATION & HIS ENDURING PASTORAL MESSAGE A dissertation submitted to the Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University in partial fulfillment of The requirements for the degree, Doctor of Letters Christina Isabella McGrath Drew University Madison, New Jersey May 2021 Copyright © 2021 by Christina Isabella McGrath All Rights Reserved Abstract Saint Patrick: Issues of Translation and His Enduring Pastoral Message Doctor of Letters Dissertation by Christina Isabella McGrath The Caspersen School of Graduate Studies Drew University May 2021 This dissertation attempts to discover the reason(s) for the worldwide interest in Saint Patrick of Ireland by focusing on the numerous translations of his two writings, the Confessio (The Confession of Saint Patrick) and the Epistola (The Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus). By analyzing seven specific twentieth century translations of the saint’s fifth century writings, the reader will discern subtle differences in each end product, leading to a unique message from Patrick. Working with the assertions that every translation is a political act of some kind and that the translator becomes part of the translation, specific passages from the saint’s writings are examined and discussed through the lens of translation theory along with survey responses from accessible translators. After delving into Patrician scholarship, the historical sources presenting Saint Patrick’s letters have been called into question, due to the personal agendas and biases of his seventh century biographers. Over the past 1500 years, both political and religious factions have usurped him for their own agendas. The end result of this exploration led to the discovery of a man who went to the end of his world to preach the Gospel, to convert the Irish to Christianity, and to share the love of his God with the place and people who once enslaved him.
    [Show full text]
  • Ambiguity and the Search for Meaning: English and American Studies at the Beginning of the 21St Century
    Ambiguity and the Search for Meaning: English and American Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century Volume 1: Literature Ambiguity and the Search for Meaning: English and American Studies at the Beginning of the 21st Century Volume 1: Literature Edited by Monika Coghen Zygmunt Mazur Beata Piątek Jagiellonian University Press The publication of this volume was supported by the Faculty of Philology of the Jagiellonian University, and the Institute of English Philology, Jagiellonian University. BOARD OF REVIEWERS Teresa Bela Joelle Biele Julie Campbell Benjamin Colbert Marta Gibińska-Marzec Aleksandra Kędzierska David Malcolm Irena Przemęcka Krystyna Stamirowska-Sokołowska Lisa Vargo Anna Walczuk COVER DESIGN Marcin Klag TYPESETTING Sebastian Leśniewski TECHNICAL EDITOR Mirosław Ruszkiewicz © Copyright by Monika Coghen, Zygmunt Mazur, Beata Piątek & Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego First edition, Kraków 2010 No part of this book may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher. ISBN 978-83-233-3117-9 I WYDAWNICTWO] UNIWERSYTETU JAGIELLOŃSKIEGO www.wuj.pl Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego Redakcja: ul. Michałowskiego 9/2, 31-126 Kraków tel. 12-631-18-81, 12-631-18-82, fax 12-631-18-83 Dystrybucja: tel. 12-631-01-97, tel./fax 12-631-01-98 tel. kom. 0506-006-674, e-mail: [email protected] Konto: PEKAO SA, nr 80 1240 4722 1111 0000 4856 3325 A Bibl. Jagiell. ■ Contents Preface................................................................................................................................... 9 ELINOR SHAFFER Seven Times Seven Types of Ambiguity: William Empson and Twentieth-Century Criticism....................................................................................... 11 ROBERT REHDER Meaning and Change of Form: Eliot, Pound and Niedecker............................................
    [Show full text]
  • July at the Museum!
    July at the Museum! Battle of Aughrim, John Mulvaney. The Battle of the Boyne, July 1st 1690. On 1 July 1690, the Battle of the Boyne was fought between King James II's Jacobite army, and the Williamite Army under William of Orange. Despite only being a minor military victory in favour of the Williamites, it has a major symbolic significance. The Battle's annual commemorations by The Orange Order, a masonic-style fraternity dedicated to the protection of the Protestant Ascendancy, remain a topic of great controversy. This is especially true in areas of Northern Ireland where sectarian tensions remain rife. No year in Irish history is better known than 1690. No Irish battle is more famous than William III's victory over James II at the River Boyne, a few miles west of Drogheda. James, a Roman Catholic, had lost the throne of England in the bloodless "Glorious Revolution" of 1688. William was Prince of Orange, a Dutch-speaking Protestant married to James's daughter Mary, and became king at the request of parliament. James sought refuge with his old ally, Louis XIV of France, who saw an opportunity to strike at William through Ireland. He provided French officers and arms for James, who landed at Kinsale in March 1689. The lord deputy, the Earl of Tyrconnell was a Catholic loyal to James, and his Irish army controlled most of the island. James quickly summoned a parliament, largely Catholic, which proceeded to repeal the legislation under which Protestant settlers had acquired land. During the rule of Tyrconnell, the first Catholic viceroy since the Reformation, Protestants had seen their influence eroded in the army, in the courts and in civil government.
    [Show full text]
  • Eoghán Rua Ó Suilleabháin: a True Exponent of the Bardic Legacy
    134 Eoghán Rua Ó Suilleabháin: A True Exponent of the Bardic Legacy endowed university. The Bardic schools and the monastic schools were the universities of their day; they bestowed privileges and Barra Ó Donnabháin Symposium: status on their students and teachers, much as the modern university awards degrees and titles to recipients to practice certain professions. There are few descriptions of the structure and operation of Eoghán Rua Ó Suilleabháin: A the Bardic schools, but an account contained in the early eighteenth century Memoirs of the Marquis of Clanricarde claims that admission True Exponent of the Bardic WR %DUGLF VFKRROV ZDV FRQÀQHG WR WKRVH ZKR ZHUH GHVFHQGHG from poets and had within their tribe “The Reputation” for poetic Legacy OHDUQLQJ DQG WDOHQW ´7KH TXDOLÀFDWLRQV ÀUVW UHTXLUHG VLF ZHUH Pádraig Ó Cearúill reading well, writing the Mother-tongue, and a strong memory,” according to Clanricarde. With regard to the location of the schools, he asserts that it was necessary that the place should “be in the solitary access of a garden” or “within a set or enclosure far out of the reach of any noise.” The structure containing the Bardic school, we are told, “was snug, low, hot and beds in it at convenient distances, each within a small apartment without much furniture of any kind, save only a table, some seats and a conveniency for he poetry of Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1748-1784)— cloaths (sic) to hang upon. No windows to let in the day, nor any Tregarded as one of Ireland’s great eighteenth century light at all used but that of candles” according to Clanricarde,2 poets—has endured because of it’s extraordinary metrical whose account is given credence by Bergin3 and Corkery.
    [Show full text]
  • Bilingualism in the Cambrai Homily
    Bilingualism in the Cambrai Homily Gwendolyne Knight* The Cambrai Homily (Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 679 [s. viii2] ff. 37rb–38rb) is a short prose homily found between two chapters of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis; as the Homily is incomplete, it has been suggested that it was copied from a stray leaf inserted into the exemplar of the Collectio. The Homily itself is estimated to date to the seventh or first half of the eighth century. More salient for the purpose of this anthology, however, is the fact that the Homily code-switches between Latin and Old Irish. Some claim that this text provides us with the earliest record of continuous Irish prose; as such it has long been an important source for early Irish linguistics, as well as evidence for sermons in the seventh-century Irish Church. Nevertheless, the aspects of code-switching between Old Irish and Latin in the Cambrai Homily remain underexplored. This article provides an assessment of existing perspectives on the relationship between Latin and Old Irish in this homily, and offers a fresh interpretation of the code-switching that takes place. Keywords: Medieval homily, code-switching, translation studies, Old Irish, Latin, Cambrai Introduction The manuscript preserved in Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale, MS 679 (formerly 619) is a partial transmission of the Collectio canonum Hibernensis, containing 38 of 65-69 books of scriptural and patristic extracts, as well as canon law, and Irish synodal and penitential de- crees. It was copied for Alberic, bishop of Cambrai and Arras (763-790), in the second half of the 8th century.
    [Show full text]
  • YEATS ANNUAL No. 18 Frontispiece: Derry Jeffares Beside the Edmund Dulac Memorial Stone to W
    To access digital resources including: blog posts videos online appendices and to purchase copies of this book in: hardback paperback ebook editions Go to: https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/194 Open Book Publishers is a non-profit independent initiative. We rely on sales and donations to continue publishing high-quality academic works. In the same series YEATS ANNUALS Nos. 1, 2 Edited by Richard J. Finneran YEATS ANNUALS Nos. 3-8, 10-11, 13 Edited by Warwick Gould YEATS AND WOMEN: YEATS ANNUAL No. 9: A Special Number Edited by Deirdre Toomey THAT ACCUSING EYE: YEATS AND HIS IRISH READERS YEATS ANNUAL No. 12: A Special Number Edited by Warwick Gould and Edna Longley YEATS AND THE NINETIES YEATS ANNUAL No. 14: A Special Number Edited by Warwick Gould YEATS’S COLLABORATIONS YEATS ANNUAL No. 15: A Special Number Edited by Wayne K. Chapman and Warwick Gould POEMS AND CONTEXTS YEATS ANNUAL No. 16: A Special Number Edited by Warwick Gould INFLUENCE AND CONFLUENCE: YEATS ANNUAL No. 17: A Special Number Edited by Warwick Gould YEATS ANNUAL No. 18 Frontispiece: Derry Jeffares beside the Edmund Dulac memorial stone to W. B. Yeats. Roquebrune Cemetery, France, 1986. Private Collection. THE LIVING STREAM ESSAYS IN MEMORY OF A. NORMAN JEFFARES YEATS ANNUAL No. 18 A Special Issue Edited by Warwick Gould http://www.openbookpublishers.com © 2013 Gould, et al. (contributors retain copyright of their work). The text of this book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported Licence. This licence allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text.
    [Show full text]
  • Lenition of the Conjugated Prepositions in Irish and Welsh
    Lenition of the Conjugated Prepositions in Irish and Welsh Sanne Jongeleen 3765105 25-07-2016 RMA Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Studies Supervised by prof. dr. Peter Schrijver Plagiarism Statement I hereby declare that I have committed neither fraud nor plagiarism prior, during or after the process that has resulted in this thesis. 25-07-2016, Sanne Jongeleen 2 Table of Contents Table of Contents .................................................................................................. 3 Abbreviations ....................................................................................................... 4 0. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 6 1. Research Questions ........................................................................................... 8 2. Theoretical background ...................................................................................... 9 3. Methodology ................................................................................................... 14 4. Selected Corpus .............................................................................................. 18 4.1 Irish .......................................................................................................... 18 4.2 Welsh ........................................................................................................ 20 5. Selected Prepositions ......................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Information to Users
    INFORMATION TO USERS This manuscript has been reproduced from the microfilm master. UMI films the text directly from the original or copy submitted. Thus, some thesis and dissertation copies are in typewriter face, while others may be from any type of computer printer. The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleedthrough, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send UMI a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Oversize materials (e.g., maps, drawings, charts) are reproduced by sectioning the original, beginning at the upper left-hand comer and continuing from left to right in equal sections with small overlaps. ProQuest Information and Learning 300 North Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 USA 800-521-0600 UMI' Maidens, Mothers and Rabble Ronsers: Women's political involvement in Northern Ireland, 1790-2001 by Pamela Blythe McKane Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for die degree of Master of Arts in the Joint Women’s Studies Programme at Mount Saint Vincent University Dalhousie University Saint Mary's University Halifax, Nova Scotia September 2001 Copyright by Pamela Blythe McKane, 2001 National Library Bibliothèque nationale ■♦I of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services sendees bibliographiques 385 WeMnglon SirMt 385, rua WaKnglon Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Ottawa ON K1A0N4 Canada Canada raurm Vatnimmneg OutU ê Naotimtnea The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or seU reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies o f this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats.
    [Show full text]
  • Literature and Learning in Early Medieval Meath
    Provided by the author(s) and NUI Galway in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite the published version when available. Title Literature and learning in early medieval Meath Author(s) Downey, Clodagh Publication Date 2015 Downey, Clodagh (2015) 'Literature and Learning in Early Publication Medieval Meath' In: Crampsie, A., and Ludlow, F(Eds.). Information Meath History and Society: Interdisciplinary Essays on the History of an Irish County. Dublin : Geography Publications. Publisher Geography Publications Link to publisher's http://www.geographypublications.com/product/meath-history- version society/ Item record http://hdl.handle.net/10379/7121 Downloaded 2021-09-26T15:35:58Z Some rights reserved. For more information, please see the item record link above. CHAPTER 04 - Clodagh Downey 7/20/15 1:11 PM Page 1 CHAPTER 4 Literature and learning in early medieval Meath CLODAGH DOWNEY The medieval literature of Ireland stands out among the vernacular literatures of western Europe for its volume, its diversity and its antiquity, and within this treasury of cultural riches, Meath holds a prominence greatly disproportionate to its geographical extent, however that extent is reckoned. Indeed, the first decision confronting anyone who wishes to consider this subject is to define its geographical limits: the modern county of Meath is quite a different entity to the medieval kingdom of Mide from which it gets its name and which itself designated different areas at different times. It would be quite defensible to include in a survey of medieval literature those areas which are now under the administration of other modern counties, but which may have been part of the medieval kingdom at the time that that literature was produced.
    [Show full text]
  • Behind the Tunes – Vol
    behind theVOLUME III tunes developed by Dr. Peter L. Heineman Third Edition All rights reserved. Any reproduction is prohibited without the written permission of the author. This material may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information and retrieval system without the written permission of the author. Contents Page 1 Atherlow Glens 100 Pipe Major J.K. Cairns 3 Alison Hargreave’s Farewell to K2 102 Red Hugh 5 Angus John’s Fancy 104 Rory O’More 7 Ar Eirinn Ni Neosfainn CéhÌ 105 Soraidh Leis An Ait (For Ireland I’d Not Tell Her Name) (Farewell to the Place) 9 Auchmountain’s Bonnie Glen 108 Sprig of Shillelagh 11 Banjo Breakdown 110 Taps 13 Barrosa 113 Tha Mi Sgith 15 Believe Me if All Those Endearing (Cutting Bracken) Young Charms 115 The 25th KOSB's Farewell to Meerut 17 Bonny Portmore 118 The 79th's Farewell to Gibraltar th 19 Buchal an Eire 120 The 87 ’s Colours (Come by the Hills) 122 The Atholl and Breadalbane Gathering 20 Buttevante Castle 124 The Balmoral Highlanders 21 Ca’ the Ewes 127 The Caledonian Society of London 23 Captain Norman Orr Ewing 129 The Caubeen Trimmed with Blue 25 Clare’s Dragoons 131 The Circassian Circle 27 Cock o’ the North 133 The Cruel Mother 30 Colonel McNamara, M.P. 135 The Dark Island 32 Corriechoillie's 43rd Welcome 137 The Dawning of the Day to the Northern Meeting 140 The Drunken Piper 35 Craigh na Dun 142 The Dusty Road from Muttra 37 Creagh Castle 144 The Hills of Bara 39 Danny Boy 145 The Massacre of Glencoe
    [Show full text]
  • List of Manuscript and Printed Sources Current Marks and Abreviations
    1 1 LIST OF MANUSCRIPT AND PRINTED SOURCES CURRENT MARKS AND ABREVIATIONS * * surrounds insertions by me * * variant forms of the lemmata for finding ** (trailing at end of article) wholly new article inserted by me + + surrounds insertion from the addenda ++ (trailing at end of article) wholly new article inserted from addenda † † marks what is (I believe) certainly wrong !? marks an unidentified source reference [ro] Hogan’s Ro [=reference omitted] {1} etc. different places but within a single entry are thus marked Identical lemmata are numbered. This is merely to separate the lemmata for reference and cross- reference. It does not imply that the lemmata always refer to separate names SOURCES Unidentified sources are listed here and marked in the text (!?). Most are not important but they are nuisance. Identifications please. 23 N 10 Dublin, RIA, 967 olim 23 N 10, antea Betham, 145; vellum and paper; s. xvi (AD 1575); see now R. I. Best (ed), MS. 23 N 10 (formerly Betham 145) in the Library of the RIA, Facsimiles in Collotype of Irish Manuscript, 6 (Dublin 1954) 23 P 3 Dublin, RIA, 1242 olim 23 P 3; s. xv [little excerption] AASS Acta Sanctorum … a Sociis Bollandianis (Antwerp, Paris, & Brussels, 1643—) [Onomasticon volume numbers belong uniquely to the binding of the Jesuits’ copy of AASS in their house in Leeson St, Dublin, and do not appear in the series]; see introduction Ac. unidentified source Acallam (ed. Stokes) Whitley Stokes (ed. & tr.), Acallam na senórach, in Whitley Stokes & Ernst Windisch (ed), Irische Texte, 4th ser., 1 (Leipzig, 1900) [index]; see also Standish H.
    [Show full text]