Gleanings from Irish Manuscripts
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Gleanings from Irish nss. 3/6 paui walsK /^^w ul^JII^ GLEANINGS FROM IRISH MANUSCRIPTS GLEANINGS FROM IRISH MANUSCRIPTS REV. PAUL WALSH, M.A. [an T-ATHAIR POL BREATH NACh] SECOND EDITION WITH MUCH ADDITIONAL MATTER DUBLIN AT THE SIGN OF THE THREE CANDLES FLEET STREET 8 Trí caindle forosnat each ndorcha : Fir, Aicnedy Ecna Three candles that light up every darkness: Truth, Nature and Knowledge. First Edition, 191 Second Edition, 1933 with additions I GCUIMHNE MO MHATHAR BRIGHID NI GHALLCHOBHAIR 1854-1917 AGUS m'aTHAR MICHEAL BREATHNACH 1854-1933 FOREWORD In the year 1 9 1 8, principally for my own amusement^ I printed gleanings from irish manuscripts. The small edition was soon exhausted^ and many eyes^ including my own^ have been watching for stray copies for over a decade of years. I may then be accorded indulgence if I issue the booklet again, and add to its contents a few essays which ought to he of value while Irish literature continues to be cherished. In the first edition I presumed on the liberality of my good friends the many editors of IRISLEABHAR MuiGHE NUADHAT, and the cditor and publishers of the catholic bulletin. To all I express my grateful acknowledgments, and to the latter a special word of thanks for now allowing me to reprint " Scraps from Irish Scribes y To the editor of the irish ecclesiastical record, and to the publishers, Messrs Browne and Nolan, Dublin, I am indebted for permission to reprint " Who *' will buy my Poem,'" and A Letter of John Mac Solly." The Franciscan Prague Letter was given me, as indicated in the proper place, by Dr. Patrick O'Neill, who made the transcript in St. Isidore's, Rome. My friend, Colm O Lochlainn, to whose initiative this second edition is due, looked well to the printing, and he added the Index to enhance whatever interest the collection may have. Pol Breathnach. La Fhéile Mhichii, 1933 J CONTENTS FAREWELL TO INIS FAIL ... .... PAGE 3. ELEGY ON ÉMONN Ó BRAONAIN ... 12 ELEGY ON NIALL GARBH Ó DOMHNAILL ... 27 DISJECTA MEMBRA ! LITIR Ó DHONNCHADH Ó MAONAIGH ... 53 LITIR EILE Ó DHONNCHADH Ó MAONAIGH 58 DAN DO SHEÁN MAC AODHA Ó' NÉILL ... 60 I DTAOBH MEGUIDHIR 7 MEGMATHAMHNA 64 TEASBÁNTAS Ó BHRIAN Ó FLAITHBHEARTAIGH 65. I DTAOBH AN ACHRAINN IDIR ORD S. PROINSIAS 7 ÓRD S. DOMINIC ... ... 66 FRANCISCAN MS. OF THE FOUR MASTERS ... 69 OLC mo THURAS SONN Ó LUNDAIN ... 86 VERSUS PRO LINGUA HIBERNICA ... 88 A POEM BY AODH MAC AINGIL ... 96 POEMS IN MAYNOOTH MSS. : i. TRUAGH LIOM MAIRE AGUS MAIRGHREAG I08- ii. CEOLCHAIR SIN A CHRUIT AN RIOGH III iii. TABHRAIDH CHUGAM CRUIT MO Rl'OGH II iv. GLÓIR IS MOLADH DHUIT A DHÉ I I 5 V. BÍ FÚM A MHIC AR MO MHUIN... I16 vi. NÍ BHFUIGHE MEISE BAS DUIT ... II7 vii. A BHEAn' ÓG ON A BHEAN OG ... II 8. viii. SLUAGH SEISIR THAINIG DOM THIGH I20 ix. AN T-l5CAIRE ADTUAIDH ... 122- SCRAPS FROM IRISH SCRIBES *. i. RISDEARD O CONCHUBHAIR ... 1 23 ii. CORC ÓG Ó CADHLA ... ... I 53 WHO WILL BUY MY POEM.? ... ... l82^ FHE FRIARS AT PRAGUE PROTEST ... 1 94 A LETTER OF JOHN MAC SOLLY ... 1 97 INDEX ... ... .- ... 205 Ní hi an teanga do chuaidh 6 chion acht an dream ddr dhual a didean cUcLi^J' p. 91 ^. GLEANINGS FROM IRISH MANUSCRIPTS FAREWELL TO INIS FAIL. A TEXT of the following poem was published /\ by James Hardiman in 1831, together X^ ^ with a metrical version by the Rev. William Hamilton Drummond, D.D. Of those who have read either, few will be disposed to quarrel with the judgment of John O Donovan, which says that ** in that edition the original text is much corrupted, and the metre destroyed by the addition of unnecessary words and syllables, and the English translation conveys ideas which the author never intended." It is hoped that the present edition will enable the reader to estimate more accurately the merits " of the piece. O Donovan says of it that it is a nice little poem, written in very pure Irish,**^ and ** Standish Hayes O Grady calls it a pretty bit. "3 The text has been prepared with the help of the following sources : F, the O Gara Manuscript, preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, and numbered 23 F 16 ; " compiled in 1656 at Antwerp and at Lisle by Ferghal dubh Gadhra (* Nicholas * in religion), priest O.S.A., whom Cromwell's dissolution of the religious houses had forced with many more 1 Ordnance Survey Letters of the county of Westmeath ii, 7 5 • 2 Ibid. 3 Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum 48 1 GLEANINGS FROM IRISH MANUSCRIPTS to seek refuge in the Low Countries. '*4 Our poem is the last in the codex, and is written in a hand not quite so neat as the remaining 169 pieces in the manuscript. The scribe returned to Ireland some time before June 5th, 1686, at which date he certifies that he is safe and sound at Bannada {san mBeinn fhada\ county Sligo. In a colophon he craves the reader's indulgence for errors and omissions, because he had never a teacher. Evidently his task was a labour of love. N=23 N 15, R.I.A. p. 21. Date c. 1761. The scribe was Míchéal mac Peadair Ui Longáin, died c. 1770.5 G=23 G 24, R.I.A. p. 58, written by Míchéal óg Longáin some time after 1799.^ Some thousands of pages of his work remain. He was born about 1766.7 M = 3 C I Maynooth College p. 392, being vol. I ofthe Murphy collection. Scribe, Míchéalóg Longáin. For a collation of this manuscript 1 am indebted to Pádraig Néill. H==Hardiman's printed text, Irish Minstrelsy^ ii. 226, 228. O D = a few lines cited by O Donovan in his O. S. Letters of the county of Westmeath. These I possess in a transcript made in 1905 by J. J. O Farrelly for Thomas J. Shaw of Mullingar. Eg. = British Museum MS. Egerton iii f. 123, a copy of F and other sources. See O Grady, op- cit, 339 ff- 4 Ibid. 339. 5 Cf. pp. 320, 326. 6 Cf. p. 167. 7 Cf. 23 N 1 5, 11. c. FAREWELL TO INIS FAIL Of the foregoing F is the most accurate, as one would expect, but it contains many mistakes, as a glance at the variants will show. It seems to have been copied hurriedly. It and H are the only authorities which give all seven stanzas, Eg not being independent. The sixth and seventh are given in inverse order in H, and they were probably so in O Donovan's manuscript, for he has the corrupt reading duna doirbhghéis the same as Hardiman. N gives the seventh stanza but not the sixth, while G and M omit both. It is not easy to decide the question of the authorship of the poem. It is anonymous in F, and of course in Eg, in N, and in G, while O Longáin in M ascribes it to Seathrún Céitinn. It may be taken for granted that the attribution to Céitinn is a mere guess, based perhaps on a certain similarity of treatment of the same theme by that author in a well-known poem. Compare also the opening line of our piece with Céitinn's soraidh da tulchaibh aonaigh.^ Hardiman's heading runs as follows : Gearróid Nuinsionn ar bhfágbháil Eireann do, ' Garret Nugent (composed it) after having left Ireland.' O Donovan's copy had a similar title.9 Hardiman seems to have had no doubt about the matter, neither does Douglas Hyde,io but O Grady says '* the verses were no 8 Fr. MacErlean's ed. of Céitinn*s poems i8, 1. 27. " 9 It would appear from the little poem above alluded to that Gerald or Garrett [Nugent], the author of it, was either the baron of Delvin or at least a brother of his." 10 Literary History of Ireland 492. GLEANINGS FROM IRISH MANUSCRIPTS doubt written for [Nugent], not by him, when he fled to France."" There is, then, but little direct evidence for Garrett Nugent*s authorship. The fifth stanza, however, if rightly interpreted below, points unmistakably to its having been composed in England, and it is most unlikely that an Irish bard should have accompanied the exile from Ireland to France, from France to England, and there have penned these verses. Christopher Nugent, baron of Delvin 1 559-1 602, at most times a staunch Elizabethan, a musician and writer of an Irish primer, died in Dublin castle. His wife was Mary Fitzgerald, daughter of Gerald, eleventh earl of Kildare. He was succeeded by his son, Richard 14th baron, afterwards first earl of Westmeath. A younger brother was Garrett. The cause of his exile is not known. He came from France to England, and a letter to the earl of Salisbury, written in January 1607-8, says that " being here in England, utterly unfurnished with means for maintenance, he cannot longer abide here, but thinks it his duty to make his Lordship acquainted with the course he purposes to take. He prays his Lordship to have regard of his estate, procuring him some means from His Highness [the King] in case of his stay here; otherwise to admit him into his own service, assuring himself that, being entertained by his Lordship, his friends in Ireland will be more II Catalogue 481 n. FAREWELL TO INIS FÁIL willing to afford him any means they can. Else he begs leave to return to his own country.