Bibliography — Classification Index

The imagery of mountains in nineteenth-century ScG verse.

Reconstructed text, beg. Ad Deum uertere uolo, based on MSS Luxembourg, Bibliothèque nationale, 89 and Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11411; with Engl. transl. and discussion of provenance, metrical form, social and doctrinal milieu. Compares with the two OIr. poems A ben, bennacht fort—ná ráid (attributed to Daniél ua Líathaiti) and Líadan and Cuirithir (beg. Cen áinius).

Focuses particularly on the transmission and reception of 18th c. literature.

On the importance of the poem with regard to (a) the early historical and pseudo-historical traditions of the Leinstermen, (b) the study of archaic poetry and its syntax and style. Revised edition with literal translation. Beg. Dind Ríg rúad túaim tenbath.

This includes, as in Vedic tradition, the recitation of poems in praise of his ancestors on the occasion of a king’s consecration.

Documents and discusses the emergence and importance in eighteenth-century Irish language political poetry of vernacular names such as Caitlín Ní Uallacháin, Síle Ní Ghadhra, Móirín Ní Chuilleanáin (or Ní Luineacháin, or Ní Ghiobarláin) and Gráinne Mhaol (or Ní Mháille).

Examines poetry ranging from the late 16th-century to Aogán Ó Rathaille (†1729), and argues that the learned classes showed inability to respond to the demise of the Gaelic order, against the view that they fostered a new nationalist consciousness.

Traces it to the 6th c. and argues that the shortage of examples is due to its oral character and to the refusal on the part of the scriptoria to record it, against G. Murphy (in Best² 1317). Includes fragments collected from K. Meyer 1919 (Best² 1326).

Investigates the role of gender in the Irish poetic response to the setbacks that followed the defeat of Hugh O’Neill at the battle of Kinsale (1601).

Repr. in SAM 19/2 (2003), pp. 164-179.

Examines the interconnection of the high-kinship, king’s spouse, Goill and prophecy motifs in Scottish praise poems. In Appendix: List of poems quoted.

vs. M. Lapidge, in CMCS 10 (Winter, 1985), pp. 1-23. With a new edition (incl. commentary) of this poem from MSS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 11411, and Luxembourg, Bibliothèque nationale, 89.

On the use of prose and verse in narrative literature; discusses Irish evidence.

A reassessment of Aogán Ó Rathaille’s poem beg. Is fada liom oíche fhírfhliuch.

Mostly concerned with Anthony Raftery.

Poem (13 qq.) addressed by Diarmuid Mac an Bhaird to Brian mac Briain Mheic Mhathghamhna, beg. Fuar leam longphort mo charad. Ed. from MS RIA 24 P 4 with transl. and notes. Echoes from Eochaidh Ó hEodhusa’s poem to Aodh Mag Uidhir Fúar liom an adhaighsi dh’Aodh: see O. Bergin, Irish Bardic Poetry, no. 29 (BILL 5567).

With a discussion of Scottish Gaelic songs and metres.

A baudy poem exploiting the double entendre of words associated with weaving, once contained in the Book of O’Conor Don. Ed. with Engl. transl. and notes from MS RIA 23 D 4 (6 qq.).

Appendix I: Eighteenth and early nineteenth century publications of the air of Ceann dubh díleas/Cuir a chinn dìlis; Appendix I: Scottish versions of Cuir a chinn dìlis; Appendix III: Irish versions of Ceann dubh díleas.

Studies the development of the motifs of the Passion (in particular the ‘Five Wounds’) and Death of Christ in devotional bardic verse, and argues that this genre shows that bardic poetry evolved and was subject to external influences during the 1250-1650 period.

Includes two case-studies: 1. Verse in chronicles; 2. Ninth-century Gaelic manuscripts on the European continent and the implications of their vernacular poetic content.

The motif of the Secure Doorless House in bardic poetry.

Examines texts that reveal bardic activity in the codification of the poetic language (focusing on material in IGT V).

Focuses on the terms: dual, dualchas; dleasdanach; dligheach; dìlseachd, dìleas; còir; àite, ionad; oighre/éighre, oighreachd/éighreachd; staoighle; Breatunn; ceart, ceartas; fìreantachd; ceann, ceannas; eucoir, eucoireach, eucorach; annasach.

Discusses Irish textbooks produced for the instruction of poets and draws parallels with Medieval Latin artes versificandi such as Matthew of Vendôme’s Ars versificatoria.

On the training of bardic poets; stresses the role of ‘books’. Incl. discussion of associated terminology, e.g. saothrughadh ‘training’, cúrsa saothruighthe ‘a course of study’, duan dheiridh shaothair ‘composition to secure graduation’, sgagadh ‘straining, sifting’, glanadh ‘cleansing’, gleódh ‘purifying’, breithniughadh ‘judging, examining’, oide ‘teacher’.

Studies the formulae ar fhonn, ar ghuth, etc. used by scribes to indicate the tune to which poems should be sung.

Appendix: Thirty-two bardic poems addressed to the MacSweeneys.

Focuses on bardic eulogy.

Examines political verse composed in Irish in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

Examines evidence from Irish language literary sources to refute the claim that the 1760s Whiteboys declared loyalty to King George III.

Déanam fán moine so soir (5 qq.), and A chompáin cuimhnigh meise (3 qq.); edited from MS RIA 23 D 4, with text of the MS, orthographically normalised; English translation and notes. Suggests that both poems were probably composed by women.

Also publ. separ.: Dublin: DIAS, 1973 (repr. 1983). 27 pp. ISBN 0-901282-69-3. Statutory public lecture of the School of Celtic Studies, 1969.

On the reception of Cormac’s heroic biography in Irish classical poetry.

Discusses aspects of the conservatism of Gaelic verse tradition in Scotland from 13th to the 18th centuries.

Discusses echoes in Ir rhythmical poetry.

Examines how the patron’s wife is referred to or addressed in Classical poetry and surveys the qualities most frequently praised in the iargcomhairc addressed to her.

A discussion of early modern Irish religious verse.

Repr. in Dùthchas nan Gàidheal, pp. 3-33.

Propoganda use of Eamhain Macha (in bardic poetry) by 14th-c. O’Neill’s of Tyrone.

Discusses evidence for the hunting practice in medieval Ireland, collected from Classical Irish sources and presented in comparison with evidence from Fiannaigecht material. Incl. discussion of terminology associated with the hunting process.

Denis Bethell Memorial Lecture I.

Forms of address for patrons.

Surveys some late 19th cent. north Meath poets and scribes.

Argues, through the critical examination of reconstructed Indo-European metrics, against C. Watkins’ contention (in BILL 4420) that Old Irish heptasyllabic verse is a direct inheritance from Indo-European.

Reprinted in Saggi Campanile, pp. 127-143.

App. 1. The marginal inscriptions as a pointer to the cultural background of the manuscript in the early 17th c.; App. 2. Poem copied into the flyleaves; first line Dlighidh coire cnáimh, with Engl. transl. and notes; App. 3. Emended alphabetical list of the poems in Laud misc. 615.

I. Chronological list of poems (with references). II. Historical anchorage. III. Metrical and linguistic phenomena (includes: normalized version of poem beg. Nibu chroíb chrínḟredo with Engl. translation; discussion of poem beg. Ní car Brigit buadach bith).

Incl. Addendum on the authorship of Saltair na Rann and on the term céli Dé.

[1.] [Amhrán] A1 Beir litir uaim scríofa, etc.: song beg. Beir litir uaim scríobhta síos go baile cuis cuain, ed. from MS RIA 677 (23 F 22); ascr. to Riocard Bairéad; [2.] [Amhrán] A2 Thíos ag Béal Bearnais, etc.: song beg. S[h]íos ag Béal-Barnuis tharlaigh me-si is mo ghrádh, ed. from MS RIA 718 (23 H 34); ascr. to Riocard Bairéad or Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Gunna; [3.] Amhrán B: song beg. 'Sé doi bheatha chum na tíre-se a fhaoileann is deise faoi ghruaim, ed. from MA RIA 769 (23 E 12); [4.] A agus B sa bhéaloideas; [5.] Nua-chumadóireacht: Amhrán C = song by Antoine Ó Reachtuire beg. Smaoinigh gur ceusadh Aon Mhac Muire ar an gcrann; [6.] Tuilleadh cumadóireachta; [7.] Athruithe eile; [8.] The Red-Haired Man’s Wife (beg. Ye muses divine combine and lend me your aid).

On the flight and its aftermath as reflected in 17th c. Irish language poetry.

Reviews and assesses practices in the editing of Modern Irish accentual verse.

Early seventeenth-century MS (mainly parchment), TCD H 3. 19, owned by Mac Donnells, containing 83 bardic religious poems. Tinnakill = Tigh na Coille, a Mac Donnell castle in the parish of Coolbanagher, bar. of Portnahinch, Co. Leix. Appendix: list of poems (first lines) according to the correct order of the MS.

Discusses the political poetry of Máire Bhuí Ní Laoghaire.

With special reference to Eochaidh Ó hEoghusa.

On Fearghal Óg’s use of supplementary stanzas in some of a his poems in honour of Mág Aonghusa (= Aodh mac Domhnaill ob. 1595) of Uíbh Eathach, Conn Ó Ruairc (ob. 1577) and St Peter. Incl. section on ‘names, place-names and poetic titles’, e.g. Conn Cruachan, Conn Aolmhuighe, Conn Calraighe; Mág Aonghusa, Clann Rosa, Clár Rosa. Also incl. app. on: 1. the date of Fearghal óg’s visit to Scotland (between 1577 and 1591 ?); 2. the Rev. John Beaton’s ‘Broad Book’ (= MS NLS [Adv.] 72.1.1 (2nd part)), whose last folio contains a sample of writing by Fearghal Óg; ‘Broad Book’ is of North-Connacht provenance and was written by Adhamh Ó Cuirnín: cf. T. Ó Cocheanainn, in Ériu 26 (1975) 99–101.

Examines a body of 14 ‘nature poems’, and criticises the traditional assumption (by Kuno Meyer et al.) that these poems represent the literary expression of an anchorite movement.

On the context of the poem beg. Cinaed, cá cin ro buí dúinn, ed. by B. Ó Cuív, in Éigse 16/1 (1975), pp. 1-17.

On the lament in Irish. Incl. transcript of interview with the Rev. William Matheson on the subject of sung speech in the Scottish Gàidhealtachd. Previously publ. in Irish in LCC 22 (1992), pp. 164-184.

Discusses the question of the literary treatment of the origins of Clan Campbell, drawing upon evidence from Gaelic bardic poetry.

Includes the reconstructed text and English translation of (1) Tugas ro-ghrádh do mhnaoi fhir, and (2) Fada atú i n-easbhaidh aoibhnis.

On the Kildare Geraldines as patrons of professional poets and historians.

In Appendix: Irish poems to Geraldine patrons, fourteenth to seventeenth centuries.

Discusses two collections of poems on the subject of the province of Leinster, found in Rawl. B 502 and LL.

Amour courtois: [1.] A litir ghrá; [2.] Ainm na mná; [3.] An chanson dialoguée; [4.] Narcissus agus an macalla; [5.] An aisling ghrá; [6.] Dánta aoire agus magaidh; [7.] Iarfhocal.

Discusses bardic aesthetics in the light of contemporary instruction in the composition of poetry.

'Abrupt’ change from third to second person within the stanza / verse in Irish and ScG verse.

Anglo-Saxon alliteration is compared to Old Irish fidrad freccomail.

Discusses the figures of Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta (c.1647–1733), Pádraig Mac A Liondain (c.1665–1733), Peadar Ó Doirnín (c.1700–1769), Art Mac Cumhaigh (c.1738–1773), Ó Nioclás Ó Cearnaigh (c.1802–1865) and Arthur Bennet (1793–1879).

Explores literary evidence on pre-Famine Gaelic Cork society.

Incl. chapters on: 1. Political and cultural background; 2. Literary and intellectual culture in the Gaelic world; 3. Scotland and Ireland: The vision of bardic poetry; 4. Separation and breakdown. Incl. appendix listing first lines of bardic poems composed by Irish poets for Scottish Patrons and Bardic poems composed by Scottish poets for Irish patrons.

Rev. by
Ronald Black, in CMCS 52 (Winter, 2006), pp. 101-104.
Alison Cathcart, in StC 40 (2006), pp. 190-182.
María Coira, in SCG 22 (2006), pp. 232-235.
Martin Macgregor, in The Scottish historical review 85/2 (Oct., 2007), pp. 342–344.
Cynthia J. Neville, in IHS 35, nº 138 (Nov., 2006), pp. 240-241.
Mícheál B. Ó Mainnín, in Speculum 81/3 (Jul., 2006), pp. 889-891.

Rev. by
Lesa Ní Mhunghaile, in ECI 28 (2013), pp. 237-238.

Rev. by
Meg Bateman, in SGS 23 (2003), pp. 216-219.
Marc Cabal, in IHS 36, nº 141 (May, 2008), pp. 102-103.
Dafydd Johnston, in StC 42 (2008), pp. 186-187.
Lesa Ní Mhunghaile, in ECI 23 (2008), p. 213.
Breandán Ó Doibhlin, in SAM 21/2–22/1 (2007-2008), pp. 474-476.
Marie Whelton, in StH 38 (2012), pp. 256-259.

Rev. by
Johan Corthals, in CMCS 27 (Summer, 1994), p. 93.

Rev. by
Pádraig A. Breatnach, in Éigse 32 (2000), pp. 180-186.

DIAS statutory public lecture 1997. Appendix 1: Book of O’Conor Don f. 22 (transcription of acephalous satirical verses (poem?) (79 qq.), possibly composed by Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn); Appendix 2: RIA MS 23 E 29 (Book of Fermoy), pp. 81-82 (transcription of poem beg. Dleaghar cundradh do chomhall, 58 qq.); Appendix 3: Copenhagen 268b (catalogue including a list of materials from RIA C iv 1, one of whose scribes was Aodh Buidhe Mac Cruitín, and which was to be placed at the beginning of Copenhagen Ny kgl. Saml. 268b).

Rev. by
Pádraig A. Breatnach, in Éigse 31 (1999), pp. 202-204.
Doris Edel, in ZCP 51 (1999), pp. 299-301.
Máirín Nic Eoin, in StH 30 (1998-1999), pp. 259-267.

1. Unity, sovereignty and acceptance of the fait accompli; 2. Bardic interpretations of the Tudor Reconquest; 3. The bardic themes in a post-kinsale context; 4. Old themes in a ‘new order’.

Rev. by
Brendan Bradshaw in Bullán 1/1 (Spring 1994), pp. 119-122.
Marc Caball, in CMCS 25 (Summer, 1993), pp. 87-96.
Liam Irwin, in IHS 29, nº 114 (Nov., 1994), pp. 259-260.
Colm Lennon, in StH 26 (1992), pp. 227-230.
Breandán Ó Buachalla, in ECI 7 (1992), pp. 149-175.
Cornelius G. Buttimer, in Éigse 27 (1993), pp. 153-162.
Réamonn Ó Muirí, in SAM 14/2 (1991), pp. 259-260.

Discusses the direct influence of English literature on Irish love poetry of the period 1550-1650. Study based on an analysis of the following eight poems: chap 2. Mairg adeir olc ris na mnáibh (Gearóid Iarla); chap. 3. A mhacalla dheas (Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh), Dála an nóinín (Pádraigín Haicéad), A bhean lán de stuaim (Geoffrey Keating), Fir na Fódla ar ndul d’éag (Riocard do Búrc); chap. 4. Fuar dó féin an croidhe tinn, A fhir éadmhair 'gá mbí bean; chap. 5. Féach orm, a inghean Eóghain (Ó Géaráin).

Rev. by
Breandán Ó Conaire, in StH 29 (1995), pp. 231-237.