jOtJRNAL OF THE COUNTY DONEGAL HISTORICAL SOCIETY. 45 "IRISH MEN OF LEARNING : STUDIES BY FATHER PAUL WALSH" Edited by Colm 0 Lochlainn 21 /- Dublil'l: Sign of Three Candles, 1947 Reviewed by Rev. Aubrey Gwynn, S.J. M ORE thian six years have gone bY ·since Father Paul Walsh died on lSth June, 1941. TriJbulte was paid a:t the time of his death to his great learning, and to the work he had done and was still p1anning to do for Irislh.b:istmy. But a really adequate tdbute to his memory wias lack.ing unitH the pu1bli:cation of this fine volume by one of the two friends wh:om he himself \had named as his lttera.ry execu•tors. Dming the thirty years of his indmstr.ious lite'rary career (his first article was printed in the "Irish E1cclesias1tical Record" as f•ar back as 1911) Father Paul WaLsh had the hiabit of publishing the resuUs of his co1nstant researclh.,work in •any magazine o-r volume tha•t Wa•s willing to print what he sent them. From the point of vieiw of his own reputa1tion as a schol1ar it was not a g:ood ha!biit. Few readers could kee:p pace with these seattered notes 1and ewa.ys. Aflter his death Father J'ohn Brady printed a long ibilbiiograplhy o.f his pu1bHshed work in "Irish Histmi,cal Studies" (Marich, 1942). No single i1tem in that ,bd:blio,graphy gives :a true nation of the exceiJ)tionally 1ac1curate and wide learning, oomlbined with keen critical acumen, which were Father Paul's d.istinguishirng chiar:a.cteristics as critic and sciholar. Oolm o Lnchla.inn has compiled this volume fr.am a laTge numiber icf .the1se scattered notes and eE1says, some of them sUiprrJ·lemerntary to earlier work on the s.ame sub~ecit, others correcting a dia:te that had stnce been found to be in1aiccuriate or identifying some obscure personal or place-name. The editor's taoS:k can.not have been easy in work of t.Ms kind, and the resu~t is nnt always easy for the reader to digest. Father Paul Walsh wias never a fluent writer, and the firs1t imjpression of all these detailed 1a:rg·uments forom manuscript colophons or genealogical tracts is apt to be confu1Sing. Brut the final result is saitisfying, and the volume is in itself a most valuable corntr~bution to our knawledge of anciernt Irel,and'•s scholarly traditiom. It is good news to be told th1at enough and more than enough material remains to ma:ke one, perha!PS two, similar volumes on kindred topic:s. A second volume on "Irish Stlaites and Ghiej'.tai'ns" is in course of preparation, and should co·unt on a sure welcome from all gltuidenitis iJn this country. E;ven within the narrow limits su,ggested by its ti'tle, this first volume gives no more than an iIIlJP€'rfect measure of Father Paul's gre1a:t erudi1tion. Readers from Tir Oonai11 in parti'culiar should note that C'olm 0 Lochlainn has made no effort to incm:iporate in this collection all that F'atiher P:aul Walsh had discovered :aibou1t one famous learned family. They will find wha,t they want in a small booklet o'.f 50 pa·ges which was ,puJb:Lished at the Sign of the Three Candles in 1938, under the title: "Tille O Cleirigh Family of Tir Cona.111, w11th the O Cieirigh Genealogies." There is to be. found all thait C·an now be asoer- ·tained from genealogie:s and other litemrv sources concerning the f1amily, of which Brother Michael 1s the most illustrious memlber. Full gene1alo·gies are printed in ta.Ible-form at tJhe end of this small volume, with separate biograiPhi0al noti.ces of an scholars bearing the 0 Cleirtgh name whose work can now be identified. In, thiis new volume Donegal readers will read w,ith special interest the chapter (pp. 179-205) on "The Book of· O'Donnell's Daughter." It is a detailed study of a manu:scr.Jipt, formerly in the library of the Francisca1n Convent at Louvain, now in the Bilbliotheque ~le at Brussels. Fa1theor Pa.ul asiks himsel!f the nlJ:>vious question: Who w1as the d•aug.Mer of O'Donnell who gives her name to this seveniteenith-century manuscript? A carefui anialysis of the book's contents, comlbined with other contellllporacy evidence, leads him to the c.oncliusion that the lady was eHher Nuala (,wlho ibrought Aodh Ruadh's young son to l.Jouvain soon afte•r the fathe'r'.s de:aith) or her slster, Mairghreag. Those who are irnterested in the later .for.tunes of the dead hero's :iiamily will finid here numerous scraps of informa- ·tio:n which Father Plaul n0>ted do:wn, as was his constant haibit, from one source O'l: another, printed or uniprinted, in the course O·f his wide, but never desultory, reacLing.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NzQxNzU3