Vol. 2: Breatnach, Pádraig A.

Type: Article

Breatnach, Pádraig A. ‘Oral and Written Transmission of Poetry in the Eighteenth Century’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 2 (1987), pp 57-65.

This article discusses Seanachas Phádraig Í Chrualaoi (1982), a collection of oral and written poetry in Irish tradition dating back to the close of the seventeenth century. Breatnach compares documented oral transmissions of poetry recalled by Ó Crualaoi to the surviving manuscript forms to determine that “the transmission of letters in eighteenth-century Irish Ireland was continued orally as well as in written form”. The article also explores problems and corruption associated with the oral and scribal transmission of poetry.