Vol. 4: Ní Shéaghdha, Nessa.

Type: Article

Ní Shéaghdha, Nessa. ‘Irish Scholars and Scribes in Eighteenth-century Dublin’, Eighteenth-century Ireland/Iris an dá chultúr, Vol. 4 (1989), pp 41-54.

In 1728, Irish scribe and poet Tadhg Ó Neachtain wrote a ‘versified list’ of various Irish scholars and scribes of his acquaintance in Dublin. This article discusses the careers of those named by Tadhg in the manuscript, and their Anglo-Irish patrons and associates, to assess the “considerable contribution they made to the mainstream of the Irish manuscript tradition”. After providing a brief survey of the Irish manuscript tradition, Ní Shéaghdha examines the lives and work of Tadhg Ó Neachtain and his father, Seán Ó Neachtain, and Tadhg’s ‘circle’ of Irish scribes and scholars in Dublin. Discussed are protestant patrons, Anthony Raymond and Francis Stoughton Sullivan; Irish scribe Hugh O’Daly; Irish scholar Charles O’Conor of Belanagare; Dr. John Curry and Dr. John Carpenter (all three of whom were members of the Catholic Association); protestant sympathiser and librarian of Trinity College, Dr. Thomas Leland; General Charles Vallancey, Chief Engineer of Ireland; John O’Brien, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross and author of Irish-English Dictionary (1768); and expatriate Irish Jacobite, Chevalier Thomas O’Gorman.