Éamann Ó hOrchaidh (
fl.
''Floruit'' ( ; usually abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for 'flourished') denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indic ...
1817) was an
Irish scribe
A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of Printing press, automatic printing.
The work of scribes can involve copying manuscripts and other texts as well as ...
and
translator
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''trans ...
.
Biography
Little is known of Ó hOrchaidh. To date, the only item of his work is a copy of ''Cúirt an Mheán OÃche'' ('the Midnight Court') by the Co. Clare poet,
Brian Merriman
Brian Merriman or in Irish Brian Mac Giolla Meidhre (c. 1747 – 27 July 1805) was an 18th-century Irish-language bard, farmer, hedge school teacher, and Irish traditional musician from rural County Clare.
Long after his death, Merriman's li ...
, composed about 1780. The manuscript containing it is held in Dublin at the library of the
Royal Irish Academy
The Royal Irish Academy (RIA; ), based in Dublin, is an academic body that promotes study in the natural sciences, arts, literature, and social sciences. It is Ireland's premier List of Irish learned societies, learned society and one of its le ...
, but up to 2018 there was no record of it containing a version of the poem. Its value lies in the fact that it is written in the badly-attested
Connacht Irish
Connacht Irish () is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Connacht.
Gaeltacht regions in Connacht are found in Counties Mayo (notably Tourmakeady, Achill Island and Erris) and Galway (notably in parts of Connemara a ...
of
County Roscommon
County Roscommon () is a Counties of Ireland, county in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is part of the province of Connacht and the Northern and Western Region. It is the List of Irish counties by area, 11th largest Irish county by area and Li ...
rather than the
Munster Irish
Munster Irish (, ) is the dialect of the Irish language spoken in the province of Munster. Gaeltacht regions in Munster are found in the Gaeltachtaà of the Dingle Peninsula in west County Kerry, in the Iveragh Peninsula in south Kerry, in ...
of
County Clare
County Clare () is a Counties of Ireland, county in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Munster in the Southern Region, Ireland, Southern part of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, bordered on the west by the Atlantic Ocean. Clare County Council ...
. Both dialects are now extinct, with Ó hOrchaidh's manuscript one of the last featuring Connacht orthography and vocabulary and how Irish was pronounced in east Co. Galway and south Co. Roscommon (see
UÃ Maine
U, or u, is the twenty-first letter and the fifth vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''u'' (pronounced ), ...
), rendering its value quite high.
Ó hOrchaidh's version was discovered in 2018 by
dialectologist
Dialectology (from Greek , ''dialektos'', "talk, dialect"; and , '' -logia'') is the scientific study of dialects: subsets of languages. Though in the 19th century a branch of historical linguistics, dialectology is often now considered a sub-fiel ...
and
sociolinguist
Sociolinguistics is the descriptive, scientific study of how language is shaped by, and used differently within, any given society. The field largely looks at how a language changes between distinct social groups, as well as how it varies under ...
Professor
Brian Ó Curnáin
Brian Ó Curnáin is an Irish Dialectologist.
Ó Curnáin is a native of Dublin and spent time in the Connemara Gaeltacht during his youth. He is a researcher in the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and has publish ...
of the
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies (DIAS) () is a statutory independent research institute in Dublin, Ireland. It was established, under the Institute For Advanced Studies Act 1940, by the government of the then Taoiseach, Éamon de Vale ...
. Ó hOrchaidh wrote it in 1817 in An Bhearaidh Bheag (Barry Beg) townland, Kiltoom parish, west of
Lough Ree
Lough Ree (), translated to English as ''King's Lake'' or ''King Lake'', is a lake in the midlands of Republic of Ireland, Ireland, the second of the three major lakes on the River Shannon. Lough Ree is the second largest lake on the Shannon af ...
and
Athlone
Athlone (; ) is a town on the border of County Roscommon and County Westmeath, Republic of Ireland, Ireland. It is located on the River Shannon near the southern shore of Lough Ree. It is the second most populous town in the Midland Region, Ir ...
. With translation, his scribal note at the end of the text reads:
Crioch le Cúirt an Meón áoighthe liomsa. Édhmonn Ó hórróchodh air an Marráighbheag a nguirr do bhaille athalúin. agus air na chrÃochneamh an threas lá don Mhaolluis aois an tÃagharna náomhtha Dia na glódhaire May 3rd 1817./The end of The Midnight Court by me Éamann Ó hOrchaidh in Barry Beg near Athlone. And finished on the third day of May in the year of the Holy Lord, God of Glory, May 3rd 1817.
The surname is now rendered O'Hora, or Hore.
See also
*
Liam Ó hOisÃn
Liam Ó hOisÃn (fl. 1825–1871) was an Irish scribe and translator.
Biography
Ó hOisÃn was a native of Cummer, County Galway and a prolific scribe active in the middle years of the 19th century. During his lifetime he recorded poems (incl ...
*
Tadhg Ó Neachtain
Tadhg Ó Neachtain (c.1670 – c.1752) was an Irish writer, scribe and lexicographer.
Origins
Described as "the wikt:fulcrum, fulcrum of the Clique, coterie of Irish language scholars who were working in Dublin in the early years of the eighteen ...
*
Pádraig Mag Fhloinn
Pádraig Mag Fhloinn (Pat Glynn, ) was an Irish scribe.
Mag Fhloinn's manuscripts, featuring folksongs, are kept in the Royal Irish Academy in Dawson Street, Dublin. One of his last known autographs state that:
''Pat Glynn most respectfully ...
*
Liam Ó Dúgáin
Liam Ó Dúgáin was an Irish people, Irish scribe who flourished in the mid-19th century.
A native of Claregalway, Ó Dúgáin was a relation of Tomás Bacach Ó Dúgáin and Maolsheachlainn Ó Dúgáin, all of the same parish. His scribal wor ...
*
Jim O'Hora
James Joseph O’Hora (February 16, 1915 – August 5, 2005) was an American college football coach for over 30 years.
Early years
O’Hora was born in Dunmore, Pennsylvania. His father, Michael, was an immigrant from Ballina, County Mayo, Irela ...
References
* ''The Surnames of Ireland'',
Edward MacLysaght
Edgeworth Lysaght, later Edward Anthony Edgeworth Lysaght, and from 1920 Edward MacLysaght (; 6 November 1887 – 4 March 1986) was a genealogist of twentieth-century Ireland. His numerous books on Irish surnames built upon the work of Rev. Pat ...
,
Dublin
Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...
, 1978.
External links
* https://www.rte.ie/news/nuacht/2018/1001/999229-chuirt-an-mhean-oiche-i-ngaeilge-ros-comain-aimsithe/
* https://www.rte.ie/news/2018/0926/998249-roscommon-irish-version-of-the-midnight-court-found/
* https://tuairisc.ie/leagan-connachtach-de-cuirt-an-mhean-oiche-aimsithe/
* https://www.johngrenham.com/findasurname.php?surname=Hore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ó hOrchaidh, Éamann
Writers from County Roscommon
Irish scribes
Irish-language writers
19th-century Irish people