Two seventeenth-century Franciscans from Thomond: Dermot McBruodin (d.1617) ‘the mad friar’ and Antonius Bruodin (c.1618-80)1

One of the most extraordinary stories to have survived from seventeenthcentury county Clare is that of Dermot McBruodin, the so-called ‘mad friar’ of Ennis. This story has received the attention of antiquaries and historians and has come down to us primarily in translated excerpts from the original Latin text. This article provides an account of the life and ministry of the Clare-born Franciscan friar, Dermot McBruodin, who returned to Ireland from studies in Spain in 1575. The author of this life was a kinsman and confrère who published it as part of a larger work in 1669. Presented here is a full translation of the life of Dermot McBruodin which details his arrest, trial and acquittal in 1603, along with a contextualisation of his life and activities. Also presented is a discussion about the author’s motivation for recording McBruodin’s life, which was written some 50 years after the friar’s death.

‘Looting and overtures and acts of indecency by Black and Tans’: the pursuit of justice for acts of sexual violence during Ireland’s War of Independence (1919-21)

In April 1921, while Waterford was under martial law, Brigid Fahy, a native of Dungarvan, and her maid Bridget O’Neill, became victims of a violent assault in their home during curfew hours. The alleged perpetrators were two ‘Black and Tans’ attached to the RIC barracks in the town. They subsequently returned to the residence and burned it as a reprisal for the formal complaint made by Fahy about their behaviour. This article explores how the police, the military and the state responded to Fahy’s public pursuit of justice. Drawing on the correspondence between Dublin Castle and senior military officers, as well as Fahy’s sworn statement, it highlights the tensions that existed between the civil and military authorities in Ireland during this period. Central to the narrative is chief secretary Sir Hamar Greenwood, who—despite his elevated position within the Irish administration—could not persuade General Strickland’s 6th Division to communicate any information on the case, leaving Greenwood in an almost untenable position when confronted with questions on the matter in the House of Commons. Fahy’s case not only highlights the breakdown in communications that existed between Dublin Castle and the military, but demonstrates the breakdown of trust between the citizens of Dungarvan and the RIC. It argues that crimes of this nature may have been under-reported, as women had no incentive to report the crimes of the RIC and every reason to refrain from doing so.

Collection, space and display: a case-study in the symbolic materiality of print and manuscript cultures in seventeenth-century Ireland

On the basis of a case-study centred on the experience of Sir John Perceval (d.1686) of north Cork, it is argued that books and their spatial location constituted elements within a broader decorative ensemble expressive of cultural hegemony. Moreover, Perceval’s intellectually-diverse world of print is contrasted with the marginalised and geographically-adjacent sphere of Gaelic script as embodied by the poet and scribe Eoghan Ó Caoimh (d.1726). Notwithstanding the dynamic ideological significance of a text such as Keating’s Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, its first appearance in print in a 1723 English translation, is emblematic of the cultural and social authority of early modern print in a colonial milieu. Reference is made to the library of James Butler (d.1688), first duke of Ormond, and the Parisian book purchases of Francis FitzMaurice (d.1818) and his wife Anastasia (d.1799), third earl and countess of Kerry, by way of illustration of print’s uncontested dominance among elite Irish readers and patrons of the trade in books.

Finn mac Cumhaill’s Birga ‘Water-Spear’

This article explores the nature, use and name of a notable spear wielded by Finn mac Cumhaill in mythological narratives of the medieval Irish Fenian cycle. Parallels are drawn with other fictional spears, including that of Ferches(s) and especially the gae bolga of Cú Chulainn.

Saunders Lewis agus an tionchar a bhí aige ar Mháirtín Ó Cadhain agus ar ghluaiseacht na Gaeilge sna 1960idí

De réir Mháirtín Uí Chadhain, ba é Saunders Lewis an fear liteartha ba mhó cáil sa Bhreatain Bheag sna 1960idí agus ba é an t-údar ba mhó tábhacht ar fad é a bhí ag saothrú a phinn in aon cheann de na teangacha Ceilteacha ag an am. Tá cáil Lewis imithe i bhfad agus i ngearr mar gheall ar an léacht cháiliúil raidió a thug sé uaidh, agus a craoladh ar an BBC, i mí Feabhra 1962. Tynged yr Iaith (Cinniúint na Teanga) ba theideal don léacht iomráiteach sin inar leag sé amach a ghéire is a bhí éigeandáil na teanga sa Bhreatain Bheag ag an am. Chun fuascailt a fháil ar an scéal, mhol sé modhanna úra agóidíochta agus léirsithe chun tathant ar na húdaráis stádas oifigiúil na Breatnaise a threisiú sa saol poiblí. Bhí briathra Lewis ina ndíol spéise do ghluaiseacht na Gaeilge in Éirinn na linne sin, a bhuíochas sin don aistriúchán Gaeilge Bás nó Beatha? a rinne Máirtín Ó Cadhain, agus a d’fhoilsigh Sáirséal agus Dill, in 1963. San aiste seo, déanfar anailís ar aistriúchán sin Uí Chadhain féachaint cén rian a d’fhág teachtaireacht Lewis ar mhodhanna agóidíochta ghluaiseacht na Gaeilge in Éirinn sna 1960idí. Áiteofar gur athraigh Bás nó Beatha? treo agus cur chuige ghníomhaíochas na Gaeilge in Éirinn trí smaointeoireacht Saunders Lewis a chur ar a shúile do chomhluadar ní ba leithne daoine. Breathnófar, go háirithe, ar cén tionchar a bhí ag modhanna léirsithe na Breataine Bige, agus an easumhlaíocht shibhialta go háirithe, ar an eagraíocht Misneach, ar Chonradh na Gaeilge agus ar Ghluaiseacht Chearta Sibhialta na Gaeltachta. Chuige sin, bainfear gaisneas as an dá shaothar le Saunders Lewis a d’aistrigh Ó Cadhain; ba iad sin ‘Aon Teanga don Bhreatain Bheag’, a foilsíodh ar an iris Comhar in 1955, chomh maith le Bás nó Beatha? (1963). Ina theannta sin, cuirfear sampla de scríbhinní polaitiúla Uí Chadhain féin sa mheá, ‘Do na Fíréin’ (1962) agus Gluaiseacht na Gaeilge: Gluaiseacht ar Strae (1970), gan trácht ar an dá dhíolaim aistí Caithfear Éisteacht! (1999) agus Ó Cadhain i bhFeasta (1990).