![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
For better of worse, I've begun reading the biography of Frank O'Connor that I got for $2.50. Seems worth about that; all that Matthews has done so far is basically summarise An only child--and not particularly well at that, given that he doesn't cite much of anything in support of his various extrapolations. But I'm thankful to it for at least one reason: It contains the original version of that first line of Irish which Daniel Corkery wrote above the board in his classroom at St Patrick's, the one which O'Connor glosses as "Waken your courage, Ireland!"
Or, I should say, Matthews attempts to give the Irish. What he actually includes is, "Muscail do mbisneail, a Banba", which I think ye'll agree is a rather bolloxed-up version of "Múscail do mhisneach, a Bhanbha". Turns out this is the first line of what Wikipedia calls "one of the best known poems in the Irish language", a 17th-century composition by the Prior of Cashel, Fr Pádraigín Haicéad. (Why not mention that in your footnotes, Mr Matthews?) For all that, I had a helluva time tracking down an online version (available here thanks to the good graces of the Royal Irish Academy). Supposedly, in it he calls for the extirpation of all Protestants, but if so I haven't gotten to the good parts yet.
Incidentally, one of the curiosities of O'Connor's initial autobiography is that, although it contains several lines of untranslated German and French, there's not a word of Irish in it. Matthews claims (as far as I can tell, solely on the basis of of "6 shillings" being glossed as "60 cents") that the book, which was written while he was teaching in the States, was intended primarily for an American audience. That would certainly make sense, since--based on O'Connor's translations--the cúpla focal every product of the Irish educational system ends up with would be more than enough to comprehend the bits that he chooses to include.
Or, I should say, Matthews attempts to give the Irish. What he actually includes is, "Muscail do mbisneail, a Banba", which I think ye'll agree is a rather bolloxed-up version of "Múscail do mhisneach, a Bhanbha". Turns out this is the first line of what Wikipedia calls "one of the best known poems in the Irish language", a 17th-century composition by the Prior of Cashel, Fr Pádraigín Haicéad. (Why not mention that in your footnotes, Mr Matthews?) For all that, I had a helluva time tracking down an online version (available here thanks to the good graces of the Royal Irish Academy). Supposedly, in it he calls for the extirpation of all Protestants, but if so I haven't gotten to the good parts yet.
Incidentally, one of the curiosities of O'Connor's initial autobiography is that, although it contains several lines of untranslated German and French, there's not a word of Irish in it. Matthews claims (as far as I can tell, solely on the basis of of "6 shillings" being glossed as "60 cents") that the book, which was written while he was teaching in the States, was intended primarily for an American audience. That would certainly make sense, since--based on O'Connor's translations--the cúpla focal every product of the Irish educational system ends up with would be more than enough to comprehend the bits that he chooses to include.