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 Tadhgs circle of Irish scribes and scholars in Dublin. Discussed are protestant patrons, Anthony Raymond and Francis Stoughton Sullivan; Irish scribe Hugh ODaly; Irish scholar Charles OConor 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 OBrien, Bishop of Cloyne and Ross and author of Irish-English Dictionary (1768); and expatriate Irish Jacobite, Chevalier Thomas OGorman.