Irish StudiesSeán Ó Dálaigh, or John O'Daly, was a 19th-century publisher, bookseller, teacher and scholar who played a central role in the life and activities of his time but who has been largely neglected until the publication of this fine book.
He bridged the gap between the dominant manuscript culture and the coming culture of print while being deeply involved in both. He was a language "revivalist" at a time when the Irish people were dumping their native tongue with sour abandon, and a champion of its literature when it was fast becoming the preserve of antiquarians. The great and the not-so-good of 19th-century Ireland move through these pages as acquaintances, adversaries, companions or correspondents, which makes this book a very valuable contribution to the intellectual culture of the time.
On the surface Seán Ó Dálaigh himself did not live the most fascinating of lives. He was unusual in becoming a member of the established Church while teaching the reading of Irish for biblical purposes in his native Waterford (before returning to Catholicism), but was quite of his times in being part of the general bourgeoisification of the towns on both sides of the Famine. Opening a bookshop in Kilkenny was a brave act (although, even at that time, the city was not the most backward of places), and a later bookshop in Dublin showed his commitment to the enlightenment of the written word. But it was his endeavour as a publisher which marks him out as a significant figure, particularly his Reliques of Irish Jacobite Poetry and Poets and Poetry of Munster, which attempted to bring the best of Irish verse writing to a wider audience, through the medium of print at a reasonable price, for the first time. Although these were only a fraction of his publishing labours, they remain the most significant, not only in terms of enterprise but also in the firming up of an accepted canon of great poetry which has largely been accepted down to the present.
He was also deeply involved in the establishment of the Hiberno-Celtic Society and the Ossianic Society, to the extent that we may say that he actually founded them. These societies aimed to promote Irish Studies, which may have seemed like a mad adventure against the current of the time, albeit with contemporary echoes. Modern scholars may quibble about their methods and standards, but for all their faults they did set the foundations for most of what followed.
Seán Ó Dálaigh himself is more difficult to grasp. He was certainly of independent spirit, driven by a certain mission which was not always explicitly stated, and was hardworking and good at networking. While most of his correspondence and writings are penned in that stuffy quasi-courteous prose of the age, there are times when the mask is lifted and we get some wonderful barbs and maledictions against people who had done him some wrong. It is always gratifying to learn that Irish scholars of the 19th century waged similar battles with the same venom as their counterparts today. The theoretical frame of the work is always interesting, even if specifically fudged, and although I think he overstates the idea of allegiance to pays rather than to country, it is one of those debates which will continue to be fruitful.
Proinsias Ó Drisceoil's book is as comprehensive and as scholarly as one could wish. There is neither a fig leaf unlifted nor a pebble unthrown into the mix. The Irish scholar who deals with a virgin subject always has the dilemma of whether to chuck in the kitchen sink with Uncle Tom Cobley and all, or to attempt to synopsise and refashion and re-imagine. Ó Drisceoil has chosen to give us the whole lot, often telling us more than we ever need to know, whereas others might have preferred lesser gobbets of quotes and a smoother narrative. On the other hand, it would have been nearly impossible to divert more material into the appendices as they are already fat with information and replete with references.
This is obviously a labour of love and casts a bright floodlight on the dark 19th century of the Irish language. The publishers are to be commended on a fine production and on their policy of promoting significant works of Irish scholarship, although a book of this size would have deserved a better binding.
Seán Ó Dálaigh: Éigse Agus Iomarbhá by Proinsias Ó Drisceoil, Cork University Press, 488pp.€20hb
Alan Titley is professor of modern Irish at University College Cork and a weekly columnist with this newspaper. His latest publication is An Réabhlóid mar Ghníomh Dínite (Coiscéim)