A Gaelic Scholar's Approaches to Recording and Tabulation in Early Eighteenth-Century Dublin
Liam Mac Mathúna
University College, Dublin
Abstract
Seán Ó Neachtain (c. 1640–1729) and his son Tadhg (1671–c.1752) were at the centre of a network of some thirty Irish language scholars which existed in Dublin in the early eighteenth century. The modernising tendencies demonstrated by Tadhg in his manuscripts continue to attract considerable academic attention. The poem beginning Sloinfead scothadh na Gaoidhilge grinn / dá raibhe rém rae i Nduibhlinn, composed by Tadhg in 1728/29, celebrates some 26 scholars connected with the city at the time, while six of his manuscripts contain commonplace entries and incorporate many contemporary newspaper accounts of events in Ireland and abroad, both in Irish translation and in the original English, alongside more familiar material associated with the Gaelic literary tradition. This paper sees the versified catalogue of scholars in Dublin and the manuscript interaction with news from the public sphere in Dublin and abroad as relating to new understandings of information, coupled with the urge to record, tabulate and interact. Among other sources which will be considered are Tadhg's list of family events (births, deaths) (in Irish), an inventory of books and manuscripts lent out (in English) and poems celebrating his father's creative works and listing the subjects and teachers who provided his son Peadar's schooling (both in Irish). Finally, an attempt will be made to situate Tadhg Ó Neachtain's interaction with information and knowledge with other aspects of the Gaelic tradition.