Publications – Subsidiary Series

The greater part of this new introduction chronicles and places in context the extensive body of scholarship that has accumulated about the nature, sources, and textual history of Lebor Gabála Érenn , including the critical contribution of R.A.S. Macalister's five-volume edition of the text for the Society (Main Series 34-35, 38-39, 44). John Carey, who lectures in the Department of Early and Medieval Irish at UCC, also presents his own expert and stimulating opinions of the text, based on a study that stretches back to the beginnings of his scholarly career.

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Joep Leerssen, Professor of European Studies at the University of Amsterdam , has made a significant contribution to the study of Irish literature in the seventeenth century. Here, in a detailed literary historical analysis, he presents the poems comprising the Contention of the Bards, originally edited for the Society by Lambert McKenna (Main Series 20-21), as much more than a final display of bardic erudition and eloquence. He views the Contention as a unique registration of an ancient tradition coming to terms with the disintegration of both its social raison d'être and its cultural Weltanschauung.

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In this reappraisal of Imtheachta Aeniasa, originally edited for the Society by George Calder (Main Series 3), Professor Erich Poppe of the University of Marburg argues that the Irish version of the Aeneid was perceived as a historical narrative rather than as a literary epic or mere entertainment. In forming his judgement, he discusses the literary style of the Irish adaptation and examines its characteristics in the context of the wider vernacular narrative tradition. He concludes that Imtheachta Aeniasa can tell its modern readers much about the mentality and interests of its medieval audience.

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As is well known, the adventures of Suibhne Geilt (the madman), which were edited for the Society by J. G. O'Keeffe (Main Series 12), have inspired such modern writers as Flann O'Brien and Seamus Heaney. In his illuminating new introduction to the tale, Professor Joseph Nagy of the University of California, Los Angeles, takes Suibhne to represent a poet 'robbed of his identity, his autonomy, and his freedom from the tyranny of words'. Taking account throughout of previous scholarship on the subject, Professor Nagy examines Suibhne's remarkable story as that of a poet vacillating 'between power and powerlessness'.

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This volume was published as a companion volume of Beatha Bharra (Main Series 57), which was edited for the Society by Professor Ó Riain of University College Cork. Beginning with an account of the spread of the cult of St Finbarr countrywide from its probable place of origin in the North of Ireland, the author traces the history of the church and diocese of Cork down to about 1200, when the local bishop commissioned the earliest known Life of the saint. The historical circumstances that gave rise to the production of this Life, and of those that followed it, are then discussed in detail. Although spurious in almost every respect, the veracity of the biography composed for the saint remained in the main unchallenged until Professor Ó Riain re-examined it.

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This volume, which was prepared by Dr Diarmuid Ó Murchadha of the Locus Project in University College Cork, is unusual in that it does not relate to a previous publication by the Society. Instead, it responds to a long felt need to make more accessible to historians and other users one of the most important of the early annals of Ireland, which were originally published by Whitely Stokes in the journal Revue Celtique, vols 16-18, and reprinted by Llanerch Publishers in 1993. By providing complete indexes to Stokes's edition, Dr Ó Murchadha, who is an authority on Irish family and placenames, rendered a signal service to Irish scholarship.

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As Professor Joseph Nagy of the University of California, Los Angeles, points out, the two stories edited by R. A. S. Macalister for the Society (Main Series 10) are, like the romantic tales to which they belong, 'the product of confluence and mutual reinforcement between the native and foreign sources available to the author-storyteller'. Professor Nagy's new introduction is accompanied by an appendix edited from a critical review by T. F. O'Rahilly of the original edition, which does much to remedy the all too evident deficiencies of Macalister's editorial policies.

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The inaugural volume of the Main Series was edited by the Society's first President, Douglas Hyde (Main Series 1). This new introduction, provided by Dr Máire Ní Mhaonaigh of the University of Cambridge in 1998 to mark the centenary of the foundation of the Society, includes a full discussion of the thematic structure, style, and manuscript tradition of both tales. Describing the tales as 'significant' in their own right, Dr Ní Mhaonaigh shows them to be two very different examples of 'Romantic' tales.

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With the founding of the Irish Texts Society in 1898 began, as the late Professor Brian Ó Cuív stated, 'an enterprise in Irish textual editing and publication whose achievements are unparalleled'. This volume, edited by Professor Pádraig Ó Riain of University College Cork, brings together a series of papers designed to examine the achievements of the Society and to trace in outline the history of its first hundred years. In addition to the editor, Drs Pádraigín Riggs, Neil Buttimer, and Kevin Murray of University College Cork; Professor Ellis Evans of the University of Oxford; and Professor Ó Cuív contributed to this very appropriate memorial to a remarkable achievement.

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This volume represents the proceedings of the inaugural annual seminar of the Society, held in conjunction with the Departments of Irish at UCC. The papers collected here, which were contributed by Petra Hellmuth, Nicholas Jacobs, John T. Koch, the late Proinsias Mac Cana, and Bernhard Maier, provide much needed reassessments of this very important tale of the Ulster Cycle, which was originally edited for the Society by George Henderson (Main Series 2). The tale is perhaps best known for two of its motifs, the 'Hero's Portion' and 'the Champion's Bargain', and both of these are reassessed here.

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This publication focuses on the three-volume edition of Ó Bruadair's poems edited for the Society by John C. Mac Erlean (Main Series 11, Main Series 13, Main Series 18). Along with the poetry of Pádraigín Haicéad and the prose text Pairlement Chloinne Tomáis, the works of this major poet are said to reflect the chaos that engulfed Gaelic Ireland in the seventeenth century. The six contributors to the volume, Liam Irwin, Bernadette Cunningham and Raymond Gillespie, Breandán Ó Conchúir, Liam P Ó Murchú and Margo Griffin-Wilson, represent a mix of historians and literary scholars. As pointed out by the editor, Pádraigín Riggs, their stimulating contributions serve to redress the long, and undeserved, neglect of Ó Bruadair's work.

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The two-volume edition of the Life of Aodh Ruadh by Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh, which was prepared for the Society by Paul Walsh (Main Series 42, Main Series 45) was chosen for discussion at the Society's annual seminar in 2001, held in conjunction with the Departments of Irish at University College Cork. One aim of the seminar was to mark the four-hundreth anniversary of the Battle of Kinsale. Another was to reopen debate on the historical quality and linguistic and literary nature of Ó Cléirigh's text, and the several contributions to the seminar, published in this volume, by Hiram Morgan, Mícheál Mac Craith, Damian Mac Manus, Marc Caball, Nollaig Ó Muraíle and Pádraig A. Breatnach, bear eloquent and innovative witness to its value as a source.

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By way of introduction to his contribution to this volume, Professor Joseph Nagy of the University of California, Los Angeles, paid tribute to the the introductions by Eoin MacNeill and Gerard Murphy to their three-volume edition of Duanaire Finn for the Society (Main Series 7, Main Series 28, Main Series 43), which have remained 'some of the most valuable and provocative readings of Fenian literature'. He and the other contributors, John Carey, who also edited the volume, Donald E. Meek, the late Máirtín Ó Briain, and Ruairí Ó hUiginn provide an insightful reevaluation of the collection of poems known as Duanaire Finn . Originally brought together by Captain Somhairle MacDomhnaill in Belgium in the early seventeenth century, the poems are reexamined here as to their dating, their Scottish connexions, and their treatment by MacNeill and Murphy. The foreword to the volume, by Pádraig Ó Riain, describes how Duanaire Finn survived and was brought through the press, often against the background of a 'clash of arms'.

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The four-volume edition of the early nineteenth-century diary kept by Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin of the town of Callan in Co. Kilkenny was originally edited for the Society by Michael McGrath (Main Series 30-33). The collection of papers in the present volume, edited by Liam P. Ó Murchú, reflects a recent renewal of interest in Amhlaoibh's diary, stimulated by the work of such scholars as Proinsias Ó Drisceoil and Breandán Ó Madagáin. Both of these are among the contributors, who also include Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, Cathal Ó hÁinle, and Neil Buttimer. This volume should stimulate further interest in the writings of a man described by Neil Buttimer as 'an innovative, committed and prolific penman'.

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This new introduction to the Poems of Aodhagán Ó Rathaile, originally edited for the Society by P. S. Dinneen and Tadhg O'Donoughue (Main Series 3) was prepared by Professor Breandán Ó Buachalla of the University of Notre-Dame. As he has shown most recently in his major work Aisling Ghéar: na Stíobhartaigh agus an tAos Léinn 1603-1788, Professor Ó Buachalla is a leading authority on Irish poetry of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His reassessment of these poems, which is accompanied by an edition of three poems not included in the Main Series volume, represents another significant contribution to the modern reception of the oeuvre of this very important poet.

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The sixth annual seminar, organised jointly by the Irish Texts Society and the Departments of Irish at University College Cork, was designed to mark the centenary of the publication of the first edition of Dinneen's Dictionary® in 1904. The proceedings, edited here by Dr Pádraigín Riggs, focus on Dinneen the scholar, priest and language activist, as well as on the Dictionary, which is still the most popular book of its kind. The contributions to the volume, by Diarmuid Breathnach, Mícheál Briody, Breandán Ó Madagáin, Seán Ua Súilleabháin, Máirtín Ó Murchú, and Úna Uí Bheirn, represent the first reassessment of Dinneen and his work since the publication in 1958 of An Duinníneach by Proinsias Ó Conluain and Donncha Ó Céileachair. The introduction to the volume by Pádraig Ó Riain discusses Dinneen's often turbulent relationship with Council of the Irish Texts Society.

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The proceedings of the seventh annual seminar, organised jointly by the Irish Texts Society and the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork, contains contributions reconsidering two medieval Irish texts forming volumes 6 and 38 of the Society's Main Series, adaptations respectively of the Aeneid and legend of Hercules. In addition, they survey such issues as the medieval Irish tradition of translating and adapting classical texts and modern theory and practice and medieval translation. The contributions to the seminar – by Fiona Cox, Diana Luft, Gearóid MacEoin, Máire Ní Mhaonaigh and Erich Poppe – situate the texts in their medieval context as translations, consider how they are illuminated by modern critical theory, and supplement and update the scholarship of the original editors.

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The Society's edition of the Poems of Carolan (Volume 17 of its main series) is now supplemented by a reassessment of the author and his work that brings together articles by some of the most eminent experts on the Irish harping tradition and on Irish culture in the eighteenth century. The composer's music is reassessed here by Nicholas Carolan and Emily Cullen; the cultural background to his compositions is examined by Joep Leerssen; his verse is studied by Lesa Ní Mhunghaile, and the editor of his poems or songs, Tomás Ó Máille, is re-evalued by Ruairí Ó hUiginn. While deepening our appreciation of the influences on Carolan, these reassessments will no doubt also encourage others to take an interest in the man and his work.     

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The proceedings of the ninth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork on the 10th November 2007. The subject was the History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn), better known as Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, which was edited for the Society in four volumes (4, 8, 9 & 15 of the Main Series) by David Comyn and Patrick S. Dinneen.

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The twentieth volume of the Subsidiary Series is devoted to the largest, and perhaps longest running, multi-volume edition in the Society's Main Series. Previously consisting of five volumes, published between 1938 and 1956, a sixth volume has been added to Macalister's edition of Lebor Gabála Érenn in 2009. John Carey already placed the Society and scholars in his debt by providing a New Introduction to Lebor Gabála Érenn in 1993, the inaugural volume of the Subsidiary Series. The five contributors to the present volume, who include the editor, cover an impressive range of ground, from the earliest manuscript version of the text to the latest. Also covered are several hitherto unexamined sources.

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The proceedings of the eleventh annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2009, which had as its theme 'The Bardic Poems of Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn (1550-1591)' the title of Volumes 22 and 23 in the ITS Main Series.

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This Bibliography was compiled as a by-product of the work of the Locus Project, an ongoing collaboration, based in the Department of Early and Medieval Irish, University College Cork. The Locus project, in association with the Irish Texts Society, is currently publishing a new fascicular Historical Dictionary of Gaelic Placenames to replace Fr Edmund Hogan's Onomasticon Goedelicum (Dublin, 1910). During the process of excerpting from texts unknown to Fr Hogan or not yet available in printed editions at the time of the Onomasticon, record was also made of numerous articles on various aspects of placename study. These are noted at the end of the relevant entries in the Dictionary, but some years ago it was decided that those references should also be made available to researchers in a separate volume. This has now been brought to completion. In total, the Bibliography contains nearly 3,000 items with up to 8,000 entries in the index.

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The proceedings of the twelfth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2010. The seminar was held to celebrate the centenary of the publication of Fr Edmund Hogan's monumental Onomasticon Goedelicum and focuses, inter alia , on the centrality of the Onomasticon as a scholarly tool to Gaelic placename scholarship in Scotland and Ireland.

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The proceedings of the thirteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2011, which had as its theme Caithréim Thoirdhealbhaigh 'The Triumphs of Turlough', the title of Volumes 26 (text) and 27 (translation) in the ITS Main Series.

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The proceedings of the fourteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2012, which had as its theme Lebor na Cert  'The Book of Rights', the title of Volume 46 in the ITS Main Series.

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The proceedings of the fifteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2013, which had as its theme Buile Suibhne 'The Adventures of Suibhne Geilt', the title of Volume 12 in the ITS Main Series.

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The proceedings of the sixteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2014

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The proceedings of the seventeenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2015 which had as its theme Rosa Anglica seu Rosa Medicinae Johannis Anglici: An Early Modern Irish Translation of Part of John of Gaddesden's Text Book of Medieval Medicine, the title of Volume 25 in the ITS Main Series

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The proceedings of the eighteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2016.

The proceedings of the nineteenth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2017.

The proceedings of the twentieth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2018.

The proceedings of the twenty-first annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork in November 2019.

The proceedings of the annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork.

The proceedings of the twentieth annual seminar of the Irish Texts Society held in conjunction with the Combined Departments of Irish at University College Cork.