216
AN GAODHAL.
the noble had disappeaed, the native bardic spirit
did not altogether die out; and about the year
1604 (apparently by some preconcerted arrange¬
ment), a discussion sprang up between Tadhg Mac
Brody, a distinguished Irish scholar and bard of
the county Clare, and the no less distinguished
pot and scholar, Lughaidh O'Clery of Donegal, of
whom mention was made in a former lecture. The
subject of this discussion, which was carried on in
verse, was the relative merit and importance of the
two great clan-divisions of Erin, as represented by
the Heberians of the south (that is, the O'Briens
and Mac Carthys, and the other independent chiefs
of Munster, the descendants of Eber), and the He¬
remonians of Ulster, Connacht, and Leinster (em¬
bracing the O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Conors, Mac
Murachs, etc.), who were descended from Eremon.
It is quite evident that the real object of this
discussion was simply to rouse and keep alive the
national feeling and family pride of such of the
native nobility and gentry as still continued to hold
any station of rank or fortune in the country; and
as the war of words progressed, several auxiliaries
came up on both sides, and took an active part in
the controversy, which thus assumed considerable
importance.
This discussion, which is popularly called "The
Contention of the Bards," brought into prominent
review all the great events and heroic characters of
Irish history from the remotest ages, and inspired
the liviliest interest at the time. Indeed one of the
northern auxiliaries in the controversy, Annluan
Mac Ægan, seriously charges O'Clery with treach¬
ery, and with allowing himself to be worsted by
Mac Brody, from pariality to the south, where he
had received his education.
The scheme of the "Contention," however, seems
to have produced little effect on the native gentry,
for shortly after we find Mac Brody coming out
with a very curious poem, addressed to the south¬
ern chiefs, demanding from them remuneration,
according to ancient usage, for his defence of their
claims to superior dignity and rank.
Whether this controversy had the desired effect
of stimulating to any extent the liberality of the
remaining native Irish chiefs or not, is an inquiry
beyond the scope of our present purpose; but that
it tended greatly to the renewed study of our na¬
tive literature, may be fairly inferred from the im¬
portant Irish works which soon followed it, such
as those of Keting and the O'Clerys, and of Mac
Firbis.
Of Keting we shall again have to speak, and we
shall now turn to a contemporary of his, who like
himself, found the deep study of the language and
history of his native laud quite consistent with the
strict observance and efficient discharge of the on¬
erous duties of a Catholic priest. I allude to the
celebrated friar, Michael O'Clery, chief of the Four
Masters, and the projector of the great national
literary work which bears their name.
Michael O'Clery appears to have been born in
Kilbarron, near Ballyshannon, in the county of
Donegal, some time about the year 1580. He was
descended of a family of hereditary scholars, lay
and ecclesiastical, and received, we may presume,
the rudiments of his education at the place of his
birth.
It appears from various circumstances in the lat¬
ter part of the sixteenth and early part of the sev¬
enteenth century, the south of Ireland afforded a
higher order of education, and greater facilities for
its attainment than the north; and we learn,
therefore (from Michael O'Clery's Gaedhlic Gloss¬
ary, published by him in Louvain in 1643), that
he, as well as his brother, Lughaidh O'Clery, al¬
ready mentioned, had received, if not their classical,
at least their Gaedhlig education, in the south,
from Baothghalach Ruadh Mac Ægan,
Of the early life of Michael O'Clery, or at what
time he entered the Franciscan order, we know,
unfortunately, nothing; but in the year 1627 we
find him engaged in visiting the various monaster¬
ies of his order in Ireland, as well as other eccle¬
siastical and lay repositories of ancient Irish Man¬
uscripts, and laboriously transcribing from them
with his own most accurate hand all that they con¬
tained of the history of the Irish Catholic Church
and the lives of the Irish Saints, as well as impor¬
tant acts relating to the civil history of the coun¬
try. Among the latter is the detailed history of the
great Danish invasion and occupation of Ireland,
now in the Burgundian Library at Brussels. (I
may add that this valuable book was recently bor¬
rowed by the Rev. Dr. Todd, for whom I made an
accurate copy of it.]
O'Clery’s ecclesiastical collection was intended
for the use of the Rev Father Aedh Mac an Bhaird
(commonly called in English, Hugh Ward), a nat¬
ive of Donegal, a Franciscan friar, and, at this
time, guardian of Saint Anthony in Louvain, who
contemplated the publication of the Lives of the
Irish Saints; but having died before he had fully
entered on this great work, the materials supplied
by O'Clery were taken up by another equally com¬
petent Franciscan, Father John Colgan. This dis¬
tinguished writer accordingly produced, in 1645,
two noble volumes in the Latin language. One
of these, called the Trias Thaumaturgus, is devot¬
ed exclusively to the Lives of Saint Patrick, Saint
Bridget, and Saint Colum Cille, or Columba; the
other volume contains as many as could be found
of the Lives of the Irish Saints whose festival days
occur from the 1st of January to the 31st of March,
where the work stops. Whether it was the death
of Father Michael O'Clery (who must have been
the translator of the Irish Lives), which happened
about this time, 1643, that discouraged or incapa¬
citated Father Colgan from proceeding with his
work, we do not know; but although he publish¬
ed other works relating to Ireland after this time,
he never resumed the publication of the lives of
her saints. The collection made by the noble hear¬
ted Father O'Clery at that time, is that which is
now divided between the Burgundian Library at
Brussels and the Library, of the College of St. Is¬
adore at Rome.
(To be continued.)
As the party signing himself "Thaddeus McNul¬
ty to the Mick letter in last Gael pretends to be a
patriotic Irishman; and as the reader might think
that our letter to the Chicago Citizen was of such
character as would provoke the bigotted and inde¬
cent expressions (fit for the slums of Belfast) used
by him, we give here under our letter as it appear¬
ed in the Citizen. —
TO THE CHICAGO CITIZEN.
Brooklyn, N. Y. June 21. — The Citizen of June
18, in the course of its remarks on Mr. William O'¬
Brien's speech to the men of Cork, urging the cul¬
tivation of the Irish language, has done considerable
injustice to a large number of patriottc Irishmen.
It says:
