Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe MS E.iv.3
Prefatory Note
In this quatrain, Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire pronounces a shrewd verdict on Iomarbháigh na bhFileadh, described elsewhere as 'magna sed inutilis controversia'. The Contention of the Bards had its origin in an attack made by the Clare poet Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha, early in the seventeenth century, on a poem which he and his contemporaries assumed to have been written by Torna Éigeas, foster-father of Niall of the Nine Hostages. In response to this challenge, Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh defended Torna and claimed that the northern half of Ireland was entitled historically to pre-eminence over the south. Eugene O'Curry expresses the view that the Contention sought 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 or fortune in the country'.
The term 'easair' in line 4 can be translated to mean 'dish', literally 'litter; any strewn covering for a floor'. In his catalogue entry for the variant reading in Egerton 161, f. 46b., Standish Hayes O'Grady states that it is more accurately translated 'the empty kennel; i.e. when the pups of both are stolen'. See DIL s. v. 'esair'.
from Thomas F. O'Rahilly, Dánfhocail, Eleanor Knott, Irish Classical Poetry and Cuthbert Mhág Craith, Dán na mBráthar Mionúr.
Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire
Edited by Cuthbert Mhág Craith
Whole text
- 1 Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna2
ollaimh oirrdheirce ar dtalaimh,3
coin iad go n-iomad feasa4
ag troid fa an easair fhalaimh!
Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna (Stowe MS E. iv. 3)
Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire cecinit
Document details
The TEI Header
File description
Title statement
Title (uniform): Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna
Title (extended): [Stowe MS E. iv. 3]
Author: Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire
Editor: Cuthbert Mhág Craith
Responsibility statement
Electronic edition compiled by: Benjamin Hazard and Beatrix Färber
Funded by: University College, Cork and The Higher Education Authority via the CELT Project.
Edition statement
2. Second draft.
Extent: 1085 words
Publication statement
Publisher: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts: a project of University College Cork.
Address: College Road, Cork, Ireland—http://www.ucc.ie/celt
Date: 2003
Date: 2010
Distributor: CELT online at University College, Cork, Ireland.
CELT document ID: G405990
Availability: Available with prior consent of the CELT programme for purposes of academic research and teaching only.
Availability: Hardcopy copyright remains with the School of Celtic Studies (Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies).
Source description
Manuscript sources
- Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe MS E. iv. 3, p. 264. See Kathleen Mulchrone, T. F. O'Rahilly et al. (eds.), Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin 1926) fasc. 1, 52–8.
- Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, Stowe MS F. v. 3, p. 203, Kathleen Mulchrone, T. F. O'Rahilly et al. (eds.), Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy (Dublin 1926) fasc. 1, 105–113.
- London, British Library, Egerton MS 127, f. 25b. See Robin Flower and S. H. O'Grady (eds.), Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Library (formerly the British Museum) (London 1926) 48–77, 61–2.
- London, British Library, Egerton MS 161, f. 46b. See Flower and O'Grady (eds.), Catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Library (London 1926) 617.
Editions and Translations (selection)
- Thomas F. O'Rahilly, Dánfhocail: Irish epigrams in verse (Dublin 1921) 81.
- Eleanor Knott, Irish Classical Poetry (Dublin 1960) 90–91.
- Cuthbert Mhág Craith, Dán na mBráthar Mionúr, 2 vols. (Dublin 1967, 1980) vol. 1: 126.
Further reading
- Lambert McKenna (ed. and trans.), Iomarbhágh na bhfileadh: the Contention of the Bards, with full translation, notes, glossaries, etc. (ITS volumes 20/21) (Dublin 1918, 1920).
- Joep Leerssen, The Contention of the Bards, Iomarbhágh na bhfileadh, and its place in Irish political and literary history (Dublin 1994).
- John Minahan, The Contention of the Poets: an essay in Irish intellectual history, with a parallel translation of the Irish text in English (Sansa 2000).
The edition used in the digital edition
‘Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna’ (1967). In: Dán na mBráthar Mionúr. Ed. by Cuthbert Mhág Craith. 126, vol. 1; notes from 156–60, vol 2. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
You can add this reference to your bibliographic database by copying or downloading the following:
@incollection{G405990,
editor = {Cuthbert Mhág Craith},
title = {Lughaidh, Tadhg agus Torna},
booktitle = {Dán na mBráthar Mionúr},
editor = {Cuthbert Mhág Craith},
address = {Dublin},
publisher = {Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies},
date = {1967},
note = {126, vol. 1; notes from 156–60, vol 2.}
}
Encoding description
Project description: CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts
Sampling declarations
The prefatory note is adapted from work by Knott, Mhág Craith and O'Rahilly. The text consists of Cuthbert Mhág Craith's edition of the quatrain on page 126 of volume 1.
Editorial declarations
Correction: Text has been proof-read three times.
Normalization: The electronic text represents the edited text. Text supplied by the editor is marked sup resp="CMG".
Quotation: There are no quotations.
Hyphenation: The editorial practice of the hard-copy editor has been retained.
Segmentation: div0=the poem. Metrical lines, line-breaks and quatrains are marked and numbered.
Interpretation: Names of persons are tagged. Terms for cultural/social roles are tagged.
Reference declaration
The n attribute of each text in this corpus carries a unique identifying number for the whole text. The title of the text is held as the first head element within each text.
div0 is reserved for the text (whether in one volume or many). The numbered quatrains provide a canonical reference.
Profile description
Creation: By Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire c.1600-1615
Language usage
- The text is in Irish. (ga)
- The editor's Foreword is in English. (en)
Keywords: bardic; poetry; 17c; scholarship; contention of the bards
Revision description
(Most recent first)
- 2010-04-15: Conversion script run; header updated; new wordcount made; file parsed. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2008-10-11: Header modified; line-breaks re-arranged; keywords added; file validated. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2008-07-18: Value of div0 "type" attribute modified, content of 'langUsage' revised. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2005-08-25: Normalised language codes and edited langUsage for XML conversion (ed. Julianne Nyhan)
- 2005-08-04T16:12:50+0100: Converted to XML (ed. Peter Flynn)
- 2003-12-11: Minor modifications to header/file; HTML file created. (ed. Beatrix Färber)
- 2003-12-10: Header constructed, structural mark-up inserted and verified, text checked and proofed. (ed. Benjamin Hazard)
- 2003-12-05: File parsed. (ed. Benjamin Hazard)