GAELIC NOTES.
Dr. Shahan, of the Catholic University of America, who has recently been doing splendid work in the cause of Celtic literature, has contributed a very able article to the American Catholic Quarterly, in which he deals, in a most attractive manner, with the literature of the Celtic people. The article is beautifully written, and it is to be hoped that it will be reprinted and widely read.
The New Ireland Review for August contained a paper by Rev. Dr. Barry on MacPherson’s Ossian.
The Henry Bradshaw Society is to publish a new edition of the Antiphonary of Bangor, and of the Martyrology of Marianus O’Gorman.
The Marquis of Lorne has written the libretto of an opera entitled, “Diarmid and Grainne,” founded on the Irish story. Mr. Standish O’Grady has written a novel called “The Coming of Cuchullin.”
The August number of the Celtic Monthly is the best that has yet appeared. Send 4d. for a specimen copy to Mr. John Mackay, 17 Dundas-street, Kingston, Glasgow.
Mr. Alexander MacBain of Inverness proposes to publish soon a Scottish Gaelic Dictionary in one volume, price 7s. 6d.; containing after each word its meaning, and the various forms of the word in Irish, Welsh, and other Celtic languages, with references also to its probable pre-historic form.
Mac Talla improves with every week. The Turus Domhnaill Bháin is one of the finest specimens of Gaelic prose ever printed. With the issue of July 7th the third volume was commenced.
The Weekly Sun recently contained a very favourable notice of this Journal, written by “An Shuler,” an siuḃlaire. In another weekly paper attention was directed to the fact that in the year 1808 there was baptized in the Isle of Thanet “a child who rejoiced in the name of Boetius Egan.” Anyone acquainted with Irish literature could at once have said that Boetius is but the conventional Latin form of the old Irish name Baoṫġalaċ, a name that for centuries has been hereditary in the old family of the MacEgans. The late Father James Keegan was a member of the family.
The words irregularly pronounced in Irish are not very numerous, and if properly classified would present little difficulty. When the easy lessons are completed an [ 88 ]appendix will be added containing a list of peculiar words arranged in the following order:—(1) Words in which the old pronunciation is still preserved, such as beag, raiḃ, biḋeaḋ, etc.; (2) words contracted in rapid pronunciaation, such as mriartaċ for muirċeartaċ, dearṫair and dreaṫáir for dearḃraṫair; (3) words involving metathesis, as mnuiċille for muinċille; (4) remaining irregular words, if any. Students are requested to take notes of any irregular pronunciations they may hear, and report to the Gaelic Journal for insertion in the list.
Recent numbers of the journal have been returned unclaimed from the following addresses:—Patrick J. Craen, 48 High-street, Newark, New Jersey; Patrick Barry, Gortroe, N.S., Rathcormack, Waterford. Addresses should be written very plainly. The numbers are posted regularly; if they do not reach their destination it is not our fault.
Our readers will be glad to learn that Mr. John Fleming is so far improved in health, that he is no longer confined to his room. Go mba seaċt ḃfearr é!
The Cork Gaelic League recently held a most successful and thoroughly Gaelic reunion.
The programme for the annual Mód at Oban is now issued. The mód will open on 11th September; prizes are offered or Gaelic songs (four parts), Gaelic songs (two or three parts; Gaelic solos, male, female, and for children; Gaelic singing, with accompaniment on the Highland harp; harp playing; original Gaelic songs and poems; original translations into English verse; Gaelic prose composition (prize of five guineas); folk-tales; recitations; readings. The Marquess of Bute offers a prize of £10 for an essay by a medical man on Second Sight in the Highlands.
Proceedings of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, vol. xviii., 384 pages.—In the eighteen volumes of the transactions of this Society, the student of Gaelic will find a vast treasure house of Gaelic lore, much of it in excellent Scottish Gaelic. The chief attraction of the present volume is the exhaustive work on Gaelic charms and incantations, by Mr. William MacKenzie, who has collected an immense mass of curious old Gaelic material, which was never until now put on record. The paper covers nearly a hundred pages, and is a worthy complement of Nicholson’s great work on Gaelic proverbs. It is most curious to find that many traditions are yet preserved in the Highlands with regard to St. Patrick’s hymn and other things intimately connected with, but now forgotten in Ireland. Mr. MacBain has a valuable paper on the Gaelics of Badenoch, in which, as in most local districts, there are some survivals of the peculiarities of the older language. A large number of Perthshire Gaelic songs is published by Mr. Cameron.