Irish Jesuit Province

Contributions to Irish Biography. No. 32: The O'Langans. Three Generations of Irish ScribesAuthor(s): James ColemanSource: The Irish Monthly, Vol. 24, No. 279 (Sep., 1896), pp. 485-488Published by: Irish Jesuit ProvinceStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20499023 .

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485

CONTRIBUTIONS TO IRISH BIOGRAPHY.

No. 32.-THE O'LANGAINS.

Three Generations of Irish Scribes.

N O very profound knowledge of ancient history is needed to enable one to realise how important a part the profession of scribe

may have played in early times, especially when printing was as yet unknown. The olden manuscripts, of which, out of all the countries of Europe, freland possesses the most ancient and the

most beautiful specimens extant, attest alike the wondrous skill of the hands that wrought them, and the zeal and learning that led to their execution. That the Irish Scribes were of old a numerous and an honoured class is also well known; but few are aware that down to our own days a family of Irish Scribes has existed through three

generations, endowed with uncommon ability in deciphering, transcribing and translating Irish manuscripts. These were the ,O'Longans of County Cork.

The first of these memorable Irish Scribes came from the County Limerick, where he is said to have been a dependent of the Knight of

Glin. When the latter turned Protestant under the pressure of the Penal Laws, as did many of his position in the early part of the

eighteenth century, O'Longan indignantly left him; and passing over into the adjacent county of Cork, he seems to have settled down there as one of that small farming class from which sprang Eugene O'Curry and many other famous Irishmen in past and present times.

Whitechurch, Carrignavar, became the County Cork home of the O'Longans. The circumstances which led the first of their name to reside there, would, no doubt, have acquired for him a certain amount of popularity. He evidently possessed that thorough knowledge of the tongue of the Gael, which he imparted to his more ,gifted son and namesake, Michael O'Longan. Of Michael

O'Longan senior, only a few manuscripts are now known to exist. Upon one of these MSS. preserved in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, there appears a brief obituary notice, in which it is said that he, Michael, was the son of Peter O'Longan, of Gleann-an-Aidire,

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486 6he irish Monithly.

s.e. Glin, in the Co. Limerick, that he died in the year 1770, and that he was buried in Teampull-geal-na-mona movil (Whitechurch) between Cork and Mallow.

Michael Og O'Longan, his son, was not only an industrious Irish Scribe, but one of the foremost of the numerous Gaelic poets who flourished in the Co, Cork in the last century, and by their stirring effusions and wandering habits did much to keep up a spirit of patriotism and hatred of tyranny when there were neither schools, books nor newspapers available. Amongst the O'Curry catalogues, vol. XI. 1869, relative to the O'Longan familJy, now to be seen in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, there are no less than 200 manuscripts from his hand, most of them original poetical compositions. One of these relates to his first cousin, Thomas O'Longan, who seems to have been a prominent person, known as Captain Steele, in 1798, and was transported for treason to Botany Bay in 1799. Several of his poems show Michael Og O'Longan to

have been a very religious man; whilst others are addressed to his several friends and patrons, such as the three quatrains which he he wrote in 1836, when in his 71st year, for Dr. Murphy, the Bibliophile Bishop of Cork. Many of his MSS. Irish poems were posthumously printed in the early volumes of The Shamrock, Dublin, and in the second series (1860) of the Munster Poets

Dr. Sigerson has given metrical versions of two of his patriotic

songs, viz: "Beside the Lee," and the "c Boys of Wexford." In

the Journal of the Royal Historical anid Archevological Society of

Ireland for July, 1882, appears a translation made by him for the amusement of Justin McCarthy of Carrignavar, of Dermot

McCarthy's Irish " Elegy on Lord Mountcashel," written about

1724; and another translation of his, MacBruodin's Genealogical Poem composed for the O'I?eefes, is printed in Cronnelly's Clan Roghan. He also translated the Annals of Innisfallen into English about the year 1831.

Either he or his son, probably both, were amongst those engaged by the Bishop Murphy of Cork just nambd, in copying Irish MSS., his fine collection of which is now lying in Maynooth College, unused and all but forgotten,

This Michael Og, O'Longan of Whitechurch left two sons, Joseph and Paul. The latter died comparatively young, and his Irish lore was therefore lost to his country. The Cork antiquary

Windele, as well as the Royal Irish Academy, used his services as

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Contributions to Irish Biography. 487

Scribe to a considerable extent. Paul O'Longan died about thirty years ago and was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery.

Joseph O'Longan, son of Michael Og, and brother of Paul, was born in the Co. Cork, in 1816. He was in early life a teacher in a National School, but abandoned this ocoupation for the more congenial work offered him by the Royal Irish Academy, to whom he was formally appointed Scribe on the death of Eugene Curry, in 1865-a post which he continued to occupy till his death in 1880.

Of the value and importance of Joseph O'Longan's services to the Royal Irish Academy, the following extracts from the Report drawn up for that learned body, on the occasion of his death, gratefully record: " The late Mr. Joseph O'Longan, as he was probably the last, so he was amongst the most distinguished of the Irish Scribes. He belonged to a family in which this profession

was hereditary; the names of himself, his brother, father, and grandfather, all of them acting in this capacity, are not likely to be soon forgotten. Many products of their skill and industry now lie in the Royal Irish Academy; but the most important work has undoubtedly been accomplished by Mr. O'Longan, who is just deceased. . . . We have from his hand a beautifully written

copy of the Book of Lismore, together with many minor MSS. in the Windele Collection."

This Report further states that the work executed by him in cludes the following :-An invaluable Index of Subjects and Initial Lines of the matters contained in the MSS. of the Royal Irish Academy-a work in 16 folio volumes-and the transcription of the great MSS. Leabhar na h' Ulidhre, Leabhr Breac, and the

Book of Leinster, all of which he completed under the direction of Mr. John T. Gilbert. The Book of Ballymote was little more than begun when his fatal illness attacked him.

The Report adds: " It is unnecessary to enlarge on the value of these important publications; but testimony may here be fitly borne to the manner in which Mr. O'Longan's work on them was

performed. It may be safely asserted that no one who ever saw

him work doubted, or could doubt, his thorough earnestness in the

performance of his task. The difficulty in his case was to prevent

his outstepping the bounds of prudence in the work he

endeavoured to get through; the Committee of Irish Manuscripts has had to intervene in the interests of his health, and shorten,

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488 T'he Irish Month/y.

compulsorily, the time which he would have devoted to the service of the Academy. And his zeal was equalled by his rectitude."

That distinguished Irish Archceologist, Dr. Reeves, late Protestant Bishop of Down, Connor, and Dromore, in his Presidential Address to the Royal Irish Academy, in 1891, referred as follows to Mr. O'Longan's services :-" But of all the Scribes none did so much work, or so constantly as Joseph O'Longan, who was the Academy's Scribe for fifteen years. He was an excellent Irish Scholar, and his power of imitation was only equalled by his fidelity. The three great facsimiles above mentioned are evidences of his wonderful application and perseverance; steadily he held on with his work in all weathers and under all circumstances; and his performances will ever remain to his credit, and the honour of the Academy."

Mr. O'Longan's life, apart from his work for the Academy, was uneventful. He made a journey round Ireland, and a tour to Spain in order to discover Irish Manuscripts. In Spain he met

with Marshal O'Donnell, Duke of Tetuan, for whom he sub sequently drew up a genealogical list of his Irish ancestors.

He was one of the pioneers of the movement for the praservation of the Irish language. His numerous private collections and compilations of Irish MSS. were purchased on his death by the

Academy, Mr. O'Longan died February 11th, 1880, and was

buried in Glasnevin.*

JAMES COLEMAN.

* His daughter and eldest child is the wife of Mr. J. J. McSweeney, the

courteous Sub-Librarian of the Royal Irish Academy and Secretary of the Society

for the Preservation of the Irish Language. His only son, Mr. Paul O'Longan, is

an officer of Her Majesty's Customs at Cork.

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