Eugene O'Curry

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Eugene O'Curry (20 November 1794 – 30 July 1862) was an Irish scholar.

He was born at Doonaha, County Clare, the son of a farmer who was a man of unusual intelligence. He went to Limerick c. 1824 and spent a period working there at a mental hospital. He was employed, 1835-1842, in the topographical and historical section of the Irish Ordnance Survey, with his wife's brother-in-law John O'Donovan. (O'Curry and O'Donovan were married to the sisters Anne and Mary Anne Broughton respectively, daughters of John Broughton of Killaderry near Broadford, County Clare.) O'Curry earned his living by translating and copying Irish manuscripts; the catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Museum (1849) was compiled by him. On the founding of the Catholic University of Ireland in 1854, he was appointed professor of Irish history and archaeology. He worked with George Petrie on the Ancient Music of Ireland (1855). In 1852, he and O'Donovan proposed the Dictionary of the Irish Language, which was eventually produced by the Royal Irish Academy starting in 1913 and finally completed in 1976.

His lectures were published by the university in 1860, and give a better knowledge of Irish medieval literature than can be obtained from any other one source. Three other volumes of lectures were published posthumously, under the title On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish (1873). His voluminous transcripts, notably eight huge volumes of ancient Irish law, testify to his unremitting industry. The Celtic Society, of the council of which he was a member, published two of his translations of medieval tales. He died in Dublin.

[edit] Works

• The Ancient Laws of Ireland, on behalf of the Brehon Law Commission with John O'Donovan
• Lecturers on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History, 1861, a collection of 21 lectures

[edit] References

• Enclyclopaedia of Ireland, Brian Lalor, P. 808, 2003, Gill and MacMillan ISBN 0-7171-3000-2
• [1], Catholic Encyclopedia
• [2], University College Dublin School of History and Archives, Eugene O'Curry
• [3], Clare County Library, Eugene O'Curry
• [4], Four Courts Press, Eugene O'Curry
• [5], (O')Curry pedigree

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.