The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1892-01-30

the various names of localities laid dow
on the official maps Of Ireland. ID
!Pstrie, a Scotch artist and scholar. we
employed for this purpose and he thre'
himself eagerly into the coDgenial study
Among the assistants whom he pickle
up were O'Curry and O'Donovar, bot
! J. whom we're set to work on the collec
! tion of Irish manuscripts in the college
and museums of ireland for the pnrpoE'
of the survey. The attention Of scholar
was awakened to the historical work.
that had long lam almost forgotten il
various places in tie Royal Irish aca
denny and Trinity college in Dublin, il
the British museum in London, the Bo
delian library at Oxford, the Ashburnan
library and the Burgundian library in
Brussels where the exiled Irish Francis
cans had carefully stored whatever relic
Of their country's literature they coull
collect during the penal days.
O'Curry was at home In the work ol
hunting up such Irish works and the in.
terest of a few scholars among the aris.
tocracy induced the government to spend
some money in getting such work done.
His pay was certainly moderate, amount
ing, we believe, to about five hundred
dollars year, but labor Of all kinde,
literary as we'll as manual, was cheap in
Ireland and O'Curry was well satisfied
to give his ceaseless toll for that amount.
A few years resulted in the copying out
of over four hundred quarto volumes Of
irish works hitherto unknown or forgot
ton, and excited the interest OF the world
to such an extent that the government
felt compelled to take some further
steps in the same direction and under
take the publication of the ancient Bre-
ton laws of Celtic Ireland. In this
great record of old Celtic jurisprudence
which has cast a food of light on the
origin of modern laws, not only in Ire
land, but through the whole Western
Europe, England, France, Scotland and
Spain, O'Curry took foremost part.
Faithful to it's policy of neglecting mere
" Icish interests the Castle authorities
the work of Investigating
the Celtic names in Irish Topography,
and so O'Curry was ttl1r6t5 VII out Ut his
five hundred dollars a year; but the
Royal academy and some public spirited
Irish scholars provided him with en-
ployment in the latter institution. Later
the Brehon laws commission employed
him at the salary OF junior clerk, which,
was not very punctually paid, but still
sufficed to keep O'Curry out Of want and
employed in his loved work.
The foundation of the Catholic uni
versity at length gave something like
deserved prominence to O OCurry's merits.
DR. Newman since Cardinal assumed
the rectorship of that institution and ap-
pointed O'Curry it's first professor Of the
Irish language and literature. His Ice
lures at the Catholic university On the
materials of Irish History
we're delivered in the buildings on Steph-
ems Green in 1859, and 1860. and were
published in book form in 1861. His
subsequent lectures and manuscript
notes did not appear till many years
later when death had already called
O'Curry away from this world. They
were edited by DR.. W. X. Sullivan, the
professor of chemistry in the Catholic
university and himself, a distinguished
Celtic and general philologist, and pub
lished in 1878. Their title is Lectures
on Social fife, Manners and Civilization
of the people Of Ancient Erin" It is
but saying the simple truth that no
more scientific work on any branch OF
ancient history has been published in.
our own days than those lectures. The
early institutions of the Celtic races,
their laws, their industries and art, their
food and clothing, their social inter-
course, their science. and art, and the
superstitions that furnish a. clew to. the
primitive belief of 1.-THE Celtic races of.
the West, are all described with the
most painstaking accuracy. O'Curry's
work is an unmistakahle proof that
patient literary labor is as much a
quality Of the Celtic genius as the bril-
liant play of fancy and Imagination
which are commonly supposed to be it's
distinguished characteristic. OCurry
died suddenly in 1862, leaving two sons,
one of whom entered the United States
navy during the late civil war and was
killed at the capture of Mobile.
Together They Took IT.
.Cardinal Manning once pledged with
q penitent to take the pledge. The
penitent said he did not need the pledge
: < y u ~ .