Peter CostelloQueen of the Hearth
J. Anthony Gaughan
The publication of this manuscript is worthwhile on two accounts. It is, in effect, an anti-feminist tract and on reading it one realises how enlightened and remarkable a change there has been since the early 20th Century in attitudes on the role of women in society.
Just as importantly, in an extensive introduction the editor, Dr Philip O’Leary, provides a valuable account in English of the author of the manuscript, Fr Patrick Dinneen, the distinguished lexicographer. This will be of interest to generations of students who came to know Pádraig Ó Duinnín through his Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla but never acquired any further information about him.
Early life
Dinneen was born in 1860 near Rathmore in the Sliabh Luachra district of Kerry. His father was a small farmer and both parents were native Irish-speakers. He was the fifth of their 10 children. His ability was clear from an early age and he served as a monitor in the local national school.
After leaving school at the age of 17 he was tutored by the local parish priest, presumably with a view to his admission to St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and eventually ordination for the Diocese of Kerry.
Jesuits
Throughout his life Dinneen had a penchant for doing the opposite to what was expected of him. Instead of going to Maynooth he went to Milltown Park, where in 1880 he began his studies to be a Jesuit. As part of his training he attended UCD, where he had Gerard Manley Hopkins as one of his lecturers.
He subsequently lectured in mathematics in UCD and before and after ordination taught mathematics and English in the Jesuit colleges at Mungret and Clongowes Wood. Temperamentally he was unfitted for the regimented life of a Jesuit. Thus in 1900, only six years after his ordination, he amicably left the society as much to the relief of his Jesuit superiors as to gaining his own peace of mind.
He continued as a priest and wore clerical garb until he died in 1934. A popular figure, he became as well-known for his eccentricities as for his scholarship. There was his habit of talking to himself and his miserliness. Then there was his appearance – tall hat and shabby coat.
Gaelic League
After his departure from the Jesuits he became an active member of the Gaelic League and served for many years on two of its most influential committees. He devoted himself to studies in the Irish language and was almost a permanent fixture in the National Library of Ireland in the seat which now carries a plaque honouring his memory.
He edited the poetry of Aodhagán Ó Rathaile, Eoghan Ruadh Ó Súilleabháin, Seán Clárach Mac Dómhnaill and Piaras Feirtéir. His most celebrated work – the dictionary initially published in 1904 – was enlarged and re-issued in 1927 and remained the official standard Irish dictionary until 1977.
School tests
He wrote school texts and edited Seathrún Céitinn’s history. For many years he contributed a weekly column in Irish to D. P. Moran’s journal The Leader. He wrote a novel and published plays and poetry and translations into Irish, notably Dickens’ Christmas Carol and Virgil’s Aeneid.
Clearly there was much more to Fr Dinneen than his dictionary, or for that matter his anti-feminism. Not the least merit of this publication is the opportunity it has given the editor to draw attention to Dinneen’s immense literary and scholarly output and thereby his significant role in the successful drive to make Irish the official language of the new Irish State.