Ó FLANNGHAILE, Tomás. Seacht Sárdhánta Gaedhilge: Seven Noted Irish Poems.

Dublin: Sealy, Bryers and Walker, 1908. Crown octavo. pp. vi, [2], 136, [8 (Publisher’s List)]. Quarter linen on green paper boards. Ex libris Dalgan Park with stamps. A very good copy.
Thomas J. Flannery [Tomás Ó Flannghaile] (1846-1916), Irish-language scholar and revivalist, was born in Ballinrobe, Co. Mayo, second son of Pádraig Ó Flannghaile and his wife Sadhbh Ní Chlochartaigh. He began his education under Peadar Ó hOisín, a local schoolmaster. In 1853 the Flannery family emigrated to Manchester, where he attended St Wilfrid’s school. One of his teachers there, a Mr Corrigan, fostered an interest in his native language and taught him basic literacy in Irish. Flannery spent a number of years as a pupil teacher at St Wilfrid’s before entering the catholic training college in Hammersmith, West London (1865). He went on to teach English and Latin for many years in various schools and training colleges in London and Manchester, and also served for a time as examiner in Celtic to the Intermediate Education Board. He retired in 1907.
His work for the Irish language included classes and occasional lectures in the Southwark Irish Literary Club (founded 1883) and its successor, the Irish Literary Society (founded 1892). As chairman of a sub-committee which was set up by the latter in 1896, he played a major role in the founding in 1898 of the Irish Texts Society. His publications include editions with metrical translations of Micheál Coimín, Laoi Oisín ar thír na n-óg (1896) and Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara, Eachtra ghiolla an amaráin (1897). In 1896 he published a collection of essays, For the Tongue of the Gael, a copy of which Patrick Pearse received as a school prize. He later corresponded with Pearse when the latter was editor of An Claidheamh Soluis.
Flannery and his wife Maria had two daughters and four sons. His eldest daughter, Máire, served as president of the London branch of the Gaelic League (1935-42). He died at home at 38 St George’s Road, Forest Gate, London.
133. Ó FOGHLUDHA, Risteárd. Amhráin Phiarais Mhic Gearailt An Té ba cheann comhairle ar chuirt na mbúrdún, maille le Cunntas Éigin ar a bheathaidh, agus Foclóir. Baile Átha Cliath: Chonnradh na Gaedhilge, 1905. pp. iv, [1], 138. Full maroon morocco, titled in gilt, badge of Chonnradh na Gaedhilge in gilt on upper cover. Ex libris Dalgan Park with stamps. Wear to head of spine. All edges gilt. A fine copy. €285
Piaras Mac Gearailt [Pierce Fitzgerald] (c.1709-1792) was an Irish-language poet of the Munster tradition, born at Ballykinealy near Ballymacoda, Co. Cork, into a diminished branch of the Old English Fitzgeralds, related to the Knights of Kerry. Although the family estate had been reduced to a single townland after their involvement in the Desmond rebellion, they retained a strong sense of gentry status and cultural authority, reflected in the poetic lament composed on the death of his father, Michael Fitzgerald. Through his mother, Mary Power of Knockalahara, Co. Waterford, Mac Gearailt was also connected to another Old English family. After the deaths and dispersal of his brothers, he inherited the family holding around 1753. His personal life was marked by loss and renewal; his first wife, Kathleen Fitzgibbon, died soon after their marriage, and he later remarried Elizabeth Lawlor of Clashmore, with whom he had children.
Jacobitism dominated Mac Gearailt’s early poetic output, including several aislingí and his most celebrated work, Rosc Catha na Mumhan (“The Battle-Cry of Munster”), one of the most enduring Jacobite anthems in Irish. Political disillusionment followed, and later marginal comments reveal a sceptical reassessment of earlier hopes. In 1759 he outwardly conformed to the established church, likely for pragmatic reasons, but soon repudiated the act and returned publicly to Catholicism, commemorating the episode in Aithrí an Ghearaltaigh (“Fitzgerald’s Repentance”). His home became a centre of the Munster poetic world, where he presided over an informal poetic “court” as Ard-shirriam Leath Mogha (“High Sheriff of the South”), associating with poets such as Éamonn de Bhál and Donnchadh Ruadh Mac Conmara. In old age he passed his symbolic authority to a younger poet and, on his death in the early 1790s, was buried in his native parish near Ballymacoda, Co. Cork, remembered as one of the last great figures of the classical Irish-language poetic tradition.

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