Transcript

Mhair an tAthair Pádraig Ó hIarlaithe i mBaile Bhuirne (agus do, sé an...) nuair deineadh sagart de tar éis báis a mhná. Agus do chuaigh sé an uair sin sa choláiste is do deineadh é a ornú ina shagart. Tháinig sé abhaile agus bhí a chlann éirithe suas. Bhí mac aige dá ngoirthí Dáth mhac Phádraig air. Agus fear léannta ab ea é. Agus nuair tháinig an sagart abhaile, an t-athair, is é a dh'fhriotháil an chéad aifreann dó.

Do chuir an t-athair ansan, chuir sé duine eile dhá chloinn le sagartóireacht ar an gcuma gcéanna. Tháini' sé sin abhaile agus é críochnaithe ina shagart. Agus sé an Dáth céanna a dh'fhriotháil, do dh'fhriotháil an t-aifreann dó san leis. Bhí Dáth so, ansan do phós sé, le Doireann Ní Dhonnchú ó Ghleann Fleisce. Agus bhí clann aige... clann acu. Agus is eol dom go raibh trí, triúr filí ar an gcloinn sin. Sé sin, Pádraig 'ac Dáth agus Tadhg 'ac Dáth agus an tAthair Liam, Liam 'ac Dáth. B'in é an fear óg gur deineadh sagart de.

Nuair a tháinig an mac abhaile ansan, Liam, (dh'éis dhó bheith,) dh'éis bheith ina shagart, is é an t-athair, Dáth, is é a dh'fhreagair an t-aifreann arís dó. Agus dúirt sé an uair sin nuair a bhí san déanta aige go raibh rud déanta aige nár dhein aon fhear in Éirinn riamh roimis: gur fhriotháil sé aifreann dá athair, aifreann dá mhac agus aifreann dá dheartháir.

Ach ins an am san... ins an am san bhí seó filí ann agus chaithidís go léir údarás a fháil, nó pas mar a thugaidís air: na filí óga ós na seanfhilíbh. Bhí Eoghan an Mhéirín Mhág Cártha', bhí sé thiar i gCiarraí chun cónai(gh). Agus bhí sé ina fhear óg. Do bhí an fhilíocht ag borradh amach air. Tháinig sé aniar go Baile Bhuirne. Bhuaigh sé pas ón Athair Pádraig Ó hIarlaithe mar b'é an fear ba chailiúla ar na filíbh é lena linn. Ach nuair tháini' sé (thug Dia) go raibh an tAthair... an tAthair Pádraig imithe go Corcaigh roimis. Bhuail Eoghan amach is dhein sé machnamh. Agus dúradh leis ná beadh sé ag teacht go ceann dó nó trí ' laethantaibh.

Do bhuail Eoghan an bóthar go Corcaigh 'na dhiaidh. Agus tháinig sé is fuair sé amach pé tigh go raibh óstaíocht ar an Athair... ar an Athair Pádraig ann. Tháinig sé isteach ar maidin sa chistin agus d'fhiafraigh sé don tseirbhíseach an bhféadfadh sé é a fheiscint. Dúirt an tseirbh-... an seirbhíseach leis go bhféadfadh ar neomat ach fanúint go dtagadh sé anuas an staighre, go raibh sé ag teacht.

Translation

Father Pádraig Ó hIarlaithe lived in Ballyvourney (and, he...) when he became a priest after his wife's death. And he went to the college at that time and he was ordained a priest. He came home and his children had grown up. He had a son who was called Dáth son of Pádraig. And he was a learned man. And when the priest came home, the father, it was he who served his first Mass.

Then the father, he sent another one of his children into the priesthood in the same way. He came home a fully qualified priest. And it was the same Dáth who served, who served Mass for him too. This Dáth, he then got married, to Doireann Ní Dhonnchú of Glenflesk. And he had... they had a family. And I know that there were three, three poets in that family. That is, Pádraig son of Dáth and Tadhg son of Dáth and Father Liam, Liam son of Dáth. He was the young man who became a priest.

When the son came home then, Liam, after having become (?)... after becoming a priest, it was the father, Dáth... it was he who served Mass again for him. And he said that when he had done that, he had done something that no other man in Ireland ever did before him: that he served Mass for his father, Mass for his son and Mass for his brother.

But in that time... in that time there was a huge number of poets and they all had to get authorization, or a pass as they used to call it: the young poets from the old poets. Eoghan of the little finger Mhág Cártha', he was living back west in Kerry. And he was a young man. He was bursting with poetry. He came east to Ballyvourney. He won a pass from Father Pádraig Ó hIarlaithe because he was the most famous of the poets in his time. But when he came it so happened (?) that Father Pádraig had gone to Cork before him. Eoghan went out and did some thinking. And he was told he wouldn't be coming until two or three day's time.

Eoghan set out on the road to Cork in his wake. And he arrived and found whichever house Father Pádraig was staying in. He came into the kitchen in the morning and he asked the servant if he could see him. The servant said to him that he could in a minute but to wait until he came down the stairs, that he was coming.

Commentary

This represents a further example (cf. Muintir Iarlaithe (cuid 1)) of folk history concerning a famous local family, and accords well with the historical record. The poet priests of the Ballyvourney and Glenflesk branches of the family are of some fame in historical record, and examples of their poetry survive in literature and oral tradition. See Michael C. O'Loughlin, Families of Co. Cork, Ireland (Kansas City, MO, 1996), 93. Records of the poetry of the aforementioned Father Pádraig Ó hIarlaithe, Dáibhí (mac Pádraig) Ó hIarlaithe, Liam Ó hIarlaithe and Pádraig (mac Dáith) Ó hIarlaithe can be found in Donnchadh Ó Cróinín, 'Filí agus filíocht Mhúsgraighe', An Músgraigheach 1 (1943), 15-16. Early manuscript copies of the poetry of Dáibhí Ó hIarlaithe date to 1763; see Breandán Ó Buachalla, 'Ceol na Filíochta', Studia Hibernica 32 (2002-3), 99-132: 110. Later recordings of his poetry with accompanying melodies were made by Freeman in Ballyvourney in the early 1920s. See A.M. Freeman, '[Collection of songs from Ballyvourney, Co. Cork]', Journal of the Folksong Society 23-5 (1920-21), 274.

It is difficult to interpret the second half of this anecdote, as the story appears to be incomplete. Of note, however, is the motif of the junior poet undergoing some kind of formal examination in front of the more senior, accomplished poet. This appears to be a continuity of tradition from the older poetic institution of medieval Ireland, whereby training in the great poetry schools involved examination by an ollamh, or chief poet, in order for a trainee to be awarded the various different grades in the rigidly structured ranking system. The eighth-century text entitled Uraicecht na Ríar ('Primer of the Stipulations') deals with the various grades of poet, and describes how they would appear before the ollamh for examination, and then be appointed a higher grade. See Liam Breatnach, Uraicecht na Ríar: the poetic grades in early Irish law (Dublin, 1987), 90.