T. F. O'Rahilly

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"Tomás Ó Rathile" redirects here. Not to be confused with Tomás Ó Raghallaigh.

Thomas Francis O'Rahilly
Tomás Ó Rathile
Born(1882-11-11)11 November 1882
Rathgar, Dublin
Known forWork in Goidelic phonology, historical linguistics
SpouseMary Buckley
Academic background
EducationUniversity College Dublin
Academic work
DisciplineLinguistics, Celtic studies
Notable worksIrish Dialects Past and Present: With Chapters on Scottish and Manx

Thomas Francis O'Rahilly (Irish: Tomás Ó Rathile; 11 November 1882 – 16 November 1953)[1] was an influential Irish scholar of the Celtic languages, particularly in the fields of historical linguistics and Irish dialects. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy and died in Dublin in 1953. He is the creator of O'Rahilly's historical model, which has since been discredited.

Early years and education

He was born in

Listowel, County Kerry, Ireland to Thomas Francis Rahilly of Ballylongford, County Kerry and Julia Mary Rahilly (née Curry) of Glin, County Limerick.[1] He was the seventh of his parents fifteen children. His younger sister was the scholar Cecile O'Rahilly
.

He received his secondary education at

University College Dublin, before taking up a permanent position as a clerk in the Four Courts in 1906, where he stayed until 1919.[4]

On 17 October 1918 he married Mary Buckley in Carrigtwohill, County Cork. They had no children.[5]

Academic career

O'Rahilly worked full-time in the Irish civil service as a clerk in the Four Courts. He founded and edited journal Gadelica: a Journal of Modern Irish Studies which "sought to pursue and promote investigation into the area of Celtic studies, including philology".[6] The journal was short-lived due to a shortage of subscriptions and four issues were published between 1912 and 1913.[1] He completed his MA thesis The Accentuation of Gaelic in 1916.[1]

Fellow Celtic languages scholar and lecturer of

University College Cork and stayed in this position until 1935.[8] He returned to academic life in Dublin as professor of Celtic languages at University College Dublin (1935-1941). He was director of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies from 1942 to 1947. He received an honorary degree in D.Litt.Celt. from the National University of Ireland in 1928 and D.Litt. from Trinity College, Dublin in 1948.[1]

O'Rahilly edited Celtica, a journal of the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, between 1946 and 1950.[4] Other publications by O'Rahilly include a series of anthologies of Irish language poetry publish in the 1920s.[9]

Later years

O'Rahilly retired from academia in 1948. He suffered from poor health for many years and died suddenly on 16 November 1953 at his home.[4][7] He was buried in Glasnevin Cemetery. His wife believed that his death was due to overwork and burned many of his remaining papers at their home.[1]

Some of his surviving papers are held by School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. His collection of books, correspondence, and Irish manuscripts, including an annotated draft of the 1937 Constitution of Ireland, were bequeathed to the Queen's University of Belfast.[8]

Controversial theories

O'Rahilly was known for his sometimes controversial theories of Irish history. In his book Early Irish History and Mythology (1946), O'Rahilly developed a model of

Builg (c. 500 BC), the Laigin, Domnainn and Gálioin (c. 300 BC), and the Gaels (c. 100 BC). He argued that the first three groups spoke Brittonic languages, and that many of Ireland's 'pre-Gaelic' peoples flourished for centuries after 100 BC.[10] Although highly influential, O'Rahilly's theory has been challenged by historians, archaeologists and linguists—such as Kenneth H. Jackson[11] and John T. Koch[12]—and it is no longer accepted.[13][14]

In 1942 his lecture where he proposed that there were two

Nicholas Williams, who suggests that Manx is Gaelic pidginized by early contact with Norse, long before there was any English spoken on the Isle of Man
.

Family

His sister Cecile O'Rahilly was also a Celtic scholar, and published editions of both recensions of the Táin Bó Cúailnge and worked with her brother in the School of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.[18] Their brother Alfred O'Rahilly, himself a noted academic, was President of University College Cork and Teachta Dála (TD) for Cork City.[19]

His first cousin Michael O'Rahilly (better known as The O'Rahilly) was a founding member of the Irish Volunteers and died in the Easter Rising.

Published works

  • Dánta Grádha: An Anthology of Irish Love Poetry (1350-1750) (1916)
  • Dánfhocail - Irish Epigrams in Verse (1921)
  • A Miscellany of Irish Proverbs (1922)
  • Papers on Irish Idiom by Peadar Ua Laoghaire, together with a translation into Irish of part of the First Book of Euclid (1922)
  • Laoithe Cumainn (1925)
  • Búrdúin Bheaga: Pithy Irish Quatrains (1925)
  • Measgra Dánta I: Miscellaneous Irish Poems (1927)
  • Duanta Eoghain Ruaidh Mhic an Bhaird (1930)
  • Irish Dialects Past & Present, with Chapters on Scottish and Manx (1932)
  • The Goidels and their Predecessors (1936)
  • Desiderius, otherwise called Sgáthán an chrábhaidh, by Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire (Florence Conry) (1941)
  • The Two Patricks: A Lecture on the History of Christianity in Fifth-century Ireland (1942)
  • Early Irish History and Mythology. Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. 1946.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f Ó Sé, Diarmuid. "O'Rahilly, Thomas Francis (‘T. F.’)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  2. ^ UK Census 1901 held in the National Archives in the Republic of Ireland O'Rahilly is listed as Rahilly and de Valera as Edward.
  3. ^
    ISBN 9780946639014
    .
  4. ^ a b c d Breathnach, Diarmuid; Ní Mhurchú, Máire. "Ó RATHILE, Tomás (1882–1953)". Ainm.ie. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  5. ^ Humphrys, Mark. "T.F. O'Rahilly". Humphrys Genealogy. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  6. ^ "Description of Gadelica: A Journal of Modern Irish Studie". JSTOR. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  7. ^ a b Knott, Elenor (1955). "Thomas Francis O'Rahilly 1883–1953". Ériu. 17: 147.
  8. ^ a b Thomas Francis O'Rahilly Papers 1883-1953. Queen's University Belfast Special Collections & Archives. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  9. ^ "Thomas F. (Thomas Francis) O'Rahilly b. 1883–d. 1953". CODECS: Collaborative Online Database and e-Resources for Celtic Studies. Retrieved 28 August 2020.
  10. ^ O'Rahilly 1946, p.264; pp. 154 ff.
  11. ^ Jackson, Kenneth H. (1953). Language and History in Early Britain. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
  12. ^ Koch, John T. (1991). "Ériu, Alba, Letha: When Was a Language Ancestral to Gaelic First Spoken in Ireland?". Emania. 9 – via Academia.
  13. ^ Brady, Ciaran; O'Dowd, Mary; Mercer Walker, Brian, eds. (1989). Ulster: An Illustrated History. Batsford Books. pp. 22–23. T. F. O'Rahilly, whose historical conclusions have been questioned by archaeologists and historians. In particular, O'Rahilly's thesis on the chronology of the invasion has been subject to serious revision and, consequently, as explained in more detail below, his views on the ethnic makeup of early Ireland are no longer accepted.
  14. ^ Dillon, Myles and Chadwick, Nora. The Celtic Realms: History and Civilization. Weidenfeld & Nicolson. 1967. p. 5. He distinguished four successive immigrations: the Cruthin some time before 500 BC; the Érainn (Fir Bolg) perhaps in the fifth century; the Laigin (with Domnainn and Gálioin) in the third century; the Goidil who came c. 100 BC. ... O'Rahilly's most novel suggestion is that his first three groups spoke Brythonic dialects ... His demonstration is not convincing, and the notion that this more archaic language was brought latest, by a migration of the Quariates from south-east Gaul, is inherently improbable.
  15. ^ O'Rahilly, Thomas Francis (1942). The Two Patricks: A Lecture on the History of Christianity in Fifth-century Ireland. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.
  16. ^ Hopkins, Allanah (1989). Living Legend of St. Patrick. New York: St. Martin's Press. p. 151.
  17. ^ O'Rahilly, Thomas Francis (1972). Irish Dialects Past and Present: With Chapters on Scottish and Manx. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. p. 121.
  18. ^ Ní Mhunghaile, Lesa. "O'Rahilly (Ní Rathaille, Ó Rathaille), Cecile (Sisile)". Dictionary of Irish Biography. (ed.) James McGuire, James Quinn. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
  19. JSTOR 24871385
    – via JSTOR.

External links
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