The History and Culture of Translation in Ireland
A WEEK OF EVENTS FEATURING IRISH POET AND SCHOLAR, JOHN MINAHANE.
Sunday, October 5th, 2:00 p.m. - Book signing at The Bookworm, 2501 S. 90th Street, Ste. 111
Signed Book: $25.00
Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh, born about 1300; died 1387, from Ballydaly on the present-day Cork-Kerry border, is one of Ireland’s greatest poets. This book seeks to make his poetry accessible. The selection here, including his superb poem addressed to the Hill of Clara, leads up to the three surviving poems which Gofraidh made for the English, or English-Irish, earls of Desmond.
These intense communications throw light on one of the most famous but least understood facts of Irish history: That the colonists from the first English invasion took up Irish thinking-patterns and ways.
The original Irish is given here, in its appropriate script, with facing translations. While the virtuoso musical qualities of the originals cannot be matches, the English versions do try to convey their vitality and main concerns. John Minahane’s introduction, as well as some other poems attributed to the 3rd Earl of Desmond, Gerald FitzMaurice (Gearóid Iarla), explore the historical and cultural context.
wednesday, October 8th, 11:30 – 12:45 pm, UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA OMAHA ARTS AND SCIENCES HALL ROOM 392
The Omaha Irish Cultural Center community are invited to join Dr. Lisabeth Buchelt’s Irish Literature class as we welcome guest lecturer John Minahane. Visiting Omaha from Ireland via Bratislava, Mr. Minahane will discuss this 18th century poem known in equal measure for both its bawdiness and its brilliance.
Brian Merriman’s An Cúirt an Mhean-Oíche (The Midnight Court)
Visitor 1-Day Permits are available for $4.00. These can be purchased online via the MavPark portal (https://unoparking.t2hosted.com/Account/Portal) or in person at the UNO Transit and Parking Services office (1313 S. 67th St. Omaha, NE 68182). These permits are valid in Faculty/Staff and Student Surface Lots, East Parking Garage, Pacific Parking Garage, and West Parking Garage.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9TH, 1:00 - 3:00 PM, Barbara Weitz Community Engagement Center
Poets Thinking Across Cultures in 14th-Century Ireland: Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh and Gerald fitzMaurice
Abstract: This talk reviews a strange and risky relationship, expressed in poetry, of two 14th century Irishmen. One was the outstanding file (professional poet) in the country; the other was an earl, an important official of the English government in Ireland. The master-poet, Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh, and the earl, Gerald fitzMaurice (called Gearóid Iarla in Irish), conducted their relationship in the Irish language, rather than English. Gofraidh engages with Gearóid in a long poem, arguing first, on the basis of law, that the earl should take responsibility and give compensation for the actions of a subordinate who has burned the poet’s corn and sought to kill him. Gearóid has the power to decide arbitrarily; Gofraidh, however, argues that he should voluntarily act in accordance with Irish law (the so-called ‘Brehon law’). And besides, there are the claims of many years’ friendship. While no direct reply from Gearóid survives, a collection of 30 poems in Irish attributed to him may be seen as addressing issues that Gofraidh has raised. Gearóid Iarla frankly explains why he attacks the Gaelic Irish, even though they are his friends. He comments cheerfully on aspects of his imprisonment (lasting about a year) after capture by O’Brien, prince of Thomond. He has love poems to various women, and two splendid poems in praise of Irish rivers. Remarkably, he has poems to members of a great Gaelic rival kindred, the MacCarthys, whom he seems to relate to as poet to patrons. The question arises whether Gearóid’s poetry leaves room for his role as earl: was it possible to wear these two hats in such a way? This and other questions of the Gofraidh-Gearóid relationship, taken broadly, will be discussed in the paper.
Friends of Omaha Irish Cultural Center are invited to join UNO for lunch and the keynote speech.
Register by October 1 - UNO European Studies Conference
John Minahane is the author of The Christian Druids: on the filid or philosopher-poets of Ireland, first published in 1993 (reprinted Howth Free Press, Dublin 2008). Since then he has been involved in the arguments regarding the poets in the old Irish civilization. He has edited and translated The Poems of Geoffrey O’Donoghue / Dánta Shéafraidh Uí Dhonnchadha an Ghleanna (Aubane Historical Society, Millstreet, Ireland 2008), and more recently a selection of the work of a 14th century master poet, Gofraidh Fionn Ó Dálaigh, Poems to the English / Dán na nGall (Aubane 2020). Two of his translations appear in the ambitious recent anthology Bone and Marrow/ Cnámh agus Smior. An Anthology of Irish Poetry from Medieval to Modern, ed. Samuel K. Fisher and Brian Ó Conchubhair (Wake Forest University Press, Winston-Salem 2022). Essays of his on Irish-language literature and history, published in Dublin Review of Books and elsewhere, are available online. In recent times he has focused on 19th century poetry in Irish. John Minahane has lived in Bratislava for some time and has published translations of Slovak poetry, among them Krvavé sonety, a cycle of anti-war sonnets composed on the outbreak of the World War in 1914 by Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav (The Bloody Sonnets, Bratislava 2018).
