Life
1872-1950 [O. J. Bergin; Ó hAimhirgín]; b. 25 Nov., Cork;
ed. Queen’s College Cork [now UCC]; joined the Gaelic League; university
lecturer in Celtic, 1897; studied at School of Irish Learning, Dublin,
1904; contributed to first vol. of Ériu (1904); studied
in Berlin under Zimmer through generosity of A. S. Green; also under Rudolf
Thurneysen, Freiburg, 1905-06; professor at the School of Irish Learning
following death of Strachan, 1907; Prof. of Old Irish, UCD, 1908; addressed
National Literary Society on ‘Bardic Poetry’, in celebrated
lecture of 15 April 1912; trans. Hans Christian Anderson into Irish, 1912;
ed. Irish Grammatical Tracts, being a supplement to Ériu
(1916-29); gen. editor of RIA Dictionary of the Irish Language;
Directorship of the School of Celtic Studies, 1940; resigned, 1941; ed.,
Stories from Keating (1909), annotated selection from Foras
Feasa ar Eirinn; ed. with R. I. Best, Book of the Dun Cow (1929)
Maidin i mBéarra agus Dánta Eile (1918), the
title poem being set to the “Londonderry Air”; d. 6 Oct. Dublin;
translations posthumously collected as Irish Bardic Poetry (1970).
DIW DIB DIH OCIL
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Works
Scholarly Works, Contribution To the History of the Palatalisation
in Old Irish [Freiburg im Breisgau: Inaugural-Dissertation] (1906);
"A Story of Flann mac Lonáin", Anecdota from Irish
Manuscripts, I (1907); Irish Spelling: A Lecture Delivered under
the Title ‘Is Irish to be Strangled?’ as the Inaugural Address
of the Society for the Simplification of the Spelling of Irish on the
15th of November, 1910 (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1911), 39 pp.;
‘Bardic Poetry’ in Journal of the Ivernian Society, V
(1913), and Do., rep. in Bergin, ed., Irish Bardic Poetry,
ed. David Greene, et el. ( DIAS 1970); also as Bardic Poetry: A Lecture
Delivered before the National Literary Society, Dublin, April 15th, 1912
[American Committee for Irish Studies. Reprints in Irish Studies, No.
3, Sl] (1968); ed., Pairlement Chloinne Tomáis, in Gadelica,
1 (1912-13); Index of contents of Book of the O’Conor Don, in Ériu,
VIII (1915-16); Irish Grammatical Tracts (Dublin: School of Irish
Learning 1915-1955), 293pp.; with Shan Ó Cuiv, ed., The Irish
Verb Simplified (Dublin: Educational Company of Ireland 1916), 24pp.;
with Best, ed., ‘Tochmarc Etaíne’, Ériu,
XII (1934-38); The Native Irish Grammarian [Proceedings of the
British Academy, Vol. 24] (London: Humphrey Milford 1938) [offprint];
David Greene & Fergus Kelly, [Bergin,] Irish Bardic Poetry: Texts
And Translations, Together with an Introductory Lecture [by Bergin,
viz., ‘Bardic Poetry’, 1913], with foreword by D. A. Binchy
(Dublin: DIAS 1970), xi, 320pp., 1 pl. & port.
Scholarly Editions, with R. I. Best, Kuno Meyer & J. G. O’Keeffe, ed., Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts, 5 vols. (Halle a. S.: M. Niemeyer [&c.] 1907-1913); ed., Sgealaigheacht Cheitinn: Stories from Keating’s History of Ireland (Dublin: School of Irish Learning 1909; rep. Dublin: RIA/Hodges, Figgis 1925, 1930), xxxiv, 122pp. [with notes and vocab.]; ed. Aesop a Tháinig go hEirinn: Aesop’s Fables in Irish [trans. by Peadar Ó Laoghaire/Peter O’Leary] (Dublin: Irish Book Co. 1911), 61pp.; ed., Irish Grammatical Tracts, [supplement to] Ériu (1916-29); ed., Maidin i mBéarra agus Dánta Eile (1918); ed., with R. I. Best, Lebor na hUidre, The Book of the Dun Cow (1929), and Do. [new edn.] (Dublin RIA/ Galway: O’Gorman 1970), xliv, 341pp., 2pp. pls. & facs.; ed. & rev. John Strachan, Old Irish Paradigms And Selections From The Old-Irish Glosses: With Notes and Vocabulary [3rd rev. edn.] (Dublin: RIA/Hodges, Figgis 1929), x, 183pp., and Do. [4th edn.] (Dublin: RIA/Hodges, Figgis 1949), and Do. [rep.] (RIA 1995), viii, 216pp.; ed., Geoffrey Keating, Tri bior-ghaoithe an bhais: [The Three Shafts of Death] [2nd rev. edn.] (Dublin: RIA/Hodges, Figgis 1931); ed. & rev. John Strachan, Stories from the Tain [3rd edn.] (Dublin: RIA 1944), vi, 108pp.; with R. I. Best and M. A. O’Brien, ed., The Book Of Leinster [Lebar na Nuachongbal], 6 vols. (Dublin: DIAS 1954-83), ills.;
Miscellaneous, with Carl Marstrander, ed., Miscellany Presented to Kuno Meyer by Some of his Friends and Pupils on the Occasion of his Appointment to the Chair of Celtic Philology in the University of Berlin (Halle a. S.: M. Niemeyer 1912), iv,1.,486,[2]pp., front. port., ills. [facs.], folded pl.; Preface to Shan O Cuiv, The Sounds Of Irish, with preface by Bergin (Dublin: Browne & Nolan 1921), 79pp.; Preface to L. M’Kenna, ed. [with trans., notes], Ó Dalaigh and Aonghus Fionn, Danta do chum Aonghus Fionn O Dalaigh, with preface by Bergin (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), xvi, 86pp.
Translations, "A Story of Flann mac Lonáin", Anecdota from Irish Manuscripts, I (1907); with D. A. Binchy, Rudolf Thurneysen, A Grammar of Old Irish [rev. & enl. edn.] (Dublin: DIAS 1946), xxi, 688pp.; with D. A. Binchy, Rudolf Thurneysen, Old Irish Reader: With A Supplement To A Grammar Of Old Irish (Dublin: The DIAS 1949), x, 139 pp.
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Criticism
Daniel A. Binchy, Osborn Bergin (Dublin: University College 1970),
21pp.; Dáithí Ó Corráin, ‘Early Ireland:
Directions and Re-directions’, Bullán, Vol. 1, No.
2 (Autumn 1994), pp.1-15. See also Declan
Kiberd, ‘Writers in Quarantine?: The Case for Irish Studies’,
Crane Bag, Vol. 3, No. 1 (1979), pp.9-21;
rep. in Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies (Dublin: Blackwater Press
1982), pp.341-53.
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Notes
University of Ulster (Morris Collection) holds Anecdota from Irish
MSS (1907-13); Miscellany presented to Kuno Meyer (1912); The Native Irish
Grammarian (1938).
Frank O’Connor, My Father’s Son (1968), recalls
that Bergin came to hate Joseph O’Neill and his wife [Mary Devenport
O’Neill], his former friend and colleague in Germany (q.p.). Also
cites his ‘famous’ lecture on Bardic Poetry and his article
‘Unpublished Irish Poems’, in Studies [q.d.].
“Maidin I mBéarra”, a song by Bergin composed to the ‘[London]Derry Air’, 1918, is employed in Dún na mBan Tí Thine (1994) by Éilis Ní Dhuibhne.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)