Life
1790-1855; b. Westport, Mayo; native Irish speaker [Seamas Ó hArgadáin];
prepared for priesthood but prevented from proceeding due to blindness
in one eye (acc. John O’Donovan); moved to Dublin and worked as sub-commissioner
in Public Records Office, 1811-1830; purchased land in Mayo, c.1818; issued
History of the County and Town of Galway (1820); returned to Galway,
1830; issued Irish Minstrelsy, or Bardic Remains (2 vols., 1831),
and suffered a severe review by Samuel Ferguson in successive issues of
the Dublin University Review underscored by religious and political
objections to the Jacobite tendency of the notes and translations; refused
Chair of Irish and became first librarian of Queen’s College, Galway
shortly after its foundation [1845], 1848; d. Galway; a section of the
Book of Fermoy consisting in at least 32 folios, separated from the main
volume, came into his possession, and subsequently passed to the British
Museum (Egerton 92); the university library at University College, Galway
(NUI) is named after him. DNB DIB DIW DIH RAF FDA OCIL
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Works
History of the Town and County of Galway (Dublin: W Folds 1820), xvi,
317, lxpp. [infra]; Ancient Irish Deeds
[...] chiefly relating to Landed Property, from the 12th to the
17th century (Dublin: Folds 1826); Irish Minstrelsy, or Bardic
Remains of Ireland with English Poetical Translations, 2 vols.
(London: Joseph Robins 1831), I: LXXX, 376pp, II: 436pp. [infra];
An Account of Two Irish Wills (1843), and The Statutes of Kilkenny
(1843); ed., Roderick O’Flaherty, A Chorographical [viz.,
Chronological] Description of West or H-Iar Connaught [Ir. Arch.
Soc] (1685) (Dublin: M. H. Gill/Irish Archael Soc. 1846). Reprint edn.,
Irish Minstrelsy, 2 vols. [1831], introduced by Máire
Mac an tSaoi (Shannon: IUP 1971);
Town and County of The Town of Galway, from the earliest period to the present time, embellished with several engravings to which is added a copious appendix containing the principal charters and other original documents, by James Hardiman Esq member of the RIA and Sub commissioner of the Public Records [historiae placeant nostrates] (Dublin: W Folds & Co. Ct Strand-street 1820. 320pp. Includes large fold-out map of town p.30 facing with 50 references by number. Also town and suburb map 279 facing; appendix, lvi pp. appendix contains charter and lists, and directory of house-owners [proprietors] at dates 1640 [Irish papists] and 1657 [English protestants]; 4-page by 2-column A-Z index.
Irish Minstrelsy, or Bardic Remains of Ireland with English poetical translations, 2 vols. (London: Joseph Robins, 1831), I: LXXX, 376pp, II: 436pp.; I, Introduction on lyrical literature in Gaelic; ‘Memoir of Carolan’ [xli-lxviii); ‘Memoir of Thomas Furlong’ [lxix-lxxx]; ‘Remains of Carolan’; ‘Sentimental Songs’. Vol. II (1831), 33-435; ‘Jacobite Relics’; ‘Odes, Elegies, &c.’; translators are D’Alton, Furlong, Lawson, Henry Grattan Curran, Drummond &c.’ See also Samuel Ferguson’s critique of same in Dublin University Magazine (April, Aug., Oct., No. 1834; Vols. II and IV, No. 16, 20, 22, 23).
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Criticism
Samuel Ferguson, review articles on ‘Hardiman’s
Irish Minstrelsy appeared in Dublin University Magazine in
1834 in four sections (I-IV).
Robert Welch, A History of Verse Translation from the Irish 1789-1897 (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe 1988); also Welch, Irish Poetry (1980), p.125. [For Hardiman’s annotations to ‘Roisin Dubh’, see under Thomas Furlong, supra.]
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), In Love Songs of Connacht, Preface.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day Co. 1992), Vol. 1, incls. refs.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field CDay co. 1992), Vol. 2 incls. refs.
Michael Cronin, Translating Ireland: Tranlsations, Languages, Cultures (Cork UP 1996).
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Notes
Ulster University Library (Central) holds Irish Record Commission:
Inquisitionum in Officio Rotulorum Cancellariae Hiberniae Asservatarum
Refer., Vol. I: Leinster (London: His Majesty’s Printers 1826; Do.,
Vol. II. Ulster, [oversize] HD624.I6B; Transactions of the Royal Irish
Academy [RIA], Vol. 14, 1821-1825 (Dublin RIA 1821 [sic]); [Hardiman,
ed.,] John Dymmok, A Treatice [sic] on Ireland, with notes by Richard
Butler, Annalles de Mante Fern [Irish Archaeological Tracts Vol. 2] (Dublin:
Irish Arch. Soc. 1942). Morris Collection holds Irish Minstrelsy [vol.
2] (1831)
Belfast Central Library holds Irish Minstrelsy, 2 vols (1831).
Hyland Books (Cat. 220; 1996), lists History of Galway form the Earliest Period to the Present Time (1936 [?err])
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)