Life
1827-1914 [Patrick Weston]; b. Ballyorgan, Co Limerick; ed. in hedge-school
and at Kilfinane, Kilmallock, Galbally (Co. Limerick), and Mitchelstown,
Co. Cork; later at TCD, BA 1861, MA, 1864; at first taught in Clonmel;
mbr. Society for Preservation of the Irish Language; entered Commission
of National Education, 1845; appointed to a commission charged with reforming
the management of the National Schools, 1856; head of Central National
Model Schools, 1860; MRIA, 1863; Pres. Royal Soc. of Irish Antiquarians,
1906-08; Principal of Marlborough St. Teacher Training College, 1874-1893;
chiefly remembered for Irish Names and Places, 3 vols. (1869, 1875,
1913), significantly founded on the records of the Ordnance Commission’s
Topography Dept. and later cited facetiously by James Joyce in “Gas
from a Burner” [‘Joyce’s names and places’]; Irish
Local Names Explained (1870) is simply a listing; he also issued Ancient
Irish Music (1872); A Handbook of School Management (1876);
How to Prepare for Civil Service Examinations (1878); Old Celtic
Romances (1879); The Geography of the Counties of Ireland (1883);
Irish Music and Song (1888); A Child’s History of Ireland
(1898; Longmans 1903); A Reading of Irish History (1900); A
Social History of Ancient Ireland [2 vols.] (1903-1920), described
as ‘an unfortunately uncritical work’ by Liam de Paor (Early
Christian Ireland, 1958); The Story of Ancient Ireland (1906);
A Small Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906); The Story
of Ancient Irish Civilisation (1907); English as We Speak It in
Ireland (1910), based on a lists supplied by D. A. Simmons; The
Wonders of Ireland and Other Papers on Irish Subjects (1911); Outlines
of the History of Ireland (1894). also ed., Old Irish Folk Music
and Songs, ([q.d.]; NY: Cooper Sq. Pub., 1965); his son wrote ‘Alfred
Lord Tennyson, A Memoir, 2 vols. CAB PI JMC IF DIB DIW DIH OCEL DIL
FDA OCIL
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Works
Irish Local Names Explained (Dublin: McGlashan & Gill 1870),
Do., another edn. (Dublin: M. H. Gill 1902), and Do. [rep.
edn.] (Dublin: Fred Hanna 1968), 107pp; A Child’s History of Ireland
(London: Longmans 1910), 508pp. [infra]; English
as We Speak It in Ireland (1910; rep. edn. Dublin: Wolfhound Press
1979); Irish Names Of Places, 3 vols. (Dublin: Phoenix Publishing
Co. 1913); Do. [another edn.], ed. Mainchín Seoighe (Dublin:
De Burca 1995); A Smaller Social History of Ancient Ireland (London:
Longman, Green; Dublin: M. H. Gill 1906); [intro.], Atlas &
Geography of Ireland: A Description of the Country and of the Several
Counties by John Bartholomew (London: G. Philip
[1883]), 33 col. maps [infra]; [ed.,] Forus Feasa Air [sic] Eirinn: Keating’s
History of Ireland, Book I, Part 1, with Gaelic text &c. (Dublin:
Gill 1880); A Grammar of Irish Language for the Use of Schools
(Dublin: M. H. Gill 1879); A Grammar of the Irish Language (Dublin:
M. H. Gill 1892); A Hand-Book of School Management and Methods of Teaching
(Dublin: McGlashan & Gill 1867); Old Celtic Romances translated
from the Gaelic (Dublin: Educational Co. of Ireland 1920) [containing
‘The Children of Lir’, ‘The Pursuit of Dermat and Grania’,
‘Connla of the Golden Hair and the Fairy Maiden’, ‘Oisin
in Tirnanoge’], and Do. [another edn.] (NY: Devin-Adair 1962);
Outlines of the History of Ireland: From The Earliest Times to 1905
(Dublin: Educational Publishing Company 1894), 160pp. [other edns.
1914; 1921]; The Story of Ancient Irish Civilization (London: Longmans
1907); Old Celtic Romances [3rd ed., rev. and enl. (London: Longmans,
Green 1907); ed., Old Irish Folk Music and Songs: a collection
of 842 Irish airs and songs hitherto unpublished, with annotations for
the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland by P.W. Joyce (London:
Longmans, Green; Dublin: Hodges, Figgis 1909 ); ed. [rev.], Philips’
Handy Atlas of the Counties of Ireland, with Consulting Index (London:
George Philip 1885); The Wonders of Ireland and Other Papers on Irish
Subjects (London: Longmans, Green; Dublin: Gill 1911). [UUC LIB, &c.]
Reprint Edn., Joyce, Irish Names and Places (Phoenix n.d.), vol. II, vii, 520pp, with Index of root words [pp.530-588]; Mainchín Seoighe, ed., with biographical essay, P. W. Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (Dublin: De Burca 1995), (1) xl, 589pp.; (2) viii, 538pp., (3) x, 598pp.; rep. Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (Wakefield: EP Publ. 1976).
A Social History of Ancient Ireland, treating of the Government; Military System, and law; Religion, Learning, and Art; Trades, Industries, and Commerce; Manners, Customs, and Domestic Life, of the Ancient Irish People, by P. W. Joyce, LLD Trin. Coll., Dubl.; MRIA, one of the commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland; Vol. I [prev. imp. 1903; 1913] (Dublin: M. H. Gill & Son 1920), 632pp.; includes dedicatory page, ‘The Place, Time, Author and Cause of Writing, of this book, are:- Its place is Lyre-na-Grena, Leinster-road, Rathmines, Dublin; its time is the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and three; the author is Patrick Weston Joyce, Doctor of Laws; and the cause of writing the same book is to give glory to God, honour to Ireland, and knowledge to those who desire to learn about the Old Irish People; also incl. acknowledgement to Kuno Meyer, ‘now our greatest and most accomplished Irish scholar’, or notes made while reading the first edition on its first appearance, then transmitted to Joyce. Contents list Parts I and II; Part III (Chap. XIX, ‘The Family’, &c.) ensue in Vol. II (1903, 1913, 1920), 608pp.
Outlines of the History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1905, by P. W. Joyce, LLD, MRIA, One of the Commissioners for the Publication of the Ancient Laws of Ireland [author of A Social History of Ireland, A Child’s History of Ireland, Irish Names and Places, Old Celtic Romances, Ancient Irish Music, A Reading Book in Irish History, and other works relating to Ireland / Longmans, Green and Co. London, New York and Bombay, Dublin: M. H. Gill and Sons 1910.
Query: The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, vol. I (1869) [sic. Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988); Oxford Companion of English Literature, ed. Margaret Drabble (OUP: 1985); Brian Cleeve & Anne Brady, A Dictionary of Irish Writers (Dublin: Lilliput 1985); Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University of America 1904); but cf. Coilín Owens, 1862 [sic] (reviewing Oxford Ocmpanion of Irish LIterature in ILS Winter, 1996).
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Thomas Hofheinz, Joyce and the Invention of Irish History, Cambridge UP 1995, p.[83].)
Richard Kain, ‘“Nothing Odd Will Do Long”: Some Thoughts on Finnegans Wake Twenty-five Years Later’, Jack P. Dalton & Clive Hart, eds., Twelve and a Tilly: Essays on the Occasion of the 25th Anniversary of Finnegans Wake, London: Faber & Faber 1966, p.95.)
Maria Tymoczko, The Irish Ulysses, Calif. UP 1994, pp.309-10.
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Notes
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: University
of America 1904) gives extracts from Old Celtic Romances; A
Child’s History of England; also ‘Oisin in Tirnanoge’.
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), one of the most extraordinary Irish scholars, b. Ballyorgan, Co. Limerick; ed priv. and TCD; LL.D., 1870; held post as Princ. of Commissioners’ Training Coll., Dublin, till 1893; his Old Celtic Romances (1879) incl. the translation used by Tennyson in his ‘Voyage of Maeldune’ (1880); cited in Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press 1979), under ‘P.W. Joyce’ [see OCEL].
Margaret Drabble, Oxford Companion of English Literature, ed.(OUP: 1985), refers to the above works, together with Social History of Ireland (1903-20), as all being highly influential in the Irish revival. For material from the Small Social History of Ireland (1906), including remarks on high kingship, &C., P W Joyce A Small[er] Social History of Ancient Ireland (1906), being a synopsis of his Longer work of that title. NOTE var. title History of Irish Names of Places (1869). See also Irish Book Lover 2, 3, 4.
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 2, notes that he shared in the belief that the ‘ancient’ music of Ireland had to be transposed if it was to survive [Seamus Deane, ed.] 76; Ancient Music of Ireland (Dublin: McGlashen 1873), cited in ‘Traditional Songs’ bibl. in ‘Poetry and Song’ Sect., 98; Joyce, ‘Gas from a Burner’, ‘... Talk about Irish Names of Places!’, 772n.
John Colgan (1590-1658): Joyce cites Colgan on the superstitious
belief in the sidhe (fairies), and adds a ftn. to the effect that this
superstition is shown to live on in Scotland, as evidenced by [Walter
Scott’s] Rob Roy, Chap. XXVIII [n.H.].
D. A. Simmons supplied the collection of words and phrases incorporated in Joyce’s English as We Speak It, previously printed as A List of Peculiar Words and Phrases Formerly in Common Use in County Armagh Together with Expressions at One Time Current in South Donegal (Dublin 1890), 20pp. [cited in Michael Montgomery, ‘The Lexicography of Hiberno-English’, in Irish Studies: Working Papers, 93:3, Nova Southwestern, 1993, pp.20-35; p.26.]
Eoin MacNeill dismisses the ‘Rob Roy’ theory of Irish clan systems - so-named after Walter Scott’s novel - and related versions of Irish society are dismissed as ‘moonshine’, with particular reference to P. W. Joyce, in the preface to his Early Irish Laws and and Institutions (Dublin: Burns Oates & Washbourne 1933).
W. B. Yeats: ‘The Host of the Air’, printed as ‘The Stolen Bride’ in The Bookman (1 Oct. 1893), with notes citing Dr. Joyce: ‘of all the different goblins [air demons] were most dreaded by the people. They lived among clouds, and mists, and rocks, and hated the human race with the utmost malignity’ (from ‘Fergus O’Mara and the Demons’, in Good and Pleasant Reading, 1892; also selected by Yeats in Irish Fairy Tales, 1892; see Jjeffares, New Commentary on the Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1984, p.49.]
A. P. Graves sent Tennyson a copy of Joyce’s Old Celtic Romances in response to a request for an Irish subject for a poem; Tennyson produced ‘The Voyage of Maeldun’ from it. (See Robert Graves, Return to All That, 1930).
Baile Atha Cliath: Cliath said to be cognate with clitellae, an ox-pannier, and the Fr. clai, a hurdle, wattle, or screen. (Joyce, Irish Names and Places, vol. 1, pt. 3, cap. 5. [George A Little, Dublin Before the Vikings, 1957., p.61]
Belfast Public Library holds standard works including Old Celtic Romances, Child’s History of Ireland, Irish Placenames, Illustrated History, and Irish Grammar (1896); Concise History of Ireland (1897); Atlas and Geography of Ireland (1903); English As We speak it in Ireland (1910); Irish names of Places , 3 vols. [n.d.]; Social History of Ireland (1912); Story of Ancient Irish Civilisation (1907); The Wonders of Ireland ... papers (1911); but no fiction. Belfast Linen Hall holds Irish Battles and Battlefields (188[?], reprint).
Ulster Univ. Library, Morris Collection, holds A Child’s History of Ireland (1910); Atlas and Geography of Ireland, IV (c.1883); English as We Speak It in Ireland (1910); A Grammar of the Irish Language (1892); Irish Local Names Explained (1902); Old Celtic Romances (1907); Outlines of the History of Ireland ... to 1905 (?1894).
Herbert Bell Library (Belfast) holds The Wonders of Ireland (London 1911); A Smaller Social History (London 1906); A Concise History of Ireland (Dublin 1900); Old Irish Folk Music & Songs (London 1909); Irish Local Names Explained [n.d.].
Whelan Books (Cat. 32) lists Concise History of Ireland from the Earliest Times to 1908 (Gill 1912).
Hyland Book (Cat. 220; 1996]The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, 3 vols. (1910, 1912, 1913) [prob. err. 1910, 1912]; another edn., 2 vols. [complete to date] (1902); Hyland Books (Cat. 214) lists REF A Short History of Gaelic Ireland from the earliest times to 1608 [n.d.]
Roberts Wholesale Books lists Reissue of P. W. Joyce Old Celtic Romances, 474pp., incl. ‘The Children of Lir’, ‘The Pursuit of Dermat and Grania’, ‘Connla of the Golden Hair and the Fairy Maiden’, ‘Oisin in Tirnanoge ’; preface giving background and provenance of the tales and a section of explanatory notes [£8.99].
Patrick MacGahern Books (Cat. 169; 2004) lists Philip’s Handy Atlas of the Counties of Ireland, revised by P. W. Joyce, with consulting index (London: George Philip & Sons 1881), 12mo., 33 maps, 41pp.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)