THE GAELIC PAPERS.
The Irish Echo for October and November contains further instalments of Keating’s great work, with translation and notes, and the Elegy of MacCotter, very well brought out. We have received the Gael, of Brooklyn, for January, with many interesting articles. A Bohemian journal, Cas, sent to us, contains an article on the Gaelic movement, Gaelic Journal and the Gaelic societies. Nearly all the Irish newspapers have articles on Gaelic subjects; and the Gaelic columns of the Tuam News, Weekly Freeman, United Ireland and Irish American, continue to print a great deal of Irish.
In Scottish Gaelic the Celtic Monthly is becoming more attractive. The price is threepence, and for this the reader has illustrated articles on Highland scenery, history, customs, &c., with some veiy good Gaelic. MacTalla is the only weekly Gaelic paper in the world, and we are glad to see that the proprietor has been able to enlarge it without loss. Its closely-printed columns are a treasure-house of colloquial Gaelic, and special attention is being given to Gaelic proverbs. In the issue of December 9th, Mr. O’Leary’s Sluaġ Siḋe is translated into Scottish Gaelic. The American Scotsman has a Gaelic column.
NEW BOOKS
Bláiṫ-ḟleasg de ṁilseȧiniḃna Gaeḋilge—a Garland of Gaelic Selections. (Patrick O’Brien, 46 Cuffe-street, Dublin; price. Three Shillings.) In this well brought out and handsomely-bound volume of about 200 pages, Mr. O’Brien has gathered together many typical specimens of popular Irish literature. The great part of the book is, we are happy to say, in prose; and students are now given an opportunity of reading for themselves some of those wonderful romances of the last three centuries, which writers on Irish literature have hitherto almost neglected. In every Irish MS. of any consequence, written by the scribes of the last century, the Eaċtra Thoirḋealḃaiġ ṁic Stairn agus a ṫriuir ṁac finds a place. The tale is here printed in full for the first time, with notes, &c. Then follows the Bruiġean Eoċaiḋ ḃig ḋeirg, another old favourite of the scribes, hitherto unpublished. A vocabulary is added. Two “Ossianic” Lays, one of them quite modern, are given towards the close of the book, and are well annotated. It is to be hoped that everyone who wishes to see the treasures of our manuscript literature made accessible, will purchase this publication of Mr. O’Brien, as well as the Siamsa an ġeiṁriḋ.
Dáin Iain Ghobha, vol. i. The poems of John Morrisson, edited by George Henderson (Sinclair, Glasgow). This is a volume of 400 pages, beautifully brought out at the Glasgow Celtic Press. The volume contains a memoir of Iain Gobha of the greatest interest. The poet was born and lived in the remote Island of Lewis, where he died in 1852. His vernacular was Gaelic-English he learned from books, and his Gaelic hymns and songs, all of a deeply religious character, became highly popular in most of the Gaelic-speaking districts of Scotland. As specimens of pure Gaelic, these compositions are of the greatest possible value, the more so, as in most cases, the text has not been interfered with, and represents faithfully the spoken language. The present volume contains over a dozen of his longer poems, and another volume will complete the work.