Lobháin An Coláiste Éireannach


Lobháin

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BELL DINGS

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Here we have the original foundation stone

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laid by Albert and Isabella.

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In its original location,

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this was the most powerful couple in the Spanish lowlands coming

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and giving up their time to lay the foundation stone.

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This particular college went on to perform another type of role,

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to be, erm, powerhouse of research

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and a powerhouse that would influence thinking back in Ireland.

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The Franciscans set out on a project that they called the Grand Project

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and it was... I suppose you could say it was nothing less than to...

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I'll not say, "create an Irish identity"

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but consolidate an Irish identity.

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So this is the Teagasg Criosdaidhe and our edition is... This one here

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is second edition which was printed in 1707.

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Oh, yes, and this is Giolla Brighde O hEodhusa.

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-You'll see it was also printed in Leuven.

-Yes.

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It was the first book printed by the Franciscans in Leuven using

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the Gaelic type.

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So this was the Gaelic type that they had created themselves

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and the 1618 copy... Edition, I should say.

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..is the first book that was printed on the printing press.

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Scathan shacramuinte na haitridhe ar na cuma don bratair

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bor dord San Froinsias. Aodh Mac Aingil.

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This particular book has been rebound.

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-You'll see this, the nice detail here...

-Yes.

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..on the endpaper. So it was rebound in Dublin and, unfortunately,

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as you can see, during the rebinding process

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-some of the running titles have been... have been lost.

-Goodness.

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Which is unfortunate but overall

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it's in actually very good condition.

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So the book would have been slightly bigger but you could see how,

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-if I may touch it slightly...

-Yup.

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..that you could actually have this book...

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Go around, do your sermons, really

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and carry this here very portably.

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A little livre de poche, as they say in French.

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But certainly a lot packed in here to these wonderful...

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And as you say, and you'll see from a lot of these books,

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they are quite small in nature and that was

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because they would have been easy to conceal.

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OK, so if you had, for example, this particular volume here, if you

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had that in your hand you could conceal that under your sleeve...

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-Yes.

-..if you were found with it.

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This is the first volume of the Annals Of The Four Masters.

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Here you have a little insert before the Annals begin,

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proper begin, which is highlighting the names of the copyists,

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the Four Masters and the others who copied out all the data

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in the Annals and it's replicating...

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another copy's signatures.

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So we see here these copies of the Annals in the 17th century

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but the fact that they had this printing press at Leuven,

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you almost would have wished that in Ireland

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they could have had this stuff printed in the 17th century.

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I think it would've made a massive difference to the language

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had that've been the case.

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Yes, and I think for a number of reasons, obviously, it didn't happen

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and eventually was only published in print in the mid-19th century

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in Ireland by the great John O'Donovan, the Irish scholar.

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So, really, for more than two centuries,

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it's in this manuscript form and just with two copies made,

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so it's very sad, really, that it was in abeyance for so long.

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And Leuven - it's almost like this history factory

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is taking place and I don't think, generally in Ireland,

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they don't really realise how much really went on from Leuven

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and how indebted Ireland is in particular to

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the setup in Leuven where these Ulster scribes were there.

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And they're getting... The place is falling apart.

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There's a political upheaval, there's religious upheaval

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and these people sit down and say,

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"Right, we're going to plan out

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"and are going to get a structured history of the secular history

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-"and the ecclesiastical history," and they set about it.

-That's right.

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And they saved so much, really, by making, er...

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By working from other copies and other books,

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they saved so much in the Annals that they compiled which would be

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completely lost to us but for them.

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We get the sense of a close of an era almost with his passing.

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Yeah, and I think the Four Masters, in a way,

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are acknowledging that because they close out the Annals with

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the death of Hugh O'Neill in Rome and it is like, you know,

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closing the book and the end of an epoch, really, in Irish history.

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It's, er, I think it's really poignant, really.

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The Irish Franciscans have left us quite an important legacy.

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First of all, they've left us the relationship with this city

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and the university, traced back 400 years.

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And then, of course, they've given us

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the inspiration that lies behind the work we do today serving Ireland.

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But also, in building these networks that we are currently doing

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to promote Irish studies at centres across Europe,

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this is following on exactly the same type of network

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Ward and his colleagues were developing in their work

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on the Grand Project

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in the early part of the 17th century.

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There's an enormous parallel and we can't

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but recognise that we're influenced by the work that's going on here,

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that has gone on here in the past.

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"One of the things in the college which entrances me

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"is the carved letter L, a character from the font developed

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"here by the Irish Franciscans in the early 17th century.

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"It was a print I encountered in my first years learning Irish

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"when I found that the letters of the alphabet have an ancient

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"and Achaean association with trees.

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"The letter L, for example, is linked to luis, the rowan tree.

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"And in the corpus of treelore,

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"the rowan tree is associated with the art of divination.

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"In this carved character, therefore, it would be possible

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"to divine the history of Ireland

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"and the continuous forging of Irish identity.

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"It is like a seal of that identity,

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"a reminder of the importance of the leabhar - book

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"and learning and, indeed,

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"Lowen and Leuven and Louvain

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"and our national story and ever forming and reforming identity."

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