David Comyn


Life
1854-1907 [Daithí Coimín]; b. Co. Clare, d. Dublin; bank-clerk in Dublin 1876, studying Irish; co-founder Society for Preservation of the Irish Language; formed Gaelic Union with Fr. Nolan, 1879 [var. 19 March 1880]; pressed to have Irish included in National and Intermediate schools curriculum, commencing in 1878 with his own texts First and Second Irish Books; wrote columns in The Irishman and The Shamrock, 1878-82;

first editor of Gaelic Journal/Irisleabhar na Gaeidhilge; he ed. num. MSS and collected large library, presented to the National Library of Ireland as the Comyn Bequest in 1907; edited works incl. Mac-Ghníomhartha Fhinn (Dublin: Gill 1881); Díonbhrollach Foras Feasa ar Eirinn (ITS 1898); first Vol. of Foras Feasa ar Eirinn (ITS 1902); printed unpublished poems of Peadar Ó Doirnín in Gaelic Journal, issues 1895-96. DIW IF DIH OCIL

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Works

  • The Youthful Exploits of Fionn: the original text from the Saltair of Cashel with Modern Irish Version, new literal translation, Vocabulary, Notes and Map (Dublin 1881), 122pp.
  • Irish Illustrations to Shakespeare: Being Notes on His References to Ireland (Dublin: Freeman Journal 1894) [rep. from Weekly Freeman]/.
  • Thomas Flannery, ed. and trans., David Coimín, The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth (Dublin: gill n.d.), 186pp. [text in Irish and English].

Note also Irish Illustrations to Shakespeare: A learned brochure on Shakespeare’s allusions to Ireland and the Irish - cited in endpaper adverts. in D. J. O’Donoghue, Irish Ability (Simpkin 1906) - and probably identical to Irish Illustrations, supra].

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Criticism
[Q.auth.,] ‘Daithí Ó Coimín agus Bunú Irishleabhar na Gaeilge’, in Comhar (Aibreán 1980), pp.10-15.

Commentary
Dominic Daly, The Young Douglas Hyde (1974), David Comyn, a Clareman, was a clerk in the National Bank in Dublin. Thomas O’Neill Russell with him and Canon Ulick Burke, Fr. John Nolan, et al. were members of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language [p.32.] FURTHER, David Comyn succeeds in having a Gaelic corner established in the Irishman and the Shamrock; Hyde contributed over a hundred poems, 1872-1884; see Tomás de Bhaildraithe, ‘Aguisín le Clar Saothair an Chraoibhín’, Galvia, Vols. I-IV (1954-57), pp.18-24. [C.45]

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References
Ireland in Fiction, ed. Stephen Brown (Dublin: Maunsel 1919) lists The Youthful Exploits of Fionn (Gill 1881), publ. for use of schools under auspices of Gaelic League.

Cathach Books (1996-97) lists Thomas Flannery, ed. and trans., David Coimín, The Lay of Oisin in the Land of Youth (Dublin: Gill n.d.), 186pp. [text in Irish and English].

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Notes
A. N. Jeffares, W B Yeats, A New Life (1988), notes Yeats’s indebtedness to Michael and David Comyn in The Wanderings of Oisin; and see also Vivian Mercier, Modern Irish Literature, Sources and Founders, ed. Eilís Dillon (OUP 1994).

At home: Comyn signs off his preface to the 1902 Edn. of Foras Feasa at “43, BRIGHTON-SQUARE, RATHGAR, DUBLIN, 1st October, 1901”.

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