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Life
1570-1628 [Uilliam Ó Domhnaill, or Ó Domhnuill]; b. Kilkenny; ed. TCD, where name appears in the patent for the foundation of the college (3 March 1592); elected junior fellow, 1593; MA, 1595; sent to Galway, 1596; DD, 1602; while chancellor of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in 1603 he resumed the translation of New Testament into Irish commenced by Nicholas Walsh, assisted by Domnhall Ó hUiginn from Co. Galway; assisted by John Kearney [Seán Ó Cearnaigh], Treasurer of St. Patrick’s, Nehemias Donnellan and Maoilín Óg Mac Bruaidheadha, he completed the trans. of New Testament begun in the 1560s and published it as Tiomna nuadh ar dTigearna agus ar Slánaighteora (1602), with preface by Daniel [as Uilleam Ó Domhnaill], attributing the long delay to ‘Sathan’ and ‘the filthy frye of Romish seducers’ in an ‘Epistle Dedicatorie’ to Sir Arthur Chichester; 500 copies issued, using type presented to John Kearney by Queen Elizabeth in 1571; numerous later versions in Ireland and Scotland down to that edited by Earnán de Siúnta for by the Hibernian Bible Society (1951); appt. Archbishop of Tuam, 1602; translated Book of Common Prayer as Leabhar na nUrnaightheadh gComhcoidchiond (printed 1608, published 1609); privy councillor of Ireland, 1611; undertook repairs to Tuam Cathedral, 1612; his Tiomna Nua was reprinted by Grierson and Keene in 1827. RR ODNB DIB OCIL
Works
Tiomna nuadh [New Testament] ar d’Tighearna agus ar slanaightheora Iosa Criosd, ar na tarruing go firinneach as Gréigis gu Gáoidheilg. Re Uilleam Ó Domhnuill. Ata so art na chur a gclo a mbaile Atha Cliath, a dtigh Mhaighistir Uilliam Uiséir Chois an Driochid, ré Seón Francke (mBaile Atha Cliath: Seón Francke 1602); Leabhar na nurnaightheadh gcomhcoidchiond [Book of Common Prayer] agus mheinisdraldachdha na sacrameinteacbh, maille le gnathaighthibh agus le hordaighehibh oile, do réir eaglaise na Sagsan. Ata so ar na chur a gclo a Mbaile atha Cliath, a dtigh Sheon Francke alias Francton, Priontóir an Ríog an Eirin (1608); Do. [another edn.]. Tiomna nuadh [New Testament] ar d’Tighearna agus ar slanaightheora Iosa Criosd, ar na tarruing go firinneach as an nGreigis uGhdarach. ... Uilliam O'Domhnuill, ... aispug Thuaim (Printed by G. and J. Grierson and M. Keene / His Majesty's Printers / For the British and Foreign Bible Society / 1827 [infra].
Criticism
Richard Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, p.521; Nicholas Williams, I bPrionta i Leabhar (Dublin 1986), pp.27-42; B. Ó Madagáin, ‘An Bíobla i nGaeilge’, in M. Mac Conmara, An Léann Eaglasta in Eirinn 1200-1900 (Dublin 1988), pp.156-168; Michael Cronin, ‘Trasnslation, Conquest and Controversy’, Translating Ireland: Tranlsations, Languages, Cultures (Cork UP 1996), pp.54-56 [gives account of his translation of the Book of Common Prayer and quotes as infra].
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References
Henry Boylan, Dictionary of Irish Biography (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1988): b. Kilkenny, ed. TCD; fellow, 1593; treasurer St Patrick’s Cathedral, 1602; translated NT into Irish, 1602; John Franke printed it with type presented to John Kearney by Elizabeth in 1571, first used by him to print a catechism, the first printed book in Irish; translated Book of Common Prayer, printed by Franke, 1608; Archbishop of Tuam, 1609 [sic]; restored cathedral; d. Tuam, 11 June.
Muriel McCarthy & Caroline Sherwood-Smith, eds., Hibernia Resurgens: Catalogue of Marsh’s Library (1994), giving this variant account: ‘He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and began a translation of the new Testament into Irish while he was there. This translation had originally been undertaken by the chancellor of St Patrick’s Cathedral, Nicholas Walsh, who has been promoted bishop of Ossory and later murdered in Kilkenny. The translation was then continued [sic] by John Kearney, treasurer of St. Patrick’s [sic], and by Nehemiah Donnellan [who] was later appointed bishop of Tuam. / Uilliam Ó Domhnaill claimed to have translated the New Testament from the original Greek so it is not possible to state how much use he made of his predecessor’s [sic] work. He began a translation of the Book of Common prayer in 1606 and this was also printed by John Francton in Dublin in 1608.’ (p.29).
Marsh’s Library, Dublin holds a folio copy of Tiomna nuadh in [STC 2958]. See also Dictionary of National Biography . S.V. Daniel.
De Burca Books (Catalogue 44; 1997) lists William O’Domhnuill (d.1628), Archbishop of Tuam; native of Kilkenny name appears in the patent (3 March 1592) for foundation of Trinity College, Dublin; took up the work of translating The New Testament into Irish as Tiomna Nuadh while at Oxford; work begun by Nicolas Walsh, Bishop of Ossory, murdered 1585; continued by John Kearney, trans. first Irish Catechism, Dublin 1571), with Nehemias Donellan, Archbishop of Tuam in 1595; typefonts for 1602 edn. of Tiomna Tuadh presented to O’Kearney for his catechism in 1571 by Queen Elizabeth.
The Bible Baptist Church (Ballinclog, Mallow, Co. Cork) has a facsimile page of Tiomna Nuadh (John: Chap. 3), [link].
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Quotations
Leabhar na nurnaightheadh gcomchoidchionod [Book of Common Prayer]: ‘The land having partly swallowed up in displeasure the disturbers of our peace, and partly spued them out into Straunge Countryes, craving better Inhabitants to enjoy her blessings, and discovering her riche bosome for their entertainment.’ ( Sheon Francke alias Franckton, Priontóir an Ríog an Eirin, 1608; Cronin, op. cit., 1996, p.55.)
‘Under which burden how carefully and conscionably I have groaned,they onleely can judge, that can confer this translation with the original Greeke, unto which I have tyed my selfe, as of dutie I ought: having laboured therin in all sinceritie, as in the presence of God, the Judge of all to exprss the truly and fully, as neare as I could, without either detraction or addition, saving only in such places, where the necessitie of the phrase or sentece required it (as is usual in all translations, that cannot attiane unto the grace and proprietie of the originall) to give the full sense.’ (Tiomna Nuadh, n.p.; Cronin, p.77.)
‘God that caused light to shine out of darkness in the beginning, caused also the beames of piety, learning, and religion, to shine from thence into other [55] Nation, that sate in darkness and in the shadow of death; for as there came many swarmes hither from forainne countryes to be trayned up in learning and preligion (… The neighbour Saxons learning them their very characters from us, the same in a manner with the characters of this Booke.) […] (Leabhar na nurnaightheadh gcomchoidchionod; Cronin, p.56.)
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