Risteárd Ó Foghludha 1873-1957
       |
Life
[Richard Foley; pseud. “Fiachra E´ilgeach”]; b. Youghal, Co. Cork; teacher and journalist in England, returned to Dublin and first ed. of An Gúm; also first Director of Place Names Commission, 1946; native speaker; ed. Merriman, Cúirt an Mheadhan Oidche (Dublin 1912, rep. 1949); made a new edition of Eoghan Rua Ó Súilleabháin (1937); |
issued Ar Bruach na Coille Muaire (1939); Eammon de Bháil (1946); Eigse na Máighe (1952), and Log-Ainmneacha (1935), the last-named containing 7,000 entries on Irish place-names; translated biographies from French Russian, including Tolstoy and Chekov; contrib. to the Dublin Historical Record in 1951, &c. DIW DIH |
[ top ]
Commentary
Anthony Cronin, No Laughing Matter (1987), Richard Foley was the reader for Browne & Nolan who rejected Flann O’Brien’s Gaeltacht novel An Béal Bocht, after initial encouragements. When Flann excised offending portions, the publisher returned the manuscript with a note of refusal saying simply that their reader Richard Foley did not understand it and would not advise publications [140].
[ top ]
References
Hyland Books (Cat. 224) lists Mil na hÉigsde (1945).
[ top ]
Quotations
Letter to Dublin Historical Record, 12, 2 (May 1952): ‘In the Dec. issue of the Record ‘I found my name coupled with that of my deceased friend, Henry Morris, in connction with the Irish form of the place-name Terenure ... neither my old firend nor myself could accept the slap-dash derivation advocated by our critic, a derivation offered over half a century ago by Dr. Joyce, namely, “the land of yew”; further refers to Morris as an accurate, even a brilliant topographer as witness contribs. to Journal of Royal Soc. of Antiquarians [citing titles inc. Destruction of Da Derga’s Mansion, et al.]; also mentions Edmund Hogan, SJ, author of Onomasticon Goedelicum; explains the name in connection with the “Long House” recorded there, and ascribes the return of the name to use to the Dublin Tramways Co., not the ‘present proprietor’ of Roundtown/Terenure as alleged by Joyce.’ (p.64.)
[ top ]
Notes
George Little, Dublin Before the Vikings (1957), ... it has been pertinently suggested to me (by Ristéard Ó Foghluda, D. Litt.) that the Wood quay (admitted to be Dublin’s oldest wharf) may owe its name to its proximity to Hazelwood Ridge [which Little associates with Harris’s apocryphal name for Dublin, Drum Cuill Coill] It is provocative to find no person named Wood figuring in the City Records in connection with this structure [35]
Conor Cruise O’Brien, The Great Melody ( 1992), locates information on Burke’s probably instructor, Father Inglis, in Risteard Ó Foghludha, Cois na Bríde (Dublin 1937) [O’Brien, op. cit., p.22].
[ top ]