John O'Donovan (scholar)

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For other persons named John O'Donovan, see John O'Donovan (disambiguation).

John O'Donovan (25 July 1806–10 December 1861), from Atateemore, County Kilkenny, and educated at Hunt's Academy, Waterford, is recognised as one of Ireland's greatest ever Irish scholars and first historic topographer. His early career may have been inspired by his uncle Parick O'Donovan. He worked for antiquarian James Hardiman researching state papers and traditional sources at the Irish Record Office. He also taught Irish to Thomas Larcom for a short period in 1828 and worked for Myles John O'Reilly, a collector of Irish manuscripts. Following the death of Edward O'Reilly in August 1830, he was recruited to the Topographical Department of the first Ordnance Survey of Ireland under George Petrie in October 1830. Apart from a brief period in 1833, he worked steadily for the Survey on place-name researches until 1842, unearthing and preserving many manuscripts. After that date his work with the Survey tailed off, although he was called upon from time to time to undertake place-name research on a day-to-day basis. He researched maps and manuscripts at many libraries and archives in Ireland and England, with a view to establishing the correct origin of as many of Ireland's 63,000 townland names as possible. His letters to Larcom are regarded as an important record of the ancient lore of Ireland for those counties he documented during his years of travel throughout much of Ireland.

He was later professor of Celtic Languages at Queen's University and was called to the Bar in 1847. On the recommendation of Grimm, he was elected a corresponding member of the Royal Academy Berlin in 1856. Never in great health, he died shortly after midnight on 10 December 1861 at his residence, 36 Upper Buckingham Street, Dublin and was buried on 13 December 1861 in Glasnevin Cemetery, where his tombstone inscription has slightly wrong dates of both birth and death. Father of nine children (all but one of whom died without issue), his wife received a small state pension after his death.

[edit] Works

A grammar of the Irish Language, 1845, for St. Columba's College , Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin
Leabhar na gCeart (the Book of Rights), 1847,
Translations of the Annals of the Four Masters (6 volumes 1846-1851)

[edit] Legacy

O'Donovan made a colossal contribution to Irish history and literature. He and his wife's brother-in-law, Eugene O'Curry were the greatest Irish Scholars of their time. His work in establishing early Irish law texts, genealogies and folklore is still unsurpassed and frequently relied upon in research. (O'Curry and O'Donovan were married to the sisters Anne and Mary Anne Broughton respectively, daughters of John Broughton of Killaderry near Broadford, County Clare.) In 1852, he and O'Curry proposed the Dictionary of the Irish Language, which was eventually produced by the Royal Irish Academy starting in 1913 and finally completed in 1976.

[edit] External Reference

[1], De Burca Rare Books, Annals of the Four Masters/John O'Donovan
[2], letters, Co. Donegal
[3], letters from Co. Offaly, 1838
[4], letter from Fermanagh
[5], letters from Co. Waterford
[6], letters Co. Westmeath
[7], Bibliography by Dr. Donnchadh O Corrain, University College Cork
[8], Catholic Encyclopaedia
[9], Irish Roots
Enclopaedia of Ireland, Brian Lalor, P. 813, 2003, Gill and MacMillan ISBN 0-7171-3000-2
A Paper Landscape, the Ordnance Survey in Nineteenth-Century Ireland, J.H.Andrews, 1993, Four Courts press, ISBN 1-85182-664-5
John O'Donovan (1806--1861): A Biography, Patricia Boyne, 1987, Kilkenny: Boethius, ISBN 0-86314-139-0
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