Brian Ó Cuív (1916 - 14 November 1999) was a Celtic scholar who specialised in Irish history and philology.
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Ó Cuív was professor of Celtic Studies at University College Dublin and later at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.[1] His later years were devoted to the compilation of a catalogue of the Irish manuscripts in the University of Oxford.[2] The completed catalogue was published after his death.
He married Emer de Valera, daughter of Éamon de Valera, with whom he had nine children. A son, Éamon Ó Cuív, is a prominent Irish politician.[1]
Ó Cuív's surname was changed from Ó Caoimh (O'Keeffe) by his father, Shán Ó Cuív, a Cork journalist, who in the early 20th century, changed the spelling of his surname in order to conform with a simplified spelling system of his own invention which he called An Leitriú Shimplí.[3] The letter 'v' is extremely rare in Irish outside modern loanwords.[4][5]
His works include: