Gregory Toner

Genres: Editor, Toponymist, Lexicographer, Academic writer

Oileadh Greg Toner in Ollscoil na Ríona, Béal Feirste, áit ar shaothraigh sé Ph. D. sa bhliain 1990. Chaith sé seal ag obair mar thaighdeoir ar Scéim Logainmneacha Thuaisceart Éireann (1990–97) agus d’fhoilsigh dhá leabhar sa tsraith Place-Names of Northern Ireland. Chaith sé dhá bhliain mar léachtóir Gaeilge i Roinn na Breatnaise in Aberystwyth (1997–99) agus ceapadh ina léachtóir le Gaeilge in Ollscoil Uladh i 1999 é. D’aistrigh sé go hOllscoil na Ríona in 2011 mar Ollamh le Gaeilge. D’fhoilsigh sé eagrán criticiúil den téacs Meán-Ghaeilge, Bruiden Da Choca, i sraith Chumann na Scríbheann nGaedhilge (2007). Chuir sé eagar ar leagan leictreonach d’Fhoclóir an Acadaimh, The Dictionary of the Irish Language, a foilsíodh ar líne ag www.dil.ie, agus tá ag obair ó shin ar leagan leasaithe. Tá spéis ar leith aige i staireagrafaíocht agus i scéalaíocht na Gaeilge, móide modhanna inste agus comhthéacs intleachtúil, agus tá ailt foilsithe aige in Ériu, Éigse, agus Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. D’fhorbair sé na cleachtaí Gaeilge idirghníomhacha ar líne, CAPAILL.

Greg Toner was educated at Queen’s University Belfast where he gained a Ph. D. in 1990. He worked as a researcher for the Northern Ireland Placenames Project (1990–97) during which time he published two volumes in the series Place-Names of Northern Ireland. He spent two years as a lecturer in Irish in the Department of Welsh in Aberystwyth (1997–99) and was appointed lecturer in Irish in the University of Ulster in 1999. In 2011, he returned to Queen’s as Professor of Irish. He published a critical edition of the Middle-Irish text, Bruiden Da Choca, in the Irish Texts Society series (2007). He edited the electronic version of the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language (www.dil.ie) and continues to work on a revised edition. He is particularly interested in Gaelic historiography and story, including narrative modes and intellectual context, and has published in Ériu, Éigse, and Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies. He developed the interactive online Irish-language exercises, CAPAILL.

Place of birth: Belfast, Co. Antrim

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It is now clear that what we have in [the tale of Macha Mongruad] is not a retelling of the sovereignty myth but the foundation myth of the kingship of Ulster at Emain Macha. Macha founds the capital of ancient Ulster, marking it out like a saint marks out the site of a church, with her own brooch. She marries the primeval king of Emain – Gilla Cóemáin describes him as the first king of Emain (cétfhlaith Emna)... Furthermore, she captures the sons of Díthorbae, brings them back to Ulster and so creates an unfree class for the service of future kings. Her remarkable warrior qualities closely echo those of warrior queens such as Medb, but also those women warriors who trained Cú Chulainn in arms in Britain in Tochmarc Emire. Indeed, her martial attributes may have been intended to account for the renowned warlike qualities of the Ulstermen of the Ulster Cycle – what more fitting origin can the Ulstermen have than this amazonian queen?

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Gregory Toner, ‘Macha and the invention of myth’, Ériú 60 (2010), 101