Seán Ua Súilleabháin

Seán Ua Súilleabháin was born in Inis Cara, a short distance west of Cork city, in 1958. His mother was from Ó Dheirín Álainn in Cúil Aodha. He attended Scoil na Cloichíní near the city and Coláiste Bharra Naofa, Fearann Phiarais. He graduated from University College Cork with a BA in Irish and Spanish in 1979. He began postgraduate work at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid, work which culminated in a doctoral thesis at University College Cork on the book Desiderius which was translated into Irish by Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire and published in Louvain in 1616. He worked on the Dictionary of Modern Irish at the Royal Irish Academy, as a substitute lecturer at Maynooth University, was a scholar and senior research assistant in the School of Celtic Studies, Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies, and as a lecturer in the Department of Modern Irish, University College Cork from 1996 to 2023. He is now retired.

He has published on the dialects of Munster (especially Muscovite Gaelic), on Muscovite literature and folklore and on lexical matters; he has edited Scéal mo Bheatha by Dónall Bán Ó Céileachair (Muscovite Literature Committee, 2008) and (in collaboration with Professor Dáibhí Ó Cróinín) Eachtra Phinocchio (translated into Irish by Pádraig Ó Buachalla) (Muscovite Literature Committee, 2003) and on Muscovite poems and stories. He has researched 'Chaoineadh Art Uí Laoghaire' with his wife, Dr. Henar Velasco López, Department of Classical Languages, University of Salamanca. He is currently editing a biography of a sailor from Clare in collaboration with his former colleague, Dr. Roibeárd Ó hÚrdail.

Seán Ua Súilleabháin was born in Inniscarra a few miles west of Cork city in 1958. His mother was from Doirín Álainn in Cúil Aodha. He attended Clogheen National School (near Cork) and St. Finnbarr's College, Farranferris. In 1979 he was awarded a BA degree in Irish and Spanish in University College Cork. He began postgraduate studies in Universidad Complutense de Madrid, which became a Ph. D. concluded in UCC on the seventeenth century translation by Flaithrí Ó Maolchonaire, Desiderius .

He worked on the Dictionary of Modern Irish project in the Royal Irish Academy, as a substitute lecturer in Maynooth College, was a scholar and Senior Research Assistant in the School of Celtic Studies of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, and lectured in UCC from 1996 to 2023. He has recently retired. He has published on Munster dialects (especially on Muskerry Irish), on Muskerry literature and folklore and on lexicographical matters; he has edited Scéal mo Bheatha (Coiste Litríochta Mhúscraí, 2008) by Dónall Bán Ó Céileachair and and (jointly with Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín) Eachtra Phinocchio (translated by Pádraig Ó Buachalla) (Coiste Litríochta Mhúscraí, 2003) and other items of Muskerry prose and verse. He has published on 'Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire' in co-operation with his wife Dr. Henar Velasco López, Department of Ancient Classics, University of Salamanca. He is currently working on an edition of the autobiography of a Cape Clear sailor in collaboration with his ex-colleague Dr. Robert O'Urdale.

Dáta breithe: 1958

Scaip an phortráid seo:

The criticism of Blake, and the fact that 'Maol Muire' perpetuated it, did great harm to Father Peter's reputation when he was in office; it brought him a bad reputation from which he has not yet recovered. …

Because de Blacam had too much respect for his own opinion of literature that he did not understand, a grave injustice was done to Father Peter's Lucian , a beautifully accurate and precise translation into the finest Irish.

He who criticized Father Peter for suppressing 'humanism' in his writings, did not bring with him enough of the humanities to understand Lucian's writings, nor, perhaps, enough Irish to recognize the excellence of Father Peter's style, although he may have associated Father Peter with the camp of antiquity and folklore, and this did not allow him to praise his merits. Whatever gaps there were in his dedication, he was not lacking in either sweetness and pomp, in must and greatness, in ghost and torte, or in contempt for Gaeltacht writers.

The one who had the Greek, and the sense of humor, to correctly understand Lucian's writings was Father Peadair Ua Laoghaire, and he had the Irish to make a good translation of them, which he did.

—

' Lucian, Don Cíochóte and the Like: Retellings or Translations', in The Works of Father Peadar , Léachtaí Colum Cille 45, Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh (ed.), (Maynooth: An Sagart, 2015), pp. 94-95