Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Donlevy, Andrew
DONLEVY, ANDREW, D.D. (1694?–1761?), an Irish ecclesiastic, born about 1694, received his early education in or near Ballymote, Sligo. In 1710 he went to Paris, and studied in the Irish college there, of which he ultimately became prefect. He took the degree of licentiate of laws in the university of Paris. Walter Harris states that he was titular dean of Raphoe, and seeks an occasion to introduce his name 'out of gratitude,' as he says, 'for many favours I received from him, particularly in his transmitting to me from time to time several useful collections out of the King's and other libraries in Paris.' Donlevy was living in 1761. The date of his death is unknown. He was the author of: ‘An Teagasg Criosduidhe do réir ceasda agus freagartha, air na tharruing go bunudhasach as bréithir h Soilléir Dé, agus as toibreacaibh fiorglana oile' (‘The Catechism, or Christian Doctrine, by way of question and answer, drawn chiefly from the express Word of God and other pure sources’), Paris, with approbation and the king's license, 1742,8vo. This scarce work is in Irish and English. To it is appended (pp. 487-98) an Abridgment of Christian Doctrine in Irish verse, compiled more than a century before by Bonaventure O'Heoghusa, or O'Hussey. The book also contains a treatise by Donlevy on ‘The Elements of the Irish Language.’ It treats of orthography only, but is the best dissertation which had appeared on the subject up to that time. A second edition of the Catechism appeared at Dublin in 1822, 8vo. It was revised by the Rev. John McEncroe, and corrected for the press by Edward O'Reilly, author of the ‘Irish Dictionary.’ To it are appended a poem in Irish on the Sufferings of Christ, written by Doncha mor O'Dálaigh, abbot of Boyle in the fourteenth century, and a compendium of Irish grammar by McEncroe. A third edition of the Catechism was published at Dublin in 1848, 12mo, for the Royal College of St. Patrick, Maynooth.
[O'Reilly's Irish Writers, p. 229; O'Donovan's Irish Grammar, introd. p. lvii; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Webb's Compendium of Irish Biog.]