O'CULLENAN
205
O'DALY
p. L.. CLI. 1010; Zaccaria. Otiomaslicoit, 61; Idem, Bibliotheca
ritualis, II, 414; Dresser, De ftstis diebus christianorum et ethni-
corum (Wurzburg, 1588) ; Grancolas, Commentarius hist, in brev,
rum. (Venice, 1734), 137; HospiviiAtij Festa Christianorum hoc est
de origine, progressu, c<rremoniis et ritibus (Zurich, 1593), 26; HlT-
TORP, De div. calh. eccl. officiis et mysteriis (Paris, 1610), 486 sq.;
Gavanti, Thesaurus sacror. riluum cum adnot. merati, II, 31 aq.;
GuYETus, Heortologia (Urbino, 1728), 113 sq.; Pittonus. Tracta-
tus de octavis festorum qua in ecclesia universali celebrantur (Venice,
1739); MartJ:ne, De antiq. eccles. rit. (ed. 17S8), III, xxv, n. 1,
pp. 182 sqq.; Baumer-Bibon, Hist, du Brmaire, II (Paris, 1893),
199 etc; Duchesne, Christian Worship^ Its Origin etc. (London,
1904), 287.
Fernand Cabrol.
O'CuUenan, Gelasius (Glaisne), Cistercian, Abbot of Boyle, Ireland, b. probably near Assaroe Abbey, Ballyshannon, Co. Donegal; martyred, 21 Nov., 1580. Three of hi.s brothers were Cistercian abbots, and a fourth Bishop of Raphoe. Gelasius, the eldest, studied at Salamanca University, went thence to Paris where he took his doctorate at the Sorbonne, made his monastic profession, and was created Abbot of Boyle, Co. Roscommon. This ab- bey had been confiscated and granted to Cusack, Sheriff of Meath; but the Irish regulars continued to appoint superiors to their suppressed houses. The young abbot went immediately to Ireland and is said to have obtained restoration of his abbey. He was, however, seized at Dublin by the Government and imprisoned with Eugene O'Mulkeeran, Abbot of Holy Trinity at Lough Key. Refusing to conform, they were tortured and finally hanged outside Dublin, 21 November, 1580. O'Cullenan's body was spared mutilation through his friends' intercession. His clothes were divided as a martyr's relics among the Catholics.
Hartry, Triumphalia Monasterii S. Crucis, ed. Murphy (Dub- lin, 1895): O'Reilly, Memorials of those who suffered for the Catho- lic Faith (London, 1868); Murphy, Our Martyrs (Dublin, 1896).
O'Curry, Eugene (Eoghan O Comhraidhe), Irish
scholar, b. at Dunaha near Carrigaholt, Co. Clare,
1796; d. 18(52. His father, a farmer of modest means,
was an Irish scholar, a good singer, and well-informed
as to the traditions of his people. His son Eugene,
or Owen, grew up amid perfect Irish surroundings, and
soon learned to read the Irish MSS. which were still
common among the people. After the fall of Napo-
leon (1815), there followed a period of much agricul-
tural distress in Ireland, and the O'Curry farm was
broken up. In 1834 Eugene joined the number of
men engaged upon the topographical and histori-
cal part of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland, Petrie,
Wakeman, Clarence Mangan the poet, and last but
not least John O'Donovan (q. v.). In search of in-
formation concerning Irish jjlaces O'Curry visited the
British Museum (where he catalogued the Irish MSS.
for the authorities), the Bodleian Library at Oxford,
the Library of Trinity College, the Royal Irish Acad-
emy, and other places. But the Government, afraid,
it is said, of the national memories that the work was
evoking, abandoned the survey three or four years
later and dissolved the staff. The great collection of
materials, upwards of 400 quarto volumes of letters
and documents bearing upon the topography, social
history, language, antiquities, and genealogies of the
districts surveyed, was stowed away.
After this O'Curry earned his livelihood by reading, copying, and working on the MSS. in Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy. The first Archa-ologi- cal Society was founded in 1840, relying chiefly upon the assistance of O'Curry and O'Donovan. In 1853 O'Curry joined the council of the Celtic Society and pubUshed for them two Irish texts, the "Battle of Moyleana," and the "Courtship of Momera", with ex- cellent translation and notes. In 1855 he was ap- pointed professor of Irish history and archaiology in the recently founded Catholic University of Ireland, whose first rector was John Henry (afterwards Cardi-
nal) Newman. His lectures, published at the expense
of the university (1860) under the title of "The Manu-
script Materials of Ancient Irish History", proved an
invaluable mine of information upon the ancient MSS.
of Ireland and their contents — annals, genealogies,
histories, epics, historical tales, saints' lives, and other
ancient matters ecclesiastical and civil. "O'Curry",
writes D'Arbois De Jubainville (L'Epopee celtique
en Irlande, p. xvi), "is the first man who studied at
their sources the epics of Ireland." His book was a
revelation, and opened up an entirely new world to
European scholars. It was followed by a series of
thirty-eight lectures "on the Manners and Customs of
the Ancient Irish", published later (1873) under the
editorship of Dr. W. K. Sullivan.
O'Curry, a self-taught man and with little or no classical knowledge, was one of Ireland's most ener- getic workers. Scarcely an Irish book was to be found which he did not read and scarcely a rare manuscript existed in private hands of which he did not make a copy. In this way he gained an outlook over the field of Irish literature, so full and so far-reaching that though strides have been made in scientific scholarship since his day, no one has come ever near him since in his all-round knowledge of the literature of Ireland. He transcribed accurately Duald MacFirbis's book on Irish genealogies, the Book of Lismore, and scores of others. The last work he was engaged on was the Brehon Laws (q. v.) ; of these he tr.anscribed eight large volumes, and made a preliminary translation in thirteen volumes. O'Curry was severely tried by government officials who took upon themselves, in crass ignorance and in defiance of all rules of scholar- ship, to dictate to the master how the translation and compilation of the Brehon Laws were to be carried on. O'Curry has left a fully written posthumous statement of the incredible treatment to which he and O'Donovan were subjected, and his account of how he was the first scholar since the death of the great anti- quarian, Duald MacFirbis (murdered in 1670), who was able to penetrate and get a grip of the long for- gotten language of the ancient law tracts, is one of the most curious things in literature. Many men, such as Todd, Petrie, Graves, Reeves, were deeply indebted to O'Curry, for with a rare generosity he freely communi- cated the treasures of his knowledge to all who asked him.
Webb, Compendium of Irish Biog. (Dublin, 1878); Memoir in Irish Monthly Magazine (April, 1874). Cf. also: Lectures on the Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History (re-issue, Dublin, 1878); On the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish (3 vols. Dublin, 1873) ; The Battle of Magh Leana etc. (Dublin, 1855).
Douglas Hyde.
O'Daly, Daniel, diplomatist and historian, b. in Kerry, Ireland, 1595; d. at Lisbon, 30 June, 1662. On his mother's side he belonged to the Desmond branch of the Geraldines, of which branch his paternal ances- tors were the hereditary chroniclers or bards. He be- came a Dominican in Tralee, Co. Kerry; took his vows in Lugo, studied at Burgos, gained his doctorate of theology in Bordeaux, and returned as priest to Tra- lee. In 1627 he was sent to teach theology in the newly established College for Irish Dominicans at Louvain. In 1629 he went to Madrid on business con- nected with this college and, seeing that Philip IV of Spain favoured the project, he, assisted by three of his Irish brethren, established, in Lisbon, the Irish Do- minican College of which he became the first rector. He conceived the project of erecting, near Lisbon, a convent of Irish Dominican nuns, to serve as a refuge in time of persecution. Philip granted permission to do so on condition that he should raise a body of Irish soldiers for Spanish service in the Low Countries. O'Daly set sail for Limerick and got the men. On his return to Madrid (1639), Belem on the Tagus, four miles below the city, was selected as a site and, with the assistance of the Countess of Atalaya, the convent
