somewhat doubtful authority, the authorship of ‘Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla, or an Irish-English Dictionary. Whereof the Irish part hath been compiled not only from various Irish vocabularies, particularly that of Mr. Edward Lhuyd, but also from a great variety of the best Irish manuscripts now extant, especially those that have been composed from the ninth and tenth centuries down to the sixteenth, besides those of the lives of St. Patrick and St. Brigit, written in the sixth and seventh centuries’ (anon.); Paris, 1768, 4to; and again Dublin, 1832, 8vo, edited by Robert Daly, with the assistance of Michael McGinty. In the library of Trinity College, Dublin, there is a copy of the first edition, with manuscript notes by Peter O'Connell; and another copy, with marginal notes chiefly in the handwriting of Maurice O'Gorman and Charles Vallancey, is preserved in the British Museum (Egerton MS. 87). The ‘Dictionary’ is chiefly compiled from the vocabularies of Michael O'Clery [q. v.], Richard Plunkett [q. v.], and Edmund Lhuyd [q. v.], but wants thousands of words still existing in the written and living language. The preface to the work is a learned discourse on the antiquity of the Iberno-Celtic language and its affinity to other tongues, and the remarks which precede each letter of the alphabet are valuable. Much curious genealogical and historical information is scattered through the work.
The bishop edited ‘Monita Pastoralia et Statuta Ecclesiastica, pro unitis Diœcesibus Cloynensi et Rossensi. In quibus etc. Lecta, acceptata, et promulgata in Conventibus Cleri Sæcularis et Regularis utriusque Diœcesis, habitis Anno Domini 1755,’ sine loco, 1756, 16mo, pp. 96 (cf. Martin, Privately Printed Books, 2nd ed. p. 565).
He also wrote ‘A Critico-Historical Dissertation concerning the Antient Irish Laws, or National Customs, called Gavel-Kind, and Thanistry, or Senior Government,’ 2 parts, Dublin, 1774–5, 8vo, forming numbers 3 and 4 of Vallancey's ‘Collectanea de Rebus Hibernicis.’ O'Brien's dissertation was published by Vallancey as if he were himself the author of it (cf. O'Donovan, Irish Grammar, Introd. p. lviii n).
[O'Curry's Cat. of Irish MSS. in Brit. Mus. p. 73; O'Reilly's Irish Writers, p. 232; James Scurry's Review of Irish Grammars and Dictionaries, p. 62, in vol. xv. of Transactions of Royal Irish Acad.; Cat. of Library of Trinity College, Dublin; Vallancey's Grammar of the Iberno-Celtic or Irish Language, 1773, p. 3.]
O'BRIEN, Sir LUCIUS HENRY (d. 1795), Irish politician, a member of a younger branch of the O'Briens, earls of Thomond and of Inchiquin, was the eldest son of Sir Edward O'Brien (d. 1765), second baronet of Dromoland, co. Clare, who represented Clare in the Irish House of Commons for thirty years, by his wife Mary, daughter of Hugh Hickman of Fenloe. He entered parliament in 1763 as member for Ennis borough, and in the same year signalised himself by a remarkable speech describing the condition of the country, which is largely quoted by Mr. Lecky (History of England, iv. 326). He formed a friendship with Charles Lucas (1713–1771) [q. v.], the Irish patriot, and soon became a prominent member of the popular party. ‘By means of a rational understanding and very extensive and accurate commercial information he acquired a considerable degree of public reputation, though his language was bad—his address miserable and his figure and action unmeaning and whimsical—yet, as his matter was generally good, his reasoning sound, and his conduct frequently spirited and independent, he was attended to with respect, and in return always conveyed considerable information’ (Barrington, Historic Memoirs, i. 213–14).
In 1765 he succeeded his father as third baronet of Dromoland; in March of the following year he was placed at the head of a committee to prepare and introduce a bill making the judges' offices tenable quamdiu se bene gesserint, and not as heretofore in Ireland during the king's pleasure. The bill was passed, but did not receive the assent of the English privy council until 1782. In 1768 O'Brien contested his father's seat, co. Clare, at the cost of 2,000l. (Charlemont Papers, i. 119); he was elected, and represented the county until 1776, when he was returned for Ennis. Hugh Dillon Massy, however, one of the members for Clare, being unseated, O'Brien was returned in his stead, and chose to sit for the county. He now busied himself with endeavours to remove the restrictions on trade between England and Ireland, and made frequent speeches on the subject in parliament in opposition to the government; but his speeches lacked lucidity, and his audience were said to be seldom the wiser for them. He visited England in 1778–9 in pursuance of the same object. In the same year he reported to the lord lieutenant on the state of co. Clare, and was one of the first to urge the arming of the militia to meet the expected invasion of Ireland. Following the lead of Charlemont, he headed the volunteer movement in Clare, and took an active part in the agitation for Irish legislative independence. In 1780 he led the opposition to the government in the matter of the import duties between Portugal
