Bishop John O'Brien (1701–1769) was an

Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...

bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese Cork and Cloyne. He was also appointed as the

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop of a diocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vicar general exercises the bishop's ...

of Cork, Cloyne and

Ross Ross or ROSS may refer to: People * Clan Ross, a Highland Scottish clan * Ross (name), including a list of people with the surname or given name Ross, as well as the meaning * Earl of Ross, a peerage of Scotland Places * RoSS, the Republic of Sou ...

. He is best remembered as the author of one of the earliest Irish-English

dictionaries A dictionary is a listing of lexemes from the lexicon of one or more specific languages, often arranged alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), which may include information on definitions, usage, etymologies, p ...

Early career

Like most Irish Catholic priests in the eighteenth century, O'Brien travelled to Europe to study due to the Penal Laws restricting the training of priests in Ireland.

Irish College Irish Colleges is the collective name used for approximately 34 centres of education for Irish Catholic clergy and lay people opened on continental Europe in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. History The Colleges were set up to educate Roma ...

s had been set up to educate Roman Catholics from Ireland in their own religion following the Tudor conquest of Ireland. In 1725, O'Brien entered the Irish seminary at

Toulouse Toulouse ( , ; oc, Tolosa ) is the prefecture of the French department of Haute-Garonne and of the larger region of Occitania. The city is on the banks of the River Garonne, from the Mediterranean Sea, from the Atlantic Ocean and from Par ...

. After his ordination, he went to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

for further study in 1731. He graduated as a bachelor of divinity at Toulouse in 1733 and worked as a tutor in Spain until returning to Ireland in 1738. Three of his sermons, written in Irish between 1739 and 1740 (on

Mortal sin A mortal sin ( la, peccatum mortale), in Catholic theology, is a gravely sinful act which can lead to damnation if a person does not repent of the sin before death. A sin is considered to be "mortal" when its quality is such that it leads to ...

, on the

Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words an ...

, and on The Passion) survive today and are in the Royal Irish Academy. Upon his return he was concerned that the practice of educating Irish Catholic priests on the continent meant that they were disconnected from the Irish language and that this could limit their capacity for pastoral work, especially compared to the Church of Ireland which had translated the New Testament and The Book of Common Prayer into Irish in the 17th century.

Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax Bhéarla

O'Brien appealed to the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

for financial assistance in compiling the dictionary. He argued the dictionary was needed for the preservation of Catholicism in Ireland, primarily for the use of young priests beginning their work there. This appeal was unsuccessful, but Cardinal Joseph Maria Castelli, the prefect of Propaganda, made a personal donation. By 1762 O'Brien had completed an Irish–English dictionary that drew heavily on

Edward Lhuyd Edward Lhuyd FRS (; occasionally written Llwyd in line with modern Welsh orthography, 1660 – 30 June 1709) was a Welsh naturalist, botanist, linguist, geographer and antiquary. He is also named in a Latinate form as Eduardus Luidius. Life ...

's dictionary of 1707 but incorporated many additional terms collected from manuscript sources. ''Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bharla'' or "The Irish-English Dictionary" was published in France in 1768. Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax-Bhéarla or an Irish-English Dictionary was used by famed writer,

Goethe Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (28 August 1749 – 22 March 1832) was a German poet, playwright, novelist, scientist, statesman, theatre director, and critic. His works include plays, poetry, literature, and aesthetic criticism, as well as treat ...

, to translate pieces of

James MacPherson James Macpherson (Gaelic: ''Seumas MacMhuirich'' or ''Seumas Mac a' Phearsain''; 27 October 1736 – 17 February 1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poem ...

’s

Ossian Ossian (; Irish Gaelic/Scottish Gaelic: ''Oisean'') is the narrator and purported author of a cycle of epic poems published by the Scottish poet James Macpherson, originally as ''Fingal'' (1761) and ''Temora'' (1763), and later combined under t ...

from Scots-Gaelic (Gàidhlig) into his native

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.
The reception of Ossian in Europe
While the ''Focalóir'' uses obsolete spellings and has been superseded as a reference text, it was an important source for future dictionaries. In Dinneen's dictionary, O'Brien is cited as a source in over thirty entries.

Entries In O'Brien's Dictionary

The ''Focalóir Gaoidhilge-Sax Bhéarla'' contains words which have fallen out of use, have been omitted from modern dictionaries, or which have definitions which appear quaint to modern readers.

Work as a Bishop

Upon O'Brien's elevation to bishop, the poet Seán na Ráithíneach Ó Murchadha composed celebratory verse and was rewarded with a gold coin. Before long, O'Brien acquired a reputation as a disciplinarian and reformer. A book of regulations for the clergy of his diocese published in 1756 was notable for the emphasis it placed on catechesis, its determined opposition to clandestine marriages, and the large number of sins that were reserved for episcopal absolution. In August 1758 O'Brien placed

Mitchelstown Mitchelstown () is a town in County Cork, Ireland with a population of approximately 3,740. Mitchelstown is situated in the valley to the south of the Galtee Mountains, 12 km south-west of the Mitchelstown Caves, 28 km from Cahir, 50& ...

and the surrounding area under interdict when a dispute concerning a local clerical appointment turned violent, an action that prompted Baron Kingston to issue a warrant for the bishop's arrest in 1758, offering a reward of £20". In March 1762 O'Brien

excommunicated Excommunication is an institutional act of religious censure used to end or at least regulate the communion of a member of a congregation with other members of the religious institution who are in normal communion with each other. The purpose ...

those who were involved in the

Whiteboys The Whiteboys ( ga, na Buachaillí Bána) were a secret Irish agrarian organisation in 18th-century Ireland which defended tenant-farmer land-rights for subsistence farming. Their name derives from the white smocks that members wore in their ...

– which he characterised as a "dangerous contagion" in a pastoral letter.

References

Notes