Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, his associates and St Anthony’s College Louvain
Nollaig Ó Muraíle, editor
'This re-edition by Nollaigh Ó Muraíle of the work of Father Jennings et al is an indispensible resource. Dr Ó Muraíle is to be congratulated for helping to open up once more this great field of research to a whole new generation of scholars, and, indeed to the interested general reader', Peter J. Smith, Besprechugen (2011).
‘The Irish Franciscan College of St. Anthony at Louvain, established in 1607, was an intellectual powerhouse for an attempt to save and promote the religion, culture, and language of Gaelic Ireland … The Irish print alphabet and the first Irish dictionary were created at St. Anthony’s. During the seventeenth century, St. Anthony’s was the site of a key Irish-language printing press. Distinguished individuals at St. Anthony’s included Franciscans (and future Irish archbishops) Flaithrí Ó Maoil Chonaire and Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, as well as Fathers Hugh Ward, Patrick Fleming, Robert Chamberlain (or Mac Artúir), John Colgan, and Thomas O Sheerin … Brother Mícheál Ó Cléirigh led a team of academics that produced the Annals of the Four Masters, among other works. For more than two hundred years the college fostered Irish literary activity and served as a major missionary training school for the Church in Ireland and elsewhere … This volume – which includes a revised short work by historian Brendan Jennings, OFM (originally published in 1936), and eight academic articles by Paul Walsh, Felim O’Brien, OFM, and Canice Mooney, OFM – is the first book to tell the nearly complete story of St. Anthony’s … The book is very well documented and solidly anchored in abundant primary sources. This book is recommended for anyone interested in Irish Catholic history’, John A. Dick, The Catholic Historical Review (July 2009).
‘The editor of the present volume is to be commended for making available once again pivotal contributions to research on Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and his associates', Deirdre Nic Mhathúna, Studia Hibernica (2008/9).
‘In Part 1 of Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, His Associates and St. Anthony’s College, Dr. Nollaig Ó Múraíle presents a thoroughly revised edition of Fr. Brendan Jennings’s book, Michael O Cleirigh, Chief of the Four Masters, and His Associates. The second part of Ó Múraíle’s volume assembles ten articles from various publications by Fr. Jennings (OFM), Fr. Paul Walsh, Fr. Felim O Brien (OFM) and Fr. Canice Mooney (OFM) concerning St Anthony’s College, Louvain and its scholars. Nollaig Ó Múraíle reorganises much of the information in Jennings’s book, so that it will be much more accessible to both the scholar and the general reader … the work of the Irish Franciscans is so central to the study of Irish life and civilisation that this re-edition by Nollaig Ó Múraíle of the work of Father Jennings et al is an indispensible resource. Dr. Ó Múraíle is to be congratulated for helping to open up once more this great field of research to a whole new generation of scholars and, indeed, to the interested general reader', Peter J. Smith, Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie (2012).
