The Irish - The Lost Tribe?

THE IRISH - THE LOST TRIBE?

By PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

Vos autem genus electum, regale sacerdotium, gens sancta, populus acquisitionis - 1 St Peter, 2:9

A combination of material wealth and religious poverty is invariably followed by on of those immense 

catastrophes, which write themselves forever on the memory of man.  - Donoso Cortez 

MY FAVOURITE NOVEL in Irish is Monsignor Breandán Ó Doibhlin's Néal Maidine agus Tine Oíche.*  The title "Morning Cloud and Night Fire"is based on Exodus 40:36.  In fact the novel closely follows the delivery of the enslaved Hebrews from Egypt andd their subsequent journey town the promised land.  But the book is written about the Irish, and it is made difficult for the average Irish reader by his frequent references to an older form of the Irish tongue.

Mgr Ó  Doibhlin was not the first.  When I read the book for the second time a number of years ago, I wondered how much the author knew about the fascination of the early Irish monks with ancient Israel and also how shocked those monks would be with modern scholarly attitudes.

Biblical influence crucial

The literature of early mediaeval Ireland has to date been analysed in a strictly Aryan construct.  Parallels are forever sought within the overall Indo-European (indo-germanisch) context.  This can be fruitful. For, example, Cormac mac Airt is suckled by a wolf in infancy.  We could safely assume this to be a direct borrowing from the story of Romulus and Remus, were it not for the fact that a similar tale is told of Cyrus the Persian and the same theme emerges in Greek and Germanic lore.  Though valuable, the Indo-European view is not the last word on the matter.

The early Irish monks had little interest in India or Persia.  Their only interest in Germany was to convert the place.  In general, their only interest in an alleged Caucasian heritage was a belief that were are all descended from Noah's son Japheth.  The early Irish monks were more interested in Israel than in India.

Most of the writings now seen as mythological can be read as a retelling of a distinctly Irish folklore, subject to biblical influence.  So the puny Lug Lám Fata slays Balor of the evil eye with a sling shot.

But the monastic scribes went a lot further than that.  Lebor Gabála (The Book of Invasions) describes the primaeval history of Ireland.  It shows the influence of St Isidore of Seville and St Augustine in its view of history.  But it is interesting to see the lengths to which the monks went to parallel the Irish experience with that of the Hebrews.  In ways quite reminiscent of the Boers in South Africa or the Mormons, the first Irish Christians appear to have latched on to the conviction that they were a unique people, to whom God had allotted a special destiny.

Egyptian link

The common ancestor of the Gael was a Scythian.  (Here - and only here - would mediaeval and modern scholar find consensus.)  The lawyer and linguist, Fénius Farsaid, finds his way to Egypt where he founds a school of law.  His son married the Pharaoh's duaghter, that the father names  the language he invents after her son, Góedel, so we have Gaelic.  It is strongly hinted that young Góedel had Moses for a foster brother and Fénius taught both of them law.

Anyway, the time comes when it is now longer politic for Fénius and his kin to remain in Egypt, so they embark on a journey which brings them through the North African desert over 40 years and than through Spain, before they come to rest in Ireland.  Of course, they have to displace the peoples who were there before them, which they have no problem in doing.

 Place of natural law

A nice story, but the monks had to back it up.  They appealed to St Paul, who in Romans 2:14-15, implies a Natural Law written into creation by God.  The Irish were quite diligent in there observance of natural law (recht aicnid), according to the scribes.  Natural law was seen as a very important judicial concept; aand one presumes it remained so until Chief Justice Hamilton enlightened us on the the topic in the judgement on the constitutionality of the Abortion Information Act a few years ago.  Wherever they could point out a coincidence with the Law of Moses (recht litre - written law, they did; the most striking example being in relation to heiresses.

In the fullness of time, the Irish received the Law of Moses and with it, the Prophets and the New Testament.  This would naturally single St Patrick out as somewhat special.  The monks depicted him as a Moses-Elias figure.  Whereas the St Patrick of the Confessio and the Epistola is a simple and zealous missionary (methinks he doth protest too much - both writings are a lot more sophisticated than they appear to the naked eye), the various biographers of the saint give us the picture of either of the greatest figures of the Old Testament.

 Not merely hagiographical

Again and again, incidents are related which are similar to the lives of Moses and Elias.  In his various confrontations with the druids, we see retellings of the stand-off between Moses and Pharoah's magicians or between Elias and the priests of Baal.

It is all too simple to dismiss the Lives of St Patrick in the light of his own literary legacy.  Too simple, and based on an uncritical reading of both.  It should be remembered that St Patrick must have been a very impressive figure to silence the whole court of the High King and pave the way for the Christianisation of the entire country.

One of the Lives contains a very frank details: though the saint makes a great impression of King Lóegaire Ua Néill, the king remains a heathen.  This would hardly appear in a text which was merely hagiographical.

As Moses and Elias (foreshadowing Our Lord) fast 40 days and nights, so does St Patrick.  Finally, as the 12 Apostles are given the authority to judge the 12 Tribes of Israel, (St Matthew 19:28), Muirchú's Life assigns the same task to St Patrick, as he had been an apostle to us.  This is as close as the monks came to claiming status as a lost tribe.

 Judgement for sins

One could go into great detail about other efforts to associate Early Ireland with the peoples of the Old and New Testament, whether in lawa or customs, in origins ( though Japheth was the father of the Europeans, most Irish genealogies were traced through Shem), or personal contact.  (At least one Irish jurist went the wrong way on leaving Egypt and wandered with the Israelites for 40 years, receiving the Law from Moses.  And three Irish nobles were said to have become Christian before St Patrick came - Conchobar mac Nessa and Cormac mac Airt are the best known.)

The matter did not rest there.  At a much later time, during Plantations and Penal Laws, Irish writers and scholars returned to the same theme.  This time the literati were largely in exile on the continent, especially in Louvain.  The Elizabethan and Cromwellian terrors were fresh memories and it seemed one anti-Catholic pogrom followed another.  The writers went back to the Old Testament view of the Babylonian captivity and the conquest of the Promised Land by the Gentiles.  It was the judgement of God on Ireland for the sins of the Irish.

 Slavery and idols

Mgr Ó Doibhlin returns to the same theme this century.  Behind all the allusion to Exodus and Lebor Gabála, despite how archaic and remote all the characters and themes appear, one cannot help but believe he is referring to our own day.  Slavery and idols, though they come in different shapes and sizes, are still present; and little is so destructive as the slavery or seductive comforts, especially after enduring the more obvious slavery for so long.

Ireland has changed a lot since the 1960s, and the delusion of the Celtic Tiger within a new European superstate suggests that our present affluence may be a new form of enslavement.  If I draw my own parallel with the Old Testament in 1 Macchabees 1:11-16, we see the description of the apostasy of the Jews.

It is a depressing portrait of a race who throw off their distinctive beliefs and customs, given them by the true God, for the peace and prosperity of a pagan empire: an apostasy before the coming of Christ, which prefigures the apostasy before His Second Coming: Quo vadis, Hibernia?

There are many similarities between the Irish and the Jews, and the comparison is a lot more instructive than ideas about common links between Ireland and India (links which do exist but are buried in the mists of prehistory).  Unfortunately this resemblance is not a matter for self-congratulation; it is, rather, a cross to be carried.

Nations, like individuals, have their own vocations, their own specific missions.  Has Ireland, insula sanctorum et scholarum, made good use of the graces God has conferred on her?  And does she continue to do so in our own day?

* Breandán Ó Doibhlin, Néal Maidine agus Tine Oíche, Foilseacháin Náisiúnta Teoranta, 1964

 The Brandsma Review, Issue 39, October-November 1998 

Rebel Standun Stuck in a Rut

REBEL STANDÚN STUCK IN A RUT

by JOHN HENEGHAN

EAGLAIS NA gCATACÓMAÍ

by Pádraig Standún. Cló Iarchonnachta.  316pp.  €16.00

THIS book is an apologia pro vita sua in which the author defines the Church of the Catacombs as the Church of dissent: those who cannot accept the official Church.

The introductory chapter gives us the same definition of his role as a rebel.  However, in this regard Standún is not original - he is echoing the current intolerant criticism of the Church as evidenced in Shattered Vows by David Rice and Change and Decay: Irish Catholicism in Crisis by Brendan Hoban.

Chapter Two gives an interesting account of the author's youth in Mayo and how it pointed him in the direction of the priesthood.

Further on in the book he has rightly exposed the problems that existed in Maynooth - but he has used them as a propaganda tool to whip the entire official Church.

Tháinig scéalta chun solais i lár bliana 2002 a thugann le fios gur lú smacht arís, féinsmacht san áireamh a bhí ag Maigh Nuad sna blianta tar éis domsa é a fhágáil. (Page 182)

His clamouring for women priests despite the papal instruction that this is not a matter for discussion is a challenge to papal authority.

Tá a leithéid fireann nó baineann i ngach paróiste ar domhan.  Cén fáth mar sin a bhfuil Pobal Dé fágtha gan Eocaraist?  (Page 105)

Father Standún and his contemporaries find it difficult to accept that they are the greying generation and that their status as rebels has left them stuck in a rut.  Time and the Church have passed them by.

Surely true liberals are not threatened by Traditionalists?  (In fact they can accommodate both the Old Rite and the Novus Ordo despite its variation from parish to parish.)

In my Master's Thesis Pádraig Standún: Saol agus Saothar (unpublished, 1991) I accused Father Standún of a lack of depth in his work because of his use of literature instead of journalism as an instrument of propaganda.  Alan Titley's An tÚrscéal Gaeilge subsequently altered my perspective on this when he pointed out that there are several types of novel apart from the classical mode from Cervantes' Don Quixote.  Therefore any literary work can be described as a novel on its own terms.

In fairness to Pádraig Standún one must admit he has not hesitated to highlight the social problems of the Gaeltacht.  However, while exposing the sexual problems is not a bad thing in itself, an obsession with sexual mores and their linkage with compulsory celibacy and child abuse is somewhat tiresome to the reader.  (So too was the kind of smuttiness suggested by Budawanny, the title of the film of Standún's earlier novel Súil le Breith).  Nevertheless, Standún must be given credit for raising these social issues.

However, from a literary perspective Eaglais na gCatacómaí  is weak.  As Breandán Ó Doibhlin, the eminent critic and novelist has pointed out: a novel must be assessed on its own merits: the author is irrelevant.  Father Standún's elementary mistake is to confuse literature with life.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 76, January-February 2005

Father Standun's Obsession

FATHER STANDÚN'S OBSESSION

by JOHN HENEGHAN

SOBAL SAOL. By Pádraig Standún.  Cló Iar-Chonnachta.  224pp.  €12.00

IN this novel we see more of the constant occupation of Pádraig Standún with sexual mores.  This time we are dealing with a separated couple in the Gaeltacht.  Máirtín Mac Cormaic, a writer for a soap opera, is constantly under pressure to find new themes for Béal an Chuain; if he fails he will lose his job.  Justine, his separated wife also features.  The only thing they agree on is their love for their son Cian.

The contemporary life of the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the lifestyle in times gone by, now on its last legs.  We see further evidence of Standún's obsession with the sexual theme in the description of both Máirtín - who has a one-night stand with Sinéad after a night's binge drinking - and Justine's weekend trip to Cork with James McGill.  To say the least this recurring theme is not edifying.  It is ironic that it should come from a celibate male priest who should uphold the teaching of the Church.

The pub is used as a social instrument to give a glimpse into the lives of the characters.  These are not developed, however, and function solely to perpetuate the main theme of the novel.  Máirtín manages to pick up some themes for the soap opera by buying a senile old man some drink.

The teaching of the Church is challenged, with Máirtín's mother Bríd committing suicide because of her fear of ending up in a nursing home.  So the current lifestyle in the Gaeltacht is contrasted with the old-fashioned values now only left among some old people - and evern this ebbs away with Bríd's suicide

The whole work is another variation of the writer's usual tune.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 84, May-June 2006.

Rev Pádraig Standún is a priest in good standing of the Archdiocese of Tuam.  He has written several novels in the Irish language about life in the Connemara Gaeltacht.

A Personal Reflection on Translating the Mass

A PERSONAL REFLECTION ON TRANSLATING THE MASS

by PEADAR LAIGHLÉIS

IN 1981, I went to Coláiste na bhFiann for the first time.  This was not in the Gaeltacht, but rather was an Irish-medium summer boarding school operated along modified military regulations.   Though it was not a Catholic institution, Catholic students had to attend daily Mass and rosary in Irish and to know all the Mass responses and mysteries of the rosary in Irish.

I quickly realised that there were differences between the Mass in Irish and in English.  As a 12 year old, I reasoned English was a major international language and Irish was a minority language even on its own turf, so the universal Church would ensure that English was correct, but Irish would probably fall under the radar.

One factor did strike me.  I read Scripture as a schoolboy.  Among my favourite Gospel stories was the healing of the centurion's servant (Matt. 8, 5-13).  I never made any connexion between this and "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed", but the correct Irish, A Thiarna, ní fiú mé go dtiocfá faoi mo dhíon, ach abairse an focal agus leigheasfar m'anam, automatically brought this into my mind.  Even non-goidelophones will probably identify m'anam with anima mea.

I learned Latin in school, but it was a very long time before I attended any Latin liturgy.  However, after school (1986-88), I spent two years in an Augustinian community where a Polish novice announced that the English rendering of the Mass was a poor translation.  Our confreres didn't see the issue, but I took a vinyl recording of a Mozart Mass which gave parallel texts of the ordinary form in Latin and several other languages in its sleeve cover.  I looked at English and French and could see that the French was closer to the Latin than the English and, as far as I could see, this was the case with Spanish and Italian.  My memory of Mass in Irish confirmed that I was mistaken as to which language gave a better translation.
Closer to the Latin
Two years later (1989), I went to Germany for the first time and began to learn German.  I lived in the cathedral parish in Stuttgart and attended Mass there several times a week (work permitting).  I saw that the German Mass was also much closer to the Latin proto-Mass than the English.  I returned to studies in Maynooth where I made the acquaintance of a retired New York businessman, originally from Clones, who had studied for the Pallottine society in Thurles 50 years before.  He frequently made the point that the English translation of the Mass was very poor. This man, now deceased, made many friends among the student body and was very generous towards the college's deacons.  I don't believe I was the only one who heard this argument.

From 1990 to 1991, I was publicity office of Maynooth Students' Uinon and my principal duty was the production of a student journal.  I followed the principle that this magazine was for all Maynooth students rather than just a few vocal, radicalised and promiscuous lay students in the Arts Faculty.  This meant having a religious affairs column.  The English translation of the Mass was one of the first targets in a moderately conservative opinion piece.  This can be seen in St Pat's Chat, Volume 3, No.1 in the John Paul II Library in Maynooth.  This was over 20 years before the emergence of the new English translation.

Over the next decade I became acquainted with the late Proinsias Ó Fionnagáin SJ, a Monaghan-born linguist and historian.  An tAthair Ó Fionnagáin told us that he studied the draft of the English Mass following its publication in 1971 and then wrote to his provincial to tell him that he was prepared to say Mass according to the 1969 Missal in Latin, in French and in Irish, but he was not prepared to do so in English as the translation departed too far from the Latin original.
Ambiguous phrase
At the same time, I did some work on assisting the translation of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom into Irish under the direction of the late Archimandrite Serge Keleher (for reference rather than liturgical use, though the Irish has been used from time to time).  Mgr Keleher insisted that the translation be as literal as possible in regard to the Greek and Old Church Slavonic typical editions.  Translations into English, French, German and Italian were looked at, but none was followed as a model.  The archimandrite's view of the English version of the Roman Mass was that it was a model of how not to do things.

Versions of the Mass in other languages are often far form perfect, but English has been particularly egregious in its departure from Latin.  This has been accentuated by the use of English rather than Latin as a template for new translations in mission territory.  But other versions have their problems.  For example, German renders pro multis as für alle, which is the same as the inaccurate English "for all"; für viele* would be correct.  The committee who drew up the Irish translation of the Mass wished to use ar son chách, which is "for all".  (Father Benedict** used ar son na sluaighte-"for  the hosts"-in the Latin-Irish missal in use before the liturgical changes.  This is ambiguous.***)

At the time the draft Irish missal was in circulation, the then Archbishop of Tuam, Mgr Joseph Cunnane announced he would not permit this version of the Mass to be said in his diocese.  Tuam has the largest Gaeltacht of any Irish diocese and Archbishop Cunnane held a masters of arts in Irish as well as an earned doctorate in divinity****.  The compromise formula was ar son an chine dhaonna which literally is an ambiguous "for the human race", which seems to follow the French pour la multitude.  French is the only major European language which does not translate pro multis as "for all".  One suspects it is more than a coincidence that several translation committees made the same deviation from the Latin.
Impoverished version
After four decades of discussion, the new missal in English is ready and is being rolled out in a piecemeal manner, which varies considerably from diocese to diocese.  In Meath, this has been more progressive than in Armagh or Dublin.  In Meath, one could remark on the similarity between the English and the German Masses at a very early stage.  The translation goes beyond mere accuracy.  The language of the new missal is more sacral and formal than previously.  It has also evoked the anger of an ageing generation of clerics who seem to think nobody wanted this.  I wrote this piece to illustrate how that has never been my experience.l

Anglophones are not renowned for learning other languages, but the monoglot nature of the opposition to the new translation astounds me, especially in a country where there are two vernacular languages, one of which is more faithful than the other to the ordinary form Latin Mass.  A cursory comparison between the Confiteor or Gloria in English with that in Latin or another language will show not only how inaccurate, but also how impoverished the current English version is.  It has been pointed out that the arguments against the new translation have been very patronising towards the majority of the faithful.  However the main issue seems to be the alleged exclusivity of the language.
Inclusive Turkish
This is a case of déjà vu.  Similar arguments were brought out in relation to the tardy English translation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church nearly 20 years ago.  But the arguments regarding exclusivity/inclusivity are themselves products of a monoglot mentality.  Most other languages have a marked tendency towards so-called exclusivity.  German is particularly "bad".  I am informed Turkish on the other hand is a model inclusive language.  How many people would entertain the argument (which no doubt has been made from time to time) that women in Turkey are in a better position that women in Germany or Austria?  The females among Germany's large Turkish community certainly have not said much about this.

In our own country, one of the most prestigious positions in the Irish public service is that of Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners.  The current Chairman is a woman and there are no deafening cries to call her "chairperson".  I also recall informal situations where females addressed mixed audiences as "guys" or "lads" with no objection, but although "men" was accepted formally in the same sense into the late twentieth century, this is no longer the case.  My own view is that this should not be an issue and the translators might have considered there was little point in allowing an argument to develop.

For all that, there are problems with the new English translation.  It is not one of the glories of the English language.  The proclamations "The Word of the Lord", "The Gospel of the Lord" and "The Mystery of Faith", though common for a long time in the United States, grate on this writer's ears, as the announcement seems to have little connexion with anything.  The flow of the words is not as natural as in the case of Irish or German.

The previous translation was hardly beautiful either, though I suspect that the older translators were more familiar with English literature, especially English poetry, than those who worked on the current version.  The trouble is that the original translators let the English-speaking world down badly.  Much was lost and  in an era where Catholics were allegedly being persuaded to turn more toward Scripture, many of the biblical allusions in the Mass were contorted beyond recognition-even the Anglican communion service was closer to the Latin than the English Mass.  One hopes this is now addressed.
Protestant experience
However, one must understand that it is not at all easy to render the Mass in the vernacular, especially in a language so widely spoken as English.  The more liturgically-focused Protestant denominations have plenty of experience of these problems.  Our experience shows that revising something temporary is not easy and one still hears people using the responses introduced in superseded translations.  It will take a long time to get used to this one.
FOOTNOTES
* This is the translation given in the Schott Missal.  Father Anselm Schott was a Benedictine monk who compiled the most popular German-Latin missal in use prior to the liturgical changes.  Pope Benedict traces his interest in liturgy to receiving his first Schott missal as a young boy.
** Father Benedict of the Mother of God OCD who compiled the Latin-Irish missal in 1958 for Irish-speaking Catholics.
***  The Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom in Irish, a translation from Greek and Old Church Slavonic, uses ar son móráin, "for many".  This is the most accurate Irish version.  I have not seen any eastern Catholic liturgy of any linguistic origin using any formula other than "for many".
**** I am indebted to John Heneghan for this information.  He has done postgraduate research into the contribution of priests working in Maynooth to the Irish language, which includes the translation into Irish of the Missale Romanum and the Bible.  This was carried out in the years following the Second Vatican Council and merits an academic paper in its own right.  John was also able to tell me that the editor of the Bible translation, Rev Professor Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was dismissive of the Jerusalem Bible as a translation model.  This is typically used for readings at Mass in English in Ireland and Britain.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 117, November-December 2011.

An Bíobla Naofa: The First Catholic Bible in Irish

AN BÍOBLA NAOFA: THE FIRST CATHOLIC BIBLE IN IRISH
By JOHN HENEGHAN

ACOMMITTEE WAS established in 1945 to make an Irish version of the New Testament available. Seán Ó Floinn, Éamonn Kissane and Donnchadh Ó Floinn were on that committee. Donnchadh Ó Floinn was responsible for the translation through the 1950s particularly Mark 1-8. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta and Tómas Ó Fiaich guided Luke through the printing stage. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta, Colmán Ó Huallacháin OFM and Tómas Ó Fiaich were appointed to the Committee in 1966.

John was published in Irisleabhar Má Nuad in 1962 and most of the other books were published under the imprint of An Sagart. The basic Hebrew version was used to make the books available. The Jerome Biblical Commentary, and Peakes’ International Commentary were used as these were books with expert knowledge on the bible and they assisted the research that the scholars were undertaking.

Pádraig Ó Fiannachta hadn’t much regard for the English version of the Jerusalem Bible and he didn’t use the King James version either.

The only influence of Bedell (the older Protestant translation of the Bible into Irish) was to be found in the translation work of Joseph Duffy (later Bishop of Clogher). Padraig Ó Fiannachta made sure that each translator was assisted by a bible scholar with an L.S.S. as a basic qualification.
The Advisors
Pádraig Ó Nualláin OCSO: Tobit, Ecclesiastes, the Minor Prophets except Obadiah. He also did Hebrews.
Father Colmcille OCSO: The Psalms.  Máirtín Mac Conmara MSC wrote the forward to these.
Seán de hÍde SJ: Song of Songs.
Gearóid Ó Meachair: Forward to the Prophets.
Brendan Devlin: Isaiah.
Joseph Duffy: Ezechiel
Aibhistín Valkenburg OP: Jeremiah with the forward dedicated to Bedel.
Seán Mac Cárthaigh: Acts of the Apostles and Pauline letters except Hebrews.
Tomás Mac Aodha: 1-3 John.
Pádraig Ó Fiannachta translated : Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Proverbs, Sirach, and Mark cc. 9-16, John, James, 1-2 Peter, Jude, Apocalypse.
Seán Ó Caoinleáin advised Pádraig Ó Fiannachta with the Catholic Letters.

It was Caoimhín Ó Condúin C.M., who was an advisor to Padraig Ó Fiananchta to validate his own work. He was an advisor for Pentateuch, John and the Apocalypse. He had Father Dónall Ó Conchúir for the historical books as well as the information that is in the prefaces to the for the Wisdom books except the Psalms. Ó Fiannachta was also responsible for the Irish language in the General Introduction. He translated some of the introductions too because not everyone had good Irish.

He made an effort to ensure that the language was standardised and consistent throughout the work that started with the De Bhaldraithe Dictionary and reached its climax in 1977 with the Ó Dómhnaill Dictionary. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was in correspondence with Muiris Ó Droighneáin about the standardisation also on a regular basis.
The other Advisors
Donald Ó Conchúir.
Sean Ó Caoinleáin.
Wilfrid Harrington OP.
Some other scholars were invited to make recommendations to the text as amendments:
Seán Mac Riabhaigh.
Pádraig Ó Nualláin OCSO.
Liam Leader.
Morgan Ó Curráin MSC.
Maolmhuire Ó Fiaich CSSp.

By 1977 there was an Irish version of each book published. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta got a grant from an Irish American Cultural Organisation through Cardinal Ó Fiaich to supply a single volume of the books. He promised do this within three years, he got two copies of each text as a heap of foolscap pages and he attached the text in the middle of the pages, he corrected them, he standardised them with help from other scholars, Muiris Ó Droighneáin particularly.  Then he prepared the text for the printer and went to the printer with IR£14,000 with paper which was bought from Clondalkin Paper Mills that were about to close but that were kept open for a extra few days.

There is a huge tea box in the Museum in Maynooth in which is the copy prepared for the printer and the various proof readings are there. The Bible was printed, bound ready within three years—27 months to be precise. Cardinal Ó Fiaich praised Padraig Ó Fiannachta’s work highly in the preface. It was accepted by the Church of Ireland as an authentic text and Archbishop Caird launched the second edition. A pocket edition was published after that and then it was published on CD-Rom in 1998. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta gave a chance to each of the scholars to read their work in proof format before submitting the final proofed version. He also dealt with the main business selling and commercial business arising from the bible
The Methodology and Analysis
As Pádraig Ó Fiannachta was the main worker on the translation, St John’s Gospel will be examined in detail, as he translated this himself. I chose this method as I don’t have Greek or Hebrew and as I am not a biblical scholar. Pádraig Ó Fiannachta himself recommended the Revised Standard Version (RSV) to me.

Ó Fiannachta adhers to the official standard for the most part; it is a style that is compact and precise that can be seen in it:

Thug Eoin freagra orthu. Déanaim féin baiste le huisce ar seisean ‘ach tá duine in bhur measc nach aithnid daoibh’ an té atá ag teacht i mo dhiaidh, nach fiú mé iall a chuaráin a scaoileadh (John 1: 26-27, An Bíobla Naofa, p. 1075).

The same style is adhered to throughout:

Tá an uair ag teacht—tá sí ann cheana nuair a chluinfidh na mairbh glór Mhac Dé agus iad seo a chluinfidh mairfidh siad. (John 5: 25, ibid. p. 1080)

If Ó Fiananchta’s version is compared to the RSV, some similariites and differences can be seen between them. In the English version the same concise style can be seen, but, as it was published in 1952, the English is somewhat archaic. In addition there are more notes at the foot of the pages in the English one, illustrating where the same stories can be found in the other Gospel stories. An example in critical thinking in biblical research is that of the woman accused of committing adultery which is found in the Irish Bible but is not found except as a footnote in the RSV:
John Eight

They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the Temple. The Scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery and placing her in the midst they said to him…(John 7: 53-8: 4, RSV)

This was done in the light of the most recent research because the Church at the time wished to deemphasise the merciful Jesus in return to the original scriptural sense—the mercy of God was stressed in the 19th Devotional Revolution in reaction to the Jansenist heresy which all but omitted it. The Irish Bible was published as is known after the Second Vatican Council. In general, the Ó Fiannachta style follows the normal custom of bibles. It must be remembered that Pádraig Ó Fiannachta based his translation on the basic Hebrew version and also on the Greek version. It is an excellent effort and the talents of the translator must be praised.

John Heneghan (also Seán Ó hÉanacháin) has higher degrees in Modern Irish and extensive experience in second and third level Irish language education.  He lectures in the Training College of An Garda Síochána (the Irish national police academy) and also works for the force as a certified legal translator.

The Brandsma Review, Issue 128, September-October 2013