Foras Feasa ar Éirinn
Foras Feasa ar Éirinn– literally 'Foundation of Knowledge on Ireland', but most often known in English as 'The History of Ireland'[1]– is a narrative history of Ireland byGeoffrey Keating,written inIrishand completedc. 1634.[2]
Outline[edit]
It begins with a preface in which Keating defends the honour of Ireland against the denigrations of writers such asGiraldus Cambrensis,[3]followed by a narrative history in two parts: part one, from the creation of the world to the arrival of Christianity in the 5th century, and part two, from the 5th century to the coming of the Normans during the 12th century.[4]
It depicts Ireland as an autonomous, unitary kingdom of great antiquity. The early part of the work is largely mythical, depicting the history of Ireland as a succession of invasions and settlements, and derives primarily from medieval writings such as theLebor Gabála Érenn,theDindsenchas,royal genealogies and stories of heroic kings. The later part depicts the Normans as the latest of this series of settlers.[3]Keating, a Catholic priest ofHiberno-Normanancestry, gave Irish people of both Gaelic and Norman ancestry credit for the development of the nation,[4]and emphasised the role of theChurchas a unifying factor inIrish culture.[3]
The work was extremely popular, surviving in a large number of manuscripts,[5]and its prose style became the standard followed by generations of Irish-language writers.[6]It has been said that it had "an influence on Irish language and literature as significant as Shakespeare's role in relation to English".[7]
However, it was received critically from the start by some withSir Richard Cox(1650..1733), a Protestant lawyer of English descent, describing it in the 1680s as "an ill-digested heap of very silly fictions".[3]Modern scholars consider in the context of the antiquarian tendency ofRenaissance humanism,with Keating expounding on ancient Irish sources, whose authority he defends, to provide "an origin-legend forCounter-ReformationCatholic Ireland. "[5]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^"Describing the Battle - Keating'sForas Feasa ar Éireann(1643),Battle of Clontarf, Trinity College Dublin, retrieved 17 September 2015
- ^Bernadette Cunningham, ‘Keating, Geoffrey [Seathrún Céitinn] (b. c.1580, d. in or before 1644)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004,accessed 17 Sept 2015
- ^abcdBernadette Cunningham,"Geoffrey Keating’sForas Feasa ar Éirinn",History IrelandVol. 9 issue 1, Spring 2001, retrieved 17 September 2015
- ^abLibrary:Foras Feasa ar ÉirinnArchived2022-12-15 at theWayback Machine,Royal Irish Academy, retrieved 11 January 2023
- ^abBrendan Bradshaw, Andrew Hadfield and Willy Maley,Representing Ireland: Literature and the Origins of Conflict, 1534-1660,Cambridge University Press, 1993, pp. 166-168
- ^Diarmuid Ó Murchadha (2005)"A review of some placename material fromForas Feasa ar Éirinn",Éigse,A Journal of Irish Studies,Vol. 35, p. 81, National University of Ireland
- ^Cunningham, Bernadette (2000).The World of Geoffrey Keating: History, Myth and Religion in Seventeenth-century Ireland.Four Courts Press.ISBN978-1-85182-533-2.
Editions and translation[edit]
- For a fuller list of translations and editions, see:"The History of Ireland",Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT)
- Keating, Geoffrey(1723), O'Connor, Dermod (ed.),The General History of Ireland..
- Keating, Geoffrey(1857), O'Mahony, John (ed.),The History of Ireland..,New York, P. M. Haverty
- Keating, Geoffrey(1857) [?],The History of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating DD(in Irish and English)
- Comyn, David, ed. (1902),"1. The Introduction and the First Book of the History",Irish Texts Society,vol. 4
- Comyn, David, ed. (1908),"2. The First Book of the History from Sect. XV to the end",Irish Texts Society,vol. 8
- Dinneen, Patrick S., ed. (1908),"3. The Second Book of the History",Irish Texts Society,vol. 9
- Dinneen, Patrick S., ed. (1914),"4. The Genealogies and Synchronisms with an Index",Irish Texts Society,vol. 15
Manuscripts[edit]
- "Foras Feasa ar Éirinn (UCD Franciscan MS A14)",Irish Script On Screen (ISOS)(in Irish)
External links[edit]
- "Life and Work of Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn)",Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT)
