21.03.2013
Thursday, 21 March 2013 – National University of Ireland,
49 Merrion Square at 5.30pm
President Michael D. Higgins launched a facsimile reproduction of Lia Fáil Irisleabhar Gaeilge Ollscoil na hÉireann, edited by
Douglas Hyde.
President Michael D. Higgins today launched a facsimile reproduction of Lia
Fáil Irisleabhar Gaeilge Ollscoil na
hÉireann. This is a journal of modern Irish studies edited by Douglas Hyde when Professor of Irish in UCD and originally published by the NUI.
The Chancellor of NUI, Dr Maurice Manning welcomed the President. Replying to the President, Professor Liam Mac Mathúna, editor of the new edition of Lia Fáil, remarked that: “We are very honoured this evening that
President Michael D. Higgins has
joined us in recognising the outstanding contribution which Douglas Hyde made to Irish life over a period of more than sixty years, as he laboured tirelessly as a pioneering revivalist, as a dedicated scholar and as an active participant in public affairs”.
Professor Mac Mathúna also noted that “the care taken by the National University of Ireland with Lia Fáil, and the recognition
accorded by President Michael D. Higgins to its editor and his predecessor, Dr Douglas Hyde, may be taken as being
indicative of an ongoing national commitment to Irish language scholarship, which will continue to have its central forum in the pages of Éigse: A
Journal of Irish Studies, the successor to Lia Fáil”. The latest edition of Éigse, edited by Professor Mac Mathúna will be published shortly.
Note
Hyde was appointed first Professor of Modern Irish in UCD in 1909. In 1922 the Senate of the National University of Ireland accepted a recommendation from the Professors of Irish that the Dr. Adam Boyd Simpson bequest should be used to fund ‘a journal of Irish
research’. Hyde (Dubhglas de h-Íde, An Craoibhín) w
as appointed editor. The result was Lia Fáil, an Irish language journal. Four volumes were published between 1925 and 1932, the year of Hyde’s retirement
from UCD. Scholarly, interesting and innovative, Lia Fáil featured a wide range of material and included articles by Hyde’s postgraduate students. The journal had long been out of print. This facsimile reproduction of the four volumes, edited by Liam Mac Mathúna, with an introduction by Seán Ó Coileáin, makes its contents available to a new readership. NUI Chancellor Dr Maurice Manning contributes a reflection on Hyde and the Presidency.
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