Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 8.djvu/170

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IRELAND


130


IREN^nS


nica (Rome, 1677), 144-280. re-edited and translated by O'Flannghaile (Dublin, 1908); Atkinson, Irish metric, an inaugural lecture on Celtic philology (Dublin, 1884); Thurney- 8EN in Irische Texte, III, i, pp. 1-182; Idem, Zur irischen Accent- und Verslehre in Revue Celtigue, VI; Meter, Primer of Irish Metrics (Dublin. 1909); Zimmer. Ueber altirische Betonung urul Verskunst in Kcltische Sludien, II (Berlin, 1884).

Bardic Poetry. — O'Donovan, Topographical Poems, edited for the Irish ArchEBOlogieal and Celtic Society (Dublin, 1841, 1862); Stern, Bardic Poems from a collection in Copenhagen in Zeit. fur celt. Phil., II; O'Gradt, Catalogue of Irish MSS. in the British Museum.

Modern Irish Poetry. — The Gaelic Journal (Dublin, 1882-1909); Hardiman, Irish Minstrelsy (2 vols., London, 1831); Hyde, Irish Poetry, An essay in Irish with translation (Dublin, 1902); Idem, Love songs of Connacht (4th ed., DubUn, 1909); Idem, Religious songs of Connacht (2 vols., Dublin, 1906); Idem, Poems ascribed to Raftery (Dublin); Dinneen, Egan O'Rahilly's poems, edited for the Irish Texts Society (1900); MAcGloLLAMElDHRE(i.e. MacConmara), The Midnight Court, ed. Stern, Ger. tr. in Zeit. fur celt. Phil., V (1905). and by O'Brien AND O'CoNNELL, without tr. (Dubhn, 1909); Donn- niADH Uuadh Mac Conmara, Poems, ed. Flannery (Dub- lin, 1897), another edition was brought out, edited by Foley (Dublin, 1908); O'Daly, Poets and Poetry ofMunster, with tr. by Mangan, vol. I (Dublin, 1849); II. with tr. by Sigerson (Dub- lin, I860); 0^\j:>o^Y,Y,PoemswrittenbytheClareBards{'D\xh\m, 1863); Walsh, Irish Popular Songs (Dublin, 1847); O'Daly, Irish Language Miscellany (1876); Michael and Thomas O'Mallet, Amhrdin Chlainne Gaedhal (Dublin, 1905).

Within the last few years the poems of a number of seven- teenth and eighteenth century writers have been collected and edited for the 6rst time by John Mac Erlean, Poems of Geof- frey Keating (Dublin, 1900); Dinneen, Poems of Geoffrey O'Dono- ghue of the Glen; Idem, Poems of Pierce Ferriter; Idem, Poems of Sedghan Cldrach Mac Donnell; Idem, Poems of Owen Roe O'Sul- livan; Idem, Poets of the Maigue, John O'Tuomy arid Andrew Magrath; Idem, Poems of Tadhg Gaelach 0' Sullivan; T. O'DoNO- GHUE, Poems of Sedghan O^Murchadha na Raithineach; R. Foley, Poems of Pierce Fitzgerald; J. H. Lloyd, The Poems of Colm Wallace, a recent Connacht poet.

Facsimiles of Irish MSS. — The Book of the Dun Cow, a MS. of about A. D. 1100; the Book of Leinster, a MS. of about A, d. 1150; the Yellow Book of Lecan; the Book of Ballymote; the Leabhar Breac, or Speckled Book. " Rawlinson B. 602" (a Bodleian MS., Oxford, 1909).

Anglo-Irish Literature. — Crofton Croker, The Popular Songs of Ireland (London, 1839); McCarthy, Poets and Dramatists of Ireland (Dublin, 1846); D'Arcy McGee, Irish Writers of the 17th Century (Dublin, 1846); Heuser, Die Kildare-Gedichte, die altesten Mittelenglischen Denkmdler in anglo-irischer Ueberlieferung (.Bonn, 1904); Stoppord Brooke and Rolleston, Treasury of Irish Poetry in the English Tongue (London, 1900); Read, Cabinet of Irish Literature (4 vols., London, 1902); Cooke, The Dublin Book of Irish Verse, 1728-1909 (Dublin, 1909); Gavan Duffy, Ballad Poetry of /re/and (Dublin, 1845); Williams, Poets and Poetry of Ireland (Boston, 1881); Hayes, Ballads of Ireland (2 vols., 1855); Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1887); Yeats, A Book of Irish Verse, selected from modern writers (London, 1895); O'Don- oghue. Biographical Dictionary of the Poets of Ireland (Dublin, 1901); Welsh, Irish Literature (10 vols., Philadelphia, 1904).

Douglas Hyde. Ireland, John. See St. Paul, Akchdiocese of.

Ireland (alias Ironmonger), William, Venera- ble, Jesuit martyr, b. in Lincolnshire, 1636; exe- cuted at Tyburn, 24 Jan. (not 3 Feb.), 1679; eldest son of William Ireland of Crofton Hall, Yorkshire, by Barbara, a daughter of Ralph Eure, of Washing- borough, Lincolnshire (who is to be distinguished from the last Lord Eure) by his first wife. He was educated at the English College, St. Omer; admitted to the Society of Jesus at Watten, 1655; professed, 1673; and was for several years confessor to the Poor Clares at Gravelines. In 1677 he was sent on the English Mission and appointed procurator of the province. On the night of 28 September, 1678, he wa.s arrested by Titus Gates in person, and amongst others who shared his fate was John Grove, a layman, the nominal occupier of that part of Wild House, London, occupied by the Jesuits, the Spanish ambassa- dor living under the same roof. After rigorous con- finement in Newgate they were both sentenced to death on 17 December following, together with Thomas Pickering, for having, in the rooms of Williani Il.ir- court, the Jesuit, on the previous 19 Auguf^l , pliuincd to assassin-ate the king. Gates and Bedloc swore t hat Grove was to have £1.500 for the job, and Pickering 30,000 Masses. Ireland, in a journal written in New- gate, accounted for every day of his absence from


London between 3 August and 14 September, but a woman having sworn that she saw him in Fetter Lane, on 20 August, all tliree were found guilty, and after two reprieves Ireland and Grove were executed to- gether. Grove saying: "We are innocent, we lose our lives wrongfully, we pray God to forgive them that are the causes of it."

Diet. Nat. Biog., s. v.; Gillow, Bibl. Diet. Eng. Oath., s. v.; G. E. C(okayne), Peerage of England, III (London, 1890), 294; Harleian isoc. Publ., L (London, 1902), 338; Challoner, Mis- sionary Priests, II (London and Derby, s. d.), 361; Pollock, The Popish Plot (London, 1903).

John B. Wainewkight.

Irenaeus, Saint, Bishop of Lyons, Father of the Church. — Information as to his life is scarce, and in some measure inexact. He was bom in Proconsular Asia, or at least in some province bordering thereon, in the first half of the second century; the exact date is controverted, between the years 115 and 125, ac- cording to some, or, according to others, between 130 and 142. It is certain that, while still very young, Irenaeus had seen and heard the holy BLshop Polycarp (d. 155) at Smyrna. During the persecu- tion of Marcus Aurelius, Irenseus was a priest of the Church of Lyons. The clergy of that city, many of whom were suffering imprisonment for the Faith, sent him (177 or 178) to Rome with a letter to Pope Eleutherius concerning Montanism, and on that occa- sion bore emphatic testimony to his merits. Return- ing to Gaul, Irenaeus succeeded the martyr Saint Pothinus as Bishop of Lyons. During the religious peace which followed the persecution of Marcus Aurelius, the new bishop divided his activities be- tween the duties of a pastor and of a missionary (as to which we have but brief data, late and not very certain) and his writings, almost all of which were directed against Gnosticism, the heresy then spread- ing in Gaul and elsewhere. In 190 or 191 he inter- ceded with Pope Victor to lift the sentence of ex- communication laid by that pontiff upon the Christian communities of Asia Minor which persevered in the practice of the Quartodecimans in regard to the celebration of Easter. Nothing is known of the date of his death, which must have occurred at the end of the second or the beginning of the third century. In spite of some isolated and later testimony to that effect, it is not very probable that he ended his career with martyrdom. His feast is celebrated on 28 July in the Latin Church, and on 23 August in the Greek.

Irenaeus wrote in Greek many works which have se- cured for him an exceptional iilaoc in Cliristian litera- ture, because in controvert eil ivligicnis i|ue.stions of capital importance they exliibit the testimony of a contemporary of the lieroic age of the Church, of one who had heard St. Polycarp. the disciple of St. John, and who, in a manner, belonged to the Apostolic Age. None of these writings have come down to us in the original text, though a great many fragments of them are extant as citations in later writers (Hippolytus, Eusebius, etc.). Two of the.se works, however, have reached us in their entirety in a Latin version: (1) A treatise in five books, commonly entitled "Ad- versus Haereses", and devoted, according to its true title, to the "Detection and Overthrow of the False Knowledge " (see Gnosticism, sub-title Refutation of Gnosticism). Of this work we possess a very ancient Latin translation, the scrupulous fidelity of which is beyond doubt. It is the chief work of Irenseus and truly of the highest importance; it contains a profound exposition not only of Gnosticism under its different forms, but also of the principal heresies which had sprung up in the various Cliristian communities, and thus constitutes an invahiable source of information on the most ancient ecclrsiastical literature from its beginnings to the end of the second century. In refuting the heterod<ix systems Irena-us often opposes to them the true doctrine of the Church, and in tliis