Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Roderick O'Flaherty
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
{{short description|Irish historian}} {{redirect|Ruaidhri O Flaithbheartaigh|the Irish king|Ruaidhri Ó Flaithbheartaigh}} {{EngvarB|date=November 2013}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} '''Roderick O'Flaherty''' ({{langx|ga|Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh}}; 1629–1718 or 1716) was an Irish historian.<ref>{{cite DNB| wstitle= O'Flaherty, Roderic|last= Gilbert |first= John Thomas|authorlink= John Thomas Gilbert |volume= 42}}</ref> ==Biography== He was born in [[County Galway]] and inherited [[Moycullen]] Castle and estate. O'Flaherty was the last ''de jure'' [[Tigerna|Lord]] of [[Iar Connacht]], and the last recognised [[Chief of the Name]] of [[Irish clan|Clan]] [[O'Flaherty]]. He lost the greater part of his ancestral estates to [[Plantations of Ireland#Cromwellian land confiscation (1652)|Cromwellian confiscations]] in the 1650s. The remainder was stolen through deception, by his son's [[Anglo-Irish]] father-in-law, Richard "Nimble Dick" Martin of Ross. As Martin had given service to some captured Williamite, officers he was allowed to keep his lands. It was therefore arranged that to protect from confiscation 200,000 acres of Connemara lands held by O'Flahertys, Joyces, Lees, and others that were transferred into Martin's name with the trust they would be returned. However, Martin betrayed his former friends and neighbours and kept all of their lands. Uniquely among the O'Flaherty family up to that time, Roderick became a highly regarded historian and collector of Irish manuscripts. His friends and associates included his teacher [[Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh]]; [[Daibhidh Ó Duibhgheannáin]]; [[John Lynch (Irish historian)|John Lynch]]; [[Edward Lluyd]]; [[Samuel Moleneaux]] and his father [[William Molyneux|William]].<ref name="ODNB">{{cite book |first=James G. |last=O'Hara |chapter=Molyneux, William (1656–1698) |title=[[Dictionary of National Biography]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |date=2008 |orig-date=2004}}</ref> O'Flaherty's published works included ''Ogyia'' and ''Iar Connacht''. He is often associated with his elaborate history of Ireland, ''Ogygia'', published in 1685 as ''{{lang|la|Ogygia: Seu Rerum Hibernicarum Chronologia|italic=unset}} & etc.'', in 1793 translated into English by Rev. James Hely under the full title ''Ogygia, or a Chronological Account of Irish Events (Collected from Very Ancient Documents Faithfully Compared with Each Other & Supported by the Genealogical & Chronological Aid of the Sacred and Profane Writings of the Globe)''. [[Ogygia]] is the island of [[Calypso (mythology)|Calypso]], used by O'Flaherty as an allegory for Ireland. Drawing from numerous ancient documents, ''Ogygia'' traces Irish history back to the ages of mythology and legend, before the 1st century. The book credits [[Milesius]] as the progenitor of the [[Goidelic]] people. O'Flaherty had included in his history what purported to be an essay on the understanding of the ancient [[Ogham]] alphabet. Based on the 1390 ''[[Auraicept na n-Éces]]'', he stated that each letter was named after a tree, a concept widely accepted in 17th century Ireland. ''Ogygia'' was immediately criticised for its scholarship by [[George Mackenzie (lawyer)|George Mackenzie]] of Rosehaugh (1636–91), Dean of Faculty (1682) at Aberdeen. The arguments about O'Flaherty's work continued well into the 18th century, culminating in the 1775 ''The Ogygia Vindicated'' by the historian [[Charles O'Conor (historian)|Charles O'Conor]], in which he adds explanatory footnotes to the original work. Thomas Molyneux visited O'Flaherty on 21 April 1709 and left the following eyewitness account:<ref>{{cite journal |title=Journey to Connaught, April 1709 |first=Aquilla |last=Smith |journal=The Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society |volume=1 |location=Dublin |publisher=[[Irish Archaeological Society]] |date=1846 |pages=161–178}}</ref> {{blockquote|I went to vizit old Flaherty, who lives, very old, in a miserable condition at Park, some 3 hours west of Gallway, in Hiar or West-Connaught. I expected to have seen here some old Irish manuscripts, but his ill fortune has stripp'd him of these as well as his other goods, so that he has nothing now left but some few of his own writing, and a few old rummish books of history printed. In my life I never saw so strangely stony and wild a country. I did not see all this way 3 living creatures, not one house or ditch, not one bit of corn, nor even, I might say, a bit of land, for stones: in short nothing appear'd but stones and sea, nor could I conceive an inhabited country so destitute of all signs of people and art as this is.}} O'Flaherty died in poverty at Páirc, near [[Spiddal]]. He was survived by his daughters, and a son, Micheal Ó Flaithbheartaigh.<ref>O'Flaherty, Roderick (O Flaithbheartaigh, Ruaidhri), Vincent Morley, in Dictionary of Irish Biography from the Earliest Times to the Year 2002, pp. 469–70, Cambridge, 2010. https://www.dib.ie/biography/oflaherty-roderick-o-flaithbheartaigh-ruaidhri-a6754</ref> ==See also== * [[Tadhg Og Ó Cianáin]] * [[Peregrine Ó Duibhgeannain]] * [[Lughaidh Ó Cléirigh]] * [[Mícheál Ó Cléirigh]] * [[James Ussher]] * [[Sir James Ware]] * [[Mary Bonaventure Browne]] * [[Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh]] * [[Uilliam Ó Duinnín]] * [[Charles O'Conor (historian)]] * [[Eugene O'Curry]] * [[John O'Donovan (scholar)]] ==References== {{Reflist}} *Peter Berresford Ellis, ''[http://cura.free.fr/xv/13ellis2.html The Fabrication of 'Celtic' Astrology]'', The Astrological Journal (vol 39. n. 4, 1997) * ''O'Flaherty, Roderick (O Flaithbheartaigh, Ruaidhri)'', Vincent Morley, in ''Dictionary of Irish Biography from the Earliest Times to the Year 2002'', pp. 469–70, Cambridge, 2010. * ''Roderick O'Flaherty's Letters to William Molyneux, Edward Lhwyd, and Samuel Molyneux 1696–1709'', Dublin, [[Royal Irish Academy]], 2012. == External links == *{{Cite book |last=O'Flaherty |first=Roderic |author-link=Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh |year=1684 |translator-last=Hely |translator-first=James |title=Ogygia |volume=I |publisher=Printed by W. M'Kenzie |publication-date=1793 |publication-place=Dublin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OA0wAAAAMAAJ }} *{{Cite book |last=O'Flaherty |first=Roderic |author-link=Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh |year=1684 |translator-last=Hely |translator-first=James |title=Ogygia |volume=II |publication-date=1793 |publication-place=Dublin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pD0IAAAAQAAJ }} *{{Cite book |last=O'Flaherty |first=Roderic |author-link=Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh |year=1684 |editor-last=O'Conor |editor-first=Charles |editor-link=Charles O'Conor (historian) |title=The Ogygia Vindicated: Against the Objections of Sir George Mackenzie |publisher=G. Faulkner |publication-date=1775 |publication-place=Dublin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gmYuAAAAMAAJ }} O'Conor provided annocations and a dissertation on the "Origin and antiquities of the {{not a typo|antient}} Scots" {{Hiberno-Latin post-1169}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:OFlaherty, Roderick}} [[Category:17th-century Irish historians]] [[Category:18th-century Irish historians]] [[Category:Irish scribes]] [[Category:1629 births]] [[Category:1718 deaths]] [[Category:People from Moycullen]] [[Category:Irish chroniclers]] [[Category:O'Flaherty dynasty|Roderick]] [[Category:Irish-language writers]] [[Category:Irish writers in Latin]] [[Category:17th-century writers in Latin]] [[Category:Writers from County Galway]]
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page
(
help
)
:
Template:Authority control
(
edit
)
Template:Blockquote
(
edit
)
Template:Cite DNB
(
edit
)
Template:Cite book
(
edit
)
Template:Cite journal
(
edit
)
Template:Comma separated entries
(
edit
)
Template:EngvarB
(
edit
)
Template:Hiberno-Latin post-1169
(
edit
)
Template:Lang
(
edit
)
Template:Langx
(
edit
)
Template:Main other
(
edit
)
Template:Not a typo
(
edit
)
Template:Redirect
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Template:Short description
(
edit
)
Template:Use dmy dates
(
edit
)