Irish historian vindicated 300 years on – thanks to Oxford professor

More than three centuries ago, in 1686, Irish historian Roderick O'Flaherty felt slighted.

He had recently published his magnum opus, a comprehensive tome called Ogygia which charted the succession of monarchs in ancient Ireland and was dedicated to the future King James II.

But just months after Ogygia was published, a fellow scholar brought out his own book, which made disparaging remarks about O'Flaherty’s work in the preface – also dedicated to James.

O'Flaherty attempted to set the record straight, but his efforts to publish a riposte – titled Ogygia Vindicated – came to nothing in his and the king's lifetime.

Now, more than 325 years later, Oxford University historian Professor Richard Sharpe has gone some way to righting the wrong by presenting a copy of his new book – which brings together O'Flaherty’s letters – to the Irish president Michael D Higgins.

Professor Sharpe, a Fellow of Wadham College, launched Roderick O'Flaherty’s Letters 1696–1709 at an event hosted by the Royal Irish Academy before presenting it to the president the following day.

Professor Sharpe said: 'O'Flaherty was driven to seek the publication of Ogygia Vindicated because, soon after the appearance of Ogygia, he felt he was mocked by Sir George Mackenzie, Lord Advocate of Scotland, in the preface to his own book addressed to James II.'

O'Flaherty – Ruaidhrí Ó Flaithbheartaigh in Irish – was born in County Galway in 1629. A learned man, his Ogygia was published in Latin in London in 1685 with a dedication to James, Duke of York, who succeeded to the throne as James II of England and Ireland and James VII of Scotland while the book was in press.

Professor Sharpe said: 'Ogygia was about the succession of kings in ancient Ireland – seriously ancient, as in the pre-Christian Iron Age before the coming of St Patrick.

'It's a difficult book that deals with ancient Irish annals, genealogies and chronological poems, and O'Flaherty was the first author in print to quote from medieval Irish manuscripts by folio.

'O'Flaherty felt that his book had been slighted by Sir George Mackenzie, who disagreed with him on the ancient lineage of the Stuart monarchy. He wrote his reply, Ogygia Vindicated, but it was not published in his lifetime – indeed, not until 1775 – and by then the preface to James II had been ripped out and was lost forever.

'In one of his letters to Edward Lhwyd, keeper of the Ashmolean Museum and a renowned Welsh scholar, O'Flaherty said: "I take it an essential point to make my address to the Throne, before which I was misrepresented."

'I thought that presenting a copy of my book to an Irish head of state was some vindication for O'Flaherty more than 300 years on.'

Professor Sharpe's book prints and comments on O'Flaherty's letters to Lhwyd, the Irish philosopher and politician William Molyneux, and Molyneux's son Samuel, who visited O'Flaherty in the early 18th century and was horrified by what he perceived as the wretchedness of his living conditions in the west of Ireland.

The book was launched at the Royal Irish Academy by Ruairi Quinn, the Irish minister for education and skills. Professor Sharpe then presented a copy to President Higgins, a former minister of culture and previously a member of the Dáil Éireann for O'Flaherty’s territory in Galway West.

Roderick O'Flaherty's Letters 1696–1709 was sponsored by O'Flaherty Holdings and is published by the Royal Irish Academy.

Images

Top: Professor Richard Sharpe (second from right) after presenting a copy of his new book to Irish president Michael D Higgins (second from left). Credit: Royal Irish Academy

Middle: L-R: Luke Drury (president of the Royal Irish Academy), Professor Richard Sharpe and Ruairi Quinn (Irish minister for education and skills). Credit: John Ohle

Bottom: Professor Richard Sharpe speaking at the launch of his new book. Credit: John Ohle