Old Poetry

ClovisI

I'm looking for a collection of Irish poems written in the 1700s/1800s that would be comprehensible to someone with school Irish and a good dictionary (i.e. not too archaic). I've just done my Leaving Cert and I want to use the Irish I've learned to read Irish that is as authentic as possible.
Any suggestions?

If anyone is aware of a collection of Irish legends (the Fianna, Cu Chulainn and so on) as Gaeilge could you mention that too? Presumably such a collection would be a lot more recent than what I'm looking for in terms of poetry; that's totally fine.

Thank you!

dubhthach

Cuirt an Mheán Oíche/"The Midnight court" can be found online in both original Irish and in translation. It dates from circa 1780, the english language translation was banned by the Censorship board back in the day.

gaiscioch

ClovisI wrote: »

I'm looking for a collection of Irish poems written in the 1700s/1800s that would be comprehensible to someone with school Irish and a good dictionary (i.e. not too archaic). I've just done my Leaving Cert and I want to use the Irish I've learned to read Irish that is as authentic as possible.
Any suggestions?

An Duanaire, 1600-1900: Poems of the Dispossessed is still a superb anthology to introduce somebody to that poetry (English translations included). Eleanor Knott's Irish Syllabic Poetry (1957, originally 1928 but still in print) published a very fine study of the syllabic poetry which gave me at any rate a much deeper appreciation of it. I also enjoyed Seán Ó Tuama's overview of the period, Repossessions. Ó Tuama's An Grá in Amhráin na nDaoine and An Grá i bhFilíocht na nUaisle are still exceptional studies linking courtly love in Irish poetry back to Norman France, although I believe Micheál Mac Craith has challenged that view in recent years (haven't read Mac Craith, though).

Lastly, I presume you have already read Daniel Corkery's 1924 classic, The Hidden Ireland on the 18th-century Munster Aisling tradition. The Ulster poets Peadar Ó Doirnín (author of Mná na hÉireann), Art Mac Cumhaigh (author of Úr-Chill An Chreagáin), Cathal Buí Mac Giolla Ghunna (author of An Bonnán Buí) and Séamas Dall Mac Cuarta give a fantastic insight into the northern Aisling tradition during the late 17th/18th centuries, but I haven't read books on them (have superb notes from college though). What a world!

ClovisI

Thanks to both of you. An Duanaire especially sounds promising!