imported>Jevansen: Removing from Category:Linguists from Ireland using Cat-a-lot

2025-03-05T04:54:06Z

Removing from Category:Linguists from Ireland using Cat-a-lot

New page

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}
{{Use Irish English|date=December 2020}}
'''James Patrick Carney''' (17 May 1914 – 7 July 1989) was a noted [[Irish people|Irish]] [[Celts|Celtic]] scholar.

He was born in [[Portlaoise]], [[County Laois]] and was educated at the [[Congregation of Christian Brothers|Christian Brothers]] school in [[Synge Street]], [[Dublin]]. He took his degree at [[University College Dublin]] in 1935, before going to [[Bonn University]] to study under [[Rudolf Thurneysen]].<ref name="datasets1">{{cite web| url=http://www.ricorso.net/rx/az-data/authors/c/Carney_J/life.htm| title=James Carney| publisher=Ricorso| access-date=2009-02-17}}</ref><ref name="publications1">{{cite journal| title=James Patrick Carney| last=McCaughey| first=Terence|journal=[[Celtica (journal)|Celtica]]| volume=23| year=1999| pages= 188–192| url=http://www.celt.dias.ie/publications/celtica/c23/c23-188.pdf| access-date=2010-11-14}}</ref>

On returning to Dublin, Carney worked under [[Osborn Bergin]], Gerard Murphy, [[Richard Irvine Best]] and [[T. F. O'Rahilly]]. He pioneered an approach to early Irish texts which focused on their literary merit and their affinities with the other literatures of the medieval world.<ref name="publications1"/> His ''Studies in Irish Literature and History'' which appeared in 1956 challenged the 'nativist' approach to Irish literature which had dominated the scholarship of the previous decades.<ref name="publications1"/> His work on [[Saint Patrick]] also proved controversial.<ref name="publications1"/> Carney had controversial views that Christianity had in fact been an overthrow of the pagan druidic order. The 1955 publication of James Carney's ‘Studies in Irish Literature and History’ was seen as the beginning point of the late-twentieth century ‘anti-nativist’ movement. The group for the first time promoted the idea that very little can be known of the earlier oral tradition of the Irish, since all that remains are Christian texts written by Christian clergy and that these clergy were not sympathetic to, but critical of paganism.<ref>[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/229402143.pdf Brigit: Goddess, Saint, ‘Holy Woman’, and Bone of Contention, Carole M Cusack, Core Research Website ]</ref><ref>[https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-02439301/document New Developments in the Study of the Wild Man in Medieval Irish Literature, Anna Matheson, 22 June 2020, halshs.archives-ouvertes]</ref>

He was attached to the [[Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies]] from its foundation by [[Éamon de Valera]] in 1940 and became Professor of Irish there.<ref name="datasets1"/><ref name="publications2">{{cite journal| title=James Carney's connections with Uppsala University| last=Bramsbäck| first=Birgit|journal=[[Celtica (journal)|Celtica]]| volume=23| year=1999| pages=1–2| url=http://www.celt.dias.ie/publications/celtica/c23/c23-1.pdf| access-date=2010-11-14}}</ref> From 1950–1952 he was visiting professor at [[Uppsala University]] where he and his wife founded a Department of Celtic Studies.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ucc.ie/en/lawsite/staff/pcarney/ |title=University College Cork (UCC): Faculty of Law |publisher=[[University College Cork]] |access-date=2009-02-17}}</ref> He was awarded an honorary doctorate by that institution in 1975.<ref name="publications2"/> In 1959, he was appointed member of the [[Royal Society of the Humanities at Uppsala]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bramsbäck|first=Birgit|date=1999|title=James Carney’s connections with Uppsala University|journal=Celtica|volume=23|pages=1–2}}</ref>

==Writings==
James Carney along with [[Eoin MacNeill]] put forward the theory that Ogham was first created as a cryptic alphabet or secret language designed by the Irish at the time of Roman invasion and rule. Both historians believed that the Irish designed it in response to political, military and/or religious reasons so that those with knowledge of just Latin could not read it. Carney identified the genealogies of the [[County Kerry|Kerry]] poet [[Luccreth moccu Chiara]] back to the ancient people of [[Cíarraige]], he provided extensive research on his poem [[Táin Bó Cúailnge#Text| Conailla Medb Míchuru’]] ("Medb enjoined evil contracts"), which contains the oldest surviving reference to characters and events from the Ulster Cycle and it is strongly connected to the [[Táin Bó Cúailnge]] saga. <ref> [http://www.cip.ifi.lmu.de/~langeh/test/1975%20-%20Carney%20-%20The%20Invention%20of%20the%20Ogom%20Cipher.pdf The invention of the Ogom Cipher, James Carney, Eriu, Vol. 26(1975), pp. 53-65, Royal Irish Academy, Jstor website ]</ref><ref>James Carney, "Language and literature in 1169", in Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (ed.), ''A New History of Ireland 1: Prehistoric and Early Ireland'', Oxford University Press, 2005, pp. 451-510</ref> <ref name="carney-eriu">[[James Carney (Celtic scholar)|James Carney]], "Three Old Irish Accentual Poems", ''[[Ériu (journal)|Ériu]]'' vol 22, 1971, pp. 23-80</ref>

He was married to Maura Morrissey, also an academic and a member of the [[Royal Irish Academy]], who predeceased him in 1975. The couple had a son, [[Paul Carney|Paul]], who was a judge in the [[Irish High Court]].<ref name="publications2"/>

== Select publications ==
*''Topographical Poems by [[Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin]] and [[Giolla na Naomh Ó hUuidrain]]'', editor, (1943)
*''Poems on the Butlers of Ormond, Cahir and Dunboyne, AD 1400-1650'', editor, (1945)
*''A Genealogical History of the O’Reillys, from Irish of [[Eoghan Ó Raghallaigh]]'', editor, (1950)
*''Studies in Irish Literature and History'' (1956)
*''The Problem of St Patrick'' (1961)
*''Early Irish Poetry'' (1965)
*''Medieval Irish Lyrics'' (1967)
*''The Irish Bardic Poet'' (1967)
*''Poems on the O’Reillys'', editor, (1970)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Carney, James}}
[[Category:Academics of the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies]]
[[Category:Celtic studies scholars]]
[[Category:1914 births]]
[[Category:1989 deaths]]
[[Category:People from Portlaoise]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish historians]]
[[Category:20th-century Irish linguists]]

James Carney (scholar) - Revision history

imported>Jevansen: Removing from Category:Linguists from Ireland using Cat-a-lot