Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin
| Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin | |
|---|---|
| Native name | Humphrey O'Sullivan |
| Born | May 1780 Killarney, County Kerry |
| Died | 1838 |
| Language | Irish |
| Period | 1827-1835 |
| Genre | Diary |
| Subject | Irish life |
| Literary movement | Catholic Emancipation |
| Notable work | Cín Lae Amhlaoibh |
| Spouse | Máire Ní Dhulachanta |
| Relatives |
|
Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin (May 1780 – 1838) was an Irish language author, linen draper, politician, and one-time hedge school master. He is also known as Humphrey O'Sullivan.
He was deeply involved in Daniel O'Connell's Catholic Emancipation movement and in relief work among the poor of County Kilkenny. He was also an avid bird watcher and a collector of manuscripts in the Irish language.
His diary, published later as Cín Lae Amhlaoibh, was kept between 1827 and 1835. It remains one of the most important sources for 19th-century Irish life and one of the few surviving works from the perspective of the Roman Catholic lower and middle classes. (A translation has been published in English and an abridged and annotated edition in Irish, both edited by Tomás de Bhaldraithe.) Ó Súilleabháin also composed verse and stories.
Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin was born in Killarney, County Kerry. He came to live at Callan County Kilkenny, when he was nine years old, joining his father, Donncha Ó Súilleabháin. Father and son established themselves as teachers in the surrounding towns. They began by teaching under the hedges, but eventually a cabin was built as a school. Amhlaoibh took over the post of teacher there when his father died in 1808. He remained a resident of Callan until his death. County Kilkenny was at the time one of the most strongly Irish-speaking areas in Leinster.
As a teacher, Amhlaoibh was well versed in mathematics and Latin, and is likely also to have taught English to a high standard. His diary shows him to have had a deep interest in the natural world, and there are daily references to the weather.
Though he was clearly a master of English, his diary is mostly in Irish, with occasional business-related entries in English (probably so that such transactions could be verified by others). He mostly eschewed the archaisms favoured by other writers in Irish, writing in a fluent, flexible, colloquial style which could encompass both concision and literary elaboration. His diary shows him to have been deeply involved in the life of the poor but to have been well acquainted also with local notables. He was fond of occasional revelry and a good meal.
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