Eugene O'Curry

Eugene O'Curry
Photograph taken of Eugene Curry abt 1850.
Born	(1794-11-20)20 November 1794 Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, Ireland
Died	30 July 1862(1862-07-30) (aged 67) Dublin, Ireland
Occupation	Scholar

Eugene O'Curry (Irish: Eoghan Ó Comhraí, 20 November 1794 – 30 July 1862) was an Irish philologist and antiquary.

He was born at Doonaha, near Carrigaholt, County Clare, the son of Eoghan Ó Comhraí, a farmer, and his wife Cáit. Eoghan had spent some time as a travelling pedlar and had developed an interest in Irish folklore and music. Unusually for someone of his background, he appears to have been literate and he is known to have possessed a number of Irish manuscripts. It is likely that Eoghan was primarily responsible for his son's education.

Having spent some years working on his father's farm and as a school teacher, Eugene O'Curry moved to Limerick in c. 1824 and spent seven years working there at a mental hospital. He married Anne Broughton, daughter of John Broughton of Killaderry near Broadford, County Limerick on 3 October 1824. O'Curry was a supporter of Catholic Emancipation and in 1828 wrote a poem congratulating Daniel O'Connell on his election as an MP.

During this period O'Curry was establishing a reputation for his knowledge of the Irish language and Irish history, and, by 1834, was in correspondence with the antiquary John O'Donovan. He was employed, from 1835 to 1842, on O'Donovan's recommendation, in the topographical and historical section of the Irish Ordnance Survey. O'Donovan went on to marry O'Curry's sister-in-law, Mary Anne Broughton, in 1840. O'Curry spent much of the remainder of his life in Dublin and earned his living by translating and copying Irish manuscripts; the catalogue of Irish manuscripts in the British Museum (1849) was compiled by him for a fee of £100. O'Curry was responsible for the transcripts of Irish manuscripts from which O'Donovan edited The Annals of the Four Masters between 1848 and 1851.