[DUNLEVY, Andrew].

A very good copy of the first edition of this bilingual Gaelic-English Catholic catechism – ‘the most complete formal text in Irish for this period and draws on the author’s spoken Irish’ (ODNB). Andrew Donlevy (1680–1746) was an Irish Catholic priest who trained in Ireland and France. ‘In 1742 he published in Paris “An teagasg Críosduidhe”, a catechism of Christian doctrine, with facing Irish and English text, with the intention of offsetting a shortage of catechetical material in Ireland. The volume also contained at the end a reprint of the verse synopsis of Christian doctrine by the great Franciscan poet Giolla Brighde Ó hEódhasa (Bonaventura O’Hussey, d.1614) and an essay in English on the “elements of the Irish language”, in which he expressed regret that Irish was on the brink of decay’ (Dic. Irish Biog.). Each section is organised into short questions and answers on topics such as the Articles of Faith, the Redemption of Man, the Commandments, vices, etc. The final introduction to the Irish language begins with the alphabet, and continues with vowels, diphthongs and triphthongs, consonants, abbreviations, and sundry observations on diacritics and apostrophe, as well as on the decay of the Irish language as compared to English, as ‘Irish-Men without Irish is an Incongruity’. A very interesting work.