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As part of my Irish Studies degree, I’m taking a watercolor elective. My next project will be a complicated knotwork with five figures (Yeats, Joyce, O’Carolan, Raftery, and Peig). I was going to include an inscription, “Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann,” but I was a bit concerned on further reflection that rather than recognizing their wonderful contributions to Irish culture, such an inscription might also convey a sense of hopelessness (as in, the culture has peaked).
What are your opinions on this, and what about altering the inscription to read “an bheidh a leithéid arís ann,” making it interrogative and thus a challenge to future generations?
It sounds like a pretty good idea to me, but I think your sentence should start off using urú: “An mbeidh …”
Also, I think the original quote uses the plural form “leithéidí”.
Just letting you know 🙂
oh, yes! You’re right on both counts, “an mbeidh” and leithéidí.” I think the original uses the singular, and I think the singular could work, but using the plural removes any ambiguity arising from the fact that L can’t eclipse after the possessive pronoun.
I think the original uses the singular …
My 2002 edition of “An tOileanach” is supposed to be an accurate rendering of the original book in modern spelling and it says “leithéidí”. I also have an old seana-chló version from 1932 that says “leithéidí”.
As far as I know, the original did not use the singular form, but please let me know if I am wrong on this.
My Grandfather’s 1929 edition confirms the plural!
I have seen the singular on T shirts, but the phrase was originally plural.
Here’s the finished product! As it turns out, I didn’t need to worry about Péig’s last name at all. The paper is actually rectangular, it just curled a bit in the photo. It’s currently untitled, but I’m open to suggestions.
Gan Ainm
Antaine 2012
Pencil and Watercolor on 140lb cold press paper.The four figures represented are WB Yeats, Péig Sayers, Antoine Raifteraí, An Seoige (James Joyce), and Toirdhealbhach Ó Cearbhalláin (Turlough O’Carolan). All figures except Raftery are based on ones found in the Book of Kells, the Book of Durrow, or the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Yeats, Ireland’s best known poet is portrayed as he lived: tied in knots over Maud Gonne. He found writing poetry laborious and difficult. He is somewhat tongue tied as well, although he does have
his pen at the ready. Péig Sayers wrote one of the seminal texts in the Irish language, an autobiographical account of her life on the Blasket Islands. Anthony Raftery was a blind poet and fiddler who wrote in the Irish language; frequently called “the last of the wandering bards,” he lived in the late 18th and early 19th century. James Joyce was a famous Irish novelist who wrote Ulysses, the book ranked first on the list of the Modern Library’s 100 best novels in the English language. Turlough O’Carolan was a prolific Irish harper and composer who lived from the seventeenth to the eighteenth century.The text across the top and bottom reads, “An mbeidh a leithéidí arís ann(?)” It is a modification of a well-known line in the closing of Tomás Ó Criomhthain’s autobiography, An tOileánach (Ó Criomhthain was also an Irish-speaking Blasket Islander, like Péig). He closes his account by stating “Ní bheidh ár leithéidí arís ann” (“There will not be our likes again.”) In this work, the statement is turned into a question (“An mbeidh” instead of “ní bheidh”) and asks, “Will there be their likes again?”
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