by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
New York D.Appleton and Company 1901
no more definite information at hand on this point, and taking into consideration the contents of the
book-an Irish alphabet, and directions for reading Irish, and a catechism, etc. (by way of exercise ?)-its
diminutive size and the imperfection of its print, I venture the suggestion that O'Kearney's work was
printed as a trial of the new types given by the Queen and intended for printing the New Testament. This
view is supported by the first words of the preface. “Here, O reader, you have the first value and fruit of
that great instructive work, which I have been producing and devising for you for a long time, that is, the
faithful and perfect type of the Gaelic tongue." The conclusion seems to be that the types were
inadequate for the larger work and that for some reason there was a difficulty about supplying more or
finding anyone to undertake the printing.
The preface further says, after requesting corrections and amendments as regards the typography: "And
it is not alone that I am asking you to give this kind friendly correction to the printing, but also to the
translation or rendering made of this catechism put forth as far back as 1563 of the age of the Lord and
[which] is now more correct and complete, with the principal articles of the Christian faith associated
therewith." This has led some to think that there was an earlier edition of the Alphabet and Catechism.
But it seems plain that O'Kearney refers to the Catechism only, not to the whole book, and equalIy plain
that the 1563 work, whatever it was, was not printed in Irish type, or there would have been no special
occasion to glorify the 1571 Alphabet and Catechism. Since nothing is known of the Catechism of 1563,
it is very possible that it existed only in manuscript and never went to press.
I have gone into this matter of the Irish Alphabet and Catechism of 1571 somewhat at length, because I
am not aware that it has ever yet received detailed attention. The quotations I have given from the
preface are from an anonymous manuscript translation inserted in the British Museum copy.
O'Kearney's Irish Alphabet and Catechism is so rare that only three copies are known to exist: one being
in the British Museum, one in the Bodleian Library, and one in the library of Lincoln Cathedral. The fount
of types from which it was printed was not quite correct; for instance, the small Roman" a” is used, and
an "H” is introduced, a letter foreign to the Gaelic alphabet.
During the seventeenth century, and even later, most of the Irish books were sent to be printed on the
continent or in England. Several books by Irish authors, chiefly catechisms, works on the language, and
dictionaries, bear the names of Louvain, Antwerp, Rome or Paris, such as the Catedzism of Bonaventure
Hussey, printed at Louvain in 1608, and reprinted at Antwerp in 1611 and 1618.