Renæssanceforum 6 • 2010
Keith Sidwell
Intimations of Irish:
O'Meara's Ormonius and the display
of vernacular learning
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Renæssanceforum 6 • 2010 | |
| Dermot O'Meara's Latin epic Ormonius (London 1615) was written by a native speaker of Irish who was also (at least) a good English-speaker. Though O'Meara's competence in both vernaculars is clear from the introductory material and from the poem itself, he appears to draw more attention to his knowledge of Irish through the use of Latin calques on place-names which directly reflect their Irish meanings. It is possible that O'Meara expected his target-audience — Gaelic-speaking Scots in the circle of King James I? — to pick up and appreciate these nuances. |