The Rev Richard Henebry was not shy about speaking his mind, particularly when it came to his great passion - the Irish language. Indeed he called Pádraig Pearse's Irish language stories, "the mincing of an underassistant floor-walker of a millinery shop".
With that image of our great patriot recast as a kind of Mr Humphries from Are You Being Served?, the question becomes, just who was Rev Henebry? Those interested will be able to find out at a public lecture on the man's life, taking place in the Galway City Library, Augustine Street, tomorrow [Tuesday February 9] at 6.30pm.
Rev Henebry was a Waterford-born scholar, priest, and patriot. He was a trenchant critic of attempts to modernise Irish language writing, and was also a great advocate of Irish traditional music, as evidenced by the posthumous publication of his influential A Handbook of Irish Music (1928 ).
The talk, entitled Pearse’s 'eccentric critic’: Dr Richard Henebry, 1863-1916 will be given by Dr Méabh Ní Fhuartháin. It will look at the Church of Ireland vicar as a revivalist and scholar in the field of traditional music and will contextualise his scholarship within the Ireland of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The event is the third in the Léachtaí sa Leabharlann series curated by the Centre for Irish Studies to commemorate the 1916 Easter Rising. Admission is free and all are welcome.
