User:Jnestorius/Dochum glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann

"Dochum glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann" is an Irish-language phrase meaning "for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland". It originated in 1636 with Mícheál Ó Cléirigh's dedication to the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland. After the Gaelic revival was "widely used as a nationalist motto, and attached as the epigram to numerous Irish-Ireland books". In 1936 Padraic Colum called it "the most noble of all dedications". In 1937, Edward Cahill called it "the phrase consecrated by centuries of usage in Irish documents". In 1972, Pádraig Ó Snodaigh said it was "known to every schoolboy". Conor Cruise O'Brien in 1986 said that "Generations of Irish Catholic schoolchildren have inscribed [the Irish words] on their copy-books", and that this was an example of "that assimilation of religion and nationalism" which encouraged "the Pearsean Catholic Nationalist fusionist fundamentalists of the Provisional IRA".

The Four Masters
The "Four Masters" were 17th-century Catholic Gaelic scholars: Mícheál Ó Cléirigh; Cú Choigcríche Ó Cléirigh; Fearfeasa Ó Maol Chonaire; Cú Choigríche Ó Duibhgeannáin. At Donegal Abbey in the 1630s they compiled various Irish annals into a single chronicle titled Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland and usually called the Annals of the Four Masters. In 1636, chief editor Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, a Franciscan friar, wrote a dedicatory epistle to Fearghal Ó Gadhra, the project's patron. The context of the relevant phrase is [emphasis added]:
 * I have calculated on your honour that it seemed to you a cause of pity and regret, grief and sorrow (for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland), how much the race of Gaedhal the son of Niul have gone under a cloud and darkness without a knowledge of the death or obit of saint or virgin, archbishop, bishop, abbot, or other noble dignitary of the Church, of king or prince, lord or chieftain [and] of the synchronism or connexion of the one with the other. I explained to you that I thought I could get the assistance of the chroniclers for whom I had most esteem, for writing a book of annals, in which the aforesaid matters might be put on record; and that, should the writing of them be neglected at present, they would not again be found to be put on record or commemorated to the end and termination of the world.

Joep Leerssen argues that Ó Cléirigh's use is a parenthetical giving Ó Gadhra's motivation for funding the work, rather than Ó Cléirigh's for writing it; that the onóra "honour" in question is that which a file (poet) gave to his patron; and that it was "spurious" for later writers to adopt it as a motto for "nationalistially minded" history. Breandán Ó Buachalla notes similar dedications by earlier writers: Charles Dumoulin in Latin and French, John Bale in English, and many in Irish, including Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil; the Four Master's own 1630 work, The Succession of the Kings and the Genealogies of the Saints of Ireland, had variants by the authors and in the attestation by George Dillon (Seoirse Diolmain), guardian of the convent of Athlone. Cunningham suggests the order of God and Ireland, and the parallel placing of saints and ecclesiastic before kings and civil rulers, indicates a shift in emphasis from the medieval source annals. The planned publication of the completed annals by the Irish College, Louvain never happened, and manuscript copies had limited circulation. It was John O'Donovan's 1840s bilingual scholarly edition that captured the imagination of Irish nationalists. Bernadette Cunningham suggests those quoting the dedicatory phrase "propogat[e] the notion of Irish history, Irish Catholicism, and Irish destiny being intertwined".

Later
Other occurrences include:
 * Inscription over the gate of the Irish College, Louvain.
 * Dedication of various books by the Jesuit Gaelic scholar Edmund Hogan, including Luibhleabhrán (1900), Onomasticon Goedelicum (1910).
 * 1902 motto of the Irish National Society of London, which split from the United Irish League, and was endorsed by the Pope, for supporting state funding of Catholic schools; it helped found Sinn Féin in 1905.
 * Motto of Coláiste na Mumhan in Ballingeary, founded in 1904 as the first Gaeltacht language college.
 * Mícheál Breathnach's dedication (to Seaghán P. Mac Énrí) in his 1906 Irish translation of Charles J. Kickham's Knocknagow.
 * In 1907, Edmund Edward Fournier d'Albe, a French physicist and psychic researcher working in Dublin, published Two New Worlds, speculating on connections between his fields of interest. It had the motto in Gaelic script, explained in its introduction:
 * I hope that those who believe that this world of ours is in good hands, that it is not governed by blind chance or inflexible destiny, that it offers infinite possibilities of faith and hope and love, will derive some additional comfort and encouragement from the following pages, even though these proceed from a dry analysis of known facts. May this, together with the circumstances of this book being written in Ireland and largely inspired by Irish thoughts and thinkers, go to justify its Irish motto: "For the Glory of God and the Honour of Ireland".
 * In 1914, socialist James Connolly invoked the phrase to deride the humbug of the Irish Parliamentary Party:
 * she was only an Irish working girl fighting an Irish employer, and none of the Irish heroes who, on the platforms of the Liberal Party in England, are fighting for the ‘Glory of God and the Honour of Erin’, had time to waste on such as her.
 * Motto on the coat of arms granted in 1915 by the Ulster King of Arms to the Honan Hostel (beside the Honan Chapel) in Cork
 * Joseph Mary Plunkett, awaiting execution after the 1916 Rising, said to one of the Capuchin friars ministering to the condemned men, "Father, I am very happy. I am dying for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland."
 * Stephen MacKenna's English translation of The Enneads of Plotinus was published in five instalments from 1917 to 1930. Each has the motto as an epigraph, followed by MacKenna's name (and address in the first two, before he left Ireland) all in Irish language and Gaelic type. John Murray notes that MacKenna retained the dedication despite having lost his Catholic faith by 1930. The 1956 single-volume revised edition retains the epigraph.
 * John J. Webb's 1918 Municipal Government in Ireland, Mediæval & Modern published by Talbot Press
 * One of two mottos of a 1919 magazine about Irish Catholic missions in the Far East. (The other was Peregrinari pro Christo "To be a pilgrim for Christ".)
 * Alfred O'Rahilly's 1922 draft for a Constitution of the Irish Free State began with "Chun Glóire Dé agus Onóra na hÉireann".
 * An Irish-language article in An t-Óglách, magazine of the National Army during the Civil War, marked the coming into force of the 1922 Constitution, crediting the army with ensuring this milestone before concluding Leanfaid siad leó ar aghaidh chun glóire Dé agus onóra na hEireann. ("They will carry on for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland.")
 * anti treaty hunger strike pledge signed in Mountjoy: “What I am about to suffer I offer to the glory of God and for the freedom of Ireland.” https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/2022/11/25/intense-religiosity-of-states-founders-is-overlooked/
 * The most famous speech in Seán O'Casey's 1923 play The Shadow of a Gunman, set during the War of Independence, is delivered by the disillusioned author surrogate Seumus Shields:
 * I wish to God it was all over. The country is gone mad. Instead of counting their beads now they're countin' bullets; their Hail Marys and paternosters are burstin' bombs—burstin' bombs an' the rattle of machine-guns; petrol is their holy water; their Mass is a burnin' buildin'; their De Profundis is "The Soldiers' Song," an' their creed is, I believe in the gun almighty, maker of heaven an' earth—an' it's all for "the glory o' God an' the honour o' Ireland."
 * The epigram of James Stephens' Deirdre (1923).
 * Some Anglicised Surnames in Ireland (1923) by Pádraig Mac Giolla Domhnaigh ends with the quote in Irish, credited to Ó Cléirigh.
 * The temporary cenotaph erected on Leinster Lawn by the Cumann na nGaedheal government for the 1923 anniversary of the deaths of Arthur Griffith and Michael Collins had the Gaeic script inscribed on its Celtic cross. The inscription is retained on the base of the obelisk replacement memorial commissioned by the Fine Gael-led government in 1948 and erected in 1950.
 * At the base of the 1924 World War I memorial crosses (the rest of whose inscriptions were in English) erected by the Irish Free State at three sites of Irish action:
 * the memorial at Guillemont to the 16th (Irish) Division for the Battle of Guillemont and Battle of Ginchy
 * the memorial at Wytschaete to the 16th (Irish) Division for the Battle of Messines (1917)
 * the memorial at Doiran Lake to the 10th (Irish) Division for the Battle of Kosturino.
 * In November 1926, Éamon de Valera's address at the first ardfheis of his Fianna Fáil party ended with the quote.
 * In 1927, Séamus Ó Duilearga's launch editorial of the folklore journal Béaloideas said:
 * We urge most earnestly upon those of our readers who may have in their possession collections of [folklore] to communicate with us. We do not hesitate to bring forward a noble—if at times a misapplied—quotation, and we ask them to help us do-chum glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann (for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland).
 * the motto of the Capuchin Annual, published 1930–1977 by the Irish province of the Capuchin friars, with a traditionalist pro-nationalist historiography
 * the masthead of The Irish Press, a pro-Fianna Fáil newspaper published 1931–1995
 * A pastoral letter by John Dignan, Catholic bishop of Clonfert, before the 1932 Eucharistic Congress in Dublin:
 * The eyes of the Catholic world will be upon us during the Congress, and it is our bounden duty to make it an outstanding success 'for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland'.
 * On the title page of Edward Cahill's The Framework of a Christian State (1932)
 * In the Irish-language opening of the otherwise English-language foreword by Seán McCarthy, then President of the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), in An Camán, a joint GAA–Gaelic League publication, marking the GAA's 50th anniversary.
 * Title of a 1935 English-language leaflet promoting the 1879 Knock apparition by the local Catholic parish priest
 * On the poster for The Dawn, a 1936 Irish film about a rebel family from the Fenian Rising to the War of Independence
 * Mutiny India 1920.JPG Memorial to the 1920 Connaught Rangers mutineers erected (1936? zzz) in Glasnevin Cemetery.
 * In Shadow and Substance, a 1937 play by Paul Vincent Carroll, the sheepish youth Francis and his maiden aunt Jemima are among a deputation to the cynical Canon Skerritt's parochial house to discuss burning an indecent book:
 * Jemima. Sure, Canon, I only came because Father Corr told me it was me duty to God and Ireland. (Grasping Francis's arm) Say it in Irish for the Canon, Francis. Go on now! (Father Corr is confused.)
 * Francis (rising awkwardly). Do cum gloire De, agus onora na h-Eireann.
 * Canon (hand to ear). Didn't catch that, Francis. Cum — cum what?
 * Francis (unconscious of cruelty) . Do cum gloire De, agus onora na h-Eireann.
 * Canon (scoundrelishly) .Excellent, Francis. Excellent! You may be seated. Any other observation, Miss Cooney?
 * Jemima. Sure, I'll just listen now to you, and learn, Canon. Isn't that me duty?
 * As a postscript to the 1937 Constitution of Ireland; the only phrase (apart from individual names and titles) left untranslated in the English-language text.
 * When the bill to remove the offence of blasphemy from the constitution was at committee stage in the Dáil in 2017, Solidarity–People Before Profit proposed amendments to remove the postscript and other religious provisions and words from the constitution as well. All these amendments were ruled out of order.
 * 1938 introductory editorial by T. W. Moody and Robin Dudley Edwards for their new journal Irish Historical Studies (latterly associated with "revisionism") included a dedication suggested by Edwards:
 * We dedicate this work, as did the historians of old: "Dochum glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann"
 * Quoted by de Valera concluding his speech at the inauguration of Douglas Hyde as first President of Ireland.
 * Francis Dominic Murnaghan, an Irish-born U.S.-naturalised mathematician, included the English "To the Glory of God, Honour of Ireland and Fame of America" on books published in the U.S. from 1938; a 1958 Irish publication omits the American addition and includes both English and Irish texts.
 * Title of the 1941 address to Oireachtas na Gaeilge, given by Peadar Ó hAnnracháin.
 * Ireland 1944 Four Masters halfpenny postage stamp.png The 1944 tercentenary of the death of Mícheál Ó Cléirigh was marked by commemorative postage stamps showing him beside the inscription; the $1/undefined$d and 1s versions became definitive issues until 1968.
 * motto on the coat of arms of the President of Ireland proposed by the Chief Herald of Ireland, Edward MacLysaght, in 1945. (The shield would have the president's personal arms impaled with the national arms.) In the event, presidents have been granted personal arms without reference to those MacLysaght registered on 21 November 1945.
 * Motto ("Do chum glóire Dé a's onóra na hÉireann") in a note by MacLysaght of 15 February 1946 proposing a full achievement for the arms of Ireland (adding crest and supporters, as well as motto, to the shield).
 * the motto in the 1950s handbook of Clann na hÉireann, a British pro-Sinn Féin group
 * Brendan Behan describing an Irishwoman among the sculpture students from the École des Beaux Arts adding ornamentation to the Église Saint-Pierre in Neuilly-sur-Seine:
 * Kathleen Murphy comes away with three pillars, and with hammer upraised poises her slim self to strike a blow, do chum ghlóire Dé agus onóra na hEireann.
 * the title of an article by Robert C. Simington and Patrick McBride and dedicating the Record Tower at Dublin Castle to "the Irish who served with distinction abroad". noted (?zzz lecture attended?) by Seán T. Ó Ceallaigh, then President of Ireland.
 * John E. Fogarty's 1958 address to the Ancient Order of Hibernians was entered in the Congressional Record, ending:
 * Let us quietly resolve here and now to take some practical steps [to assist Irish economic development] such as I have suggested. ... In giving effect to them we can well use as our motto the words written by the great Franciscan, Michael O'Cleary, on the dedication page of the Annals of the Four Masters just over 300 years ago: "Do chum Gloire De Agus Onora na h-Eireann"— To the Glory of God and the honor of Ireland. We can well take this motto to ourselves and adapt it as our own so that all our actions may be for the glory of God, to the benefit of Ireland, and the honor of America.
 * The dedication of Breandán Breathnach's 1963 Irish-language collection of Irish music was Do mhéadú glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann, i gcuimhne Sheáin Potts ["For the greater glory of God and the honour of Ireland, in memory of Seán Potts"]. When Potts died in 2014, his coffin's nameplate bore the motto's usual wording.
 * The English motto is a motif in Thy tears might cease, a novel by Michael Farrell about the Irish revolutionary period completed in 1937 and published in 1963.
 * The crest of Abbey Vocational School in Donegal town includes the phrase. The school was founded in 1971 by merger of Four Masters' High School (Ardscoil na gCeithre Máistir; founded c.1950 ) with Donegal Technical School (founded 1954). The eponymous Abbey was where the Annals of the Four Masters was written. The school's motto (also on the crest ) is a different Irish phrase, mol an óige.
 * Was the motto inherited from Ardscoil na gCeithre Máistir? zzz
 * 1972 memoral to the 3rd Tipperary Brigade of the Old IRA at Rosegreen, County Tipperary.
 * During Pope John Paul II's visit to Ireland in 1979 he said Mass at Knock Shrine and his homily included:
 * Help [the Virgin Mary] to respond to her historic mission of bringing the light of Christ to the nations, and so making the glory of God be the honour of Ireland.
 * During the 1990 presidential election campaign, a leaflet distributed by "Clann Na bFinini / The Family Group" with a Catholic nationalist viewpoint had the slogan at its foot.
 * Dedication of Dáithí Ó hÓgáin's 1999 book The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland.
 * 2004 article about An Crann a 1916–1924 periodical; a footnote notes that the motto was used in the 1930s in The Irish Press (Scéala Éireann),  The Capuchin Annual, and the Constitution.
 * Plaque erected (c.2005?) at Fort Dunree by "Inishowen Friends of Messines":
 * The Inishowen Friends of Messines gratefully commemorate the men and women from Inishowen and all of Ireland who made the supreme sacrifice in World War One and all wars. ...
 * 10th Irish Division / 36th Ulster Division / 16th Irish Division
 * Do chum Gloire De agus Onora na hEireann To the Glory of God and Honour of Ireland
 * 2018 dedication by Thomas Bartlett of the Cambridge History of Ireland, "presumably quoting both the “Four Masters” and the IHS editors"
 * As with the Irish historians of old, this history is dedicated: Dochum glóire Dé agus onóra na hÉireann [to the glory of God and the honor of Ireland]