Ní raibh Gaeilge ag an ársaitheoir seo ach ba cheannródaí é sa tuairimíocht i dtaobh seanchultúr na nGael ar chuid í den mhúscailt spéise sa stair agus sa tseanlitríocht. Is é is mó a luaitear leis an alt creidimh gurbh ó chríocha neamhshibhialta Lochlann a tháinig na Gaeil fad a bhí dream eile de na hársaitheoirí claonta i leith teoiric phléisiúrtha Vallancey gurbh Fhéinicigh ó cheantar na Siria iad. Tugann Norman Moore cuntas ar Ledwich in Dictionary of National Biography. I mBaile Átha Cliath a rugadh é agus ba é John Ledwich, ceannaí, a athair. I gColáiste na Tríonóide a cuireadh oideachas air. Bhí sé ina bhiocáire in Achadh Bhó, Co. Laoise, ó 1772 go 1797. Deir Moore: ‘ . . .living on very friendly terms with his three thousand parishioners, all of whom were farmers or labourers or artisans and a majority Roman Catholics. He devoted his leisure to the study of Irish antiquities . . .’. D’fhoilsigh Vallancey ‘History and antiquities of Irishtown and Kilkenny’ leis in Collectanea iml. IX, 1781. Foilsíodh a shaothar Antiquities of Ireland i 1790. D’ionsaigh John Lanigan an saothar seo agus is mar fhreagra ar Ledwich agus ar Mervyn Archdall a scríobh sé An ecclesiastical history of Ireland, from the first Introduction of Christianity to the beginning of the 13th century, 4 iml., 1822; tá 95 tagairt ann faoi ‘Ledwich, proofs of, and animad versions on, the ignorance, errors, and malevolence of.’ Deir Moore faoi Antiquities of Ireland nach bhfuil de thábhacht leis ach na léaráidí. Dar le Oxford Companion to Irish literature gur cuntas claonta é: ‘ . . . . informed by deep suspicion that Charles O’Conor, the Elder, and others were attempting to enhance the cultural appreciation of Gaelic Ireland as part of a campaign against the Penal Laws.’ D’aistrigh sé go Baile Átha Cliath agus d’fhoilsigh A statistical account of the parish of Aghaboe, 1796. D’éag sé 8 Lúnasa 1823 ag a theach i Sráid Eabhrac, Baile Átha Cliath.

Tá tuilleadh eolais faoin mbeatha seo ar fáil ar shuíomh gréasáin Dictionary of Irish Biography anseo.

Diarmuid Breathnach

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