Chuir an tAthair Cuthbert Mhág Craith eagar ar a dhánta in Celtica IV, 1958 (‘Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig’) agus tá cuntas gairid aige ar an bhfile. Tá cuntais freisín in Nua-Dhuanaire I, 1971 (de Brún, Ó Buachalla agus Ó Concheanainn) agus in Measgra Dánta II. 1927 le Thomas F. O’Rahilly (Ó Rathile). Roimhe sin thug William Carrigan cuntas in History of the Diocese of Ossory. 1905 (athchló 1981) In Old Kilkenny Review, 1993 tá aiste ag Séamus Moylan (‘At the Edge of the Abyss: Poems by Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig [c. 1580–c.1652]’).

I 1537 gheall a sheanathair, Brian Mac Giolla Phádraig eile, an teideal dúchais ‘Mac Giolla Phádraig’ a thréigean, agus dlí agus nósanna Shasana a chur i bhfeidhm ina dhúiche; deir Moylan gur mar chosaint in aghaidh a chliamhain Piaras Rua de Buitléar, larla Urmhumhan, a rinne sé sin. Chomhlíon sé na geallúintí sin agus bronnadh an teideal ‘First Baron of Upper Ossory’ air i 1541. Toirdhealbhach ab ainm d’athair Bhriain agus ba i Ellen O’More a mháthair. Is dóigh gurbh i gceantar Dharú, Co. Laoise, sa Chúlchoill, b’fhéidir, a rugadh is a tógadh é. Oirníodh é i 1610 agus chaith sé an tréimhse 1615–17 i gcéin; ní fóláir nó is leis an imirce sin a bhaineann an dán ‘Truagh t’fhágbháil, a inis Chuinn’ in Measgra Dánta II. Níl ar fáil ach ocht gcinn dá dhánta, arb é ‘Psaltair na Rann’ nó ‘Do-ghéan dán do naomhaibh Dé’ (1276 linte) an ceann is faide díobh. Is iad ‘Faisean chláir Éibhir’, nach bhfuiltear lánchinnte gurbh é a chum, agus ‘Ábhar deargtha leacan do mhnaoi Chuinn é’, atá in Nua-Dhuanaire I, na dánta is aitheanta dá leagtar air. Chóipeáil sé lámhscríbhinní freisin. Deir Seán Mac Airt in Leabhar Branach: the Book of the O’Byrnes, 1944: ‘According to colophons in the MSS, the first recorded transcript of the Leabhar Branach was made by Brian Mac Giollaphádraig, a scion of the ruling family of Upper Ossory, and later Vicar-Apostolic of the diocese of Ossory. He was engaged on the work at Castletown... in the year 1622. The transcript is now lost, but two copies made in Dublin more than a century later are extant.’ I gColáiste na Tríonóide atá ceann diobh agus in Harvard atá an ceann eile. Deir Ó Rathile: ‘By his transcript (made in Castletown, in 1622) of the Book of the O’Byrnes he has placed all lovers of our literature under a lasting debt of gratitude, for otherwise this most valuable collection would have been utterly lost.’

Deir Carrigan: ‘Dr Fitzpatrick had laboured for many years in Ossory, apparently in Fitzpatrick’s country, in the northern portion of the Diocese. As “Sir Bryan Fitz Terlough” he is mentioned in the Langton Genealogy, on 12 Nov, 1617, when he baptised, at ... Ballacolla, Ellen, daughter of Nicholas Langton of Grenan ...in the old Catholic parish of Durrow.’ Rinne Biocáire Ginearálta de i 1651 agus an bhliain dár gcionn, nuair a bhíothas ag achainí ar an bPropaganda sa Róimh go dtabharfai an teideal Biocáire Aspalda dó, dúradh gurbh é a bhí ann: ‘a man truly pious, prudent and learned, who then discharged the duties, and held the whole responsibility of the Diocese as Vicar General, and who, for forty years, had edified the clergy and faithful of Ossory, by word and example, in the sacred ministry, having laboured assiduously, and suffered a great deal, especially of late years, in the cause of religion and his country’. Tugadh an teideal sin dó. Deir Carrigan ansin: ‘He may, not unreasonably, be identified with Father Bryan or Bernard Fitzpatrick... who suffered a glorious martyrdom at the hands of the Cromwellians, and of whom it is recorded, in the Threnodia Hiberno-Catholica [F.M. Morísonus (Muiris Ó Maolchonaire)], that he was of the family of the Barons of Upper Ossory; that he was famed over the whole kingdom for his holiness of life and learning, and respected for his high descent; and that he was pursued into a cave by the heretics, who there cut off his head, placed it on a pole at the gates of a certain town and left his body to be devoured by the wild beasts.’ Deir Carrigan freisin go raibh sé i mbéaloideas an cheantair go ndearnadh ár ar scata eaglaiseach i dTigh an Mhaoir, ceathrú míle ó Dharú. 1653 dáta an áir sin dar le Fearghus Ó Fearghail in Kilkenny History and Society, 1990 (William Nolan agus Kevin Whelan); ‘Bernard Fitzpatrick who had administered the díocese after Rothe’s death from his hiding place in his ancestral home in county Laois was tracked down and killed in 1653.’

Diarmuid Breathnach

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