Tá cuntais air ag Percy Allen, F.M. Stenton agus R.I. Best in British Academy Proceedings 25, 1931. In St Leonards on Sea in aice le Hastings, Sussex Thoir, Sasana, a rugadh an naomhsheanchaí agus an staraí seo ar 24 Eanáir 1851. Ba é an cúigiú mac é ag an Urramach Matthew Plummer agus a bhean Louisa. Cuireadh oideachas air i gColáiste Mhichíl in Tenbury, i Scoil Choláiste Magdalen in Oxford agus i gColáiste Corpus Christi in Oxford. Oirníodh é agus ar ball bhí sé ina shéiplíneach agus ina chomhalta ag Coláiste Corpus Christi agus poist éagsúla aige ann. Níor thosaigh sé ar staidéar ar an nGaeilge faoi Sir John Rhys go dtí 1902 agus ina dhiaidh sin chaitheadh sé an samhradh ag staidéar faoi Heinrich Zimmer in Greifswald. ‘Lives of the Irish Saints, first in Latin and then in Erse, were henceforward the objects of his studies; and his holidays were spent in Dublin, at work in libraries and making many friends, or wandering upon the West Coast’ (Allen). Deir Best go raibh sáreolas aige ar an Meán-Ghaeilge: ‘Plummer read widely in Irish literature, both religious and secular, devoting himself particularly to the study of the vocabulary, which in the absence of those lexicographical aids such as other languages possess, constitutes the main difficulty in the study of Irish. The collection of slips which he formed for this purpose, ranging over the entire field of medieval Irish literature is a remarkable testimony to the sureness of his method and his patient industry. . . . This fine collection has now by the kindness of his executor passed to the Royal Irish Academy, where it will be a valuable aid in the production of the Irish Thesaurus at present in course of preparation.’ Bhronn Coláiste na Tríonóide céim oinigh DLitt air i 1923 agus bhronn Ollscoil na hÉireann DLittCelt air i 1925. Bhí sé ina bhall oinigh d’Acadamh Ríoga na hÉireann. D’fhoilsigh sé Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae, 1911; Bethada Náem nÉrenn, 1922; Miscellanae Hagiographica Hibernica, 1925; Irish Litanies, 1925; Colophons and Marginalia of Irish Scribes, 1926. Scríobh sé freisin Elizabethan Oxford, 1887; Baedae Venerabilis Opera Historica, 1896; Life and Times of Alfred the Great, 1902; Devotions from Ancient and Mediaeval Sources, 1916. Chuir sé eagar ar Fortescue’s Governance of England, 1885 agus bhí sé ina chomheagarthóir ar imleabhair 1 agus 11 de Saxon Chronicles, 1892 agus 1899. Agus é ag tagairt do Vitae Sanctorum Hiberniae deir Best: ‘In the preface Plummer modestly expressed his satisfaction in the thought that he had done “something towards carrying out the great design at which Colgan [Seán Mac Colgáin B7] and his associates laboured with such pathetic fidelity amid the storms of the seventeenth century… striving amid poverty and persecution and exile, to save the remains of their country’s antiquities from destruction”.’ D’éag sé 8 Meán Fómhair 1927.

Diarmuid Breathnach

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