Patrick S. Dinneen


Patrick Stephen Dinneen was an Irish lexicographer and historian, and a leading figure in the Gaelic revival.
Dinneen was born near Rathmore, County Kerry. He was educated at Shrone and Meentogues National Schools and at St. Brendan's College in Killarney. He earned second class honours bachelor's and master's degrees from the Royal University of Ireland. The BA was in classics and mathematical science, the MA was in mathematical science. He joined the Society of Jesus in 1880 and was ordained a priest in 1894, but left the order in 1900 to devote his life to the study of the Irish language while still remaining a priest. After his ordination, he taught Irish, English, classics, and mathematics in three different Jesuit colleges, including Clongowes Wood College, a Jesuit boarding school near Clane, Co. Kildare.
He was a leading figure in the Irish Texts Society, publishing editions of Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, poems by Aogán Ó Rathaille and Piaras Feiritéar, and other works. He also wrote a novel and a play in Irish, and translated such works as Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol into Irish. His best known work, however, is his Irish–English dictionary, Foclóir Gaedhilge agus Béarla, which was first published in 1904. The stock and plates of the dictionary were destroyed during the Easter Rising of 1916, so Dinneen took the opportunity to expand the dictionary. A much larger second edition, compiled with the assistance of Liam S. Gogan, was published in 1927. Dinneen's request to the Irish Texts Society to include Gogan's name on the title page was refused. Gogan continued to work on the collection of words up to his death in 1979. This complementary dictionary was published online in 2011.
Fr Dinneen died in Dublin at the age of 73 and is buried in Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin.