Mickiewicz, Księgi Narodu Polskiego and the Struggle for Irish Independence

Abstract

This article looks at the development of the Irish language translations of Adam Mickiewicz’s Księgi Narodu Polskiego i Pielgrzymstwa Polskiego which appeared between 1916-1920. It first traces some of the references in English to Poland, and the comparisons made between the situation that both Poland and Ireland found themselves in, that appeared in the Irish national— and nationalistic—press at that time. It looks at how a chance remark in a footnote to a newspaper article about Mickiewicz gave rise to not one, but two translations of the Księgi, by the same translator, Liam Ó Rinn (1886-1943), both based on French translations of the original Polish text. Each of these translations were to appear at a time of Irish national upheaval, namely the Easter Rising in 1916 and the Anglo-Irish War of Independence (1919-1921), and they had as their aim to encourage those fighting for Ireland’s freedom and language.