The Centre for Neo-Latin Studies in collaboration with the Irish Manuscripts Commission is engaged upon a project to edit and translate Robert O'Connell's Historia Missionis Hibernicae Fratrum Minorum Capucinorum (c.1656) for publication in two volumes by the Irish Manuscripts Commission in 2013/2014.

O'Connell's Historia is an invaluable source for early-modern Irish history as it draws upon contemporary sources and eye-witness accounts to describe the early years of the Capuchin mission in Ireland and the life and career of Francis Lavalin Nugent, a key figure in the intellectual and religious world of the Irish diaspora in the seventeenth century.


The Centre has recruited Dr Nóirín Ní Bheaglaoi to transcribe, edit and translate the Historia manuscript under the direction of Dr Jason Harris. Dr Ní Bheaglaoi's translation currently forms the focus of the weekly Neo-Latin semiar.



The project is funded jointly by several bodies:

• Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht €45,000
  
• Irish Manuscripts Commission €20,000
• University College Cork, College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences €25,000