O'DONOVAN, JOHN. — Irish historian, born on 9 July 1809 at Atteemore (County Kilkenny), died on 9 December 1861 in Dublin. In 1826 he began working at the Irish Record Office, and three years later obtained a position in the historical department of the Ordnance Survey of Ireland.
He investigated Irish manuscripts and documents above all, with the aim of elucidating the nomenclature in use, and in 1837 published an extensive Irish text accompanied by a translation. In the meantime he published articles on Irish topography and history in the Dublin Penny Journal. When the Irish Archaeological Society was founded in 1840, O'D. prepared, in the first volume of the society’s publications, which appeared in 1841, the text and translation of the Periplus of Ireland by Muircheartach Mac Neill, a poem written in 942 by Cormacan Eigeas, providing it with valuable notes. O'D.'s opus magnum, however, is the Annala Rioghachta Eireann, seven quarto volumes, published from 1848 to 1851. These annals, compiled between 1632 and 1636 by Michael O'Clery under the reign of Charles I, cover the history of Ireland from its origins to 1616. O. D. edited and translated them, supplying them with
numerous notes. From 1852 onward O'D. devoted himself almost exclusively to editing the ancient laws of Ireland, but death prevented him from seeing their publication. In 1864, his edition and translation of the Martyrology of Donegal was published posthumously by Bishop Reeves. O'D. was a practicing Catholic, and is perhaps “the greatest Irish scholar who ever lived” in the field of historical topography; his editions are authoritative.