Patrick Weston Joyce

Irish historian

Patrick Weston "P. W." Joyce (1827 – 7 January 1914) was an Irish historian, writer and music collector, known particularly for his research in Irish etymology and local place names of Ireland.

He was born in Ballyorgan in the Ballyhoura Mountains, on the borders of counties Limerick and Cork in Ireland, and grew up in nearby Glenosheen. The family claimed descent from one Seán Mór Seoighe (fl. 1680), a stonemason from Connemara, County Galway. Robert Dwyer Joyce was a younger brother. Joyce was a native Irish speaker who started his education at a hedge school. He then attended school in Mitchelstown, County Cork. Joyce started work in 1845 with the Commission of National Education. He became a teacher and principal of the Model School, Clonmel. In 1856 he was one of fifteen teachers selected to re organize the national school system in Ireland. Meanwhile he earned his B. A. in 1861 and M. A. in 1863 from Trinity College, Dublin. He was principal of the Training College, Marlborough Street, in Dublin from 1874 to 1893. As a member of the Society for the Preservation of the Irish Language he wrote an Irish Grammar in 1878. He was President of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland from 1906 to 1908, an association of which he was a member from 1865. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy.

The P. W. Joyce collection at the Cregan Library in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin, reflects many of Joyce's interests and includes several rarities. These include autographed presentation copies by Joyce and his brother Robert, as well as books from Joyce's own library. The collection also contains nine manuscripts associated with Joyce and his family members, including a manuscript in P. W. Joyce's own hand of Echtra Cormaic itir Tairngiri agus Ceart Claíd Cormaic (Adventures of Cormac in the Land of Promise), a passage from the Book of Ballymote, which Joyce translated into English.