Cuúrt an Mheadhon Oidhche. Risteard O Foghludha Fiachra Eilgea do chur in Eagar  Dublin: Hodges Figgis, 1912. First Edition. Pp. ix, 185. Frontispiece portrait. Quarter linen, paper boards, title label to spine. Neat pencil annotaitons to parts of the text. A nice bright copy.

Includes “Merriman’s Secret: An Interpretation” by Piaras Béaslaí. His essay argued that the poem’s purpose had been misunderstood and emphasised its unique position in Irish literature, noting that Merriman “broke away from all the trammels of convention in metre, style, subject, and treatment.”

This edition appeared at a crucial moment in the Irish language revival. Ó Foghludha was an active figure in the Gaelic League, and just two years before this publication (in January 1910), he had delivered a lecture on Cúirt an Mheán-Oíche to Cumann Oisín, which was reported in the Weekly Freeman.

The poem itself—a bawdy, satirical dream-vision in which the poet is hauled before a court of women who complain about Irish men’s neglect of marriage and sexuality—was controversial in its own time and has remained so. It is widely regarded as one of the greatest comic poems in the Irish language.