Henry O'Brien (1808–1835) was an Irish classicist and author best known for his hypothesis concerning Irish round towers.
Life
Henry O'Brien was the son of an aristocratic family from the west of Ireland. At an early age he studied Latin and Greek and took an interest in ancient Greek literature. Later he obtained a degree in classics at Trinity College Dublin.John O'Hart’s Irish Pedigrees, 1876, p. 168;The round towers of Ireland, or, The history of the Tuath-De-Danaans, London : W. Thacker & Co.; Calcutta : Thacker, Spink & Co., 1898 edition, "Introduction", p.vii-xi; Phœnician Ireland, Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva, Longman & co., 1833. In 1833 O'Brien published an essay in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy entitled "On the Origin and Use of the Round Towers of Ireland" which won a second place reward of £20.LibraryIreland article on Henry O'Brien"A Concise Dictionary of Irish Biography", John Crone (Dublin: Talbot 1928). Henry O'Brien thought however that he should have won first place and in a lengthy preface to his published essay in book form entitled The Round Towers of Ireland, or the Mysteries of Freemasonry, of Sabaism, and of Buddhism (1834) attacked archaeologist George Petrie who won the £50 first place reward.The Dublin Penny Journal, Philip Dixon Hardy, 1835, p. 410.
O'Brien later translated Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva's Hibernia Phoenicea into English as Phœnician Ireland but soon after died, on 28 June 1835, at only 27 years of age by "bad health, aggravated by his studious habits", he was later buried in Hanwell, Oxfordshire.Irish Graves in England, Michael M’Donagh ("Evening Telegraph Reprints", 1888).
Irish Round Tower theory
Henry O'Brien first proposed that the Irish round towers were created by a pre-Christian phallic cult among the Tuatha Dé Danann who he connected to the daughters of Danaus."The round towers of Ireland, or, The history of the Tuath-De-Danaans", New ed. with introduction, synopsis, indexes, etc. Henry O'Brien. 1898 by W. Thacker & Co, p. 207. His theory when first published caused a lot of controversy at the time, as well as sparking criticism.Gentleman’s Magazine, March 1834, p. 288; Oct. 1934, p. 365. Today, the mainstream consensus among archaeologists and historians is that the Irish round towers were created during the early medieval period, not pre-Christian period which O'Brien proposed.
Works The Round Towers of Ireland, or the Mysteries of Freemasonry, of Sabaism, and of Budhism (1834)Later reprinted as: The round towers of Ireland, or, The history of the Tuath-De-Danaans (1898), The round towers of Atlantis (Adventures Unlimited Press, 2002) and Atlantis in Ireland (Kessinger Publishing, 2003). However despite the two latter titles, O'Brien's work contains no reference to Atlantis. Phoenician Ireland (translated by Henry O'Brien, 1837)
References
External links