Hugh Ward

Luke Wadding states that Mac an Bhaird possessed great intellectual powers and a profound knowledge of the Irish language and antiquities; and John Ponce praises highly his lectures on Scholastic philosophy and theology, affirming that in these sciences he was second to none of the great writers of his time. But Mac an Bhaird's chief interest was centred on the history and literature of Ireland. The plan of publishing the lives of the Irish saints and other ancient records of Ireland was his; he was a pioneer and founder of the school for Irish archaeology that arose in the seventeenth century, with its centre in the Irish College of St Anthony. At Salamanca, he discussed his project with Wadding, who promised him all help from the libraries of Spain, and in Paris, in 1623 he met Father Patrick Fleming, a distinguished Irish scholar, with whom he shared his idea of collecting material on the lives of the Irish saints. To this end, Mac an Bhaird travelled around northern France, investigating monastic libraries, while Fleming sent reports of his findings in French, German and Italian libraries. At the time Mac an Bhaird reached Louvain, St. Anthony's numbered among its inmates several accomplished Irish scholars: Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil, Antony Hickey, John Colgan, O'Docharty, and, shortly afterwards, Br. Mícheál Ó Cléirigh. Mac an Bhaird laid before his associates his plan for a comprehensive history of Ireland—civil and ecclesiastical—a Thesaurus Antiquitatum Hibernicarum, and how the work was to be carried out. The first step was to procure original ancient Irish manuscripts or to have copies made of them. Father Fleming had already begun work in the libraries on the Continent, and, most significantly, it was decided to send Br. Ó Cléirigh (who belonged to a family of hereditary scholars) to Ireland in 1626 to collect Irish manuscripts. In the meantime Mac an Bhaird was employed in arranging and examining the documents which had been transmitted to St. Anthony's. He investigated the sources of the ancient martyrologies and chronicles. He was in constant correspondence with the early Bollandists – Henschenius, Rosweydus, Papebroch, etc. – on matters regarding the history and the saints of Ireland. John Bap. Sollerius styles him "Vir doctissimus ac hagiographus eximius", and says that Mac an Bhaird's arguments in proof of the Irish birthplace of St. Rumold are unanswerable.