Irish Song Craft: Irish Song-Craft and Metrical Practice since 1600 by V. S. Blankenhorn

This is a detailed study of accentual verse in Irish, and as such is the first of its kind since the publication of Tadhg Ó Donnchadha’s Prosóid Gaedhilge in 1925. Scholars in the past, of course, have made their own particular contributions to the study of the origins of accentual verse — Osborn Bergin, Tomás Ó Máille and James Carney being cases in point — while in more recent times Pádraig Breatnach, in particular, has drawn attention to the importance of its musical context. Dr Blankenhorn now aims at providing ‘a comprehensive taxonomical survey’ (p. 47) of accentual verse in Irish.