From An t-Oileánach:



I don't understand the meaning of séan in this context. As a verb it doesn't make much sense to me. Maybe it means 'that it wasn't of luck' or something like that. The English is 'And since I hadn't had the luck to leave him before he went right out of his mind, I couldn't clear out now and leave him under the horses' bellies'

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar

After consulting FGB here’s how I understand it:

- Ó bhí sé de’n tubaist orm = Since I had the ill fortune/ was unfortunate
- ‘shéan’ is the past tense of the verb ‘séan’ (deny, disown, repudiate, renounce).
- ‘nár shéan é’ = that I didn’t “disown” (“leave”) him. But why is the subject ‘mé’ missing from ‘shéan’?

It is a direct relative clause, mé in orm is its head (and subject of séan).

orm nár shéan é = ar [mé nár shéan é] = on [me who did not deny him]

Ah, of course! It’s ’nár’ as relative particle, not conjunction. GRMMA, a Labhráis.

That makes a lot of sense, thank you

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I'm an intermediate speaker of the Corca Dhuibhne dialect of Irish and also have knowledge on the old spelling
Soir gaċ síar, fé ḋeireaḋ thíar