I am reading Fiche Blian ag Fás, with one eye on the translation published by Oxford University Press. Why oh why don't the versions match? What is this mania for constantly re-editing books? There are whole paragraphs in the translation that are not in the 1989 version of the IRish text. No wonder the IRish text is marked "copyright Cáit Ní Chatháin Bean Uí Mhaoilchiaráin". And there was me foolishly thinking the book would contain MUIRIS Ó SÚILLEABHÁIN'S TEXT.

I am not interested in Cáit Ní Chatháin Bean Uí Mhaoilchiaráin's version of Fiche Blian ag Fás. I am interested in Muiris Ó Súilleabháin's version. What is so hard to understand about that?

This is a wider problem in Ireland. If you buy Cyril Céirin's translation of Peadar Ua Laoghaire's Mo Sgéal Féin, you find about 6 chapters dropped from the book, and many other paragraphs deleted. He explained in the foreword that he thought much of the book without literary merit and so he re-edited it. But then - no-one is interested in the translator's view - all he has to do is TRANSLATE THE TEXT. If you buy Sheila Sullivan's translation - once again chapters dropped altogether and the order of chapters in the book swapped around according to her own version of how it could have been done better, but then... she is just the translator.

Why is there this constant nonsense?

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You should come out of the shadows. You could even register under a fake name. Believe me, we'll never find out! But it helps us to have a conversation with you, like in the recent "Saibhreas i nGaeilge" thread. Just go to the link below and click register. It's easy.

http://www.daltai.com/discus/messages/board-topics.html

With that said, I can't completely follow your line of thought. First it seems you have a problem with an Irish copy of Fiche Blian ag Fás that is edited in some way. Next you have trouble with a translation that is abridged in some way. Same with another translation.

All I can tell you is to not buy the books and complain to the publishers. You can probably get an older copy from a used book store or from a library. Since you know how the other texts deviate, you seem to have (or have had) access to an authentic copy.

As for the copyright, that may have nothing to do with editing, but may be a holder of the copyright from his estate.

As for translations, it sounds like there may be a gap. Who will fill it?