Richard Henebry (1863-1916) was an Irish priest, educator, musician, collector and author known most prominently for his Irish-language activism. Born in 1863 to an Irish-speaking family in the Waterford Gaeltacht, Henebry was one of the most strident critics of the modernist tendency in the emerging Irish-language literature, finding himself at odds with the likes of Pádraig Pearse and Pádraic Ó Conaire. Henebry rejected the imposition of modern, contemporary forms on the language, upholding the standard of the ancient language as it stood uncorrupted. In an 1909 article entitled ‘Revival Irish’ in D. P. Moran’s The Leader, Henebry famously remarked of Pearse’s ‘Iosagán’ that it promoted a ‘standard of revolt.’
Writings
A Plea For Prose (1892)
Is Gaeḋeal Mise (1905)
Revival Irish (1909)