Richard Irvine Best often known as R. I. Best, was an Irish scholar who specialised in Celtic Studies

Celtic Studies

Celtic studies is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to a Celtic people. This ranges from linguistics, literature and art history archaeology and history, the focus lying on the study of the various Celtic languages, living and extinct...

.

Best was born into a Protestant

Protestantism

Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 family in Derry

Derry

Derry or Londonderry is the second-biggest city in Northern Ireland and the fourth-biggest city on the island of Ireland. The name Derry is an anglicisation of the Irish name Doire or Doire Cholmcille meaning "oak-wood of Colmcille"...

 and educated at Foyle College before working for a time in a bank. As a young man he went to Paris to study Old Irish, where he met Kuno Meyer

Kuno Meyer

Kuno Meyer was a German scholar, distinguished in the field of Celtic philology and literature. His pro-German stance at the start of World War I while traveling in the United States was a source of controversy.-Biography:...

 and attended Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville

Marie Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville

Marie Henri d'Arbois de Jubainville , was a French historian and philologist.He was born at Nancy. In 1851 he left the École des Chartes with the degree of palaeographic archivist...

's lectures at the Collège de France

Collège de France

The Collège de France is a higher education and research establishment located in Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement, or Latin Quarter, across the street from the historical campus of La Sorbonne at the intersection of Rue Saint-Jacques and Rue des Écoles...

. On his return to Ireland he translated the latter's Le Cycle Mythologique Irlandais et la Mythologie Celtique into English and became Assistant Director at the National Library of Ireland

National Library of Ireland

The National Library of Ireland is Ireland's national library located in Dublin, in a building designed by Thomas Newenham Deane. The Minister for Arts, Sport & Tourism is the member of the Irish Government responsible for the library....

 in 1904.

He married Edith Oldman, a musician, in 1906 and the couple were active in the administration of the Feis Ceoil

Feis Ceoil

Feis Ceoil is an annual Irish cultural festival of music and dance. It was first organized in 1897 by Dr. Annie Patterson and Edward Martyn. It consisted of competitions for performance and composition and was supported by all musicians of the day, both national and classical...

. Edith was six years Best's senior and the daughter of Professor C. H. Oldman of University College Dublin

University College Dublin

University College Dublin ) - formally known as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin is the Republic of Ireland's largest, and Ireland's second largest, university, with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students...

. The couple had no children.

From 1913 onwards he published his multi-volume Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature: Publications (1913–1941). Best was director of the National Library from 1929 to 1940. He was Senior Professor of Celtic Studies at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies

The Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies Dublin, Ireland was established in 1940 by the Taoiseach of the time, Éamon de Valera under the . The Institute consists of 3 schools: The , the and the . The directors of these schools are currently Professor Werner Nahm, Professor Luke Drury and...

 from its establishment in 1940. He served as chairman of the Irish Manuscripts Commission

Irish Manuscripts Commission

The Irish Manuscripts Commission was established in 1928 by the newly founded Irish Free State with the intention of furthering the study of Ireland's manuscript collections and archives...

 from 1948 to 1956 and was an honorary fellow of the Bibliographical Society of Ireland. Best was awarded honorary doctorates by the National University of Ireland

National University of Ireland

The National University of Ireland , , is a federal university system of constituent universities, previously called constituent colleges, and recognised colleges set up under the Irish Universities Act, 1908, and significantly amended by the Universities Act, 1997.The constituent universities are...

 and Trinity College Dublin and the Leibniz Medal of the Royal Prussian Academy

Prussian Academy of Sciences

The Prussian Academy of Sciences was an academy established in Berlin on 11 July 1700, four years after the Akademie der Künste or "Arts Academy", to which "Berlin Academy" may also refer.-Origins:...

.

He died at his home, 57 Upper Leeson Street, on 25 September 1959.

Best was an acquaintance of J. M. Synge and James Joyce

James Joyce

James Augustine Aloysius Joyce was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century...

. Joyce depicted Best in Ulysses

Ulysses (novel)

Ulysses is a novel by the Irish author James Joyce. It was first serialised in parts in the American journal The Little Review from March 1918 to December 1920, and then published in its entirety by Sylvia Beach on 2 February 1922, in Paris. One of the most important works of Modernist literature,...

 as one of the characters in the National Library scene in Episode 9 Scylla and Charybdis. Best was known to have disapproved of Joyce's characterisation of him. . According to Frank O'Connor

Frank O'Connor

Frank O’Connor was an Irish author of over 150 works, best known for his short stories and memoirs.-Early life:...

, Best boasted that he was the only person in Dublin from whom Joyce never borrowed money.Flann O'Brien

Flann O'Brien

Brian O'Nolan was an Irish novelist, playwright and satirist regarded as a key figure in postmodern literature. Best known for novels such as At Swim-Two-Birds, The Third Policeman and An Béal Bocht and many satirical columns in The Irish Times Brian O'Nolan (5 October 1911 – 1 April 1966) was...

 affectionately satirised him alongside his fellow scholars D. A. Binchy

D. A. Binchy

Daniel Anthony Binchy was a scholar of Irish linguistics and Early Irish law.From 1919-20 he was Auditor of the Literary and Historical Society...

 and Osborn Bergin

Osborn Bergin

Osborn Joseph Bergin was a scholar of the Irish language and Early Irish literature. He was born in Cork and was educated at Queen's College Cork , then went to Germany for advanced studies in Celtic languages, working with Heinrich Zimmer at the Friedrich Wilhelm University of Berlin...

 in his poem Binchy and Bergin and Best. He was a close friend of George Moore

George Moore

George Moore may refer to:*George Edward Moore , G.E. Moore, British philosopher*George Moore , Member of Parliament for Dublin City 1826–1831*George Moore , landowner and High Sheriff of Derbyshire...

, and according to a well-known story, had to explain to Moore that " it were better " is not bad English but the subjunctive mood.

The R. I. Best Memorial Lectures were established by the National Library in his honour.

Selected publications

• The Irish Mythological Cycle and Celtic Mythology translated, (1903)
• Bibliography of Irish Philology and of Printed Irish Literature (1913)
• Bibliography of Irish Philology and Manuscript Literature, Publications, 2 vols, (1913–1941) [2 vols.]
• The Martyrology of Tallaght, editor, (1931)
• The Book of Leinster, formerly Lebar na Nuachongbála, co-edited, (1954–67)