Tuibear, Risteard (Richard Tipper) (d. 1730), Gaelic scholar and scribe, may have been born in Mitchelstown near Mulhuddart in the parish of Castleknock, Co. Dublin, son of Éamonn Tuibear. His mother's name is unknown, as are his parents' occupations. Variations of his surname include Tiobar and Tuibéar . Nothing is known of his education and most of the information about him has been gleaned from manuscripts written either by him or by his contemporaries.
He was both a prolific and competent scribe and belonged to the Tadhg Ó Neachtain (qv) ‘circle’ or school of scholars and scribes active in Dublin during the first quarter of the eighteenth century. A considerable number of his manuscripts have survived and are held in the BL, RIA, and TCD library. For example, BL MS Eg. 190, written in 1709, contains texts deriving from Tadhg Ó Neachtain manuscripts. Manuscript BL Add. 18426 contains a note in the hand of Edward O'Reilly (qv) stating that the manuscript in question was transcribed from an Irish grammar written in 1713 by Tuibear, which afterwards came into the possession of the Northern scribe Muiris Ó Gormáin (qv). RIA MS 23 M 26 contains a copy of the poem by Aodh Mac Gabhráin, Pléaráca na Ruarcach. TCD MS H.2.4, written in 1728, is a transcript of the Book of Ballymote.
Tuibear clearly understood the importance of preserving and copying manuscripts and is considered by Harrison to have belonged to an inner coterie of the Ó Neachtain circle, consisting of Seón Mac Solaidh of Stackallen, Co. Meath, who appears to have been his closest associate, Maurice Newby from Tipperary, Stiabhna Rís, Seán Ó hEideáin, Muiris Ó Nuabha, and Aodh Buí Mac Cruitín (qv). These scholars produced a vast number of manuscripts comprising historical, hagiographical, legendary and poetic material, particularly from 1710 to 1745. This inner circle flourished especially from 1719 onwards after receiving a copy of the Book of Ballymote from Anthony Raymond (qv). From the manuscripts extant, there is evidence that some of them were joint compositions by Tuibear, Mac Solaidh and Rís, while some copied from each other or shared the same source. A reference is made to Tuibear in Tadhg Ó Neachtain's lengthy poem, ‘Sloinnfead scothadh na Gaoidhilge grinn’ (TCD MS H.4.20) composed in Dublin some time between 1726 and 1729. Tuibear is mentioned along with twenty-five other Irish scholars, known to Ó Neachtain, who were working in the city at that time. He is also named in a burlesque poem, based on the model of Pairlement Chloinne Tomáis by Ó Neachtain's father, Seán Ó Neachtain (qv).
Apart from the Ó Neachtain circle, contact also existed between Tuibear and Ó Gormáin, who is not named in Ó Neachtain's poem although he appears to have been in the city at the time. In a list of books in his possession (RIA MS 23 H 23, f.22), Ó Gormáin refers to having bought a manuscript from Tuibear.
Manuscripts transcribed by Tuibear include An Leabhar Muimhneach, dated 1716–7 (RIA MS 23 E 26), based on the works of two earlier seventeenth century scholars, Domhnall Ó Duinnín and Tadhg mac Dáire Mac Bruaideadha (qv). BL MS Eg. 170 contains two verses addressed to a priest written by Tuibear on 4 October 1716, accompanying the gift of a book, possibly Scáthán Shacramuinte na hAithridhe, by Aodh Mac Cathmhaoil.
Tuibear died 1730 and his place of burial is unknown.
More information on this entry is available at the National Database of Irish-language biographies (Ainm.ie).