THE IRISH ANNALS
We have already at the beginning of this book had occasion to discuss
the reliability of the Irish annals,[1] and have seen that from the
fifth century onward they record with great accuracy the few events
for which we happen to have external evidence, drawn either from
astronomical discovery or from the works of foreign authors. We shall
here enumerate the most important of these works, for though the
documents from which they are taken were evidently of great antiquity,
yet they themselves are only comparatively modern compilations mostly
made from the now lost sources of the ancient vellum chronicles which
the early Christian monks kept in their religious houses, probably
from the very first introduction of Christianity and the use of Roman
letters.
The greatest--though almost the youngest--of them all is the
much-renowned "Annals of the Four Masters." This mighty work is chiefly
due to the herculean labours of the learned Franciscan Brother, Michael
O'Clery, a native of Donegal, born about the year 1580, who was himself
descended from a long line of scholars.[2] He and another scion of
Donegal, Aedh Mac an Bháird, then guardian of St. Anthony's in Louvain,
contemplated the compilation and publication of a great collection of
the lives of the Irish saints.
In furtherance of this idea Michael O'Clery, with the leave and
approbation of his superiors, set out from Louvain, and, coming to
Ireland, travelled through the whole length and breadth of it, from
abbey to abbey and priory to priory. Up and down, high and low, he
hunted for the ancient vellum books and time-stained manuscripts whose
safety was even then threatened by the ever-thickening political shocks
and spasms of that most destructive age. These, whenever he found,
he copied in an accurate and beautiful handwriting, and transmitted
safely to Louvain to his friend Mac an Bháird, or "Ward" as the name
is now in English. Ward unfortunately died before he could make use of
the material thus collected by O'Clery, but it was taken up by another
great Franciscan, Father John Colgan, who utilised the work of his
friend O'Clery by producing, in 1645, the two enormous Latin quartos,
to which we have already frequently alluded, the first called the
"Trias Thaumaturga," containing the lives of Saints Patrick, Brigit,
and Columcille; the second containing all the lives which could be
found of all the Irish saints whose festivals fell between the first of
January and the last of March. Several of the works thus collected by
O'Clery and Colgan still happily survive.[3] On the break-up of the
Convent of Louvain, they were transferred to St. Isidore's, in Rome,
and in 1872 were restored to Ireland and are now in the Convent of the
Franciscans, on Merchant's Quay, Dublin, a restoration which prompted
the fine lines of the late poet John Francis O'Donnell.
From Ireland of the four bright seas
In troublous days these treasures came,
Through clouds, through fires, through darknesses,
To Rome of immemorial name,
Rome of immeasurable fame:
The reddened hands of foes would rive
Each lovely growth of cloister--crypt--
Dim folio, yellow manuscript,
Where yet the glowing pigments live;
But a clear voice cried from Louvain
"Give them to me for they are mine,"
And so they sped across the main
The saints their guard, the ship their shrine.
Before O'Clery ever entered the Franciscan Order he had been by
profession an historian or antiquary, and now in his eager quest for
ecclesiastical writings and the lives of saints, his trained eye fell
upon many other documents which he could not neglect. These were the
ancient books and secular annals of the nation, and the historical
poems of the ancient bards. He indulged himself to the full in this
unique opportunity to become acquainted with so much valuable material,
and the results of his labours were two voluminous books, first the
"Réim Rioghraidhe," or Succession of Kings in Ireland, which gives
the name, succession, and genealogy of the kings of Ireland from the
earliest times down to the death of Malachy the Great in 1022, and
which gives at the same time the genealogies of the early saints of
Ireland down to the eighth century, and secondly the "Leabhar Gabhála,"
or Book of Invasions,[4] which contains an ample account of the
successive colonisations of Ireland which were made by Partholan, the
Nemedians, and the Tuatha De Danann, down to the death of Malachy, all
drawn from ancient books--for the most part now lost--digested and put
together by the friar.
It was probably while engaged on this work that the great scheme of
compiling the annals of Ireland occurred to him. He found a patron and
protector in Fergal O'Gara, lord of Moy Gara and Coolavin, and with
the assistance of five or six other antiquaries, he set about his task
in the secluded convent of Donegal, at that time governed by his own
brother, on the 22nd of January, 1632, and finished it on the 10th of
August, 1636, having had, during all this time, his expenses and the
expenses of his fellow-labourers defrayed by the patriotic lord of Moy
Gara.
It was Father Colgan, at Louvain, who first gave this great work the
title under which it is now always spoken of, that is, "The Annals of
the Four Masters." Father Colgan in the preface to his "Acta Sanctorum
Hiberniæ,"[5] after recounting O'Clery's labours and his previous
books goes on to give an account of this last one also, and adds:
"As in the three works before mentioned so in this fourth one, three
[helpers of his] are eminently to be praised, namely, Farfassa
O'Mulchonry, Perigrine[6] O'Clery, and Peregrine O'Duigenan, men of
consummate learning in the antiquities of the country and of approved
faith. And to these was subsequently added the co-operation of other
distinguished antiquarians, as Maurice O'Mulconry who for one month,
and Conary O'Clery who for many months, laboured in its promotion. But
since those annals which we shall very frequently have occasion to
quote in this volume and in the others following, have been collected
and compiled by the assistance and separate study of so many authors,
neither the desire of brevity would permit us always to quote them
individually, nor would justice permit us to attribute the labour of
many to one, hence it sometimes seemed best to call them the Annals
of Donegal, for in our convent of Donegal they were commenced and
concluded. But afterwards for other reasons, chiefly for the sake
of the compilers themselves who were four most eminent masters in
antiquarian lore, we have been led to call them the ANNALS OF THE FOUR
MASTERS. Yet we said just now that more than four assisted in their
preparation; however, as their meeting was irregular, and but two of
them during a short time laboured in the unimportant and later part of
the work, while the other four were engaged on the entire production,
at least up to the year 1267 (from which the first part and the most
necessary one for us is closed), we quote it under their name."
Michael O'Clery writes in his dedication to Fergal O'Gara, after
explaining the scope of the work--
"I explained to you that I thought I could get the assistance of the
chroniclers for whom I had most esteem in writing a book of annals
in which these matters might be put on record, and that should the
writing of them be neglected at present they would not again be bound
to be put on record or commemorated even to the end of the world. All
the best and most copious books of annals that I could find throughout
all Ireland were collected by me--though it was difficult for me to
collect them into one place--to write this book in your name and to
your honour, for it was you who gave the reward of their labour to the
chroniclers by whom it was written, and it was the friars of Donegal
who supplied them with food and attendance."
The book is also provided with a kind of testimonium from the
Franciscan fathers of the monastery where it was written, stating who
the compilers were, and how long they had worked under their own eyes,
and what old books they had seen with them, etc. In addition to this,
Michael O'Clery carried it to the two historians of greatest eminence
in the south of Ireland, Flann Mac Egan, of Ballymacegan, in the Co.
Tipperary, and Conor mac Brody of the Co. Clare, and obtained their
written approbation and signature, as well as those of the Primate of
Ireland and some others, and thus provided he launched his book upon
the world.
It has been published, at least in part, three times; first down to
the year 1171--the year of the Norman Invasion--by the Rev. Charles
O'Conor, grandson of Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare, Carolan's patron,
with a Latin translation, and secondly in English by Owen Connellan
from the year 1171 to the end. But the third publication of it--that
by O'Donovan--was the greatest work that any modern Irish scholar ever
accomplished. In it the Irish text with accurate English translation,
and an enormous quantity of notes, topographical, genealogical, and
historical, are given, and the whole is contained in seven great quarto
volumes--a work of which any age or country might be proud. So long
as Irish history exists, the "Annals of the Four Masters" will be read
in O'Donovan's translation, and the name of O'Donovan be inseparably
connected with that of the O'Clerys.
As to the contents of these annals, suffice it to say that like so many
other compilations of the same kind, they begin with _the Deluge_:
they end in the year 1616. They give, from the old books, the reigns,
deaths, genealogies, etc., not only of the high-kings but also of the
provincial kings, chiefs, and heads of distinguished families, men
of science and poets, with their respective dates, going as near to
them as they can go. They record the deaths and successions of saints,
abbots, bishops, and ecclesiastical dignitaries. They tell of the
foundation and occasionally of the overthrow of countless churches,
castles, abbeys, convents, and religious institutions. They give
meagre details of battles and political changes, and not unfrequently
quote ancient verses in proof of facts, but none prior to the second
century.[7] Towards the end the dry summary of events become more
garnished, and in parts elaborate detail takes the place of meagre
facts. There is no event of Irish history from the birth of Christ
to the beginning of the seventeenth century that the first inquiry
of the student will not be, "What do the 'Four Masters' say about
it?" for the great value of the work consists in this, that we have
here in condensed form the pith and substance of the old books of
Ireland which were then in existence but which--as the Four Masters
foresaw--have long since perished. The facts and dates of the Four
Masters are not their own facts and dates. From confused masses of very
ancient matter, they, with labour and much sifting, drew forth their
dates and synchronisms and harmonised their facts.
As if to emphasise the truth that they were only redacting the Annals
of Ireland from the most ancient sources at their command, the Masters
wrote in an ancient bardic dialect full at once of such idioms and
words as were unintelligible even to the men of their own day unless
they had received a bardic training. In fact, they were learned men
writing for the learned, and this work was one of the last efforts of
the _esprit de corps_ of the school-bred shanachy which always prompted
him to keep bardic and historical learning a close monopoly amongst
his own class. Keating was Michael O'Clery's contemporary, but he
wrote--and I consider him the first Irish historian and trained scholar
who did so--for the masses not the classes, and he had his reward in
the thousands of copies of his popular History made and read throughout
all Ireland, while the copies made of the Annals were quite few in
comparison, and after the end of the seventeenth century little read.
The valuable but meagre _Annals of Tighearnach_, published by the
Rev. Charles O'Conor with a rather inaccurate Latin translation, and
now in process of publication by Dr. Whitley Stokes, were compiled
in the eleventh century. Clonmacnois of which Tighearnach was abbot
was founded in 544, and the Annals had probably for their basis, as
M. d'Arbois de Jubainville remarks, some book in which from the very
foundation of the monastery the monks briefly noted remarkable events
from year to year. Tighearnach declares that all Irish history prior
to the founding of Emania is uncertain.[8] Tighearnach himself died in
1088.
Another valuable book of Annals is the _Chronicon Scotorum_, of
uncertain origin, edited for the Master of the Rolls in one volume
by the late Mr. Hennessy, from a manuscript in the handwriting of
the celebrated Duald Mac Firbis. It begins briefly with the legended
Fenius Farsa, who is said to have composed the Gaelic language, "out
of seventy-two languages." It then jumps to the year 353 A.D., merely
remarking "I pass to another time and he who is will bless it, in this
year 353 Patrick was born." At the year 432 we meet the curious record,
"a morte Concculaind [Cuchulain] herois usque ad hunc annum 431, a
morte Concupair [Conor] mic Nessa 412 anni sunt." Columcille's prayer
at the battle of Cul Dremhne is given under the year 561, and consists
of three poetic ranns. Cennfaeladh is another poet frequently quoted,
and as in the "Four Masters," we meet with numerous scraps of poems
given as authorities. On the murder of Bran Dubh, king of Leinster,
which took place in 605, two verses are quoted curiously attributed to
"an old woman of Leinster," "de quo anus Laighen locutus rand."
The _Annals of Ulster_ cover the period from the year 431 to 1540.
Three large volumes of these have been published for the Master of
the Rolls, the first by Mr. Hennessy, the second and third by Dr. Mac
Carthy. Some verses, but not many, are quoted as authorities in these
annals also, from the beginning of the sixth century onward.
The _Annals of Loch Cé_ begin at 1014 and end in 1590, though they
contain a few later entries. They also are edited for the Master of the
Rolls in two volumes by Mr. Hennessy. They contain scarcely more than
half a dozen poetic quotations.
The _Annals of Boyle_ contained in a thirteenth-century manuscript,
begin with the Creation and are continued down to 1253. The fragmentary
Annals of Boyle contain the period from 1224 to 1562.
The _Annals of Innisfallen_ were compiled about the year 1215, but
according to O'Curry were commenced at least two centuries before that
period.
The _Annals of Clonmacnois_ were a valuable compilation continued down
to the year 1408. The original of these annals is lost, but an English
translation of them made by one Connla Mac Echagan, or Mageoghegan,
of West Meath, for his friend and kinsman Torlough Mac Cochlan, lord
of Delvin, in 1627, still exists, and was recently edited by the late
Father Denis Murphy, S.J.
These form the principal books of the annals of Ireland, and though of
completely different and independent origin they agree marvellously
with each other in matters of fact, and contain the materials for a
complete, though not an exhaustive, history of Ireland as derived from
internal sources.
It is very much to be regretted that no Irish writer before Keating
ever attempted, with these and the many lost books of annals before
him, to throw their contents into a regular and continuous history. But
this was never done, and the comparatively dry chronicles remain still
the sources from which must be drawn the hard facts of the nation's
past, with the exception of those brief periods which have engaged the
pens of particular writers, such as the history of the wars of Thomond,
compiled about 1459 by Rory Mac Craith, or the Life of Red Hugh written
a century and a half later by Lughaidh O'Clery, and the many historical
sagas and "lives" dealing with particular periods, which are really
history romanticised.
[1] _See_ above pp. 38-43.
[2] For an account of how these O'Clerys came to Donegal see the
interesting preface to Father Murphy's edition of the "Life of Red Hugh
O'Donnell."
[3] Copies of the lives of the following saints are still preserved
in the Burgundian Library at Brussels, copied by Michael O'Clery, no
doubt from vellum MSS. preserved at that time in Ireland. The Life of
_Mochua_ of Balla, the Life of St. Baithin (fragmentary), the Life of
St. Donatus (fragmentary), the Life of St. _Finchua_ of Bri Gabhan, the
Life of St. Finnbharr of Cork, the Life of St. Creunata the Virgin, the
Life of _St. Moling_ (see above p. 210), the Life of _St. Finian_ (see
p. 196), the Life of St. Ailbhe, the Life of St. Abbanus, the Life of
St. Carthach (p. 211), the Life of St. Fursa (see above p. 198), the
Life of St. Ruadhan (who cursed Tara, see p. 229), the Life of _St.
Ceallach_ (_see_ p. 395), the Life of St. Maodhog or Mogue, the Life of
St. Colman, the Life of _St. Senanus_ (see p. 213), the Miracles of St.
Senanus after his death, the Life of St. Caimin (see p. 214) in verse,
the Life of St. Kevin in prose, another Life of St. Kevin in verse,
a third and different Life of St Kevin, the Life of St. Mochaomhog,
the Life of _St. Caillin_, his poems and prophecies, the Poems of St.
Senanus, _St. Brendan_, St. Columcille, and others, the Life of St.
Brigid, the Life of St. Adamnan, the Life of St. Berchan, the Life
of St. Grellan, the Life of St. Molaise, who banished St. Columcille
(see above, p. 177), the Life of St. Lassara the Virgin, the Life of
St. Uanlus, the Life of St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois and of St. Ciaran
of Saighir, the Life of St. Declan, the Life of St. Benin, the Life
of St. Aileran (see p. 197) the Life of _St. Brendan._ The lives of
those saints which I have printed in italics are preserved on vellum
elsewhere. Many more lives of saints doubtless exist. The father of the
present Mac Dermot, the Prince of Coolavin, who was a good and fluent
Irish speaker, had a voluminous Life of St. Atracta, or Athracht, and
I believe of other saints' lives, on vellum, but on inquiring for it
recently at Coolavin, I found it had been lent and lost. Many other old
vellums have doubtless shared its fate.
[4] There are several large fragments of other "Books of Invasions" in
the Book of Leinster and other old vellum MSS., but when the Book of
Invasions is now referred to, O'Clery's compilation is the one usually
meant. It contains (1) the invasion of Ceasair before the flood; (2)
the invasion of Partholan after it; (3) the invasion of Nemedh; (4) the
invasion of the Firbolg; (5) that of the Tuatha De Danann; (6) that of
the Milesians and the history of the Milesian race down to the reign of
Malachy Mór.
[5] This great work was not the only one of the indefatigable Colgan.
At his death, which occurred at the convent of his order in Louvain in
1658, he left behind him the materials of three great unpublished works
which are described by Harris. The first was "De apostulatu Hibernorum
inter exteras gentes, cum indice alphabetico de exteris sanctis,"
consisting of 852 pages of manuscript. The next was "De Sanctis in
Anglia in Britannia, Aremorica, in reliqua Gallia, in Belgio," and
contained 1,068 pages. The last was "De Sanctis in Lotharingia et
Burgundia, in Germania ad sinistrum et dextrum Rheni, in Italia," and
contained 920 pages. None of these with the exception of a page or
two have found their way back to the Franciscans' establishment in
Dublin, nor are they--where many of the books used by Colgan lie--in
the Burgundian Library in Brussels. It is to be feared that they have
perished.
[6] In Irish Cucoigcriche, which, meaning a "stranger," has been
latinised Peregrinus by Ward. I remember one of the l'Estrange family
telling me how one of the O'Cucoigrys had once come to her father and
asked him if he had any objection to his translating his name for the
future into l'Estrange, both names being identical in meaning!
[7] It is noteworthy that no poem is quoted previous to the reign of
Tuathal Teachtmhar in the second century. After that onward we find
verses quoted at the year 226 on the Ferguses, A.D. 284 on the death of
Finn, A.D. 432 a poem by Flann on St. Patrick, at 448 another poem on
Patrick, at 458 a poem on the death of King Laoghaire, in 465 a poem
on the death of the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, at 478 on the
Battle of Ocha, which gave for five hundred years their supremacy to
the House of Niall, and then more verses under the years 489, 493, 501,
503, 504, 506, 507, and so on. The poet-saint Beg mac Dé [_see_ p. 232]
is frequently quoted, as is Cennfaeladh, [p. 412] but the usual formula
used in introducing verses is "of which the poet said," or "of which
the rann was spoken," or "as this verse tells."
[8] See above, p. 42.