CHAPTER XLI 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[Pg 574] 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[Pg 575] 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[Pg 576] 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 Hiberni?,"[5] after recounting[Pg 577] 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."

[Pg 578]

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[Pg 579] 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[Pg 580] 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.

[Pg 581]

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[Pg 582] 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.
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[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.