Nick Maxwell Adomnán, the ninth abbot of Iona, is well known for his biography of St Columba. A lesser-known achievement was the promulgation in 697 of Cáin Adomnáin, the ‘Law of the Innocents’, Lex Innocentium. In the ninth-century Martyrology of Tallaght, Féilire Óengusso, the entry for 23 September reads: Do Adamnán Iae Asa tóidlech tóiden Ro ír … Read more
As is the case for other early Irish laws, detailed penalties are laid down for various severities of injury: ‘If it be a life-wound any one inflicts on a woman or a cleric or an innocent, seven half-cumals are due from him . . . Three séts for every white blow, five séts for every … Read more
The text of the law is found in two manuscripts, one from the fifteenth and one from the seventeenth century, both based on a no-longer-extant manuscript referred to as ‘the Old Book of Raphoe’. One of the manuscripts is a Michéal Ó Cléirigh text of 1627, itself based on a manuscript written by his cousin … Read more
Sir,—May I commend Brian Hanley for his review of John M. Regan’s Myth and the Irish state that brought to wider notice some of the current debates in modern Irish history (HI 22.5, Sept./Oct. 2014). Prof Regan is one of the most incisive minds working on modern Ireland today. The issues he raises about the … Read more
Sir,—In his response to my earlier observations D.R. O’Connor Lysaght makes some fair points (HI 22.6, Nov./Dec. 2014, Letters). It would be foolish to pretend that Germany was solely responsible for the Great War, and the argument that the Reich was striking a pre-emptive blow in 1914 is not entirely implausible. The September Programme, however, … Read more