WHAT ARE SURELY AMONGST THE LONGEST CONTINUOUS TEXTS WRITTEN IN OLD IRISH ARE THE RELIGIOUS POEMS OF BLATHMAC, SON OF CÚ BRETTAN. BUT WERE HIS SOURCES ONLY LITERARY? By Peter Harbison The poems of Blathmac, son of Cú Brettan, were discovered in a seventeenth-century manuscript (NLI G.50) by Nessa Ní Shéaghdha in 1953, and largely … Read more
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
In the Celtic world, as elsewhere, canines were admired for their senses of sight, smell and hearing. Dogs were used on hunting expeditions and to guard homes, as domestic pets and as a source of food. They abound in surviving mythology and folk tradition and are well represented in religion, where they are often associated … Read more
Flúirseacht agus éagsúlacht na bhfoinsí Bíodh go raibh brú mór tubaisteach ar achan ghné de chóras na nGael sa chéad leath den tseachtú haois déag, tháinig blathú ar chúrsaí litríochta agus léinn. Bhí litríocht don scoth á cumadh sa tréimhse sin sna réimeanna éagsúla. Tá Annála Ríochta na hÉireann, Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, Cín … Read more
Anniversaries invite us to explore ‘who we are’. In fact, they usually tell us a great deal more about those who commemorate than about what is commemorated. The year 2007 was a case in point. The planting of Jamestown and the Flight of the Earls transformed America, Ireland and England. Each of these events is … Read more