784
AN GAODHAL.
O'Curry's Lectures.
ON THE
MANUSCRIPT MATERIAL OF ANCIENT IRISH HIS¬
TORY.
Lecture 1.
Delivered March 13th, 1855, at the
Catholic University, Dublin, Ireland.
Introduction — Of Learning Before St. Patrick's
Time — Of the Lost Books and What is Known
of Them. — I. "The Cuilmenn." — II. The Saltair
of Tard — III. The Book of "Ua Chongbhail" —
IV. The "Cin Droma Sneachta" — V. The "Sean¬
chas Mor" — VI. The Book of St. Mochta — VII.
The Book of Cuana — VIII The Book of "Dubh-
da-Leithe" — IX. The Saltair of Cashel — Of the
Existing Collection of Ancient Manuscripts.
At what period in Irish history written records
began to be kept, it is perhaps, impossible to de¬
termine at present with precision. However, the
national traditions assign a very remote antiquity
and a high degree of cultivation to the civilization
of our pagan ancestors. Without granting to such
traditions a greater degree of credibility than they
are strictly entitied to, it must, I think, be admit¬
ted that the immense quantity of historical, legend¬
ary and genealogical matter relating to the pagan
age of ancient Erinn, and which we can trace to
the very oldest written documents of which we yet
retain any account, could only have been trans¬
mitted to our times by some form of written re¬
ord.
Passing over those earlier periods, however for
the present, and first directing our inquiries to an
era in our history of which we possess copious re¬
cords — though one already far removed from mod¬
ern times — it may be found most convenient that
I should ask your attention at the opening of this
course of lectures to the probable state of learning
in Erinn about the period of the introduction of
Christianity by Saint Patrick. There is abundant
evidence in the MSS. relating to this period (the
authority and credibility of which will be fully
proved to you) to show that Saint Patrick found
on his coming to Frinn a regular defined system of
law and policy, and a fixed classification of the
people according to various grades and ranks, un¬
der the sway of a single monarch, presiding over
certain subordinate provincial kings.
We find mention likewise of books in the poss¬
ession of the Druids before the arrival of St. Pa¬
rick; and it is repeatedly stated (in the Tripartite
Life of the Saint) that he placed primers or lessons
in the Latin language in the hands of those whom
he wished to take into his ministry. We have also
several remarkable examples of the literary emin¬
nence which was rapidly attained by many of his
disciples, mongst whom may be particularly men¬
tioned Benen or Benignus, Mochoe, Fiacc, of Sleb¬
he or Sletty. This last is the author of a biog¬
raphical poem on the Life of the Apostle in the
Gaedhlic language, a most ancient copy of which
still exists, and which leaves internal evidence of a
high degree of perfection in the language at the
time in which it was composed, and it is unques¬
tionably in all respects a genuine and native pro¬
duction, quite untinctured with the Latin or any
other foreign contemporary style or idiom.
There are besides many other valuable poems
and other compositions referable to this period
which possess much of the same excellence, though
not at all of equal ability, and among these are even
a few still extant, attributed, and with much prob¬
ability, to Dubthach (now pronounced Duvach, and
in the old Norge sagas spelt Dufthakr), Ua Lugair,
chief poet of tho monarch Leaghaire (pronounced
nearly Layry, who was uncle on the mother's side,
and preceptor of the Fiacc just mentioned. It is to
be remarked here that in dealing with these early
periods of Irish history, the inquirer of the present
day as to contend with difficulties of a more than
ordinary kind. Our isolated position prevented the
contemporary chroniclers of other countries from
giving to the affairs of ancient Erinn anything
more than a passing notice, while many causes have
combined to deprive us of much of the light which
the works of our own annalists would have thrown
on the passing events of their day in the rest of
Europe.
The first and chief of these causes was the de¬
struction and mutilation of so many ancient writ¬
ing during the Danish occupation of Erinn, for
we have it on trustworthy record that those hardy
and unscrupulous adventurers made it a special
part of their savage warfare to tear, burn and drown
(as it is expressed) all books and records that came
to their hands, in the sacking of churches and mon¬
asteries, and the plundering of the habitations of
the chiefs and nobles. And that they destroyed
them, and did not take them away, as some have
thought (contrary to the evidence of our records).
is confirmed by the fact that not a fragment of any
such manuscripts has as yet been found among the
collections of ancient records in Copenhagen, Stock¬
holm, or any of the other great northern repositor¬
ries of antiquity that we are acquainted with. An¬
other, and, we may believe, the chief cause, was
the occurrence of the Anglo Norman invasion so
soon after the expulsion of the Danes, and the sin¬
ister results which it produced upon the literary,
as well as upon all the other interests of the coun¬
try. The protracted conflicts between the natives
and their invaders were fatal not only to the vigor¬
ous resumption of the study of our language, but
also to the very existence of a great part of our an¬
cient literature. The old practice of reproducing
books and adding to them a record of such events
as had occurred from the period of their first com¬
pilation as well as the composition of new and in¬
dependent works was almost altogether suspended.
And thus our national literature received a fatal
check at the most important period of its develop¬
ment, and at a time when the mind of Europe was
beginning to expand under the influence of new
impulses.
Again the disovery of printing at a subsequent
period made works in other languages so much
more easy of access than those transcribed by hand
in the Irish tongue, that this also may have con¬
tributed to the farther neglect of native composit¬
ions. Aided by the new political rule under which
the country, after a long and gallant resistance,
was at length brought, these and similar influences
banished, at last almost the impossibility of culti¬
vating the Gaedhlic literature and learning. The
long-continuing insecurity of life and property
