The Annals of the Four Masters:
Written 375 Years Ago in Donegal
BY MÁIRE CONVERY
On January 22, 1632 in a secluded monastery on the banks of the Drowes River, four historians began work on arguably the most important record of Irish history, the Annála Ríoghachta Éireann - the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland.
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THE WINDSWEPT coast of Donegal where the Four Masters applied their skill and insight in preserving Ireland's invaluable historical record: The Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland.
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Brother Michael O'Clery, distinguished historian and scion of the O'Clery family, hereditary ollavs to the O'Donnells, along with his collaborators Fergus O'Mulconry, Peregrine O'Clery and Peregrine O'Duigenan, began translating and recording the ancient annals of Ireland dating from the Flood, AM1 2242 to AD 1616.
These learned men would become known as The Four Masters, revered for their foresight and skill in preserving Ireland's invaluable historical record.
Driven from the Franciscan abbey at Donegal town three times by English forces covetous of its strategic position on Donegal Bay, restored twice by Hugh Roe O'Donnell, the monks fled to the smaller and more remote monastery at Bundrowes when the abbey was finally destroyed in 1607.
Against the backdrop of the dissolution of the monasteries and the destruction of priceless ancient manuscripts by iconoclasts, Brother Michael foresaw the loss of Ireland's written history recorded in the ancient chronicles preserved for millennia.
Educated at the College of St. Anthony at Louvain, founded by Irish Franciscans to train clergy for the beleaguered Irish church, Michael was dispatched to Ireland in 1626 to research and compile the lives of the Irish saints.
It was while engaged in this work that he sought the patronage of Fergal O'Gara, Lord of Moy Gara in Sligo for assistance in gathering all the ancient books into one text for publication, " . . . for that should the writing of them be neglected at present, they would not again be found to be put on record even to the end of the world."
Prescient words just two decades before Cromwell's arrival in Ireland. By the close of the century after the Williamite wars, many of the ancient books had been lost or destroyed.
Brother Michael sought out the highly regarded chroniclers of the O'Mulconry family of Roscommon and the O'Duigenans from Leitrim for their knowledge of the archaic Irish of the ancient texts.
Knowledge of the old Irish was disappearing and English was becoming more widespread as the plantations progressed. Earlier he had collaborated with them in transcribing the Leabhar Gabhála, the Book of Invasions.
His travels, in difficult and often dangerous conditions, took him the length of the four provinces to convents, the homes of the old Irish aristocracy and Gaelic scholars from Carrickfergus to Cork and from Wexford to Bundrowes, sometimes on foot, gathering all the ancient materials he could locate.
Transcribing the annals was a monumental task requiring the synchronization of masses of very ancient texts by diverse authors into a chronologically cohesive whole. Archaic Irish had to be carefully translated to contemporary Irish to preserve authenticity.
From "the coming of the Lady Cesair [Noah's granddaughter] 40 days before the Flood" A.M. 2242 through the arrival of Scota, daughter of Pharaoh and wife of Milesius in A.M. 3500 to the golden age of Ireland's monasteries, the annals record the genealogies and reigns of Irish kings; invasions of Fir Bolgs, Fomorians, Tuatha Dé Danann and Milesians; floods, eclipses, the building of forts, internecine warfare, the deeds and demise of saints, scholars, bards and warriors.
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DETAIL of the Celtic Cross located at the monastic settlement at Clonmacnoise at the crossroads of Ireland in County Offaly.
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The coming of Patrick, Viking raiders and Norman invaders, the Reformation and the plantations are recorded in the voice of contemporary chroniclers. Some entries are single lines, others more extensive, filling seven volumes in all.
Manuscripts transcribed are too numerous to list here, but include among many others: The Book of Clonmacnoise, "blessed by St. Ciaran son of the carpenter," The Leabhar Gabhála, The Yellow Book of Lecan, The Books of Leinster, Glendaloch, Lismore and The Books of Clan O'Clery, Clan O'Mulconry and Clan O'Duigenan, ancestors of the Masters.
Assisted at times by Michael's brother Conaire and Maurice O'Mulconry, a relative of Fergus, they laboured for four years, finishing in August 1636, just 13 years before Cromwell's arrival in Ireland.
Their work was to remain unpublished for the next 200 years during the tumult of Cromwell's pacification campaign, the Williamite wars and the introduction of ever harsher Penal Laws, until the great Gaelic scholar John O'Donovan translated it in 1851 with text in Irish and English. Popularly known as the Annals of the Four Masters, it is one of the seminal works of reference in Irish history.
Two original manuscripts were made: one for Fergal O'Gara and one for St. Anthony's College in Louvain. They are divided between the libraries of University College Dublin, Trinity College and the Royal Irish Academy.
There is a partial transcript on Cork University's C.E.L.T. (Corpus of Electronic Texts) website dating from A.M. 2242 to A.D. 897. Fergal O'Gara would be surprised indeed to see the fruits of his good deed mystically teleported across oceans and centuries.
There should be a holiday in honour of Fergal and the fab four. For $1,000 you can buy a 1998 reprint on the Internet; if you want O'Donovan's first edition you'll need US$8,000. Well worth it - you could drop a hint for your birthday.
References/further reading: Michael O'Cleirigh, Chief of the Four Masters. Rev. Brendan Jennings (1936). Dublin, The Talbot Press Limited.
The Story of the Irish Race. Seumas MacManus (1944). The Devin-Adair Company, New York.
Corpus of Electronic Texts: http://www.ucc.ie/celt/published/T100005A/index.html.
Early Irish Glossaries Database: http://www.asnc.cam.ac.uk/irishglossaries/?
[1AM is Anno Mundi - the "Year of the World." It was the Christian chronology that attempted to place the year of the Creation and date forward from that. It was later replaced by the Julian and then the Gregorian calendar.]
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