Bibliography

Mc Carthy, Daniel P., “The chronology and sources of the early Irish annals”, Early Medieval Europe 10:3 (2001): 323–341.

  • journal article
Citation details
Article
“The chronology and sources of the early Irish annals”
Periodical
Volume
10
Pages
323–341
Description
Abstract (cited)

The chronology of much of the Irish annals has hitherto been most uncertain, particularly from the fifth to the eighth century, which has seriously hindered their use as historical sources. This paper demonstrates that the oldest chronological apparatus preserved in these annals is the kalend-plus-ferial and, further, that the ferial data recorded in the Annals of Tigernach and Chronicon Scotorum may be restored and constitute a cogent sequence from the Incarnation up to the middle of the seventh century. When this chronology is calibrated using events for which we have independent chronological information, it emerges that thirteen kalends were removed from the Iona Chronicle between the Anno Domini years 424–664, and thus we may recover the original chronology of that chronicle. Collation of this chronology with those of the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Inisfallen shows that both preserve derivative and corrupted chronologies; this collation has been made available on the World Wide Web at http://www.cs.tcd.ie/Dan.McCarthy/chronology/synchronisms/annals-chron.htm.

Subjects and topics
Headings
Irish annals
Sources
Texts
Contributors
Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
February 2013, last updated: February 2024