A collection of charter-like records in Latin and Old Irish relating the activities of St Patrick in Ireland and the lands that were granted to him and his church. The collection can be divided into three parts: (1) a text about the foundation of Trim (Co. Meath), including an account of the conversion of Feidlimid son of Lóegaire mac Néill, king of Leinster; (2) a group of six records concerning churches in northern Connacht; and (3) a group of four records concerning churches in Leinster.
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Diary or journal written largely in Irish by Amhlaoibh Ó Súilleabháin of Callan (Co. Kilkenny) between January 1827 and July 1835. Its observations on different aspects of Irish society are considered an invaluable resource for the history of 19th-century Ireland.
English record of the proceedings resulting from the so-called ‘composition agreement’ made in 1585 between the Gaelic ‘lords and chieftains’ of Connacht and Thomond (Co. Clare) and the English administration residing at Dublin Castle. It records the names of land-holders and their holdings. The document offers insights into the workings of Elizabethan policy in Ireland in matters of land and taxation, notably the tactics of surrender and regrant.
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A Latin epitaph written for a priest (sacerdos) named Caidocus, who is said to have been born in Ireland and buried in Gaul (Scotia quem genuit Gallica terra tegit). It is found as an addition at the end of a collection of inscriptions that may have been copied at the monastery of Corbie and has been associated with Centulum (Saint-Riquier, Picardy). The signature at the end states that Angilbert, i.e. the Carolingian poet who was given the monastery of Centulum, was responsible for erecting the tomb and inscribing the poem on its surface. The Irishman in question is commonly identified as the one of the same name who appears in the lives of St Richarius of Saint-Riquier, one of which was written by Angilbert’s former teacher Alcuin.
Short Irish note which mentions Corcrán búachaill (lit. ‘herdsman’, also ‘guardian’ or ‘servant’) and Máel Suthain. As it stands in the manuscript, where it follows a monastic poem uttered by a hermit, beg. M'óenurán im aireclán, it consists of no more than a single line in prose and a retoiric. Cf. perhaps the anchorite Corcrán Clérech (d. 1040) and Máel Suthain Úa Cerbaill (d. 1010) or his namesake and scholar (d. 1031).
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A fiant from 1578 or 1579, in the reign of Elizabeth I, containing instructions to Sir Henry Harrington, the recently appointed seneschal and chief of O'Byrne's Country in Co. Wicklow. The document has been frequently cited for its instruction to enforce severe penalties on every “idle person, vagabond or masterless man, bard, rymor, or other notorious malefactor” who remains in the district.
Register of the diocese of Clogher (Co. Tyrone). No complete text of the original register is extant but extracts from it are known from several manuscripts.
A now lost register and cartulary of the Cistercian abbey of Duiske (Co. Kilkenny), which appears to have been begun in 1513 for the abbot, Charles (Cathaoir) Kavanagh. Thomas Butler, 11th (or 10th) earl of Ormond, donated the abbey and its lands to his son Piers. Presumably, the manuscript passed into the latter’s possession, but it appears to have been lost by the 18th century. Portions of its contents, including charters and annals, are known from extracts that were made prior to the disappearance of the MS.
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Autobiographical prose work by John Bale about his experiences as bishop of Ossory (1552/1553), his conflicts with the Irish church, and his exile from Ireland.
