Texts
Foras feasa ar Éirinn
Incoming data
The prose history of Ireland completed by Geoffrey Keating (Seathrún Céitinn) in c. 1634. Comprising an introduction, two books and appendices, it narrates the history of the island from the time of Creation to the Norman conquest in the 12th century. As set out by the vindicatory introduction (an díonbhrollach), the work was written in response to the cultural biases of Anglo-centric writers (e.g. William Camden and Edmund Spenser).
Manuscript witnesses
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS 23 O 19
written by Iollann Ó Maoil Chonaire
Text
Text
Dublin, Royal Irish Academy, MS C iv 1
Lacks beginning and end.
MS
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1342
on 116 folios, a fragment of Geoffrey Keating's Foras feasa ar Éirinn, beginning with chapter 4 and ending with Tuathal Techtmar's reign.
MS
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1354
Keating’s history of Ireland, with miscellaneous material (see below)
f. 5–
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1382
Extracts
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1406
Second item. Incomplete: first part only.
Text
Dublin, Trinity College, MS 1443
Version in English translation (end of the 17th century).
Sources
Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.
[ed.] [tr.] Comyn, David, and Patrick S. Dinneen [ed. and tr.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D., 4 vols, Irish Texts Society, 4, 8, 9, 15, London: Irish Texts Society, 1902–1914.
CELT – edition (Book I-II): <link> CELT – translation (Book I-II): <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 1: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 2: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link> Internet Archive – vol. 3: <link>
Comyn, David [ed.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D. Volume I, containing the introduction and first book of the history, 4 vols, vol. 1, Irish Texts Society, 4, London: Irish Texts Society, 1902.
Dinneen, Patrick S. [ed.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D. Volume II, containing the first book of the history from sect. XV to the end, 4 vols, vol. 2, Irish Texts Society, 8, London: Irish Texts Society, 1908.
Dinneen, Patrick S. [ed.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D. Volume III, containing the second book of the history, 4 vols, vol. 3, Irish Texts Society, 9, London: Irish Texts Society, 1908.
Dinneen, Patrick S. [ed.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D. Volume IV, containing the genealogies, synchronisms with an index [which includes the elucidation of place names and annotations to the text of Vols. I, II and III], 4 vols, vol. 4, Irish Texts Society, 15, London: Irish Texts Society, 1914.
[ed.] Bergin, Osborn [ed.], Sgéalaigheacht Chéitinn. Stories from Keating’s History of Ireland, 3rd ed., Dublin: Royal Irish Academy, 1930.
Internet Archive: <link>
Edition of selections, based on the copy in Dublin, King's Inns Library, with variants from TCD 1397 and TCD 1403
[ed.] Joyce, P. W., Forus feasa air Éirinn: Keating's History of Ireland. Book I, Part I, Gaelic Union Publications, Dublin: Gill, 1880.
Internet Archive: <link>
Edition of the first part of Book 1, based on TCD 1397
[tr.] OʼMahony, John, Foras feasa ar Éirinn, do réir an Athar Seathrun Céiting, ollamh ré diadhachta: The history of Ireland, from the earliest period to the English Invasion, by the Reverend Geoffrey Keating, D.D., New York, 1857.
[ed.] [tr.] Keating, Geoffrey, and William Haliday [ed. and tr.], Forus feasa air Erinn: nar a nochtar priomhdhála na hInnse o Pharthalon, go Gabhaltus Gall = A complete history of Ireland, from the first colonization of the island by Parthalon, to the Anglo-Norman invasion, Dublin: John Barlow, 1811.
An edition of the prologue and first part of Keating’s Foras feasa ar Éirinn, along with an English translation.
First edition, albeit of the prologue and first part of the work only.
Secondary sources (select)
Cunningham, Bernadette, The world of Geoffrey Keating: history, myth and religion in seventeenth-century Ireland, Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2000.
Ó Riain, Pádraig (ed.), Geoffrey Keating’s Foras feasa ar Éirinn: reassessments, Irish Texts Society, Subsidiary Series, 19, London: Irish Texts Society, 2008.
Cronin, Anne, “The sources of Keating’s Forus feasa ar Éirinn [1. The printed sources]”, Éigse 4:4 — 1943/1944 (1945): 235–279.
Cronin, Anne, “The sources of Keating’s Forus feasa ar Éirinn [2. Manuscript sources]”, Éigse 5:2 — 1945/1947 (1948): 122–135.
Ní Bhrolcháin, Muireann, “A possible source for Keating’s Forus feasa ar Éirinn”, Éigse 19:1 (1982): 61–81.
Dinneen, Patrick S. [ed.], Foras feasa ar Éirinn: The history of Ireland by Geoffrey Keating D. D. Volume II, containing the first book of the history from sect. XV to the end, 4 vols, vol. 2, Irish Texts Society, 8, London: Irish Texts Society, 1908.
