Book of Fenagh

The Book of Fenagh Irish: Leabar Fidhnacha is a manuscript of prose and poetry written in Classical Irish by Muirgheas mac Pháidín Ó Maolconaire in the monastery at Fenagh, County Leitrim.[1] It was commissioned by Tadhg O'Roddy, the coarb of the monastery, and is believed to derive from the "old Book of Caillín" (Irish: Leabar Chaillín), a lost work about Caillín, founder of the monastery.[1] Ó Maolconaire began work about 1516.[1]

Contents

Contents of the Book of Fenagh[2]
Part Form Subject
1A Prose Introduction and Genealogy of St. Caillín
1B Poetry 14 poems about Caillín, Magh Rein (south County Leitrim), and the Bell of Fenagh (Clog Na Riogh, "the bell of the kings", now in St Mel's Cathedral[3]).
1C Prose Introductions to Poems
2A Prose Caillín and Tadhg O'Roddy
2B Prose Ó Maolconaire discusses the Old Book of Caillín
3 Poetry The O'Donnells and other families
4 Prose Genealogies of Conmaicne, O'Crechan (probably of Cinel Dubhain around Dunmore, County Galway[4]), and the Abbot of Fenagh
5 Poetry Six poems: five on the O'Neills and other families, and one on Caillín

Marginal notes in Irish adorning the book are commentaries by the noted Irish antiquarian Tadhg O'Rodaighe (floruit 1700) from Crossfield in Fenagh.

The Book of Fenagh was used as a source for the Annals of Connacht and the Annals of the Four Masters.[5]

Provenance

The O'Roddy coarbs and descendants retained the book down to Brian O'Roddy, parish priest of Kilronan (Ballyfarnon) in the mid-19th century, upon whose death it was retained by his successors as parish priest.[6] It later passed to George Michael Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, for safe-keeping, before his successor Bartholomew Woodlock sold it in 1888 to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) for £10.[7] This was on the advice of Denis Murphy, a Jesuit, that the RIA were best able to preserve it.[7][2] Its catalogue number is RIA MS 23 P 26: Cat. No. 479.[1]

Editions

John O'Donovan made a facsimile transcript in 1828, and a manuscript English translation in 1830.[5] The first published edition was in 1875, edited by William Maunsell Hennessy and translated by Denis H. Kelly from O'Donovan's facsimile.[5] The Irish Manuscripts Commission published a supplementary volume in 1939 with material missing from previous versions.

References

Sources

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Book of Fenagh". Royal Irish Academy.
  2. 1 2 "Book of Fenagh history". fenagh.com. Fenagh Visitors Centre. Retrieved 18 August 2016.
  3. ↑ "The Bell of Fenagh". Fenagh Visitors Centre. Retrieved 19 May 2017.
  4. ↑ Hennessy 1875, p.383 fn.13
  5. 1 2 3 RIA 2016
  6. ↑ Hennessy 1875, p.ix
  7. 1 2 Cunningham, Bernadette (15 June 2016). "Celebrating 500 years of the Book of Fenagh". Royal Irish Academy. Retrieved 19 May 2017.

Further reading

  • O Rodaighe, Tadhg (1700). "Tadhg O Rodaighe to [Edward Lhwyd]" (PDF). Dublin, Trinity College Dublin, a document bound into MS 1318 (donated from Edward Lhuyd collection): Rev. J. H. Todd, D. D., ‘Autograph Letter of Thady O’Roddy’, The Miscellany of the Irish Archaeological Society 1 (1846), 112–125. Retrieved 31 August 2016. 
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