A number of Irish annals, of which the earliest was the
Chronicle of Ireland, were compiled up to and shortly after the end of the 17th century.
Annals were originally a means by which monks determined the yearly
chronology of
feast days. Over time, the
obituaries of priests, abbots and bishops were added, along with those of notable political events. Non-Irish models include
Bede's Chronica maiora,
Marcellinus Comes's Chronicle of Marcellinus and the Liber pontificalis.[1]
Chronology
The origins of annalistic compilation can be traced to the occasional recording of notes and events in blank spaces between the latercus, i.e. the 84-year
Easter table adopted from Gaulish writer
Sulpicius Severus (d. c. 423).[1]
Extant
Manuscript copies of extant annals include the following:
De Reir Book of Moytura a recommencement of the vulgate tradition of Irish Annals writing taking place at a scriptorium, an easy distance between where the Annals of Boyle, of Lough Key, of the Four Masters, of Ulster of Kilronan were assembled. ( 2020 -
Many of these annals have been translated and published by the School of Celtic Studies,
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, or the
Irish Texts Society. In addition, the text of many are available on the internet at the
Corpus of Electronic Texts (CELT Project) hosted by the History Department of University College Cork, National University of Ireland. (See External Links below)
The famous epic political tract Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib also contains a great deal of annalistic material from the Viking Age in Ireland which is to be found in no other surviving sources. Much of this was taken from the same sources ancestral to the
Annals of Inisfallen, which have come down to us both abbreviated and
lacunose.
Lost annals
Annals known to have existed but which have been lost include:
Ó Corráin, Donnchadh (2006). "Annals, Irish". In
Koch, John T. (ed.). Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Denver, and Oxford:
ABC-CLIO. pp. 69–75.