We have already at the beginning of this book had occasion to discuss the reliability of the Irish annals,[1] and have seen that from the fifth century onward they record with great accuracy the few events for which we happen to have external evidence, drawn either from astronomical discovery or from the works of foreign authors. We shall here enumerate the most important of these works, for though the documents from which they are taken were evidently of great antiquity, yet they themselves are only comparatively modern compilations mostly made from the now lost sources of the ancient vellum chronicles which the early Christian monks kept in their religious houses, probably from the very first introduction of Christianity and the use of Roman letters.

The greatest—though almost the youngest—of them all is the much-renowned "Annals of the Four Masters." This mighty work is chiefly due to the herculean labours of the learned Franciscan Brother, Michael O'Clery, a native of Donegal, born about the year 1580, who was himself descended from a long line of scholars.[2] He and another scion of[Pg 574] Donegal, Aedh Mac an Bháird, then guardian of St. Anthony's in Louvain, contemplated the compilation and publication of a great collection of the lives of the Irish saints.

In furtherance of this idea Michael O'Clery, with the leave and approbation of his superiors, set out from Louvain, and, coming to Ireland, travelled through the whole length and breadth of it, from abbey to abbey and priory to priory. Up and down, high and low, he hunted for the ancient vellum books and time-stained manuscripts whose safety was even then threatened by the ever-thickening political shocks and spasms of that most destructive age. These, whenever he found, he copied in an accurate and beautiful handwriting, and transmitted safely to Louvain to his friend Mac an Bháird, or "Ward" as the name is now in English. Ward unfortunately died before he could make use of the material thus collected by O'Clery, but it was taken up by another great Franciscan, Father John Colgan, who utilised the work of his friend O'Clery by producing, in 1645, the two enormous Latin quartos, to which we have already frequently alluded, the first called the "Trias Thaumaturga," containing the lives of Saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columcille; the second containing all the lives which could be found of all the Irish saints whose festivals fell between the first of January and the last of March. Several of the works thus collected by O'Clery and Colgan still happily survive.[3] On the break-up of the[Pg 575] Convent of Louvain, they were transferred to St. Isidore's, in Rome, and in 1872 were restored to Ireland and are now in the Convent of the Franciscans, on Merchant's Quay, Dublin, a restoration which prompted the fine lines of the late poet John Francis O'Donnell.

From Ireland of the four bright seas
In troublous days these treasures came,
Through clouds, through fires, through darknesses,
To Rome of immemorial name,
Rome of immeasurable fame:
The reddened hands of foes would rive
Each lovely growth of cloister—crypt—
Dim folio, yellow manuscript,
Where yet the glowing pigments live;
But a clear voice cried from Louvain
"Give them to me for they are mine,"
And so they sped across the main
The saints their guard, the ship their shrine.

Before O'Clery ever entered the Franciscan Order he had been by profession an historian or antiquary, and now in his eager quest for ecclesiastical writings and the lives of saints, his trained eye fell upon many other documents which he could not neglect. These were the ancient books and secular annals of the nation, and the historical poems of the ancient[Pg 576] bards. He indulged himself to the full in this unique opportunity to become acquainted with so much valuable material, and the results of his labours were two voluminous books, first the "Réim Rioghraidhe," or Succession of Kings in Ireland, which gives the name, succession, and genealogy of the kings of Ireland from the earliest times down to the death of Malachy the Great in 1022, and which gives at the same time the genealogies of the early saints of Ireland down to the eighth century, and secondly the "Leabhar Gabhála," or Book of Invasions,[4] which contains an ample account of the successive colonisations of Ireland which were made by Partholan, the Nemedians, and the Tuatha De Danann, down to the death of Malachy, all drawn from ancient books—for the most part now lost—digested and put together by the friar.

It was probably while engaged on this work that the great scheme of compiling the annals of Ireland occurred to him. He found a patron and protector in Fergal O'Gara, lord of Moy Gara and Coolavin, and with the assistance of five or six other antiquaries, he set about his task in the secluded convent of Donegal, at that time governed by his own brother, on the 22nd of January, 1632, and finished it on the 10th of August, 1636, having had, during all this time, his expenses and the expenses of his fellow-labourers defrayed by the patriotic lord of Moy Gara.

It was Father Colgan, at Louvain, who first gave this great work the title under which it is now always spoken of, that is, "The Annals of the Four Masters." Father Colgan in the preface to his "Acta Sanctorum Hiberni?,"[5] after recounting[Pg 577] O'Clery's labours and his previous books goes on to give an account of this last one also, and adds:

    "As in the three works before mentioned so in this fourth one, three [helpers of his] are eminently to be praised, namely, Farfassa O'Mulchonry, Perigrine[6] O'Clery, and Peregrine O'Duigenan, men of consummate learning in the antiquities of the country and of approved faith. And to these was subsequently added the co-operation of other distinguished antiquarians, as Maurice O'Mulconry who for one month, and Conary O'Clery who for many months, laboured in its promotion. But since those annals which we shall very frequently have occasion to quote in this volume and in the others following, have been collected and compiled by the assistance and separate study of so many authors, neither the desire of brevity would permit us always to quote them individually, nor would justice permit us to attribute the labour of many to one, hence it sometimes seemed best to call them the Annals of Donegal, for in our convent of Donegal they were commenced and concluded. But afterwards for other reasons, chiefly for the sake of the compilers themselves who were four most eminent masters in antiquarian lore, we have been led to call them the ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS. Yet we said just now that more than four assisted in their preparation; however, as their meeting was irregular, and but two of them during a short time laboured in the unimportant and later part of the work, while the other four were engaged on the entire production, at least up to the year 1267 (from which the first part and the most necessary one for us is closed), we quote it under their name."

[Pg 578]

Michael O'Clery writes in his dedication to Fergal O'Gara, after explaining the scope of the work—

    "I explained to you that I thought I could get the assistance of the chroniclers for whom I had most esteem in writing a book of annals in which these matters might be put on record, and that should the writing of them be neglected at present they would not again be bound to be put on record or commemorated even to the end of the world. All the best and most copious books of annals that I could find throughout all Ireland were collected by me—though it was difficult for me to collect them into one place—to write this book in your name and to your honour, for it was you who gave the reward of their labour to the chroniclers by whom it was written, and it was the friars of Donegal who supplied them with food and attendance."

The book is also provided with a kind of testimonium from the Franciscan fathers of the monastery where it was written, stating who the compilers were, and how long they had worked under their own eyes, and what old books they had seen with them, etc. In addition to this, Michael O'Clery carried it to the two historians of greatest eminence in the south of Ireland, Flann Mac Egan, of Ballymacegan, in the Co. Tipperary, and Conor mac Brody of the Co. Clare, and obtained their written approbation and signature, as well as those of the Primate of Ireland and some others, and thus provided he launched his book upon the world.

It has been published, at least in part, three times; first down to the year 1171—the year of the Norman Invasion—by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, grandson of Charles O'Conor, of Belanagare, Carolan's patron, with a Latin translation, and secondly in English by Owen Connellan from the year 1171 to the end. But the third publication of it—that by O'Donovan—was the greatest work that any modern Irish scholar ever accomplished. In it the Irish text with accurate English translation, and an enormous quantity of notes, topographical, genealogical, and historical, are given, and the whole is contained in seven great quarto volumes—a work of which[Pg 579] any age or country might be proud. So long as Irish history exists, the "Annals of the Four Masters" will be read in O'Donovan's translation, and the name of O'Donovan be inseparably connected with that of the O'Clerys.

As to the contents of these annals, suffice it to say that like so many other compilations of the same kind, they begin with the Deluge: they end in the year 1616. They give, from the old books, the reigns, deaths, genealogies, etc., not only of the high-kings but also of the provincial kings, chiefs, and heads of distinguished families, men of science and poets, with their respective dates, going as near to them as they can go. They record the deaths and successions of saints, abbots, bishops, and ecclesiastical dignitaries. They tell of the foundation and occasionally of the overthrow of countless churches, castles, abbeys, convents, and religious institutions. They give meagre details of battles and political changes, and not unfrequently quote ancient verses in proof of facts, but none prior to the second century.[7] Towards the end the dry summary of events become more garnished, and in parts elaborate detail takes the place of meagre facts. There is no event of Irish history from the birth of Christ to the............