Annals of Ulster

The Annals of Ulster (Irish: Annala Uladh) are a chronicle of medieval Ireland. The entries span the years between AD 431 and AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhri Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the province of Ulster. Later entries (up to AD 1540) were added by others.

Previous annals dating as far back as the 6th century were used as a source for the earlier entries, and later entries were based on recollection and oral history. T.M. Charles-Edwards has claimed that the main source for its records of the first millennium AD is a now-lost Armagh continuation of the The Chronicle of Ireland.

The Annals used the Irish language, with some entries in Latin. Because the Annals copied its sources verbatim, the annals are useful not just for historians, but also for linguists studying the evolution of the Irish language.

A century later, the Annals of Ulster would become an important source for the authors of the Annals of the Four Masters.

The library of Trinity College Dublin possesses the original manuscript, although the Bodleian Library in Oxford has a contemporary copy which fills some of the gaps in the original. There are two main modern English translations of the annals — Mac Airt and Mac Niocaill (1983) and MacCarthy (1893).

See also

• Irish annals
• The Chronicle of Ireland

External links

• The Annals of Ulster (translated) at University College Cork's CELT - Corpus of Electronic Texts
• The Annals of Ulster at Oxford University Bodleian Library (MS. Rawl. B489) - early 16th century.

Source

• Oxford Concise Companion to Irish Literature, Robert Welsh, 1996. ISBN 0-19-280080-9
• Charles-Edwards, T.M. (2006). The Chronicle of Ireland. Liverpool University Press. ISBN 0-85323-959-2. 

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