The Irish annals contain records of facts and dates concerning the inaugurations and deaths of kings, battles, the founding of abbeys and monasteries or their destruction, dynastic marriages, and other such material, all listed under the year of their occurrence. After the monastic reform of the 12th and 13th cents. the work of preserving and compiling historic records passed into the hands of secular learned families such as the Ó Maoilchonaires, the Ó Cléirighs, and the Mac Fhir Bhisighs, who perpetuated the records independently of liturgical requirements. The resultant annals, based on earlier materials, vary greatly in their geographical as well as chronological spread, and are preserved in manuscripts written between the 14th and 17th cents. The Annals of the Four Masters, latest of them all, was compiled in Donegal by Míchéal Ó Cléirigh and his associates during the 1630s. The Annals of Ulster, one of the sources for this synthesis of Gaelic records, itself comprises copies of earlier material and is the most reliable source for the medieval period. Most of the annals deal with the pre-historical period from the Creation to the coming of Christianity, and share a body of quasi-historical and historical lore based upon the Bible, Latin sources, and the Irish synthetic history Lebor Gabála.
Bibliography
Gearóid Mac Niocaill, The Medieval Irish Annals (1975).
