Posted: 10 October 2007
Annals of the Four Masters reunited for the first time since 1636
‘Writing Irish History: the Four Masters and the World’ – a landmark collaborative exhibition between TCD, RIA, UCD and Franciscan Order
The Annals of the Four Masters, originally entitled the Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, a chronicle of Irish history from prehistory to 1616 AD, compiled by the Irish Franciscans, are reunited for the first time since 1636 in an exhibition at the Long Room, Trinity College Dublin.
The exhibition, entitled ‘Writing Irish History: the Four Masters and their World,’ is a unique collaborative exhibition between the Irish Franciscans, the Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin. It forms part of the Louvain 400 commemoration which celebrates the 400th anniversary of the founding of the Irish Franciscan college of St Anthony’s in Louvain in Belgium.
In the early 17th century, a period of massive upheaval in Ireland which included the Flight of the Earls in 1607, the Irish Franciscans began to reassemble the documentary evidence of Ireland’s history so as to write new histories of Ireland to meet the needs of their own time.
Donegal native, Mícheál Ó Cléirigh, a trained antiquary and poet, descended from a long line of scholars, was sent from Louvain to Ireland in 1626 to collect manuscripts relating to the lives of the Irish saints. While in Ireland, however, he had the idea of collecting all the ancient vellum books of local annals throughout the country and writing a new kind of all-encompassing ‘Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland.’
The work began in the Franciscan Friary of Bundrowes in Donegal in 1632. Ó Cléirigh, the principal historian involved in the preparation of the Annals, was joined in the mammoth project by lay professional writers: Cú Choigcríche
Ó Cléirigh (Ó Cléirigh’s cousin), Fearfeasa Ó Maoil Chonaire and Cú Choigcríche Ó Duibhgeannáin.
The scribes were supported by the Friars of Bundrowes for the duration of their work. They performed their great work under the patronage of Feargal Ó Gadhra Lord of Moy Gara and Coolavin in Co. Sligo, who was presented with a copy of the completed Annals in appreciation of his patronage.
The exhibition draws together some of Ó Cléirigh’s manuscripts that have not been together for centuries. Not since the middle of the 1630s have the five manuscripts that comprise the two contemporary sets of The Annals of the Four Masters been assembled together in one place.
Pictured at the exhibition (from l-r): Dr Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts, TCD; Dr Edel Bhreathnach, National Coordinator of Louvain 400, UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute; and Fr Hugh McKenna, Vicar Principal of OFM
“For a curator, there is a particular significance and even a degree of emotion in bringing together material which has become dispersed and passed into different hands over the centuries,” said Dr Bernard Meehan, Keeper of Manuscripts, Trinity College Library. “It is anticipated that The Four Masters exhibition will inspire fresh insights and observations on the material.”
“There is widespread popular interest in history today. This exhibition explores the tradition of writing history in Ireland since the medieval period and identifies the historians who wrote the story of Ireland,” said Dr Edel Bhreathnach, National Coordinator of Louvain 400, UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute. “The most important sources for Irish history including the great 17th-century chronicle known as The Annals of the Four Masters are displayed together for the first time ever. The exhibition also celebrates the vital role played by the Irish Franciscans, especially the historians Mícheál Ó Cléirigh and John Colgan, in the tradition of making history on this island.”
“These annals are an invaluable and irreplaceable part of Irish cultural heritage. Their legacy is all around us. Place-name evidence drawn from the annals formed the basis of John O’Donovan’s work in establishing the correct names for use on Ordnance Survey maps,” commented Dr Bernadette Cunningham, expert on The Annals of the Four Masters, Deputy Librarian, Royal Irish Academy. “The many illustrious men and women that peopled the pages of these early annals have become part of our national story and made their way into our history books because of the work of the Four Masters.”
“Indeed, some of them will even be included in the prestigious new Dictionary of Irish Biography because of information recorded by the annalists. In the same way, the language of the Four Masters informs our modern Irish language dictionaries, not least the Royal Irish Academy’s Foclóir na Nua Ghaeilge. These annals are truly one of the foundational texts of the modern Irish nation,” she explained.
The exhibition places The Annals of the Four Masters in context by displaying them alongside important medieval sources such as the Book of Leinster and the Annals of Ulster, medieval Irish Franciscan manuscripts and the works of other 17th-century Irish historians.
It builds on the theme of how history was written in Ireland through the ages and develops themes such as medieval Irish historical sources, the Franciscans in Ireland, the Four Masters and their contemporaries and the later influence of the Four Masters.
The exhibition also illustrates how The Annals of the Four Masters became an iconic history of Ireland: this work influenced the writing of national history from the 17th century onwards. Its importance increased when the annals were edited and published in seven volumes between 1848 and 1851 by the great scholar John O’Donovan. In the first decades of the twentieth century Mícheál Ó Cléirigh was regarded as an icon of Irish scholarship and the annals a foundational text of the new Irish nation.
The exhibition runs from 09 October to 21 December, in the Long Room, the Old Library, Trinity College Dublin. Admission is free for those visiting the exhibition only. And schools groups visiting the exhibition will also have admission to the Old Library and Book of Kells.
An illustrated colour catalogue of the exhibition, Writing Irish History: the Four Masters and their World, edited by Dr Bernadette Cunningham, Royal Irish Academy and Dr Edel Bhreathnach, National Coordinator of Louvain 400, UCD Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute, is available in hardback and paperback from Wordwell Books.
Louvain 400 is part of the national celebration of Shared Histories organised under the aegis of the Department of the Taoiseach and Department of Arts, Sports and Tourism.
