168 
O’Breisleans were hereditary Judges to the Maguires, and other 
septs inhabiting Fermanagh, and a part of Oirgiall or Oriell; and 
the Mac Egans * held a similar office under some of the Dalgais,-+ 
the O’Kenedys of Ormond (Ozr Mumhan, Oir Moowan) or East 
Munster, the O’Reillys, Princes of Kast Brefney, and many other 
distinguished families. 
Whenever the Judge sat in execution of his office, he was con- 
stantly attended by a Filé or Bard, who was well skilled in the 
Dlighe Filidheachta (Dlee-he Fillee-aghta) or Poetic Law, 2. e. 
that part of the law, the rules of which were preserved in poetry 
or verse. The duty of the File was, if called upon for that pur- 
pose, to assist the memory of the Breitheamh (Breih-av) or judge, 
by a repetition of portions of the laws, bearing on the question then 
under consideration, and to supply examples of the proceedings and 
decisions of former celebrated judges in similar cases. To qualify the 
Filé for this important office, the rules for the education of the poetic 
professors required that every Dos, or poet of the third degree, be- 
fore he was qualified to become a Cana, or poet of the fourth de- 
gree, should repeat, in the presence of the king and the nobles, the 
Breithe Neimhidh, i. e. the law of the degrees or ranks, ‘and fifty 
poems of his own composition. 
Doctor Nicholson, in his “ Irish Historical Library,” says, “ Those 
“ grave sages of ,the law who compiled ours’’ (the Irish law) 
« were a distinct tribe or family (as the historians, physicians, poets, 
“ and harpers) to which was allotted a sufficient farm in inherit- 
* To this last mentioned race of Brehons we are indebted for the major part of the copies 
of Ancient Irish Laws that are now extant. There is scarcely one Law-tract in the Library 
of Trinity College that the name of M‘Egan does not appear in, either as the commentator, 
transscriber, or proprietor. 
+ See Note, page, 159. 
