O'Looney — Historic Tales in Irish. 215 



XXXYI. On Ancient Historic Tales in the Irish Lan- 

 guage. By Brian O'Looney, Esq., M. E. I. A., F.B.H.S., 



Professor of Irish, 0. U. I. 



[Read November 11, 1872]. 



Old tales and romances, whether embodying real historical 

 events or merely creations of the imagination, are precious 

 mines for the poet and the historian. Every literature, ancient or 

 modern, worthy of the name, affords examples of the use which 

 poets have made of such materials. To the historian, though 

 not so directly suggestive, they are not less valuable. They af- 

 ford him vivid pictures of the manners and customs of every 

 class of the people, and give him an insight into their habits of 

 thought. In a word, they enable him to give a background to 

 his pictures and to present his historical personages as they 

 really lived. 



No other country in Europe possesses, I believe, such a 

 wealth of romance as Ireland, — possessing too the great advan- 

 tage of being, with few exceptions, as yet unused by the poet or 

 painter. Professor 0' Curry, who has done so much for Irish 

 literature, attached great importance to our ancient tales, and 

 drew largely from the immense store of them contained in Irish 

 manuscripts materials for his lectures. He has published from 

 the Book of Leinster the rules which regulated the number and 

 character of the various tales which the Ollamh File and Secm- 

 chaidhe were required by ancient laws and usage to know and 

 recite for kings and people at Oenachs, feasts, and other public 

 assemblies. He has also published, from the same MS., a valu- 

 able list of 187 such stories and identified a considerable number 

 of them. There is a similar 

 List in MS. H. 3. 17., in the Library of Trin. Coll. Dublin. 



This was described by Dr. O'Donovan, in his Catalogue of 

 the College Manuscripts, as follows: — 



" Col. 797. A curious list of stories in ancient Irish litera- 

 ture, which the poets were accustomed to recite in the presence 

 of kings and chieftains. They had seven times fifty stories, that 

 is five times fifty principal or chief stories, and twice fifty stories 

 of an inferior class. The following are the chief stories, viz. : — 

 Destructions, Cattle-Spoils, Courtships, Battles, Caves, Naviga- 

 tions, Voyages, Tragedies, Feasts, Sieges, Adventures, Elope- 

 ments, and Plunders. I shall here transcribe the names of the 



SER. II., VOL. I., POL. LIT. AND AXTIQ. 2 I 



