O'Looney — Historic Tales in Irish. 241 



nected series of tales, probably because no one cared to undertake the 

 laborious task of copying and translating them without any immediate 

 hope of their publication. I have, however, undertaken the task, and 

 I now venture to report to the Academy the result of my labours up 

 to this, in order to enable it to judge of the amount of success which 

 I have had, and also in the hope of creating a greater interest in those 

 tales than they receive at present. 



It is needless to say that I am not about to read an essay on the 

 character of our romances, or compare them with similar tales in other 

 literatures, for even were I able to do so, the more humble but still 

 useful labour of collecting and translating them must be done^before 

 any literary analysis can be attempted. 



The existing tales represent various phases of ancient Irish history, 

 but the great majority refer to two principal periods, which Mrs. 

 Ferguson has happily distinguished as the heroic and the Fenian. 

 Although, according to the usually received chronology of our annals, 

 their periods are supposed to have been separated from each other by 

 an interval of only about 200 years, the tales of each period are 

 widely different in character and value. The latter, for some reason, 

 have received more attention than the former, and a Society, — the 

 Ossianic, — was established for their publication. Some of those tales 

 published by that Society are no doubt taken from modern copies ; 

 others are, however, to be found in old manuscripts of good authority, 

 e. g. Imtheacht na Trom Daimhe, or the Adventures of the great 

 Bardic Company, which is found in the Book of Lismore and other 

 vellum manuscripts of good authority, and the pursuit of Diarmaid 

 and Graine, which is mentioned in the list of ancient stories in the 

 Book of Leinster — a good authority for the antiquity of the tale — 

 under the title of Aiue-o Sparine pe T>i&pm&i'o — Elopement of 

 Graine with Diarmaid. I may also mention the poem of Ossin on the 

 death of his son Oscur, in the battle of Gabhra, which was copied and 

 translated by Professor 0' Curry from the Book of Leinster. 



Of the tales of the heroic period which are in every respect the 

 best we possess, as well as the most genuine and archaic, very few 

 have as yet been made accessible to the public. Among those I may 

 mention the Battle of Magh Bath, edited by Dr. O'Donovan and pub- 

 lished by the Archaeological Society, the Sick Bed of Cuchulaind, and 

 the Fate of the Children of Uisneach, published by Professor 0' Curry 

 in the Atlantis, and a few others. 



There are also some important tales which do not belong to either 

 of these two categories, such as those relating to the early coloniza- 

 tions of the country, and the wars of the rival races, and some too 

 of a mythological character. Of this class the only ones published 

 are — The Fate of the Children of Tuireand, and the Fate of the 

 Children of Lir, published by Professor 0' Curry in the Atlantis, 

 No. viii. Those tales, with the Exile of the Sons of Uisneach, already 

 mentioned, are called Tri Truagh na ScealuigJieachta, or the Three Sor- 

 rowful Tales of Story-telling. 



