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XVI. 



ANCIENT lEISH LAW. 



THE LAW OF STATUS OR PEANCHISE. 



By EOIN MacNEILL, D.Litt. 



[Read Apuil 9. Published December 17, 1923.] 



The most distinctive feature of ancient Irish law is the law of status. To 

 the minds of the Irish jurists this law was the most important part of their 

 jurisprudence. The chief collection of the oldest written laws was the 

 compilation called Senchus Mar. It is cited by name in Cormac's Glossary, 

 and the writing of the tracts comprised in it, if not their collection under 

 a single title, can be dated in the seventh century. An introduction to 

 the collection, written in Old Irish, has been preserved, and in this intro- 

 duction there is a statement of the contents of Senchus Mar (I, 40).' From 

 this statement it will be seen that Senchus Mar, when the introduction was 

 written, began with a tract on the law of status. The rest of its contents 

 are still found in the order stated in the introduction, but the tract on 

 status no longer appears in the extant version, its place at the beginning 

 of Senchus Mar being now taken by the long and elaborate tract on 

 athgahdl (procedure by distraint), of which there is no mention in the old 

 statement of contents, and which therefore did not probably form part of 

 Senchus Mdr as originally compiled. There can be little doubt that the 

 tract on status which formed the first section of Senchus Mdr was that 

 which now bears the title of UraicecM Becc."^ The opening sections of this 

 tract were obviously designed as a proem to a coiyus juris, and the accom- 

 paniment of gloss and commentary shows that the tract, in the tradition 

 of the law schools, possessed the authority of the oldest writings on Irish 

 law. It will be seen that the law of status, as interpreted by the jurists, 

 before the writing of this traef, at the time of writing, and afterwards, was 



1 Citation by the Roman numeral ha.s i-eference to the published volumes of "Ancient 

 Laws of Ireland." The translation given in these volumes will be cited as " the official 

 translation." 



- This, to be cited as UB, is the first tract in vol. v. 



F„I,A. PROC, VOL. XSXVI, SECT, C. [31] 



