Four Offaly saints. The Lives of Ciar�n of Clonmacnoise, Ciar�n of Slm�n of Lynally and F�on�n of Kinnitty by P�draig � Riain (review)

Abstract

244 North American journal of Celtic studies The final chapter, ‘Dogs in the nighttime’, constitutes all of the third section of the book proper. Here the author invites us to pay attention to subjects where the lawbooks are particularly silent. In this case, it is noted that despite the fact that the medieval literature is full of graphic scenes of violence, the lawbooks are strangely reticent on the subject. This silence is even more striking when compared to the Welsh chronicles, such as Brut y tywysogion, and contemporary laws in England, which are very detailed in their descriptions of violent acts and the resulting compensation and/or punishment. This is not to say that the Welsh lawbooks do not have detailed schemas for compensation for various types of injuries; they do, the Value of Limbs, (183–185). But why the silence on violence? The author suggests that the silence is deliberate on the part of the redactors (201). The purpose of this silence seems to be a deliberate effort to contrast contemporary depictions of the Welsh as ruled by violence, and instead to depict the Welsh as strong, yet ‘ruled by law and grounded in agriculture’ (211). The conclusion reminds readers of the multiple realities depicted in the Welsh lawbooks and of the ways that symbolic interpretations, and not necessarily literal ones, can further our understanding of the Welsh legal material. Most of us who work with medieval legal texts are trained to approach the law with an eye towards a literal interpretation of what the texts say. Surely, what they say must be ‘true’. As Robin Chapman Stacey demonstrates, ‘true’ does not have to mean ‘literal’, although it sometimes can mean just that. ‘True’ can also mean metaphorical and symbolic . And the ‘truths’ presented in the lawbooks are never too far away from contemporary literary texts, or political events, or current intellectual trends within a wider European context. Only a scholar of Robin Chapman Stacey’s caliber could have produced such a scholarly work as this. She has broadened and deepened our understanding of not just the Welsh legal texts, but also the ways in which the literary texts interact with and inform our understanding of the laws. By combining both points of view, new ways of interpreting both types of texts emerge. The analytical model presented here will inform future generations of scholars both within and outside the field of Welsh law. Four Offaly saints. The Lives of Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, Ciarán of Seir, Colmán of Lynally and Fíonán of Kinnitty, comp. & trans. Pádraig Ó Riain. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2018. ISBN: 978-1-84682-704-4. xvii + 142 pp. $19.95 (paper). Gregory J. Darling Hostos Community College and Fordham University Gregory J. Darling [gregorydarling@msn.com] obtained his Ph.D. from the Department of English at the CUNY Graduate Center in 2003. His dissertation was based on a medieval Irish manuscript. He currently teaches in New York City at Hostos Community College and Monroe College. Reviews 245 In Four Offaly saints, Pádraig Ó Riain presents the reader with a masterpiece of hagiography —replete with photographs and maps—grounded in careful and thorough scholarship on the lives of St. Ciarán of Clonmacnoise, St. Ciarán of Seir, St. Colmán of Lynally, and St. Fíonán of Kinnitty—four early saints associated with the modern-day county of Offaly in the center of Ireland. Ó Riain notes that, after the publication of his Four Tipperary saints, he was asked to write on the saints of Offaly. He begins by pointing out in the Introduction the value of hagiography if it cannot be considered history per se: If hagiography is not history, as is now generally held, what value attaches to Lives of saints? Largely confined to patrons of substantial churches, Irish saints’ Lives can be of considerable value, not because they throw much light on their subjects but because they reveal how the traditions surrounding the saints might be used to protect and promote the interests of the communities that hold them in high regard (xiii). Hagiography, in other words, can highlight the ‘interests’ of groups holding traditions about the saints in...