Annals Of Ulster Research Articles

Adomnán's Lex innocentium and the laws of war by James W. Houlihan

Reviewed by: Adomnán's Lex innocentium and the laws of war by James W. Houlihan Courtney Selvage (bio) James W. Houlihan, Adomnán's Lex innocentium and the laws of war. Dublin: Four Courts Press, 2020. ISBN: 978–84682–849–2. 240 pages. €50 (cloth). This volume, a published version of Houlihan's Ph.D. dissertation recently completed at University College Dublin, is a welcome addition to the corpus of research on the cáinlaw promulgated by Adomnán in 697. Of immediate note is the decision to refer to the law as Lex innocentium rather than its more commonly used title, Cáin Adomnáin. This is based not only on the way the law is referred to in the Annals of Ulster in the year of its promulgation, but in recognition that the law was promulgated with the purpose of 'protecting innocents' and of its historical place in the laws of warfare. Meyer's 1905 edition of the text and Ní Dhonnchadha's 2001 translation are reproduced in the appendix. The introductory chapter begins with an analysis of the concept and context of Adomnán's law—that is, as a law written distinctly for the protection of innocents: women, children, and clerics. The concept is presented with a discussion of the legal terms jus ad bellum 'the right to go to war' and jus in bello 'right behaviour during the course of war'—both modern coinages, and not in regular use, as the author explains, until after World War ii (12–13). While it may seem strange to apply these recently coined terms to a law composed in the seventh century, the author asserts that it might be understood as an in bello law in parallel to modern humanitarian law. It is his view that a presentation of the law within the context of modern international law may provide some understanding of Adomnán's ideas in the composition of his text. He further indicates that, in consideration of the historical contexts of war and violence from late antiquity to the later Middle Ages, the concept of jus ad bellum dominated, making Adomnán's law a particular outlier. Chapter 2 provides an overview of the 'attitudes of warfare and violence in the early medieval West' (27). This is a necessary discussion, considering the early Christian attitudes towards violence, especially towards innocents, as well as Augustine's views on just war and medieval interpretations of his thought and interest in jus ad bellum. On this basis, Houlihan determines that 'Augustine's attitudes to warfare appear to have had little or no effect on Adomnán's thinking' (47). Instead, as he states, Adomnán's concern was with in bello, and the category of 'non-combatants' who would be protected under his law. The chapter then discusses the position of non-combatants in the 'Barbarian laws', the laws of the Germanic people, admitting tenuous connection to Adomnán's law, but this does provide some insight as to the concerns of contemporaneous legal texts. Finally, the chapter briefly discusses some accounts on mass violence in war which occurred roughly contemporaneously with Adomnán, including one from Bede on a killing of a large number of monks by the Northumbrian king in 603. [End Page 128] Chapter 3 further expands on the ideas presented in chapter 2, as it presents an analysis of contemporaneous Irish attitudes towards violence. The evidence considered includes representations of violent affairs in the portion of the Chronicle of Ireland supposedly composed at Iona during Adomnán's time as abbot; archaeological finds of female burials marked with significant bodily trauma; the protection of innocents in other examples of early Irish secular and canon law; the penitentials and hagiography; and other literary texts and sagas, with particular focus on the concept of díberg 'marauding'. The author makes the most comparison with the sellach-text, part of Senchas már, arguing that it might be seen as the template upon which Lex innocentium was based. We are then given a biography of Adomnán in chapter 4, the core of which does not deviate significantly from other publications on the abbot. Adomn...

Frequency Analyses of Historical and Archaeological Datasets Reveal the Same Pattern of Declining Sociocultural Activity in 9th to 10th Century CE Ireland

Author(s): McLaughlin, Rowan; Hannah, Emma; Coyle-McClung, Lisa | Abstract: This paper discusses how the production rate of historical and archaeological data might contain unique information about past societies. The case study is the frequency of entries in the Annals of Ulster, a primary early medieval source from Ireland, which was compared to the frequency of archaeological material from early medieval Ireland. The two datasets were found to contain similar trends, namely a rapid increase in activity in the 7th Century, followed by a decline in the Early 9th Century, low levels of activity in the 10th Century, until recovery in the Late 10th / Early 11th Centuries. This overall pattern of activity had not been noticed before. Turning to the archaeological record of Britain, although there are certain similarities between Ireland and Scotland especially in the early part of the period, we find that the 9th and 10th centuries there were a stable period, and thus contrast with Ireland. We argue that environmental pressures are unlikely to be driving the signal, and instead various socio-cultural factors in the past coalesced in Ireland, leading to circumstances powerful enough to attenuate the enduring evidence for human activity, but expressing themselves silently, perhaps even in a way that was not immediately obvious to those witnessing them in the past. The simplest explanation, we contend, is that population levels fell throughout the period. This finding offers insight into the relationship between long-term change and the primary production of history, and supports the idea that the quantity of certain historical data can contain information about past realities.

Queens as Political Hostages in Pre-Norman Ireland: Derbforgaill and the Three Gormlaiths

Abbreviations: AFM: The Annals of the Four Masters, ed. and trans. John O’Donovan, 2 vols., 3d ed. (Dublin: Edmund Burke, 1998); also accessed via CELT: www.ucc.ie/celt. AI: The Annals of Inisfallen, ed. and trans. Sean Mac Airt (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988); also accessed via CELT: www.ucc.ie/celt. AT: The Annals of Tigernach, ed. and trans. Whitley Stokes, 2 vols. (Felinfach: Llanerch, 1993); reprint of edition published in Revue Celtique, 17 (1896), 6–33, 116–63 and 337–420; and 18 (1897), 9–59 and 150–303. AU: The Annals of Ulster (to A.D. 1131), ed. and trans. Sean Mac Airt and Gearoid Mac Niocaill (Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1983). CS: Chronicon Scotorum: A Chronicle of Irish Affairs from the Earliest Times to AD 1135, ed. and trans. William Hennessy (1866; repr. Wiesbaden: Kraus Reprint, 1964); accessed via CELT: www.ucc.ie/celt.

Die Vita Fursei als chronologische Quelle

This paper constructs an outline biography of the seventh-century Irish saint Fursey based on the Frankish Vita Fursei, and its overall validity is consequently dependent on the historical reliability of that text. The discussion argues that the Vita is reliable by correlating information it provides with independent Irish, Anglo-Saxon and Frankish sources. Of particular significance in this regard is the confirmation by geophysical evidence of the phenomenon of a darkening of the sun mentioned in the Vita and dated to the years 625/626 in the Irish Annals of Ulster.

Druim Cett revisited

Sharpe’s argument that the meeting of Druim Cett took place around 590 instead of 575 as recorded in the Annals of Ulster is not founded on solid evidence. It is uncertain whether Baetan mac Ninnedo or Aed mac Ainmirech was king of Cenel Conaill or Tara at the time, but the latter could have organised a meeting in 575, no matter what his title. According to Adomnan two boys were present who later became kings and reached the age of about 85. Even if we take it that Adomnan gives us accurate information, which is doubtful, this is not such an exceptional high age for persons in early medieval Ireland as Sharpe thinks.

The Annals of Ulster and the date of the meeting of Druim Cett

Source-criticism of the sixth-century entries in AU supports Sharpe’s redating of the meeting at Druim Cett (AU s.a. 574) to c.590. AU’s Druim Cett entry was composed by a twelfth-century compiler ...

The computus and the Annals of Ulster

This paper demonstrates that the chronological framework of the Annals of Ulster is a combination of two different systems: one based on January AD dating (nativity era), the other based on March AD dating (incarnation era). This discovery explains the discrepancies in the dates, and vindicates Ussher’s analysis of the dating criteria against Bartholomew Mac Carthy’s later critique. The introduction of March AD dating is pinpointed to the eleventh century, and is related to contemporary political and ecclesiastical developments. The original chronological apparatus is restored and some of the literary sources are also identified. The date and place of compilation for the original are identified as Iona, c.AD 740.

Notes on terminology in the Annals of Ulster, 650-1050

Notes on terminology in the Annals of Ulster, 650-1050

The Húi Néill and the Leinstermen in the Annals of Ulster, 431-516 A.D.

The Húi Néill and the Leinstermen in the Annals of Ulster, 431-516 A.D.

Cathal Mac Maghnusa and the Annals of Ulster (Continued)

Cathal Mac Maghnusa and the Annals of Ulster (Continued)

Cathal Mac Maghnusa and the Annals of Ulster

Cathal Mac Maghnusa and the Annals of Ulster

The cult of St Finnian of Clonard from the eighth to the eleventh century

St Finnian of Clonard died, according to the Annals of Ulster, in 549. With the possible exception of the sixth, seventh and eighth century annal entries and of the Catalogus Sanctorum all the evidence for a study of his work dates from or after the ninth century. It is however possible to say with reasonable assurance what traditions of his life were accepted about three hundred years after his death, and to trace the development of his cult from the late eighth century onwards.St Finnian's Irish Life gives the most primitive account now extant of his career. All manuscripts go back ultimately to the same original, which was compiled by a Leinsterman writing in Leinster, almost certainly a monk of one of Finnian's foundations, possibly Clonard, who drew on both oral and written traditions for his material. The Life is an unsophisticated collection of miracle stories, combined with extravagant claims concerning the spiritual power and prestige of the saint, and giving full particulars, including a considerable amount of accurate information on local topography, of the churches which Finnian is reputed to have founded.

The Middle Irish Preterit Passive Plural in the Annals of Ulster

The Annals of Ulster' consist of a series of chronologically consecutive entries from A.D. 431 to A.D. 1588 in which the events that seemed significant to the annalists are recorded for each year. Apart from their importance as a historical document, these Annals have a distinct linguistic value; for, as has been shown,2 the entries commence to be contemporary towards the end of the 7th century.' They therefore depict with reasonable faithfulness the various modifications to which the Irish language has been subjected in the course of time. Unfortunately, however, the earliest entries of the Annals of Ulster are largely in Latin; and even after the Old Irish period, that is, subsequent to A.D. 950, Latin still continues to be employed, though to an ever decreasing extent in the later entries. Furthermore, the finite verbal forms in Irish that the Annals of Ulster record are limited in number owing to the fact that Irish itself tends to use verbal nouns in ordinary narration. Notwithstanding these limitations, there nevertheless is preserved sufficient evidence to afford a chronological survey of the changes that the verbal system has undergone, particularly in Middle and Early Modern Irish. That is a fact of primary importance, since up to the present very little has been done to establish any linguistic tests whereby the date of a particular Irish text may be more precisely determined on the basis of its language.4 One of these linguistic tests for which the Annals of Ulster would seem to provide decisive evidence concerns the various terminations of the preterit passive plural. In Old Irish the conjunct ending was -th(e)a,6 an ending which survives in the Annals of Ulster until A.D. 1207,6 that is, some 250 years after the end of the Old Irish period. In Middle Irish, however, beside -th(e)a two other endings are found: -it with the particle ro before the verbal stem,' a distinctive Middle Irish formation8 which is recorded in the Annals of Ulster from A.D. 1014 to

The Hymn of St. Secundinus in honour of St. Patrick

The earliest event of Irish history that bears a well authenticated date is the mission of Palladius to Ireland in A.D. 431. The record of this year is found in the contemporary chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine. In another work written a few years later. Prosper writes of the institution of a christian church in Ireland by Pope Celestine, who died in 432. All the early Irish sources agree in dating the mission of Patrick in 432.Seven years later, the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of Inisfallen have the entry, derived from an earlier common source: ‘ Secundinus, Auxilius, et Iseminus mittuntur in Hiberniam in auxilium Patricii ’ A short tract copied in the Book of Armagh and dating probably, like the other documents in the same collection, from about 700, tells that Auxilius and Iserninus were sent by Germanus. It is silent regarding Secundinus.

SOME STUDIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT FROM MIDDLE TO MODERN IRISH, BASED ON THE ANNALS OF ULSTER.

Article SOME STUDIES IN THE DEVELOPMENT FROM MIDDLE TO MODERN IRISH, BASED ON THE ANNALS OF ULSTER. was published on January 1, 1933 in the journal Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie (volume 19, issue 1).