Irish Bards

Turlough O Carolan Memorial, Dublin
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Turlough_Carolan_memorial_-_Dublin,_Ireland.jpg

Irish Bardic poetry was an intensely complicated tradition.  They were produced by specially trained bardic poets. Written in both Early or Middle Irish; those poems were composed during a time in Irish history called ‘Gaelic Ireland. ’  ‘This was a long period during which the Gaelic political and social order existed in Ireland, and Irish language and culture flourished.  It came to an end around the middle of the seventeenth century.’   The country at that time was ruled by various chieftains.  Despite the Norman Invasion in the twelfth century much of the country remained under Irish kings or Anglo-Irish lords.  Irish culture continued as the bards memorized their poems or songs: thus, they provided their material in the oral tradition. Irish poetry of that era used a complicated mix of rhyme schemes, metaphors also symbolism.  The style was hugely varied from the poetic traditions of non – Celtic countries for centuries.  Foreign visitors commented that the Irish were ‘intoxicated by the power of words! ‘   Ancient Irish Society recognized four grades of poets: the bard was the lowest with the Filidh as the highest. [i]

Among the numerous bards who dedicated their talents to praise their deity were bishop Feich & the learned Cinfaela.  (From Dublin Penny Journal vol 1 no 3 July 14th1832)  [ii]

Ireland’s Mirror 1804 referred to Hennessey as the ‘Orpheus of his Country.’  Villemarque believed that the Irish bards were ‘really the Historians of the Race.’  Walker did not discover if female bards existed but admitted that females cried the ‘Caoine ’ over the dead yet in Calthluina it was written that ‘The daughter of Moran seized the harp, and her voice of music praised the strangers.  Their souls melted at the song, like a wreath of snow before the sun.’ The Statutes of Kilkenny made it a penal law by King Edward 111 to entertain any bard: yet the Munster bards continued to hold their annual sessions.  In The Life of Columba  1827 it was recorded that ‘The Bards and Sennachees retained their office, and some degree of their former estimation among the nobility of Caladonia and Ireland, till the accession of the House of Hanover.’  [iii]

As officials of the king’s or  chieftain’s court the bards performed a number of official roles, i.e. chroniclers & satirists. The bards memorized & preserved the history also traditions of clan & country. They delivered technical requirements of the various poetic forms: the dán díreach, (a syllabic form which uses assonance, half rhyme & alliteration) Their work consisted of extended genealogies, journalistic accounts of their lords & ancestors deeds. The Irish bard was a professor of literature & letters, highly trained in the use of a polished literary medium. They belonging to a hereditary caste of high prestige in a conservative aristocratic society.  This site features a poem Consolations  translated by Osborn Bergin. A list of poets or poems is featured on this site. [iv] 

Manuscripts

The best-known extant manuscript was Lebor na hUidre, The Book of the Dun Cow that was composed of collections of old Irish sagas transcribed from 1100 c. e.  The Dinn Seanchas  contained poems by poet Finin Mac Luchn during the second century.  The Mac Firbisig school in Sligo claimed a continuous tradition since the twelfth century.  The first early modern Irish textbook for poets A Tract on Metrical Faults  is now preserved in a mid-fourteenth century document O ‘Cianain Miscellany  at the National Library of Ireland.  The fourteenth century Revival of Historical Lore & Genealogies  was led by the court poet & historian Seaan Mor ua Dubagain: He contributed an early portion to the Book of Ui Maine.  The family were archivists to the Church Settlement of Clonmacnoise.  A famous early fifteenth century edition was the Leabhar Breac of Dunniry   preserved in the National Library of Ireland.  Major Manuscripts of that era included: The Book of Ballymote also the now lost Annals of Kilronan  from which the sixteenth century scribe Philip Ua Duibgennain drew most of his material for the still extant Annals of Loch Ce.   The sixteenth century Annals of Connacht  were attributed to the neighbouring school of Ua Mael Chonaire at South Roscommon.  The Dialogue of the Two Sages  now housed in Trinity College Library was written in Irish Fenian dialect that provided the qualifications required to be a true ollamh. [v]

Bardic Schools

At the Bardic schools students spent three or more years as they studied each level of poetry prior to their progression to the next level.  Academic year lasted from November to May: according to the fifteenth century poet Tadhg Óg O hÚigínn students were dismayed when they heard the cuckoo as it meant they had to take holidays from school!  [vi]

The music of harp and tympanum (an instrument similar to a zither) was also studied within bardic schools. Leading musicians’ families were Ui Coinnecain & Mac Cerball.   Ollahms had colleges at Clogher, Armagh, Lismore also Tamas.  Joseph Cooper Walker’s  Historical Memoirs 1786 observed that ‘all the eminent schools delectably situated, which were established by the Christian Clergy in the 5th Century were erected in the ruins of these Colleges.’   They studied for twelve years to gain the barred cap & title of ollamh or teacher.  Gofraid Finn O ’Dalaigh also Maelmuirs Mac Raith cited references to their studies as they read a book together with their teacher or fosterer: they used the word ‘daltae’ i.e. a pupil or ‘fosterchildren.’  Several law schools of which the first described as ‘Ollamh of Connacht in law, a chief master of jurisprudence’  was Gilla na Naem mac Duinnsleibe Meic Arducain during 1309.  [vii]

Other law schools were attributed to the families of: Ua Breislien Fermanagh, Mac Birthagra east Ulster, Na Duib de Boirienn Ua Brien, both from Clare, Mac Aeducain Mc Fhlannchada.  [viii]

Medical schools in the south of Ireland were: Ua hIceda, Ua Cruinn, Ua Laide, Man an Lega with Ua Bolgaide in Leinster, Ua Cenndubain in south Connacht.  Medical schools provided basic training in Irish spelling, grammar also metrics & men from medical families that attended often served as scribes who compiled learned anthologies of history, poetry or law. [ix]

Ulster poets were schooled at Tir Connell of which Fearghal Og Mac an Bhaird was the author who archived The Nine Years War 1594-1603  also The Flight of the Earls[x]

The bardic schools had existed as secular institutions that instructed in the native tongue the Irish language, literature, history with Brehon Law. Highly developed the scholarly institutions provided what amounted to a university education up until the middle of the seventeenth century. The long tradition had produced an abundance of poets, historians also Brehon’s  Law: skills & knowledge often found overlapping in individuals. [xi]

Irish lawyer Thomas O’Sullivan penned this description of a bardic school in a preface to the Marquis of Clanricarde’s Memoirs  (London 1722): ‘The students upon thorough examination being first divided into classes, wherein a regard was had to every one’s age, genius, and the schooling had before, if any at all, or otherwise. The professors (one or more as there was occasion) gave a subject suitable to the capacity of each class, determining the number of rhimes, and clearing what was to be chiefly observed therein as to syllables, quartans, concord, correspondence, termination and union, each of which were restrain’d by peculiar rules. The said subject (either one or more as aforesaid) having been given over night, they work’d it apart each by himself upon his own bed, the whole next day in the dark, till at a certain hour in the night, lights being brought in, they committed it to writing. Being afterwards dress’d and come together into a large room, where the masters waited, each scholar gave in his performance, which being corrected or approv’d of (according as it requir’d ) either the same or fresh subjects were given against the next day.’  Published May / June 2010 vol 18 in the 18th / 19th Century Social Perspectives, 18th / 19th Century History  Features issue 3. [xii]

Bards Life

When a poet had reached filidh level they acted as an official poet to a king.  Alongside their recitation of their own particular art they were involved with royal matters, tribal matters or national concerns, all of which would be remembered then recounted in different poem formats.  Kings, chieftains also lords encouraged bards to promote their vast deeds, strengths, generosity or their tribal success. Several bards created personal elegies, love or religious poems with satire.  A practice of theatre known as ‘Reacaire’  was recited to a king on a bard’s behalf accompanied by instrumental harp music. [xiii]

Social Status

The monk Columcille leaped to the art-form’s defence.  He stated poetry was an essential to Irish life: that Ireland would not be Ireland without it.  Everything within daily life was recorded orally by the bards that included genealogy, medical cures, music or history.  The highest of the poets was called an ‘ollamh’ or chief official poet. (ollamh is literally ‘most great’)  It had a social rank almost equal to the king.  High Social Status existed right into Elizabethan times, when English nobility were horrified to see the Gaelic chieftains not just eating at the same table as their poets, but often from the same dish!  The poets were rewarded with land or cattle to support themselves.  As they travelled to other kingdoms they could stay for up to a year with their hosts.  In fact, several of the ‘olamhs’ had their own staff.  [xiv]

‘Ollamhs’  were provided with dwelling houses, free lands, cattle also an ample stipend for their talents: unfortunately this practice proved troublesome also expensive. [xv]

End of Tradition

King Aedh tried to banish the bards from his palace: they returned then requested for his Royal Broach  symbol of his Kingship.  Banishment of the bards was then imminent.  St. Colomba ‘the warrior monk’  interceded on their behalf at the King’s court.  The negative lives of the bards (according to the King) was their insolence, idleness also their greed.  He appealed to the assembly to banish them & remove all their privileges.  St. Columba replied that the truth was bards had greatly abused their power, he pleaded for the abuses to be corrected, the guilty punished also power be diminished.  His eloquent speech decreed that the order should be reformed with schools funded for the nation’s study of literature to persuade young men to devote their lives to their art.  Bards present with their chief Dalla Forgaill composed a poem in praise of St. Columba.   (Some extracts taken from Life and times of St Columba by FA Forbes: Link to Book, chapter 8-The Convention of Drum-Ceatt)  [xvi]

Footnotes

[i] The Fascinating History of the Irish Bardic Poets (https://oldmooresalmanac.com/) [Assessed 25th September 2018]

[ii] The Bards of Ireland (www.libraryireland.com/) [Assessed 26th September 2018]

[iii] Ibid.

[iv] Irish bardic poetry (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_bardic_poetry) [Assessed 26th September 2018]

[v] The Bards of Ireland (www.libraryireland.com/) [Assessed 26th September 2018]

[vi] Ibid

[vii] Ibid

[viii] Ibid

[ix]  Ibid

[x]  Ibid.

[xi] Education History (https://raggeduniversity.co.uk/2017/01/02/educational-history-the-hedge-schools-of-ireland/) [Assessed 24th November 2019]

[xii] Description (https://www.historyireland.com/description-of-a-bardic-school/) [Assessed 26th September 2018]

[xiii] The Fascinating History of the Irish Bardic Poets (https://oldmooresalmanac.com/) [Assessed 25th September 2018]

[xiv] Ibid.

[xv] Ancient Irish Knowledge of Science (www.libraryireland.com/) [Assessed 14th October 2018]

[xvi] Banishment of the Bards (https://www.reddit.com/r/IrishHistory/comments/e534li/the_banishment_of_the_bards/) [Assessed 12nd November 2018]

[xvii] Long Lost Verses of the Irish Bardic Poets (https://oldmooresalmanac.com/) [Assessed 12th November 2018]

 

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