1. Building the ultimate Library of Irish archaeology and history. Part I: The
Annals
Originally posted online on 19 July 2013 at rmchapple.blogspot.com
(http://rmchapple.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/building-ultimate-library-of-irish_19.html)
I’m afraid that I’m becoming ‘that’ guy. I’m becoming the old dude who harangues the younger
generation about how they don’t know how good they’ve got it. I’m turning into a one-man
version of that famous Monty Python sketch. But it’s true! The younger generation don’t know
how good they’ve got it! Take books, for example. These days there are any number of places
where you can find the latest research on line. Admittedly, all too frequently, it’s held just out
of reach behind a pay wall … but it is there and it can be found. When I was first in university
the only way to search for a particular volume was by trawling through the card index. One of
the disadvantages of this system was that you pretty much had to know exactly what you were
looking for. The cabinets, filled with individual hand-written and typed cards, were sufficiently
vast to make it prohibitively difficult to search through by hand. In the early 90s I spent quite
a bit of time hanging about the James Hardiman Library at UCG (now the National
Universityof Ireland, Galway). Ostensibly, I was working on my Master’s thesis, but, in reality,
I was just reading anything that took my fancy. On many days my routine would be to immerse
myself in the card index for several hours, flitting form author to subject index, and back again,
all the while taking careful note of bibliographical details and shelf location numbers. When it
came to volumes not publicly available, all relevant details (and many not so relevant ones)
had to be carefully transcribed onto pre-printed library cards and handed to a (generally) less
than enthused librarian for collection from … The Basement!
For an awful long time the term ‘The Basement’ represented a number of things to me. It was
a place where all the old books were kept – the good stuff! In terms of my personal interests,
it was where they hid all the writings by the luminaries of early Irish archaeology and history
… that’s where you’d find anything written by GeorgePetrie, John O’Donovan, Whitley
Stokes, William Copeland Borlase, and (my favourite) Thomas Johnson Westropp. It was a
place where only the librarians could go. With that came the realisation that anything
requested from the depths would, invariably, take some time to retrieve. Somewhere along the
way, I must have become enough of a fixture (or exasperation) around the library that one day
one of the librarians said: ‘look, we’re pretty busy – why don’t you go down and get it yourself?’
After that, things moved pretty quickly. At first, I asked permission every time I wanted to get
into the basement. This was eventually reduced to just waving and pointing at the descending
spiral staircase, mouthing ‘basement? Ok?’ In time this was cut back to simply greeting any
member of staff that happened to be about – they all knew where I was going and that, once
installed, would cause little trouble and no damage. It was there, down in that quiet, dusty
cathedral of the printed word that I learned to truly appreciate old books. It was such a joy to
be able to perch on top of a ladder and browse row after row of beautifully preserved, but
largely forgotten, volumes. I became used to the privilege of being able to go down there and
settle in for a quiet trawl through an armful of rare volumes at any time I liked – within library
hours, anyway. And therein lay the problem. These were rare volumes, not on public display,
and for reference only. While I may have been granted an exemption that allowed me access
to The Basement, no amount of nodding friendship with the library staff would grant me the
right to bring these volumes home. Rather than stealing these wonderful books – and it did
cross my mind – I decided that I’d buy my own copies. Unfortunately, in the real world, the
amassing of a collection of rare volumes does not go hand in hand with being an unemployed
graduate student and my dreams lay unfulfilled. As the years have passed, I’ve collected some
lovely volumes, but hardly the impressive library I’d once envisioned. However, time and
technology have moved on from the card index and the dusty shelves that fueled the
imagination of my much younger self. This is why I say that researchers entering the field have
a much easier time accessing these older volumes than ever before. It’s probably not an

2. overstatement to say that getting your hands on a PDF copy of a 19th century volume is easier
today than it ever has been – even easier than on the day it was published!
A number of institutions have selflessly engaged in the scanning of tens of thousands of
volumes in their collections and made them freely available to anyone interested – all that’s
necessary is an internet connection and the will to find them. At this time my plan is to share
a set of links to some of the volumes I’ve found, over a series of blog posts. It is in no way
exhaustive, so I’m happy to add links to volumes that may have escaped my attention. In this
way, you too can amass an important repository of archaeological and historical knowledge,
without expending anything more than your electricity bill and your broadband download
allowance.
In this first instalment, I want to concentrate on some of the volumes closest to my heart: the
Irish annals

3. The Annals of the Four Masters
The description in Wikipedia reads: “The annals are mainly a compilation of earlier annals,
although there is some original work. They were compiled between 1632 and 1636 in the
Franciscan friary in Donegal Town. The entries for the twelfth century and before are sourced
from medieval annals of the community. The later entries come from the records of the Irish
aristocracy (such as the Annals of Ulster), and the seventeenth-century entries are based on
personal recollection and observation.”
The definitive edition is John O’Donovan’s, published in 1856 in seven volumes:

4. Annals of the Kingdom of Ireland, by the Four Masters, from the earliest period to the year
1616
Volume I
Volume II
Volume III
Volume IV
Volume V
Volume VI
Volume VII
There’s also Owen Connellan’s earlier (1846), but less regarded, single volume edition:
The Annals of Ireland, translated from the original Irish of the Four Masters
The Annals of Loch Cé cover events, mainly in Connacht and its neighbouring regions, from
1014 to 1590. It takes its name from Lough Cé in the kingdom of Moylurg - now north County
Roscommon - which was the centre of power of the Clan MacDermot. For its earliest centuries
it used the Annals of Boyle (source: Wikipedia). William Maunsell Hennessy edited a two
volume collection in 1871.
The Annals of Loch Cé. A chronicle of Irish affairs from A.D. 1014 to A.D. 1590
Volume I
Volume II
The Annals of Ulster span the years from AD 431 to AD 1540. The entries up to AD 1489 were
compiled in the late 15th century by the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín, under his patron Cathal Óg
Mac Maghnusa on the island of Belle Isle on Lough Erne in the province of Ulster. Later entries
(up to AD 1540) were added by others. Previous annals dating as far back as the 6th century
were used as a source for the earlier entries, and later entries were based on recollection and
oral history. T. M. Charles-Edwards has claimed that the main source for its records of the first
millennium AD is a now lost Armagh continuation of The Chronicle of Ireland.
(source: Wikipedia).
Annals of Ulster. Otherwise Annala Senait, Annals of Senat. A chronicle of Irish affairs from
A.D. 432, to A.D. 1540
Volume I (1887 W. M. Hennessy ed.)
Volume II (1893 B. Mac Carthy ed.)
Volume III (1895 B. Mac Carthy ed.)
The Annals of Clonmacnoise are an early 17th-century Early Modern English translation of a
lost Irish chronicle, which covered events in Ireland from pre-history to A.D. 1408. The work
is sometimes known as Mageoghagan’s Book, after its translator. (source: Wikipedia). Denis
Murphy published them in 1896.
The Annals of Clonmacnoise being Annals of Ireland from the earliest period to A.D. 1408
The Annals of Tigernach is a chronicle probably originating in Clonmacnoise, Ireland. The
language is a mixture of Latin and Old and Middle Irish. (source: Wikipedia) These were
published by Whitley Stokes in Review Celtique (1895-1897, 15-19).

5. Annals of Tigernach
There are a number of other annals that are also worth investigation, and are available online:
(see the Wikipedia article on Annals of Ireland for more information)
Annales Hiberniae (1842) edited by James Grace
The annals of Ireland (1849) edited by Richard Butler
Annals of Connacht
Annals of Inisfallen
Leabhar Oiris
Mac Carthaigh's Book
Cogad Gáedel re Gallaib
Fragmentary Annals of Ireland
Dublin Annals of Inisfallen
Short Annals of Tirconaill
Short Annals of Leinster
Memoranda Gadelica
Annla Gearra as Proibhinse Ard Macha
A Fragment of Irish Annals
If I’ve missed out any, or there are better versions available, let me know and I’ll incorporate
them into the text.
OK ... I may be turning into 'that' guy who harangues the youth about how they've never had
it so good ... but I'm not jealous - I'm joyous! After 20 years I now have my own collection of
these beautiful and endlessly fascinating volumes - for free. I'll always prefer the smell and
heft of a real book, but PDFs have their attractions too. If I've introduced even one person to
these volumes for the first time, that will be something special, too.
So ... go ... explore! There's so much to see! You, lucky, lucky people!
Update: Lisa Spangenberg reminds me that there is a treasure trove of early Irish literature
and related materials available from the CELT (Corpus of Electronic Texts) website, and can
be made into searchable ebooks.