LISMORE, BOOK OFReferences and Further Reading
Curtis, Edmund. “The viceroyalty of Lionel, duke of Clarence
in Ireland, 1361–1367.” Journal of the Royal Society of
Antiquaries of Ireland47 (1917) 165–81; 48 (1918) 65–73.
Connolly, Philomena. “The financing of English expeditions to
Ireland, 1361–1376.” In England and Ireland in the Later
Middle Ages: Essays in honour of Jocelyn Otway-Ruthven,
edited by James Lydon, 104–21. Dublin: Irish Academic
Press, 1981.
See alsoCentral Government; Connacht;
Gaelicisation; Leinster; Lordship of Ireland;
Mortimer; Parliament; Richard II; Ulster,
Earldom of; William of Windsor
LISMORE, BOOK OF
Description
This is a fifteenth-century vellum codex also known
asLeabhar Mhic Cárthaigh Riabhaigh(The Book of
Mac Cárthaigh Riabhach). It is now called the Book
of Lismorebecause it came to light during the course of
structural alterations in Lismore Castle, County Water-
ford, in 1814. Unfortunately, the manuscript suffered at
the hands of local “scholars” in Cork at that time, and
many leaves were abstracted from it. It now consists
of 198 folios. The writing (with the exception of the
recto page of what is now folio 116) is in two col-
umns. There are a number of eighteenth-century
manuscripts that—it is believed—derive their contents
in part, either directly or indirectly, from the Book of
Lismore. It has also been suggested that some other
texts found in one or more of these manuscripts may
have been contained in the missing sections of the
earlier codex. In 1930, the manuscript was transferred
to Chatsworth, the Derbyshire seat of the Duke of
Devonshire (the owner of Lismore Castle), and has
remained there in private keeping. In 1950, a collotype
facsimile edition of the manuscript was published by
the Irish Manuscripts Commission with a descriptive
introduction and indexes by R. A. S. Macalister. It
should be pointed out, however, that the introduction
suffers from some deficiencies and contains a number
of errors. Some of the leaves abstracted from the manu-
script at the beginning of the nineteenth century may
have contained information about the patrons for
whom it was compiled, the scribes, and the date (or
dates) of compilation. Little information of this kind
has survived in the manuscript in its extant form. A
full examination of the hands of the manuscript has
also yet to be undertaken. The fact that the original
manuscript is in private keeping has meant that com-
paratively few scholars have had an opportunity to
examine it. An important description of the manu-
script; its history, foliation, and pagination; its scribes,
contents, and missing leaves; and finally its binding
has been made by Brian Ó Cuív.
Among the known patrons of one of the scribes,
Aonghas Ó Callanáin, was Fínghin Mac Cárthaigh
Riabhach of Cairbre in County Cork. Ó Callanáin,
however, was not the chief scribe. Scribal notes on folios
2r, 7v, 11r, and 17r refer to a lánamhna(married
couple), for whom texts on those leaves were written.
Some scholars have identified this couple as the afore-
mentioned Fínghin (d. 1505), lord of Cairbre, and his
wife Caitlín (d. 1506), a daughter of Thomas Fitzgerald
(d. 1468), eighth earl of Desmond. This identification
is by no means certain, however, and the couple may
be another husband and wife, possibly Fínghin’s father
and mother. The manuscript may have been written for
this earlier couple and added to during Fínghin’s time.
TheBook of Lismore was not prepared for the library
of a monastery or of a professional scholar. It is one
of a number of fifteenth-century composite volumes
that were compiled for lay patrons. The contents of
these manuscripts reflect the varied interests of the
members of the Gaelic and Anglo-Irish nobility at the
time. One other such manuscript is theBook of Fermoy,
a manuscript comprising several sections written in
different periods and containing a wide diversity of
material. It was written mainly in the fifteenth century
for the Anglo-Irish Roches of Fermoy, County Cork.
It has been suggested that some parts of both the Book
of Fermoyand the Book of Lismorewere written by
the same scribe.Contents
Among the contents of the Book of Lismoreare many
texts of religious interest. There are saints’ lives,
including those of Brigit, Colum Cille, and Patrick.
There are apocryphal texts, including a copy of An
Tenga Bithnua (The Evernew Tongue), the title of a
dialogue between the Hebrew sages and the spirit of
the apostle Philip, who is called “Evernew Tongue”
because when he was preaching to the heathen his
tongue was nine times cut out and nine times miracu-
lously restored. There is also a medieval account of
Antichrist. The manuscript contains various other texts
(both prose and poetry), of which the following is a
selection: There is a copy of Lebor na Cert (The Book
of Rights), which contains, among other material, a
collection of poems on the stipends and tributes of the
kingdoms of Ireland. It has been dated to the twelfth
century. There are copies of Caithréim Chellacháin
Chaisil(“The Triumph of Cellachán of Cashel”),
one of the historical tales of Irish literature and of