AGRICULTUREtales when called upon by the king. His poems had to
be competent in subject-matter, and technically with-
out flaw. More broadly, as the repository of tribal sen-
chas(which he had memorized), the filiwas expected
not only to conserve this lore in versified form but also
to interpret it and make it relevant to his own time. In
addition to the fili, there was another, inferior, type of
poet, known as the bard. What primarily distinguished
the two was the bard’slack of professional training.
He was someone with natural ability who had not
studied in the poetic schools; he might, for example,
perform compositions of the fili.
By the thirteenth century, control of the profession
offilidechthad shifted to a group of literary families
who trained candidates for the profession in what are
commonly called the Bardic Schools. No doubt, the
realignment was related to major ecclesiastical and
political changes that occurred during the twelfth
century: the demise of the older churches following
ecclesiastical reforms and the introduction of the
Continental religious orders; and the Anglo-Norman
invasion. But how it was effected remains unclear;
one suggestion is that the new learned families were
the descendants of hereditary officials who main-
tained possession of monastic lands after the monas-
teries themselves, the original centers of learning, had
disappeared. Their ability to adapt to the new political
order meant that they maintained (and even
enhanced) their special status by receiving patronage
from the Gaelicized Norman lords.
Two other branches of the áes dánathat thrived in
the post-Norman period were law and medicine.
Again, these were controlled by certain families, who
trained suitable candidates in their schools and
depended on the Gaelic and Gaelicized Norman aris-
tocracy for patronage. For example, the Ua hIceadha
(O’Hickey) family served as physicians to the Ua Briain
rulers of Thomond, and the Ua Casaide (O’Cassidy)
family to Mág Uidhir (Maguire) of Fermanagh. Since
all of these professions, especially the poets, depended
on the patronage of the ruling families, the collapse of
the Gaelic order in the seventeenth century inevitably
brought their demise.
PÁDRAIGÓ NÉILL
References and Further Reading
Greene, David. “The Professional Poets.” In Seven Centuries of
Irish Learning, 1000–1700, edited by Brian Ó Cuív. Cork:
Mercier Press, 1971.
Kelly, Fergus. A Guide to Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin
Institute for Advanced Studies, 1988.
See alsoBardic Schools/Learned Families; Brehon
Law; Poetry, Irish; Society, Grades of Gaelic;
Túath
AGRICULTURE
The Old Irish law texts of the seventh–eighth centuries
A.D. are the main written source of information on pre-
Norman agriculture in Ireland, but valuable informa-
tion is also provided by other categories of text in Irish
and in Latin, particularly annals, penitentials, and saints’
lives. In the period from the Anglo-Norman invasion
until the end of the sixteenth century, the Irish annals
continue to be an important source of information on
agriculture as practiced in those parts of the country
under Gaelic control. Information on agriculture in the
rest of the country is provided by rentals, deeds, and
other documents in Norman-French, English, and Latin.
Interaction between Irish and Anglo-Norman farming
practices is indicated by the borrowing of vocabulary
in both directions. For example, the Irish word speal,
“scythe,” is probably of Middle English origin, indi-
cating that large-scale hay-making was introduced
after the Anglo-Norman invasion. Similarly, much of
the farmwork on an Anglo-Norman manor was done
by persons classed as betagh (Irishbíattach, “unfree
tenant”), who were almost always Irish, and would no
doubt have held to at least some of the agricultural
practices of their forefathers.Crops
The archaeological evidence indicates that cereals
have been grown in Ireland since Neolithic times. It
is clear, however, that the coming of Christianity in
the fifth century A.D. with the subsequent establish-
ment of monasteries brought various innovations in
cereal-production from the Roman world. An eighth-
century law text, Bretha Déin Chécht, lists seven
types of cereal grown in Ireland, arranged in order
of value. Predictably, the most highly valued cereal
is bread-wheat (cruithnecht), though it can hardly
have been much grown in the rather cool Irish cli-
mate. The second cereal on the list is rye (secal, from
Latinsecale), which is likely to have been more
widely grown as it tolerates harsher conditions. Other
cereals included in the list are suillech, which is
perhaps to be identified as spelt wheat, and ibdach,
probably two-row barley, as it was used to make beer.
Next on the list is rúadán, a reddish wheat which is
doubtless “emmer,” and then éornae, “six-row barley.”
At the bottom of the list is the least prestigious cereal,
corcae, “oats”—a twelfth-century legal commentary
states that a sack of oats is worth only half a sack of
barley. The law text on clientship, Cáin Aicillne, pro-
vides a description of the type of land which is suitable
for the growing of barley, and stresses that it should
be level, deepdraining and properly manured. Plowing
was generally carried out in the spring, using a team