POETRY, IRISHtales, such as has been claimed for the
Táin Bó
Cuailgne
(“The Cattle Raid of Cooley”) (the earliest
version dated to the 600s or 700s), and there are works
of satire. There is love poetry, and love
aislings
(visions). There are historical works, such toponomical
works as the
Dinnsenchus
(“Lore of Place Names”),
works of genealogy, and law tracts expressing the
Brehon Law. There are adaptations of foreign, includ-
ing classical, works; and there are prophecies, and mag-
ical spells. Almost all genres are represented in verse,
or partly so, largely as an aid to memory.
There is narrative literature, often in a mixture of
prose and verse, historical, fictional, or a mixture of the
two. Among these are the tales of the Ulster Cycle, the
most famous of which is the
Táin Bó Cualgne
(see
above). There is the Mythological Cycle, and the His-
torical Tales, though the medieval Irish based their clas-
sification on the first word of a story’s title, for instance,
Aided
(violent deaths),
Eachtrai
(adventures),
Comp-
erta
(conceptions and births), and
Imrama
(voyages).
Finally, there is the Fionn Cycle, the stories asso-
ciated with Finn Mac Cumhaill, which became prom-
inent in the 1100s, with the appearance of the
Acallam
na Senórach
(“The Colloquy of the Old Men”). It finds
its origins in folk literature, and comes to replace the
Ulster Cycle in popularity. It is more fantastic, magi-
cal, romantic (perhaps receiving Norman French influ-
ence in this), and more humorous. It is also more often
in verse, and in ballad form, something new to Ireland,
and to Europe.
After Approximately 1200
Changes took place, from around 1200, as a result of
the Anglo-Norman Invasion and Church Reforms: the
end of the composition of nature poetry, a growing dom-
inance of the professional poets, the
fili
(pl.
filid
), and
a change in popular literature. From this point on, bardic
praise poetry was the dominant poetic composition, and
the Fionn Cycle was the dominant narrative literature.
There were
filid
before this, members of the ancient
Áes Dána
, but they now regained something of their
former dominance. Their presence can be seen in
praise poetry recorded before circa 1200, in earlier
literature, and in their conflicts with the Church. The
filid
, now members of bardic families, attained their
position by inheritance and ability, after instruction in
Bardic schools, and, unlike many of earlier times, are
no longer anonymous. In addition to the
filid
, there are
poets and performers of other sorts, such as the bards,
who performed the compositions of the
fili
(known to
the English as “bards” because of the
bard’s
higher
visibility), and the musicians, notably the harpers, who
accompanied these performances.
The
fili
and
bard
were not always so divided. Ear-
lier, the
fili
was a guardian and narrator of traditional
knowledge, and a person of supernatural powers, who
occasionally composed and performed praise poetry,
while the latter function principally fell to the
bard
.
But this changed with time, and after approximately
1200 the bard was subsidiary to the fili, the
bard
per-
forming his works. Also, poets had earlier performed
at the
Óenach
(pl.
Óenaigh
), in addition to royal courts,
but now the
Óenaigh
were gone.
In composing their poetry, the
filid
used traditional
Irish materials, promises and threats. The poems were
composed in dark rooms and later committed to writ-
ing, their works preserved in part in the
Duanairí. But
they also used ever more foreign material, such as from
Classical tradition, from French Romance, and to some
extent from Welsh/British tradition—though the con-
servatism of the Irish resisted this. The poets were also
trained in language, rhetoric, and metrics, employing
the complex rules of
dán díreach
, and the bardic dialect.
The bardic meters, and the bardic language, achieved
a standard during this period, with little change, and no
dialectical differences, and they were helped in main-
taining these standards by grammatical treatises.
Their principal productions were, as stated above,
praise poetry, but there were also inaugural odes, sat-
ire, religious poetry, homiletic poems, laments,
appeals, complaints, poetical instruction, and personal
commentary—but especially praise—for both the Gaelic
aristocracy, and the Anglo-Norman, as they underwent
Gaelicization. These poets served both groups, and
moved freely within a politically divided Ireland, both
before and after 1200.
This poetry has been criticized as being too formal
and stylized, too pragmatic, lacking in feeling, and not
appealing to modern taste. But, this is not always the
case. Among the more famous poets we might list
from among the bardic families (e.g., the Ua Dálaigh,
Mac Con Midhe, Ua hUiginn, Mac an Bhaird, Ua
Gnímh, Ua hEoghusa) are Muireadhach Albanach Ua
Dálaigh (
fl.
early 1200s), Giolla Brighde Mac Con
Midhe (
fl
. mid 1200s), Donnchadh Mór Ua Dálaigh
(d. 1244), Gofraidh Fionn Ua Dálaigh (d. 1387), Tadhg
Óg Ua hUiginn (d. 1448), and Tadhg Dall Ua hUiginn
(d. 1593), all considered among the best of the
filid
.
As early as the 1300s, there was a new genre, a type
of love poetry different from the earlier sort. Some
claim it developed under French influence, others
claim English, and others that it is of purely Irish
derivation. Whatever the case, it had become uniquely
Irish. They are generally by amateurs, and use the
dán
díreach
meters, though usually of the simpler
ógláchas
type. The earliest extant of these is by Gearóid Iarla
Mac Gearailt, Gerald (the Earl) Fitzgerald, fourth Earl
of Desmond (d. 1398). This Gerald also produced other