POPULATIONdistinction existed between the two. Until the thir-
teenth century the poet was distinct from the bard
through his professional status and technical training.
The bard of this period and earlier was a low ranking
poet of modest social rank and skill. Poetic schools of
the early period are most closely associated with legal
and monastic institutions. In later years such schools
became primarily concerned with the study and pres-
ervation of Gaelic literature, grammar, and instruction.
Bardic poetry dominates Irish literature from the
Anglo-Norman invasion until the late medieval period
and is responsible for the vast majority of surviving
poetic material. Bardic poetry differs considerably from
earlier poetry, most remarkably in its greater length
through a characteristically elaborate, embellished style.
Interestingly, for nearly half a millennium the lexicon
of Bardic poetry remained largely unchanged. Bardic
poets composed their poems in a standard, fossilized
literary dialect.
Bardic poetry, consisting predominantly of lengthy
elegies and praise poems, recorded and immortalized
the heroic exploits and largesse of its patrons. These
poems were addressed almost exclusively to members
of the ruling and educated classes. Bardic poets
enjoyed special status within the household of their
patrons, status that usually terminated upon the
patron’s death. A poet in a favorable relationship with
his patron would often write compositions in a role
consistent with a lover or spouse. Freedom of travel
and an itinerant profession allowed poets to advance
from patron to patron. The fall of Gaelic society
brought with it the demise of Bardic poetry as profes-
sional poets were no longer supported and maintained
by their patrons.
ANGELA GLEASON
References and Further Reading
Breatnach, Liam, ed. Uraicecht na Ríar; The Poetic Grades in
Early Irish Law. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced
Studies, 1987.
Breatnach, Liam. “Poets and Poetry.”.In Progress in Medieval
Irish Studies, edited by K. McCone & K. Simms, 65–77.
Maynooth, 1996.
Carney, James. The Irish Bardic Poet. Dublin, 1967.
Murphy, Gerard. Early Irish Lyrics. Oxford, 1956.
See alsoBardic Schools/Learned Families;
Duanairí; Poetry Irish; Poetry Hiberno-Latin;
Satire; Society, Grades of, Gaelic
POPULATION
The central role of the human population of any socio-
political unit has long been recognized by historians:
the number of people, along with such variables as
rates of fertility and mortality, help to determine certain
economic processes and social policies, and are in turn
influenced by other variables such as the efficacy of
medical practices and the incidence of warfare. Even
when census-derived head counts become available in
the early nineteenth century, the precise nature and
significance of population movements are not easy to
evaluate. These preliminary remarks underline the one
stark, unalterable fact about the population of medieval
Ireland: there is no evidence on which to base a scien-
tifically respectable figure. Nevertheless two numerical
counts, one for the early Middle Ages and one for the
late Middle Ages, more certainly in the future and more
tentatively here provide grounds for arguments by
which generally agreed estimates might be attained.The Early Middle Ages
The first numerical count is of over forty-five thousand
ringforts—earthen raths and stone-built cashels to
defend against cattle raids—in the period centered on
the seventh to ninth centuries. Crucial to this argument
is that these enclosed farmsteads were the dominant
settlement form and that they were built and occupied
contemporaneously. These were the homes of the
great majority of lords and farmers (divided by brehon
lawyers into numerous subcategories). A generous
multiplier of ten to allow for dependent relatives and
servile personnel would produce a base figure of
450,000. In addition there were at least two larger
settlement forms: the secular dún, many of which may
no longer have served as permanent residential com-
plexes, and ecclesiastical sites. The latter, often visible
in the modern landscape as ovoid enclosures, num-
bered several hundred. To judge by the well-known
description of Kildare in circa 630 by Cogitosus in
hisVita Brigitae, the greatest monasteries were pop-
ulous places, with outer zones (here called “suburbs”)
that provided accommodation for resident craftwork-
ers and visiting pilgrims. On this basis a minimum
figure of half a million inhabitants would be a reason-
able estimate.
Whatever “guestimate” is favored, the population
of early medieval Ireland was not stable but, on the
contrary, was subject to both upward and downward
pressures. The wealth of Roman Britain had attracted
Irish as well as Germanic raiders and settlers. In the
late fourth and the fifth century there was migration
from Ireland to western parts of Britain: to Dyfed and
Gwynedd in Wales and to Cornwall in England. The
best indication of the scale and scope of this migration
is the distribution of ogam inscriptions, which are con-
centrated in southwest Wales and which suggest that the
majority of migrants came from Munster and Leinster.
At the opposite end of the island an ultimately more
significant migration of the Ulaid to southwestern