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Irish chronicles and their chronology

Welcome to this website which is dedicated to the synchronisation of the chronology and the entries of the Irish Annals. This has been done by tabulating the chronological elements and the entries of the principal annals in parallel as was initially proposed in my paper 'The Chronology of the Irish annals' published in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, 98C(1998) pp. 203-255. This paper remains the best published introduction to the ideas behind this synchronisation, and a copy of the paper is available online at the URL:

www.ria.ie/publications/journals/ProcCI/1998/PC98/PC98.html

However in the intervening seven years these ideas have been very considerably developed and these developments are described in the two ancillary articles attached to this web page below.

 

Kalend and regnal canon chronological traditions

Comprehensive examination of Irish chronicles reveals the existence of two distinct and contrasting chronological traditions. The earlier of these used a 'Kł' or 'K' standing for the kalends of January, i.e. 1 January, to mark the commencement of each chronicle year, and hence I term this the 'kalend tradition'. This kalend tradition is known to have been used for a Paschal table compiled in the Eastern Mediterranean in the third century, so it long predates the arrival of Christianity in Ireland. A Christian annalistic chronicle employing this tradition was introduced into Ireland in the fifth century and these annals were maintained and continued in Ireland up until AD 1590. This is the important chronological tradition for Irish historical chronology, that is for the accurate dating by AD year of historical events. Annals belonging to the kalend tradition include Chronicum Scottorum and the Annals of Tigernach, Roscrea, Ulster, Inishfallen, Boyle, Loch Cé and Connacht.

The second tradition used a standardised list of the reigns of supposed 'kings of Ireland' as its chronological basis, and hence I term this the 'regnal canon tradition'. This tradition was initiated circa AD 1014 and continued in use up until AD 1685, and it is found in a remarkably wide range of literary forms, e.g. synchronisms, chronological poems, Lebor Gabála, prose histories and two annals. As will be shown in the ancillary articles this tradition was deeply flawed chronologically from its very inception and always remained so, consequently it cannot be used for historical chronology. However, because two annalistic compilations employed this regnal canon, in order to comprehensively examine annalistic chronology it is necessary to establish the salient features of this regnal canon tradition.

 

Presentation of the tables and ancillary articles

For these two chronological traditions separate sets of tables have been constructed which tabulate in parallel the key chronological and entry data from their most important representatives. For each tradition these tables are accompanied by an ancillary article explaining the methods of construction, the conventions employed, and a summary of the conclusions. Online editions of all of the annals and some of the chronicles discussed in these articles may be accessed via this Edition_directory.

These tables and ancillary articles have been made available in two formats, one for reading online and the other for downloading and printing. The tables have been divided into sub-tables of approximately 70 Kbytes in order to give efficient access across the Internet, and also to facilitate their ongoing maintenance. The online version employs conservative HTML and so it should be accessible to all popular Web browsers. The version for downloading has been made available in Word 6.0 since this file format is readily accessible and known to most readers. Should it happen that you do not currently have access to Word then this page Word access lists possible alternatives and sources for you. These Word 6.0 tables have all been set up to print double-sided on A4 paper in landscape orientation in order to provide the maximum page width for parallel tabulation, and together with their ancillary article they may then be conveniently filed and read in an A4 ring binder.

 

ONLINE ACCESS

Kalend tradition article and tables - online

Ancillary article: 'Chronological synchronisation of the Irish annals'.

This article provides a detailed account of the construction and use of the following tables synchronising the annals of the kalend tradition which are accessed by their AD ranges:

 

 

1-84

85-168

169-252

253-306

307-358

359-424

425-487

488-531

532-565

566-595

596-620

621-642

643-661

662-678

679-694

695-709

710-722

723-740

741-766

767-803

804-884

885-919

920-973

974-999

1000-1023

1024-1051

1052-1079

1080-1107

1108-1135

1136-1163

1164-1191

1192-1219

1220-1247

1248-1275

1276-1316

1317-1359

1360-1412

1413-1443

1444-1471

1472-1499

1500-1527

1528-1555

1556-1590

-

-

-

-

-

 

 

 

Regnal canon tradition article and tables - online

Ancillary article: 'Collation of the Irish regnal canon'.

This article provides a detailed account of the regnal canon sources, their collation, their salient features and inter-relationships. These sources include two annalistic compilations, namely Conell Mageoghagan's 1627 English translation of an 'old Irish booke', and Micheál Ó Cléirigh's 1632-6 compilation known as the Annals of the Four Masters. This collation is divided into three sub-intervals and is available in the following three tables:

 

Table 1. Ceasair to Eochaidh Feidleach, i.e. Flood to circa Incarnation

Table 2. Eochaidh Feidleach to Daithí m. Fiachrach, i.e. circa Incarnation to AD 428

Table 3. Laoghaire m. Néill to Brian m. Cinnéitigh, i.e. AD 429 to AD 1014

 

 

 

 

DOWNLOAD ACCESS TO WORD 6.0 VERSIONS

 

Kalend tradition article and tables - Word 6.0

Ancillary article: 'Chronological synchronisation of the Irish annals'.

Tables synchronising the annals of the kalend tradition by their AD ranges:

 

1-84

85-168

169-252

253-306

307-358

359-424

425-487

488-531

532-565

566-595

596-620

621-642

643-661

662-678

679-694

695-709

710-722

723-740

741-766

767-803

804-884

885-919

920-973

974-999

1000-1023

1024-1051

1052-1079

1080-1107

1108-1135

1136-1163

1164-1191

1192-1219

1220-1247

1248-1275

1276-1316

1317-1359

1360-1412

1413-1443

1444-1471

1472-1499

1500-1527

1528-1555

1556-1590

-

-

-

-

-

 

Regnal canon tradition article and tables - Word 6.0

Ancillary article: 'Collation of the Irish regnal canon'.

Tables collating chronicles of the regnal canon tradition by the intervals:

 

Table 1. Ceasair to Eochaidh Feidleach, i.e. Flood to circa Incarnation

Table 2. Eochaidh Feidleach to Daithí m. Fiachrach, i.e. circa Incarnation to AD 428

Table 3. Laoghaire m. Néill to Brian m. Cinnéitigh, i.e. AD 429 to AD 1014

 

 

Editions, copyright, citation, and contact

This is the fourth edition of this work and information regarding the earlier editions is available at Edition history. These articles and tables are © D.P. Mc Carthy, and if you wish to quote them in a publication please cite my name, the title 'Chronological Synchronisation of the Irish Annals' or 'Collation of the Irish regnal canon' as appropriate, this URL and the date and edition from which you took a copy of the material you are citing. If you have any queries or comments, please direct them to me at mccarthy@cs.tcd.ie

 

 


Computer Science, Trinity College

Dan McCarthy, <Dan.McCarthy@cs.tcd.ie > Last modified: 2:58 PM 14 December 2011