The Fragmentary Annals of Ireland are a Middle Irish combination of chronicle from various Irish annals and narrative history. They were compiled in the kingdom of Osraige, probably in the lifetime of Donnchad mac Gilla Patraic (died 1039), king of Osraige and of king of Leinster. Middle Irish is the name given by historical philologists to the form of the Irish language from the 10th to 16th centuries; it is therefore a contemporary of Middle English. ... An number of Irish annals were compiled up to and shortly after the end of Gaelic Ireland in the 17th century. ... It has been suggested that Ossory be merged into this article or section. ... The following is a provisional list of the Kings of Leinster up to 1632, and successive Chiefs of the Name to the present day. ...

The Fragmentary Annals survive in a single example copied in 1643 by Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh from a lost fifteenth century original by Giolla na Naomh Mac Aodhagáin (died c.1443). Mac Fhirbhisigh's manuscript is incomplete and includes five fragments of annals beginning in 573 and ending in 914. The manuscript is currently held by the Royal Library of Belgium. Dubhaltach MacFhirbhisigh (1643–January 1671) was born in the parish of Lackan, in the Barony of Tireagh, Co. ... The Royal Library of Belgium (abbreviated: KBR, and sometimes nicknamed Albertina) is one of the important cultural institutions of Belgium. ...

Two modern editions of the Fragmentary Annals have been published:

• John O'Donovan (editor & translator) Annals of Ireland: three fragments. (Dublin 1860)
• Joan N. Radner (editor & translator) Fragmentary annals of Ireland (Dublin 1978)

Reference

• Radner, Joan N., "Writing history: Early Irish historiography and the significance of form", Celtica, volume 23, pp. 312–325. (etext (pdf))

External links

• Fragmentary Annals of Ireland (Radner's edition) (translation) at University College Cork's CELT: Corpus of Electronic Texts.