THE BOOK OF MAGAURAN

By James E. McGovern

Reverend Lambert McKenna, S. J., translated, then published this work in 1947. Father McKenna termed the Magauran manuscript "particularly remarkable" as being the earliest existing example of a Dunaire, an official book which each of the more important reigning families in Ireland possessed, and in which were enshrined the Bardic eulogies of the family.

Apparently the scribe, or one of them, was Rory O'Kennan (Ruaidhri 0 Cianain) who seems to have been a well-known person judging by his obituary in the Annals of Ireland, 1387. There very probably were other scribes of this manuscript, before and after O'Keenan, but their names are unknown. How many pages were in the original manuscript is unknown. (The British lords stole or destroyed many of the important old Irish documents.)

The BOOK tells of twenty-nine Kings in the ancestry of the McGoverns up from Amhlaoibh to Eochaidh. (note the h's).

Father McKenna did not think highly of this particular scribe, the copier, as distinguished from the actual poets, terming him as "so ignorant - or at least so neglectful - of the meaning of the poems as well as of their grammatical and metrical structure, that an exact copy of his script is not merely difficult to understand but is likely to convey a false impression as to the character of Bardic poetry."

One should know something about the Irish poets in order to better understand the BOOK OF MAGAURAN.

There were seven grades of Filid, the highest being the Ollamh, the lowest, the Bard. Irish literature from the earliest times was aristocratic and kept in hands of the professional class, the Filid. These ancient Gaelic professional poets official duties were to know and preserve the sagas and genealogies and to compose poems recalling the past and present glory of the ruling class. And especially to note their generosity and hospitality. They were often proud and arrogant and O'Curry thinks they should more properly be called philosophers than poets~though one would think the two should go hand-in- hand.

They were part of a large aristocratic class, which included other men of learning such as druids, judges and historians. They were expensive to support and were severely censured for their extravagant demands by the feared lampoon, the "Aer" or poets curse. This curse, widely believed, could not only take away a man's reputation, but cause physical damage, or even death.

But, in addition, the instruction of youth was entirely in the hands of the Druids and Poets. And they served as political advisers to the chiefs, lords and kings, as well.

It was such a popular occupation at one point that one third of the men of Ireland entered

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