THE BOOK OF UI MAINE otherwise called “The Book of the O’Kellys”. Edited by R.A.S. Macalister, with descriptive Introduction and Indexes.

THE BOOK OF THE O’KELLYS

Dublin: Published for the Irish Manuscripts Commission by the Stationary Office, 1942. Imperial folio. pp. 65, 158 (leaves of plates) + addendum. Contemporary half blue morocco on blue cloth boards, titled in gilt. A fine copy. Very scarce. The vellum manuscript was written in Irish in the fourteenth century probably in the ancient territory of Uí Mhaine (east Galway, south Roscommon, part of Clare, and the parish of Lusmagh in Offaly) for Muirceartach ua Ceallaigh, Bishop of Clonfert 1378-1394. It was in the possession of Mael- Muire ua Uiginn in 1488; presumably this is the same person of the name as described in the Annals of The Four Masters “Mulmurry, the son of Teige Oge Higgins, Chief Preceptor in Poetry ... died”. There are ten scribes credited with this work of which the two principal ones were Adam Cusin and Faelan Mac a’ Gabann na Scél.

Its contents are described by one of the scribes as bolg an tsolathair (a mixed bag of contents) the manuscript contains a series of metrical dindsenchas, An Banshenchas, Cormac’s Glossary, Lebor na Cert, portions of Lebor Gabála, poems, genealogies and pedigrees.

The manuscript remained in O’Kelly hands until 1757. It was acquired by William Betham in 1814, and he sold it to the Duke of Buckingham for £150. It was one of the 156 manuscripts of Irish interest in the Ashburnham Collection of Stowe manuscripts and it was deposited in the Royal Irish Academy by the British Government in 1883.