Leabhar Fidhnacha. The Book of Fenagh in Irish and English, originally compiled by St. Caillin, Archbishop, Abbot, and Founder of Fenagh, alias Dunbally of Moy-Rein, tempore St. Patricii … Carefully revised, indexed, and copiously annotated by W.M. Hennessy and done into English by D.H. Kelly. With two coloured plates.

RARE FIRST EDITION

Dublin: Thom, 1875. First edition. Quarto. pp. (1) x, 439. Modern half calf on marbled boards in eighteenth century style. All edges sprinkled. A fine copy. Very rare.

The Book of Fenagh (Leabar Fidhnacha) is a manuscript of prose and poetry written in Classical Irish by Muirgheas mac Pháidín Ó Maolconaire in the monastery at Fenagh, West Breifne (modern-day County Leitrim). It was commissioned by Tadhg Ó Rodaighe, the coarb of the monastery, and is believed to derive from the “Old Book of Caillín” (Leabar Chaillín), a lost work about Caillín, founder of the monastery. Ó Maolconaire began work about 1516. There are six poems: five on the O‟Neills and other families, and one on Caillín. Marginal notes in Irish adorning the book are commentaries by the noted Irish antiquarian Tadhg O‟Rodaighe (floruit 1700) from Crossfield in Fenagh. The Book of Fenagh was used as a source for the Annals of Connacht and the Annals of the Four Masters. The O‟Roddy coarbs and descendants retained the book down to Brian O‟Roddy, parish priest of Kilronan (Ballyfarnon) in the mid-19th century, upon whose death it was retained by his successors as parish priest. It later passed to George Michael Conroy, Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, for safekeeping, before his successor Bartholomew Woodlock sold it in 1888 to the Royal Irish Academy (RIA) for £10. This was on the advice of Denis Murphy, a Jesuit, that the RIA were best able to preserve it. Its catalogue number is RIA MS 23 P 26: Cat. No. 479. John O‟Donovan made a facsimile transcript in 1828, and a manuscript English translation in 1830. This, the first published edition was edited by William Maunsell Hennessy and translated by Denis H. Kelly from O‟Donovan‟s facsimile. The Irish Manuscripts Commission published a supplementary volume in 1939 with material missing from previous versions