Duanaireadha: The Manuscript Tradition

The compositions produced by the learned poets for their patrons and lords – typically encomium and elegy – were compiled within duanairí, the poem-books kept by noble families as a record of their rightful authority and family history. There are around 2000 extant poems from the classical bardic period, around half of them dating from the mid-1500s onward, many appearing within these poem-books. This chapter will describe the compositional, social, and political contexts underlying the duanairí, discuss their significance as both literary texts and historical materials, and will – in addition to looking at representative poems – give a sense of the overall shape and structure of these books.