The Authorship of the Old Irish Verse Martyrology Félire

Traditional attributions rest primarily on external sources, including the twelfth-century Preface, the poem Aibind suide sund amne dating from the tenth to the twelfth century, and evidence preserved in the Martyrology of Tallaght and the Martyrology of Gorman. Because these sources are legendary in character and postdate the composition of the Félire by one to three centuries, they provide only limited evidence for establishing its authorship. The article argues that the text itself offers the only reliable basis for determining authorship. Linguistic features, the author's intellectual horizons, and references to contemporary rulers and ecclesiastical figures, including Donnchad Midi, Bran Berba, and St Máel Rúain, locate the author within the monastic milieu of Tallaght in the kingdom of Mide and allow the poem to be dated to the period after 792. The study further demonstrates that the hagiographical tradition surrounding the “legendary Óengus hua Oíbleáin” developed between the tenth and twelfth centuries and reached its fullest expression in the seventeenth century through the work of John Colgan. During this process, the tradition absorbed a number of secondary elements, including an association with the Céli Dé movement and the attribution of Saltair na Rann to Óengus. The article concludes that a fundamental gap separates the historical, anonymous author of the Félire from the figure constructed by later hagiographical tradition.

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