The Annals of Ulster

Manuscripts of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, compiled from older annals

A year-by-year chronicle of Irish affairs from AD 431, surviving in manuscripts of about 1500 that were compiled from much older annals. Its entries for the fifth century were worked out long after the events.

The two main manuscripts were written in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, but the compilers copied much older records. Historians generally treat the entries from the later sixth century onwards as resting on notes made near the time. The entries for the fifth century are a different matter. There the annalists cite later writers by name, among them Bede, Marcellinus and Isidore, and they often enter the same event under several years with the words “or here” or “as some say”, which shows that these entries were calculated afterwards.

Two points of dating need care. In this part of the annals the year written in the manuscript runs one behind the true year, so the edition numbers each entry with the corrected date. And the death of Patrick is entered under 457, 461 and 492/493, which is why his dates are given as traditional.

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