Some observations on the Dublin Annals of Inisfallen

This article examines the compilation and transcription of the eighteenth-century source commonly known as the ‘Dublin Annals of Inisfallen’. It reviews, in particular, the work’s most substantial entries, i.e. those which concern the O’Briens and the history of Thomond in the medieval period, and briefly highlights the historical value of other longer entries relating to the twelfth, thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The ‘Dublin Annals’ attests to the readiness with which scribes indulged in editorial intrusion, while it also offers insights into the factors which impinged upon textual transmission in the Modern Irish period.