The preparation of the Annals of the Four Masters, on exhibit in Trinity College Dublin until December 21st, was described last night as the result of "a remarkable scholarly collaboration" between Francisans and some with whom they differed on theological and administrative grounds.
Speaking at a symposium in the university, Writing Irish History: the Four Masters and their World, Dr Donnchadh Ó Corráin, professor of medieval history at UCC, referred to the "deeply felt religious bigotry and intolerance at an official level" of that 17th-century period "islanded in virtual peace" and which ended in 1641.
It followed what he described as the "Elizabethan wars of destruction of medieval inheritance". Ireland at the time was seen as an oddity in European terms in that it rejected the "cuius regio, eius religio" maxim of the period whereby a population followed the religion of its rulers, he said.
The annals were produced between January 1632 and August 1636. Prof Ó Corráin described correspondence at the time involving Franciscan Micheál Ó Cléirigh, Fr Luke Wadding, Catholic Archbishop Peter Lombard, Church of Ireland Archbishop James Ussher and Sir James Ware as " a bright light of collaboration in an otherwise dark period".
Responding to a query as to whether the annals were in fact the "most valuable title deeds to Irish nationality", he said they were a combination of existing texts with some adjustments.
These included dating along AD lines and the linking of each year to the presumed king of Ireland at the time.