The Annals of Boyle, also Cottonian Annals, are a chronicle

Chronicle

Generally a chronicle is a historical account of facts and events ranged in chronological order, as in a time line. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and local events, the purpose being the recording of events that occurred, seen from the perspective of the...

 of medieval

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

 Ireland

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

. The entries span the years up to 1253. It is considered one of the works that forms The Chronicle of Ireland, although in summary form compared to others.

Robin Flower

Robin Flower

Robin Ernest William Flower was an English poet and scholar, a Celticist, Anglo-Saxonist and translator from the Irish language. He is commonly known in Ireland as "Bláithín" . He married Ida Mary Streeter.-Life:...

 wrote in Revue Celtique 44 (1927) 344:

'The MS is the original chronicle of the Premonstratensian house of the Holy Trinity on the Island named after it in Loch Cé, founded on an earlier chronicle, perhaps that of Boyle

Boyle, County Roscommon

Boyle is a town in County Roscommon, Ireland. It is located at the foot of the Curlew Mountains near Lough Key in the north of the county. Carrowkeel Megalithic Cemetery, the Drumanone Dolmen and the popular fishing lakes of Lough Arrow and Lough Gara are also close by...

. It remained in Holy Trinity till the secularization of that house, being used by the writers of the Annals of Loch Cé

Annals of Lough Cé

The Annals of Loch Cé cover events, mainly in Connacht and its neighbouring regions, from 1014 to 1590. It takes its name from Lough Cé in the kingdom of Moylurg - now north County Roscommon - which was the centre of power of the Clan MacDermot...

, who worked for the MacDermots. It passed into the hands of the Croftons with the other property of the house, and while in their hands was seen by Ussher, who probably called it the Annals of Boyle, which it has been known as ever since. From the Croftons, it passed to Oliver St. John, Viscount Grandison of Limerick

Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison

Sir Oliver St John, 1st Viscount Grandison was an English soldier who became Lord Deputy of Ireland.-Early years:He was the second son of Nicholas St John of Lydiard Park in Wiltshire and Purley Park in Berkshire, by his wife Elizabeth , daughter of Sir Richard Blount of Mapledurham House in...

, who gave it to Sir Robert Cotton before 1630 and, with his library, it came into the British Museum in 1753 with a number of other Irish manuscripts and manuscripts of Irish interest.'

The Annals used the Irish language

Irish language

Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...

, with some entries in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

. Because the Annals copied its sources verbatim, the annals are useful not just for historians, but also for linguists studying the evolution of the Irish language.

External links

• "Lake Islands and a Blind Harpist" from Reader's Digest Illustrated Guide to Ireland.http://www.rootsweb.com/~irlros/boyle_area.htm
• Cottonian Annals

Source

• Oxford Concise Companion to Irish Literature, Robert Welsh, 1996. ISBN 0-19-280080-9