Mac Aodhagáin family
- Irish poets, clergy, scribes, jurists
Mac Aedagáin; MacEgan (anglicized); important learned family of legal historians and scribes based in Connacht and Co. Tipperary.
See also references for related subjects.
Kelly, Fergus, The MacEgan legal treatise, Early Irish Law Series, 8, Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School of Celtic Studies, 2020.
abstract:
This treatise is attributed to Giolla na Naomh Mac Aodhagáin (MacEgan), chief judge of the province of Connacht, who died in battle in 1309 alongside his king Aodh Ó Conchobhair (O'Conor). It is of special importance as it provides a professional lawyer's account of Irish ‘Brehon’ law in the period after the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169. The castle photographed here [on the cover] is Redwood (Coillte Ruadha), Co. Tipperary, occupied from the fifteenth to the seventeenth centuries by descendants of Giolla na Naomh.
Eska, Charlene M., “The abbreviation s.d. and patterns of ascription in the Corpus Iuris Hibernici”, Études Celtiques 42 (2016): 161–184.
abstract:
[FR] L’abréviation s.d. et la typologie des indications de sources dans le Corpus Iuris Hibernici. Cet article étudie l’utilisation de l’abréviation s.d. telle qu’elle apparaît dans divers textes de loi irlandais anciens – comme ceux imprimés dans le Corpus Iuris Hibernici – et compare cette abréviation, du point de vue du contexte et de l’emploi aux autres formes d’abréviation utilisées dans les manuscrits juridiques irlandais. Les constantes qui apparaissent dans l’emploi de l’abréviation conduisent à supposer qu’elle renvoie au nom d’un manuscrit de droit, associé peut-être à la famille des MacEgan et dont on peut partiellement reconstituer le contenu.
[EN] This paper examines the use of the abbreviation s.d. as it appears in various early Irish law tracts as printed in the Corpus Iuris Hibernici and compares its context and use to that of other forms of abbreviations used in Irish legal manuscripts. The pattern that emerges from the evidence of the abbreviation’s context and use suggests that the abbreviation stands for the title of a legal manuscript, perhaps associated with the MacEgan family, for which the contents may be partially reconstructed.
[EN] This paper examines the use of the abbreviation s.d. as it appears in various early Irish law tracts as printed in the Corpus Iuris Hibernici and compares its context and use to that of other forms of abbreviations used in Irish legal manuscripts. The pattern that emerges from the evidence of the abbreviation’s context and use suggests that the abbreviation stands for the title of a legal manuscript, perhaps associated with the MacEgan family, for which the contents may be partially reconstructed.
Persée – Études Celtiques, vol. 42, 2016: <link>
Follett, Westley, “Religious texts in the Mac Aodhagáin library of Lower Ormond”, Peritia 24–25 (2013–2014): 213–229.
abstract:
The most prominent Irish legal family of their time, Meic Aodhagáin maintained a celebrated law school in Lower Ormond in northern Co Tipperary. Through the analysis of manuscripts produced by two fifteenth-century scribes who worked among Meic Aodhagáin, this study identifies some of the texts likely to have been kept at the family’s Lower Ormond school. From the resulting list it is evident that Meic Aodhagáin possessed a considerable collection of vernacular religious material, especially homilies and passions, quite apart from law books.
