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It is unfortunately impossible, as I have been informed, consistently with the rules of Rennes
Library, to obtain a loan of this, to us, singularly interesting volume; but if any competent
Irish scholar, who could spend some weeks at Rennes, would transcribe the Irish version of
Sir John Mandeville’s Travels, and the Life of St. Colman mac Luachain, we could confer a
most important benefit on Irish literature.

The benefits were conferred by the diligent work of John Abercrombie and Whitley
Stokes who edited the work (cf article by Meidbhín Ni Úrdail). But in 1985, when Cork City
was celebrating its “800”, its twin city, Rennes, in an act of warm magnanimous generosity,
lent its treasured manuscript to its sister city. It was on exhibition in the Cork Museum for
four months where those of us who were lucky enough to avail of the opportunity, were
permitted to see what a magnificent manuscript it is.

ADDENDUM

Some comment is necessary regarding the so-called “McCarthy Cook,” namely,
Fragment I in the Miscellaneous Irish Annals edited by Seamus Ó hInnse in 1947. In his
introduction, Ó hInnse remarks, “Fragment I may be identical with a Collection of Annals
compiled for Fínghin ó Mathghamhna.” The factors supporting such a hypothesis would
be twofold:
1. There is evidence that Fragment I was once in the possession of
Florence McCarthy in London in 1633.

2. The (several) scribal hands appear to belong to the fifteenth century.
The most that could be concluded, therefore, would be that Fragment I may be some
way connected with the Annals compiled by O Fehilly. In particular, Fragment I has its first
entry in AD 1114—hardly fitting the description of the Comprehensive Annals but could
have been judiciously chosen for the imminent appearance of the Clann Charthaigh as a
power on the Munster scene.
After some discussion of the entries, Ó hInnse finally decides “The conclusion seems to
be that the compiler of Fragment I had as his source The Annals of Innisfallen and another
Munster Annals or a Munster Annalistic compilation which had as one of its sources The
Annals of Innisfallen.
Moreover, regarding the so-called Dublin Annals of Innisfallen (written in the eighteenth
century in France for Dr. John O Brien by Sean Ó Conaire) O Donovan had concluded that
Ó Conaire “had some Munster Annals that we have not.” It was the conclusion of Ó hInnse
that this unknown source is not Fragment I. So, the comprehensive Munster Annals remain
to be discovered.
Fragment I and its comparison with the Dublin Annals were discussed in a subsequent
paper by Rev. Tomás Ó Fiaich. A full discussion of the issues involving these Annals would
take us too far away from the focus of this paper and so will not be pursued here. This latter
reference was brought to my attention by Professor Pádraig de Brún, School of Celtic Studies,
Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies; for this and the many fruitful discussion I have had with
him, I wish to record my sincere thanks. Also, I wish to acknowledge how I have benefitted
from the insights of both Dr. Micheline Kerney Walsh and Professor Seán Ó Coileáin, whose
responses to my requests for help have always been readily and generously forthcoming.

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