Turas Na Dtaoiseach Nultach as Eirinn from Rath Maolain to Rome: Tadhg O Cianain’s Contemporary Narrative of the So-called Flight of the Earls, 1607-8

When the principal lords of Gaelic Ulster and their followers sailed from Lough Swilly in September 1607 on the faithful journey that would end in Rome nine months later, their company included one of the Irish learned class - Tadhg O Cianain. This tantalisingly obscure figure has left us a most important primary source for a pivotal period in Irish history.O Cianain’s careful record sheds valuable light on such things as the reaction of the Continental powers - France, Spain, Lorraine, and the Papacy - to the arrival on their territories of the inconvenient Irish exiles; the spread of Tridentine Catholic influence as far afield as Ireland; the role of such important Franciscan figures as Flaithri O Maoil Chonaire and Roibeart Mac Artuir; the palpable Franciscan flavour that suffuses O Cianain’s work; the sights and sounds of the great Baroque city of Rome, and the impressive sophistication and flexibility of the Irish language in accommodating itself to and borrowing from several other languages.This new edition of Tadhg O Cianain’s work owes much to the two previous editions, those of Paul Walsh (1916) and Tomas O Fiaich and Padraig de Barra (1972); from the latter edition it furnishes, in translation, the late Cardinal O Fiaich’s invaluable commentary on the Earl’s journey, supplemented by Fr Walsh’s detailed annotation.