Ballads in sequence with bardic poems

Two ballads, items XII and XIII in this edition, are followed by a bardic poem by Aithbhreac inghean Torcadail, lamenting the death of her husband, MacNeill of Gigha (SV, 60–5).  The bardic poem appears to be in the same hand and ink as the ballads, and this suggests that they were all placed in the MS as part of the same block of copying. Poem XII is a eulogy on Goll mac Morna, a hero who was of particular significance to the north of Ireland, and Poem XIII relates, and laments, the death of Diarmaid.  It is attributed in the MS to a certain, hitherto unidentifiable, Ailéin mac Ruaidhrí. There are grounds for believing that Poem XIII may have been composed in Scotland.   We may therefore suppose that the sequence as a whole has close links with northern Ireland and Scotland.  There is nothing to prove that the scribes obtained all three items from the same source at the same time, but the evidence nods in that direction.

Another sequence embraces three ballads, Poems XXI, XXII and XXIII, but the last of these, which became a popular ballad in Ireland and Scotland, also forms the apologue of a bardic poem lamenting the death of Angus, son of John, Lord of the Isles, which is ascribed to Giolla Coluim mac an Ollaimh, who was probably a court poet of the Lord of the Isles.   Poem XXII is attributed to Ailéin mac Ruaidhrí, who may have been the same person as the one to whom Poem XIII is attributed.  All three items are concerned with the deaths of heroes, and it seems entirely possible that they too represent a single block of copying, since the hand and ink appear to be consistent throughout.  Once again, we are left to surmise that they may have come to the scribes at the same time, and from the same source, possibly (in this case) one close to the former Lordship of the Isles.

Other sequences which involve ballads and apologues can be identified.  Thus, on MS pp. 172–174a, Poem XVI, which onomastic evidence shows to have close links with Ireland, is followed in the MS by an apologue from a poem (HP, XV) addressed to Mág Uidhir of Fermanagh, which portrays the Fian heroes discussing their favourite types of music.  A rather similar sequence appears to be formed, on MS pp. 287–90, by the apologue from a poem addressed to Ó Conchobhair of Carbery, Co. Sligo, which is followed by Poem XXV, which describes the circumstances leading up to the death of Fionn’s father, Cumhall.