Poets and composers

After 1200 the lays appear to have been composed consistently until the end of what is termed the Classical period of Gaelic verse and prose, that is until about 1600.  It seems likely, however, that there were great creative surges at different periods within the tradition, and times when the genre appealed more widely to poets and to peoples than at others.  Unfortunately, we know very little about the poets who composed the verse, since they generally preferred to hide behind a mask of anonymity, or most commonly ascribed their compositions to Oisín, a 'catch-all' figure who was astonishingly prolific. Only occasionally are we allowed to catch a glimpse of a human face behind the mask, and BDL is unique in permitting us to do so.  Giolla Coluim mac an Ollaimh ('Giolla Coluim, son of the Chief Poet'), who was probably a court poet of the Lords of the Isles at the time of its forfeiture in 1493, was evidently the composer of an apologue which, having been detached from the bardic poem, became the ballad on the death of Conlaoch (Poem XXIII).  Poets like Giolla Coluim may have combined the composition of narrative verse directly with the production of more elaborate praise-poetry, but this is so unusual an example that it would be unwise to generalise too freely.  It is possible that the usual composers had no formal court roles.  Some may have been clerics, who, when wearied of their cloisters, gave vent to their frustrations by 'setting up' St Patrick in a sort of Punch and Judy context with Oisín.  The saint and the old pagan would thus 'slog it out' in a series of animated, verbal battles, in which Oisín championed the values of the dear-departed Fian and execrated the bells and croziers of the Church.  Occasionally, the note would be one of wistful nostalgia, and the figure of Oisín would represent that hankering for the old 'land of lost content', perhaps dear to the hearts of 'retired' poets who were distressed by changes within society and longed for better days.  In Poem IV, for example, Oisín, portrayed as residing at Elphin in Co. Roscommon, is dragging stones to build a church for Patrick and bemoans his sad lot.

Other composers may have been professional story-tellers, genealogists or historians who varied their output by recasting prose narratives as verse or by producing ballads which entered general currency and came to be fathered on Oisín.

Ireland and Scotland apparently participated simultaneously in such creativity, and both countries evidently composed ballads which were swept into the common stream of the shared Gaelic tradition.