irishpoetry.ie

a curated directory of Irish poetry · by Simon James Brady

The bardic era

The professional fili, hereditary and legally protected, trained in the schools.

For four centuries the fili were professionals. They held hereditary, legally protected status, trained in bardic schools for up to twelve years, and served Gaelic lords as praise-poets, satirists, genealogists and political advisers. A poet's satire was understood to do real damage, and was regulated accordingly.

The verse is technically severe — the dán díreach metres demand exact syllable counts, rhyme and consonance — and its subject is usually the patron. What breaks through that formality is what tends to survive: Muireadhach Albanach Ó Dálaigh's elegy for his wife, or Tadhg Dall Ó hUiginn's satires, which cost him his tongue and his life.

The system ended with its patrons, at Kinsale and the Flight of the Earls.

48 poets, earliest first.

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