J. F. Campbell Collection > Transactions of the Ossianic Society > Volume 5

INTRODUCTION.
THE BARDS OF IRELAND.
a work specially devoted to re-
cord and illustrate the conduct,
proceedings, demeanor and bearing
of the Bardic Order in Ireland at a
certain period of their career, it is
necessary to premise a few notices
explanatory of their position and
history, and point out the nature of
that extensive influence which they once possessed, and oc-
casionally so signally abused. For our materials in such
a task we have drawn upon a variety of sources, many of
them confined to Manuscript and others more accessible.
In this latter department much of our information has been
derived from the Transactions of the Iberno-Celtic Society,
a work edited and compiled by the late learned and laborious
Irish scholar, Edward O'Reilly, Esq.; also from Walker's
Irish Bards, but principally from our national Annals.
The term Bard, signifying a Poet, is common to several
of the European languages as well as to the Irish — to the
Teutonic, Greek and Roman as well as Celtic. In Welch
and Armoric the word is written bardh and bartk ; in Greek
bardos, and in Latin bardus. As to its derivation there
are various opinions, which are after all no better than con-