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

THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE GREAT BARDIC
INSTITUTION.
The following work, which is now published for the first
time, has been usually designated as " The Introduction to
Tain-bo- Cuailgne" or the cattle prey of Cooley, and as
such is found prefixed to almost all the modern copies of
that curious and interesting composition. In the more
ancient MSS. which contain transcripts of the Cattle Raid,
such as Leabhar-na-Huidhri and the Book of Leinster
written in the 12th Century, this work is found totally
disconnected with that tract, and we may therefore conclude
that the Imtheacht was written for another purpose. We
learn from the latter part of the foregoing brief sketch of
the history of the Bards, that at various times they had
become obnoxious to the nation by reason of their over-
bearing insolence and exactions, and it is quite clear that the
object of the writer evidently was to satirize the Bards, rail
at their overbearing arrogance, check their influence, and
cover their professional order with ridicule and contempt.
It is, in fact, a severe satire on the whole order, and was,
very probably, written, contemporaneously with Shanchan
Torpest, the chief Bard of Erin in the seventh century. It is
certain, however, that it was composed at a period subse-
quent to the Tain-bo-Cuailgne. The author engrafted, as
it were, his satire on the Cattle Prey, by way of account-
ing for the origin of that composition, the writing of which
on the Hide of the Brown Cow was superintended by St.
Kieran of Clonmacnois.
The text given of this work has been copied from that
part of the Book of Mac Carthy Riagh, a MS. of the 14th