Introduction
i. A NOTE ON HISTORIOGRAPHY
As we of letters know, Edward Gibbon is perhaps the first modern historian. His dedicated research provided a model of study that we now follow. Avoided after his contribution was the “Father of Lies” style, following him we are all adherents to the ideal of primary sourcing and exhaustive research. This work was a “warming up” to the most famous work of his career, the inimitable Decline and Fall. The sources for the Chronicle were far more readily available, being the Irish emperors kept fairly consistent records starting with the establishment of the petty Kingdom of Leinster in the mid-12th century. Before the reign of Rí Niall I of Leinster the historical evidence was spotty. We do know a lot however, from correspondence of the major rulers of that time, about his predecessors, the Ua Toms (medieval spelling) clan from modern-day Dublin. We of course are widely familiar with the stories involving the Kingdom of Ireland after it established its dominion over Britannia – the Wars of the Four Kingdoms, the Union of the Crowns, the English Troubles which to this day still plague the east of England. However, Gibbon’s work illuminated the intimate details of dynastic struggle, courtly intrigues, and outright murder that brought the O’Toms’ to prominence.
Though this volume of Gibbon’s work was eclipsed by his later “children”, it remains a wholly important addition to this historiography of Britain and especially of the medieval Irish rule over it. His lively and ironic prose, not to mention his (for the time) immaculate scholarship, render it an eminently readable volume. The faults we see in the Decline and Fall we see here. Gibbon was a skeptic of Christianity, and it shows here. He places highest in the pantheon of Irish rules the famously cynical (and semi-legendary) Arthur the Dragonslayer, Lord of Dublin, the avowedly atheistic Ard Rí Brian, and the fierce enemy of the Inquisition, Emperor Niall who maintained the only whole personal rule of Britannia by an O’Toms. While these were great leaders, he glosses over their faults and exaggerates those of the more zealous and orthodox of the family. Gibbon is also prone to English-speaking bias, and favors the Anglicized leaders more so than their traditional Gaelic counterparts, typically dismissing the achievements of Irish culture – he believed that the English were the cultural winners of the Wars of the Four Kingdoms, even despite continued Gaelic political hegemony. Otherwise, he pays painstaking detail to the political motives and personal rivalries of the day. This is not his opus magnum, but it still stands the test of time as a learned work and the basis of all modern scholarship on the O’Toms family.
This revision was very minor to the text itself. I removed unnecessary capitalization, besides this I did very little. I did however add quotations and in some cases whole documents of source materials in order to make context clearer. In addition I have added color plates of relevant depictions of events in the history of the O’Toms family, including ample maps. Much of this was kindly shewn to me from the state archives of the United Kingdom, thanks to the patronage of Admiral Arthur Edward McArthur, the 33rd Rí of Leinster, the current head of the O’Toms clan. Many thanks are to be given to the Dean of King’s College, Dublin, Dr. Brian O’Connor for my unlimited access to their libraries Rare Books Collection, with which I was able to use the original manuscript of the Chronicle. Finally, thanks should be given to the President of the Britannic History Society in Caernarfon, Dr. Diarmat McCarthy for all relevant corrections regarding the Irish language. It was also a delight in being able to set foot in the sublime Caernarfon Castle (there the BHS keeps its collection), where Ard Rí David begun his conquest of Wales, the first region on the Isle of Britain to fall to Irish rule. And final thanks must be given to you, dear reader, for endeavoring to expand your knowledge of the past. It is with you that the noble pursuit of history continues.
- L. P. Howard, Ph.D., The Henry Armitage Chief Librarian, Miskatonic University
ii. PREFACE BY THE AUTHOR
I shall not undertake to bore you, the reader of this work, with the varied details and introduction to the subject to familiar to all of us. I merely wish to, before undertaking this long work, to outline the topics as the so forward appear. As we know, the history of the Ua Toms family is a history of Britain. Their family provided the actors to unite all crowns in Britannia under one. And, as among all histories, it has cycles that mark distinct periods, defined by their actors and deeds. We may divide the history into five parts and five books.
Book I – being the origins of the clan, its semi-mythological founder, and the rise of the Ua Toms to local prominence. It is in this period where Gaelic values hold truest to the Brehon Law. It is contemporary with the Norman Conquest of England.
Ed. Note - Currently only Part I has been released, we we release later volumes and their descriptions once fit for publication.
