Cathal Óg MacMaghnusa

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Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa (February 1439 – March 1498) was an Irish historian. He was the principal compiler of the Annals of Ulster, along with the scribe Ruaidhrí Ó Luinín. He was also chief of the McManus clan from 1488 to 1498.

Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa: His Time, Life and Legacy

by Nollaig O. Muraíle

Clogher Record

• Vol. 16, No. 2 (1998), pp. 45-64 (20 pages)
• Published By: Clogher Historical Society
• Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa: His Time, Life and Legacy
• (https://www.jstor.org/stable/20641349)
• (https://doi.org/10.2307/20641349)

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PREVIEW

CATHAL OG MAC MAGHNUSA: HIS TIME, LIFE AND LEGACY

by Nollaig O Muraile

This year has seen fitting commemoration, both in his native place and further afield, of a man who was arguably the single most celebrated individual in the history of the great Fermanagh family of McManus over the past seven centuries or so: Cathal Og Mac Maghnusa, principal compiler of the Annals of Ulster. In Fermanagh in mid-August the McManus Clan Association brought together a large number of people from home and abroad to hear lectures on Cathal g and his work,’ to see the launch of a new edition of a study of Cathal Og by the late Fr Aubrey Gwynn, SJ (first published in the pages of this journal),’ and to witness the unveiling of a dignified stone memorial on Belleisle- near where Cathal g lived and where his Annals may have been compiled-and of a plaque in St Michael’s parish church, Enniskillen (Regrettably, while the ceremony on Belleisle was in progress on that sunny Saturday afternoon, I5 August, word began to filter through of the horrific bomb-explosion in Omagh.)

The weekend also coincided with the appearance of a reprint of a century-old edition of the work with which Cathal Og’s name will always be indissolubly linked, the Annals of Ulster.

This four-volume work, in its handsome blue and gold cover and slip-case and containing a lengthy new introduction and illustrations which did not appear in the original edition, was launched alongside the reissue of Fr Gwynn’s book- let in the Ardhowen Theatre, Enniskillen, just prior to the unveiling on Belleisle.'

I am conscious that crediting Cathal Og with being the greatest McManus in more than seven centuries is almost bound to spark a search for other likely contenders for the title; in this instance, one might advance the claims of, say, the Fenian Terence Bellew McManus (1823-60) or the Donegal writer Seumas McManus (c. 1870-1960) or the famous short-story writer Francis McManus (1909-65) -to name only people who are safely dead! However, in support of the view that the claims of Cathal Ög are pretty secure, one need merely adduce the significant fact that his name is still remem- bered and his work survives, as important as ever, after all of five hundred years. And, following the recent commemorations, his name and fame are likely to be even more widely known.

A reading of the little book Cathal Ög Mac Maghnusa and the Annals of Ulster, which the Clan Association has recently produced (including my Introduction and Notes, pp. 1-25, 53-61), as well as my Introduction to Eamonn de Búrca’s reprint of the Annals of Ulster, will–I make bold to say–tell one a good deal of what there is

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Citation

• Muraíle, Nollaig O. “Cathal Óg Mac Maghnusa: His Time, Life and Legacy.” Clogher Record, vol. 16, no. 2, Clogher Historical Society, 1998, pp. 45–64, https://doi.org/10.2307/20641349.