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T F O'Rahilly (Early Irish History and Mythology) believes that everything in these lists prior to the time of Niall of the Nine Hostages is fiction. A few of the people named (eg Tuathal Techtmar and Mug Nuadat) may have been historical characters, but even they have been misplaced and provided with bowdlerized reigns.

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Don't place too much faith in O'Rahilly. I still think he's a wonderful writer, but much of his theorys can be challenged. Our job here is simply to transmit the material in the most even-handed manner possible.

For my own part, I am more than willing to believe that many of those listed are fiction, but I would also argue that there are a great many grains of truth within them.

Plus, you have to admit it's pretty cool to have regenal lists going back so far for such a small little island out in the Atlantic! AND they are more extensive than those in Britain! Ha!

If I might suggest a few other sources ... the Annals of the Four Masters, MacFhirbhisigh's wonderful book of genealogies, Francis J. Byrne's "Irish Kings and High Kings", and Bart Janski's book on Irish Kingship.

Fergananim

What source do those dates come from? adamsan 20:32, 13 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I think they're from the Annals of the Four Masters. Different sources give different reign-lengths, so they'll be approximate.--Nicknack009 01:32, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Oh sure, I'm not taking them seriously. Fascinating stuff though. I'm going to slightly rewrite the first sentence as I think it's missing a noun. adamsan 20:12, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I'm going through creating pages for all the High Kings, and noting the different versions of their reign-lengths. When they're all done we should be able to figure out a margin for error. --Nicknack009 22:28, 14 Feb 2005 (UTC)