Ireland Year591 CE
The annals do not present a single uniform picture for 591 CE. In the Ulster, Tigernach, Inisfallen, and Four Masters traditions, notices cluster around deaths, an eclipse or dark morning, and a notice of a beginning of rule. Some entries are printed under 591, while others in the same manuscripts fall under adjacent headings, so the evidence has to be read notice by notice. This account distinguishes the records as written and avoids forcing them into one chronology. It focuses only on what is directly stated in the notices themselves.
Dateline
Annal Year
The Ulster annals place an eclipse notice in U591.1, but the printed heading attached to that notice is AD 590, and the same entry calls it a dark morning. In the same sequence, U592.0 carries printed AD 591 and includes the death of Lugaid of Les Mór, the birth of Cuiméne Fata, another dark morning, and the beginning of the reign of Aed son of Ainmire. These are separate notices, not a single unified statement. [1]
The Tigernach annals also give a notice under Annal T591, where T591.1 records the death of Aognus son of Amalgaid and T591.2 gives a notice about Gregory the Roman, his father Fordian, and his burial in the basilica of blessed Peter the apostle in front of the sacristy. The Four Masters place a different notice under M591.2, where Aedh Cerr, son of Colman, son of Cairbre, king of Leinster, died. The overlapping year headings show different compilations preserving different notices for the same numbered year. [2] [4]
Death Notices
Among the notices that can be read in or around 591, deaths dominate. The Ulster annals list the death of Lugaid of Les Mór in U592.1 and, in the same printed AD 591 sequence, the death of Aengus son of Amalngaid in U593.1. Tigernach likewise records a death in T591.1, naming Aognus son of Amalgaid. These notices agree only in the broad fact of a death notice, not in the exact form of the name. [1] [2]
The Four Masters preserve another death notice under M591.2, where Aedh Cerr, son of Colman, son of Cairbre, king of Leinster, died. That compilation places the notice in an AD 591 heading, but it does not match the Ulster or Tigernach names for the same numbered year. Annalistic evidence for this year therefore consists of several separate death notices, not one shared record. [4]
Rule Notice
The clearest notice of political succession in the Ulster annals appears in U592.4, printed under AD 591, where the beginning of the reign of Aed son of Ainmire is recorded. The same passage follows the death of Lugaid of Les Mór, the birth of Cuiméne Fata, and the dark morning. Nothing in that entry explains the succession beyond the bare statement that the reign began. [1]
No corresponding succession notice appears in the Tigernach passage for Annal T591. Instead, that entry pair records a death and a notice about Gregory. The difference is important at the level of the manuscripts: one compilation marks the beginning of a reign in the AD 591 sequence, while another does not do so in the corresponding year-headed notice. [1] [2]
Astral Signs
Astral and atmospheric signs are also present in the notices around this year. In the Ulster annals, U591.1 states that an eclipse of the sun occurred, glossed as a dark morning, while U592.3 again notes a dark morning in the printed AD 591 sequence. The Tigernach annals have a similar observation in T589.1, where the failure of the sun is described as a dark morning, showing that this kind of notice appears in more than one year heading in the corpus. [1] [2]
Inisfallen also preserves a comparable sign in AI594.1, where there is an eclipse of the sun in the morning, and the annal adds cross-reference brackets to Ulster notices. That entry is not printed as 591 in the Inisfallen sequence, so it should not be moved into that year. Its value here is comparative: it shows that later or parallel compilations could preserve the same kind of phenomenon with different annal placement. [3]
Comparative Texts
The Inisfallen compiler’s cross-references show selective alignment with Ulster, but not uniform agreement. AI595.2 refers to the slaying of Gerthide and brackets AU 594, while AI596.1 records the slaying of Senchán, son of Colmán Mór, with a cross-reference to CS 593, and AI597.1 records the repose of Colum Cille with cross-references to AU 595 and 601. These are nearby notices, not 591 notices, but they show the method of the compilation in attaching references while preserving its own sequence. [3]
The same pattern of comparison appears in the Four Masters, where an AD 591 heading contains a kingly death, while nearby entries in that compilation move on to other years and other notices. Read together with Ulster and Tigernach, the evidence for 591 CE is therefore a set of short, discrete notices: deaths, an eclipse or dark morning, and one recorded beginning of rule. The sources do not provide a single continuous narrative for the year. [1] [2] [4]
Year Limits
The notices also make clear what cannot safely be done with them. U591.1 in Ulster has an eclipse notice under AD 590, while U592.0 carries AD 591 with several short notices, so the manuscript sequence itself warns against treating the identifier as a modern year label. Tigernach likewise places some adjacent material under Annal T591 and some under surrounding annals. The year must therefore be handled as a textual placement, not as a single fixed calendar grid. [1] [2]
For 591 CE specifically, the surviving notices in these excerpts support only limited statements: a death of Aognus or Aengus son of Amalgaid, the death of Aedh Cerr in the Four Masters, and an Ulster notice of the beginning of Aed son of Ainmire’s reign. They also preserve a solar or atmospheric sign in the surrounding annals. Beyond that, these passages do not themselves justify a fuller narrative of events in Ireland for the year. [1] [2] [4]
Source References
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