by Bernadette Cunningham
The published Annals of the Four Masters (1851) drew their authority from the authenticity of their connection to the late medieval Gaelic manuscript tradition, and it was this that allowed them to form part of the cultural roots of modern Irish identity. For cultural historians and antiquarians, the Annals of the Four Masters were a bridge between an old world and a new one. The work came to be seen as one of the enduring achievements of native Irish scholars before the disappearance of the Gaelic world.
Though the Annals themselves had ended with stories of defeat and loss, ultimately the way the story of the Four Masters has been remembered in later generations is quite different. It is about triumph over adversity, and in the Irish mind, as universally, that may be the sweetest form of success.
