treatment while they stayed, notwithstanding any provocation their sharp tongues afforded. On the other hand, there were two ways in which their host might be absolved from further obligations. A member of the household might defeat them in a contest of wit (bearradaireachd, gearradh cainnte), when, as they were worsted on their own ground, honour forbade their further stay. Or, again, they might demand something very difficult of attainment as the reward of their professional services, and they left when this demand was duly complied with. So much may be gathered from present tradition.
The name of Cliar Sheanchain thus applied is of very ancient origin. Senchan, distinguished from others of that name as Senchan Torpeist, was chief ollamh of Ireland about 600 A.D., in succession to the famous blind bard, Dallan Forgaill. In Dallan’s time was held the great convention of Drumceatt in 575, at which one of the principal subjects discussed was the banishment of the poets from Ireland on account of their burdensomeness, arising from their right to exact coinmed or refection from the tribes on behalf of themselves and their retinue.[1] Through the intervention of St. Columba, the poets were restored, though the size of their retinue was somewhat reduced, a service commemorated by Dallan in his Amra Columcille, Praise of Columba. Dallan’s successor, Senchan, made his first bardic visitation to the court of Guaire Aidhne, king of Connaught, reputed the most hospitable prince of all Ireland, and in connection with this visit was composed a satirical account, written in a style of mock gravity, of the unreasonable proceedings and demands of Senchan and his Cliar. This satire, entitled Imtheacht na Trom-dháimhe, the Progress of the Grievous Bardic Company, must have been immensely popular. A version of it, in fairly modern Irish, with translation, appears in the Transactions of the Ossianic Society, vol. v.
It is unnecessary to recount the various wishes with which the caprices of the Cliar vexed the hospitable Guaire,
- ↑ Cf. Skene, ii. 124.
