Above : Picture From Fenian Cycle

Although from this period, as from the preceding one, no manuscripts have been preserved, it occupies, nevertheless, a prominent position in Irish literature, one even more important than that occupied by the earlier era. It is the period in which occurred the events around which are woven all the stories of two of the three great cycles of Irish Literature. The preceding period was that of the ” Mythological Cycle ” ; the present one is that of the ” Red Branch Cycle,” and the ” Fenian Cycle.” The stories which have been grouped into those cycles were produced, in the form in which they have come down to us, in times much later ; but as the latter two deal with the characters and events of this period, it is appropriate to refer to them here.

Above : Irish Literature

There are many passages in ancient writings proving beyond question that there was some form of written literature in Ireland before the advent of Christianity. In the oldest native literature it is expressly stated that the pagan Irish had books and the statement is corroborated by an external writer - a “Christian philosopher and traveller” of the fourth century, named Ethicus of Istria who, in a work he calls his ” Topography,” tells us that in the course of his travels he crossed over from Spain to Ireland, where he spent some time examining the books written by the native Irish scholars. This was at least a century before the arrival of St. Patrick. Several circumstances indicate a state of literary activity at the time of St. Patrick, who, on his arrival in the country, found literary and professional men Druids, poets, and antiquarians.