But if original literature is absent, we have still remaining important books compiled during this period. Mostly the work of trained scholars in whose families were continued from generation to generation the traditions of Gaelic culture, they were carefully preserved either by those families of scholars or by the chiefs to whom they were attached. Unlike the ” Books ” of earlier times, they are not the productions of monks preserved in the monasteries in which they were compiled, but are the careful and painstaking work of lay professional scholars and historians.
 All of them relate to the past, and they fall into two groups—the first, annals pure and simple, and historical tracts, and the second, general collections of extracts from and copies of older writings. They are all of the greatest importance in explaining the relations between the great clans of early Ireland.
Of the annals compiled at this time, the most important are the ” Annals of Ulster,” the work of Cathal Maguire, Dean of Clogher, and compiled by him in the island of Senaid Mac Manus (now ” Belleisle “) in Lough Erne. The original compiler died in 1498, but the annals were afterwards brought down to the year 1541.

In modern print, with translation and notes, they fill three large volumes. At an earlier date the ” Annals of Clonmacnoise” were probably compiled as they come down to the year 1408. The original Irish version of these annals has been lost, but a translation made in 1627 by Connell Mac Geoghegan has been published.