Seanchaidhé (pronounced "shanachy").—It means, in this case, strictly a historian; but the ancient historian was also a bard or poet.
Privileges.—We can scarcely help requesting the special attention of the reader to these well-authenticated facts. A nation which had so high an appreciation of its annals, must have been many degrees removed from barbarism for centuries.
Before.—O'Curry, p. 240.
Before.—This, of course, opens up the question as to whether the Irish Celts had a written literature before the arrival of St. Patrick. The subject will be fully entertained later on.