The backbone of historical accounts of Ireland, Scotland and Wales to the 12th century is provided by annalistic texts which are related to one another in varying ways. This volume seeks to provide a series of models for the investigation of these Celtic annalistic texts.

Kathryn Grabowski carries out a complete text-historical analysis of these southern Irish annals for the years 431-1092, establishing their relationships to the other annal-collections, separating the several strata of which they are composed, and judging the relative historical value of these sources. David Dumville studies the major source, the `Clonmacnoise Chronicle', to determine an outline-history of the sources and subsequent development of this chronicle. Text-historical study of this kind allows interrelationships to be charted with precision, and the historical value of the texts to be estimated with a greater degree of confidence.