The Seifín Duanaire, page 136

The Library of Trinity College Dublin contains several books that once formed part of the libraries of Bardic schools, including copies of some of the Grammatical and Metrical Tracts, reference works on various aspects of the poet’s craft. The manuscript pictured here, TCD MS 1363 (formerly H.4.22) is sometimes called ‘The Seifín Duanaire' (or Poem-book’ after one of the poets whose work is represented in the collection. It was written towards the end of the 16th century by a scribe named Tanaidhe Ó Maoil Chonaire for a branch of the Ó Duibhgeannáin family of poet-historians. It is a collection of poems in the metrical form known as brúilingeacht and was probably intended to be a reader or primer for trainee poet-historians. The poems are mostly of 15th-century date and are valuable historical sources for contemporary castle-building, politics and warfare.