Annals of Clonmacnoise

[2] Robert Anthony Welch also stated that while it records history from the earliest times up to 1408, the original manuscript has been lost and it survives in an English translation that dates from 1627.

Mag Eochagáin dedicated this translation to his brother-in-law, Toirdhealbhach Mac Cochláin, whose family was among the last to uphold and practice native Irish Gaelic customs.

The original manuscript of Mag Eochagáin's translation is lost, but there are several copies of it in both the Library of Trinity College and in the British Museum.

However, the Annals do give special prominence to the history of the parts of the country on both sides of the River Shannon at Clonmacnoise and to the families inhabiting the areas of Uí Maine (Hy Many) surrounding them, namely O'Kellys, O'Rourkes, O'Molloys, O'Connors and McDermotts.

Such scholars include Prof David Dumville who has bemoaned the "poor textual condition of the Annals of Clonmacnoise and the lack of adequate modern criticism of that text".