[citation needed] Genealogy had at first served a purely serious purpose in determining the legal rights of related individuals to land and goods.
The transmission of this body of lore (Irish: seanchas) has resulted in detailed knowledge on the origins and history of many of the tribes and families of Ireland.
[citation needed] Over the course of several centuries, an evolving genealogical dogma created by the bardic tradition viewed all Irish as descendants of Míl Espáine.
[citation needed] It was enhanced and embedded in the tradition by successive generations of historians such as Seán Mór Ó Dubhagáin (d. 1372), Gilla Íosa MacFhirbhisigh (fl.
The first Irish historian who questioned the reliability of such accounts was Dubhaltach Mac Fhirbhisigh (d. 1671), whose massive Leabhar na nGenealach included disparate and variant recensions.
Unlike Geoffrey Keating's Foras Feasa ar Éirinn, he did not attempt to synthesize the material into a unified whole, instead recording and transmitting it unaltered.