Lebór gabála eirenn and The Book of Settlements

Donnchadh Ó Corráin, professor of history at University of Cork, Ireland University of Iceland and the National Museum of Iceland
August 23rd 2009, Sunday

In honour of Professor Jon Johannesson's 100th anniversary.

Donnchadh Ó Corráin's lecture was the first of four that day.  The main reason I attended was to listen to what Ó Corráin had to say.  The title of his paper was interesting to me as a scholar of Irish material and because of my interest in early Icelandic material as well.  This was a great combination of both my worlds.
The only sad thing was that out of all those that attended none seemed to have a clear understanding of what Lebór gabála Eirenn is which lessened the impact of what he was saying.  Sadly my brain was not functioning at it's optimum and I lost the chance to pose an interesting question to him at the end of his talk and sadly no one else felt the need to bombard him with questions although there was scope for them.

His talk was centered on a comparing and contrasting the differences and the similarities between the LGE and the Book of Settlements.  Drawing on the idea of ethnogenesis and how myth, landscape an genealogy can influence the creation of a national identity.  He set out with the idea that the LGE is pure invention in terms of origin legend while the BofS was a model of ethnogenesis at work.  He drew on a range of sources both Irish and Icelandic in his discussion and drew up a very intriguing theory regarding the origin legend of both Ireland and Iceland.

After the talk I was fortunate enough to meet with him and although I would have wanted to discuss many things with him, I unfortunately was not given the chance.  Aside from me there was another man, a senior scholar in Iceland, who joined the party and subsequently dominated the discussion and who completely ignored me.  Ó Corráin, being a gentleman, tried his best to include me in their discussion but he was unsuccessful due to said scholar.  I had been lucky enough to introduce myself and tell him what I was working on and at least I was fortunate enough to have met him.  I just hope I have the chance to do so at a better opportunity in the future.