A Compendium of Irish Biography/Cailte MacRonain

by Alfred Webb

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Cailte MacRonain, one of the heroes of Fenian romance in the 3rd century, the beloved friend and follower of Finn MacCumhaill. His name appears on almost every page of many of the Fenian tales; yet we are told little definite concerning him. He was one of the "ancient men," fabled to have survived until the time of St. Patrick, and to have communicated to the Saint particulars concerning the heroes of Irish romance, and to have complained bitterly of the change from the glories of the past; as in "the Lamentation of Oisin after the Fenians," in The Transactions of the Ossianic Society:

"I am without mirth, without the chase, without music,
     Amidst the monks and clerics;
     Ever groaning and tearfully weeping,
     Begging the shelter of the mean clergy.
****"Oft have I seen one feast alone
     In the dwelling of the King of the Fenians,
     Better than all that Patrick ever had
     Or the whole body of the psalm-clerics."

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Authorities

1. O'Curry, Eugene: Manuscript Materials of Ancient Irish History. Dublin, 1861.
2. Ossianic Society Transactions for 1855. Dublin, 1857.