''Muirbretha'' (

Old Irish Old Irish, also called Old Gaelic (, Ogham, Ogham script: ᚌᚑᚔᚇᚓᚂᚉ; ; ; or ), is the oldest form of the Goidelic languages, Goidelic/Gaelic language for which there are extensive written texts. It was used from 600 to 900. The ...

for "Sea-judgements") is a fragmentarily preserved early Irish legal text dealing with

maritime law Maritime law or admiralty law is a body of law that governs nautical issues and private maritime disputes. Admiralty law consists of both domestic law on maritime activities, and private international law governing the relationships between pri ...

, especially the law of shipwrecks. It is the 38th text in the '' Senchas Már''.

Manuscripts

''Muirbretha'' is preserved only in fragments. Charlene Eska lists five manuscript sources (given

sigla Scribal abbreviations, or sigla (grammatical number, singular: siglum), are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek language, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern Textua ...

A–E; mostly from collections of unattributed legal excerpts, but including C, an excerpt from '' Bretha Éitgid'') as well as a number of quotations from

O'Davoren's Glossary O'Davoren's Glossary is an early modern glossary of Old Irish terms, many of which are legal in nature. The glossary is important for its well-preserved quotations from early Irish legal texts (which would otherwise have been lost or preserved on ...

. These fragments are accompanied by glosses and commentaries, which help us understand more about the nature of early Irish maritime law. The title for this tract is given in

Cormac's Glossary ''Sanas Cormaic'' (; or ''Sanas Chormaic'', Irish for "Cormac's narrative"), also known as ''Cormac's Glossary'', is an early Irish glossary containing etymologies and explanations of over 1,400 Irish words, many of which are difficult or outda ...

and ''

Cethairṡlicht Athgabálae ''Cethairṡlicht Athgabálae'' or ''Di Chetharṡlicht Athgabálae'' (Old Irish for "The four paths of distraint") is an early Irish legal tract dealing with distraint, i.e., the seizure of property in order to receive money owed. It is the 2nd ...

''.

''Muirbretha'' is our main source for early Irish maritime law. It is the 38th text of the collection of legal texts called the ''Senchas Már'', placed in the final third of that collection. The compilation of the ''Senchas Már'' is generally dated between the late 7th and early 8th century CE. The manuscript fragments of the ''Muirbretha'' deal with the duty to report

shipwreck A shipwreck is the wreckage of a ship that is located either beached on land or sunken to the bottom of a body of water. It results from the event of ''shipwrecking'', which may be intentional or unintentional. There were approximately thre ...

s (A); the sources of revenue from the king's coastal lands (B); the law of property lost through shipwrecks, including the various percentages of the property's value due to the finder, to the original owner, and to various other parties, depending on the situation (C, D, and E). The surviving portions of the ''Muirbretha'' deal entirely with maritime law as it relates to land. No fragment deals with the law governing the relations between merchants and shippers, or the law on board ships. The amount of attention paid to the law of shipwrecks reflects the considerable risk involved in shipping in early Ireland.

Fergus Kelly Fergus Kelly is an academic at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. His research interests centre on early Irish law-texts and wisdom-texts. He graduated in 1967 in Early and Modern Irish from Trinity College Dublin. He spent a year in th ...

suggests that a section on fishing rights in

estuaries An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environm ...

was among the portions of the ''Muirbretha'' lost, as the existence of a discussion of these rights is mentioned in another early Irish text. Eska has studied the maritime law described here, and especially the law of property lost through shipwrecks. She argues it is "remarkably similar" to that found in medieval Cornish, Welsh, and English legal sources. Jonathan M. Wooding has utilised the "considerable detail on the possible contents of cargoes" contained in the ''Muirbretha'' to study the nature of Continental―Irish commerce in the 6th and 7th centuries.

Manuscripts

Contents

References

Further reading