Irish Bardic Schools

Timeline

1. 1200–1310Ireland · IrelandHereditary poet clans established fixed teaching places under lordly patronage, forming a seven-grade poet hierarchy and strict metrical norms, replacing earlier oral transmission models.
2. 1311–1320Ireland · IrelandAmid wartime turmoil, bardic schools still composed political panegyrics and genealogies for Gaelic lords such as O'Neill and O'Donnell; documents like the 1317 Remonstrance reflect the poet class's discursive role in Gaelic political alliances.
3. 1315–1320Ireland · IrelandStudents studied in school from Michaelmas to March of the following year, memorizing about 350 tales and complex meters; only after twelve years of training could one become an ollamh, receiving a feathered cloak and poet's staff.