Senchán Torpéist

Senchán Torpéist (early 7th cent.?), poet and scholar. A few verses relating to Leinster genealogical tradition, apparently early, are attributed to him: one of these is said to derive from the ‘Cocangab Már’ (the great compilation), evidently a collection of lore for which Senchán was held to be responsible. From the late ninth century onwards, various tales portray Senchán as the chief poet of Ireland in his time; he often appears as an arrogant, demanding figure. He is closely associated with Guaire Aidni (qv), king of Connacht, and is credited with retrieving the epic ‘Táin Bó Cuailnge’ from oblivion. Several of these stories were brought together and satirically embellished in the late Middle Irish tale ‘Tromdám Guaire’.

No serious doubt seems ever to have been expressed regarding Senchán's historicity; even the tradition regarding his crucial role in the recording of the ‘Táin’ has been taken seriously by eminent scholars. The most ambitious attempt to reconstruct his career has been that of James Carney (qv), who tentatively identified him with one Senchán son of Uarchride, belonging to the population-group of the Araid in Munster, and proposed that he produced the ‘Cocangab Már’ around the year 630. Carney held that Senchán, besides being responsible for the earliest prototype of the ‘Táin’, assembled and edited the oldest stratum of material in the genealogical corpus, and perhaps indeed invented the doctrine that all of the Irish are descended from the artificial ancestor-figure Míl Espáine; Carney also considered the possibility that Senchán played a part in the transmission of material relating to Find son of Cumall (qv).