SOURCE: "Early Irish Ideology and the Concept of Unity," in The Irish Mind& Exploring Intellectual Traditions, edited by Richard Kearney, Wolfhound Press, 1985, pp. 56-78.

In the following essay, MacCana searches the pre-Christian Druidic culture of Ireland for sources of the modern ideal of unity.

Sometime in the second half of the twelfth century one of the scribes of the Book of Leinster recorded there a recension of Táin Bó Cuailnge "The Cattle-raid of Cuailnge" that had been compiled earlier in the same century. And having copied the long heroic narrative of the Thin he went on to copy the hortatory tail-piece which, in one form or another, was a familiar feature of learned Irish storytelling—as it had once been of ancient Indian storytelling:

A blessing on everyone who shall faithfully memorize the Tain as it is written here and shall not add any other form to...