Welsh influence on various aspects of medieval Irish life can be glimpsed occasionally in the extant sources, its precise nature, however, is difficult to assess. It can be detected in the formation of Ireland’s particular brand of Christianity, in which British ecclesiastics, exemplified by Patrick, played a primary role. Moreover, communities termed Gailinne na mBretan and Dermag Britonum (of the Britons) may point to religious establishments founded and perhaps run by British monks, though how long these were likely to have remained British in any real sense is a matter for debate. In any event, individual Britons continued to occupy pivotal positions in the Irish Church for a considerable period if the designation Britt (the Briton) applied to Aedgen, bishop of Kildare who died in 864, is to be believed. In addition, an interest in the Welsh
Church is revealed by the inclusion of St. David in Felire Oengusso (The Calendar of Oengus), a ninth-century metrical list of mainly Irish saints. That the interest was mutual is underlined by the extended stay in Ireland of Sulien, an eleventh-century bishop of the foundation to which St. David gave his name, whose thirteen-year study trip abroad was motivated by the wondrous wisdom of the Irish, according to his son, Ieuan. In actual fact, such scholarly sabbaticals on both sides of the Irish Sea may not have been unusual. The eighth-/ninth-century Juvencus manuscript with its mixture of Old Irish and Welsh glosses bears witness to active cooperation between Irishmen and Britons in one particular scriptorium. Irish scholars also formed part of the group of intellectuals patronized by the successive kings of Gwynedd, Merfyn Frych and his son, Rhodri Mawr, and we may suspect that manuscripts regularly found their way to and fro across the Irish Sea. Thus may the author of Sanas Cormaic (Cormac’s Glossary), possibly the ninth-century king-bishop of Cashel, Cormac mac Cuilennain, have acquired his Welsh, considerable use of which is made in his Glossary. This degree of knowledge of the neighboring culture, however, is likely to have been the exception rather than the rule.
Ecclesiastical and cultural connections of this nature are mirrored in the political sphere. The presence of a considerable body of Irish settlers in Dyfed as early as the sixth century, as manifested most tangibly in the ogam inscriptions they left behind, provided their kinsmen at home with a gateway through which all manner of ideas and influences might emerge. Indeed it was via this channel that the Irish acquired a name for themselves and for their language, Gotdel (Irishman) and Gotdelc (Irish) being borrowings from Welsh Gwyddel and Gwyddeleg, respectively. This Irish power base in South Wales did not survive; later centuries, however, saw both Irish and Ostmen kings seeking to involve themselves in the affairs of their nearest neighbor. The eleventh-century king, Diarmait mac Mail na mBo, is described as king of Wales, no less, in his death notice in the Annals of Tigernach, and while the claim may have no basis in fact it points to intensive involvement with Wales on the part of the Leinster ruler. Nor was such political trafficking all one-way. Among the Welsh rulers to have a close association with Ireland was Cynan ab Iago, whose son Gruffudd, by the daughter of the Hiberno-Norse king of Dublin, grew up in Swords and drew extensively on Irish assistance in his attempt to regain his Gwynedd patrimony. His name and those of other leading Welshmen are recorded in the Irish chronicles, ample testimony that they formed a significant presence in the Irish political scene.
It need not surprise us that literary reflexes of these links have also survived. The Welsh prose tale, Branwen uerch Lyr (Branwen, daughter of Llyr) has as its starting point a marriage alliance between Branwen, sister of the Welsh king Bendigeidfran, and his Irish counterpart, Matholwch. An alliance of a different kind with the war leader Ingcel, mac rig Bretan (son of the king of the Britons) forms the core of the Irish narrative Togail Bruidne Da Derga (The Destruction of Da Derga’s Hostel). Ecclesiastical intercourse is a commonplace motif in the Lives of a number of Welsh and Irish saints, and while textual borrowing may explain the resemblances in some instances, both hagiographical cultures could well reflect independently contacts taking place on the ground. In the same way, we would do well to assess carefully the perceived similarities between both literatures, recognizing that while ample opportunity for borrowing may have arisen, the two textual traditions are ultimately the product of two distinct societies, however intertwined.
