About the editors

Máire Black (née Máire Ní Charra) was born in Co. Tipperary, and grew up in Galway. She was drawn to the 1467 ms partly through her interest in family genealogy, but mainly because from the age of four she learned at school to read and write precisely the kind of script used by Dubhghall Albanach (without contractions) as a normal part of everyday writing alongside English copperplate. This Celtic script is now regrettably no longer used for everyday writing in Ireland. Máire has also provided the technical expertise for this project.

Ronnie Black (Raghnall MacilleDhuibh) was born in Glasgow. He married Máire while he was at the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies in 1972. From 1973 to 1979 he was cataloguer of Gaelic manuscripts in the National Library of Scotland. From 1979 to 2001 he was a lecturer in Celtic in Glasgow and Edinburgh universities. He is now an Honorary Fellow of the Department of Celtic and Scottish Studies in the University of Edinburgh. He is author or editor of numerous books, the latest being The Campbells of the Ark (2017). He is currently running the Dewar Project, which aims to publish a transcription and translation of the Dewar MSS, ten volumes of Gaelic oral history stretching back to the Middle Ages and collected by John Dewar in 1862–72.