This work by Brendan Halligan is comprised of four essays that explore areas of early Irish society and Old Irish, and were written as part of the author's undergraduate studies in Trinity College Dublin. The pieces cover four main themes: the beginnings of writing in Old Irish; an examination of the old Irish Wisdom Texts , or advice on the appropriate mores and ethics of the old Gaelic hierarchy; status in early Irish society with particular attention paid to its “hierarchical, inegalitarian and aristocratic” nature; and finally an examination of the controversy over dating The Ulster Cycle .