The court · Kelly’s account of contracts, citing Tecosca Cormaic §19 and a legal commentary, law-texts of the 7th and 8th centuries
The Bargain Made in Drink
A man sells his best mare at a feast, while drunk. Is the sale binding?
Basis. Rests on Kelly’s account of the law, not on the Old Irish text itself. Open questions are set out below.
Topics: Debt.
The scene Our telling
The feast at Cenn Locha had gone on past midnight. Muirchertach had told everyone how fine his grey mare was, and Lugaid had said that he would buy her. A price was named, loudly, and agreed with a slap of hands. Someone filled the cups again.
In the morning Muirchertach woke with a sore head and Lugaid at the door with a halter in his hand. The grey mare stood in the yard behind him, as calm as ever. Neither man could quite look at the other.
The law
From the lawA contract made when either party was drunk was normally invalid.
GlossA legal commentary defines drunkenness as not being able to remember the previous night’s events in the morning.
From the lawThere were exceptions. A contract about joint ploughing, clientship or the law of neighbourhood was valid even though it was made in drink.
From the lawOther states made a contract invalid too. A contract made in fear was invalid, and so was a contract with a person of unsound mind.
From the lawDrink did not excuse a crime. Kelly found no evidence that a killing or an injury done by a drunk person was treated more leniently than one done sober.
Weigh it
Is the sale of the mare binding?
The commentary
Scholars sayTecosca Cormaic, a text of advice, tells its hearer not to buy from a drunk. Kelly cites it beside the rule on contracts. It is a saying and not a law, and it shows the same idea.
Where we are not sure
Scholars sayKelly does not say how a court decided whether a person had been drunk enough, or how the commentary’s test could be applied. The test is a later commentator’s, not the law-text’s.
Where this comes from
- Fergus Kelly, A Guide to Early Irish Law (1988), on contracts and on mental and physical stress, citing Tecosca Cormaic §19 and the commentary at CIH 2159.27.
- We have read Kelly’s account, not the Old Irish text.
Last checked against these books: 2026-10-05. How we read our sources · Corrections