Abstract The social roles of women form the broad focus of this paper. An attempt is made to use what we know about particular aspects of medieval Irish society (especially concerning the status of women, the role of fosterage and the position of the banḟili and of other female types of versifier) from various sources, mainly legal, to give a suggested context to a possibly fictional figure from Cath Cairn Chonaill . This is a significant, if somewhat overlooked, prosimetric tract from medieval Ireland. The approach employed sheds light on the character of Sinech Cró, who is a central figure in the text, and makes the case for her historical plausibility. A deeper appreciation of how Sinech might have been viewed by a contemporary audience will help enhance our comprehension of Cath Cairn Chonaill today, giving us a more rounded overall understanding of the text.
Aogán Ó. Hiarlaithe (Wed,) studied this question.