In 1660, the majority of the population spoke Irish, and of that majority most were not literate and left little written trace. As a result, they have generally been ignored by historians, notably in relation to the law. It has been argued that ignoring the Irish language ‘consigned the bulk of the Irish people to the role of non-speaking extras in the historiography’. Chapter 3 therefore is an important part of this book and examines Irish-language sources to establish the nature of Gaelic engagement with the law. Virtually the only way of tapping into seventeenth-century Irish opinion is through poetry in Irish, and the most representative poet of the period was Dáibhí Ó Bruadair. It can certainly be questioned how typical the Gaelic poets were of the Irish-speaking majority population and Ó Bruadair might cavil at being considered representative. While his haughty disdain was diagnostic of his poetic calling, he ended his days among the common people in abject poverty. Ó Bruadair made no claim to be a spokesman but his impulse to express himself in Irish reflects his profound understanding of Gaelic-speaking Ireland. Other poets writing in Irish are considered in this chapter and provide greater context before and after the Restoration. The chapter also engages with some works in prose and methodological points in respect of Irish-language sources.