The myriad reconstructions of a figure of King Arthur, whether defined by literary works and/or situated in a historical context, have been one of the great distractions of British medieval cultural historians. Arthur never figured in medieval Irish tradition in any significant way; indeed, it is precisely because whatever traces may be recovered of an Arthurian tradition in Ireland are presumed to carry for an Irish scene none of the same configurations, developments and cultural concerns as in Britain, that these Arthurian markers have never been seriously revised or considered. For reasons that are as much political as historical, Arthur is only of minor interest to Irish scholars and a study of Irish Arthuriana will be presumed to yield no insights for the course of Ireland's own distinctive cultural or political history. Although Irish scholars may easily dismiss Irish references to the British hero – the material is, after all, thin – the fact remains, however, that scholars of British history may not so quickly ignore them. I am reminded rather forcibly how all too easy it is to forget the Irish dimension when a truly masterful study of the early British tradition appears and has every appearance from its exhaustive thoroughness of being held for some time to come as the last word on the subject. I refer of course to Higham's recent volume on Arthur. One look at the generous number of distribution maps in this work shows a Britain of splendid isolation in relation to which not even a bare outline of the Irish east coast is allowed to intrude.