/ a tng ^^Otttiftgmcn in ^^titcvtcrt, ^^^^^ LTHOUGH I have already offered my thanks to my countrymen in America, for the cordiality with which they have received the "Illustrated History of Ireland," I cannot refrain from ad- dressing a few words specially to them, and expressing my gratitude to the \ editors of the Catholic papers and serials in that country, who have contributed not a little to the success of the work. The letter which I wrote for publication in those papers, was given to the public with a promptness seldom equalled. The reviews of the History have followed each other rapidly, and have expressed, each and all, their highest approbation of the work. I can now only ask every Irishman and every Irishwoman in America, who can possibly afford it, to procure a volume for themselves, and to read our noble and glorious annals. Ours is a history of which we may justly feel proud ; and I believe there are many 1 ^C\r 2 American men and women, to whom also I desire to extend the hand of friendship, who wiM read this work with as much pleasure as those of my own race and faith. Brave-hearted, long-suffering, noble countrymen, I greet you with a thousand greetings across the wide ocean which separates us from each other ! You have gone forth weeping, but you bore with you the precious seed. It may be that you will never again revisit the peaceful, though often poverty-stricken homes, from whence you have been driven. But it matters not. The Church is the true home of the Catholic, and, above all, of the afficted. Be true to that Church. Be true to your altars, and they will bless and sanctify your homes. Be true to your priests. The Soggarth Aroon, who consoled you in your Irish poverty, goes across the mighty ocean to keep you true to your faith in your American prosperity. The eternal harvest-time may not be so far away : the longest life is short in compari- son of Eternity. Live to be worthy of your country. You ^vill do this best and only by being true to your Faith. Teach your sons and your daughters the history of your fatherland — of its ancient glories ; yes, and of its ancient sorrows, for those sorrows are also its glories, and will be its eternal crown. In conclusion, I shall ask you to make known the letter which I appenHv^as widely as possible ; it wiU explain itself. I have faith in my countrymen, that my request will be sacredly observed. It will be a pleasure 3 to them, when they purchase a volume of the "Illustrated History of Ireland," to know that they are at the same time helping the poor of their native land, and those also, who, though once rich in this world's goods, have be- come poor for Christ's sake. Nearly all the works I have written, and certainly all that I may write here- after, will be forwarded to the Catholic Publication Society; and I hope will obtain as wide a circulation, and as warm an acceptance from Irishmen and Ame- ricans, as the present volume. Letter addressed to the Editors of American Papers friendly to Ireland, Sir, — I write to inform my countrymen in America, through the medium of your paper, that I have written a work on Irish history, which has been published at great expense by the community to which I belong. The illustrations alone have cost a very large sum of money, and involved a heavy outlay. I have written the " Illustrated History of Ireland" for the love of my country and the good of my convent, and of the poor who live in its neighbourhood. It will, therefore, be a very serious loss to us and to them if the book is re- published in America, and sold there without any profit to us. I therefore earnestly request my countrymen, for the love of the old country and for my own sake — as I believe when they read my book they will feel as warmly towards the author as those at home — to order the History exclusively from the Catholic Publication 4 Society, 126, Nassau-street, New York, to whom we supply it ; and though, in consequence of heavy duty and other expenses, our profit is but slight, still I am convinced no true-hearted Irishman would wish to de- prive us of it^ I remain, very respectfully. The Author of the History OF Irelaxd. COSTKRT OP POOK ClASES, KsNVASS, Co. KSBST, Irxulm). i/ay 186a. TO THE EIGHT HONORABLE JUDGE O'HAGAN, AND TO' HIS SISTER MARY, FOUNDRESS ANT) ABBESS OF SAINT CLARE'S CONVENT, KENMARE, THIS VOLUME IS AFFECTIONATELY AND RESPECTFtJLLY DEDICATED FY f fre Sutbor. fist of Jinll-jpage Illustrations, Paps, ETC. PAGE Coloured Title-Page. The Emigrants' Farewell, 32 Specimens op Ancient Irish Manuscripts, 44 St. Patrick going to Tara, 120 King Brian Boroimhe killed by the Viking, . . . .217 Marriage of Eva and Strongbow, 264 Interview between MacMurrough and the Officers of Richard II., . -^BT Interview between Essex A^•D O'Neill, 456 Massacre at Drogheda,^ Ireton condemning the Bishop of Limerick, .... 507 Grattan's Demand for Irish Independence, 590 O'Connell refusing to take the Oath, 647 Ireland and America, 654 Map showing the Localities of the Principal Old Irish Families. Educational Map. * Statistical Map. PHEFACS TO THE SECOND EDITION. DEMAND for a Second Edition of the "Illus- trated History of Ireland," within three months from the date of the publication of the First, consisting of 2,000 copies, is a matter of no little gratification to the writer, both perso- nally and relatively. It is a triumphant proof that Irishmen are not indifferent to Irish his- tory — a fault of which they have been too fre- quently accused ; and as many of the clergy have been most earnest and generous in their efforts to promote the circulation of the work, it is gratifying to be able to adduce this fact also in reply to the imputations, even lately cast upon the ecclesiastics of Ireland, of deficiency in cultivated tastes, and of utter neglect of literature. Nor, as a Catholic and a religious, can I fail to express my respectful gratitude and thankfulness for the warm appro- bation which the work has received from so many dis- tinguished prelates. A few of these approbations will be found at the commencement of the volume — it was impossible to find space for all. It may be, however, well to observe, that several of the English Catholic bishops have not been less kind and earnest in their commendations, though I have not asked their permission to publish their communications. Some extracts are given from the reviews, which also are necessarily condensed and limited ; and, as the Most Rev. Dr. Derry has observed, the press has been most favorable in its criticisms. Even those who differed from the present writer 4 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. toto coelo, both in religion and politics, have not been less commendatory, and, in some instances, have shoNvn the writer more than ordinary courtesy. Nor shoidd I omit to acknowledge the encouragement which so many gentlemen, both English and Irish, have given to the work, and the assistance they have afforded in promoting its circulation. In a circular, quite recently published in London, and addressed to the members of a society for the republication of English mediaeval literature, gentlemen are called on by the secretary, even at the risk, as he himself admits, of " boring them, by asking them to canvass for orders, like a bookseller's traveller," to assist in obtaining additional subscribers to the series, and he requests every subscriber " to get another at once." I am happy to say that, without such solicitation on our part, many Irish gentlemen have done us this kindness, and have obtained not one, but many orders from their friends. I confidently hope that many more will exert themselves in a similar manner, for the still wider dissemination of the Second Edition. It is a time, beyond all others, when Irish history should be thoroughly known and carefully studied. It is a disgrace to Irishmen not to know their history perfectly, and this with no mere outline view, but completely and in detail. It is very much to be regretted that Irish history is not made a distinct study in schools and colleges, both in England and Ireland. What should be thought of a school where English history was not taught ? and is Irish history of less impor- tance ? I have had very serious letters complaining of this deficiency from the heads of several colleges-, where our history has been introduced as a class-book.* * The Rev. U. Burke, of St. Jarlath's College, Tuam, has a note on this subject, in a work which he is at this moment passing through the press, and which he kindly permits me to publish. He says : " This book [the " Illus- trated History of Ireland"] ought to be in the hands of every young student and of every young Irish maiden attending the convent schools. Oh, for ten thousand Irish ladies knowing the history of Ireland ! How few know any- thing of it ! The present volume, by Sister Francis Clare, is an atoning sacri- fice for this sin of neglect." I am aware that the price of the "Illustrated History of Ireland," even in its present form, although it is offered at a sacrifice which no bookseller would make, is an obstacle to its extensive use as a school history. We purpose. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITTOX. 5 There are some few Irish Catholics who appear to think that Irishmen should not study their history — some because they imagine that our history is a painful subject ; others, because they imagine that its record of wrongs cannot fail to excite violent feelings, which may lead to violent deeds. I cannot for one moment admit that our history is either so very sorrow- ful, or that we have cause to do anything but rejoice in it. If we consider temporal prosperity to be the summum honum of our existence, no doubt we may say with truth, like the Apostle, that of all peoples we are " most miserable ;" but we have again and again renounced temporal advantages, and dis- carded temporal prosperity, to secure eternal gain ; and we have the promise of the Eternal Truth that we shall attain all that we have desired. Our history, then, far from being a history of failures, has been a history of the most triumphant success — of the most brilliant victories. I believe the Irish are the only nation on earth of whom it can be truly said that they have never apostatized nationally. Even the most Catholic countries of the Continent have had their periods of religious revolution, however temporary. Ireland has been deluged with blood again and again ; she has been defeated in a temporal point of view again and again ; but spiritually — NEVER ! Is this a history to be ashamed of? Is this a history to regret ? Is this a history to lament ? Is it not rather a history over which the angels in heaven rejoice, and of which the best, the holiest, and the noblest of the human race may justly be proud ? On the second count, I shall briefly say that if Irish history were taught in our Irish colleges and schools to children while still young, and while the teacher could impress on his charge the duty of forgiveness of enemies, of patient endurance, of however, before long, to publish a history for the use of schools, at a very low price, and yet of a size to admit of sufficient expansion for the purpose. Our countrymen must, however, remember that only a very large number of orders can enable the work to be published as cheaply as it should be. It would save immense trouble and expense, if priests, managers of schools, and the heads of colleges, would send orders for a certain number of copies at once. If every priest, convent, and college, ordered twelve copies for their schools, the work could be put in hands immediately. 6 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. the mighty power of moral force, which has effected even for Ireland at times what more violent measures have failed to accomplish, then there could be no danger in the study. Per- haps the greatest human preservative of the faith, for those whose lot may be cast hereafter in other lands, would be to inculcate a great reverence for our history, and a t-rue appre- ciation of iis value. The taunt of belonging to a despised nation, has led many a youth of brilliant promise to feel ashamed of his country, and almost inevitably to feel ashamed of his faith. A properly directed study of Irish history would tend much to remove this danger. During the debate on the Irish Church question, Mr. Maguire, M.P. for Cork, significantly remarked on the effect produced by the "deliberate exclusion" of any instruction in Irish history from National schools. It does seem curious that national history should be a forbidden subject in National schools, and this fact makes the appellation of " National " seem rather a misnomer. The result of this deliberate exclusion was graphically described by the honor- able member. The youth comes forth educated, and at a most] impressible age he reads for the first time the history of his country, and burns with indignant desire to avenge her many wrongs. The consequences are patent to all. It is, then, for the advantage of England, as well as of Ireland, that Irish history should be made the earliest study of Irish youth ; nor is it of less importance that Irish history should be thoroughly known by Englishmen. It is the duty of every Englishman who has a vote to give, to make himself acquainted with the subjects on which his representative will give, in his name, that final decision which makes his political opinion the law of the land. I suppose no one will deny that the Irish Question is the question of the day. The prosperity of Eng- land, as well as the prosperity of Ireland, is involved in it. No educated man, however humble his station, has a right to assist in returning a member to Parliament without clearly comprehending the principles of his representative. But unless he has some comprehension of the principles themselves, it is of Uttle use for him to record his vote. I do not say that every English voter is bound to study Irish history in detail, but I do say that, at the present day, he is bound to know what the PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. 7 Irish themselves demand from England ; and if he considers their demands reasonable, he should record his vote only for those who will do their utmost to obtain the concessions de- manded. A man is unworthy of the privilege of voting, if he is deficient either in the intellect or the inclination to under- stand the subject on which he votes. But it is of still more importance that members of Parlia- ment should read — and not only read, but carefully study — the history of Ireland. Irishmen have a right to demand that they shall do so. If they undertake to legislate for us, they are bound in conscience and in honour to know what we re- quire, to know our past and our present -state. Englishmen pride themselves on their honour ; but it is neither honorable to undertake to govern without a thorough knowledge of the governed, or to misrepresent their circumstances to others whose influence may decide their future. It was manifest from the speech of her Majesty's minister, on the night of the all-important division on the Irish Church question, that he either had not studied Irish history, or that he had forgotten its details. If his statements are correctly reported by the press, they are inconceivably wild. It may be said that the circumstances in which he found himself obliged him to speak as he did, but is this an excuse worthy of such an honorable position ? The Normans, he is reported to have said, conquered the land in Ireland, but in England they conquered completely. The most cursory acquaintance with Irish history would have informed the right honorable gentleman, that the Normans did not conquer the land in Ireland — no man has as yet been rash enough to assert that they conquered the people. The Normans obtained possession of a small portion, a very small portion of Irish land ; and if the reader will glance at the map of the Pale, which will be appended to this edition, at the proper place, he will see precisely what extent of country the English held for a few hundred years. Even that portion they could scarcely have been said to have conquered, for they barely held it from day to day at the point of the sword. Morally Ireland was never con- quered, for he would be a bold man who dared to say that the Irish people ever submitted nationally to the English Church 8 PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION. established by law. In fact, so rash does the attempt seem even to those who most desire to make it, that they are fain to find refuge and consolation in the supposed introduction of Protestantism into Ireland by St. Patrick, a thousand years and more before that modern phase of religious thought appeared to divide the Christian world. But I deny that Ireland has ever been really conquered ; and even should the most sanguinary suggestions proposed in a nine- teenth-century serial be carried out, I am certain she could not be. Ireland has never been permanently subdued by Dane or Norman, Dutchman or Saxon ; nor has she ever been really united to England. A man is surely not united to a jailer be- cause he is bound to him by an iron chain which his jailer has forged for his safe keeping. This is not union ; and the term " United Kingdom " is in fact a most miserable misnomer. Unity requires something more than a mere material approximation. 1 believe it to be possible that England and Ireland may become united ; and if ever this should be accomplished, let no man for- ^Qi that the first link in the fjolden chain issued from the handd of the riijht honorable member for South Lancashire, when ho proposed equality of government on religious questions — the first step towards that equality of government which alone can effect a maral union of the two countries. It might be trea- sonable to hint that some noble-hearted men, who loved their country not wisely but too well, and who are paying in lifelong anguish the penalty of their patriotism, had anything to do with the formation of this golden chain — so I shall not hint it. I believe the Fenian movement, at one time scouted as a mere ebullition, at another time treated as a dangerous and terrible rebellion, has done at least this one good to England — it has compelled honest and honorable men to inquire each for himself what are the grievances of Ireland, and why she continues disaffected to English rule. For men who are honest and honorable to make such inquiries, is the first step, and a certain step, towards their remedy; and as I glanced down the list of the ayes in the division, I could see the names of men who, in England, have been distinguished during years for their private and public virtues, and who have been lavish in their cha- rities whenever their o"'vn country mrARE, Co. Kerry, 3fai/ St?i, 1868. PREFICE TO THE FIRST EDITION. HE history of the different races who form an integral portion of the British Empire, should be one of the most carefully cultivated studies of every member of that nation. To be igno- rant of our own history, is a disgrace; to be ignorant of the history of those whom we govern, is an injustice. We can neither govern ourselves nor others without a thorough know- ledge of peculiarities of disposition which may require restraint, and of peculiarities of temperament which may require development. We must know that water can extinguish fire, before it occurs to us to put out a fire by the use of water. We must know that fire, when properly used, is a beneficent element of nature, and one which can be used to our advantage when properly controlled, before we shall attempt to avail ourselves of it for a general or a particular benefit. I believe a time has come when the Irish are more than ever anxious to study their national history. I believe a time has come when the English nation, or at least a majority of the English nation, are willing to read that history without prejudice, and to consider it with impartiality. When first I proposed to write a History of Ireland, at the earnest request of persons to whose opinion I felt bound to defer, I was assured by many that it was useless ; that Irish- men did not support Irish literature ; above all, that the Irish 16 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. clergy were indififerent to it, and to literature in general. I have since ascertained, by personal experience, that this charge is utterly unfounded, though I am free to admit it was made on what appeared to be good authority. It is certainly to be wished that there was a more general love of reading culti- vated amongst the Catholics of Ireland, but the deficiency is on a fair way to amendment. As a body, the Irish priest- hood may not be devoted to literature ; but as a body, un- questionably they are devoted — nobly devoted — to the spread of education amongst their people. With regard to Englishmen, I cannot do better than quote the speech of an English member of Parliament, Alderman Salomons, who has just addressed his constituents at Green- wich in these words : — " The state of Ireland will, doubtless, be a prominent sub- ject of discussion next session. Any one who sympathizes with distressed nationalities in their strusrsrles. must, when he hears of the existence of a conspiracy in Ireland, similar to those combinations which used to be instituted in Poland in oppo- sition to Russian oppression, be deeply humiliated. Let the grievances of the Irish people be probed, and let them be remedied when their true nature is discovered. Fenianism is rife, not only in Ireland, but also in England, and an armed police required, which is an insult to our liberty. I did not know much of the Irish land question, but I know that mea- sures have been over and over ao^ain brous^ht into the House of Commons with a view to its settlement, and over and over again they have been cushioned or silently withdrawn. If the question can be satisfactorily settled, why let it be so, and let us conciliate the people of Ireland by wise and honorable means. The subject of the Irish Church must also be consi- dered. I hold in my hand an extract from the report of the commissioner of the Dublin Freeman's Journal, who is now examining the question. It stated what will be to you almost incredible — namely, that the population of the united dioceses of Cashel, Emly, Waterford, and Lismore is 370,978, and that of those only 13,000 are members of the Estab- lished Church, while 340,000 are Roman Catholics. If you PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 17 had read of this state of things existing in any other country, you would call out loudly against it. Such a condi- tion of things, in which large revenues are devoted, not for the good of the many, but the few, if it does not justify Fenianism, certainly does justify a large measure of discontent. I am aware of the difficulties in the way of settling the question, owing to the fear of a collision between Protestants and Catho- lies ; but I think Parliament ought to have the power to make the Irish people contented." This speech, I believe, affords a fair idea of the opinion of educated and unprejudiced Englishmen on the Irish question. They do not know much about Irish history ; they have heard a great deal about Irish grievances, and they have a vague idea that there is something wrong about the landlords, and somethinsf wronof about the ecclesiastical arranofements of the country. I believe a careful study of Irish history is essential to the comprehension of the Irish question ; and it is obviously the moral duty of every man who has a voice in the govern- ment of the nation, to make himself master of the subject. I believe there are honest and honorable men in England, who would stand aghast with horror if they thoroughly understood the injustices to which Ireland has been' and still is subject. The English, as a nation, profess the most ardent veneration for liberty. To be a patriot, to desire to free one's country, unless, indeed, that country happen to have some very close connexion with their own, is the surest way to obtain ovations and applause. It is said that circumstances alter cases ; they certainly alter opinions, but they do not alter facts. An Englishman applauds and assists insurrection in countries where they profess to have for their object the freedom of the individual or of the nation ; he imprisons and stifles it at home, where the motive is precisely similar, and the cause, in the eyes of the insurgents at least, incomparably more valid. But I do not wish to raise a vexed question, or to enter on political discussions; my object in this Preface is simply to bring before the minds of Englishmen that they have a duty to perform towards Ireland — a duty which they cannot cast aside on others — a duty which it may be for their interest, B 18 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. as well as for their honour, to fulfil. I wish to draw the attention of Englishmen to those Irish grievances which are generally admitted to exist, and which can only be fully understood by a careful and unprejudiced perusal of Irish history, past and present Until grievances are thoroughly understood, they are not likely to be thoroughly remedied. While they continue to exist, there can be no real peace in Ireland, and English prosperity must suffer in a degree from Irish disaffection. It is generally admitted by all, except those who are specially interested in the denial, that the Land question and the Church question are the two great subjects which lie at the bottom of the Irish difficulty. The difficulties of the Land question com- menced in the reign of Henry II. ; the difficulties of the Church question commenced in the reign of Henry YIII. I shall re- quest your attention briefly to the standpoints in Irish history from which we may take a clear view of these subjects. I shall commence with the Land question, because I believe it to be the more important of the two, and because I hope to show that the Church question is intimately connected with it. In the reign of Henry II., certain Anglo-Xorman nobles came to Ireland, and, partly by force and partly by intermar- riages, obtained estates in that country. Their tenure was the tenure of the sword. By the sword they expelled persons whose families had possessed those lands for centuries ; and by the sword they compelled these persons, through poverty, con- sequent on loss of property, to take the position of inferiors where they had been masters. You will observe that this first English settlement in Ireland was simply a colonization on a very small scale. Under such circumstances, if the native popula- tion are averse to the colonization, and if the new and the old races do not amalgamate, a settled feeling of aversion, more or less strong, is established on both sides. The natives hate the colonist, because he has done them a grievous injury by taking possession of their lands ; the colonist hates the natives, bscause they are in his way ; and, if he be possessed of " land hunger," they are an impediment to the gratification of his desires. It should be observed that there is a wide difference between colonization and conquest The Saxons conquered what we PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 19 may presume to have been the aboriginal inhabitants of Eng- land ; the Normans conquered the Saxon : the conquest in both cases was sufficiently complete to amalgamate the races — the interest of the different nationalities became one. The Norman lord scorned the Saxon churl quite as contemptuously as he scorned the Irish Celt ; but there was this very important difference — the interests of the noble and the churl soon be- came one ; they worked for the prosperity of their common country. In Ireland, on the contrary, the interests were oppo- site. The Norman noble hated the Gelt as a people whom he could not subdue, but desired most ardently to dispossess ; the Celt hated the invader as a man most naturally v/ill hate the individual who is just strong enough to keep a wound open by his struggles, and not strong enough to end the suffering by killing the victim. The lemd question commenced when Strongbow set his foot on Irish soil; the land question will remain a disgrace to Eng- land, and a source of misery to Ireland, until the whole system inaugurated by Strongbow has been reversed. " At the com- mencement of the connexion between England and Ireland," says Mr. Goldwin Smith, " the foundation was inevitably laid for the fatal system of ascendency — ^a system under which the dominant party were paid for their services in keeping down rebels by a monopoly of power and emolument, and thereby strongly tempted to take care that there should always be rebels to keep down." There is a fallacy or two in this state- ment ; but let it pass. The Irish were not rebels then, cer- tainly, for they were not under English dominion ; but it is something to find English writers expatiating on Irish wrongs; and if they would only act as generously and as boldly as they speak, the Irish question would receive an early and a most happy settlement. For centuries Ireland was left to the mercy and the selfish- ness of colonists. Thus, with each succeeding generation, the feelinor of hatred towards the Ens^lish was intensified with each new act of injustice, and such acts were part of the normal rule of the invaders. A lord deputy was sent after a time to rule the country. Perhaps a more unfortunate form of government could not have been selected for Ireland. The lord deputy 20 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. knew that he was subject to recall at any moment ; he had neither a personal nor a hereditary interest in the country. He came to make his fortune there, or to increase it. He came to rule for his own benefit, or for the benefit of his nation. The worst of kings has, at least, an hereditary interest in the country which he governs ; the best of lord deputies might say that, if he did not oppress and plunder for himself, other men would do it for themselves : why, then, should he be the loser, when the people would not be gainers by his loss ? When parliaments began to be held, and when laws were enacted, every possible arrangement was made to keep the two nations at variance, and to intensify the hostility which already existed. The clergy were set at variance. Irish priests were for- bidden to enter certain monasteries, which were reserved for the use of their English brethren ; Irish ecclesiastics were refused admission to certain Church properties in Ireland, that English ecclesiastics might have the benefit of them. Lionel, Duke of Clarence, when Viceroy of Ireland, issued a proclamation, for- bidding the "Irish by birth" even to come near his army, until he found that he could not do without soldiers, even should they have the misfortune to be Irish. The Irish and English were forbidden to intermarry several centuries before the same bar was placed against the union of Catholics and Protestants. The last and not the least of the fearful series of injustices enacted, in the name of justice, at the Parliament of Kilkenny, was the statute which denied, which positively refused, the benefit of English law to Irishmen, and equally forbid them to use the Brehon law, which is even now the admiration of jufists, and which had been the law of the land for many centuries. If law could be said to enact that there should be no law, this was precisely what was done at the memorable Parliament of Kilkenny. If Irishmen had done this, it would have been laughed at as a Hibernicism, or scorned as the basest villany ; but it was the work of Englishmen, and the Irish nation were treated as rebels if they attempted to resist. The confiscation of Church property in the reign of Henr}'^ YIIL, added a new sting to the land grievance, and introduced a new feature in its injustice. Church property had been used for the benefit of PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 2L the poor far more than for the benefit of its possessors. It is generally admitted that the monks of the middle ages were the best and most considerate landlords. Thousands of families were now cast upon the mercy of the new proprietors, whose will was their only law ; and a considerable number of persons were deprived of the alms which these religious so freely dis- tributed to the sick and the aged. Poverty multiplied fearfully, and discontent in proportion. You will see, by a careful perusal of this history, that the descendants of the very men who had driven out the original proprietors of Irish estates, were in turn driven out themselves by the next set of colonists. It was a just retribution, but it was none the less terrible. Banishments and confiscations were the rule by which Irish property was administered. Can you be surprised that the Irish looked on English adventurers as little better than robbers, and treated them as such? If the English Government had made just and equitable land laws for Ireland at or immediately after the Union, all the miseries which have occurred since then might have been prevented. Unfortunately, the men who had to legis- late for Ireland are interested in the maintenance of the unjust system ; and there is an old proverb, as true as it is old, about the blindness of those who do not wish to see. Irish landlords, or at least a considerable number of Irish landlords, are quite willing to admit that the existence of the Established Church is a grievance. Irish Protestant clergymen, who are not possessed by an anti-Popery crochet — and, thank God, there are few afflicted with that unfortunate disease now — are quite free to admit that it is a grievance for a tenant to be subject to ejection by his landlord, eve7i if he pays his rent punc- tually. I believe the majority of Euglishmen have not the faintest idea of the way in which the Irish tenant is oppressed, not hy individuals, for there are many landlords in Ireland devoted to their tenantry, but by a system. There are, however, it cannot be denied, cases of individual oppression, which, if they occurred in any part of Great Britain, and were publicly known, would raise a storm, from the Land's End to John o' Groat's House, that would take something more than revolvers to settle. As one of the great objects of studying the history of our o*wn 22 PREFACT? TO THE FIRST EDITIOy. country, is to enable us to understand and to enact such regu- lations as shall be best suited to the genius of each race and their peculiar circumstances, I believe it to be my duty as an historian, on however humble a scale, not only to show how our present history is affected by the past, but also to give you such a knowledge of our present history as may enable you to judge how much the country is still suffering from 'p'^^^'^^ grievances, occasioned by past maladministration. Englishmen are quite aware that thousands of Irishmen leave their homes every year for a foreign country ; but they have little idea of the cause of this emigration. Englishmen are quite aware that from time to time insurrections break out in Ireland, which seem to them very absurd, if not very wicked; but they do not know how much grave cause there is for discontent in Ireland. The very able and valuable pamphlets which have been written on these subjects by Mr. Butt and Mr. Levey, and on the Church question by Mr. De Vere, do not reach the English middle classes, or probably even the upper classes, unless their atten- tion is directed to them individually. The details of the suffer- ings and ejectments of the Irish peasantry, which are given from time to time in the Irish papers, and principally in the Irish local papers, are never even known across the Channel How, then, can the condition of Ireland, or of the Irish people, be estimated as it should ? I believe there is a love of fair play and manly justice in the English nation, which only needs to be excited in order to be brought to act. But ignorance on this subject is not wholly confined to the English. I fear there are many persons, even in Ireland, who are but imperfectly acquainted with the working of their own land laws, if, indeed, what sanctions injustice deserves the name of law. To avoid prolixity, I shall state very briefly the posi- tion of an Irish tenant at the present day, and I shall show (1) how this position leads to misery, (2) how misery leads to emigration, and (3) how this injustice recoils upon the heads of the perpetrators by leading to rebellion. First, the position of an Irish tenant is simply this : he is rather worse off than a slave. I speak advisedly. In Russia, the proprietors of large estates worked by slaves, are obliged to feed and clothe their slaves; in Ireland, it quite depends on the will of the pro- PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 23 prietor whether he will let his lands to his tenants on terras which will enable them to feed their families on the coarsest food, and to clothe them in the coarsest raiment. If a famine occurs — and in some parts of Ireland famines are of annual occurrence — the landlord is not obliged to do anything for his tenant, but the tenant must pay his rent. I admit there are humane landlords in Ireland; but these are questions of fact, not of feeling. It is a most flagrant injustice that Irish land- lords should hav'e the power of dispossessing their tenants if they pay their rents. But this is not all ; although the penal laws have been repealed, the power of the landlord over the con- science of his tenant is unlimited. It is true he cannot apply bodily torture, except, indeed, the torture of starvation, but he can apply mental torture. It is in the power of an Irish land- lord to eject his tenant if he does not vote according to his wishes. A man who has no conscience, has no moral right to vote; a man who tyrannizes over the conscience of another, should have no legal right. But there is yet a deeper depth. I believe you will be lost in amazement at what is yet to come, and will say, as Mr. Young said of penal laws in the last cen- tury, that they were more "fitted for the meridian of Barbary." You have heard, no doubt, of wholesale evictions ; they are of frequent occurrence in Ireland — sometimes from political motives, because the poor man will not vote with his landlord ; sometimes from religious motives, because the poor man will not worship God according to his landlord's conscience ; sometimes from selfish motives, because his landlord wishes to enlarge his domain, or to graze more cattle. The motive does not matter much to the poor victim. He is flung out upon the roadside ; if he is very poor, he may die there, or he may go to the workhouse, but he must not be taken in, even for a time, by any other family on the estate. The Irish Celt, with his warm heart and generous impulses, would, at all risks to himself, take in the poor outcasts, and share his poverty with them ; but the landlord could not allow this. The commission of one e\'il deed necessitates the commission of another. An Irish gentleman, who has no personal interest in land, and is therefore able to look calmly on the question, has been at the pains to collect instances of this tyranny, in his 24 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. PUa for tJie Celtic Race. I shall onlv mention one as a sample. In the year 1851, on an estate which was at the time supposed to be one of the most fairly treated in Ireland, " the agent of the property had given public notice to the tenantry that expulsion from their farms would be the penalty inflicted on them, if they harboured a ny one not resident on the estate. The penalty was enforced against a widow, for giving food and shelter to a destitute gm ndson of twelve yea is old. The child's mother at one time held a little dwelling, from which she was expelled; his father was dead He found a refuge with his grand- mother, who was ejected from her farm for harbouring the poor boy." When such things can occur, we should not hear anything more about the Irish having only " sentimental grievances.'* The poor child was eventually driven from house to house. He stole a shilling and a hen — ^poor fellow! — what else could he be expected to do ? He wandered about, looking in vain for shelter from those who dared not give it. He was expelled with circumstances of peculiar cruelty from one cabin. He was foimd next morning, cold, stiff, and dead, on the ground ontside. The poor people who had refused him shelter, were tried for their live& They were found guilty of manslaughter only, in consideration of the agent's order. The agent was not found guilty of anything, nor even tried. The landlord was supposed to be a model landlord, and his estates were held up at the very time as models ; yet evictions had been fearfully and constantly carried out on them. Mr. Butt has well observed : **' The rules of the estate are often the most arbitrary and the most sternly enforced upon great estates, the property of men of the highest station, upon which rents are moderate, and no harshness practised to the tenantry, who implicitly submit." Such landlords generaUy consider emigration the great remedy for the evils of Ireland. They point to their own well-regulated and well-weeded estates ; but they do not tell you all the human suffering it cost to exile those who were turned out to make room for large dairy farms, or all the quiet tyranny exercised over those who still remain. Neither does it occur to them that their successors may raise these moderate rents at a moment's notice; and if their demands are not com- plied with, he may eject these " comfortable farmers '* without PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 25 one farthing of compensation for all their improvements and their years of labour. I have shown how the serfdom of the Irish tenant leads to misery. But the subject is one which would require a volume. No one can understand the depth of Irish misery who has not lived in Ireland, and taken pains to become acquainted with the habits and manner of life of the lower orders. The tenant who is kept at starvation point to pay his landlord's rent, has no means of providing for his family. He cannot encourage trade ; his sons cannot get work to do, if they are taught trades. Emigration or the workhouse is the only resource, I think the efforts which are made by the poor in Ireland to get work are absolutely unexampled, and it is a cruel thing that a man who is willing to work should not be able to get it. I know an instance in which a girl belonging to a comparatively respectable family was taken into service, and it was discovered that for years her only food, and the only food of her family, was dry bread, and, as an occasional luxury, weak tea. So accustomed had she become to this wretched fare, that she actually could not even eat an egg. She and her family have gone to America ; and I have no doubt, after a few years, that the weakened organs will recover their proper tone, with the gradual use of proper food. There is another ingredient in Irish misery which has not met with the consideration it deserves. If the landlord happens to be humane, he may interest himself in the welfare of the families of his tenantry. He may also send a few pounds to' them for coals at Christmas, or for clothing ; but such instances are unhappily rare, and the alms given is comparatively nothing. In England the case is precisely the reverse. On this subject I speak from personal knowledge. There is scarcely a little village in England, however poor, where there is not a committee of ladies, assisted by the neighbouring gentry, who distribute coals, blankets, and clothing in winter; and at all times, where there is distress, give bread, tea, and meat. Well may the poor Irish come home discontented after they have been to work in England, and see how differently the poor are treated there. I admit, and I repeat it again, that there are instances in which the landlord takes an interest 20 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. in his tenantry, but those instances are exceptions. Many of these gentlemeD, who possess tlie largest tracts of land in Ire- land, have also large estates in England, and they seldom, sometimes never, visit their Irish estates. They leave it to their agent. Every application for relief is referred to the agent. The agent, however humane, cannot be expected to have the same interest in the people as a landlord ought to have. The agent is the instrument used to draw out the last farthing from the poor; he is constantly in collision with them. They naturally dislike him ; and he, not unnaturally, dislikes them. The burden, therefore, of giving that relief to the poor, which they always require in times of sickness, and when they cannot get work, falls almost exclusively upon the priests and the con- vents. Were it not for the exertions made by the priests and nuns throughout Ireland for the support of the poor, and to obtain w^ork for them, and the immense sums of money sent to Ireland by emigrants, for the support of aged fathers and mothers, I believe the destitution would be something appal- ling, and that landlords "would find it even more difficult than at present to get the high rents which they demand. Yet, some of these sameland]ords,getting perhaps £20,000 or £40,000 a-year from their Irish estates, will not give the slightest help to establish industrial schools in connexion with convents, or to assist them when they are established, though they are the means of helping their own tenants to pay their rent. There are in Ireland about two hundred conventual establishments. Nearly all of these convents have poor schools, where the poor are taught, either at a most trifling expense, or altogether with- out charge. The majority of these convents feed and clothe a considerable number of poor children, and many of them have established industrial schools, where a few girls at least can earn what "svill almost support a whole family in comfort. I give the statistics of one convent as a sample of others. I believe there are a few^, but perhaps only a very few other places, where the statistics w^ould rise higher; but there are many convents where the children are fed and clothed, and where work is done on a smaller scale. If such institutions were encouraged by the landlords, much more could be done. The PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. convent to which I allude was founded at the close of the vear 1861. There was a national school in the little town (in Eng- land it would be called a village), with an attendance of about forty children. The numbers rose rapidly year by year, after the arrival of the nuns, and at present the average daily atten- dance is just 400. It would be very much higher, were it not for the steady decrease in the population, caused by emigration. The emigration would have been very much greater, had not the parish priest given employment to a considerable number of men, by building a new church, convent, and convent schools. The poorest of the children, and, in Ireland, none but the very poorest will accept such alms, get a breakfast of Indian meal and milk all the year round. The comfort of this hot meal to them, when they come in half-clad and starving of a winter morning, can only be estimated by those who have seen the children par- take of it, and heard the cries of delight of the babies of a year old, and the quiet expression of thankfulness of the elder children. Before they go home they get a piece of dry bread, and this is their dinner — a dinner the poorest English child would almost refuse. The number of meals given at present is 350 per diem. The totals of meals given per annum since 18G2 are as follows : — During the year 1862 36,400 1863 45,800 1864 46,700 „ „ 1865 49,000 1866 70,000 „ „ 1867 73,000 Making a total of 320,900 There were also 1,035 suits of clothing given. The Industrial School was established in 1863. It has been principally supported by English ladies and Protestants. The little town where the convent is situated, is visited by tourists during the summer months ; and many Vv^ho have visited the convent have been so much struck by the good they saw done there, that they have actually devoted themselves to selling 28 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. work amongst their English friends for the poor children. The returns of work sold in the Industrial School are as follows : — £ s. d. 70 3 6^ 109 18 5 276 1 31 421 16 3 350 2 ^ Making a total of £1,228 1 lOJ The falling off in 1867 has been accounted for partly from the Fenian panic, which prevented tourists visiting Ireland as numerously as in other years, and partly from the attraction of the French Exhibition having drawn tourists in that direc- tion. I have been exact in giving these details, because they form an important subject for consideration in regard to the present history of Ireland. They show at once the poverty of the people, their love of industry, and their eagerness to do work when they can get it. In this, and in other convent schools throughout Ireland, the youngest children are trained to habits of industry. They are paid even for their first im- perfect attempts, to encourage them to go on; and they treasure up the few weekly pence they earn as a lady would her jewels. One child had in this way nearly saved up enough to buy herself a pair of shoes — a luxury she had not as yet possessed ; but before the whole amount was procured she went to her eternal home, where there is no want, and her last words were a message of love and gratitude to the nuns who had taught her. The causes of emigration, as one should think, are patent to all. Landlords do not deny that they are anxious to see the people leave the country. They give them every assistance to do so. Their object is to get more land into their own hands, but the policy will eventually prove suicidal. A revolutionary spirit is spreading fast through Europe. Already the stand- ing subject of public addresses to the people in England, is the Work sold in 1863 „ „ 1864 „ „ 1865 1866 „ „ 1867 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 29 injustice of certain individuals being allowed to hold such im- mense tracts of country in their possession. We all know what came of the selfish policy of the landowners in France before the Revolution, which consigned them by hundreds to the guillotine. A little self-sacrifice, which, in the end, would have been for their own benefit, might have saved all this. The attempt to depopulate Ireland has been tried over and over again, and has failed signally. It is not more likely to succeed in the nineteenth century than at any preceding period. Even were it possible that wholesale emigration could benefit any country, it is quite clear that Irish emigration cannot benefit England. It is a plan to get rid of a temporary difficulty at a terrific future cost. Emigration has ceased to be confined to paupers. Respectable farmers are emigrating, and taking with them to America bitter memories of the cruel injustice which has compelled them to leave their native land. Second, How misery leads to emigration. The poor are leaving the country, because they have no employment. The more respectable classes are leaving the country, because they prefer living in a free land, where they can feel sure that their hard earnings will be their own, and not their landlord's, and where they are not subject to the miserable political and religious tyranny which reigns supreme in Ireland. In the evidence given before the Land Tenure Committee of 1864, we find the following statements made by Dr. Keane, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Cloyne. His Lordship is a man of more than ordinary intelligence, and of more than ordinary patriotism. He has made the subject of emigration his special study, partly from a deep devotion to all that concerns the welfare of his country, and partly from the circumstance of his residence being at Queenstown, the port from which Irishmen leave their native shores, and the place where wails of the emigrants continually resound. I subjoin a few of his replies to the questions proposed : — " I attribute emigration principally to the want of employ- ment." "A man who has only ten or twelve acres, and who is a tenant-at-will, finding that the land requires improvement, is 30 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. afraid to waste it [his money], and he goes away. I see many of these poor people in Queenstown every day." " I have made inquiries over and over again in Queens- town and elsewhere, and I never yet heard that a single farmer emigrated and left the country who had a lease." Well might ^Ir. Heron say, in a paper read before the Irish Statistical Society, in May, 1864: "Under the present laws, no Irish peasant able to read and write ought to remain in Ire- land. If Ireland were an independent country, in the pre- sent state of thinsfs there would be a bloodv insurrection in every county, and the peasantry would ultimately obtain the property in laud, as tlieyhave obtained it in SvAtzerland and in France." That the Irish people will eventually become the masters of the Irish property, from which every effort has been made to dispossess them, by fair means and by foul, since the Norman invasion of Ireland, I have not the slightest doubt. The only doubt is whether the matter will be settled by the law or by the sword. But I have hope that the settlement wiU be peaceful, when I find English members of Parliament treating thus of the subject, and ministers declaring, at least when they are out of office, that something should be done for Ireland. Mr. Stuart Mill writes : " The land of Ireland, the land of every country, belongs to the people of that country. The in- dividuals called landowners have no right, in morality or jus- tice, to anything but the rent, or compensation for its saleable value. When the inhabitants of a country quit the country en masse, because the Government will not make it a place fit for them to live in, the Government is judged and condemned. It is the duty of Parliament to refonn the landed tenure of Ireland." More than twenty years ago Mr. Disraeli said : " He wished to see a public man come forward and say what the Irish ques- tion was. Let them consider Ireland as they would any other country similarly circumstanced. They had a starving popu- lation, an absentee aristocracy, an alien Church, and, in addi- tion, the weakest executive in the world. This was the Irish question. What would gentlemen say on hearing of a country in such a position ? They would say at once, in such, case, the PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 31 remedy is revolution — not the suspension of the Habeas Corpus Act. But the connexion with England prevented it : there- fore England was logically in the active position of being the cause of all the misery of Ireland. What, then, was the duty of an English minister ? To effect by policy all the changes which a revolution would do by force." If these words had been acted upon in 1848, we should not have had a Fenian in- surrection in 18C7. If a peaceful revolution is to be accom- plished a few persons must suffer, though, in truth, it is difficult to see what Irish landlords could lose by a fair land law, except the power to exercise a tyrannical control over their tenants. I believe, if many English absentee landlords had even the slightest idea of the evil deeds done in their names by their agents, that they would not tolerate it for a day. If a complaint is made to the landlord, he refers it to his agent. It is pretty much as if you required the man who inflicted the injury to be the judge of his own conduct. The agent easily excuses himself to the landlord ; but the unfortunate man who had presumed to lift up his voice, is henceforth a marked object of vengeance ; and he is made an example to his fellows, that they may not dare to imitate him. The truth is, that the real state of Ireland, and the real feelings of the Irish people, can only be known by personal intercourse with the lower orders. Gentlemen making a hurried tour through the country, may see a good deal of misery, if they have not come for the purpose of not seeing it; but they can never know the real wretchedness of the Irish poor unless they remain stationary in some district long enough to win the confidence of the people, and to let them feel that they can tell their sorrows and their wrongs without fear that they shall be increased by the disclosure. Third, one brief word of how this injustice recoils upon the heads of the perpetrators, and I shall have ended. It recoils upon them indirectly, by causing a feeling of hostility between the governors and the governed. A man cannot be expected to revere and love his landlord, when he finds that his onlv object is to get all he can from him — when he finds him utterly reckless of his misery, and still more indifferent to his feelings. A gentleman considers himself a model of humanity if he pays the emigration expenses of the family whom he wishes to 32 PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. eject from the holding which their ancestors have possessed for centuries. He is amazed at the fearful ingratitude of the poor man, who cannot feel overwhelmed with joy at his bene- volent offer. But the gentleman considers he has done his duty, and consoles himself with the reflection that the Irish are an ungrateful race. Of all the peoples on the face of the globe, the Irish Celts are the most attached to their families and to their lands. God only know^s the broken hearts that go over the ocean strangers to a strange land. The young girls who leave their aged mothers, the noble, brave young fellows who leave their old fathers, act not from a selfish wish to better themselves, but from the hope, soon to be realized, that they may be able to earn in another land what they cannot earn in their own. I saw a lad once parting from his aged father. I wish I had not seen it. I heard the agonized cries of the old man: "My God! he's gone! he's gone !" I wish I had not heard it. I heard the wild wailing cry with which the Celt mourns for his dead, and glanced impulsively to the window. It was not death, but departure that prompts that agony of grief. A car was driving off rapidly on the mountain road which led to the nearest port. The car was soon out of sight. The father and the son had looked their last look into each other's eyes — had clasped the last clasp of each other's hands. An hour had passed, and still the old man lay upon the ground, where he had flunfj himself in his heart's bitter ancruish : and still the wail rung out from time to time : " My God! he's gone ! he's gone !" Those who have seen the departure of emigrants at the Irish seaports, are not surprised at Irish disaffection — are not sur- prised that the expatriated youth joins the first w^ild scheme which promises to release his country from such cruel scenes, and shares his money equally between his starving relatives at home, and the men who, sometimes as deceivers, and some- times with a patriotism like his own, live only for one object — to obtain for Ireland by the sword, the justice which is denied to her by the law. I conclude with statistics which are undeniable proofs oi Irish misery. The emigration at ijvesent amounts to 100,000 per annum. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. 33 From the 1st of May, 1851, to the 31st of December, 1865, 1,030,722 persons emigrated. As the emigrants generally leave their young children after them for a time, and as aged and imbecile persons do not emigrate, the consequence is, that, from 1851 to 1861, the number of deaf and dumb increased from 5,180 to 5,653 ; the number of blind, from 5,787 to 6,879 ; and the number of lunatics and idiots, from 9,980 to 14,098. In 1841, the estimated value of crops in Ireland was £50,000,000; in 1851, it was reduced to £43,000,000; and in 1861, to £35,000,000. The number of gentlemen engaged in the learned professions is steadily decreasing ; the traj0&c on Irish railways and the returns are steadily decreasing ; the live stock in cattle, which was to have supplied and copapen sated for the live stock in men, is fearfully decreasing ; the imports and exports are steadily decreasing. The decrease in cultivated lands, from 1862 to 1863, amounted to 138,841 acres. While the Preface to the Second Edition was passing through the press, my attention was called to an article, in the Pall Mall Gazette, on the Right Rev. Dr. Manning's Letter to Earl Grey. The winter of this article strongly recommends his Grace to publish a new edition of his Letter, omitting the last sixteen pages. We have been advised, also, to issue a new edition of our History, to omit the Preface, and any remarks or facts that might tend to show that the Irish tenant was not the happiest and most contented being in God's creation. The Pall Mall Gazette argues — if, indeed, mere assertion can be called argument — first, "that Dr. Manning has obviously never examined the subject for himself, but takes his ideas and beliefs from the universal statements of angry and igno- rant sufferers whom he has met in England, or from intem- perate and utterly untrustworthy party speeches and pamphlets, whose assertions he receives as gospel yet Dr. Manning has given statements of facts, and the writer has not attempted to disprove them. Second, he says : " Dr. Manning echoes the thoughtless complaints of those who cry out against emigration as a great evil and a grievous wrong, when he might have known, if he had thought or inquired at all about the matter, not only that this emigration has been the greatest conceivable blessing to the emigrants, but was an absolutely indispensable c 34 PREFACE TO tHE FIRST EDITION. step towards improving the condition of those who remained at home ;" and then the old calumnies are resuscitated about the Irish being " obstinately idle and wilfully improvident," as if it had not been proved again and again that the only ground on which such appellations can be applied to them in Ireland is, that their obstinacy consists in objecting to work without fair remuneration for their labour, and their improvidence in declining to labour for the benefit of their masters. It is the old story, "you are idle, you are idle," — it is the old demand, " make bricks without straw," — and then, by way of climax, we are assured that these "poor creatures" are assisted to emigrate with the tenderest consideration, and that, in fact, emigration is a boon for which they are grateful. It is quite true that many landlords pay their tenants to emigrate, and send persons to see them safe out of the country; but it is absolutely false that the people emigrate willingly. No one who has witnessed the departure of emigrants dare make such an assertion. They are offered their choice between starvation and emigration, and they emigrate. If a man were offered his choice between penal servitude and hanging, it is probable he would prefer penal servitude, but that would not make him appreciate the joys of prison life. The Irish parish priest alone can tell what the Irish suffer at home, and how unwillingly they go abroad. A pamphlet has just been pub- lished on this very subject, by the Very Rev. P. Malone, P.P., V.F., of BelmuUet, co. Mayo, and in this he says : " I have seen the son, standing upon the deck of the emigrant ship, divest himself of his only coat, and place it upon his father's shoulders, saying, ' Father, take you this ; I will soon earn the price of a coat in the land I am going to.' " Such instances, which might be recorded by the hundred, and the amount of money sent to Ireland by emigrants for the support of aged parents, and to pay the passage out of younger members of the family, are the best refutation of the old falsehood that Irishmen are either idle or improvident. ^aji of fr^lant showing- tkc ^amhcY of g,ama« ©KtljuUca ind. ^rjotivlinti ill t"kc CTottK-ite^ and ^fi«ctf T SB4 > so* I Tot. S!,,OJ(> 862 Tot.'-.. e^v , $3.9fi'-. :^ y. ^ 'Tvt; ^ ToT.--^^;3*t.' SVoi ■■ ■■. Me? . ■■ o^»\ J^liynof^- .■ Q,„^ ■■Tot, -i^-r^^ 4.IS2. ..■ 66 : D l»'Sv >9,95J r /■^ X. '"V , ''^ : £ ■ 9.109 <^ ^ .T ■■. „ Xllj\l.i ! tr-- ...*5
  • S'st<.V."^ 1"^ . ■■■■■■ .-■■■Tot. -"I3J| / Bray o\ vJ-,, ^ V .■ I, til. , ■., ^ ^ oT. ^ ■•• .■•■. ^-f.Y-J^ ■•?« vojA^ 'is/ Q- ■■•■ =Q"^^^ " ^ K ■ ;.!.5=-ltln.l... / X ^.^ -. Mas.-* BORovc-w -vv ' I3X ij 3os.'i>8 7 kl3 :. 1,319 191 .''. '^of'uv ■39,14 , ■.. 134..8, *nl?^l;v,V9^TSl3A ^3.ol» 4118 -v.- i».8«"a, ■. ^i"., 4«oVt 'it" J M Jl, >!. B,V«v...TiTpevavy ■.. 1,13, ^ 549 9Jlt CWlcVtZfe •. '""n^ C.,l\.!.l>T.l 1.541 ■•. ^''JS Mallow ^,010 „ 511 vo er^ 7 p erv6 CLoT>^ ^ry^ e-f MSS. STILL PRESERVED. 45 ing" of the Saxon. The researches of continental scholars are adding daily to our store ; and the hundreds of Celtic MSS., so long entombed in the libraries of Belgium and Italy, will, when published, throw additional light upon the brightness of the past, and, it may be, enhance the glories of the future, which we must believe are still in reserve for the island of saints and sages.^ The list of works given above are supposed by 0' Curry to have existed anterior to the year 1100. Of the books which Keating refers to in his History, written about 1630, only one is known to be extant — the Saltair-na-Bann, written by Aengus C6ile De. The principal Celtic MSS. which are still preserved to us, may be consulted in the Libraryof Trinity College, Dublin, and in the Library of the Royal Irish Academy. The latter, though founded at a much later period, is by far the more extensive, if not the more important, collection. Perhaps, few countries have been so happy as to pos- sess a body of men so devoted to its archaeology, so ardent in theii preservation of all that can be found to illustrate it, and so capable oi elucidating its history by their erudition, which, severally and collec- tively, they have brought to bear on every department of its ethno- logy. The collection in Trinity College consists of more than 140 volumes, several of them are vellum,^ dating from the early part of the twelfth to the middle of the last century. The collection of the Royal Irish Academy also contains several works written on vellum, with treatises of history, science, laws, and commerce ; there are also many theological and ecclesiastical compositions, which have been pronounced by competent authorities to be written in the purest style that the ancient Gaedhilic language ever attained. There are also a considerable number of translations from Greek, Latin, and other languages. These are of considerable importance, as they enable the critical student of our language to determine the mean- ing of many obscure or obsolete words or phrases, by reference to ^ Sages. — M. Nigra, the Italian Ambassador at Paris, is at this moment engaged in publishing continental MSS. 3 Vellum. — The use of vellum is an indication that the MSS. must be of some antiquity. The word * ' paper " is derived from papyrus, the most ancient mate- rial for "writing, if we except the rocks used for runes, or the wood for oghams. Papyrus, the pith of a reed, was used until the discovery of parchment, about 190 B.C. A MS. of the Antiquities of Josephits on papyrus, was among the treasures seized by Buonaparte in Italy. 46 VALUABLE RETRAINS OF CELTIC LITERATURE. the originals ; nor are they of less value as indicating the high state of literary culture which prevailed in Ireland during the early Christian and the Middle Ages. Poetry, mythology, history, and the classic literature of Greece and Rome, may be found amongst these translations ; so that, as 0' Curry well remarks, " any one well read in the comparatively few existing fragments of our Gaedhilic literature, and whose education had been confined solely to this source, would find that there are but very few, indeed, of the great events in the history of the world with which he was not acquainted."^ He then mentions, by way of illustration of classical subjects, Celtic versions of the Argonautic Expedition, the Siege of Troy, the life of Alexander the Great ; and of such subjects as cannot be classed under this head, the Destruction of Jerusalem ; the Wars of Charlemagne, including the History of Roland the Brave ; the History of the Lombards, and the almost contemporary translation of the Travels of Marco Polo. There is also a large collection of MSS. in the British Museum, a few volumes in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, besides the well-known, though inaccessible, Stowe collection.^ The treasures of Celtic literature still presers'ed on the Continent, can only be briefly mentioned here. It is probable that the active researches of philologists will exhume many more of these long- hidden volumes, and obtain for our race the place it has always deserved in the history of nations. The Louvain collection, formed chiefly by Fathers Hugh Ward, John Colgan, and ^lichael O'Clery, between the years 1620 and 1640, was widely scattered at the French Revolution. The most valuable portion is in the College of St. Isidore in Rome. The Bur- gundian Library at Brussels also possesses many of these treasures. A valuable resume of the MSS. which are preserved there was given by JNIr. Bindon, and printed in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy in the year 1847. There are also many Latin MSS. with Irish glosses, which have been largely used by Zeuss in his world-famed Grammatica Celtica. The date of one of these — a codex * Acquainted. — O'Curry's MS. Materials, page 24. 5 Collection. — A recent writer in the Cornhill says that Lord Ashbumham refuses access to this collection, now in his possession, fearing that its contents may be depreciated so as to lessen its value at a future sale. We should hope this statement can scarcely be accurate. Unhappily, it is at least certain that access to the MSS. is denied, from whatever motive. VALUABLE REMAINS OF CELTIC LITERATURE. 47 containing some of Venerable Bede's works — is fixed by an entry of the death of Aed, King of Ireland, in the year 817. This most important work belonged to the Irish monastery of Eeichenau, and is now preserved at Carlsruhe. A codex is also preserved at Cambray, which contains a fragment of an Irish sermon, and the canons of an liifih council held A.D. 684. DOORWAY OE CLOHMACNOIS. CLONMACNOIS. CHAPTER II. Tighernacli and his Annals — Erudition and Research of our Early Writers— The Chronicum Scotorum — Duald Mac Firbis — Murdered, and his Murderer is protected by the Penal Laws— The Annals of the Four Masters— Michael O'Clery— His Devotion to his Country — Ward— Colgan— Dedication of the Annals — The Book of Invasions — Proofs of our Early Colonization. UR illustration can give but a faint idea of the magnificence and extent of the ancient abbey of Clonmacnois, the home of our famous annalist, Tighernach. It has been well observed, that no more ancient chronicler can be produced by the northern nations. Nestor, the father of Russian history, died in 1113; Snorro, the father of Ice- landic history, did not appear until a century later ; Kadlubeck, the first historian of Poland, died in 1223 ; and Stierman could not discover a scrap of writing in all Sweden older than 1159. Indeed, he may be compared favourably even with the British historians, who can by no means boast of such ancient pedigrees as the genealogists of Erinn.^ Tighernach was of the Murray -race of ' Erinn. — O'Curry, page 57. It has also been remarked, that there is no nation in possession of such ancient chronicles written in what is still the language of its people. EXTENSIVE LEARNING OF OUR EARLY WRITERS. 49 Connacht ; of his personal history little is known. His death is noted in the Chronicum Scotorum, where he is styled successor (com- harha) of St. Ciaran and St. Coman. The Annals of Innisfallen state that he was interred at Clonmacnois. Perhaps his body was borne to its burial through the very doorway which still remains, of which we gave an illustration at the end of the last chapter. The writers of history and genealogy in early ages, usually com- menced with the sons of Noah, if not with the first man of the human race. The Celtic historians are no exceptions to the general rule ; and long before Tighernach wrote, the custom had obtained in Erinn. His chronicle was necessarily compiled from more ancient sources, but its fame rests upon the extraordinary erudition which he brought to bear upon every subject. Flann, who was contemporary with Tighernach, and a professor of St. Buithe's monastery (Monasterboice), is also famous for his Synchronisms, which form an admirable abridgment of universal history. He appears to have devoted himself specially to genealogies and pedigrees, while Tighernach took a wider range of literary re- search. His learning was undoubtedly most extensive. He quotes Eusebius, Orosius, Africanus, Bede, Josephus, Saint Jerome, and many other historical writers, and sometimes compares their statements on points in which they exhibit discrepancies, and afterwards endeavours to reconcile their conflicting testimony, and to correct the chronological errors of the writers by comparison with the dates given by others. He also collates the Hebrew text with the Septuagint version of the Scriptures. He uses the common era, though we have no reason to believe that this was done by the writers who immediately preceded him. He also mentions the lunar cycle, and uses the dominical letter with the kalends of several years.'^ Another writer, Gilla Caemhain, was also contemporary with Flann and Tighernach. He gives the " annals of all time," from the beginning of the world to his own period ; and computes the • second period from the Creation to the Deluge ; from the Deluge to Abraham ; from Abraham to David ; from David to the Babylonian Captivity, &c. He also synchronizes the eastern monarchs with each other, and afterwards with the Firbolgs and Years. — See O^Cmry, passm. D 50 DUALD MAC FIRBIS. Tuatha Danann of Erinn,^ and subsequently with the Milesians. Flann synchronizes the chiefs of various lines of the children of Adam in the East, and points out what monarchs of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians, and Greeks, and what Roman emperors were con- temporary with the kings of Erinn, and the leaders of its various early colonies. He begins with Ninus, son of Belus, and comes down to Julius CsBsar, who was contemporary with Eochaidh Feidhlech, an Irish king, who died more than half a century before the Christian era. The synchronism is then continued from JuHus Csesar and Eochaidh to the Roman emperors Theodosius the Third and Leo the Third ; they were contemporaries with the Irish monarch Ferghal, who was killed A.D. 718. The Annals and MSS. which serve to illustrate our history, are so numerous, that it would be impossible, with one or two excep- tions, to do more than indicate their existence, and to draw attention to the weight which such an accumulation of authority must give to the authenticity of our early history. But there are two of these works which we cannot pass unnoticed : the Chronicum ScoTORUM and the Annals of the Four Masters. The Chronicum Scotorum was compiled by Duald Mac Firbis. He was of royal race, and descended from Dathi, the last pagan monarch of Erinn. His family were professional and hereditary historians, genealogists, and poets,^ and held an ancestral property at Lecain Mac Firbis, in the county Sligo, until Cromwell and his troopers desolated Celtic homes, and murdered the Celtic dwellers, often in cold blood. The young Mac Firbis was educated for his profession in a school of law and history taught by the Mac Egans of Lecain, in Ormonde. He also studied (about A.D. 1595) at Burren, in the county Clare, in the literary and legal school of the O'Davorens. His pedigrees of the ancient Irish and the Anglo-Norman families, 8 Erinn. — Eit'e is the correct form for the nominative. Erinn is the geni- tive, but too long in use to admit of alteration. The ordinary name of Ireland, in the oldest Irish MSS., is (h)Erin, gen. (h)Erenn, dat. (h) Erinn ; but the initial h is often omitted. See Max Midler's Lectures for an interest- ing note on this subject, to which we shall again refer. " Poets. — The Book of Lecain was written in 1416, by an ancestor of Mac Firbis. Usher had it for some time in his possession ; James II. carried it to Paris, and deposited it in the Irish College in the presence of a notary and witnesses. In 17S7, the Chevalier O'Keilly procured its restoration to Ireland ; and it passed eventually from Vallancey to the Koyal Irish Academy, where it is now carefully preserved. THE ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTEKS. 51 was compiled at the College of St. Nicholas, in Galway, in the year 1650. It may interest some of our readers to peruse the title of this work, although its length would certainly honify a modern publisher : — "The Branches of Relationship and the Genealogical Ramifications of every Colony that took possession of Erinn, traced from this time up to Adam (excepting only those of the Fomorians, Lochlanns, and Saxon-Gaels, of whom we, however, treat, as they have settled in our country); together with a Sanctilogium, and a Catalogue of the Monarchs of Erinn ; and, finally, an Index, which comprises, in alphabetical order, the surnames and the remarkable places men- tioned in this work, which was compiled by Duhhaltach Mac Firhkisigh of Lecain, 1650." He also gives, as was then usual, the " place, time, author, and cause of writing the work." The " cause " was " to increase the glory of God, and for the information of the people in general;" a beautiful and most true epitome of the motives which inspired the penmen of Erinn from the first introduction of Christianity, and produced the " countless host " of her noble historiographers. Mac Firbis was murdered^ in the year 1670, at an advanced age ; and thus departed the last and not the least distinguished of our long line of poet-historians. Mac Firbis was a voluminous writer. Unfortunately some of his treatises have been lost •■^ but the Chronicum Scotorum is more than sufficient to estabhsh his literary reputation. The Annals of the Four Masters demand a larger notice, as unquestionably one of the most remarkable works on record. It forms the last link between the ancient and modern history of Ireland ; a link worthy of the past, and, we dare add, it shall be ^ Murdered. — The circumstances of the murder are unhappily characteristic of the times. The Celtic race was under the ban of penal laws for adherence to the faith of their fathers. The murderer was free. As the old historian travelled to Dublin, he rested at a shop in Dunflin. A young man came in and took liberties with the yoimg woman who had care of the shop. She tried to check him, by saying that he woidd be seen by the gentleman in the next room. In a moment he seized a knife from the counter, and plunged it into the breast of Mac Firbis. There was no "justice for Ireland " then, and, of course, the miscreant escaped the punishment he too well deserved. ^ Lost. — He was also employed by Sir James Ware to translate for him, and ap]>ears to have resided in his house in Castle- street, Dubhn, just before his death. 52 THE FRIARS OF LOUVAIN. also worthy of the future. It is a proof of what great and noble deeds may be accomplished under the most adverse circumstances, and one of the many, if not one of the most, triumphant denials of the often-repeated charges of indolence made against the mendicant orders, and of aversion to learning made against religious orders in general. Nor is it a less brilliant proof that intellectual gifts may be cultivated and are fostered in the cloister ; and that a patriot's heart may burn as ardently, and love of country prove as powerful a motive, beneath the cowl or the veil, as beneath the helmet or the coif. Michael O'Clery, the chief of the Four Masters, was a friar of th-- order of St. Francis. He was born at Kilbarron, near Ballyshannon, county Donegal, in the year 1580, and was educated principally in the south of Ireland, which was then more celebrated for its academies than the north. The date of his entrance into the Fran- ciscan order is not known, neither is it known why he, " Once the heir of bardic honours," became a simple lay-brother. In the year 1 627 he travelled through Ireland collecting materials for Father Hugh \Yard, also a Franciscan friar, and Guardian of the convent of St. Antony at Louvain, who was preparing a series of Lives of Irish Saints. When Father Ward died, the project was taken up and partially carried out by Father John Colgan. His first work, the Trias Thaiimaturgus, contains the lives of St. Patrick, St. Brigid, and St. Columba. The second volume contains the lives of Irish saints whose festivals occur from the 1st of January to the 31st of March; and here, unfortunately alike for the hagiographer and the antiquarian, the work ceased. It is probable that the idea of saving — *' The old memorials Of the noble and the holy, Of the chiefs of ancient lineage, Of the saints of wondrous virtues ; Of the Ollamhs and the Brehons, Of the bards and of the betaghs,"^ occuiTed to him while he was collecting materials for Father Ward. His own account is grand in its simplicity, and beautiful as indi- 3 BetagJis. — Poems, by D. F. Mac Carthy. DEDICATION OF THE ANNALS. 53 eating that the deep passion for country and for literature had but enhanced the yet deeper passion which found its culminating point in the dedication of his life to God in the poor order of St. Francis. In the troubled and disturbed state of Ireland, he had some difficulty in securing a patron. At last one was found who could appreciate intellect, love of country, and true religion. Although it is almost apart from our immediate subject, we cannot refrain giving an ex- tract from the dedication to this prince, whose name should be immortalized with that of the friar patriot and historian : — "I, Michael O'Clerigh, a poor friar of the Order of St. Francis (after having been for ten years transcribing every old material that I found concerning the saints of Ireland, observing obedience to each provincial that was in Ireland successively), have come before you, noble Fearghal O'Gara. I have calculated on your honour that it seemed to you a cause of pity and regret, grief and sorrow (for the glory of God and the honour of Ireland), how much the race of Gaedhil, the son of Niul, have passed under a cloud and darkness, without a knowledge or record of the obit of saint or virgin, arch- bishop, bishop, abbot, or other noble dignitary of the Church, or king or of prince, of lord or of chieftain, [or] of the synchronism of connexion of the one with the other." He then explains how he collected the materials for his work, adding, alas ! most truly, that should it not be accomplished then, " they would not again be found to be put on record to the end of the world." He thanks the prince for giving " the reward of their labour to the chroniclers," and simply observes, that ''it was the friars of the convent of Donegal who supplied them with food and attendance." With characteristic humility he gives his patron the credit of all the " good which will result from this book, in giving light to all in general and concludes thus : — " On the twenty-second day of the month of January, A.D. 1632, this book was commenced in the convent of Dun-na-ngall, and it was finished in the same convent on the tenth day of August, 1636, the eleventh year of the reign of our king Charles over England, France, Alba, and over EirL^^ There were " giants in those days ;" and one scarcely knows whether to admire most the liberality of the prince, the devotion of the friars of Donegal, who "gave food and attendance" to their literary brother, and thus had their share in perpetuating their country's fame, or the gentle humility of the great Brother Michael. \ 54 THE BOOK OF INVASIONS — OUR FIRST COLONISTS. It is unnecessary to make any observation on the value and im- portance of the Annals of the Four Masters. The work has been edited with extraordinary care and erudition by Dr. O'Donovan, and published by an Irish house. We must now return to the ob- ject for which this brief mention of the MS. materials of Irish history has been made, by showing on what points other historians coincide in their accounts of our first colonists, of their language, customs, and laws j and secondly, how far the accounts which may be obtained ab extra agree with the statements of our own annalists. The Book of Invasions, which was rewritten and " purified " by brother Michael O'Clery, gives us in a few brief lines an epitome of our history as recorded by the ancient chroniclers of Erinn : — "The sum of the matters to be found in the following book, is the taking of Erinn by [the Lady] Ceasair ; the taking by Partholan; the taking by Nemedh ; the taking by the Firbolgs ; the taking by the Tuatha D4 Danann ; the taking by the sons of Miledh [or Miletius] ; and their succession down to the monarch Mehlieachlainn, or Malachy the Great [who died in 1022]." Here we have six distinct " takings," invasions, or colonizations of Ireland in pre- Christian times. It may startle some of our readers to find any mention of Irish history " before the Flood," but we think the burden of proof, to use a logical term, lies rather with those who doubt the possibility, than with those who accept as tradition, and as possibly true, the state- ments which have been transmitted for centuries by careful hands. There can be no doubt that a hish desrree of cultivation, and con- CO ' siderable advancement in science, had been attained by the more immediate descendants of our first parents. Navigation and com- merce existed, and Ireland may have been colonized. The sons of Noah must have remembered and preserved the traditions of their ancestors, and transmitted them to their descendants. Hence, it depended on the relative anxiety of these descendants to preserve the history of the world before the Flood, how much posterity should know of it. MacFirbis thus answers the objections of those who, even in his day, questioned the possibility of preserving such records : — " If there be any one who shall ask who preserved the }\\?>tovj[Seanchus\ let him know that they were very ancient and long- lived old men, recording elders of great age, whom God permitted to preserve and hand down the history of Erinn, in books, in succession, one after another, from the Deluge to the time of St. Patrick." PROBABILITIES OF EARLY COLONIZATION. 55 The artificial state of society in our own age, has probably acted disadvantageously on our literary researches, if not on our moral character. Civilization is a relative arbitrary term ; and the ances- tors whom we are pleased to term uncivilized, may have possessed as high a degree of mental culture as ourselves, though it unques- tionably differed in kind. Job wrote his epic poem in a state of society which we should probably term uncultivated ; and when Lamech gave utterance to the most ancient and the saddest of human lyrics, the world was in its infancy, and it would appear as if the first artificer in " brass and iron " had only helped to make homicide more easy. We can scarce deny that murder, cruel injustice, and the worst forms of inhumanity, are but too common in countries which boast of no ordinary refinement ; and we should hesitate ere we condemn any state of society as uncivilized, simply because we find such crimes in the pages of their history. The question of the early, if not pre-Noahacian colonization of Ireland, though distinctly asserted in our annals, has been met with the ready scepticism which men so freely use to cover ignorance or indifference. It has been taken for granted that the dispersion, after the confusion of tongues at Babel, was the first dispersion of the human race; but it has been overlooked that, on the lowest com- putation, a number of centuries equal, if not exceeding, those of the Christian era, elapsed between the Creation of man and the Flood ; that men had " multiplied exceedingly upon the earth and that the age of stone had already given place to that of brass and iron, which, no doubt, facilitated commerce and colonization, even at this early period of the world's history. The discovery of works of art, of however primitive a character, in the drifts of France and Eng- land, indicates an early colonization. The rudely-fashioned harpoon of deer's horn found beside the gigantic whale, in the alluvium of the carse near the base of Dummyat, twenty feet above the highest tide of the nearest estuary, and the tusk of the mastodon lying alongside fragments of pottery in a deposit of the peat and sands of the post-pliocene beds in South Carolina, are by no means solitary examples. Like the night torch of the gentle Guanahan^ savage, which Columbus saw as he gazed wearily from his vessel, looking, even after sunset, for the long hoped-for shore, and which told him that his desire was at last consummated, those indications of man, associated with the gigantic animals of a geological age, of whose antiquity there can be no question, speak to our hearts strange tales 56 PROBABILITIES OF EARLY COLONIZATION. of the long past, and of the early dispersion and progressive distribu- tion of a race created to " increase and multiply." The question of transit has also been raised as a difficulty by those who doubt our early colonization. But this would seem easily removed. It is more than probable that, at the period of which we write, Britain, if not Ireland, formed part of the European continent ; but were it not so, we have proof, even in the present day, that screw propellers and iron cast vessels are not necessary for safety in distant voyages, since the present aboriginal vessels of the Pacific will weather a storm in which a Great Eastern or a London might founder hopelessly. Let us conclude an apology for our antiquity, if not a proof of it, in the words of our last poet historian : — " We believe that henceforth no wise person will be found who will not acknowledge that it is possible to bring the genealogies of the Gaedhils to their origin, to Noah and to Adam ; and if he does not believe that, may he not believe that he himself is the son of his own father. For there is no error in the genealogical history, but as it was left from father to son in succession, one after another. " Surely every one believes the Divine Scriptures, which give a similar genealogy to the men of the world, from Adam down to Noah f and the genealogy of Christ and of the holy fathers, as may be seen in the Church [writings]. Let him believe this, or let him deny God. And if he does believe this, why should he not believe another history, of which there has been truthful preservation, like the history of Erinn % I say truthful preservation, for it is not only that they [the preservers of it] were very numerous, as Wi;^ said, preserving the same, but there was; an order and a law with them and upon them, out of which they could not, without great injury, tell lies or falsehoods, as may be seen in the Books of Fenechas [Law], of Fodhla [Erinn], and in the degrees of the poets themselves, their order, and their laws."^ * Noah. — This is a clear argument. The names of pre-Noahacian patriarchs must have been preserved by tradition, with their date of succession and history. Why should not other genealogies have been preserved in a similar manner, and even the names of individuals transmitted to ^Josterity 2 ^ Laws. — MacFirbis. Apud 0' Curry, p. 219. EEREHAVEN, CHAPTER III. First Colonists — The Landing of Ceasair, before the Flood — Landing of Par- tholan, after the Flood, at Inver Scene — Arrival of Kemedh — The Fomo- rians — Emigration of the Nemenians — The Firbolgs — Division of Ireland by the Firbolg Chiefs — The Tiiatha De Dananns — Their Skill as Artificers — Nuada of the Silver Hand — The Warriors Sreng and Breas — The Satire of Cairbr§ — Termination of the Fomorian Dynasty. [a.m. 1599.] E shall, then, commence our history with such accounts as we can find in our annals of the pre- Christian colonization of Erinn. The le£:ends of the discovery and inhabitation of Ireland before the Flood, are too purely mythical to demand se- rious notice. But as the most ancient MSS. agree in their account of this immigration, we may not pass it over without brief mention. The account in the Chronicum Scotorum runs thus : — "KaL V. f. 1. 10. Anno mundi 1599. " In this year the daughter of one of the Greeks came to Hibernia, whose name was h-Erui, or Berba, or Cesar, and fifty maidens and three men with her. Ladhra was their conductor, who was the first that was buried in Hibernia."^ The Cin of Drom Snechta ^ Hibernia. — Chronicum Scotorum, j). 3. 58 PARTHOLAN. is quoted in the Book of Ballymote as authority for the same tra dilionJ The Book of Invasions also mentions this account as derived from ancient sources. MacFirbis, in the Book of Genealo- gies, says : " I shall devote the first book to Partholan, who first took possession of Erinn after the Deluge, devoting the beginning of it to the coming of the Lady Ceasair," &:c. And the Annals of the Four Masters : Forty days before the Deluge, Ceasair came to Ireland with fifty girls and three men — Bith, Ladhra, and Fintain their names. All authorities agree that Partholan was the first who colonized Ireland after the Flood. His arrival is stated in the Chronicum Scotorum to have taken place " in the sixtieth year of the age of Abraham."^ The Four Masters say : " The age of the world, when Partholan came into Ireland, 2520 years."^ Partholan landed at Inver^ Scene, now the Kenmare river, ac- companied by his sons, their wives, and a thousand followers. His antecedents are by no means the most creditable; and we may, perhaps, feel some satisfaction, that a colony thus founded should have been totally swept away by pestilence a few hundred years after its establishment. The Chronicum Scotorum gives the date of his landing thus : " On a Monday, the litYi of May, he arrived, his companions being eight in number, viz., four men and four women." If the kingdom of Desmond were as rich then as now in natural beauty, a scene of no ordinary splendour must have greeted the eyes and glad- dened the hearts of its first inhabitants. They had voyaged past jhe fair and sunny isles of that tideless sea," the home of the Phoenician race from the earliest ages. They had escaped the dan- gers of the rough Spanish coast, and gazed upon the spot where the Pillars of Hercules were the beacons of the early mariners. For many days they had lost sight of land, and, we may believe, 7 Tradition.— O'CnTTy, p. 13. ^ Names. — Four Masters, O'Donovan, p. 3. ^ Abraham. — Chromcnm Scotorum, p. 5. ' Years. — Four Masters, p. 5. ^ Inver. — Jnver and Aber have been used as test words in discriminating between the Gaedhilic and Cymric Celts, The etymology and meaning is the same — a meeting of waters. Inver, the Erse and Gaedhilic form, is common in Ireland, and in those parts of Scotland where the Gael encroached on the Cymry. See Words and Places, p. 259, for interesting observations on this subject. THE PLAGUE AT TALLAGHT. 59 had well-nigh despaired of finding a home in that far isle, to which some strange impulse had attracted them, or some old tradition — for the world even then was old enough for legends of the past — had won their thoughts. But there was a cry of land. The billows dashed in wildly, then as now, from the coasts of an undis- covered world, and left the same line of white foam upon Eire's western coast. The magnificent Inver rolled its tide of beauty between gentle hills and sunny slopes, till it reached what now is appropriately called Kenmare. The distant Keeks showed their clear summits in sharp outline, pointing to the summer sky. The long-backed Mangerton and quaintly-crested Cam Tual were there also ; and, perchance, the Eoughty and the Finih6 sent their little streams to swell the noble river bay. But it was no time for dreams, though the Celt in all ages has proved the sweetest of dreamers, the truest of bards. These men have rough work to do, and, it may be, gave but scant thought to the beauties of the western isle, and scant thanks to their gods for escape from peril. Plains were to be cleared, forests cut down, and the red deer and giant elk driven to deeper recesses in the well-wooded country. Several lakes are said to have sprung forth at that period ; but it is more probable that they already existed, and were then for the first time seen by human eye. The plains which Partholan's people cleared are also mentioned, and then we find the ever- returning obituary : — " The age of the world 2550, Partholan died on Sean Mhagh-Ealta- Edair in this year."^ The name of Tallaght still remains, like the peak of a submerged world, to indicate this colonization, and its fatal termination. Some very ancient tumuli may still be seen there. The name signifies a place where a number of persons who died of the plague were interred together ; and here the Annals of the Four Masters tells us that nine thousand of Partholan's people died in one week, after they had been three hundred years in Ireland.* The third "taking" of Ireland was that of Nemedh. He came, according to the Annals,^ A.M. 2859, and erected forts and cleared plains, as his predecessors had done. His people were also afflicted by plague, and appeared to have had occupation enough to bury their dead, and to fight with the " Fomorians in general," an 3 Year. — Annals, p. 7. * Ireland. — lb. p. 9. * Annals. — lb. I. p. 9. GO DIVISION OF IRELAND BY THE FIRCOLG CHIEFS. unpleasantly pugilistic race, who, according to the Annals of Clon- macnois, " were a sept descended from Cham, the sonne of Noeh, and lived by pyracie and spoile of other nations, and were in those days very troublesome to the whole world."^ The few Nemedians who escai^ed alive after their great battle with the Fomorians, fled into the interior of the island. Three bands were said to have emi- grated with their respective captains. One party wandered into the north of Europe, and are believed to have been the progenitors of the Tuatha D6 Dananns ; others made their way to Greece, where they were enslaved, and obtained the name of Firbolgs, or bagmen, from the leathern bags which they were compelled to carry ; and the third section sought refuge in the north of England, which is said to have obtained its name of Briton from their leader, Briotan Maol.^ The fourth immigration is that of the Firbolgs ; and it is remark- able how early the love of country is manifested in the Irish race, since we find those who once inhabited its green plains still anxious to return, whether their emigration proved prosperous, as to the Tuatha D6 Dananns, or painful, as to the Firbolgs. According to the Annals of Clonmacnois, Keating, and the Leahhar-Gabhala, the Firbolgs divided the island into five provinces, governed by five brothers, the sons of Dela Mac Loich : — " Slane, the eldest brother, had the province of Leynster for his part, which containeth from Inver Colpe, that is to say, where the river Boyne entereth into the sea, now called in Irish Drogheda, to the meeting of the three waters, by Waterford, where the three rivers, Suyre, Ffeoir, and Barrow, do meet and run together into the sea. Gann, the second brother's part, was South Munster, which is a province extending from that place to Bealagh-Conglaissey. Sean- gann, the third brother's part, was from Bealagh-Conglaissey to Rossedahaileagh, now called Limbriche, which is in the province of North Munster. Geanaun, the fourth brother, had the province of Connacht, containing from Limerick to Easroe. Rorye, the fifth ^ World. — See Conell MacGeogliegan's Translation of the Annals of Clon- macnois, quoted by O'Douovan, p. 11. ' Maol. — The Teutonic languages afford no explanation of the name of Britain, though it is inhabited by a Teutonic race. It is probable, therefore, that they adopted an ethnic appellation of the former inhabitants. This may have been patronymic, or, perhaps, a Celtic prefix with the Euskarian suffix etaiif a district or country. See Words and Places, p. 60. ARRIVAL OF THE TUATHi. DE DAN ANNS, A.M. 3303. CI brother, and youngest, had from iasroe aforesaid to Inver Colpe, which is in the province of Ulster. The Firbolg chiefs had landed .'n different parts of the island, but they soon met at the once famous Tara, where they united their forces. To this place they gave the name of Druim Cain, or the Beautiful Eminence. The fifth, or Tuatlia Danann " taking" of Ireland, occurred in the reign of Eochaidh, son of Ere, A.M. 3303. The Firbolgian dynasty was terminated at the battle of Magh Tuireadh. Eochaidh fled from the battle, and was killed on the strand of Traigh Eothaiie, near Ballysadare, co. Sligo. The cave where he was interred still exists, and there is a curious tradition that the tide can never cover it. The Tuatha De Danann king, Nuada, lost his hand in this battle, and obtained the name of Nuada of the Silver Hand,^ his artificer, Credne Cert, having made a silver hand for him with joints. It is probable the latter acquisition was the work of Mioch, the son of Diancecht, Nuada's physician, as there is a tradition that he " took off the hand and infused feeling and motion into every joint and finger of it, as if it were a natural hand." We may doubt the "feeling," but it was probably suggested by the "motion," and the fact that, in those ages, every act of more than ordinary skill Avas attributed to supernatural causes, though eflfected through human agents. Perhaps even, in the enlightened nineteenth century, we might not be much the worse for the pious belief, lass the pagan cause to which it was attributed. It should be observed -lere, that the Brehon Laws were probably then in force ; for the "b .emish" of the monarch appears to have deprived him of his dignity, at least until the silver hand could satisfy for the defective limb. The Four Masters tell us briefly that the Tuatha De Dananns gave the sovereignty to Breas, son of Ealathan, " while the hand of Xuada was under cure," and mentions that Breas resigned the kingdom to him in the seventh year after the cure of his hand. A more detailed account of this afiair may be found in one of our ancient historic tales, of the class called Catha or Battles, which 8 Ulster. — Neither the Annals nor the Chronicum give these divisions; the above is from the Annals of Clonmacnois. There is a poem in the Book of Lecain, at folio 277, b., by MacLiag, on the Firbolg colonies, which is quoted as having been taken from their own account of themselves ; and another on the same subject at 278, a. ^ Hand. — Fonr Masters, p. 17. 62 THE WARRIORS SRENG AND BREAS. Professor O'Curry pronounces to be " almost the earliest event upor the record of which we may place sure reliance."^ It would appear that there were two battles between the Firbolgs and Tuatha De Dananns, and that, in the last of these, Xuada was slain. According to this ancient tract, when the Firbolg king heard of the ani- val of the invaders, he sent a warrior named Sreng to reconnoitre their camp. The Tuatha D6 Dananns were as skilled in war as in magic ; they had sentinels carefully posted, and their videiies were as much on the alert as a AVellington or a Napier could desire. The champion Breas was sent forward to meet the stran- ger. As they approached, each raised his shield, and cautiously surveyed his opponent from above the protecting aegis. Breas was the first to speak. The mother- tongue was as dear then as now, and Sreng was charmed to hear himself addressed in his own language, which, equally dear to the exiled Nemedian chiefs, had been presei'ved by them in their long wander- ings through northern Europe. An exa- mination of each others armour next took place. Sreng was armed with " two hea^y, thick, pointless, but sharply rounded spears while Breas carried " two beauti- fully shaped, thin, slender, long, sharp- pointed spears."- Perhaps the one bore a spear of the same class of heavy flint weapons of which we give an illustration, and the other the lighter and more grace- ful sword, of which many specimens may be seen in the collection of the Eoyal Irish Academy. Breas then proposed that they should divide the island between the two parties ; and after ex- changing spears and promises of mutual friendship, each returned to his own camp. 1 i?eZtance.— O'Curry, p. 243. » ^Sjoears.- O'Curry, p. 245. FLINT SPEAR-HEAD, FROM THE COLLECTIO>' OF THE R.I.A. THE SATIRE OF CAIRBRE. 63 The Pirbolg king, however, objected to this arrangement ; and it was decided, in a council of war, to give battle to the invaders. The Tuatha De Dananns were prepared for this from the account which Breas gave of the Firbolg warriors : they, therefore, aban- doned their camp, and took up a strong position on Mount Belgadan, at the west end of Magh Nia, a site near the present village of Cong, co. Mayo. The Firbolgs marched from Tara to meet them ; but Nuada, anxious for pacific arrangements, opened new negociations with King Eochaidh through the medium of his bards. The battle which has been mentioned before then followed. The warrior Breas, who ruled during the disability of Nuada, was by no means popular. He was not hospitable, a sine qua non for king or chief from the earliest ages of Celtic being ; he did not love the bards, for the same race ever cherished and honoured learning ; and he attempted to enslave the nobles. Discontent came to a climax when the bard Cairbre, son of the poetess Etan, visited the royal court, and was sent to a dark chamber, ^vithout fire or bed, and, for all royal fare, served with three small cakes of bread. If we wish to know the true history of a people, to understand the causes of its sorrows and its joys, to estimate its worth, and to know how to rule it wisely and well, let us read such old-world tales carefully, and ponder them well. Even if prejudice or ignorance should induce us to undervalue their worth as authentic records of its ancient history, let us remember the undeniable fact, that they are authentic records of its deepest national feelings, and let them, at least, have their weight as such in our schemes of social economy, for the present and the future. The poet left the court next morning, but not until he pronounced a bitter and withering satire on the king — the first satire tliat had ever been pronounced in Erinn. It was enough. Strange effects are attributed to the satire of a poet in those olden times ; but probably they could, in all cases, bear the simple and obvious interpretation, that he on whom the satire was pronounced was thereby disgraced eternally before his people. For how slight a punishment would bodily suffering or deformity be, in comparison to the mental suffering of which a quick-souled people are eminently capable ! Breas was called on to resign. He did so with the worst possible grace, as might be expected from such a character. His father, Elatha, was a Fomorian sea-king or pirate, and he repaired to AN ANCIENT PRIVY COUNCIL. his court. His reception was not such as he had expected ; he therefore went to Balor of the Evil Eye,^ a Fomorian chief. The two warriors collected a vast army and navy, and formed a bridge of ships and boats from the Hebrides to the north-west coast of Erinn. Having landed their forces, they marched to a plain in the barony of Tirerrill (co. Sligo), where they waited an attack or surrender of the Tuatha Danann army. But the magical skill, or, more correctly, the superior abilities of this people, proved them more than equal to the occasion. The chronicler gives a quaint and most interesting account of the Tuatha De Danann arrange- ments. Probably the Crimean campaign, despite our nineteenth century advancements in the art of war, was not prepared for more carefully, or carried out more efficiently. Nuada called a " privy council," if we may use the modern term for the ancient act, and obtained the advice of the great Daghda ; of Lug, the son of Cian, son of Diancecht, the famous physician ; and of Ogma Grian-Aineach (of the sun-like face). But Daghda and Lug were e^^dently secretaries of state for the home and war departments, and arranged these intricate affairs with per- haps more honour to their master, and more credit to the nation, than many a modern and " civilized" statesman. They summoned to their presence the heads of each department necessary for car- rying on the war. Each department was therefore carefully pre- organized, in such a manner as to make success almost certain, and to obtain every possible succour and help from those engaged in the combat, or those who had suffered from it. The "smiths" were prepared to make and to mend the swords, the surgeons to heal or staunch the wounds, the bards and druids to praise or blame ; and each knew his work, and what was expected from the department, which he headed before the battle, for the questions put to each, and their replies, are on record. Pardon me. You will say I have written a romance, a legend, for the benefit of my country* — a history of what might have been, ' Ei/e. — There is a curious note by Dr. O'DoDovan (Annals, p. IS) about this Balor. The tradition of his deeds and enchantments is still preserved in Tory Island, one of the many evidences of the value of tradition, and of the many proofs that it usually overlies a strata of facts. * Country. — We find the following passages in a work purporting to be a history of Ireland, recently published: "It would be throwing away time to examine critically fables like those contained in the present and following cha]>ter, " The subjects of those chapters are the colonization of Partholan, of the Xemedians, AUTHENTICITY OF THESE ACCOUNTS. 65 of what should be, at least in modern warfare, and, alas ! often is not. Pardon me. The copy of the tracts from which I have com- piled this meagre narrative, is in existence, and in the British Museum. It was written on vellum, about the year 1460, by Gilla- Kiabhach O'Clery ; but there is unquestionable authority for its having existed at a much earlier period. It is quoted by Cormac Mac Cullinan in his Glossary, in illustration of the word Nes, and Cormac was King of Munster in the year of grace 885, while his Glossary was compiled to explain words which had then become obsolete. This narrative must, therefore, be of great antiquity. If we cannot accept it as a picture of the period, in the main authentic, let us give up all ancient history as a myth ; if we do accept it, let us acknawledge that a people who possessed such officials had attained a high state of intellectual culture, and that their memory demands at least the homage of our respect. The plain on which this battle was fought, retains the name of the Plain of the Towers (or Pillars) of the Fomorians, and some very curious sepulchral monuments may still be seen on the ancient field. Fomorians, Tuatha D6 Dananns, and Milesians, the building of the palace of Emania, the reign of Cairbre, Tuathal, and last, not least, the death of Dathi. And these are "fables"! The wi'iter then calmly informs us that the period at which they were "invented, extended probably from the tenth to the twelfth century." Certainly, the "inventors" were men of no ordinary talent, and deserve some commendation for their inventive faculties. But on this subject we shall say mox'e hereafter. At last the writer arrives at the •'first ages of Christianity." We hoped that here at least he might have granted us a history ; but he writes ; "The history of early Christianity in Ireland is obscure and doubtful, precisely in proportion as it is unusually copious. If legends enter largely into the civil history of the country, they found their way tenfold into the history of the Church, because there the ten- dency to believe in them was much greater, as well as the inducement to invent and adopt them." The "inventors" of the pre-Christian history of Ireland, who accomplished their task "from the tenth to the twelfth century," are certainly complimented at the expense of the saints who Christianized Ireland. This writer seems to doubt the existence of St. Patrick, and has "many doubts" as to the authenticity of the life of St. Columba. We should not have noticed this work had we not reason to know that it has circulated largely amongst the middle and lower classes, who may be gi'ievously misled by its very insidious statements. It is obviously written for the sake of making a book to sell ; and the writer has the honesty to say plainly, that he merely gives the early history of Ireland, pagan and Christian, because he could not well write a history of Ireland and omit this portion of it ! E 66 LADY PHYSICIANS. In those days, as in the so-called middle ages, ladies exercised their skill in the healing art ; and we find honorable mention made of the Lady Ochtriuil, who assisted the chief physician (her father) and his sons in healing the wounds of the Tuatha De Danann heroes. These warriors have also left many evidences of their existence in raths and monumental pillars.^ It is probable, also, that much that has been attributed to the Danes, of right belongs to the Dananns, and that a confusion of names has promoted a confusion of appropriation. Before we turn to the Milesian immi- gration, the last colonization of the old country, let us inquire what was known and said of it, and of its people, by foreign writers. * Pillars. — The monuments ascribed to the Tuatha Dananns are princi- pally situated in Meath, at Drogheda, Dowlet, Knowth, and New Grange. There are others at Cnoc-Aine and Cnoc-Gre'in&, co. Limerick, and on the Pap Mountains, co. Kerry. CAVITY, CONTAINING OVAL BASIIT, NEW GRANGE. THE SEVEN CASTLES OF CLONMINES. CHAPTER lY. The Scythians Colonists — Testiniiony of Josephus— Magog and his Colony — Statements of our Annals confirmed by a Jewish Writer — By Herodotus — Nennius relates what is told by the "Most Learned of the Scoti" — Phoenician Circumnavigation of Africa — Phcenician Colonization of Spain — Iberus and Himerus— Traditions of Partholan — Early Geographical Accounts of Ireland— Early Social Accounts of Ireland. HE writer of the article on Ireland, in Eees' Cyclo- paedia, says : " It does not appear improbable, much less absurd, to suppose that the Plioenicians might have colonized Ireland at an early period, and in- troduced their laws, customs, and knowledge, with a comparatively high state of civilization ; and that these might have been gradually lost amidst the disturbances of the country, and, at last, completely destroyed by the irruptions of the Ostmen." Of this assertion, which is now scarcely doubted, there is abundant proof; and it is remarkable that Josephus^ attributes to the Phoenicians a special care in preserving their annals above that of other civilized nations, and that this feeling has existed, and still exists, more vividly in the Celtic race than in any other European people. * Josephus. — Con. Apionem, lib. i. 68 THE SCYTHIANS. The Irish annalists claim a descent from the Scythians, who, they say, are descended from Magog, the son of Japhet, the son of Noah. Keating says : " We will set down here the branching off of the race of Magog, according to the Book of Invasions (of Ireland), which was called the Cin of Drom Snechta.""^ It will be remembered how curiously O'Curry verified Keating's statement as to the authorship of this work,^ so that his testimony may be received with respect. In the Scripture genealogy, the sons of Magog are not enumerated ; but an historian, who cannot be suspected of any design of assisting the Celts to build up a pedi- gree, has happily supplied the deficiency. Josephus writes r** " Magog led out a colony, which from him were named Magoges, but by the Greeks called Scythians." But Keating specifies the precise title of Scythians, from which the Irish Celts are descended. He says they had established themselves in remote ages on the borders of the Eed Sea, at the town of Chiroth ; that they were expelled by the grandson of that Pharaoh who had been drowned in the Eed Sea ; and that he persecuted them because they had supplied the Israelites with pro\isions. This statement is singularly and most conclusively confirmed by Rabbi Simon, who wrote two hundred years before the birth of Christ. He says that certain Canaanites near the Red Sea gave provisions to the Israelites ; " and because these Canaan ships gave Israel of their provisions, God would not destroy their ships, but with an east wind carried them down the Red Sea."^ This colony settled in what was subsequently called Phoenicia ; and here again our traditions are confirmed ab extra, for Herodotus says : The Phoenicians anciently dwelt, as they allege, on the borders of the Red Sea."^ It is not known at what time this ancient nation obtained the ' Sneclita. — O'Curry, p. 14. 8 Work.—^ee ante, p. 43. ® Writes. — Josephus, lib. i. c. 6. Most of the authorities in this chapter are taken from the Essay on the ancient history, religion, learning, arts, and government of Ireland, by the late \V. D' Alton. The Essay obtained a prize of £80 and the Cunningham Gold Medal from the Royal Irish Academy. It is published in volume xvi. of the Transactions, and is a repertory of learning of immense value to the student of Irish history. ^ Sea, — Lib. Zoar, p. 87, as cited by Vallancey, and Parson's Defence, &c., p. 205. ^ Sea. — Herodotus, L vii. c. 89. PHCENICIAN NAVIGATORS. 69 specific appellation of Phoenician. The word is not found in Hebrew copies of the Scriptures, but is used in the Machabees, the original of which is in Greek, and in the New Testament. Accord- ing to Grecian historians, it was derived from Phoenix, one of their kings, and brother of Cadmus, the inventor of letters. It is re- markable that our annals mention a king named Phenius, who devoted himself especially to the study of languages, and composed an alphabet and the elements of grammar. Our historians describe the wanderings of the Phoenicians, whom they still designate Scythians, much as they are described by other writers. The account of their route may differ in detail, but the main incidents coincide. Nennius, an English chronicler, who wrote in the seventh century, from the oral testimony of trustworthy Irish Celts, gives corroborative testimony. He writes thus : "If any one would be anxious to learn how long Ireland was uninhabited and deserted, he shall hear it, as the most learned of the Scots have related it to me.^ When the children of Israel came to the Eed Sea, the Egyptians pursued them and were drowned, as the Scripture records. In the time of Moses there was a Scythian noble who had been banished from his kingdom, and dwelt in Egypt with a large family. He was there when the Egyptians were drowned, but he did not join in the persecution of the Lord's people. Those who survived laid plans to banish him, lest he should assume the government, because their brethren were drowned in the Red Sea; so he was expelled. He wandered through Africa for forty-two years, and passed by the lake of Salinas to the altars of the Philistines, and between Rusicada and the mountains Azure, and he came by the river Mulon, and by sea to the Pillars of Hercules, and through the Tuscan Sea, and he made for Spain, and dwelt there many years, and he increased and multiplied, and bis people were multiplied." Herodotus gives an account of the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians, which may have some coincidence with this narrative. His only reason for rejecting the tradition, which he relates at length, is that he could not conceive how these ^ Mc. — " Sic mihi peritissimi Scotorum nunciaverunt." The reader will re- member tliat tlic Irish were called Scots, although the appellative of lerins or lerne continued to be given to the country from the days of Orpheus to those of Claudius. By Roman writers Ireland was more usually termed Hibernia. J uvenal calls it Juverna. 70 PHCENICIAN COLONISTS IN SPAIN. navigators could have seen the sun in a position contrary to that in which it is seen in Europe. The expression of his doubt is a strong confirmation of the truth of his narrative, which, however, is generally believed by modern writers.* This navigation was performed about seven centuries before the Christian era, and is, at least, a proof that the maritime power of the Phoenicians was established at an early period, and that it was not impossible for them to have extended their enterprises to Ire- land. The traditions of our people may also be confirmed from other sources. Solinus writes thus : " In the gulf of Boatica there is an island, distant some hundred paces from the mainland, which the Tyrians, who came from the Red Sea, called Erythroea, and the Carthaginians, in their language, denominate Gadir, i.e., the enclosure." Spanish historians add their testimony, and claim the Phoenicians as their principal colonizers. The Hispania Ilhistrata, a rare and valuable work, on which no less than sixty writers were engaged, fixes the date of the colonization of Spain by the Phoenicians at 764 A.C. DeBellegarde says : " The first of whom mention is made in history is Hercules, the Phoenician, by some called Melchant." It is alleged that he lived in the time of Moses, and that he retired into Spain when the Israelites entered the land of promise. This will be consistent with old accounts, if faith can be placed in the inscription of two columns, which were found in the province of Tingitane, at the time of the historian Procopius.^ A Portuguese historian, Emanuel de Faria y Sousa, mentions the sailing of Gatelus from Egypt, with his whole family, and names his two sons, Iberus and Himerus, the first of whom, he says, " some will have to have sailed into Ireland, and given the name Hibernia to it." * Writers. — The circumnavigation of Africa by a Phoenician ship, in the reign of Neco, about 610 B.C., is credited by Humbohlt, Renuell, Heeren, Grote, and Rawlinson. Of their voyages to Cornwall for tin there is no question, and it is more than probable they sailed to the Baltic for amber. It has been even supposed that they anticipated Columbus in the discovery of America. Niebuhr connects the ])rimitive astronomy of Euroj^e with that of America, and, therefore, must sujipose the latter country to have been dis- covered. of Home, vol. i. p. 281. This, however, is very vague ground of conjecture ; the tide of knowledge, as well as emigration, was more probably eastward. 6 Procopius.— Hint. Gen, d'Espaghe^ v.i]. i. c. 1. p. 4. ENGLISH TRADITIONS OF PARTHOLYAN. 71 Indeed, so strong has been tlie concurrent testimony of a Phoe- nician colonization of Ireland from Spain, and this by independent authorities, who could not have had access to our bardic histories, and who had no motive, even had they known of their existence, to write in confirmation of them, tliat those who have maintained the theory of a Gaulish colonization of Ireland, have been obliged to make Spain the point of embarkation. There is a curious treatise on the antiquities and origin of Cam- bridge, in which it is stated, that, in the year of the world 4321, a British prince, the son of Gulguntius, or Gurmund, having crossed over to Denmark, to enforce tribute from a Danish king, was returning victorious off the Orcades, when he encountered thirty ships, full of men and women. On his inquiring into the object of their voyage, their leader, PartJioIyan, made an appeal to his good- nature, and entreated from the prince some small portion of land in Britain, as his crew were weary of sailing over the ocean. Being ^informed that he came from Spain, the British prince received him under his protection, and assigned faithful guides to attend him into Ireland, which was then wholly uninhabited ; and he granted it to them, subject to an annual tribute, and confirmed the appoint- ment of Partholyan as their chief.^ This account was so firmly believed in England, that it is specially set forth in an Irish act (11th of Queen Elizabeth) among the " auncient and sundry strong authentique tytles for the kings of England to this land of Ireland." The tradition may have been obtained from Irish sources, and was probably " improved " and accommodated to fortify the Saxon claim, by the addition of the pretended grant ; but it is certainly evidence of the early belief in the Milesian colonization of Ireland, and the name of their leader. The earliest references to Ireland by foreign writers are, as might be expected, of a contradictory character. Plutarch affirms that Calypso was "an island five days' sail to the west of Britain," which, at least, indicates his knowledge of the existence of Erinn. Orpheus is the first writer who definitely names Ireland. In the imaginary route which he prescribes for Jason and the Argonauts, he names Ireland (lernis), and describes its woody surface and its * Chief. — De Antiq. et Orig. Cantab. See D' Alton's ^ssa?/, p. 24, for other authorities. 72 EARLY GEOGRAPHICAL ACCOUNTS OF IRELAND. misty atmosphere. All authorities are agreed that this poem" was written five hundred years before Christ ; and all doubt as to whether lernis meant the present island of Ireland must be re- moved, at least to an unprejudiced inquirer, by a careful examina- tion of the route which is described, and the position of the island in that route. The early history of a country which has been so long and so cruelly oppressed, both civilly and morally, has naturally fallen into disrepute. \\'e do not like to display the qualifications of one whom we have deeply injured. It is, at least, less disgraceful to have forbidden a literature to a people who had none, than to have banned and barred the use of a most ancient lan- guage, — to have destroyed the annals of a most ancient people. In self-defence, the conc|ueror who knows not how to triumph nobly will triumph basely, and the victims may, in time, almost forget what it has been the poHcy of centuries to conceal from them. But ours is, in many respects, an age of historical justice,, and truth will triumph in the end. It is no longer necessary to England's present greatness to deny the facts of history ; and it is one of its most patent facts that Albion was unknown, or, at least, that her existence was unrecorded, at a time when Ireland is mentioned with respect as the Sacred Isle, and the Ogygia^ of the Greeks. As mJght be expected, descriptions of the social state of ancient Erinn are of the most contradictory character ; but there is a remarkable coincidence in all accounts of the physical geography of the island. The moist climate, the fertile soil, the richly- wooded plains, the navigable rivers, and the abundance o^ its fish,^ are each and all mentioned by the early geographers. The ^ Poem. — There has been question of the author, but none as to the authen- ticity and the probable date of compilation. * 0{jy(]ici. — Camden writes thus : "Nor can any one conceive why they should call it Ogygia, unless, perhaps, from its antiquity ; for the Greeks called nothing Ogygia unless what was extremely ancient." ^ Fish. — And it still continues to be a national article of consumption and export. In a recent debate on the " Irish question," an honorable member observes, that he regrets to say " tish" is the only thing which appears to be flourishing in Ireland. We fear, however, from the report of the Select Com- mittee of the House of Commons on the question of Irish sea-coast fisheries, that the poor fishermen are not prospering as well as the fish. Mr. Hart stated : " Fish was as plenty as ever ; but numbers of the fishermen had died during the famine, others emigrated, and many of those who remained were SOCIAL STATE OF IRELAND. 73 description given by Diodorus Siculus of a " certain large island a considerable distance out at sea, and in the direction of the west, many days' sail from Lybia," if it applies to Ireland, would make us suppose that the Erinn of pagan times was incomparably more prosperous than Erinn under Christian rule. He also specially mentions the fish, and adds : " The Phoenicians, from the very remotest times, made repeated voyages thither for purposes of commerce."^ The descriptions of our social state are by no means so flattering ; but it is remarkable, and, perhaps, explanatory, that the most unfavourable accounts are the more modern ones. All without the pale of Roman civilization were considered " barbarians," and the epithet was freely applied. Indeed, it is well known that, when Cicero had a special object in view, he could describe the Celtse of Gaul as the vilest monsters, and the hereditary enemies of the gods, for whose wickedness extermination was the only remedy. As to the " gods " there is no doubt that the Druidic worship was opposed to the more sensual paganism of Greece and Rome, and, unable, from want of means, to follow the pursuit. " And yet these men are honest ; for it has been declared before the same committee, that they have scrupulously repaid the loans which were given them formerly ; and they are willing to work, for when they can get boats and nets, they do work. These are facts. Shakspeare has said that facts are *' stubborn things ;" they are, certainly, sometimes very unpleasant things. Yet, we are told, the Irish have no real grievances. Of course, starvation from want of work is not a grievance ! Within the few months which have elapsed since the publication of the first edition of this History and the present moment, when I am engaged in pre- paring a second edition, a fact has occiurred within my own personal know- ledge relative to this very subject, and of too great importance to the history of Ireland in the present day to be omitted. A shoal of sj^rats arrived in the bay of , and the poor people crowded to the shore to witness the arrival and, alas ! the departure of the finny tribe. All their nets had been broken or sold in the famine year ; they had, therefore, no means of securing what would have been a valuable addition to their poor fare. The wealthy, whose tables are furnished daily with every luxury, can have but little idea how bitter such privations are to the poor. Had there been a resident landlord in the place, to interest himself in the welfare of his tenants, a few pounds would have procured all that was necessary, and the people, always grateful for kindness, would long have remembered the boon and the bestower of it. 1 Commerce. — " Phcenices a vetustissimis iude temporibus frequenter crebras mercaturse gratia navigationes instituerunt." — Diod. Sic. vers. Wesseling, t. i. p. 344. 74 CHARGE OF CANNIBALISM REFUTED. therefore, would be considered eminently irreligious by the votar ries of the latter. The most serious social charge against the Irish Celts, is that of being anthropophagi ; and the statement of St. Jerome, that he had seen two Scoti in Gaul feeding on a human carcass, has been claimed as strong corroboration of the assertions of pagan writers. As the good father was often vehement in his statements and impul- sive in his opinions, he may possibly have been mistaken, or, perhaps, purposely misled by those who wished to give him an unfavourable impression of the Irish. It is scarcely possible that they could have been cannibal as a nation, since St. Patrick never even alludes to such a custom in his Coiifessio,^ where it would, undoubtedly, have been mentioned and reproved, had it existence. ' Confessio. — Dr. O'Donovan states, in an article in the Ulster Archceological Journal, vol. viiL p. 249, that he had a letter from the late Dr. Prichard, who stated that it was his belief the ancient Irish were not anthropophagi. He adds : *' Whatever they may have been when their island was called Insula Sacra, there are no people in Europe who are more sq^ueamish in the use of meats than the modern Irish peasantry, for they have a horror of every kind of carrion ;" albeit he is obliged to confess that, though they abuse the French for eating frogs, and the English for eating rooks, there is evidence to prove that horseflesh was eaten in Ireland, even in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. CmOSS AT GLENDALOUGn, CO. WICKLOW, CROMLECH AT DUNMORE, WAIERFORD. CHAPTER V. Landing of tlie Milesians — Traditions of the Tuatha De Dananns in St. Patrick's time— The Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny— The Milesians go back to sea " nine waves" — They conquer ultimately — Reign of Eremon — Landing of the Picts — Bede's Account of Ireland — Fame of its Fish and Goats— Difficulties of Irish Chronology — Imj^ortance and Authenticity of Irish Pedigrees — Qualifications of an Ollamh — Milesian Genealogies — Historical Value of Pedigrees — National Feelings should be respected — Historic Tales — Poems. [A.M. 3500.] E last colonization of Ireland is thus related in the Annals of the Four Masters : " The age of the world 3500. The fleet of the sons of Milidh came to Ireland at the end of this year, to take it from the Tuatha Dananns, and they fought the battle of Sliabh Mis with them on the third day after landing. In this battle fell Scota, the daugh- ter of Pharaoh, wife of Milidh ; and the grave of Scota^ is [to be seen] between Sliabh Mis and the sea. Therein also fell Fas, the wife of Un, son of Uige, from whom is [named] Gleann Faisi. After this the sons of Milidh fought a battle at Taill- ten* against the three kings of the Tuatha Dananns, MacCuill, MacCeacht, and MacGrien6. The battle lasted for a long time, until MacCeacht fell by Eiremhon, MacCuill by Eimheur, and Mac 3 Scota. — The grave is still pointed out in the valley of Gleann Scoithin, county Kerry. * TalUttn — Xow Telltown, county Meath. I 7G THE LIA FAIL. Gri6n6 by Amhergen."^ Thus the Tuatha De Danann dynasty passed away, but not without leaving many a quaint legend of magic and mystery, and many an impress of its more than ordinary skill in such arts as were then indications of national superiority. The real names of the last chiefs of this line, are said to have been respectively Ethur, Cethur, and Fethur. The first was called MacCuill, because he worshipped the hazel-tree, and, more probably, because he was devoted to some branch of literature which it symbolized ; the second MacCeacht, because he worshipped the plough, i.e., was devoted to agriculture ; and the third obtained his appellation of MacGrien^ because he wor- shipped the sun. It appears from a very curious and ancient tract, written in the shape of a dialogue between St. Patrick and Caoilte MacRonain, that there were many places in Ireland where the Tuatha De Dananns were then supposed to live as sprites and fairies, with corporeal and material forms, but endued with immortality. The inference naturally to be drawn from these stories is, that the Tuatha D6 Dananns lingered in the country for many centuries after their subjugation by the Gaedhils, and that they lived in retired situations, where they practised abstruse arts, from which they obtained the reputation of being magicians. The Tuatha D6 Dananns are also said to have brought the famous Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, to Ireland. It is said by some autho- rities that this stone was carried to Scotland when an Irish colony invaded North Britain, and that it was eventually brought to England by Edward I., in the year 1300, and deposited in West- minster Abbey. It is supposed to be identical with the large block of stone which may be seen there under the coronation chair. Dr. Petrie, however, controverts this statement, and believes it to be the present pillar stone over the Croppies' Grave in one of the raths ofTara. A Danann prince, called Oghma, is said to have invented the occult form of writing called the Ogham Craove, which, like the round towers has proved so fertile a source of doubt and discussion to our antiquaries. The Milesians, however, did not obtain a colonization in Ireland without some difficulty. According to the ancient accounts, they ^ Amhergen. — Annals of the Four Masters, vol. i. p. 25. THE MILESIANS CONQUER. 77 landed at the mouth of the river Siding^, or Slaney, in the present county of Wexford, unperceived by the Tuatha D6 Dananns. From thence they marched to Tara, the seat of government, and sum- moned the three kings to surrender. A curious legend is told of this summons and its results, which is probably true in the more important details. The Tuatha De Danann princes complained that they had been taken by surprise, and proposed to the invaders to re-embark, and to go out upon the sea " the distance of nine waves,"- stating that the country should be surrendered to them if they could then effect a landing by force. The Milesian chiefs assented; but when the original inhabitants found them fairly launched at sea, they raised a tempest by magical incantations, which entirely dispersed the fleet. One part of it was driven along the east coast of Erinn, to the north, under the command of Eremon, the youngest of the Milesian brothers ; the remainder, under the command of Donn, the elder brother, was driven to the south-west of the island. But the Milesians had druids also.^ As soon as they suspected the agency which had caused the storm, they sent a man to the topmast of the ship to know " if the wind was blowing at that height over the surface of \h.e sea." The man reported that it was not. The druids then commence practising counter arts of magic, in which they soon succeeded, but not until five of the eight brothers were lost. Four, including Donn, were drowned in the wild Atlantic, off the coast of Kerry. Colpa met his fate at the mouth of the river Boyne, called from him Inbhear Colpa. Eber Finn and Amergin, the survivors of the southern party, landed in Kerry, and here the battle of Sliabh Mis was fought, which has been already mentioned. The battle of Taillten followed ; and the Milesians having become masters of the country, the brothers Eber Finn and Eremon divided it between them ; the former taking all the southern part, from the Boyne and the Shannon to Cape Clear, the latter taking all the part lying to the north of these rivers. This arrangement, however, was not of long continuance. Each was desirous of unhmited sovereignty ; and they met to decide their • Also. — This tale bears a simple and obvious interpretation. The dniids were the most learned and experienced in physical science of their respective nations ; hence the advice they gave appeared magical to those who were less instructed. I 78 BATTLE OF GEISILL. claims by an appeal to arms at Geisill/ a place near the present Tullamore, in the King's county. Eber and his chief leaders fell in this engagement, and Eremon assumed the sole government of the island.^ ANCIENT FLINT AXE. He took up his residence in Leinster, and after a reign of fifteen years died, and was buried at Rdith Bedthaigli, in Argat Boss. This ^ Geisill. — The scene of the battle was at a place called Tocliar eter dhd mhagh, or " the causeway between two plains," and on the bank of the river Bi t damh, which runs through the town of Tullamore. The name of the battle-field is still preserved in the name of the townland of Ballintogher, in the parish and barony of Gemll. At the time of the composition of the ancient topographical tract called the Dinnseanchus, the mounds and graves of the slain were still to be seen. — See O'Curry, page 449. The author of this tract, Amergin Mac Amalgaidh, wrote about the sixth century. A coj)y of his work is preserved in the Book of Bally mote, which was compiled in the year 1391. There is certainly evidence enough to prove the fact of the melee, and that this was not a '* legend invented from the tenth to the twelfth centuries." It is almost amusing to hear the criticisms of persons utterly ignorant of our literature, however well-educated in other respects. If the treasures of ancient history which exist in Irish MSS. existed in Sanscrit, or even in Greek or Latin, we should find scholars devoting their lives and best intellectual energies to understand and proclaim their value and importance, and warmly defending them against all impugners of their authenticity. 8 Island. — The axe figured above is a remarkable weapon. The copy ia takeu, by permission, from the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. Sir BEDE'S account of IRELAND. 79 ancient rath still exists, and is now called Rath Beagli. It is situated on the right bank of the river Nore, near the present vil- lage of Ballyragget, county Kilkenny. This is not narrated by the Four Masters, neither do they mention the coming of the Cruith- neans or Picts into Ireland. These occurrences, however, are recorded in all the ancient copies of the Book of Invasions, and in the Dinnseanchus. The Cruithneans or Picts are said to have fled from the oppression of their king in Thrace, and to have passed into Gaul. There they founded the city of Poictiers. From thence they were again driven by an act of tyranny, and they proceeded first to ^Pritain, and then to Ireland. Crimhthann Sciath-bel, one of King Eremon's leaders, was at Wexford when the new colony landed. He was occupied in extirpating a tribe of Britons who had settled in Fotharta,^ and were unpleasantly distinguished for fighting with poisoned weapons. The Irish chieftain asked the assistance of the new comers. A battle was fought, and the Britons were defeated principally by the skill of the Pictish druid, who found an antidote for the poison of their weapons. According to the quaint account of Bede,^ the Celtic chiefs gave good advice to their foreign allies in return for their good deeds, and recommended them to settle in North Britain, adding that they would come to tiieir assistance should they find any difficulty or opposition from the inhabitants. The Picts took the advice, but soon found them- selves in want of helpmates. They applied again to their neigh- bours, and were obligingly supplied with wives on the condition *' that, when any difficulty should arise, they should choose a king from the female royal race rather than from the male." The Picts accepted the terms and the ladies ; " and the custom," says Bede, "as is well known, is observed among the Picts to this day." Bede then continues to give a description of Ireland. His account, although of some length, and not in all points reliable, is too interesting to be omitted, being the opinion of an Englishman, and an author of reputation, as to the state of Ireland, socially and W. Wilde describes the original thus in the Catalogue : "It is 3| inches in its longest diameter, and at its thickest part measures about half-an-inch. It has been chipped all over with great care, and has a sharp edge all round. This peculiar style of tool or weapon reached perfection in this specimen, which, whether used as a knife, arrow, spike, or axe, was an implement of sin- gular beauty of design, and exhibits great skill in the manufacture.'* ^ Fotharta.—'Now the barony of Forth, in "Wexford. ^ Bede. — Ecclesiastical History ^ Bohn's edition, p. 6. 80 IRISH CHRONOLOGY. physically, in the seventh century : " Ireland, in breadth and for wholesomeness and serenity of climate, far surpasses Britain ; for the snow scarcely ever lies there above three days ; no man makes hay in summer for winter's provision, or builds stables for his beasts of burden. No reptiles are found there ; for, though often carried thither out of Britain, as soon as the ship comes near the shore, and the scent of the air reaches them, they die. On the contrary, almost all things in the island are good against poison. In short, we have known that when some persons have been bitten by serpents, the scrapings of leaves of books that were brought out of Ireland, being put into water and given them to drink, have immediately expelled the spreading poison, and assuaged the swelling. The island abounds in milk and honey nor is there any want of vines, fish,^ and fowl ; and it is remarkable for deer and goats." The chronology of Irish pagan history is unquestionably one of its greatest difl&culties. But the chronology of all ancient peoples is equally unmanageable. When Bunsen has settled Egyptian chrono- logy to the satisfaction of other literati as well as to his own, and when Hindoo and Chinese accounts of their postdiluvian or ante- diluvian ancestors have been reconciled and synchronized, we may ^ Honey. — Honey was an important edible to the ancients, and, therefore, likely to obtain special mention. Keating impugns the veracity of Solinus, who stated that there were no bees in Ireland, on the authority of Camden, who says : "Such is the quantity of bees, that they are found not only in hives, but even in the trunks of trees, and in holes in the ground." There is a curious legend anent the same useful insect, that may interest apiarians as well as hagiologists. It is said in the life of St. David, that when Modomnoc (or Dominic) was with St. David at Men e via, in Wales, he was charged with the care of the beehives, and that the bees became so attached to him that they followed him to Ireland. However, the Paile of St. Albans, who lived in the time of St. Patrick (in the early part of the fifth century), may be quoted to prove that bees existed in Ireland at an earlier period, although the saint may have been so devoted to his favourites as to have brought a special colony by miracle or otherwise to Ireland. The Rule of St. Alban says : " When they [the monks] sit down at table, let them be brought [served] beets or roots, washed with water, in clean baskets, also apples, beer, and honey from the hive. " Cer- tainly, habits of regularity and cleanliness are here plainly indicated as well as the existence of the bee. 3 Fish. — It is to be presumed that fish are destined to prosper in Hibernia : of the ancient deer, more hereafter. The goats still flourish also, as visitors to Killarney can testify ; though they will probably soon be relics of the past, 66 the goatherds are emigrating to more prosperous regions at a rapid rate. IRISH CHRONOLOGY COMPARED WITH ROMAN. 81 hear some objections to " Irish pedigrees," and listen to a new " Irish question." Pre-Christian Irish chronology has been arranged, like most ancient national chronologies, on the basis of the length of reign of certain kings. As we do not trace our descent from the " sun and moon," we are not necessitated to give our kings " a gross of cen- turies apiece," or to divide the assumed period of a reign between half-a-dozen monarchs;^ and the difficulties are merely such as might be expected before chronology had become a science. The Four Masters have adopted the chronology of the Septuagint ; but O'Flaherty took the system of Scaliger, and thus reduced the dates by many hundred years. The objection of hostile critics has been to the history rather than to the chronology of the history ; but these objections are a mere petitio principii. They cannot under- stand how Ireland could have had a succession of kings and com- parative civilization, — in fact, a national existence, — from 260 years before the building of Rome, when the Milesian colony arrived, according to the author of the Ogygia, at least a thousand years before the arrival of Caesar in Britain, and his discovery that its inhabitants were half-naked savages. The real question is not what Caesar said of the Britons, nor whether they had an ancient history before their subjugation by the victorious cohorts of Rome ; but whether the annals which contained the pre-Christian history of Ireland may be accepted as, in the main, authentic. We have already given some account of the principal works from which our annals may be compiled. Before we proceed to that portion of our history the authenticity of which cannot be questioned, it may, perhaps, be useful to give an idea of the autho- rities for the minor details of social life, the individual incidents of a nation's being, which, in fact, make up the harmonious whole. We shall find a remarkable coincidence between the materials for early Roman history, and those for the early history of that portion of the Celtic race which colonized Ireland. We have no trace of any historical account of Roman history by a contemporary writer, native or foreign, before the war with Pyrrhus ; yet we have a history of Rome for more than four hundred years previous offered to us by classical writers,^ as a * Monarchs. — See Bunseu's Egypt, passim. ^ Writers. — The first ten books of Livy are extant, and bring Roman history to the consulship of Julius Maximus Gurges and Junius Brutus Scoene, in F 83 AUTHENTICITY OF IRISH PEDIGREES. trustworthy narrative of events. From whence did they derive their reliable information 1 Unquestionably from works such as the Origines of Cato the Censor, and other writers, which were then extant, but which have since perished. And these writers, whence did they obtain their historical narratives 1 If we may credit the theory of Niebuhr,^ they were transmitted simply by bardic legends, composed in verse. Even Sir G. C. Lewis admits that comme- morative festivals and other periodical observances, may, in certain cases, have served to perpetuate a true tradition of some national event."^ And how much more surely would the memory of such events be perpetuated by a people, to whom they had brought im- portant political revolutions, who are eminently tenacious of their traditions, and who have preserved the memory of them intact for centuries in local names and monumental sites ! The sources from whence the first annalists, or writers of Irish history, may have compiled their narratives, would, therefore, be — 1. The Books of Genealogies and Pedigrees. 2. The Historic Tales. 3. The Books of Laws. 4. The Imaginative Tales and Poems. 5. National Monu- ments, such as cromlechs and pillar stones, &c., which supplied the place of the brazen tablets of Eoman history, the lihri lintei,^ or the chronological nail.^ The Books of Genealogies and Pedigrees form a most important element in Irish pagan history. For social and political reasons, the Irish Celt preserved his genealogical tree with scrupulous precision. The rights of property and the governing power were transmitted with patriarchal exactitude on strict claims of pri- mogeniture, which claims could only be refused under certain conditions defined by law. Thus, pedigrees and genealogies 292 B.C. Dionysins published his history seven yeai-s before Christ. Five of Plutarch's Lives fall withiu the period before the war with Pyrrhus. There are many sources besides those of the works of historians from which general information is obtained. * Niehuhr. — "Genuine or oral tradition has kept the story of Tarpeia for five- and-twenty hundred years in the mouths of the common people, who for many centuries have been total strangers to the names of Clceha and Cornelia." — Hist. vol. i. p. 230. 7 Event. — Credibility of Early Roman History, vol. i. p. 101. 8 Lihri lintel. — Registers written on linen, mentioned by Livy, under the year 444 b. c. ^ Nail. — Livy quotes Cincius for the fact that a series of nails were extant in the temple of Hostia, at Volsinii, as a register of successive years. Quite as primitive an arrangement as the North American qaipua. QUALIFICATION OF AN OLLAMH. 83 became a family necessity ; but since private claims might be doubted, and the question of authenticity involved such important results, a responsible public officer was appointed to keep the records, by which all claims were decided. Each king had his own recorder, who was obliged to keep a true account of his pedigree, and also of the pedigrees of the provincial kings and of their principal chieftains. The provincial kings had also their recorders (Ollamhs or Seanchaidh6^) ; and in obedience to an ancient law, established long before the introduction of Christianity, all the provincial records, as well as those of the various chieftains, were required to be furnished every third year to the convocation at Tara, where they were compared and corrected. The compilers of these genealogies were persons who had been educated as Ollamhs — none others were admissible ; and their " diplomas " were obtained after a collegiate course, which might well deter many a modern aspirant to professorial chairs. The education of the OUamh lasted for twelve years; and in the course of these twelve years of "hard work," as the early books say, certain regular courses were completed, each of which gave the student an additional degree, with corresponding title, rank, and privileges.^ " In the Book of Lecain (fol. 168) there is an ancient tract, describ- ing the laws upon this subject, and referring, with quotations, to the body of the Brethihh Nimhedh, or ' Brehon Laws.' According to this authority, the perfect Poet or OUamh should know and practise the Teinim Laegha, the Imas Forosnadh, and the Dichedal do chennaihh. The first appears to have been a peculiar druidical verse, or incantation, believed to confer upon the druid or poet the power of understanding everything that it was proper for him to say or speak. The second is explained or translated, ' the illumi- nation of much knowledge, as from the teacher to the pupil,' that is, that he should be able to explain and teach the four divisions of poetry or philosophy, * and each division of them,* continues the authority quoted, *is the chief teaching of three years of hard ^ Seanchaidhe (prononnced '* shanachy "). — It means, in this case, strictly a historian ; but the ancient historian was also a bard or poet. ^ Privileges.— We can scarcely help requesting the special attention of the reader to these well-authenticated facts. A nation which had so high an appreciation of its annals, must have been many degrees removed from bar- barism for centuries. 84 THE MILESIAN GENEALOGIES. work.' The third qualifieation, or Dichedal, is explained, * that he begins at once the head of his poem,* in short, to improvise ex- tempore in correct verse. ' To the Ollarnh,' says the ancient authority quoted in this passage in the Book of Lecain, ' belong synchronisms, together with the laegha laidhibh, or illuminating poems [incantations], and to him belong the pedigrees and etymo- logies of names, that is, he has the pedigrees of the men of Erinn with certainty, and the branching off of their various relation- ships.' Lastly, * here are the four divisions of the knowledge of poetry {or philosophy),' says the tract I have referred to ; ' genea- logies, synchronisms, and the reciting of (historic) tales form the first division ; knowledge of the seven kinds of verse, and how to measure them by letters and syllables, form another of them; judgment of the seven kinds of poetry, another of them ; lastly, Dichedal [or improvisation], that is, to contemplate and recite the verses without ever thinking of them betore.' The pedigrees were collected and written into a single book, called the Cin or Book of Drom Snechta, by the son of Duach Galach, King of Ck)nnacht, an Ollamh in history and genealo- gies, &c., shortly before* the arrival of St. Patrick in Ireland, which happened about a.d. 432. It is obvious, therefore, that these genealogies must have existed for centuries prior to this period. Even if they were then committed to writing for the first time, they could have been handed down for many centuries orally by the Ollamhs ; for no amount of literary effort could be supposed too great for a class of men so exclusively and laboriously devoted to learning. As the Milesians were the last of the ancient colonists, and had subdued the races previously existing in Ireland, only their genealogies, with a few exceptions, have been preserved. The genealogical tree begins, therefore, with the brothers Eber and Eremon, the two surviving leaders of the expedition, whose ancestors are traced back to Magog, the son of Japhet. The great southern chieftains, such as the MacCarthys and O'Briens, claim descent from Eber ; the northern families of O'Connor, O'Donnell, and O'Neill, claim Eremon as their head. There are also other families 3 Before.— O'Carry, p. 240. * Before. — This, of course, opens up the question as to whether the Irish Celts had a written literature before the arrival of St. Patrick. The subject will be fully entertained later on. HISTORICAL VALUE OF GENEALOGIES. 85 claiming descent from Emer, the son of Ir, brother to Eber and Eremon ; as also from their cousin Lugaidh, the son of Ith. From these four sources the principal Celtic families of Ireland have sprung ; and though they do not quite trace up the line to " The grand old gardener and his wife," they have a pedigree which cannot be gainsaid, and which might be claimed with pride by many a monarch. MacFirbis' Book of Genealogies,^ compiled in the year 1650, from lost records, is the most perfect work of this kind extant. But there are tracts in the Book of Leinster (compiled A.D. 1130), and in the Book of Ballymote (compiled A.D. 1391), which are of the highest authority. 0' Curry is of opinion, that those in the Book of Leinster were copied from the Saltair of Cashel and other contemporaneous works. The historical use of these genealogies is very great, not only because they give an authentic pedigree and approximate data for chronological calculation, but from the immense amount of correla- tive information which they contain. Every free-born man of the tribe was entitled by Uood, should it come to his turn, to succeed to the chieftaincy : hence the exactitude with which each pedi- gree was kept ; hence their importance in the estimation of each individual ; hence the incidental matter they contain, by the men- tion of such historical events^ as may have acted on different tribes and families, by which they lost their inheritance or in- dependence, and consequently their claim, however remote, to the chieftaincy. The ancient history of a people should always be studied with ^ Genealogies. — There is a * ' distinction and a difference" between a genealogy and a pedigree. A genealogy embraces the descent of a family, and its relation to all the other families that descended from the same remote parent stock, and took a distinct tribe-name, as the Dalcassians. A pedigree traces up the line of descent to the individual from whom the name was derived. 6 Events. — Arnold mentions "the family traditions and funeral orations out of which the oldest annalists [of Roman history] compiled their narra- tives." — vol. i. p. 371. SirG. C. Lewis, however, thinks that the composition of national annals would precede the composition of any private history ; but he adds that he judges from the "example of modern times." With all respect to such an authority, it seems rather an unphilosophical conclusion. Family pedigrees would depend on family pride, in which the Romans were by no means deficient; and on political considerations, which were all-impor- tant to the Irish Celt. 86 NATIONAL FEELINGS SHOULD BE RESPECTED. care and candour by those who, as a matter of interest or duty, wish to understand their social state, and the government best suited to that state. Many of the poorest families in Ireland are descendants of its ancient chiefs. The old habit — the habit which deepened and intensified itself during centuries — cannot be eradi- cated, though it may be ridiculed, and the peasant will still boast of his " blood :" it is all that he has left to him of the proud in- heritance of his ancestors. The second source of historical information may be found in the Historic Tales. The reciting of historic tales was one of the principal duties of the Ollamh, and he was bound to pre- serve the truth of history "pure and unbroken to succeeding generations." " According to several of the most ancient authorities, the Ollamh, or perfect Doctor, was bound to have (for recital at the public feasts and assemblies) at least Seven Fifties of these Historic narra- tives ; and there appear to have been various degrees in the ranks of the poets, as they progressed in education towards the final degree, each of which was bound to be supplied with at least a certain number. Thus the Anroth, next in rank to an Ollamh^ should have half the number of an Ollamh ; the Cli, one-third the number, according to some authorities, and eighty according to others ; and so on down to the Fochlog, who should have thirty ; and the Driseg (the lowest of all), who should have twenty of these tales."7 The OUamhs, like the druids or learned men of other nations, were in the habit of teaching the facts of history to their pupils in verse,^ probably that they might be more easily remembered. 7 Tales.— O'Cmry, p. 241. 8 Verse. — See Niebuhr, Hist. vol. i. pp. 254-261. Arnold has adopted his theory, and Macaulay has acted on it. Eut the Roman poems were merely recited at public entertainments, and were by no means a national arrange- ment for the preservation of history, such as existed anciently in Ireland. These verses were sung by boys more patrum (Od. iv. 15), for the entertainment of guests. Ennius, who composed his Annales in hexameter verse, intro- ducing, for the first time, the Greek metre into Roman literature, mentions the verses which the Fauns, or religious poets, used to chant. Scaliger thinks that the Fauns were a class of men who exercised in Latium, at a very remote period, the same functions as the Magians in Persia and the Bards in Gaul. Niebuhr supposes that the entire history of the Roman kings was formed from poems into a prose narrative. Historic tales. 87 A few of these tales have been published lately, such as the Battle of Magh Rath, the Battle of MuigM Leana, and the Tochmarc Mo- mira. Besides the tales of Battles (Catha), there are the tales of Longasa, or Voyages ; the tales of T(3ghla, or Destructions ; of Slaughters, of Sieges, of Tragedies, of Voyages, and, not least me- morable, of the Tdna, or Cattle Spoils, and the Tochmarca, or Court- ships. It should be remembered that numbers of these tales are in existence, offering historical materials of the highest value. The Books of Laws demand a special and more detailed notice, as well as the Historical Monuments. With a brief mention of the Imaginative Tales and Poems, we must conclude this portion of our subject. Ancient writings, even of pure fiction, must always form an im- portant historical element to the nation by which they have been produced. Unless they are founded on fact, so far as customs, localities, and mode of life are concerned, they would possess no interest ; and their principal object is to interest. Without some degree of poetic improbabilities as to events, they could scarcely amuse ; andtheir object is also to amuse. Hence, the element of truth is easily separated from the element of fiction, and each is available in its measure for historic research. The most ancient of this class of writings are the Fenian Poems and Tales, ascribed to Finn Mac Cumhaill, to his sons, Oisin and Fergus Finnbheoill (the Eloquent), and to his kinsman, Caeilit6. There are also many tales and poems of more recent date. Mr. O'Curry estimates, that if all MSS. known to be in existence, and composed before the year 1000, were published, they would form at least 8,000 printed pages of the same size as O'Donovan's Annals of the Four Masters. ROUND TO^VER OF DYSART, NEAR GROOM, LIMERICK. CHAPTER VI. Tighearnmas — His Death — Introduces Colours as a Distinction of Kank — Silver Shields and Chariots first used — Reign of Ugain§ Mor — The Treachery of Cobhthach — Romantic Tales — Queen Mab — Dispute which led to the celebrated Cattle Spoil— The Story of the Tain b6 Chuailgne'— The Romans feared to invade Ireland — Tacitus — Revolt of the Attacotti — Reign of Tuathal — Origin of the Boromean Tribute. [B.C. 1700.] UR annals afford but brief details from the time of Eremon to that of Ugain4 M6r. One hundred and eighteen sovereigns are enumerated from the Mile- sian conquest of Ireland (according to the Four Masters, B.C. 1700) to the time of St. Patrick, A.D. 432. The principal events recorded are inter- national deeds of arms, the clearing of woods, the enactment of laws, and the erection of palaces. Tighearnmas, one of these monarchs, is said to have introduced the worship of idols into Ireland. From this it would appear, that the more refined Magian, or Sun-worship, had prevailed previously. He died, with " three-fourths " of the men of Ire- land about him, on the night of Samhain,^ while worshipping the idol called Crom Cruach, at ^ Samhain. — Now All Hallows Eve. The peasantry still use the pagan name. It is a compound word, signifying *' summer " and "end." OLLAMH FODHLA. 89 Magh Slacht, in Breifn^.^ Tighearnmas reigned seventy-five years. He is said to have been the first who attempted the smelting of gold in Ireland ; and the use of different colours,^ as an indication of rank, is also attributed to him. Silver shields were now made (B.C. 1383) at Airget-Ros, by Enna Airgtheach, and four-horse chariots were first used in the time of Roitheachtaigh, who was killed by lightning near the Giant's Causeway. Ollamh Fodhla (the wise or learned man) distinguished himself still more by instituting triennial assemblies at Tara. Even should the date given by the Four Masters (1317 B.C.) be called in question, there is no doubt of the fact, which must have occurred some centuries before the Christian era ; and this would appear to be the earliest instance of a national convo- cation or parliament in any country. Ollamh Fodhla also ap- pointed chieftains over every cantred or hundred, he constructed a rath at Tara, and died there in the fortieth year of his reign. At the reign of Cimbaoth (B.C. 716) we come to that period which Tighernach considers the commencement of indisputably authentic history. It is strange that he should have selected a provincial chief, and a period in no way remarkable except for the building of the palace of Emania.^ But the student of Irish pre-Christian annals may be content to commence with solid foundation as early as seven centuries before Christ. The era was an important one in universal history. The Greeks had then counted sixteen Olympiads, and crowned Pythagoras the victor. Hippomenes was archon at Athens. Romulus had been succeeded by Numa Pompilius, and the foundations of imperial Rome were laid in blood by barbarian hordes. The Chaldeans had just taken the palm in astronomical observations, and recorded for the first time a lunar eclipse ; while the baffled Assyrian hosts relin- 1 Breifne. — In the present county Cavan. We shall refer again to this subject, when mentioning St. Patrick's destruction of the idols. ^ Colours. — Keating says that a slave was permitted only one colour, a peasant two, a soldier three, a public victualler five. The Ollamh ranked with royalty, and was permitted six — another of the many proofs of extraor- dinary veneration for learning in pre-Christian Erinn. The Four ^Masters, however, ascribe the origin of this distinction to Eochaidh Eadghadhach. It is supposed that this is the origin of the Scotch plaid. The ancient Britons dyed their bodies blue. The Cymric Celts were famous for their colours. 3 Emania. — The legend of the building of this palace will be given in a future chapter. 90 VGAINE MOR. quished the siege of Tyre, unhappily reserved for the cruel de- struction accomplished by Alexander, a few centuries later. The prophecies of Isaiah were still resounding in the ears of an ungrateful people. He had spoken of the coming Christ and His all-peaceful mission in mystic imagery, and had given miraculous evidences of his predictions. But suffering should be the precursor of that mar- vellous advent. The Assyrian dashed in resistless torrent upon the fold. Israel was led captive. Hosea was in chains. Samaria and the kingdom of Israel were added to the conquests of Sennacherib; and the kingdom of Judah, harassed but not destroyed, waited the accomplishment of prophecy, and the measure of her crimes, ere the most ancient of peoples should for ever cease to be a nation. Ugain6 Mor is the next monarch who demands notice. His obituary record is thus given by the Four Masters : — " At the end of this year, a.m. 4606, Ugain6 Mor, after he had been full forty years King of Ireland, and of the whole of the west of Europe, as far as Muir-Toirrian, was slain by Badhbhchad at Tealach-an- Choisgair, in Bregia. This Ugain^ was he who exacted oaths by all the elements, visible and invisible, from the men of Ireland in general, that they would never contend for the sovereignty of Ireland with his children or his race." Ugain^ was succeeded by his son, Laeghair^ Lore, who was cruelly and treacherously killed by his brother, Cobhthach Gael. Indeed, few monarchs lived out their time in peace during this and the succeeding centuries. The day is darkest before the dawn, in the social and political as well as in the phj'sical world. The Eternal Light was already at hand ; the powers of darkness were aroused for the coming conflict ; and deeds of evil were being accom- plished, which make men shudder as they read. The assassi- nation of Laeghair6 was another manifestation of the old-world story of envy. The treacherous Cobhthach feigned sickness, which he knew would obtain a visit from his brother. When the monarch stooped to embrace him, he plunged a dagger into his heart. His next act was to kill his nephew, Ailill Aine ; and his ill-treatment of Aine's son, Maen, was the consummation of his cruelty. The fratricide was at last slain by this very youth, who had now ob- tained the appellation of Labhraidh-Loingseach, or Lowry of the Ships. We have special evidence here of the importance of our Historic Tales, and also that the blending of fiction and fact by no means deteriorates from their value. THE HISTORY OF THE EXILE. 91 Love aflfairs form a staple ground for fiction, with a very sub- stantial under-strata of facts, even in the nineteenth century; and the annals of pre-Christian Erinn are by no means deficient in the same fertile source of human interest. The History of the Exile is still preserved in the Leabhar Buidh^ Lecain, now in the Library of Trinity College, Dublin. It is a highly romantic story, but evidently founded on fact, and full of interest as descriptive of public and private life in the fifth century before Christ. It tells how Maen, though supposed to be deaf and dumb, was, nevertheless, given in charge of two officers of tlie court to be educated : that he recovered or rather obtained speech suddenly, in a cpiarrel with another youth ; and that he was as symmetrical of form and noble of bearing as all heroes of romance are bound to be. His uncle expelled him from the kingdom, and he took refiisje at the court of King Scoriath. King Scoriath had a daughter, who was beautiful ; and Maen, of course, acted as a knight was bound to do under such circum- stances, and fell desperately in love with the princess. The Lady Moriath's beauty had bewildered more heads than that of the knight-errant ; but the Lady Moriath's father and mother were determined their daughter should not marrj'. The harper Craftine came to the rescue, and at last, by his all- entrancing skill, so raWshed the whole party of knights and nobles, that the lovers were able to enjoy a tete-a-tete, and pledged mutual vows. As usual, the parents yielded when they found it was useless to resist; and, no doubt, the poet Craftine, who, poet and all as he was, nearly lost his head in the adventure, was the most welcome of all welcome guests at the nuptial feast. Indeed, he appears to have been retained as comptroller of the house and confidential ad\T.ser long after ; for when Labhraidh Maen was obUged to fly the country, he confided his wife to the care of Craftine. On his return from France,"* he obtained possession of the kingdom, to which he was the rightful heir, and reigned over the men of Erinn for eighteen years. Another Historic Tale gives an account of the destruction of the court of Da Derga, but we have not space for details. The Four Masters merely relate the fact in the following entry : — * France. — It is said that foreigners who came with him from Gaul were armed with broad-headed lances (called in Irish laigJme), whence the province of Leinster lias derived it« name. Another derivation of the name, from coigej a tifth part, is attributed to the Firbolga. 92 QUEEN MAB. " Conair^, the son of Edersc^l, after having been seventy years in the sovereignty of Erinn, was slain at Bruighean Dd Dhearga by insurgents." Another prince, Eochaidh Feidhlech, was famous for sighing. He rescinded the division of Ireland into twenty-five parts, which had been made by Ugain6 Mor, and divided the island into five provinces, over each of which he appointed a pro- vincial king, under his obedience. The famous Meadhbh, or Mab, was his daughter ; and though unquestionably a lady of rather strong physical and mental capabilities, the lapse of ages has thro-svn an obscuring halo of romance round her belligerent qualifications, and metamorphosed her into the gentle " Faery Queen " of the poet Spenser. One of M^av's exploits is recorded in the famous Tdin b6 Chuailgn^, which is to Celtic history what the Argonautic Expedition, or the Seven against Thebes, is to Grecian. M6av was married first to Conor, the celebrated pro- vincial king of Ulster ; but the marriage was not a happy one, and was dissolved, in modern parlance, on the ground of incompa- tibility. In the meanwhile, M^av's three brothers had rebelled against their father ; and though his arms were victorious, the victory did not secure peace. The men of Connacht revolted against him, and to retain their allegiance he made his daughter Queen of Connacht, and gave her in marriage to Ailill, a powerful chief of that province. This prince, however, died soon after ; and M6av, determined for once, at least, to choose a husband for her- self, made a royal progress to Leinster, where Eoss Ruadb held his court at Naas. She selected the younger son of this monarch, who bore the same name as her former husband, and they lived together happily as queen and king consort for many years. On one occasion, however, a dispute arose about their respective treasures, and this dispute led to a comparison of their property. The account of this, and the subsequent comparison, is given at length in the Tdin, and is a valuable repertory of archaeo- logical information. They counted their vessels, metal and wooden ; they counted their finger rings, their clasps, their thumb rings, their diadems, and their gorgets of gold. They examined their many-coloured garments of crimson and blue, of black and green, yellow and mottled, white and streaked. All were equal. They then inspected their flocks and herds, swine from the forests, sheep from the pasture lands, and cows — here the first differ- ence arose. It was one to excite Meav's haughty temper. There THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE. 03 was a young bull found among Ailill's bovine wealth : it had been calved by one of Meav's cows; but "not deeming it honorable to be under a woman's control," it had attached itself to Ailill's herds. M6av was not a lady who could remain quiet under such provoca- tion. She summoned her chief courier, and asked him could he find a match for Finnbheannach (the white-horned). The courier declared that he could find even a superior animal ; and at once set forth on his mission, suitably at- tended. M^av had offered the most liberal rewards for the prize she so much coveted ; and the courier soon arranged with Dar^, a noble of large estates, who possessed one of the valuable breed. A drunken quarrel, how- ever, disarranged his plans. One of the men boasted that if Dar6 had not given the bull for pay ment, he should have been compelled to give it by force. Dare s steward heard the ill-timed and uncour- teous boast. He flung down the meat and drink which he had brought for their entertainment, and went to tell his master the contemptuous speech. The result may be anticipated. Dare re- fused the much- coveted animal, and M^av proceeded to make good her claim by force of arms. But this is only the prologue of the drama; the details would fill a volume. It must sufiice to say, that the bulls had a battle of their own. Finnbheannach and Donn Chuailgn6 (the Leinster bull) engaged in deadly combat, which is described with the wildest flights of poetic diction.^ The 5 Diction. — This tract contains a description of arms and ornaments which might well pass for a poetic flight of fancy, had we not articles of such exqui- site workmanship in the Royal Irish Academy, which prove incontrovertibly the skill of the ancient artists of Erinn. This is the description of a cham- FLINT SPEAR-HEAD, FROM THE COLLECTION OF THE R.I. A. 94 THE AGE OF CHRIST. poor " white horn" was killed, and Donn Chuailgne, who had lashed himself to madness, dashed out his brains.^ Meav lived to the venerable age of a hundred. According to Tighernach, she died A.D. 70, but the chronology of the Four Masters places her demise a hundred years earlier. This difference of calculation also makes it questionable what monarch reigned in Ireland at the birth of Christ. The following passage is from the Book of Ballymote, and is supposed to be taken from the synchronisms of Flann of Monasterboice : " In the fourteenth year of the reign of Conair^ and of Conchobar, Mary was born ; and in the fourth year after the birth of Mary, the expedition of the Tain bo Chuailgn^ took place. Eight years after the expedition of the Tdin, Christ was born." The Four Masters have the following entry after the age of the world 5194 :— THE AGE OF CHRIST. " The first year of the age of Christ, and the eighth year of the reign of Crimhthann Niadhnair." Under the heading of the age pion's attire : — "A red and white cloak flutters about him ; a golden brooch in that cloak, at his breast ; a shirt of white, kingly linen, with gold embroidery at his skin ; a white shield, with gold fastenings at his shoulder ; a gold-hilted long sword at his left side ; a long, sharp, dark green spear, together witb a short, sharp spear, with a rich band and carved silver rivets in his hand." — O'Curry, p. 38. We give an illustration on previous page of a flint weapon of a ruder kind. ^ Brains. —My friend, Denis Florence MacCarthy, Esq., M.R.I.A., our poet par excellence, is occupied at this moment in versifying some portions of this romantic story. I believe he has some intention of publishing the work in America, as American publishers are urgent in their applications to him for a complete and uniform edition of his poems, including his exquisite trans- lations from the dramatic and ballad literature of Spain. We hope Irish pub- lishers and the Irish people will not disgrace their country by allowing such a work to be published abroad. We are too often and too justly accused of deficiency in cultivated taste, which imfortunately makes trashy poems, and verbose and weakly-written prose, more acceptable to the majority than works produced by highly- educated minds. Irishmen are by no means in- ferior to Englishmen in natural gifts, yet, in many instances, unquestionably they have not or do not cultivate the same taste for reading, and have not the same appreciation of works of a higher class than the lightest literature. Much of the fault, no doubt, lies in the present system of education : however, as some of the professors in our schools and colleges appear to be aware of the deficiency, we may hope for better things. TACITUS. 95 of Christ 9, there is an account of a wonderful expedition of this monarch, and of all the treasures he acquired thereby. His " adventures " is among the list of Historic Tales in the Book or Leinster, but unfortunately there is no copy of this tract in exis- tence. It was probably about this time that a recreant Irish chief- tain tried to induce Agricola to invade Ireland. But the Irish Celts had extended the fame of their military prowess even to distant lands," and the Roman general thought it better policy to keep what he had than to risk its loss, and, perhaps, obtain no compensation. Previous to Caesar's conquest of Britain, the Irish had fitted out several expeditions for the plunder of that country, and they do not appear to have suffered from retaliation until the reign of Egbert. It is evident, however, that the Britons did not consider them their worst enemies, for we find mention of several colonies flying to the Irish shores to escape Roman tyranny, and these colonies were hospitably received.^ The passage in Tacitus which refers to the proposed invasion of Ireland by the Roman forces, is too full of interest to be omitted : — " In the fifth year ot these expeditions, Agricola, passing over in the first ship, subdued in frequent victories nations hitherto unknown. He stationed troops along that part of Britain which looks to Ireland, more on account of hope than fear,^ since Ireland, from its situation between Britain and Spain, and opening to the Gallic Sea, might well connect the most powerful parts of the empire with reciprocal advantage. Its extent, compared with Britain, is narrower, but exceeds that of any islands of our sea. The genius and habits of the people, and the soil and climate, do not diff'er much from those of Britain. Its channels and ports are better known to com- merce and to merchants.^ Agricola gave his protection to one of its petty kings, who had been expeUed by faction ; and with a show of friendship, he retained him for his own purposes. I often heard ^ Lands. — Lhuid asserts that the names of the principal commanders in Gaul and Britain who opposed Ccesar, are Irish Latinized- ^ Received. — " They are said to have fled into Ireland, some for the sake ol ease and quietness, others to keep their eyes imtainted by Roman insolence." — See Harris' Ware. The Brigautes of Waterford, Tipperary, and Kilkenny, are supjwsed to have been emigrants, and to have come from the colony of that name in Yorkshire. ^ Fear. — " In s\)em magis quam ob formidinem." ^Merchants. — " Melius aditus portusque per commercia et negotiatores cognitis. " 96 INSURRECTION 01' THE ATTACOTTI. him say, that Ireland could be conquered and taken with one legion and a small reserve ; and such a measure would have its advantages even as regards Britain, if Roman power were extended on every side, and Kberty taken away as it were from the view of the latter island."^ We request special attention to the observation, that the Irish ports were better known to commerce and merchants. Such a state- ment by such an authority must go far to remove any doubt as to the accounts given on this subject by our own annalists. The proper name of the recreant " regulus " has not been discovered, so that his infamy is transmitted anonymously to posterity. Sir J ohn Davies has well observed, with regard to the boast of sub- duing Ireland so easily, " that if Agricola had attempted the conquest thereof with a far greater army, he would have found himself deceived in his conjecture." William of Neuburg has also remarked, that though the Romans harassed the Britons for three centuries after this event, Ireland never was invaded by them, even when they held dominion of the Orkney Islands, and that it yielded to no foreign power until the year^ 1171. Indeed, the Scots and Picts gave their legions quite sufficient occupation defending the ramparts of Adrian and Antoninus, to deter them from attempting to obtain more, when they could so hardly hold what they already possessed. The insurrection of the Aitheach Tuatha,* or Attacotti, is the next event of importance in Irish history. Their plans were deeply and wisely laid, and promised the success they obtained. It is one of the lessons of history which rulers in all ages would do well to study. There is a degree of oppres- sion which even the most degi'aded will refuse to endure ; there is a time when the injured will seek revenge, even should they know that this revenge may bring on themselves yet deeper wrongs. The leaders of the revolt were surely men of some ' Island. — Vita Julii Agric. c. 24. 3 Year.— Hist Rer. Angl. lib. ii. c. 26. ^Aitheach Tuatha. — The word means rentpayers, or rentpaying tribes or people. It is probably used as a term of reproach, and in contradiction to the free men. It has been said that this people were the remnants of the inhabi- tants of Ireland before the Milesians colonized it. Mr. O'Curry denies this statement, and maintains that they were Milesians, but of the lower classes, who had been cruelly oppressed by the magnates of the land. RESULTS OF THIS INSURRECTION. 97 judgment ; and both they and those who acted under them pos- sessed the two great qualities needed for such an enterprise. They were silent, for their plans were not even suspected until they were accomplished ; they were patient, for these plans were three years in preparation. During three years the helots saved their scanty earnings to prepare a sumptuous death-feast for their unsuspecting victims. This feast was held at a place since called Magh Cru, in Connaught. The monarch, jFiacha Finnolaidh, the provincial kings and chiefs, were all invited, and accepted the invitation. But while the enjoyment was at its height, when men had drank deeply, and were soothed by the sweet strains of the harp, the in- surgents did their bloody work. Three ladies alone escaped. They fled to Britain, and there each gave birth to a son — heirs to their respective husbands who had been slain. After the massacre, the Attacotti elected their leader, Cairbr6 Cinn-Cait (or the Cat-head), to the royal dignity, for they still desired to live under a " limited monarchy." But revolutions, even when successful, and we had almost said necessary, are eminently productive of evil. The social state of a people when once disor- ganized, does not admit of a speedy or safe return to its former condition. The mass of mankind, who think more of present evils^ however trifling, than of past grievances, however oppressive, begin to connect present evils with present rule, and having lost, in some degree, the memory of their ancient wrongs, desire to recall a dynasty which, thus viewed, bears a not unfavourable comparison with their present state. ^ Cairbr^ died after five years of most unprosperous royalty, and his son, the wise and prudent Morann,^ showed his wisdom and prudence by refusing to succeed him. He advised that the rightful heirs should be recalled. His advice was accepted. Fear- ^ State. — ** Evil was the state of Ireland during his reign : fruitless the corn, for there used to be but one grain on the stalk ; fruitless her rivers ; milkless her cattle ; plentiless her fruit, for there used to be but one acorn on the oak." —Four Masters, p. 97. ^ Morann. — Morann was the inventor of the famous "collar of gold." The new monarch appointed him his chief Brehon or judge, and it is said that this collar closed round the necks of those who were guilty, but expanded to the ground when the wearer was innocent. This collar or chain is men- tioned in several of the commentaries on the Brehon Laws, as one of the ordeals of the ancient Irish. The Four Masters style him ' ' the very intelligent Morann." 93 ORIGIN OF THE BOROiTEAN TRIBUTE. adhach Finnfeacliteach was invited to assume the reins of govern- ment. " Good was Ireland during this his time. The seasons were right tranquil ; the earth brought forth its fruit ; fishful its river- mouths ; milkful the kine ; hea\'y-headed the woods."" Another revolt of the Attacotti took place in the reign of Fiacha of the WTiite Cattle. He was killed by the provincial kings, at the slaughter of Magh Bolg.^ Elim, one of the perpetrators of this outrage, obtained the crown, but his reign was singularly unpros- perous ; and Ireland was without corn, without milk, without fruit, without fish, and without any other great advantage, since the Aitheach Tuatha had killed Fiacha Finnolaidh in the slaughter of Magh Bolg, till the time of Tuathal Teachtmar."^ Tuathal was the son of a former legitimate monarch, and had been invited to Ireland by a powerful party. He was perpetually at war with the Attacotti, but at last established himself firmly on the throne, by exacting an oath from the people, " by the sun, moon, and elements," that his posterity should not be deprived of the sovereignty. This oath was taken at Tara, where he had convened a general assembly, as had been customary with his predecessors at the commencement of each reign ; but it was held by him with more than usual state. His next act was to take a small portion of land from each of the four provinces, forming what is now the present county of Meath, and retaining it as the mensal portion of the Ard-Kigh, or supreme monarch. On each of these portions he erected a palace for the king of every province, details of which will be given when we come to that period of our history which refers to the destruction of Tara. Tuathal had at this time two beautiful and marriageable daughters, named Fithir and Dairine. Eochaidh Aincheann, King of Leinster, sought and obtained the hand of the younger daughter, Dairin6, and after her nuptials carried her to his palace at Naas, in Leinster. Some time after, his people pursuaded him that he had made a bad selection, and that the elder was the better of the two sisters; upon which Eochaidh determined by 7 Woods. — Four Masters, p. 97. 8 Magh Bolg. — Now Moybolgue, a parish in the county Cavan. * Teachtmar, i.e., the legitimate, Four Masters, p. 99. — The history of the revolt of the Attacotti is contained in one of the ancient tracts called Histories. It is termed *' The Origin of the Boromean Tribute." There is a copy of this most valuable work in the Book of Leinster, which, it will be remembered, was compiled in the twelfth century. The details which follow above con- cerning the Boromean Tribute, are taken from the same source. ORIGIN OF THE BOROJIEAN TRIBUTE. 99 stratagem to obtain the other daughter also. For this purpose he shut the young queen up in a secret apartment of his palace, and gave out a report that she was dead. He then repaired, apparently in great grief, to Tara, informed the monarch that his daughter was dead, and demanded her sister in marriage. Tuathal gave his consent, and the false king returned home with his new bride. Soon after her arrival at Naas, her sister escaped from her confinement, and suddenly and unexpectedly encountered the prince and Fithir. In a moment she divined the truth, and had the additional anguish of seeing her sister, who was struck with horror and shame, fall dead before her face. The death of the unhappy princess, and the treachery of her husband, was too much for the young queen ; she returned to her solitary chamber, and in a very short time died of a broken heart. The insult offered to his daughters, and their untimely death, roused the indignation of the pagan monarch, and was soon bitterly avenged. At the head of a powerful force, he burned and ravaged Leinster to its utmost boundary, and then compelled its humbled and terror-stricken people to bind themselves and their descendants for ever to the payment of a triennial tribute to the monarch of Exinn, which, from the great number of cows exacted by it, obtained the name of the " Boromean Tribute " — ho being the Gaedhilic for a cow. The tribute is thus described in the old annals : *' The men of Leinster were obliged to pay- To Tuathal, and all the monarclis after him, Three-score himdred of the fairest cows, And three- score hundred ounces of pure silver, And three-score hundred mantles richly woven. And three-score hundred of the fattest hogs, And three-score hundred of the largest sheep, And three-score himdred cauldrons strong and polished."^ It is elsewhere described as consisting of five thousand ounces of silver, five thousand mantles, five thousand fat cows, five thousand i&t hogs, five thousand wethers, and five thousand vessels of brass or bronze for the king's la\dng, with men and maidens for his 8er\dce. The levying of the tribute was the cause of periodical and 1 PoJwAed— Keating, p. 264. 100 I ORIGIN OF THE BOROMEAN TRIBUTE. sanguinary wars, from the time of Tuathal until the reign of Finnachta the Festive. About the year 680 it was abohshed by him, at the entreaty of St. Moling, of Tigh Moling (now St. Mullen's, in the county Carlo w). It is said by Keating, that he availed himself of a pious ruse for this purpose, — asking the king to pledge himself not to exact the tribute until after Monday, and then, when his request was complied with, declaring that the Monday he intended was the Monday after Doomsday. The tribute was again re\'ived and levied by Brian, the son of Cinneidigh, at the beginning of the eleventh century, as a punishment on the Leinster men for their adherence to the Danish cause. It was from this circumstance that Brian obtained the surname BoroimliL LOUGH HYNHS. ORATORY AT GALLARUS, CO. KERRY. CHAPTER VIL Tiiathal— Conn ** of the Hundred Battles "—The Five Great Roads of Ancient Erinn— Conn's Half — Conair^ 11. — The Three Cairbre's — Cormac Mac Airt — His Wise Decision— Collects Laws— His Personal Appearance — The Saltair of Tara written in Cormac's Reign — Finn Mac Cumhaill — Hig Courtship with the Princess Ailbhe — The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne — Nial " of the Nine Hostages " — Dathi. UATHAL reigned for thirty years, and is said to have fought no less than 133 battles with the Attacotti. He was at last slain himself by his successor, Nial, who, in his turn, was killed by Tuathal's son. Conn " of the Hundred Battles " is the next Irish monarch who claims more than a passing notice. His exploits are a famous theme with the bards, and a poem on his "Birth" forms part of the Liber Flavus Fergusorum, a MS. volume of the fifteenth century. His reign is also remarkable for the mention of five great roads^ which were then discovered or completed. One of these highways, the Eiscir Eiada, extended from the declivity on which Dubhn Castle now stands, to the peninsula of Marey, at the head of Galway Bay. * Roads. — Those roads were Slighe Asail, Slighe Midhluachra, Slighe Cua- lann, Slighe Dala, and Slighe Mor. Slighe M6r was the Eiscir Riada, and division line of Erinn into two parts, between Conn and Eoghan Mor. These five roads led to the fort of Teamair (Tara), and it is said that they were " dis- covered " on the birthnight of the former monarch. We shall refer to the subject again in a chapter on the civilization of the early Irish. There is no doubt of the existence of these roads, and this fact, combined with the care with which they were kept, is significant. 102 CORMAC MAC AIRT. It divided Conn's half of Ireland from the half possessed by E6ghan Mor, with whom he lived in the usual state of internecine feud which characterized the reigns of this early period. One of the principal quarrels between these monarchs, was caused by a complaint which E6ghan made of the shipping arrangements in Dublin. Conn's half (the northern side) was preferred, and E6ghan demanded a fair division. They had to decide their claims at the battle of Magh Lena.^ Eoghan was assisted by a Spanish chief, whose sister he had married. But the Iberian and his Celtic brother-in-law were both slain, and the mounds are still shown which cover their remains. Conn was succeeded by Conair6 II., the father of the three Cairbres, who were progenitors of important tribes. Cairbr^ Muse gave his name to six districts in Munster ; the territory of Corca- baiscinn, in Clare, was named after Cairbr6 Bascain; and the Dalriada of Antrim were descended from Cairbr6 Riada. He is also mentioned by Bede under the name of Reuda,* as the leader of the Scots who came from Hibernia to Alba. Three centuries later, a fi^sh colony of Dalriadans laid the foundation of the Scottish monarchy under Fergus, the son of Ere. Mac Con was the next Ard-Righ or chief monarch of Ireland. He obtained the royal power after a battle at Magh ]\Iucruinihe, near Athenry, where Art the Melancholy, son of Con of the Hundred Battles, and the seven sons of OilioU Oluim, were slain. The reign of Cormac Mac Airt is unquestionably the most cele- brated of all our pagan monarchs. During his early years he had been compelled to conceal himself among his mother's friends in Connaught ; but the severe rule of the usurper Mac Con excited a desire for his removal, and the friends of the young prince were not slow to avail themselves of the popular feeling. He, therefore, appeared unexpectedly at Tara, and happened to arrive when the monarch was giving judgment in an important case, which is thus related : Some sheep, the property of a widow, residing at Tara, had strayed into the queen's private lawn, and eaten the grass. They were captured, and the case was brought before the king. He decided that the trespassers should be forfeited ; but Cormac ^ Magh Lena. — The present parish of Moylana, or Kilbride, TuUamore, King's county. * Beuda.— 'Bede, Eccl. Hist. p. 7. "THE JUDGMENT OF A KING." 103 exclaimed that his sentence was unjust, and declared that as the sheep had only eaten the fleece of the land, they should only forfeit their own fleece. The vox jpo^puli applauded the decision. Mac Con started from his seat, and exclaimed : " That is the judgment of a king." At the same moment he recognized the prince, and commanded that he should be seized ; but he had already escaped. The people now recognized their rightful king, and revolted against the usurper, who was driven into Munster. Cormac assumed the reins of government at Tara, and thus entered upon his brilliant and important career, A.D. 227. Cormac commenced his government with acts of severity, which were, perhaps, necessary to consolidate his power. This being once firmly established, he devoted himself ardently to literary pursuits, and to regulate and civilize his dominions. He collected the national laws, and formed a code which remained in force until the English invasion, and was observed for many centuries after outside the Pale. The bards dwell with manifest unction on the " fruit and fatness " of the land in his time, and describe him as the noblest and most bountiful of all princes. Indeed, we can scarcely omit their account, since it cannot be denied that it pictures the costume of royalty in Ireland at that period, however poetically the details may be given. This, then, is the bardic photograph : — " His hair was slightly curled, and of golden colour : a scarlet shield with engraved devices, and golden hooks, and clasps of silver : a wide-folding purple cloak on him, with a gem-set gold brooch over his breast ; a gold torque around his neck ; a white- collared shirt, embroidered with gold, upon him ; a girdle with golden buckles, and studded with precious stones, around him ; two golden net-work sandals with golden buckles upon him ; two spears with golden sockets, and many red bronze rivets in his hand while he stood in the full glow of beauty, without defect or blemish. You would think it was a shower of pearls that were set in his mouth ; his lips were rubies ; his s3Tnmetrical body was as white as snow ; his cheek was like the mountain ash-berry ; his eyes were like the sloe ; his brows and eye-lashes were like the sheen of a blue- black lance ."^ 5 Xance. —O'Curry, p. 45. This quotation is translated by Mr. O'Curry, and is taken from the Book of Ballymote. This book, however, quotes it from the Uachongbhailt a much older authority. 104 CORMAC COMPILES THE SALTAIR OF TARA. The compilation of the Saltair of Tara, as we mentioned pre- viously, is attributed to this monarch. Even in Christian times his praises are loudly proclaimed. The poet Maelmura, who lived in the eighth century, styles him Ceolach, or the Musical, and Kenneth O'Hartigan, who died A.D. 973, gives a glowing account of his magnificence and of his royal palace at Tara. O'Flaherty quotes a poem, which he says contains an account of three schools, instituted by Cormac at Tara; one for military discipline, one for history, and the third for jurisprudence. The Four Masters say : " It was this Cormac, son of Art, also, that collected the chronicles of Ire- land to Teamhair [Tara], and ordered them to write*^ the chronicles of Ireland in one book, which was named the Saltair of Teamhair. In that book were [entered] the coeval exploits and synchronisms of the kings of Ireland with the kings and emperors of the world, and of the kings of the provinces with the monarchs of Ireland. In it was also written what the monarchs of Ireland were entitled to [receive] from the provincial kings, and the rents and dues of the provincial kings from their subjects, from the noble to the sub- altern. In it, also, were [described] the boundaries and mears of Ireland from shore to shore, from the provinces to the cantred, from the cantred to the townland, from the townland to the traighedh of land.""^ Although the Saltair of Tara has disappeared from our national records, a law tract, called the Book of Acaill, is still in existence, which is attributed to this king. It is always found annexed to a Law Treatise by Cennfaelad the Learned, who died A.D. 677. In an ancient MS. in Trinity College, Dublin (Class H. L. 15, p. 149), it is stated that it was the custom, at the inauguration ' Write. — Professor O'Curry well observes, that " such a man could scarcely have carried out the numerous provisions of his comprehensive enactments ■without some written mediimi. And it is no unwarrantable presumption to suppose, that, either by his own hand, or, at least, in his own time, by his command, his laws were committed to writing ; and when we possess very ancient testimony to this effect, I can see no reason for rejecting it, or for casting a doubt upon the statement." — MS. Materials, p? 47. Mr. Petrie writes, if possible, more strongly. He saj's : " It is difficult, if not impossible, to conceive how the minute and apparently accurate accounts foimd in the various MSS. of the names and localities of the Attacottic tribes of Ireland in the first century, could have been preserved, without coming to the conclusion that they had been preserved in writing in some work." — Essay on TaraHiUy p. 46. Elsewhere, however, he speaks more doubtfully. ' Xand.— Four blasters, p. 117. FINN 3IAC CUMHAILL AND THE FENIANS. 105 of Irish chiefs, to read the Instructions of the Kings (a work ascribed to Cormac) and his Laws. There is a tradition that Cormac became a Christian before his death. In the thirty-ninth year of his reign, one of his eyes was thrust out by a spear, and he retired in consequence to one of those peaceful abodes of learning which were so carefully fostered in ancient Erinn. The high-minded nobility of this people is manifest notably in the law which required that the king should have no personal blemish ; and in obedience to this law, Cormac vacated the throne. He died A.D. 266, at Cleiteach, near Stackallen Bridge, on the south bank of the Boyne. It is said that he was choked by a salmon bone, and that this happened through the contrivances of the druids, who wished to avenge themselves on him for his rejec- tion of their superstitions. This reign was made more remarkable by the exploits of his son-in-law, the famous Finn Mac Cumhaill (pronounced " coole"). Finn was famous both as a poet and warrior. Indeed, poetical qualifi- cations were considered essential to obtain a place in the select militia of which he was the last commander. The courtship of the poet- waiTior with the Princess Ailbh^, Cormac's daughter, is related in one of the ancient historic tales called Tochmarca, or Courtships. The lady is said to have been the wisest woman of her time, and the wooing is described in the form of conversations, which savour more of a trial of skill in ability and knowledge, than of the soft utterances which distinguish such narratives in modern days. It is supposed that the Fenian corps which he commanded was modelled after the fashion of the Eoman legions ; but its loyalty is more questionable, for it was eventually disbanded for insubordina- tion, although the exploits of its heroes are a favourite topic with the bards. The Fenian poems, on which Macpherson founded his celebrated forgery, are ascribed to Finn's sons, Oisin and Fergus the Eloquent, and to his kinsman Caeilte, as well as to himself. Five poems only are ascribed to him, but these are found in MSS. of considerable antiquity. The poems of Oisin were selected by the Scotch writer for his grand experiment. He gave a highly poetical translation of what purported to be some ancient and genuine com- position, but, unfortunately for his veracity, he could not produce the original. Some of the real compositions of the^ Fenian hero are, however, still extant in the Book of Leinster, as well as other valu- able Fenian poems. There are also some Fenian tales in prose, of 106 NUL AND DATHI. which the most remarkable is that of the Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne — a legend which has left its impress in every portion of the island to the present day. Finn, in his old age, asked the hand of Grainne, the daughter of Cormac ^lac Airt ; but the lady being young, preferred a younger lover. To effect her purpose, she drugged the guest-cup so effectually, that Finn, and all the guests invited with him, were plunged into a profound slumber after they had par- taken of it. Oisin and Diarmaid alone escaped, and to them the Lady Grainn^ confided her grief. As true knights they were bound to rescue her from the dilemma. Oisin could scarcely dare to brave his father's vengeance, but Diarmaid at once fled with the lady. A pursuit followed, which extended all over Ireland, during which the young couple always escaped. So deeply is the tradition en- graven in the popular mind, that the cromlechs are still called the " Beds of Diarmaid and Grainne," and shown as the resting-places of the fugitive lovers. There are many other tales of a purely imaginative character, which, for interest, might well rival the world-famous Arabian Nights' Entertainments; and, for importance of details, illustrative of manners, customs, dress, weapons, and localities, are, perhaps, unequalled. Nial of the Nine Hostages and Dathi are the last pagan monarchs who demand special notice. In the year 322, Fiacha Sraibhtine was slain by the three Collas,^ and a few short-lived monarchs suc- ceeded. In 378, Crimhthann was poisoned by his sister, who hoped that her eldest son, Brian, might obtain the royal power. Her attempt failed, although she sacrificed herself for its accomphsh- ment, by taking the poisoned cup to remove her brother's suspicions; and Xial of the Nine Hostages, the son of her husband by a former wife, succeeded to the coveted dignity. This monarch distin- guished himself by predatory warfare against Albion and Gaul. The " groans of the Britons testify to his success in that quarter, which eventually obliged them to become an Anglo-Saxon nation ; and the Latin poet, Claudian, gives evidence that troops were sent by Stilicho, the general of Theodosius the Great, to repel his suc- 8 CoUas. — They were sons of Eochaidh Domlen, who made themselves famous by their warlike exploits, and infamous by their destruction of the palace of Emania. » (?roarw. —Bede, Eccl Hist. c. 12. DEATH OF DATHI. 107 cessful forays. His successor, Dathi, was killed by lightning at the foot of the Alps, and the possibility of this occurrence is also strangely verified from extrinsic sources.^ ^ Sources, — The Abb^ M 'Geoghegan says that there is a very ancient registry in the archives of the house of Sales, which mentions that the King of Ireland remained some time in the Castle of Sales. See his History^ p. 94. GAP OV DUNLOE, KILLABKXY. AKMAGH. CHAPTER VIII. St. Patrick — How Ireland was first Christianized — Pagan Rome used provi- dentially to promote the Faith — The Mission of St. Palladius — Innocent I. claims authority to found Churches and condemn Heresy — Disputes concern- ing St. Patrick's Birthplace — Ireland receives the Faith generously — Victoricus— St. Patrick's Vision — His Koman Mission clearly proved — Sub- terfuges of those who deny it — Ancient Lives of the Saint — St. Patrick's Cauons — His Devotion and Submission to the Holy See. r^Pl^H t^-^- 378-432.] T has been conjectured that the great Apostle of Ire- land, St. Patrick, was carried captive to the land of his adoption, in one of the plundering expeditions of the monarch Nial — an eminent instance of the over- ruling power of Providence, and of the mighty effects produced by causes the most insignificant and uncon- scious. As we are not writing an ecclesiastical history of Ireland, and as we have a work of that nature in contemplation, we shall only make brief mention of the events connected with the life and mission of the saint at present ; but the Christian- izing of any country must always form an important epoch, politically and socially, and, as such, demands the careful consideration of the historian. How and when the seed of faith was sown in ancient Erinn before the time of the great Apostle, cannot now be ascertained. We know the silent rapiditynvith which that faith spread, from its first promulgation by the shores of the Galilean lake, until THE MISSION OF ST. PALLADIUS. 109 it became the recognized religion of earth's mightiest empire. We know, also, that, by a noticeable providence, Rome was chosen from the beginning as the source from whence the light should 3manate. We know how pagan Rome, which had subdued and crushed material empires, and scattered nations and national customs as chaff before the wind, failed utterly to subdue or crush this religion, though promulgated by the feeblest of its plebeians. We know how the material prosperity of that mighty people was overruled for the furtherance of eternal designs ; and as the invin- cible legions continually added to the geographical extent of the empire, they also added to the number of those to whom the gospel of peace should be proclaimed. The first Christian mission to Ireland, for which we have definite and reliable data, was that of St. Palladius. St. Prosper, who held a high position in the Roman Church, published a chronicle in the year 433, in which we find the following register : Palladius was consecrated by Pope Celestine, and sent as the first Bishop to the Irish believing in Christ."^ This mission was unsuccessful. Palladius was repulsed by the inhabitants of Wicklow,^ where he landed. He then sailed northward, and was at last driven by stress of weather towards the Orkneys, finding harbour, even- tually, on the shores of Kincardineshire. Several ancient tracts give the details of his mission, its failure, and his subsequent career. The first of those authorities is the Life of St. Patrick in the Book of Armagh ; and in tliis it is stated that he died in the " land of the Britons." The second Life of St. Patrick, in Colgan's collection, has changed Britons into "Picts." In the "Annotations of Tierchan," also preserved in the Book of Armagh,^ it is said that Palladius was also called Patricius,^ and that he suffered martyr- dom among the Scots, " as ancient saints relate." ^ CJirist. — '*Ad Scotos in Christum credentes ordinatur a papa Cffilestino Palladius et primus episcopus mittitur." — Vet. Lat. Scrip. Chron. RoncalliuSf Padua, 1787. 3 Wichlow. — Probably on the spot where the town of Wicklow now stands. It was then called the region of Hy-Garchou. It is also designated Fortreatha Laighen by the Scholiast on Fiacc's Hymn. The district, probably, received this name from the family of Eoichaidh Finn Fothai't, a brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles. * Armagh. — Fol. 16, a. a. ^ Patricius. — This name was but an indication of rank. In the later years of 110 BIRTHPLACE OF ST. PATRICE. Prosper also informs us, that Palladius was a deacon'^ of the Roman Church, and that he received a commission from the Holy See to send Germanus, Bishop of Auxerre, to root out heresy,'^ and convert the Britons to the Catholic faith. Thus we find the Church, even in the earliest ages, occupied in her twofold mission, of converting the heathen, and preserving the faithful from error. St. Innocent I., writing to Decentius, in the year 402, refers thus to this important fact : " Is it not known to all that the things which have been delivered to the Roman Church by Peter, the Prince of the Apostles, and preserved ever since, should be observed by all ; and that nothing is to be introduced devoid of authority, or borrowed elsewhere ? Especially, as it is manifest that no one has founded churches for all Italy, the Gauls, Spain, Africa, and the interjacent islands, except such as were appointed priests by the venerable Peter and his successors." Palladius was accompanied by four companions : Sylvester and Solinus, who remained after him in Ireland ; and Augustinus and Benedictus, who followed him^ to Britain, but returned to their own country after his death. The Fita Secunda mentions that he brought relics of the blessed Peter and Paul, and other saints, to Ireland, as well as copies of the Old and New Testament, all of which were given to him by Pope Celestine. The birthplace of the great Apostle of Ireland has long been, and still continues, a subject of controversy. St. Fiacc states that he was born at Nemthur,^ and the Scholiast on St. Fiacc's Hymn identifies this with Alcuith, now Dumbarton, on the Firth of Clyde. The most reliable authority unquestionably is St. Patrick's own state- ments, in his Confessio. He there says (1) that his father had a farm or viUa at Bonavem Taberniae, from whence he was taken the Roman Empire, Gibbon says, *' tlie meanest subjects of the Roman Empire [oth century] assumed the illustrious name of Patricius." — Decline and Fall, vol. viii. p. 300. Hence the confusion that arose amongst Celtic hagiographers, and the interchanging of the acts of several saints who bore the same name. ^ Deacon. — This was an important office in the early Roman Church. 7 Heresy. — The Pelagian. 8 Followed him. — The Four Masters imply, however, that they remained in Ireland. They also name the three wooden churches which he erected. Cels- fine, which hae not been identified ; Teach-na-Romhan, House of the Romans, probably Tigroni ; and Domhnach-Arta, probably the present Dunard. — An- nals, p. 129, ^ Kemthur The n is merely a prefix ; it should read Em-tiir. IRELAND RECEIVED THE FAITH GENEROUSLY. Ill captive. It does not follow necessarily from this, that St. Patrick I5^as born there ; but it would appear probable that this was a pater- /lal estate. (2) The saint speaks of Britannise as his country. The difficulty lies in the identification of these places. In the Vita Secunda, Nemthur and Campus Taberniae are identified. Probus writes, that he had ascertained as a matter of certainty, that the Vicus Bannave Taburnice regionis was situated in Neustria. The Life supposed to be by St. Eleran, states that the parents of the saint were of Strats-Cludi (Strath-Clyde), but that he was born in Nem- thur — " Quod oppidum in Campo Taburnise est ;" thus indicating an early belief that France was the land of his nativity. St. Patrick's mention of Britannise, however, appears to be conclusive. There was a tribe called Brittani in northern France, mentioned by Pliny, and the Welsh Triads distinctly declare that the Britons of Great Britain came from thence. There can be no doubt, however, that St. Patrick was inti- mately connected with Gaul. His mother, Conchessa, was either a sister or niece of the great St. Martin of Tours ; and it was un- doubtedly from Gaul that the saint was carried captive to Ireland. Patrick was not the baptismal name of the saint ; it was given him by St. Celestine^ as indicative of rank, or it may be with some prophetic intimation of his future greatness. He was baptized by the no less significant appellation of Succat — " brave in battle." But his warfare was not with a material foe. Erinn re- ceived the faith at his hands, with noble and unexampled generosity ; and one martyr, and only one, was sacrificed in preference of ancient pagan rites ; while we know that thousands have shed their blood, and it may be hundreds even in our own times have sacrificed their lives, to preserve the treasure so gladly accepted, so faithfully pre- sers'^ed.^ Moore, in his History of Ireland^ exclaims, with the force of truth, and the eloquence of poetry : " While in all other countries the introduction of Christianity has been the slow work of time, has been resisted by either government or people, and seldom 1 Celestine. — See the Scholiast on Fiacc's Hjnmn. 2 Preserved. — It is much to be regretted that almost every circumstance in the life of St. Patrick has been made a field for polemics. Dr. Todd, of whom one might have hoped better things, has almost destroyed the interest of his otherwise valuable work by this fault. He cannot allow that St. Patrick's mother was a relative of St. Martin of Tours, obviously because St. Martin's 112 INTRODUCTION OF CHRISTIANITY. effected without la\dsh effusion of blood, in Ireland, on the contrary, by the influence of one zealous missionary, and with but little pre- vious preparation of the soil by other hands, Christianity burst forth at the first ray of apostolic light, and, with the sudden ripe- ness of a northern summer, at once covered the whole land. Kings and princes, when not themselves amongst the ranks of the con- verted, saw their sons and daughters joining in the train without a murmur. Chiefs, at variance in all else, agreed in meeting beneath the Christian banner ; and the proud druid and bard laid their superstitions meekly at the foot of the cross ; nor, by a singular blessing of Providence — unexampled, indeed, in the whole history of the Church — was there a single drop of blood shed on account of religion through the entire course of this mild Christian revolu- tion, by which, in the space of a few years, all Ireland was brought tranquilly under the dominion of the Gospel." It is probable that St. Patrick was born in 387, and that in 403 he was made captive and carried into Ireland. Those who believe Alcuith or Dumbarton to have been his birthplace, are obliged to account for his capture in Gaul — which has never been questioned — by supposing that he and his family had gone thither to visit the friends of his mother, Conchessa. He was sold as a slave, in that part of Dalriada comprised in the county of Antrim, to four men, one of whom, Milcho, bought up their right from the other three, and employed him in feeding sheep or swine. Exposed to the severity of the weather day and night, a lonely slave in a strange land, and probably as ignorant of the language as of the customs of his master, his captivity, would, indeed, have been a bitter one, had he not brought with liim, from a holy home, the elements of most fervent piety. A hundred times in the day, and a hundred times in the night, he lifted up the voice of prayer and supplication to the Lord of the bondman and the free, and faith- fully sers'ed the harsh, and at times cruel, master to whom Provi- dence had assigned him. Perhaps he may have offered his suffer- ings for those who were serving a master even more harsh and cruel. Catholicity is incontrovertible. He wastes pages in a vain attempt to disprove St. Pcitrick's Roman mission, for similar reasons ; and he cannot even admit that the Irish received the faith as a nation, all despite the clearest evidence ; yet so strong is the power of prejudice, that he accepts far less proof for other questions. ST. PATRICK'S CAPTIVITY. 113 After six years he was miraculously delivered. A voice, that was not of earth, addressed him in the stillness of the night, and commanded him to hasten to a certain port, where he would find a ship ready to take him to his own country. And I came," says the saint, " in the power of the Lord, who directed my course towards a good end ; and I was under no apprehension until I arrived where the ship was. It was then clearing out, and I called for a passage. But the master of the vessel got angry, and said to me, * Do not attempt to come with us.' On hearing this I retired, for the purpose of going to the cabin where I had been received as a guest. And, on my way thither, I began to pray ; but before I had finished my prayer, I heard one of the men crying out with a loud voice after me, ' Come, quickly ; foi they are calling you,' and immediately I returned. And they sai>i to me, ' Come, we receive thee on trust. Be our friend, just as it may be agreeable to you.' We then set sail, and after three days reached land." The two Breviaries of Rheims and Fiacc's Hymn agree in stating that the men with whom Patrick embarked were merchants from Gaul, and that they landed in a place called Treguir, in Brittany, some dis- tance from his native place. Their charity, however, was amply repaid. Travelling through a desert country, they had surely perished with hunger, had not the prayers of the saint obtained them a miraculous supply of food. It is said that St. Patrick suffered a second captivity, which, how- ever, only lasted sixty days ; but of this little is known. Neither is the precise time certain, with respect to these captivities, at which the events occurred which we are about to relate. After a short residence at the famous monastery of St. Martin, near Tours, founded by his saintly relative, he placed himself (probably in his thirtieth year) under the direction of St. Germain of Auxerre. It was about this period that he was favoured with the remark- able vision or dream relating to his Irish apostolate. He thus describes it in his Confessio : — " I saw, in a nocturnal vision, a man named Victoricus^ coming as 3 Vidoricus. — There were two saints, either of whom might have been the mysterious visitant who invited St. Patrick to Ireland. St. Victorious was the great missionary of the Morini, at the end of the fourth century. There was also a St. Victorious who suffered martyrdom at Amiens, a.d. 286. Those who do not believe that the saints were and are favoured with supernatural H 114 THE VISION OF ST. PATRICK. if from Ireland, with a large parcel of letters, one of which he handed to me. On reading the beginning of it, I found it contained these words : * The voice of the Irish and while reading it I thought I heard, at the same moment, the voice of a multitude of persons near the Wood of Foclut, which is near the western sea ; and they cried out, as if with one voice, ' We entreat thee, hohj youths to come and henceforth walk amongst us.^ And I was greatly ajQfected in my heart, and could read no longer ; and then I awoke." St. Patrick retired to Italy after this vision, and there spent many years. During this period he visited Lerins,* and other islands in the Mediten-anean. Lerins was distinguished for its religious and learned establishments ; and probably St. Germain,^ under whose direction the saint still continued, had recommended him to study there. It was at this time that he received the cele- brated stafl", called the Bachall Isu, or Staff of Jesus. St. Bernard mentions this Baclmll Isu, in his life of St. Malachy, as one of those insignia of the see of Armagh, which were popularly believed to confer upon the possessor a title to be regarded and obeyed as the successor of St. Patrick. Indeed, the great antiquity of this long-treasured relic has never been questioned ; nor is there any reason to suppose that it was not in some way a miraculous gift. Frequent notices of this pastoral staff are found in ancient Irish history. St. Fiacc speaks of it as having been richly adorned by an ecclesiastic contemporary with the saint. A curious MS. is still preserved in the Chapter House of Westminster Abbej'", containing an examination of " Sir Gerald communications, and whose honesty compels them to admit the genuineness of such documents as the Confession of St. Patrick, are put to sad straits to explain away what he writes. ^ Lerins.— ^ee Monks of the West, v. i. p. 463. It was then styled insula beata. 5 St. Germain. — St. Fiacc, who, it will be remembered, was contemporary with St. Patrick, write thus in his Hymn : ** The angel, Victor, sent Patrick over the Alps ; Admirable was his journey — Until he took his abode with Germanus, Far away in the south of Letha. In the isles of the Tyrrhene sea he remained ; In them he meditated ; He read the canon with Germanus — This, histories make known." THE BACH ALL ISU. 115 Machshayne, knight, sworn 19th March, 1529, upon the Holie Mase-booke and the great relicJce of Erlonde, called Baculum ChrisH, in the presence of the Kynge's Deputie, Chancellour, Tresoror, and Justice." Perhaps it may be well to conclude the account of this interesting relic by a notice of its wanton destruction, as translated from the Annals of Loch Ch by Professor O'Curry : — " The most miraculous image of Mary, which was at BaiU Atha Truim (Trim), and which the Irish people had all honoured for a long time before that, which used to heal the blind, the deaf, the lame, and every disease in like manner, was burned by the Saxons. And the Staff of J esus, which was in Dublin, and which wrought many wonders and miracles in Erinn since the time of Patrick down to that time, and which was in the hand of Christ Himself, was burned by the Saxons in like manner. And not only that, but there was not a holy cross, nor an image of Mary, nor other cele- brated image in Erinn over which their power reached, that they did not burn. Nor was there one of the seven Orders which came under their power that they did not ruin. And the Pope and the Church in the East and at home were excommunicating the Saxons on that account, and they did not pay any attention or heed unto that, &c. And I am not certain whether it was not in the year preceding the above [a.d. 1537] that these relics were burned." St. Patrick visited Rome about the year 431, accompanied by a priest named Segetius, who was sent with him by St. Germanus to vouch for the sanctity of his character, and his fitness for the Irish mission. Celestine received him favourably, and dismissed him mth his benediction and approbation. St. Patrick then returned once more to his master, who was residing at Auxerre. From thence he went into the north of Gaul, and there receiving intelligence of the death of St. Palladius, and the failure of his mission, he was immediately consecrated bishop by the venerable Amato, a prelate of great sanctity, then residing in the neighbourhood of Ebovia. Auxilius, Isserninus, and other disciples of the saint, received holy orders at the same time. They were subsequently promoted to the episcopacy in the land of their adoption. In the year 432 St. Patrick landed in Ireland. It was the first year of the pontificate of St. Sixtus III., the successor of Celestine ; the fourth year of the reign of Laeghair6, son of Nial of the Nine Hostages, King of Ireland. It is generally supposed that the saint 116 ST. PATRICK COMES AS APOSTLE TO IRELAND. landed first at a place called Inbher De, believed to be the mouth of the Bray river, in Wicklow. Here he was repulsed by the in- habitants, — a circumstance which can be easily accounted for from its proximity to the territory of King Nathi, who had so lately driven away his predecessor, Palladius. St. Patrick returned to his ship, and sailing towards the north, landed at the little island of Holm Patrick, near Skerries, off the north coast of Dublin. After a brief stay he proceeded still farther northward, and finally entering Strangford Lough, landed with his companions in the district of Magh-Inis, in the present barony of Lecale. Having penetrated some distance into the interior, they were encountered by Dicho, the lord of the soil, who, hearing of their embarkation, and supposing them to be pirates, had assembled a formidable body of retainers to expel them from his shores. But it is said that the moment he perceived^ Patrick, his apprehensions vanished. After some brief converse, Dicho invited the saint and his companions to his house, and soon after received himself the grace of holy baptism. Dicho was St. Patrick's first convei-t, and the first who erected a Christian church under his direction. The memory of this event is still preserved in the name Saull, the modern contraction of Sabhall Padruic, or Patrick's Barn. The saint was especially attached to the scene of his first missionary success, and frequently retired to the monastery which was estab- lished there later. After a brief residence with the new converts, Patrick set out for the habitation of his old master, Milcho, who lived near Slieve Mis, in the present county of Antrim, then part of the territory called Dalriada. It is said that when Milcho heard of the approach of his former slave, he became so indignant, that, in a violent fit of passion, he set fire to his house, and perished himself in the flames. The saint returned to Saull, and from thence journeyed by water to the mouth of the Boyne, where he landed at a small port called Colp. Tara was his destination ; but on his way thither he stayed a night at the house of a man of property named Seschnan. This man and his whole family were baptized, and one of his sons received the name of Benignus from St. Patrick, on account of the gentleness of his manner. The holy youth attached himself from this moment to his master, and was his successor in the primatial see of Armagh. Those who are anxious, for ob\dous reasons, to deny the fact of ST. PATRICK'S ROMAN MISSION. 117 St. Patrick's mission from Rome, 3o so on two grounds : first, the absence of a distinct statement of this mission in one or two of the earliest lives of the saints ; and his not having mentioned it himself in his genuine writings. Second, by underrating the value of those documents which do mention this Roman mission. With regard to the first objection, it is obvious that a hymn which was written merely as a panegyric (the HjTiin of St. Fiacc) was not the place for such details. But St. Fiacc does mention that Germanus was the saint's instructor, and that "he read his canons," i.e., studied theology under him. St. Patrick's Canons,^ which even Usher admits to be genuine, contain the following passage. We give Usher's own translation, as beyond all controversy for correctness : — " Whenever any cause that is very difficult, and unknown unto all the judges of the Scot- tish nation, shall arise, it is rightly to be referred to the See of the Archbishop of the Irish (that is, of Patrick), and to the examination of the prelate thereof. But if there, by him and his wise men, a cause of this nature cannot easily be made up, we have decreed it shall be sent to the See Apostolic, that is to say, to the chair of the Apostle Peter, which hath the authority of the city of Rome." Usher's translation of St. Patrick's Canon is sufficiently plain, and evidently he found it inconveniently explicit, for he gives a " gloss " thereon, in which he apologizes for St. Patrick's Roman predilections, by suggesting that the saint was influenced by a " special regard for the Church of Rome." No doubt this was true ; it is the feeling of all good Catholics; but it requires something more than a " special regard " to inculcate such absolute submission ; and we can scarcely think even Usher himself could have gravely sup- posed, that a canon written to bind the whole Irish Church, should have inculcated a practice of such importance, merely because Sr. Patrick had a regard for the Holy See. This Canon was acted upon in the Synod of Magh-Lene, in 630, and St. Cummian attests the fact thus : — " In accordance with the canonical decree, that if ques- tions of grave moment arise, they shall be referred to the head of ^ Canons. — This Canon is found in the Book of Armagh, and in that part of that Book which was copied from St. PatricISs own manuscript. Even could it be proved that St. Patrick never wrote these Canons, the fact that they are in the Book of Armagh, which was compiled, according to 0' Curry, before the year 727, and even at the latest before the year 807, is sufficient to prove the practice of the early Irish Church on this important subject. 118 ST. PATRICK'S CANONS. cities, we sent such as we knew were wise and humble men to Rome." But there is yet another authority for St. Patrick's Roman mission. There is an important tract by Macutenius, in the Book of Armagh. The authenticity of the tract has not, and indeed could not, be questioned ; but a leaf is missing : happily, how- ever, the titles of the chapters are preserved, so there can be no doubt as to what they contained. In these headings we find the following : — " 5. De setate e^s quando iens videre Sedem Apostolicam voluit discere sapientiam." " 6. De inventione Sancti Germani in Galiis et ideo non exivit ultra." Dr. Todd, by joining these two separate titles, with more ingenuity than fairness, has made it appear that " St. Patrick desired to visit the Apostolic See, and there to learn wisdom, but that meeting with St. Germanus in Gaul he went no further."'^ Even could the headings of two separate chapters be thus joined together, the real meaning of et ideo non exivit ultra would be, that St. Patrick never again left Germanus, — a meaning too obviously inadmissible to require further comment. But it is well known that the life of St. Patrick which bears the name of Probus, is founded almost ver- bally on the text of Macutenius, and this work supplies the missing chapters. They clearly relate not only the Eoman mission of the saint, but also the saint's love of Eome, and his desire to obtain from thence " due authority " that he might " preach with con- fidence." 7 Further.— Life of St Patnck, p. 315. SCULPTITRES AT DEVENISH. CHAPTER IX. St. Patrick visits Tara — Easter Sunday — St. Patrick's Hymn — Dul)tach salute him — He overthrows the Idols at Magh Slecht — The Princesses Ethnea and Fethlimia — Their Conversion — Baptism of Aengus— St. Patrick travels through Ireland — His Success in Munster — He blesses the whole country from Cnoc Patrick— The First Irish Martyr — St. Patrick's Death — Pagan Prophecies — Conor Mac Nessa — Death of King Laeghaire — The Church did not and does not countenance Pagan Superstition — OilioU Molt — Death of King Aengus— Foundation of the Kingdom of Scotland — St. Brigid — Shrines of the Three Saints— St. Patrick's Prayer for Ireland, and its Fulfilment. [A.D. 432—543.] N Holy Saturday St. Patrick arrived at Slane, where he caused a tent to be erected, and lighted the paschal fire at nightfall, preparatory to the cele- bration of the Easter festival. The princes and chieftains of Meath were, at the same time, assem- bled at Tara, where King Laeghair^ was holding a great pagan festival. The object of this meeting has been disputed, some authorities saying that it was convoked to celebrate the Beltinne, or fire of Bal or Baal ; others, that the king was commemo- rating his own birthday. On the festival of Bel- tinne it was forbidden to light any fire until a flame was visible from the top of Tara Hill. Laeghair^ was indignant that this regulation should have been infringed ; and probably the represen- tation of his druids regarding the mission of the great apostle, did not tend to allay his wrath. Determined to examine himself 120 ST. PATRICK AT TARA ON EASTER DAY. into the intention of these bold strangers, he set forth, accompanied by his bards and attendants, to the place where the sacred fire had been kindled, and ordered the apostle to be brought before him, strictly commanding, at the same time, that no respect should be shown to him. Notwithstanding the king's command, Ere, the son of Dego, rose up to salute him, obtained the grace of conversion, and was subse- quently promoted to the episcopate. The result of this interview was the appointment of a public discussion, to take place the next day at Tara, between St. Patrick and the pagan bards. It was Easter Sunday — a day ever memorable for this event in the annals of Erinn. Lae^haire and his court sat in state to receive the ambassador of the Eternal King. Treacherous preparations had been made, and it was anticipated that Patrick and his companions would scarcely reach Tara alive. The saint was aware of the machinations of his enemies ; but life was of no value to him, save as a means of performing the great work assigned him, and the suc- cess of that work was in the safe keeping of Another. The old writers love to dwell on the meek dignity^ of the apostle during this day of trial and triumph. He set forth with his companions, from where he had encamped, in solemn procession, singing a hymn of invocation which he had composed, in the Irish tongue, for the occasion, and which is still preserved, and well authenticated.^ He ^ AuthevUeaied. — A copy of this ancient hymn, with a Latin and English translation, may be found in Petrie's Eisay on Tara, p. 57, in Dr. Todd's Life of St Patrick^ and in Mr. Whitley Stokes' Goidilica. We regret exceedingly that onr limited space will not permit us to give this and other most valuable and interesting documents. There is a remarkable coincidence of thought and expression between some portions of this hymn and the well-known prayer of St Ignatius of Loyola, Corpus Christi, salve me. Such coincidences are re- markable and beautiful evidences of the oneness of faith, which manifests itself so frequently in similarity of language as well as in unity of behef. The Hymn of St, Patrick, written in the fifth century, is as purely CathoHc as the Prayer of St, Ignatius, written in the sixteenth. StTatrick places the virtue or power of the saints between him and evil, and declares his hope of merit for his good work with the same simple trust which all the saints have mani' fested from the earliest ages. This hymn is written in the Bearla Feine, or most ancient GaedhiUc dialect. Dr. O'Donovan well observes, that it bears in- ternal evidence of its authenticity in its allusion to pagan customs. Tirechan, who wrote in the seventh century, says that there were four honours paid to St, Patrick in ali monasteries and churches throughout the whole of Ireland, First, the festival of St. Patrick was honoured for three days and nights with all DESTRUCTION OF THE IDOLS. 121 was clothed, as usual, in white robes ; but he wore his mitre, and carried in his hand the Staff of Jesus. Eight priests attended him, robed also in white, and his youthful convert, Benignus, the son of Seschnan. Thus, great in the arms of meekness and prayer, did the Christian hosts calmly face the array of pagan pomp and pride. Again the monarch had commanded that no honour should be paid to the saint, and again he was disobeyed. His own chief poet and druid, Dubtach, rose up instantly on the entrance of the strangers, and saluted the venerable apostle with affection and respect. The Christian doctrine was then explained by St. Patrick to his wonder- ing audience, and such impression made, that although Laeghair6 lived and died an obstinate pagan, he nevertheless permitted the saint to preach where and when he would, and to receive all who might come to him for instruction or holy baptism. On the following day St. Patrick repaired to Taillten, where the public games were commencing ; and there he remained for a week, preaching to an immense concourse of people. Here his life was threatened by Cairbr^, a brother of King Laeghair6 ; but the saint was defended by another of the royal brothers, named Conall Creevan, who was shortly after converted. The church of Donough Patrick, in Meath, was founded by his desire. It is said that all the Irish churches which begin with the name Donough were founded by the saint, the foundation being always marked out by him on a Sunday, for which Domhnach is the Gaedhilic term. Having preached for some time in the western part of the terri- tory of Meath, the saint proceeded as far as Magh Slecht, where the great idol of the nation, Ceann [or Crom] Cruach was solemnly worshipped. The legend of its destruction, as given in the oldest annals, is singularly interesting. We give a brief extract from Professor O'Curry's translation : "When Patrick saw the idol from the water, which is named Gufhard [loud voice] (i.e., he elevated his voice) ; and when he approached near the idol, he raised his arm to lay the Staff of Jesus on him, and it did not reach him ; he bent good cheer, except flesh meat [which the Church did not allow then to be used in Lent]. Second, there was a proper preface for him in the Mass. Third, his hymn was sung for the whole time. Fourth, his Scotic hymn was sung always. As we intend publishing a metrical translation of his hymn suitable for general use, we hope it will be '* said and sung " by thousands of his own faithful people on his festival for all time to come. 122 THE PRINCESSES ETHNEA AND FETHLIMIA. back from the attempt upon his right side, for it was to the south his face was ; and the mark of the staff lies in his left side still, although the staff did not leave Patrick's hand ; and the earth swallowed the other twelve idols to their heads ; and they are in that condition in commemoration of the miracle. And he called upon all the people cum rege Laeghuire; they it was that adored the idol. And all the people saw him (i.e.f the demon), and they dreaded their dying if Patrick had not sent him to heU."^ After this glorious termination of Easter week, the saint made two other important converts. He set out for Connaught ; and when near Rath Cruaghan, met the daughters of King Laeghair6, the princesses Ethnea and Fethlimia, who were coming, in patri- archal fashion, to bathe in a neighbouring well. These ladies were under the tuition of certain druids, or magi; but they willingly listened to the instruction of the saint, and were converted and baptized. The interview took place at daybreak. The royal sisters heard the distant chant of the priests, who were reciting matins as they walked along ; and when they approached and beheld them in their wliite garments, singing, with books in their hands, it was naturally supposed that they were not beings of earth. *' Who are ye 1" they inquired of the saint and his companions. "Are ye of the sea, the heavens, or the earth?" St. Patrick explained to them such of the Christian mysteries as were most necessary at the moment, and spoke of the one only true God. " But where," they asked, " does your God dwell 1 Is it in the sun or on earth, in mountains or in valleys, in the sea or in nvers ] Then the apostle told them of his God, — the Eternal, the Invi- sible, — and how He had indeed dwelt on earth as man, but only to suffer and die for their salvation. And as the maidens listened to his words, their hearts were kindled with heavenly love, and they inquired further what they could do to show their gratitude to this great King. In that same hour they were baptized ; and in a short time they consecrated themselves to Him, the story of whose sur- passing charity had so moved their young hearts. " HelL—O'CuTTy, p. 539. This is translated from the Triiartite Life of St. Patrick. THE BAPTISM OF AENGUS. 123 Their brother also obtained the grace of conversion ; and an old Irish custom of killing a sheep on St. Michael's Day, and distribut- ing it amongst the poor, is said to date from a miracle performed by St. Patrick for this royal convert. Nor is the story of Aengus, another royal convert, less interesting. About the year 445, the saint, after passing through Ossory, and converting a great number of people, entered the kingdom of Munster. His destination was Cashel, from whence King Aengus, the son of Natfraech, came forth to meet him with the utmost reverence. This prince had already obtained some knowledge of Christianity, and demanded the grace of holy baptism. The saint willingly complied with his request. His courtiers as- sembled with royal state to assist at the ceremony. St. Patrick carried in his hand, as usual, the Bachall Isu ; at the end of this crozier there was a sharp iron spike, by which he could plant it firmly in the ground beside him while preaching, or exercising his episcopal functions. On this occasion, however, he stuck it down into the king's foot, and did not perceive his mistake until — "The royal foot transfixed, the gushing blood Enrich'd the pavement with a noble flood." The ceremony had concluded, and the prince had neither moved nor complained of the severe suffering he had endured. "When the saint expressed his deep regret for such an occurrence, Aengus merely replied that he believed it to be a part of the ceremony, and did not appear to consider any suffering of consequence at such a moment.^ When such was the spirit of the old kings of Erinn who received the faith of Christ from Patrick, we can scarcely marvel that their descendants have adhered to it with such unexampled fidelity. After the conversion of the princesses Ethnea and Fethlimia, the daughters of King Laeghair^, St. Patrick traversed almost every part of Connaught, and, as our di-v^e Lord promised to those whom He commissioned to teach all nations, proved his mission by the exercise of miraculous powers. Some of his early biographers have been charged with an excess of credulity on this point. But were this the place or time for such a discussion^ it might easily be shown ^ Moment. — Keating, voL ii. p. 15. 124 THE SAINT VISITS ULSTER AND LEINSTER. that miracles were to be expected when a nation was first evange- lized, and that their absence should be rather a matter of surprise than their frequency or marvellousness. He who alone could give the commission to preach, had promised that " greater things " than He Himself did should be done by those thus commissioned. And, after all, what greater miracle could there be than that one who had been enslaved, and harshly, if not cruelly treated, should become the deliverer of his enslavers from spiritual bondage, and should sacrifice all earthly pleasures for their eternal gain ] Nor is the conversion of the vast multitude who listened to the preaching of the saint, less marvellous than those events which we usually term the most supernatural. The saint's greatest success was in the land^ of Tirawley, near the town of Foclut, from whence he had heard the voice of the Irish even in his native land. As he approached this district, he learned that the seven sons of King Amalgaidh were celebrating a great festival. Their father had but lately died, and it was said these youths exceeded all the princes of the land in martial courage and skill in combat. St. Patrick advanced in solemn procession even into the very midst of the assembly, and for his reward ob- tained the conversion of the seven princes and twelve thousand of their followers. It is said that his life was at this period in some danger, but that Endeus, one of the converted princes, and his son Conall, protected him.^ After seven years spent in Connaught, he passed into Ulster ; there many received the grace of holy baptism, especially in that district now comprised in the county Monaghan. It was probably about this time that the saint returned to Meath, and appointed his nephew, St. Secundinus or Sechnal, who was bishop of the place already mentioned as Domhnach Sechnail, to preside over the northern churches during his own absence in the southern part of Ireland. The saint then visited those parts of Leinster which had been already evangelized by Palladius, and laid the foundation of many new churches. He placed one of his companions, Bishop Auxilius, at Killossy, near Xaas, and another, Isserninus, at KilcuUen, both in the present county of Kildare. At Leix, in the Queen's county, he obtained a great many disciples, and from thence he proceeded 2 Land. — Near the present town of Killala, co. Mayo. ^ Protected him. — Book of Armagh and Vit. Trip, I SUCCESS OF HIS MISSION IN MUNSTER. 125 to visit his friend, the poet Dubtach, who, it will be remembered, paid him special honour at Tara, despite the royal prohibition to the contrary. Dubtach lived in that part of the country called Hy-Kinsallagh, now the county Carlow. It was here the poet Fiacc was first introduced to the saint, whom he afterwards so faithfully followed. Fiacc had been a disciple of Dubtach, and was by profession a bard, and a member of an illustrious house. He was the first Leinster man raised to episcopal dignity. It was probably at this period that St. Patrick visited Munster, and the touching incident already related occurred at the baptism of Aengus. This prince was singularly devoted to religion, as indeed his conduct during the administration of the sacrament of regeneration could not fail to indicate. The saint's mission in Munster was eminently successful. Lonan, the chief of the district of Ormonde, entertained him with great hospitality, and thousands embraced the faith. Many of the in- habitants of Corca Baiscin crossed the Shannon in their hide- covered boats (curaghs) when the saint was on the southern side, in Hy-Figeinte, and were baptized by him in the waters of their magnificent river. At their earnest entreaty, St. Patrick ascended a hill which commanded a view of the country of the Dalcassians, and gave his benediction to the whole territory. This hill is called Findine in the ancient lives of the saint j but this name is now obsolete. Local tradition and antiquarian investigation make it probable that the favoured spot is that now called Cnoc Patrick, near Foynes Island. The saint's next journey was in the direction of Kerry, where he prophesied that *'St. Brendan, of the race of Hua Alta, the great patriarch of monks and star of the western world, would be born, and that his birth would take place some years after his own death."^ We have now to record the obituary of the only Irish martyr who sufi'ered for the faith while Ireland was being evangelized. While the saint was visiting Ui-Failghe, a territory now comprised in the King's county, a pagan chieftain, named Berraidhe, formed a plan for murdering the apostle. His wicked design came in some way to the knowledge of Odran, the saint's charioteer, who so * Death. — Vit. Trip. It was probably at this time St. Patrick wrote his celebrated letter to Caroticus. 126 THE SEE OF ARMAGH FOUNDED. arranged matters as to take his master's place, and thus received the fatal blow intended for him. The See of Armagh was founded about the year 455, towards the close of the great apostle's life. The royal palace of Emania, in the immediate neighbourhood, was then the residence of the kings of Ulster. A wealthy chief, by name Daire,^ gave the saint a portion of land for the erection of his cathedral, on an eminence called 'uim-Sailech, the Hill of Sallows. This high ground is now occupied by the city of Armagh (Ard-Macha). Religious houses for both sexes were established near the church, and soon were filled with ardent and devoted subjects. The saint's labours were now drawing to a close, and the time of eternal rest was at hand. He retired to his favourite retreat at SauU, and there probably wrote his Confessio.^ It is said that he wished to die in the ecclesiastical metropolis of Ireland, and for this purpose, when he felt his end approaching, desired to be conveyed thither ; but even as he was on his journey an angel appeared to him, and desired him to return to SauU. Here he breathed his last, on Wednesday, the 1 7th of March, in the year of our Lord 492. The holy viaticum and last anointing were administered to him by St. Tussach.'^ The saint's age at the time of his death, as also the length of his mission in Ireland, has been put at a much longer period by some authors, but modern research and correction of chronology have all but verified the statement given above. The intelligence of the death of St. Patrick spread rapidly through the country ; prelates and priests flocked from all parts to honour the mortal remains of their glorious father. As each arrived at SauU, he proceeded to offer the adorable sacrifi'lc; according to his rank. At night the plain resounded with the ( banting of psalms ; and the darkness was banished by the light of such innumerable torches, that it seemed even as if day had hastened to dawn brightly on the beloved remains. St. Fiacc, in his often-quoted Hymn, * Daire. — Book of Armagh, fol. 6, b.a. ^ Confessio. — This most remarkable and interesting document will be trans- lated and noticed at length in the Life of St. Patrick, which we are now preparing for the press. 7 St. Tussach.— All this Dr. Todd omits. The Four Masters enter the obituary of St. Patrick under the year 457. It is obvious that some uncertainty must exist in the chronology of this early period. PAGAN PROPHECIES. 127 compares it to the long day caused by the standing of the sun at the command of Joshua, when he fought against the Gabaonites. It is said that the pagan Irish were not without some intimation of the coming of their great apostle. Whether these prophecies were true or false is a question we cannot pretend to determine ; but their existence and undoubted antiquity demand that they should have at least a passing notice. Might not the Gaedhilic druid, as well as the Pythian priestess, have received even from the powers of darkness, though despite their will, an oracle^ which prophesied truth 1 There is a strange, wild old legend preserved in the Book of Leinster, which indicates that even in ancient Erinn the awful throes of nature were felt which were manifested in so many places, and in such various ways, during those dark hours when the Son of God hung upon the accursed tree for the redemption of His i^uilty creatures. This tale or legend is called the Aideadh Chonchohair, It is one of that class of narratives known under the generic title of His- torical Tragedies, or Deaths. The hero, Conor Mac Nessa, was King of Ulster at the period of the Incarnation of our Lord. His succession to the throne was rather a fortuity than the result of hereditary claim. Fergus Mac Nessa was rightfully king at the time j but Conor's father having died while he was yet an infant, Fergus, then the reigning monarch, proposed marriage to his mother when the youth was about fifteen, and only obtained the consent of the celebrated beauty on the strange condition that he should hand over the sovereignty of Ulster to her son for a year. The * Oracle. — It is said that, three years before St. Patrick's apostolic visit to Ireland, the druids of King Laeghair6 predicted the event to their master as an impending calamity. The names of the druids were Lochra and Luchat Mael ; their prophecy runs thus : — ** A Tailcenn will come over the raging sea. With his perforated garment, his crook-headed staff, With his table at the east end of his house. And all his people will answer * Amen, Amen.' " The allusions to the priestly vestments, the altar at the east end of the church, and the pastoral stafif, are sufficiently obvious, and easily explained. Th^ prophecy is quoted by Macutenius, and quoted again from him by Probus ; but the original is in one of the most ancient and authentic Irish MSS., the Book of Armagh. 128 DEATH OF CONOR MAC NESSA. monarch complied, glad to secure the object of his affections on any terms. Conor, young as he was, governed with such wisdom and discretion as to win all hearts ; and when the assigned period had arrived, the Ulster men positively refused to permit Fergus to re- sume his rightful dignity. After much contention the matter was settled definitely in favour of the young monarch, and Fergus satisfied himself with still retaining the wife for whose sake he had willingly made such sacrifices. Conor continued to give ample proofs of the wisdom of his people's decision. Under his government the noble Knights of the Eoyal Branch sprang up in Ulster, and made themselves famous both in field and court. It was usual in those barbarous times, whenever a distinguished enemy was killed in battle, to cleave open his head, and to make a ball of the brains by mixing them with lime, which was then dried, and preserved as a trophy of the warrior's valour. Some of these balls were preserved in the royal palace at Emania. One, that was specially prized, passed accidentally into the hands of a famous Connaught champion, who found a treacherous opportunity of throwing it at Conor, while he was displaying himself, according to the custom of the times, to the ladies of an opposing army, who had followed their lords to the scene of action. The ball lodged in the king's skull, and his physicians declared that an attempt to extract it would prove fatal. Conor was carried home ; he soon recovered, but he was strictly forbidden to use any violent exercise, and required to avoid all excitement or anger. The king enjoyed his usual health by observing those directions, until the very day of the Crucifixion. But the fearful phenomena which then occurred diverted his attention, and he inquired if Bacrach, his druid, could divine the cause. The druid consulted his oracles, and informed the king that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, was, even at that moment, suffering death at the hands of the J ews. " What crime has He committed V said Conor. " None," replied the druid. " Then are they slaying Him innocently T said Conor. " They are," re- plied the druid. It was too great a sorrow for the noble prince ; he could not bear that his God should die unmourned ; and rushicg wildly from where he sat to a neighbouring forest, he began to hew the young trees down, exclaiming : Thus would I destroy those who were around my King at putting Him to death." The excitement THE CHURCH DOES NOT ENCOURAGE SUPERSTITION. 12D proved fatal ; and the brave and good King Conor Mac Nessa died^ avenging, in his own wild pagan fashion, the death of his Creator. The secular history of Ireland, during the mission of St. Patrick, affords but few events of interest or importance. King Laeghair6 died, according to the Four Masters, A.D. 458. The popular opinion attributedfhis demise to the violation of his oath to] the Leinster men. It is doubtful whether he died a Christian, but the account of his buriaP has been taken to prove the contrary. It is much to be regretted that persons entirely ignorant of the Catholic faith, whether that ignorance be wilful or invincible, should attempt to write lives of Catholic saints, or histories of Catholic countries. Such persons, no doubt unintentionally, make the most serious mistakes, which a well-educated Catholic child could easily rectify. We find a remarkable instance of this in the following passage, taken from a work already mentioned : " Perhaps this [King Laeghair^'s oath] may not be considered an absolute proof of the king's paganism. To swear by the sun and moon was apparently, no doubt, paganism. But is it not also paganism to represent the rain and wind as taking vengeance ? . . . . for this is the language copied by all the monastic annalists, and even by the Four Masters, Fran- ciscan friars, writing in the seventeenth century." The passage is improved by a " note," in which the author mentions this as a proof that such superstitions would not have been necessarily regarded two centuries ago as inconsistent with orthodoxy. Now, in the first place, the Catholic Church has always^ condemned superstition of every kind. It is true that as there are good as well as bad Christians in her fold, there are also superstitious as well as believing Christians ; but the Church is not answerable for the sins of her children. She is answerable for the doctrine which she teaches ; » J!>ied— O'Curry, p. 273. ^ Burial. — " The body of Laeghair6 was brought afterwards from the south, and interred with his armour of championship in the south-east of the outer rampart of the royal rath of Laeghaire, at Tara, with his face turned south- wards upon the men of Leinster, as fighting with them, for he was the enemy of the Leinster men in his lifetime. " — Translated from the Leabhar na Nuidhre. Petrie's Tara, p. 170. ^ Always. — National customs and prejudices have always been respected by the Church : hence she has frequently been supposed to sanction what she was obliged to tolerate. A long residence in Devonshire, and an intimate acquaintance with its peasantry, has convinced us that there is incalculably I 130 DEATH OF THE GOOD KING AENGUS. and no one can point to any place or time in which the Church taught such superstitions. Secondly, the writers of history are obliged to relate facts as they are. The Franciscan fathers do this, and had they not done it carefully, and with an amount of labour which few indeed have equalled, their admirable Annals would have been utterly useless. They do mention the pagan opinion that it was " the sun and wind that killed him [Laeghaire], because he had violated them but they do not say that they believed this pagan superstition, and no one could infer it who read the passage with ordinary candour. It is probable that Oilioll Molt, who succeeded King Laeghair^, A.D. 459, lived and died a pagan. He was slain, after a reign of twenty years, by Laeghaire's son, Lughaidh, who reigned next. The good king Aengus^ died about this time. He was the first Christian King of Munster, and is the common ancestor of the ^lacCarthys, O'Sullivans, O'Keeffes, and O'Callahans. The foundation of the kingdom of Scotland by an Irish colony, is generally referred to the year 503.* It has already been mentioned that Cairbr6 Riada was the leader of an expedition thither in the reign of Conair^ II. The Irish held their ground without assistance from the mother country until this period, when the Picts obtained a decisive victory, and drove them from the country. A new colony of the Dalriada more superstitions believed and practified there of the grossest kind, than in any county in Ireland. Yet we should be sorry to charge the Established Church or its clergy, some of whom are most earnest and hard-working men, with the sins of their parishioners. The following extract from St. Columba'a magnificent Hymn, will show what the early Irish saints thought of pagan superstitions : ** I adore not the voice of birds, Nor sneezing, nor lots in this world, Nor a boy, nor chance, nor woman : My Druid is Christ, the Son of God ; Christ, Son of Mary, the great Abbot, The Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.' ^ Aengus. — ** Died the branch, the spreading tree of gold, Aenghus the laudable." — Four Masters, p. 153. The branches of this tree have indeed spread far and wide, aud the four great families mentioned above have increased and multiplied in all parts of the world. * Year 503. — The Four Masters give the date 498, which O'Donovan cor- rects both in the text and in a note. ST. BRIGID. 131 now went out under the leadership of Loarn, Aengus, and Fergus, the sons of Ere. They were encouraged and assisted in their under- taking by their relative Mortagh, the then King of Ireland. It is said they took the celebrated Lia Fail to Scotland, that Fergus might be crowned thereon. The present royal family of England have their claim to the crown through the Stuarts, who were descendants of the Irish Dalriada. Scotland now obtained the name of Scotia, from the colony of Scots. Hence, for some time, Ireland was desig- nated Scotia Magna, to distinguish it from the country which so obtained, and has since preserved, the name of the old race. Muircheartach, a.d. 504, was the first Christian King of Ireland ; but he was constantly engaged in war with the Leinster men about the most unjust Boromean tribute. He belonged to the northern race of Hy-Nial, being descended from Nial of the Nine Hostages. On his death, the crown reverted to the southern Hy-Nials in the person of their representative, Tuathal Maelgarbh. It would appear from a stanza in the Four Masters, that St. Brigid had some prophetic intimation or knowledge of one of the battles fought by Muircheartach. Her name is scarcely less famous for miracle? than that of the great apostle. Broccan's Hymn^ con- tains allusions to a very great number of these supernatural favours. Many of these marvels are of a similar nature to those which the saints have been permitted to perform in all ages of the Church's history. Brigid belonged to an illustrious family, who were lineally descended from Eochad, a brother of Conn of the Hundred Battles. She was born at Fochard, near Dundalk, about the year 453, where her parents happened to be staying at the time ; but Kildare was their usual place of residence, and there the holy virgin began her saintly career. In -her sixteenth year she received the white cloak and religious veil, which was then the distinctive garment of those who were specially dedicated to Christ, from the hands of St. Macaille, the Bishop of Usneach, in Westmeath. Eight young maidens of noble birth took the veil with her. Their first residence was at a place in the King's county, still called Brigidstown. The fame of her sanctity now extended far and wide, and she was earnestly solicited from various parts of the country to found similar ^ Broccan^s Hymn. — This Hymn was written about a.d. 510. See the trans- lation in Mr. Whitley Stokes' Goidilica, Calcutta, 1SG6. Privately printed. 132 MONASTERY OF KILDARE FOUNDED. establishments. Her first mission was to Munster, at the request of Ere, the holy Bishop of Slane, who had a singular respect for her virtue. Soon after, she founded a house of her order in the plain of Cliach, near Limerick ; but the people of Leinster at last became fearful of losing their treasure, and sent a deputation requesting her return, and offering land for the foundation of a large nunnery. Thus was established, in 483, the famous Monastery of Kildare, or the Church of the Oak. At the request of the saint, a bishop was appointed to take charge of this important work ; and under the guidance of Con- laeth, who heretofore had been a humble anchorite, it soon became distinguished for its sanctity and usefulness. The concourse of strangers and pilgrims was immense ; and in the once solitary plain one of the largest cities of the time soon made its appear- ance. It is singular and interesting to remark, how the call to a life of virginity was felt and corresponded with in the newly Christianized country, even as it had been in the Eoman Empire, when it also received the faith. Nor is it less noticeable how the same safeguards and episcopal rule preserved the foundations of each land in purity and peace, and have transmitted even to our own days, in the same Church, and in it only, that privileged life. The Four Masters give her obituary under the year 525. Ac- cording to Cogitosus, one of her biographers, her remains were interred in her own church. Some authorities assert that her relics were removed to Down, when Kildare was ravaged by the Danes, about the year 824. It has been doubted whether Downpatrick could lay claim to the honour of being the burial-place of Ireland's three great saints,^ but there are good arguments in its favour. An old prophecy of St. Columba regarding his interment runs thus : — " My prosperity in guiltless Hy, And my soul in Derry, And my body under the flag Beneath which are Patrick and Brigid." The relics of the three saints escaped the fury of the Danes, who burned the town and pillaged the cathedral six or seven times, between the years 940 and 1111. In 1177, John de Courcy * Saints. — S>t. Patrick, St. Columba, and St. Brigid. See Reeves' Ecc. Anti. of Down and Connor, p. 225, and Giraldus Cambrensis, d. 3, cap. 18. SHRINES OF THE THREE SAINTS. 133 took possession of the town, and founded a church attached to a house of Secular Canons, under the invocation of the Blessed Trinity. In 1183 they were replaced by a community of Bene- dictine monks, from St. Wirburgh's Abbey, at Chester. Malachy, who was then bishop, granted the church to the English monks and prior, and changed the name to that of the Church of St. Patrick. This prelate was extremely anxious to discover the relics of the saints, which a constant tradition averred were there con- cealed. It is said, that one day, as he prayed in the church, his attention was directed miraculously to an obscure part of it ; or, according to another and more probable account, to a particular spot in the abbey-yard, where, when the earth was removed, their remains were found in a triple cave, — Patrick in the middle, Columba and Brigid on either side. At the request of De Courcy, delegates were despatched to Rome by the bishop to acquaint Urban III. of the discovery of the bodies. His Holiness immediately sent Cardinal Vivian to preside at the translation of the relics. The ceremony took place on the 9th of June, 1186, that day being the feast of St. Columba. The relics of the three saints were deposited in the same monument at the right side of the high altar. The right hand of St. Patrick was enshrined and placed on the high altar. In 1315, Edward Bruce invaded Ulster, marched to Downpatrick, destroyed the abbey, and carried off the enshrined hand. In 1538, Lord Grey, who marched into Lecale to establish the supremacy of his master, Henry VIII., by fire and sword, " effaced the statues of the three patron saints, and burned the cathedral, for which act, along with many others equally laudable, he was beheaded three years afterwards." The restoration of the old abbey-church was undertaken of late years, and preceded by an act of desecration, which is still remembered with horror. The church had been surrounded by a burying- ground, where many had washed to repose, that they might, even in death, be near the relics of the three great patron saints of Erinn. But the graves were exhumed without mercy, and many were obliged to carry away the bones of their relatives, and deposit them where they could. The " great tomb," in which it was believed that " Patrick, Brigid, and Columkille " had slept for more than»six centuries, was not spared ; the remains were flung out into the churchyard, and only saved from further desecration by the piety of a faithful people. 134 THE SHRINES OF THE SAINTS. The shrine of St. Patrick's hand was in possession of the lato Catholic Bishop of Belfast. The relic itself has long disappeared ; but the shrine, after it was carried off by Bruce, passed from one trustworthy guardian to another, until it came into his hands. One of these was a Protestant, who, with noble generosity, handed it over to a Catholic as a more fitting custodian. One Catholic family, into whose care it passed at a later period, refused the most tempting offers for it, though pressed by poverty, lest it should fall into the hands of those who might value it rather as a curiosity than as an object of devotion. This beautiful reliquary consists of a silver case in the shape of the hand and arm, cut off a little below the elbow. It is conside- rably thicker than the hand and arm of an ordinary man, as if it were intended to enclose these members without pressing upon them too closely. The fingers are bent, so as to represent the hand in the attitude of benediction. But there is another relic of St. Patrick and his times of scarcely less interest. The Domhnach Airgid'^ contains a copy of the Four Gospels, which, there is every reason to believe, were used by the great apostle of Ireland. The relic consists of two parts — the shrine or case and the manuscript. The shrine is an oblong box, nine inches by seven, and five inches in height. It is composed of three distinct covers, in the ages of which there is obviously a great difference. The inner or first cover is of wood, apparently yew, and may be coeval with the manuscript it is intended to preserve. The second, which is of copper plated Avith silver, is assigned to a period between the sixth and twelfth centuries, from the style of its scroll or interlaced ornaments. The figures in relief, and letters on the third cover, which is of silver plated with gold, leave no doubt of its being the work of the fourteenth century. The last or external cover is of great interest as a specimen of the skill and taste in art of its time in Ireland, and also for the highly finished representations of ancient costume which it preserves. The ornaments on the top consist principally of a large figure of the 7 Domhnach Airgid. — See O'Curry, MS. Materials, p. 321, for a complete verification of the authenticity of this relic. The Tripartite Life of St. Patrick mentions the gift of this relic by the saint to St. MacCarthainn. Dr. Petrie concludes that the copy of the Gospels contained therein, was undoubtedly the one which was used by our apostle. We give a fac-simile of the first page, which cannot fail to interest the antiquarian. ST. Patrick's prayer for Ireland. 135 Saviour in alto-relievo in the centre, and eleven figures of saints in hasso-relievo on each side in four oblong compartments. There is a small square reliquary over the head of our divine Lord, covered with a crystal, which probably contained a piece of the holy cross. The smaller figures in relief are, Columba, Brigid, and Patrick ; those in the second compartment, the Apostles James, Peter, and Paul ; in the third, the Archangel Michael, and the Virgin and Child j in the fourth compartment a bishop presents a cumdach, or cover, to an ecclesiastic. This, probably, has a historical relation to the reliquary itself. One prayer uttered by St. Patrick has been singularly fulfilled, " May my Lord grant," he exclaims, " that I may never lose His people, which He has acquired in the ends of the earth !" From hill and dale, from camp and cottage, from plebeian and noble, there rang out a grand ''Amen." The strain was caught by Secundinus and Benignus, by Columba and Columbanus, by Brigid and Brendan. It floated away from Lindisfarne and lona, to Iceland and Tarentum. It was heard on the sunny banks of the Ehine, at Antwerp and Cologne, in Oxford, in Paviaj and in Paris. And still the old echo is breathing its holy prayer. By the priest, who toils in cold and storm to the " station " on the mountain side, far from his humble home. By the confessor, who spends hour after hour, in the heat of summer and the cold of winter, absolving the penitent children of Patrick. By the monk in his cloister. By noble and true-hearted men, faithful through cen- turies of persecution. And loudly and nobly, though it be but faint to human ears, is that echo uttered also by the aged woman who lies down by the wayside to die in the famine years,^ because she prefers the bread of heaven to the bread of earth, and the faith taught by Patrick to the tempter's gold. By the emigrant, who, with 8 Famine years.— During the famous, or rather infamous, Partry evictions, an old man of eighty and a woman of seventy-four were amongst the number of those who suffered for their ancient faith. They were driven from the home which their parents and grandfathers had occupied, in a pitiless storm of sleet and snow. The aged woman utters some slight complaint ; but her noble- hearted aged husband consoles her with this answer : " The sufferings and death of Jesus Christ were bitterer still. " Sixty-nine souls were cast out of doors^that day. Well might the Times say : ** These evictions are a hideous scandal ; and the bishop should rather die than be guilty of such a crime." Yet, who can count up all the evictions, massacres, tortures, and punishments which this people has endured ? 136 ST. PATRICK'S PRAYER FOR IRELAND. broken heart bids a long farewell to the dear island home, to the old father, to the grey-haired mother, because his adherence to his faith tends not to further his temporal interest, and he must starve or go beyond the sea for bread. Thus ever and ever that echo is gushing up into the ear of God, and never will it cease until it shall have merged into the eternal alleluia which the often-martyred and ever-faithful children of the saint shall shout with him in rapturous voice before the Eternal Tlirone- IBT. PATRICK*S BELL, - t — The Lex non Scripta and the Lex Scripta — Christianity necessitated the Revision of Ancient Codes — The Compilation of the Brehon Laws — Proofs that St. Patrick assisted thereat — Law of Distress — Law of Succession — Cf)e ILanguage of ^ancient 3£vmn — Writing in pre-Christian Erinn — Ogham Writing— gtnticjuities of ))vc=(£rt3viistian JSvinn — Round Towers — Cromlechs— Raths—Cranuoges. ASTERN customs and eastern superstitions, which undoubtedly are a strong confirmatory proof of our eastern origin, abounded in ancient Erinn. Druidism was the religion of the Celts, and druidism was probably one of the least corrupt forms of paganism. The purity of the divinely- taught patriarchal Avorship, became more and more corrupted as it passed through defiled channels. Yet, in all pagan mythologies, we find traces of the eternal verity in an obvious prominence of cultus offered to one god above the rest ; and obAaous, though grossly misapplied, glimpses of divine attri- butes, in the many deified objects which seemed to symbolize his power and his omnipotence. The Celtic druids probably taught the same doctrine as the Greek philosophers. The metempsychosis, a 138 THE RELIGION OF ANCIENT ERINN. prominent article of this creed, may have been derived from the Pythagoreans, but more probably it was one of the many relics of patriarchal belief which were engrafted on all pagan religions. They also taught that the universe would never be entirely destroyed, supposing that it would be purified by fire and water from time to time. This opinion may have been derived from the same source. The druids had a pontifex maximus, to whom they yielded entire obedience, — an obvious imitation of the Jewish custom. The nation was entirely governed by its priests, though after a time, when the kingly power developed itself, the priestly power gave place to the regal. Gaul was the head-quarters of druidism ; and thither we find the Britons, and even the Romans, sending their children for instruction. Eventually, Mona became a chief centre for Britain. The Gaedhilic druids, though probably quite as learned as their continental brethren, were more isolated ; and hence we cannot learn so much of their customs from external sources. There is no doubt that the druids of Gaul and Britain ofi'ered human sacrifices ; it appears almost certain the Irish druids did not. Our principal and most reliable information about this religion, is derived from Caesar. His account of the learning of its druids, of their knowledge of astronomy, physical science, mechanics, arithmetic, and medicine, however highly coloured, is amply corroborated by the casual statements of other authors.^ He expressly states that they used the Greek character in their writings, and mentions tables found in the camp of the Helvetii written in these characters, con- taining an account of all the men capable of bearing arms. It is probable that Irish druidical rites manifested themselves principally in Sun-worship. The name of Bel, still retained in the Celtic Beltinne, indicates its Phoenician origin ; Baal being the name under which they adored that luminary. It is also remarkable that Grian, which signifies the sun in Irish, resembles an epithet of Apollo given by Virgil,^ who sometimes styles him Grynseus. St. Patrick also confirms this conjecture, by condemning Sun-worship in his Confession, when he says : " All those who adore it shall descend into misery and punishment." If the well-known passage of Diodorus Siculus may be referred to Ireland, it afi'ords another ® Authors. — Strabo, 1, iv. p. 197 ; Suetonius, V. Cla. ; Pliny, /Tw^. Xat. 1. XXV. c. 9. Pliny mentions having seen the serpent's egg, and describes it. 1 Virgil. ^Ec 6, v. 73. SUN-WORSHIP. 139 confirmation. Indeed, it appears difficult to conceive how any other place but Ireland could be intended by the " island in the ocean over against Gaul, to the north, and not inferior in size to Sicily, the soil of which is so fruitful that they mow there twice in the year. "2 In this most remarkable passage, he mentions the skill of their harpers, their sacred groves and singular temple of round form, their attachment to the Greeks by a singular affection from old times, and their tradition of having been visited by the Greeks, who left offerings which were noted in Greek letters. Toland and Carte assume that this passage refers to the Hebrides, Rowlands applies it to the island of Anglesea ; but these conjec- tures are not worth regarding. We can scarcely imagine an un- prejudiced person deciding against Ireland ; but where prejudice exists, no amount of proof will satisfy. It has been suggested that the Irish pagan priests were not druids properly so called, but magi f and that the Irish word which is taken to mean druid, is only used to denote persons specially gifted with wisdom. Druid- ism probably sprung from magism, which was a purer kind of worship, though it would be difficult now to define the precise limits which separated these forms of paganism. If the original pagan religion of ancient Erinn was magism, introduced by its Phoenician colonizers, it is probable that it had gradually degenerated to the comparatively grosser rites of the druid before the advent of St. Patrick. His destruction of the idols at Magh Slecht is unques- tionable evidence that idol worship^ was then practised, though probably in a very limited degree. The folklore of a people is perhaps, next to their language, the best guide to their origin. The editor of Bohn's edition of the Chronicle of Eichard of Cirencester remarks, that "many points of coincidence have been remarked in comparing the religion of the Hindoos with that of the ancient Britons ; and in the language of these two people some striking similarities occur in those proverbs 2 Year. — Dio. Sic. torn. i. p. 158. 3 Magi. — Magi is always i;sed in Latin as the equivalent for the Irish word which signifies druid. See the Vitce S. Columbce, p. 73 ; see also Keeves' note to this word. * Worship. — In the Chronicle of Richard of Cirencester, eh. 4, certain Roman deities are mentioned as worshipped by the British druids ; but it is probable the account is merely borrowed from Caesar's description of the Gauls. 140 EASTERN CUSTOMS IN ANCIENT ERINN. and modes of expression which are derived from national customs and religious ceremonies."^ We are not aware of any British cus- toms or proverbs which bear upon this subject, nor does the writer mention any in proof of his assertion : if, however, for Britons we read Irish, his observations may be amply verified. The kindly " God save you !" and " God bless all here !" of the Irish peasant, finds its counterpart in the eastern " God be gracious to thee, my son !" The partiality, if not reverence, for the number seven, is indicated in our churches. The warm-hearted hospitality of the very poorest peasant, is a practical and never-failing illustra- tion of the Hindoo proverb, " The tree does not withdraw its shade even from the woodcutter." The celebration of St. John's Eve by watchfires, is undoubtedly a remnant of paganism, still practised in many parts of Ireland, as we can aver from personal knowledge ; but the custom of passing cattle through the fire has been long discontinued, and those who kindle the fires have little idea of its origin, and merely continue it as an amusement. Kelly mentions, in his Folklore, that a calf was sacrificed in Northamptonshire during the pre- sent century, in one of these fires, to " stop the murrain." The superstitious use of fire still continues in England and Scotland, though we believe the Beltinne on St. John's Eve is peculiar to Ireland. The hunting of the wren^ on St. Stephen's Day, in this country, is said, by Yallancey, to have been originated by the first Christian missionaries, to counteract the superstitious reverence with which this bird was regarded by the druids. Classic readers will remember the origin of the respect paid to this bird in pagan times. The peasantry in Ireland, who have never read either Pliny or Aristotle, are equally conversant with the legend. The common and undignified game of "jacks " also lays claim to ^ Ceremonies. — Bolm's edition, p. 431. ^ Wren. — In Scotland the wren is an object of reverence: hence the rhyme — "Malisons, malisons, more than ten, That harry the Ladye of Heaven's hen." But it is probable the idea and the verse were originally imported from France, where the bird is treated with special respect. There is a very inter- esting paper in the Ulster Archceological Journal, vol. vii. p. 334, on the re- markable correspondence of Irish, Greek, and Oriental legends, where the tale of Labhradh Loinseach is compared with that of Midas. Both had asses' ears, and both were victims to the loquacious propensities of their barbers. SUPERSTITIONS CHRISTIANIZED. 141 a noble ancestry. In Mr. St. John's work on The Manners and Customs of Ancient Greece, he informs us that the game was a classical one, and called jpentalitha. It was played with five astragals — knuckle-bones, pebbles, or little balls — which were thrown up into the air, and then attempted to be caught when falling on the back of the hand. Another Irish game, " pricking the loop," in Greece is called Mmantiliginos, pricking the garter. Hemestertius supposes the Gordian Knot to have been nothing but a variety of the himantiliginos. The game consists in winding a thong in such an intricate manner, that when a peg is inserted in the right ring, it is caught, and the game is won ; if the mark is missed, the thong un- winds without entangling the peg. The Irish keen [caoine] may still be heard in Algeria and Upper Egypt, even as Herodotus heard it chanted by Lybian women. This wailing for the deceased is a most ancient custom ; and if antiquity imparts dignity, it can hardly be termed barbarous. The Romans employed keeners at their funerals, an idea which they probably borrowed from the Etruscans,'' with many others incomparably more valuable, but carefully self-appropriated. Our wakes also may have had an identity of origin with the funeral feasts of the Greeks, Etruscans, and Romans, whose customs were all probably derived from a common source. The fasting of the creditor on the debtor is still practised in India, and will be noticed in connexion with the Brehon Laws. There is, however, a class of customs which have obtained the generic term of superstitions, which may not quite be omitted, and which are, for many reasons, difficult to estimate rightly. In treating of this subject, we encounter, primd facie, the difficulty of giving a definition of superstition. The Irish are supposed to be pre- eminently a superstitious people. Those who make this an accusa- tion, understand by superstition the belief in anything supernatural; and they consider as equally superstitious, veneration of a relic, belief in a miracle, a story of a banshee, or a legend of Finn Mac Cumhaill. Probably, if the Celts did not venerate reHcs, and believe in the possibility of miracles, we should hear far less of their superstitions. Superstition of the grossest kind is prevalent 7 Etruscans. — See Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. i. p. 295, where the bas-reliefs are described which represent the prcefcce, or hired mourners, wail- ing over the corpse. 142 CHRISTIAXIZED SUPERSTITIONS. among the lower orders in every part of England, and yet the nation prides itself on its rejection of this weakness. But according to another acceptation of the term, only such heathen customs as refer to the worship of false gods, are superstitions. These customs re- main, unfortunately, in many countries, but in some they have been Christianized. Those who use the term superstition generically, still call the custom superstitious, from a latent and, perhaps, in some cases, unconscious impression that there is no supernatural. Such persons commence 'with denying all miraculous interventions except those which are recorded in holy Scripture ; and unhappily, in some cases, end by denying the miracles of Scripture. To salute a person who sneezed with some form of benediction, was a pagan custom. It is said to have originated through an opinion of the danger attending it ; and the exclamation used was : " Jupiter help me !" In Ireland, the pagan custom still remains, but it has been Christianized, and " God bless you !" is substituted for the pagan form. Yet we have known persons who considered the use of this aspiration superstitious, and are pleased to assert that the Irish use the exclamation as a protection against e'V'il spirits, meaning thereby fairies. When a motive is persistently attributed which does not exist, argument is useless. Devotion to certain places, pilgrimages, even fasting and other bodily macerations, were pagan customs. These, also, have been Christianized. Buildings once consecrated to the worship of pagan gods, are now used as Christian temples : what should we think of the person who should assert that because pagan gods were once adored in these churches, therefore the worship now offered in them was offered to pagan deities 1 The temples, like the customs, are Christianized. The author of a very interesting article in the Lister Archaeo- logical Journal (vol. ix. p. 256), brings forward a number of Irish customs for which he finds counterparts in India. But he forgets that in Ireland the customs are Christianized, while in India they remain pagan ; and like most persons who consider the Irish pre- eminently superstitious, he appears ignorant of the teaching of that Church which Christianized the world. The special " super- stition " of this article is the devotion to holy wells. The custom still exists in Hindostan ; people flock to them for cure of their diseases, and leave " rags " on the bushes as " scapegoats,'' ex votoSy, so to say, of cures, or prayers for cures. In India, the HOLY WELLS NOT SUPERSTITIONS. 143 prayer is made to a heathen deity ; in Ireland, the people happen to believe that God hears the prayers of saints more readily than their own ; and acting on the principle which induced persons, in apostolic times, to use " handkerchiefs and aprons " which had touched the person of St. Paul as mediums of cure, because of his virgin sanctity, in preference to " handkerchiefs and aprons " of their own, they apply to the saints and obtain cures. But they do not believe the saints can give what God refuses, or that the saints are more merciful than God. They know that the saints are His special friends, and we give to a friend what we might refuse to one less dear. Lege totum, si vis scire totum, is a motto which writers on national customs should not forget. Customs were probably the origin of laws. Law, in its most comprehensive sense, signifies a rule of action laid down^ by a superior. Divine law is manifested (1) by the law of nature, and (2) by revelation. The law of nations is an arbitrary arrangement, founded on the law of nature and the law of revelation : its per- fection depends obviously on its correspondence with the divine law. Hence, by common consent, the greatest praise is given to those laws of ancient nations which approximate most closely to the law of nature, though when such lav/s came to be revised by those who had received the law of revelation, they were necessarily amended or altered in conformity therewith. No government can exist without law; but as hereditary succession preceded the law of hereditary succession, which was at first established by custom, so the lex non scripta, or national custom, preceded the lex scripta, or statute law. The intellectual condition of a nation may be well and safely estimated by its laws. A code of laws that were ob- served for centuries before the Christian era, and for centuries after the Christian- era, and which can bear the most critical tests of forensic acumen in the nineteenth century, evidence that the framers of the code were possessed of no slight degree, of mental culture. Such are the Brehon laws, by which pagan and Christian Erinn was governed for centuries. The sixth century was a marked period of legal reform. The Emperor Justinian, by closing the schools of Athens, gave a death- ^ Laid doivn. — Law, Saxon, lagu, lah ; from lecgan = Goth, lagjan, to lay, to place J Gael, lagh, a law ; leag, to lie down ; Latin, lex, from Gr. lego^ to lay. 144 THE LAWS OF ANCIENT ERTNN. blow to Grecian philosophy and jurisprudence. But Grecian influence had already acted on the formation of Roman law, and probably much of the Athenian code was embodied therein. The origin of Roman law is involved in the same obscurity as the origin of the Brehon code. In both cases, the mist of ages lies like a light, but impenetrable veil, over all that could give certainty to conjecture. Before the era of the Twelve Tables, mention is made of laws enacted by Romulus respecting what we should now call civil liabilities. Laws concerning religion are ascribed to Numa, and laws of contract to Servius Tullius, who is supposed to have collected the regulations made by his predecessors. The Twelve Tables were notably formed on the legal enactments of Greece. The cruel severity of the law for insolvent debtors, forms a marked contrast to the milder and more equitable arrangements of the Brehon code. By the Roman enactments, the person of the debtor was at the mercy of his creditor, who might sell him for a slave beyond the Tiber. The Celt allowed only the seizure of goods, and even this was under regulations most favourable to the debtor. The legal establishment of Christianity by Constantino, or we should rather say the existence of Christianity, necessitated a complete revision of all ancient laws : hence we find the compi- lation of the Theodosian code almost synchronizing with the re- vision of the Brehon laws. The spread of Christianity, and the new modes of thought and action which obtained thereby, necessitated the reconstruction of ancient jurisprudence in lands as widely distant geographically, and as entirely separated poHtically, as Italy and Ireland. Those who have studied the subject most carefully, and who are therefore most competent to give an opinion, accept the popular account of the revision of our laws. The Four Masters thus record this important event :— " The age of Christ 438. The tenth year of Laeghair^. The Feinchus of Ireland were purified and written, the writings and old works of Ireland having been collected [and brought] to one place at the request of St. Patrick. Those were the nine supporting props by whom this was done : Laeghair^, i.e., King of Ireland, Core, and Daire, the three kings ; Patrick, Benen, and Cairneach, the three saints; Ross, Dubhthach, and Fearghus, the three anti- quaries." Dr. O'Donovan, in his note, shelters himself under an extract from Petrie's Tara ; but it is to be supposed that he coin- HOW THE BREHON CODE WAS COMPILED. 145 cides in the opinion of that gentleman. Dr. Petrie thinks that " little doubt can be entertained that such a work was compiled within a short period after the introduction of Christianity in the country, and that St. Patrick may have laid the foundations of it though he gives no satisfactory reason why that saint should not have assisted at the compilation, and why the statements of our annalists should be refused on this subject, when they are accepted on others. A list of the "family" [household] of Patrick is given immediately after, which Dr. O'Donovan has taken great pains to verify, and with which he appears satisfied. If the one statement is true, why should the other be false 1 Mr. 0' Curry, whose opinion on such subjects is admittedly worthy of the highest con- sideration, expresses himself strongly in favour of receiving the statements of our annalists, and thinks that both Dr. Petrie and Dr. Lanigan are mistaken in supposing that the compilation was not effected by those to whom it has been attributed. As to the antiquity of these laws, he observes that Cormac Mac Cullinan quotes passages from them in his Glossary, which was written not later than the ninth century, and then the language of the Sean- chus^ Mor was so ancient that it had become obsolete. To these laws, he well observes, the language of Moore, on the MSS. in the Royal Irish Academy, may be applied : " They were not written by a foolish people, nor for any foolish purpose and these were the "laws and institutions which regulated the political and social system of a people the most remarkable in Europe, from a period almost lost in the dark mazes of antiquity, down to about within two hundred years of our own time, and whose spirit and traditions influence the feelings and actions of the native Irish even to this day."2 But we can adduce further testimony. The able editor and translator of the Seanchus Mor, which forms so important a portion of our ancient code, has, in his admirable Preface, fully removed all doubt on this question. He shows the groundlessness of the objec- ^ It. — Four Masters, vol. i. p. 133. The Seanclius Mor was sometimes called Cai7i Phadru'ig, or Patrick's Law. ^ Seanchu.9. — From the old Celtic root sen, old, which has direct cognates, not merely in the Indo-European, but also in the Semitic ; Arabic, sen, old, ancient — sunnah, institution, regulation ; Persian, san, law, right ; sanna. Phoenicibus idem fuit quod Arabibus summa, lex, doctrina jux canonicum. — Bochart, Geo. See. 1. ii. c. 17. See Petrie's Tara, p. 79. * Day.— 0' Curry, page 201. K 146 THE LAW OF SUCCESSION. tions (principally chronological) which had been made regarding those who are asserted to have been its compilers. He also makes it evident that it was a work in which St. Patrick should have been expected to engage : (1) because, being a Roman citizen, and one who had travelled much, he was probably well aware of the Christian modifications which had already been introduced into the Eoman code. (2) That he was eminently a judicious missionary, and such a revision of national laws would obviously be no slight support to the advancement of national Christianity. It is also remarked, that St. Patrick may not necessarily have assisted per- sonally in writing the MS. ; his confirmation of what was compiled by others would be sufficient. St. Benignus, who is known to be the author of other works,^ probably acted as his amanuensis. The subject-matter of the portions of the Seanchus Mor which have been translated, is the law of distress. Two points are notice- able in this : First, the careful and accurate administration of justice which is indicated by the details of these legal enactments ; second, the custom therein sanctioned of the creditor fasting upon the debtor, a custom which still exists in Hindostan. Hence, in some cases, the creditor fasts on the debtor until he is compelled to pay his debt, lest his creditor should die at the door ; in other cases, the creditor not only fasts himself, but also compels his debtor to fast, by stopping his supplies. Elphinstone describes this as used even against princes, and especially by troops to procure payment of arrears.^ One of the most noticeable peculiarities of the Brehon law is the compensation for murder, called eric. This, however, was common to other nations. Its origin is ascribed to the Germans, but the institution was probably far more ancient. "We find it forbidden^ in the oldest code of laws in existence ; and hence the em must have been in being at an early period of the world's civil history. The law of succession, called tanaisteachf, or tanistry, is one of the most peculiar of the Brehon laws. The eldest son succeeded the father to the exclusion of all collateral claimants, unless he was 3 Wo7-l-s. — He appears to have been the author of the original Book of Eights, and commenced and composed the Psalter of Caiseal, in which are described the acts, laics," &c. — See Preface to Seanchus Mor, p. 17. * Arrears. — Elphinstone's India, vol. i. p. 372. 5 Forbidden. — " You shall not take monej' of him that isgiiilty of blood, but he shall die forthwith."— Numbers, xxxv. 31. THE LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT ERINN. U7 disqualified by deformity, imbecility, or crime. In after ages, by a compact between parents or mutual agreement, the succession was sometimes made alternate in two or more families. The eldest son, being recognized as presumptive heir, was denominated fanaiste, that is, minor or second ; while the other sons, or persons eligible in case of failure, were termed righdhamhua, which literally means king-material, or king-makings. The tanaiste had a separate estab- lishment and distinct privileges. The primitive intention was, that the " best man" should reign; but practically it ended in might being taken for right, and often for less important qualifications. The possession and inheritance of landed property was regulated by the law called gavelkind (gavail-kinne), an ancient Celtic institu- tion, but common to Britons, Anglo-Saxons, and others. By this law, inherited or other property was divided equally between the sons, to the exclusion of the daughters (unless, indeed, in default of heirs male, when females were permitted a life interest). The ta- naiste, however, was allotted the dwelling-house and other privileges. The tenure of land was a tribe or family right ; and, indeed, the whole system of government and legislation was far more patri- archal than Teutonic — another indication of an eastern origin. All the members of a tribe or family had an equal right to their pro- portionate share of the land occupied by the whole. This system created a mutual independence and self-consciousness of personal right and importance, strongly at variance with the subjugation of the Germanic and Anglo-Norman vassal. The compilation of the Brehon laws originated in a question that arose as to how the murderer of Odran, Patrick's charioteer, should be punished. The saint was allowed to select whatever Brehon he pleased to give judgment. He chose Dubhthach ; and the result of his decision was the compilation of these laws, as it was at once seen that a purely pagan code would not suit Christian teaching. The Celtic language is now admittedly one of the most ancient in existence. Its affinity with Sanscrit, the eldest daughter of the ) undiscoverable mother-tongue, has been amply proved,^ and the study of the once utterly despised Irish promises to be one which « Proved. — See Pictet's Origines Indo-Europeennes. He mentions his sur- prise at finding a genuine Sanscrit word in Irish, which, like a geological boulder, had been transported from one extremity of the Aryan world to the other. Pictet considers that the first wave of Aryan emigration occurred 3,000 years before the Christian Era. 148 ^TirnNG IN PRE-CHRISTIAN ERINN. will abundantly repay the philologist. It is to be regretted that we are indebted to German students for the verification of these state- ments ; but the Germans are manifestly born philologists, and they have opportunities of leisure, and encouragement for the prosecution of such studies, denied to the poorer Celt. It is probable that Celtic will yet be found to have been one of the most important of the Indo-European tongues. Its influence on the formation of the Romance languages has yet to be studied in the light of our con- tinually increasing knowledge of its more ancient forms ; and perhaps the conjectures of Betham will, by the close of this cen- tury, receive as much respect as the once equally ridiculed history of Keating. It is almost impossible to doubt that the Irish nation had letters and some form of writing before the arrival of St. Patrick. There are so many references to the existence of writings in the most ancient MSS., that it appears more rash to deny their statements than to accept them. The three principal arguments against a pre-Christian alphabet appears to be : (1) The absence of any MS. of such writing. (2) The use of the Roman character in all MSS. extant. (3) The uni- versal opinion, scarcely yet exploded, that the Irish Celts were barbarians. In reply to the first objection, we may observ'e that St. Patrick is said to have destroyed all the remnants of pagan -writing.^ Caesar men- tions that the druids of Gaul used Greek characters. It appears impossible that the Irish diiiids, who were at least their equals in culture, should have been destitute of any kind of \vritten character. The an- cient form of \Yelsh letters were somewhat similar to the runes of which we give a specimen, and this alphabet was called the "alphabet of the bards," in contradistinction to which is placed ' Writing. — "Finally, Dudley Firbisse, hereditary professor of the antiquities of his country, mentions in a letter [to me] a fact collected from the monu- ments of his ancestors, that one hundred and eighty tracts [tractatus] of the doctrine of the druids or magi, were condemned to the flames in the time of St. Patrick." — Ogygia, iii 30, p. 219. A writer in the Ulster Arch. Journal RIJNES FROM THE RUXIC CROSS AT RUTHWELL. OGHAM WRITING. 149 the " alphabet of the monks," or Roman alphabet. The alphabet of the Irish bard may have been the Beith-luis-nion, represented by the Ogham character, of which more hereafter. The difficulty arising from the fact of St. Patrick's having given ahgitorium, or alphabets, to his converts, appears to us purely chime- rical. Latin was from the first the language of the Church, and being such, whether the Irish converts had or had not a form of writing, one of the earliest duties of a Christian missionary was to teach those preparing for the priesthood the language in which they were to administer the sacraments. The alphabet given by the saint was simply the common Roman letter then in use. The Celtic characteristic veneration for antiquity and religion, has still preserved it; and strange to say, the Irish of the nineteenth century alone use the letters which were common to the entire Roman Empire in the fifth. The early influence of ecclesiastical authority, and the cir- cumstance that the priests of the Catholic Church were at once the instructors in and the preservers of letters, will account for the immediate disuse of whatever alphabet the druids may have had. The third objection is a mere argumentum ad ignorantiam. It is to be regretted that the subject of Ogham writing has not been taken up by a careful and competent hand.^ There are few people who have not found out some method of recording their history, and there are few sub- jects of deeper interest than the study of the eff'orts of the human mind to perpetuate itself in written characters. The Easterns had their cunei- form or arrow-headed sym- bols, and the Western world has even yet its quipus, and teUs its history by the number of its knots. CUNEIFORM CHARACTEES. mentions a "Cosmography," printed at "Lipsise, 1854." It appears to be a Latin version or epitome of a Greek work. The writer of this Cosmography was born in 103. He mentions having " examined the volumes " of the Irish, whom he visited. If this authority is reliable, it would at once settle the question. — See Ulster Arch. Journal, vol. ii. p. 281. 8 Hand.— A work on this subject has long been promised by Dr, Graves, and is anxiously expected by paleographists. We regret to learn that there is no immediate prospect of its publication. 150 OGHAM WRITING. The peasant girl still knots her handkerchief as her memoria technica, and the lady changes her ring from its accustomed finger. Each practice is quite as primitive an effort of nature as the Ogham of the Celtic bard. He used a stone pillar or a wooden stick for his notches, — a more per- manent record than the knot or the Indian qui- pus.^ The use of a stick as a vehicle for record- ing ideas by conven- tional marks, appears very ancient; and this in itself forms a good argument for the anti- quity of Ogham writing. Mr.O'Curry has given it expressly as his opinion, " that the pre-Chris- tian Gaedhils possessed and practised a system of writing and keeping records quite different from and independent of the Greek and Roman form and characters, which gained currency THE Quipus. in the country after the introduction of Christianity." He then gives in evidence passages from our ancient writings which are preserved, in which the use of the Ogham character is distinctly mentioned. One instance is the ^ Quipus. — Quipus signifies a knot. The cords were of different colours. Yellow denoted gold and all tlie allied ideas ; white, silver, or peace ; red, war, or soldiers. Each quipus was in the care of a quiper-carnayoe, or keeper. Acorta mentions that he saw a woman with a handful of these strings, which she said contained a confession of her life. See Wilson's P re-Historic Man for most interesting details on the subject of symbolic characters and early writing. OGHAM WRITING. 151 _ '"il I '3 \ relation in the Tdin bd ChuailgnS of directions having been left on wands or hoops written in Ogham by Cuchulainn for M6av. When these were found, they were read for her by Fergus, who understood the character. We have not space for further details, but Professor O'Curry devotes some pages to the subject, where fuller information may be found. In conclusion, he expresses an opinion that the original copies of the ancient books, such as tha Cuilmenn and the Saltair of Tara, were not written in Ogham. He supposes that the druids or poets, who, it is well known, constantly travelled for educational purposes, brought home an alphabet, probably the Roman then in use. " It is, af all events, quite certain that the Irish druids had writen books before the coming of St. Patrick, in 432 ; since we find the statement in the Tripartite Life of the saint, as well as in the Annotations of Tirechan, preserved in the Book of Armagh, which were taken by him from the lips and books of his tutor, St. Mochta, who was the pupil and disciple of St. Patrick \^ ^^^^liljllij'lp 1 We give two illustrations of Ogham '*='-^'''''' writing. The pillar-stone is from the collection of the Royal Irish Academy. It is about four and a- half feet high, and averages eleven inches across. It was found, with three others similarly inscribed, built into the walls of a dwelling-house in the county Kerry, to which it is be- lieved they had been removed from the interior of a neighbouring rath. The bihngual Ogham was found at St. Dogmael's, near Cardiganshire. The Ogham alphabet is called te^YAtomow, from the name of its two first letters, Icith, whioM. signifies 152 IRISH ALPHABET. a birch-tree, and luis, the mountain-ash. If this kind of writing had been introduced in Christian times, it is quite unUkely that such names would have been chosen. They are manifestly refer- able to a time when a tree had some significance beyond the useful or the ornamental. It has been supposed that the names of the letters were given to the trees, and not the names of the trees to the letters. It is at least certain that the names of the trees and the letters coincide, and that the trees are all indigenous to Ireland. The names of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet are also significant, but appear to be chosen indiscriminately, while there is a manifest and evidently arbitrary selection in the Celtic appellations. The number of letters also indicate antiquity. The ancient Irish alpha- bet had but sixteen characters, thus numerically corresponding with the alphabet brought into Greece by Cadmus. This number was gradually increased with the introduction of the Roman form, and the arrangement was also altered to harmonize with it. The Ogham alphabet consists of lines, which represent letters. They are arranged in an arbitrary manner to the right or left of a stem- line, or on the edge of the material on which they are traced. Even the names of those letters, fleasg (a tree), seem an indication of their origin. A cross has been found, sculptured more or less rudely, upon many of these ancient monuments ; and this has been sup- posed by some antiquarians to indicate their Christian origin. Doubtless the practice of erecting pillar-stones, and writing Oghams thereon, was continued after the introduction of Christianity ; but this by no means indicates their origin. Like many other pagan monuments, they may have been consecrated by ha\dng the sign of the cross engraven on them hundreds of years after their erection. During the few months which have elapsed between the appear- ance of the first edition and the preparation of the second edition, my attention has been called to this portion of the history by four or five eminent members of the Royal Irish Academy, who express their regret that I should appear to have adopted, or at least favoured, Mr. D' Alton's view of the Christian origin of the round towers. I cannot but feel gratified at the interest which they manifested, and not less so at their kind anxiety that my own views should accord with those of the majority. I am quite aware that my opinion on such a subject could have little weight. To form a decided opinion on this subject, would require many years' study ; but when one of these gentlemen, the Earl of Dunraven, THE ROUND TOWER CONTROVERSY. 153 distinguished for his devotion to archaeology, writes to me that both Irish, EngHsh, and Continental scholars are all but unanimous in ascribing a Christian origin to these remarkable buildings, I cannot but feel that I am bound to accept this opinion, thus sup- ported by an overwhelming weight of authority. It may, how- ever, be interesting to some persons to retain an account of the opposing theories, and for this reason I still insert page 11 5 of the original edition, only making such modifications as my change of opinion make necessary. The theories which have been advanced on this subject may be classified under seven heads — (1) That the Phoenicians erected them for fire temples. (2) That the Christians built them for bell towers. (3) That the Magians used them for astronomical purposes. (4) That they were for Christian anchorites to shut themselves up in. (5) That they were penitentiaries. (6) That the Druids used them to proclaim their festivals. (7) That the Christians used them to keep their church plate and treasures. Contradictory as these statements appear, they may easily be ranged into two separate theories of pagan or Christian origin. Dr. Petrie has been the great supporter of the latter opinion, now almost generally received. He founds his opinion : (1) On the assumption that the Irish did not know the use of lime mortar before the time of St. Patrick. For this assumption, however, he gives no evidence. (2) On the presence of certain Christian emblems on some of these towers, notably at Donaghmore and Antrim. But the presence of Christian emblems, like the cross on the Ogham stones, may merely indicate that Christians wished to consecrate them to Christian use. (3) On the assumption that they were used as keeps or monastic castles, in which church plate was concealed, or wherein the clergy could shelter them- selves from the fury of Danes, or other invaders. But it is ob'sdous that towers would have been built in a different fashion had such been the object of those who erected them. The late Mr. D' Alton has been the most moderate and judicious advocate of their pagan origin. He rests his theory (1) on certain statements in our annals, which, if true, must at once decide the dispute. The Annals of Ulster mention the destruction of fifty-seven of them in consequence URN AND ITS CONTENTS FOUND IN A CROMLECH IN THE PHCENIX PARK, DUBLIN. CROMLECHS. 155 of a severe earthquake, A.D. 448. He adduces the testimony of Giraldus Cambrensis, who confirms the account of the origin of Lough Neagh by an inundation, A.D. 65, and adds : It is no im- probable testimony to this event, that the fishermen belield the religious towers (turres ecclesiasticas), which, according to the custom of the country, are narrow, lofty, and round, immersed under the waters ; and they frequently show them to strangers passing over them, and wondering at their purposes " {reique causas admirantibus). This is all the better evidence of their then acknowledged antiquity, because the subject of the writer was the formation of the lough, and not the origin of the towers. Mr. D' Alton's (2) second argu- ment is, that it was improbable the Christians would have erected churches of wood and bell towers of stone, or have bestowed incom- parably more care and skill on the erection of these towers, no matter for what use they may have been intended, than on the churches, which should surely be their first care.^ The cromlechs next claim our notice. There has been no ques- tion of their pagan origin ; and, indeed, this method of honouring or interring the dead, seems an almost universal custom of ancient peoples. 2 Cremation does not appear to have been the rule as to the mode of interment in ancient Erinn, as many remains of skele- tons have been found ; and even those antiquarians who are pleased ' entirely to deny the truth of the historical accounts of our early annalists, accept their statements as to customs of the most ancient date. When the dead were interred without cremation, the body was placed either in a horizontal, sitting, or recumbent posture. When the remains were burned, a fictile vessel was used to contain the ashes. These urns are of various forms and sizes/ The style of decoration also difi'ers widely, some being but rudely ornamented, ^ Care. — Annals of Boyle, vol. ii. p. 22. Essay, p. 82. * Peoples. — See Cities and Cemeteries of Etruria, vol. ii. p. 314, where the writer describes tombs sunk beneath a tumulus, about twenty-five or thirty feet in diameter, and also tombs exactly resembling the Irish cromlech, the covering slab of enormous size, being inclined *' apparently to carry off the rain." In his account of the geographical sites of these remains, he precisely, though most unconsciously, marks out the line of route which has been assigned by Irish annalists as that which led our early colonizers to Ireland. He says they are found in the presidency of Madras, among the mountains of the Caucasus, on the steppes of Tartary, in northern Africa, "o;i Vie shores of the Mediterranean they are particularly alundant,^^ and in Spain. 156 URNS. while others bear indications of artistic skill which could not have been exercised by a rude or uncultivated people. We give a full-page illustration of an urn and its contents, at present in the collection of the Eoyal Irish Academy. This urn was found in a tumulus, which was opened in the Phoenix Park, near Dublin, in the year 1838. The tumulus was about 120 feet in diameter at the base, and fifteen feet high. Four sepulchral vases, containing burnt ashes, were found within the tomb. It also enclosed two perfect male skeletons, the tops of the femora of another, and a bone of some animal. A number of shells^ were found under the head of each skeleton, of the kind known to conchologists as the Nerita littoralis. The urn which we have figured is the largest and most perfect, and manifestly the earliest of the set. It is six inches high, rudely carved, yet not without some attempt at ornament. The bone pin was probably used for the hair, and the shells are obviously strung for a necklace. We give above a specimen of the highest class of cinerary urns. It stands unrivalled, both in design and execution, among all the specimens found in the British isles. This valuable remain was discovered in the cutting of a railway, in a small stone chamber, at Knockne- conra, near Bagnalstown, county Carlow. Burned bones of an infant, or very young child, were found in it, and it was inclosed in a much larger and ruder um, containing the bones of an adult. ^ Shells.— C&t. Ant. R. I. A. ; Stone Mat. p. 180. The ethnographic phases of conchology might form a study in itself. Shells appear to be the earliest form of ornament in use. The Xorth American Indians have their shell neck- laces buried with them also. See Wilson's Pre-Historic Man. GOLD ORNAMENTS. 157 Possibly, suggests Sir W. Wilde, they may have been the remains of mother and child.* The collection of antiquities in the Royal Irish Academy, fur- nishes abundant evidence that the pagan Irish were well skilled in the higher arts of working in metals. If the arbitrary division of the ages of stone, bronze, and iron, can be made to hold good, we must either suppose that the Irish Celt was possessed of extra- ordinary mental powers, by which he developed the mechanical GOLD HEAD-DRESS, E.I. A. arts gradually, or that, with successive immigrations, he obtained an increase of knowledge from exterior sources. The bardic annals indicate the latter theory. We have already given several illustra- * Child.— Mt. "Wilson gives a most interesting description of an interment of a mother and child in an ancient Peruvian grave. The mother had an imfinished piece of weaving beside her, with its colours still bright. The infant was ten- derly wrapped in soft black woollen cloth, to which was fastened a pair of little sandals, 2} inches long ; around its neck was a green cord, attached to a small shell, — Pre-IIistoric Man, voL L p. 234, 158 PELASGIAN REMAINS. tions of the rader weapons. The illustration appended here may give some idea of the skill obtained by our pagan ancestors in working gold. This ornament, which is quite complete, though fractured in two places, stands IH inches high. It weighs 16 oz. 10 dwts. 13 grs. The gold of which it is formed is very red. Ife was procured with the Sirr Collection, and is said to have been found in the county Clare. ^ Our readers are indebted to the kindness of the Council of the Royal Irish Academy, for the permission to depict these and the other rare articles from the collection which are inserted in our pages. The amount of gold ornaments which have been found in Ireland at various times, has occasioned much conjecture as to whether the material was found in Ireland or imported. It is probable that auriferous veins existed, which were worked out, or that some may even now exist which are at present unknown. The discovery of gold ornaments is one of the many remarkable confirmations of the glowing accounts given by our bardic annalists of Erinn's ancient glories. O'Hartigan thus describes the wealth and splendour of the plate possessed by the ancient monarchs who held court at Tara : — ** Three hundred cupbearers distributed Three times fifty choice goblets Before each party of great numbers, Which were of pure strong carbuncle,' Or gold or of silver all." Dr. Petrie observes that this statement is amply verified by the magnificent gold ornaments, found within a few yards of this very spot, now in the possession of the Royal Irish Academy. AYe shall see, at a later period, when the cursing of Tara wiU demand a special notice of its ancient glories, how amply the same writer has vindi- cated the veracity of Celtic annalists on this ground also. A remarkable resemblance has been noticed between the pagan military architecture of Ireland, and the early Pelasgian monu- ments in Greece. They consist of enclosures, generally circular, of massive clay walls, built of small loose stones, from six to sixteen feet thick. These forts or fortresses are usually entered by ^ Clare. — In 1S55, in digging for a rail way- cutting in the county Clare, gold ornaments were found worth £2, 000 as bullion. * Carbuncle. — This word was used to denote any shining stone of a red colour, such as garnet, a production of the country. \ CRANNOGES. 159 a narrow doorway, wider at the bottom than at the top, and are -of Cyclopean architecture. Indeed, some of the remains in Irelancfl can only be compared to the pyramids of Egypt, so massive are the blocks of stone used in their construction. As this stone is frequently of a kind not to be found in the immediate neighbourhood, the means used for their transportation are as much a matter of surprise and conjecture, as those by which they were placed in the position in which they are found. The most remarkable of these forts may still be seen in the Isles of Arran, on the west coast of Galway; there are others in Donegal, Mayo, and in Kerry. Some of these erections have chambers in their massive walls, and in others stairs are found round the interior of the wall ; these lead to narrow platforms, varying from eight to forty-three feet in length, on which the warriors or defenders stood. The fort of Dunmohr, in the middle island of Arran, is supposed to be at least 2,000 years old. Besides these forts, there was the private house, a stone habitation, called a clochann, in which an' individual or family resided ; the large circular dome-roofed buildings, in which probably a commu- nity lived ; and the rath, intrenched and stockaded. But stone was not the only material used for places of defence or domestic dwellings ; the most curious and interesting of ancient Irish habitations is the crannoge, a name whose precise etymology is uncertain, though there is little doubt that it refers in some way to the peculiar nature of the structure. The crannoges were formed on small islets or shallows of clay or marl in the centre of a lake, which were probably dry in summer, but submerged in winter. These little islands, or mounds, were used as a foundation for this singular habitation. Piles of wood, or heaps of stone and bones driven into or heaped on the soil, formed the support of the crannoge. They were used as places of retreat or concealment, and are usually found near the ruins of such old forts or castles as are in the vicinity of lakes or marshes. Sometimes they are connected with the mainland by a causeway, but usually there is no appearance of any ; and a small canoe has been, with but very few exceptions, discovered in or near each crannoge. Since the investigation of theije erections in Ireland, others have been discovered in the Swiss lakes of a similar kind, and containing, or rather formed on, the same extraordinary amount of bones heaped up between the wooden piles. CELTS. -("The peculiar objects called celts, and the weapons and domestic 'latensils of this or an earlier period, are a subject of scarcely less interest. The use of the celt has fairly perplexed all antiquarian research. Its name is derived not, as might be supposed, from the nation to whom this distinctive appellation was given, but from the Latin word celiis, a chisel. It is not known whether these celts, or the round, flat, sharp-edged chisels, were called Lia Miledh, "warriors' stones." In the record of the battle of the Ford of Comar, Westmeath, the use of this instrument is thus described : — " There came not a man of Lohar's people without a broad green spear, nor mthout a dazzling shield, nor without a Liagh-lamha-laich (a champion's hand stone), stowed away in the hollow cavity of his shield .... And Lobar carried his stone like each of his men ; and seeing the monarch his father standing in the ford with Ceat, son of Magach, at one side, and Connall Cearnach at the other, to guard him, he grasped his battle-stone quic^:ly and dexterously, and threw it with all his strength, and with unerring aim, at the king his father ; and the massive stone passed with a swift rotator)'' motion towards the king, and despite the efforts of his two brave guardians, it struck him on the breast, and laid him prostrate in the ford. The king, however, recovered from the shock, arose, and placing his foot upon the formidable stone, pressed it into the earth, where it remains to this day, with a third part of it over ground, and the print of the king's foot visible upon it." Flint proper, or chalk flint, is found but in few places in Ireland ; these are principally in the counties of Antrim, Down, and Derry. In the absence of a knowledge of the harder metals, flint and such- like substances were invaluable as the only material that could be fashioned into weapons of defence, and used to shape such rude clothing as was then employed. The scarcity of flint must have rendered these weapons of great value in other districts. Splitting, chipping, and polishing, and this with tools as rude as the material worked on, were the only means of manufacturing such articles ; and yet such was the perfection, and, if the expression be appli- cable, the amount of artistic skill attained, that it seems probable flint-chipping was a special trade, and doubtless a profitable one to those engaged in it. When flints were used as arrows, either in battle or in the chase, a bow was easily manufactured from the oak an