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diff --git a/old/12078.txt b/old/12078.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..68274d6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/12078.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8043 @@ +Project Gutenberg's Ireland, Historic and Picturesque, by Charles Johnston + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ireland, Historic and Picturesque + +Author: Charles Johnston + +Release Date: April 19, 2004 [EBook #12078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND, HISTORIC AND PICTURESQUE *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Charlie Kirschner and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + +IRELAND + +HISTORIC AND PICTURESQUE + +BY + +CHARLES JOHNSTON + +ILLUSTRATED + +1902 + + + + +CONTENTS. + +I. VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. + +II. THE GREAT STONE MONUMENTS. + +III. THE CROMLECH BUILDERS. + +IV. THE DE DANAANS. + +V. EMAIN OF MACA. + +VI. CUCULAIN THE HERO. + +VII. FIND AND OSSIN. + +VIII. THE MESSENGER OF THE NEW WAY. + +IX. THE SAINTS AND SCHOLARS. + +X. THE RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN. + +XI. THE PASSING OF THE NORSEMEN. + +XII. THE NORMANS. + +XIII. THE TRIUMPH OF FEUDALISM. + +XIV. THE JACOBITE WARS. + +XV. CONCLUSION. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + +Photogravures made by A.W. ELSON & Co. + + +PEEP HOLE, BLARNEY CASTLE +IN THE DARGLE, CO. WICKLOW +MUCKROSS ABBEY, KILLARNEY +BRANDY ISLAND, GLENGARRIFF +SUGAR LOAF MOUNTAIN, GLENGARRIFF +RIVER ERNE, BELLEEK +WHITE ROCKS, PORTRUSH +POWERSCOURT WATERFALL, CO. WICKLOW +HONEYCOMB, GIANT'S CAUSEWAY +GRAY MAN'S PATH, FAIR HEAD +COLLEEN BAWN CAVES, KILLARNEY +RUINS ON SCATTERY ISLAND +VALLEY OF GLENDALOUGH AND RUINS OF THE SEVEN + CHURCHES +ANCIENT CROSS, GLENDALOUGH +ROUND TOWER, ANTRIM +GIANT'S HEAD AND DUNLUCE CASTLE, CO. ANTRIM +ROCK CASHEL, RUINS OF OLD CATHEDRAL, KING CORMAC'S + CHAPEL AND ROUND TOWER +DUNLUCE CASTLE +MELLIFONT ABBEY, CO. LOUTH +HOLY CROSS ABBEY, CO. TIPPERARY +DONEGAL CASTLE +TULLYMORE PARK, CO. DOWN +THOMOND BRIDGE, LIMERICK +SALMON FISHERY, GALWAY +O'CONNELL'S STATUE, DUBLIN + + + + +IRELAND. + +I. + +VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE. + +Here is an image by which you may call up and remember the natural form +and appearance of Ireland: + +Think of the sea gradually rising around her coasts, until the waters, +deepened everywhere by a hundred fathoms, close in upon the land. Of all +Ireland there will now remain visible above the waves only two great +armies of islands, facing each other obliquely across a channel of open +sea. These two armies of islands will lie in ordered ranks, their lines +stretching from northeast to southwest; they will be equal in size, each +two hundred miles along the front, and seventy miles from front to rear. +And the open sea between, which divides the two armies, will measure +seventy miles across. + +Not an island of these two armies, as they lie thus obliquely facing +each other, will rise as high as three thousand feet; only the captains +among them will exceed a thousand; nor will there be great variety in +their forms. All the islands, whether north or south, will have gently +rounded backs, clothed in pastures nearly to the crest, with garments of +purple heather lying under the sky upon their ridges. Yet for all this +roundness of outline there will be, towards the Atlantic end of either +army, a growing sternness of aspect, a more sombre ruggedness in the +outline of the hills, with cliffs and steep ravines setting their brows +frowning against the deep. + +Hold in mind the image of these two obliquely ranged archipelagoes, +their length thrice their breadth, seaming the blue of the sea, and +garmented in dark green and purple under the sunshine; and, thinking of +them thus, picture to yourself a new rising of the land, a new +withdrawal of the waters, the waves falling and ever falling, till all +the hills come forth again, and the salt tides roll and ripple away from +the valleys, leaving their faces for the winds to dry; let this go on +till the land once more takes its familiar form, and you will easily +call up the visible image of the whole. + +As you stand in the midst of the land, where first lay the channel of +open sea, you will have, on your northern horizon, the beginning of a +world of purple-outlined hills, outliers of the northern mountain +region, which covers the upper third of the island. On all sides about +you, from the eastern sea to the western ocean, you will have the great +central plain, dappled with lakes and ribbed with silver rivers, another +third of the island. Then once more, to the south, you will have a +region of hills, the last third of Ireland, in size just equal to the +northern mountains or the central plain. + +The lines of the northern hills begin with the basalt buttresses of +Antrim and the granite ribs of Down, and pass through northern Ulster +and Connacht to the headlands of Mayo and Galway. Their rear is held by +the Donegal ranges, keeping guard against the blackness of the +northern seas. + +The plain opens from the verge of these hills; the waters that gather on +its pleasant pastures and fat fields, or among the green moss tracts of +its lowlands, flow eastward by the Boyne or southwestward by the Shannon +to the sea. + +Then with the granite mountains of Dublin and Wicklow begin the southern +hills, stretching through south Leinster and Munster to the red +sandstone ridges of Cork and Kerry, our last vantage-ground against +the Atlantic. + +Finally, encircling all, is the perpetual presence of the sea, with its +foaming, thunderous life or its days of dreamy peace; around the silver +sands or furrowed cliffs that gird the island our white waves rush +forever, murmuring the music of eternity. + +Such is this land of Eire, very old, yet full of perpetual youth; a +thousand times darkened by sorrow, yet with a heart of living gladness; +too often visited by evil and pale death, yet welling ever up in +unconquerable life,--the youth and life and gladness that thrill through +earth and air and sky, when the whole world grows beautiful in the front +of Spring. + +For with us Spring is like the making of a new world in the dawn of +time. Under the warm wind's caressing breath the grass comes forth upon +the meadows and the hills, chasing dun Winter away. Every field is newly +vestured in young corn or the olive greenness of wheat; the smell of the +earth is full of sweetness. White daisies and yellow dandelions star all +our pastures; and on the green ruggedness of every hillside, or along +the shadowed banks of every river and every silver stream, amid velvet +mosses and fringes of new-born ferns, in a million nooks and crannies +throughout all the land, are strewn dark violets; and wreaths of yellow +primroses with crimped green leaves pour forth a remote and divine +fragrance; above them, the larches are dainty with new greenery and rosy +tassels, and the young leaves of beech and oak quiver with fresh life. + +Still the benignance of Spring pours down upon us from the sky, till the +darkening fields are hemmed in between barriers of white hawthorn, heavy +with nectar, and twined with creamy honeysuckle, the finger-tips of +every blossom coral-red. The living blue above throbs with the tremulous +song of innumerable larks; the measured chant of cuckoos awakens the +woods; and through the thickets a whole world's gladness sings itself +forth from the throat of thrush and blackbird. Through the whole land +between the four seas benediction is everywhere; blue-bells and the rosy +fingers of heath deck the mountain-tops, where the grouse are crooning +to each other among the whins; down the hillsides into every valley pour +gladness and greenness and song; there are flowers everywhere, even to +the very verge of the whispering sea. There, among the gray bent-spikes +and brackens on the sandhills, primroses weave their yellow wreaths; and +little pansies, golden and blue and purple, marshal their weird eyes +against the spears of dark blue hyacinths, till the rich tribute of +wild thyme makes peace between them. + +The blue sky overhead, with its flocks of sunlit clouds, softly bends +over the gentle bosom of the earth. A living spirit throbs everywhere, +palpable, audible, full of sweetness and sadness immeasurable--sadness +that is only a more secret joy. + +Then the day grows weary, making way for the magic of evening and the +oncoming dark with its mystery. The tree-stems redden with the sunset; +there is a chill sigh in the wind; the leaves turn before it, burnished +against the purple sky. As the gloom rises up out of the earth, bands of +dark red gather on the horizon, seaming the clear bronze of the sky, +that passes upward into olive-color, merging in dark blue overhead. The +sun swings down behind the hills, and purple darkness comes down out of +the sky; the red fades from the tree-stems, the cloud-colors die away; +the whole world glimmers with the fading whiteness of twilight. Silence +gathers itself together out of the dark, deepened, not broken, by the +hushing of the wind among the beech-leaves, or the startled cluck of a +blackbird, or a wood-pigeon's soft murmur, as it dreams in the +silver fir. + +Under the brown wings of the dark, the night throbs with mystic +presences; the hills glimmer with an inward life; whispering voices +hurry through the air. Another and magical land awakes in the dark, full +of a living restlessness; sleepless as the ever-moving sea. Everywhere +through the night-shrouded woods, the shadowy trees seem to interrupt +their secret whispers till you are gone past. There is no sense of +loneliness anywhere, but rather a host of teeming lives on every hand, +palpable though hidden, remote from us though touching our lives, +calling to us through the gloom with wordless voices, inviting us to +enter and share with them the mystical life of this miraculous earth, +great mother of us all, The dark is full of watching eyes. + +Summer with us is but a brighter Spring, as our Winter only prolongs the +sadness of Autumn. So our year has but two moods, a gay one and a sad +one. Yet each tinges the other--the mists of Autumn veiling the gleam of +Spring--Spring smiling through the grief of Autumn. When the sad mood +comes, stripping the trees of their leaves, and the fields of their +greenness, white mists veil the hills and brood among the fading +valleys. A shiver runs through the air, and the cold branches are +starred with tears. A poignant grief is over the land, an almost +desolation,--full of unspoken sorrow, tongue-tied with unuttered +complaint. All the world is lost and forlorn, without hope or respite. +Everything is given up to the dirges of the moaning seas, the white +shrouds of weeping mist. Wander forth upon the uplands and among the +lonely hills and rock-seamed sides of the mountains, and you will find +the same sadness everywhere: a grieving world under a grieving sky. +Quiet desolation hides among the hills, tears tremble on every brown +grass-blade, white mists of melancholy shut out the lower world. + +Whoever has not felt the poignant sadness of the leafless days has never +known the real Ireland; the sadness that is present, though veiled, in +the green bravery of Spring, and under the songs of Summer. Nor have +they ever known the real Ireland who have not divined beneath that +poignant sadness a heart of joy, deep and perpetual, made only keener by +that sad outward show. + +Here in our visible life is a whisper and hint of our life invisible; of +the secret that runs through and interprets so much of our history. For +very much of our nation's life has been like the sadness of those autumn +days,--a tale of torn leaves, of broken branches, of tears everywhere. +Tragedy upon tragedy has filled our land with woe and sorrow, and, as +men count success, we have failed of it, and received only misery and +deprivation. He has never known the true Ireland who does not feel that +woe. Yet, more, he knows not the real Ireland who cannot feel within +that woe the heart of power and joy,--the strong life outlasting darkest +night,--the soul that throbs incessantly under all the calamities of the +visible world, throughout the long tragedy of our history. + +This is our secret: the life that is in sorrow as in joy; the power that +is not more in success than in failure--the one soul whose moods these +are, who uses equally life and death. + +For the tale of our life is mainly tragedy. And we may outline now the +manner in which that tale will be told. We shall have, first, a long, +dim dawn,--mysterious peoples of the hidden past coming together to our +land from the outlying darkness. A first period, which has left abundant +and imperishable traces everywhere among our hills and valleys, writing +a large history in massive stone, yet a history which, even now, is dim +as the dawn it belongs to. What can be called forth from that Archaic +Darkness, in the backward and abysm of Time, we shall try to evoke; +drawing the outlines of a people who, with large energies in our visible +world, toiled yet more for the world invisible; a people uniform through +the whole land and beyond it, along many neighboring shores; a people +everywhere building; looking back into a long past; looking forward +through the mists of the future. A people commemorating the past in a +form that should outlast the future. A people undertaking great +enterprises for mysterious ends; whose works are everywhere among us, to +this day, imperishable in giant stone; yet a people whose purposes are +mysterious to us, whose very name and tongue are quite unknown. Their +works still live all around us in Ireland, spread evenly through the +four provinces, a world of the vanished past enduring among us into the +present; and, so mightily did these old builders work, and with such +large simplicity, that what they built will surely outlast every +handiwork of our own day, and endure through numberless to-morrows, +bridging the morning and evening twilight of our race. + +After this Archaic Dawn we shall find a mingling of four races in +Ireland, coming together from widely separated homes, unless one of the +four be the descendant of the archaic race, as well it may be. From the +surging together of these four races we shall see, in almost +pre-historic times, the growth of a well-knit polity; firm +principalities founded, strong battles fought, a lasting foundation of +law. In this Second Epoch, every thing that in the first was dim and +vague grows firm in outline and defined. Names, places, persons,--we +know them all as if they were of to-day. This is the age which flowered +in the heroic days of Emain of Maca, Emain 'neath the beech-trees, the +citadel of northeastern Ireland. Here we shall find the court of Fergus +mac Roeg, a man too valiant, too passionate, too generous to rule +altogether wisely; his star darkened by the gloomy genius of Concobar +his stepson, the evil lover of ill-fated Deirdre. Cuculain, too, the +war-loving son of Sualtam, shall rise again,--in whom one part of our +national genius finds its perfect flower. We shall hear the thunder of +his chariot, at the Battle of the Headland of the Kings, when Meave the +winsome and crafty queen of Connacht comes against him, holding in +silken chains of her tresses the valiant spirit of Fergus. The whole +life of that heroic epoch, still writ large upon the face of the land, +shall come forth clear and definite; we shall stand by the threshold of +Cuculain's dwelling, and move among the banquet-halls of Emain of Maca. +We shall look upon the hills and valleys that Meave and Deirdre looked +on, and hear the clash of spear and shield at the Ford of the +river,--and this even though we must go back two thousand years. + +To this will follow a Third Epoch, where another side of Ireland's +genius will write itself in epic all across the land, with songs for +every hillside, and stories for every vale and grove. Here our more +passionate and poetic force will break forth in the lives of Find, son +of Cumal, the lord of warriors; in his son Ossin, most famous bard of +the western lands, and Ossin's son Oscar, before whose might even the +fiends and sprites cowered back dismayed. As the epoch of Cuculain shows +us our valor finding its apotheosis, so shall we find in Find and Ossin +and Oscar the perfect flower of our genius for story and song; for +romantic life and fine insight into nature; for keen wit and gentler +humor. The love of nature, the passion for visible beauty, and chiefly +the visible beauty of our land, will here show itself clearly,--a sense +of nature not merely sensuous, but thrilling with hidden and mystic +life. We shall find such perfection in this more emotional and poetic +side of Irish character as will leave little for coming ages to add. In +these two early epochs we shall see the perfecting of the natural man; +the moulding of rounded, gracious and harmonious lives, inspired with +valor and the love of beauty and song. + +Did our human destiny stop there, with the perfect life of individual +men and women, we might well say that these two epochs of Ireland +contain it all; that our whole race could go no further. For no man +lived more valiant than Cuculain, more generous than Fergus, more full +of the fire of song than Ossin, son of Find. Nor amongst women were any +sadder than Deirdre and Grania; craftier than Meave, more winsome than +Nessa the mother of Concobar. Perfected flowers of human life all of +them,--if that be all of human life. So, were this all, we might well +consent that with the death of Oscar our roll of history might close; +there is nothing to add that the natural man could add. + +But where the perfecting of the natural man ends, our truer human life +begins--the life of our ever-living soul. The natural man seeks victory; +he seeks wealth and possessions and happiness; the love of women, and +the loyalty of followers. But the natural man trembles in the face of +defeat, of sorrow, of subjection; the natural man cannot raise the +black veil of death. + +Therefore for the whole world and for our land there was needed another +epoch, a far more difficult lesson,--one so remote from what had been of +old, that even now we only begin to understand it. To the Ireland that +had seen the valor of Cuculain, that had watched the wars of Fergus,--to +the Ireland that listened to the deeds of Find and the songs of +Ossin,--came the Evangel of Galilee, the darkest yet brightest message +ever brought to the children of earth. If we rightly read that Evangel, +it brought the doom of the natural man, and his supersession by the man +immortal; it brought the death of our personal perfecting and pride, and +the rising from the dead of the common soul, whereby a man sees another +self in his neighbor; sees all alike in the one Divine. + +Of this one Divine, wherein we all live and live forever, pain is no +less the minister than pleasure; nay, pain is more its minister, since +pleasure has already given its message to the natural man. Of that one +Divine, sorrow and desolation are the messengers, alike with joy and +gladness; even more than joy and gladness, for the natural man has +tasted these. Of that one Divine, black and mysterious death is the +servant, not less than bright life; and life we had learned of old in +the sunshine. + +[Illustration: In the Dargle, Co. Wicklow] + +There came, therefore, to Ireland, as to a land cherished for enduring +purposes, first the gentler side, and then the sterner, of the Galilean +message. First, the epoch almost idyllic which followed after the +mission of Patrick; the epoch of learning and teaching the simpler +phrases of the Word. Churches and schools rose everywhere, taking the +place of fort and embattled camp. Chants went up at morning and at +evening, with the incense of prayer, and heaven seemed descended upon +earth. Our land, which had stood so high in the ranks of valor and +romance, now rose not less eminent for piety and fervid zeal, sending +forth messengers and ministers of the glad news to the heathen lands of +northern and central Europe, and planting refuges of religion within +their savage bounds. Beauty came forth in stone and missal, answering to +the beauty of life it was inspired by; and here, if anywhere upon earth +through a score of centuries, was realized the ideal of that prayer for +the kingdom, as in heaven, so on earth. Here, again, we have most ample +memorials scattered all abroad throughout the land; we can call up the +whole epoch, and make it stand visible before us, visiting every shrine +and sacred place of that saintly time, seeing, with inner eyes, the +footsteps of those who followed that path, first traced out by the +shores of Gennesaret. + +Once more, if the kingdom come upon earth were all of the message, we +might halt here; for here forgiveness and gentle charity performed their +perfect work, and learning was present with wise counsel to guide +willing feet in the way. Yet this is not all; nor, if we rightly +understand that darkest yet brightest message, are we or is mankind +destined for such an earthly paradise; our kingdom is not of this world. +Here was another happiness, another success; yet not in that happiness +nor in that success was hid the secret; it lay far deeper. Therefore we +find that morning with its sunshine rudely clouded over, its promise +swept away in the black darkness of storms. Something more than holy +living remained to be learned; there remained the mystery of failure and +death--that death which is the doorway to our real life. Therefore upon +our shores broke wave after wave of invasion, storm after storm of +cruelest oppression and degradation. In the very dust was our race +ground down, destitute, afflicted, tormented, according to prophecy and +promise. Nor was that the end. Every bitterness that the heart of man +can conceive, that the heart of man can inflict, that the heart of man +can endure, was poured into our cup, and we drained it to the dregs. Of +that saddest yet most potent time we shall record enough to show not +only what befell through our age of darkness, but also, so far as may +be, what miraculous intent underlay it, what promise the darkness +covered, of our future light; what golden rays of dawn were hidden in +our gloom. + +Finally, from all our fiery trials we shall see the genius of our land +emerge, tried indeed by fire, yet having gained fire's purity; we shall +see that genius beginning, as yet with halting speech, to utter its most +marvelous secret of the soul of man. We shall try at least to gain clear +sight of our great destiny, and thereby of the like destiny of +universal man. + +For we cannot doubt that what we have passed through, all men and all +nations either have passed through already, or are to pass through in +the time to come. There is but one divine law, one everlasting purpose +and destiny for us all. And if we see other nations now entering that +time of triumph which passed for us so long ago, that perfecting of the +natural man, with his valor and his song, we shall with fear and +reverence remember that before them also lie the dark centuries of fiery +trial; the long night of affliction, the vigils of humiliation and +suffering. The one Divine has not yet laid aside the cup that holds the +bitter draught,--the drinking of which comes ever before the final gift +of the waters of life. What we passed through, they shall pass through +also; what we suffered, they too shall suffer. Well will it be with them +if, like us, they survive the fierce trial, and rise from the fire +immortal, born again through sacrifice. + +Therefore I see in Ireland a miraculous and divine history, a life and +destiny invisible, lying hid within her visible life. Like that +throbbing presence of the night which whispers along the hills, this +diviner whisper, this more miraculous and occult power, lurks in our +apparent life. From the very gray of her morning, the children of +Ireland were preoccupied with the invisible world; it was so in the +darkest hours of our oppression and desolation; driven from this world, +we took refuge in that; it was not the kingdom of heaven upon earth, but +the children of earth seeking a refuge in heaven. So the same note rings +and echoes through all our history; we live in the invisible world. If +I rightly understand our mission and our destiny, it is this: To restore +to other men the sense of that invisible; that world of our immortality; +as of old our race went forth carrying the Galilean Evangel. We shall +first learn, and then teach, that not with wealth can the soul of man be +satisfied; that our enduring interest is not here but there, in the +unseen, the hidden, the immortal, for whose purposes exist all the +visible beauties of the world. If this be our mission and our purpose, +well may our fair mysterious land deserve her name: Inis Fail, the Isle +of Destiny. + + + +II. + +THE GREAT STONE MONUMENTS. + +Westward from Sligo--Town of the River of Shells--a tongue of land runs +toward the sea between two long bays. Where the two bays join their +waters, a mountain rises precipitous, its gray limestone rocks soaring +sheer upwards, rugged and formidable. Within the shadow of the mountain +is hidden a wonderful glen--a long tunnel between cliffs, densely arched +over with trees and fringed with ferns; even at midday full of a green +gloom. It is a fitting gateway to the beauty and mystery of +the mountain. + +Slowly climbing by stony ways, the path reaches the summit, a rock table +crowned with a pyramid of loose boulders, heaped up in olden days as a +memorial of golden-haired Maeve. From the dead queen's pyramid a view of +surpassing grandeur and beauty opens over sea and land, mingled valley +and hill. The Atlantic stretches in illimitable blue, curved round the +rim of the sky, a darker mirror of the blue above. It is full of +throbbing silence and peace. Across blue fields of ocean, and facing +the noonday brightness of the sun, rise the tremendous cliffs of Slieve +League, gleaming with splendid colors through the shimmering air; broad +bands of amber and orange barred with deeper red; the blue weaves +beneath them and the green of the uplands above. + +The vast amber wall rises out of the ocean, and passes eastward in a +golden band till it merges in the Donegal highlands with their +immeasurable blue. Sweeping round a wide bay, the land drawls nearer +again, the far-away blue darkening to purple, and then to green and +brown. The sky is cut by the outlines of the Leitrim and Sligo hills, a +row of rounded peaks against the blue, growing paler and more +translucent in the southern distance. + +Under the sun, there is a white glinting of lakes away across the plain, +where brown and purple are blended with green in broad spaces of +mingling color. To the west the ground rises again into hills crowded +behind each other, sombre masses, for ages called the Mountains of +Storms. Far beyond them, vague as blue cloud-wreaths in the blue, are +the hills that guard our western ocean. From their sunset-verges the +land draws near again, in the long range of the Mayo cliffs,--fierce +walls of rock that bar the fiercer ocean from a wild world of +storm-swept uplands. The cliffs gradually lessen, and their colors grow +clearer, till they sink at last toward the sand-banks of Ballysadare, +divided from us only by a channel of shallow sea. + +The whole colored circle of sea and land, of moor and mountain, is full +of the silence of intense and mighty power. The ocean is tremulous with +the breath of life. The mountains, in their stately beauty, rise like +immortals in the clear azure. The signs of our present works are dwarfed +to insignificance. + +Everywhere within that wide world of hill and plain, and hardly less +ancient than the hills themselves, are strewn memorials of another world +that has vanished, sole survivors of a long-hidden past. A wordless +history is written there, in giant circles of stone and cromlechs of +piled blocks, so old that in a land of most venerable tradition their +very legend has vanished away. + +Close under us lies Carrowmore, with its labyrinth of cromlechs and +stone circles, a very city of dead years. There is something +awe-inspiring in the mere massiveness of these piled and ordered stones, +the visible boundaries of invisible thoughts; that awe is deepened by +the feeling of the tremendous power lavished in bringing them here, +setting them up in their ordered groups, and piling the crowns of the +cromlechs on other only less gigantic stones; awe gives place to +overwhelming mystery when we can find no kinship to our own thoughts and +aims in their stately grouping. We are in presence of archaic purposes +recorded in a massive labyrinth, purposes darkly hidden from us in +the unknown. + +There are circles of huge boulders ranged at equal distances, firmly set +upright in the earth. They loom vast, like beads of a giant necklace on +the velvet grass. There are cromlechs set alone--a single huge boulder +borne aloft in the air on three others of hardly less weight. There are +cromlechs set in the midst of titanic circles of stone, with lesser +boulders guarding the cromlechs closer at hand. There are circles beside +circles rising in their grayness, with the grass and heather carpeting +their aisles. There they rest in silence, with the mountain as their +companion, and, beyond the mountain, the ever-murmuring sea. + +Thus they have kept their watch through long dark ages. When sunrise +reddens them, their shadows stretch westward in bars of darkness over +the burnished grass. From morning to midday the shadows shrink, ever +hiding from the sun; an army of wraiths, sprite-like able to grow +gigantic or draw together into mere blots of darkness. When day +declines, the shadows come forth again, joining ghostly hands from stone +to stone, from circle to circle, under the sunset sky, and merging at +last into the universal realm of night. Thus they weave their web, +inexorable as tireless Time. + +There are more than threescore of these circles at Carrowmore, under +Knocknarea. Yet Carrowmore is only one among many memorials of dead +years within our horizon. At Abbey-quarter, within the town-limits of +Sligo itself, there is another great ring of boulders, the past and the +present mingling together. On the northern coast, across the Bay of +Sligo, where the headland of Streedagh juts forth into the sea, there is +another giant necklace of gray blocks ranged upon the moor. Farther +along the shore, where Bundoran marks the boundary of Donegal, a +cromlech and a stone circle rise among the sand-banks. All have the same +rugged and enduring massiveness, all are wrapped in the same mystery. + +Eastward from Sligo, Lough Gill lies like a mirror framed in hills, +wreathed with dark green woods. On a hill-top north of the lake, in the +Deer-park, is a monument of quite other character--a great oblong +marked by pillared stones, like an open temple. At three points huge +stones are laid across from pillar to pillar. The whole enclosure was +doubtless so barred in days of old, a temple of open arches crowning the +summit of the hill. The great ruin by the lake keeps its secret well. + +Another ring of giant stones rests on a hillside across the lake, under +the Cairn hill, with its pyramid crown. All these are within easy view +from our first vantage-point on Knocknarea, yet they are but the +outposts of an army which spreads everywhere throughout the land. They +are as common in wild and inaccessible places as on the open plain. Some +rise in lonely islands off the coast; others on the summits of +mountains; yet others in the midst of tilled fields. They bear no +relation at all to the land as it is to-day. The very dispersion of +these great stone monuments, scattered equally among places familiar or +wild, speaks of a remote past--a past when all places were alike wild, +or all alike familiar. + +Where the gale-swept moors of Achill Island rise up toward the slope of +Slievemore Mountain, there are stone circles and cromlechs like the +circles of Carrowmore. The wild storms of the Atlantic rush past them, +and the breakers roar under their cliffs. The moorland round the +towering mountain is stained with ochre and iron under a carpet of +heather rough as the ocean winds. + +Away to the south from Slievemore the horizon is broken by an army of +mountains, beginning with the Twelve Peaks of Connemara. Eastward of +these hills are spread the great Galway lakes; eastward of these a wide +expanse of plain. This is the famous Moytura of traditional history, +whose story we shall presently tell. Ages ago a decisive battle was +fought there; but ages before the battle, if we are not greatly misled, +the stone circles of the plain were already there. Tradition says that +these circles numbered seven in the beginning, but only two +remain unbroken. + +Between Galway Bay and the wide estuary of the Shannon spread the +moorlands of Clare, bleak under Atlantic gales, with never a tree for +miles inward from the sea. Like a watch-tower above the moorlands stand. +Slieve Callan, the crown of the mountain abruptly shorn. Under the +shoulder of the great hill, with the rolling moorlands all about it, +stands a solitary cromlech; formed of huge flat stones, it was at first +a roomy chamber shut in on all four sides, and roofed by a single +enormous block; the ends have fallen, so that it is now an open tunnel +formed of three huge stones. + +The coast runs southward from the Shannon to the strand of Tralee, the +frontier of the southern mountain world, where four ranges of red +sandstone thrust themselves forth towards the ocean, with long fiords +running inland between them. On a summit of the first of these red +ranges, Caherconree above Tralee strand, there is a stone circle, +massive, gigantic, dwelling in utter solitude. + +We have recorded a few only out of many of these great stone monuments +strewn along our Atlantic coast, whether on moor or cliff or remote +mountain-top. + +There are others as notable everywhere in the central plain, the +limestone world of lakes and rivers. On a green hill-crest overlooking +the network of inlets of Upper Erne there is a circle greater than any +we have recorded. The stones are very massive, some of them twice the +height of a tall man. To one who stands within the ring these huge +blocks of stone shut out the world; they loom large against the sky, +full of unspoken secrets like the Sphinx. Within this mighty ring the +circle of Stonehenge might be set, leaving a broad road all round it on +the grass. + +From Fermanagh, where this huge circle is, we gain our best clue to the +age of all these monuments, everywhere so much like each other in their +massive form and dimensions, everywhere so like in their utter mystery. +Round the lakes of Erne there are wide expanses of peat, dug as fuel for +centuries, and in many places as much as twelve feet deep, on a bed of +clay, the waste of old glaciers. Though formed with incredible slowness, +this whole mass of peat has grown since some of the great stone +monuments were built; if we can tell the time thus taken for its growth +we know at least the nearer limit of the time that divides us from +their builders. + +Like a tree, the peat has its time of growth and its time of rest. +Spring covers it with green, winter sees it brown and dead. Thus thin +layers are spread over it, a layer for a year, and it steadily gains in +thickness with the passing of the years. The deeper levels are buried +and pressed down, slowly growing firm and rigid, but still keeping the +marks of the layers that make them up. It is like a dry ocean gradually +submerging the land. Gathering round the great stone circles as they +stand on the clay, this black sea has risen slowly but surely, till at +last it has covered them with its dark waves, and they rest in the +quiet depths, with a green foam of spring freshness far above +their heads. + +At Killee and Breagho, near Enniskillen, the peat has once more been cut +away, restoring some of these great stones to the light. If we count the +layers and measure the thickness of the peat, we can tell how many years +are represented by its growth. We can, therefore, tell that the great +stone circle, which the first growth of peat found already there, must +be at least as old, and may be indefinitely older. By careful count it +is found that one foot of black peat is made up of eight hundred layers; +eight hundred summers and eight hundred winters went to the building of +it. One foot of black peat, therefore, will measure the time from before +the founding of Rome or the First Olympiad to the beginning of our era. +Another foot will bring us to the crowning of Charlemagne. Yet another, +to the death of Shakespeare and Cervantes. Since then, only a few inches +have been added. Here is a chronometer worthy of our great cromlechs and +stone circles. + +Some of these, as we saw, rest on the clay, with a sea of peat twelve +feet deep around and above them. Every foot of the peat stands for eight +centuries. Since the peat began to form, eight or ten thousand years +have passed, and when that vast period began, the great monuments of +stone were already there. How long they had stood in their silence +before our chronometer began to run we cannot even guess. + +At Cavancarragh, on the shoulder of Toppid Mountain, some four miles +from Enniskillen, there is one of these circles; a ring of huge stone +boulders with equal spaces between stone and stone. A four-fold avenue +of great blocks stretches away from it along the shoulder of the hill, +ending quite abruptly at the edge of a ravine, the steep channel of a +torrent. It looks as if the river, gradually undermining the hillside, +had cut the avenue in halves, so that the ravine seems later in date +than the stones. But that we cannot be quite sure of. This, however, we +do certainly know: that since the avenue of boulders and the circle of +huge red stones were ranged in order, a covering of peat in some parts +twelve feet thick has grown around and above them, hiding them at last +altogether from the day. In places the peat has been cut away again, +leaving the stones once more open to the light, standing, as they always +stood, on the surface of the clay. + +Here again we get the same measurement. At eight hundred annual layers +to the foot, and with twelve feet of peat, we have nine thousand six +hundred years,--not for the age of the stone circles, but for that part +of their age which we are able to measure. For we know not how long they +were there before the peat began to grow. It may have been a few years; +it may have been a period as great or even greater than the ten thousand +years we are able to measure. + +The peat gradually displaced an early forest of giant oaks. Their stems +are still there, standing rooted in the older clay. Where they once +stood no trees now grow. The whole face of the land has changed. Some +great change of climate must lie behind this vanishing of vast forests, +this gradual growth of peat-covered moors. A dry climate must have +changed to one much damper; heat must have changed to cold, warm winds +to chilly storms. In the southern promontories, among red sandstone +hills, still linger survivors of that more genial clime--groves of +arbutus that speak of Greece or Sicily; ferns, as at Killarney, found +elsewhere only in the south, in Portugal, or the Canary Islands. + +[Illustration: Muckross Abbey, Killarney.] + +On the southwestern horizon from Toppid Mountain, when the sky is clear +after rain, you can trace the outline of the Curlew hills, our +southern limit of view from Knocknarea. Up to the foot of the hills +spreads a level country of pastures dappled with lakes, broken into a +thousand fantastic inlets by the wasting of the limestone rock. The +daisies are the stars in that green sky. Just beyond the young stream of +the Shannon, where it links Lough Garra to Lough Key, there is a lonely +cromlech, whose tremendous crown was once upheld by five massive +pillars. There is a kindred wildness and mystery in the cromlech and the +lonely hills. + +Southward again of this, where the town of Lough Rea takes its name from +the Gray Lake, stands a high hill crowned by a cromlech, with an +encircling earthwork. It marks a green ring of sacred ground alone upon +the hill-top, shut off from all the world, and with the mysterious +monument of piled stones in its centre; here, as always, one huge block +upheld in the air by only lesser blocks. The Gray Lake itself, under +this strange sentry on the hill, was in long-passed ages a little +Venice; houses built on piles lined its shores, set far enough out into +the lake for safety, ever ready to ward off attack from the land. This +miniature Venice of Lough Rea is the type of a whole epoch of turbulent +tribal war, when homes were everywhere clustered within the defence of +the waters, with stores laid up to last the rigors of a siege. + +The contrast between the insecurity and peril of the old lake dwellings +and the present safety of the town, open on all sides, unguarded and +free from fear, is very marked. But not less complete is the contrast +between the ancient hamlet, thus hidden for security amid the waters, +and the great cromlech, looming black against the sky on the hill's +summit, exposed to the wildness of the winds, utterly unguarded, yet +resting there in lonely serenity. + +A little farther south, Lough Gur lies like a white mirror among the +rolling pasture-lands of Limerick, set amongst low hills. On the lake's +shore is another metropolis of the dead, worthy to compare with +Carrowmore on the Sligo headland. Some of the circles here are not +formed of single stones set at some distance from each other, but of a +continuous wall of great blocks crowded edge to edge. They are like +round temples open to the sky, and within one of these unbroken rings is +a lesser ring like an inner shrine. All round the lake there are like +memorials--if we can call memorials these mighty groups of stone, which +only remind us how much we have forgotten. There are huge circles of +blocks either set close together or with an equal space dividing boulder +from boulder; some of the giant circles are grouped together in twos and +threes, others are isolated; one has its centre marked by a single +enormous block, while another like block stands farther off in lonely +vastness. Here also stands a chambered cromlech of four huge flat blocks +roofed over like the cromlech under Slieve Callan across the +Shannon mouth. + +The southern horizon from Lough Gur is broken by the hills of red +sandstone rising around Glanworth. Beside the stream, a tributary of the +Blackwater, a huge red cromlech rises over the greenness of the meadows +like a belated mammoth in its uncouth might. To the southwest, under the +red hills that guard Killarney on the south, the Sullane River flows +towards the Lee. On its bank is another cromlech of red sandstone +blocks, twin-brother to the Glanworth pile. Beyond it the road passes +towards the sunset through mountain-shadowed glens, coming out at last +where Kenmare River opens into a splendid fiord towards the Atlantic +Ocean. At Kenmare, in a vale of perfect beauty green with groves of +arbutus and fringed with thickets of fuchsia, stands a great stone +circle, the last we shall record to the south. Like all the rest, it +speaks of tremendous power, of unworldly and mysterious ends. + +The very antiquity of these huge stone circles suggests an affinity with +the revolving years. And here, perhaps, we may find a clue to their +building. They may have been destined to record great Time itself, great +Time that circles forever through the circling years. There is first the +year to be recorded, with its revolving days; white winter gleaming into +spring; summer reddening and fading to autumn. Returning winter tells +that the year has gone full circle; the sun among the stars gives the +definite measure of the days. A ring of thirty-six great boulders, set +ten paces apart, would give the measure of the year in days; and of +circles like this there are more than one. + +In this endless ring of days the moon is the measurer, marking the hours +and weeks upon the blue belt of night studded with golden stars. Moving +stealthily among the stars, the moon presently changes her place by a +distance equal to her own breadth; we call the time this takes an hour. +From her rising to her setting, she gains her own breadth twelve times; +therefore, the night and the day are divided each into twelve hours. +Meanwhile she grows from crescent to full disk, to wane again to a +sickle of light, and presently to lose herself in darkness at new moon. +From full moon to full moon, or from one new moon to another, the +nearest even measure is thirty days; a circle of thirty stones would +record this, as the larger circle of thirty-six recorded the solar year. +In three years there are thrice twelve full moons, with one added; a +ring of thirty-seven stones representing this would show the simplest +relation between sun and moon. + +The moon, as we saw, stealthily glides among the fixed stars, gaining +her own width every hour. Passing thus along the mid belt of the sphere, +she makes the complete circuit in twenty-seven days, returning to the +same point among the stars, or, if it should so happen, to the same +star, within that time. Because the earth has meanwhile moved forward, +the moon needs three days more to overtake it and gain the same relative +position towards earth and sun, thus growing full again, not after +twenty-seven, but after thirty days. Circles of twenty-seven and thirty +days would stand for these lunar epochs, and would, for those who +understood them, further bear testimony to the earth's movement in its +own great path around the sun. Thus would rings of varying numbers mark +the measures of time; and not these only, but the great sweep of orbs +engendering them, the triumphal march of the spheres through pathless +ether. The life of our own world would thus be shown bound up with the +lives of others in ceaseless, ever-widening circles, that lead us to the +Infinite, the Eternal. + +All the cromlechs and circles we have thus far recorded are in the +western half of our land; there are as many, as worthy of note, in the +eastern half. But as before we can only pick out a few. One of these +crowns the volcanic peak of Brandon Hill, in Kilkenny, dividing the +valleys of the Barrow and Nore. From the mountain-top you can trace the +silver lines of the rivers coming together to the south, and flowing +onward to the widening inlet of Wexford harbor, where they mingle with +the waters of the River Suir. On the summit of Brandon Hill stands a +great stone circle, a ring of huge basalt blocks dominating the rich +valleys and the surrounding plain. + +In Glen Druid of the Dublin hills is a cromlech whose granite crown +weighs seventy tons. Not far off is the Mount Venus cromlech, the +covering block of which is even more titanic; it is a single stone +eighty tons in weight. Near Killternan village, a short distance off, is +yet another cromlech whose top-most boulder exceeds both of these, +weighing not less than ninety tons. Yet vast as all these are, they are +outstripped by the cromlech of Howth, whose upper block is twenty feet +square and eight feet thick, a single enormous boulder one hundred tons +in weight. This huge stone was borne in the air upon twelve massive +pillars of quartz, seven feet above the ground, so that a man of average +height standing on the ground and reaching upward could just touch the +under surface of the block with his finger-tips. Even a tall man +standing on the shoulders of another as tall would quite fail to touch +the upper edge of the stone. If we give this marvelous monument the same +age as the Fermanagh circles, as we well may, this raising of a single +boulder of one hundred tons, and balancing it in the air on the crest of +massive pillars may give us some insight into the engineering skill of +the men of ten thousand years ago. + +Across the central plain from Howth Head the first break is the range of +Loughcrew hills. Here are great stone circles in numbers, not standing +alone like so many others, but encompassing still stranger monuments; +chambered pyramids of boulders, to which we shall later return. They +are lesser models of the three great pyramids of Brugh on the Boyne, +where the river sweeps southward in a long curve, half-encircling a +headland of holy ground. + +From near Howth to the Boyne and north of it, the coast is low and flat; +sandhills matted with bent-grass and starred with red thyme and tiny +pansies, yellow and purple and blue. Low tide carries the sea almost to +the horizon, across a vast wilderness of dripping sand where the gulls +chatter as they wade among the pools. Where the shore rises again +towards the Carlingford Mountains, another cromlech stands under the +shadow of granite hills. + +A long fiord with wooded walls divides the Carlingford range from the +mountains of Mourne. The great dark range thrusts itself forth against +the sea in somber beauty, overhanging the wide strand of Dundrum Bay. +The lesser bay, across whose bar the sea moans under the storm-winds, is +dominated by the hill of Rudraige, named in honor of a hero of old days; +but under the shadow of the hill stands a more ancient monument, that +was gray with age before the race of Rudraige was born. On five pillars +of massive stone is upreared a sixth, of huge and formidable bulk, and +carrying even to us in our day a sense of mystery and might. The potent +atmosphere of a hidden past still breathes from it, whispering of +vanished years, vanished races, vanished secrets of the prime. + +There are two circles of enormous stones on the tongue of land between +Dundrum Bay and Strangford, both very perfect and marked each in its own +way from among the rest. The first, at Legamaddy, has every huge boulder +still in place. There is a lesser ring of stones within the first +circle, with many outliers, of enormous size, dotted among the fields. +It looks as if a herd of huge animals of the early world had come +together in a circle for the night, the young being kept for safety +within their ring, while others, grazing longer or wandering farther +from the rest, were approaching the main herd. But nightfall coming upon +them with dire magic turned them all to stone; and there they remain, +sentient, yet motionless, awaiting the day of their release. By fancies +like this we may convey the feeling of mystery breathing from them. + +On the hill-top of Slieve-na-griddle is another circle of the same +enormous boulders. A cromlech is piled in the midst of it, and an avenue +of stones leads up to the circle. Its form is that of many circles with +enclosed cromlechs at Carrowmore, though in these the avenue is missing. +The thought that underlies them is the same, though they are separated +by the whole width of the land; a single cult with a single ideal +prompted the erection of both. + +At Drumbo, on the east bank of the Lagan before it reaches Belfast +Lough, there is a massive cromlech surrounded by a wide ring of earth +piled up high enough to cut off the sacred space within from all view of +the outer world. Like the earthwork round the cromlech of Lough Rea, it +marks the boundary of a great nature temple, open to the sky but shut +off from mankind. Even now its very atmosphere breathes reverence. + +At Finvoy, in northern Antrim, among the meadows of the Bann, there is a +cromlech within a great stone circle like that on Slieve-na-griddle in +Down, and like many of the Carrowmore rings. The Black Lion cromlech in +Cavan is encircled with a like ring of boulders, and another cromlech +not far off rivals some of the largest in the immense size of its +crowning block. + +Three cromlechs in the same limestone plain add something to the mystery +that overhangs all the rest. The first, at Lennan in Monaghan, is marked +with a curious cryptic design, suggesting a clue, yet yielding none. +There is a like script on the cromlech at Castlederg in Tyrone, if +indeed the markings were ever the record of some thought to be +remembered, and not mere ornament. The chambered cromlech of Lisbellaw +in Fermanagh has like markings; they are too similar to be quite +independent, yet almost too simple to contain a recorded thought. + +We come once more to Donegal. On the hill-top of Beltaney, near Raphoe, +there is a very massive circle formed of sixty-seven huge blocks. Here +again the Stonehenge ring might be set up within the Irish circle, +leaving an avenue eight paces wide all round it. The sacred fire was +formerly kindled here to mark the birth of Spring. The name of the old +festival of Beltane still lingers on the hill. At Culdaff in north +Donegal, at the end of the Inishowen peninsula, stands another great +stone circle, with which we must close our survey of these titanic +monuments. + +We have mentioned a few only among many; yet enough to show their +presence everywhere throughout the land, in the valleys or on mountain +summits, in the midst of pastures or on lonely and rugged isles. One +group, as we have seen, cannot be younger than ten thousand years, and +may be far older. The others may be well coeval. Their magnitude, their +ordered ranks, their universal presence, are a startling revelation of +the material powers of the men of that remote age; they are a testimony, +not less wonderful, of the moral force which dedicated so much power to +ideal ends. Finally, they are a monument to remind us how little we yet +know of the real history of our race. + + + +III. + +THE CROMLECH BUILDERS. + +In every district of Ireland, therefore, there remain these tremendous +and solemn survivors of a mighty past. The cromlechs, with their +enormous masses upheld in the air, rising among the fertile fields or +daisy-dotted pastures; the great circles of standing stones, starred +everywhere, in the valleys or upon the uplands, along the rough sides of +heather-covered hills. They have everywhere the same aspect of august +mystery, the same brooding presence, like sentinels of another world. It +is impossible not to feel their overshadowing majesty. Everywhere they +follow the same designs in large simplicity; inspired by the same +purpose, and with the same tireless might overcoming the tremendous +obstacles of their erection; they are devoted everywhere not to material +and earthly ends, but to the ideal purposes of the invisible and +everlasting, linked with the hidden life of those who pass away from us +through the gates of death. + +Can we find any clue to the builders of these grand and enduring +memorials, the conditions of their building, the age of our land to +which they belong? If we wisely use the abundant knowledge of the past +already in our possession, there is good reason to believe we can, +establishing much with entire certainty and divining more. + +The standing stones and cromlechs, as we know, are everywhere spread +over Ireland, so that it is probable that throughout the whole country +one is never out of sight of one of these solemn monuments. Their +uniform and universal presence shows, therefore, a uniform race dwelling +everywhere within the four seas, a universal stability and order, +allowing such great and enduring works to be undertaken and completed. +We must believe, too, that the builders of these giant stone monuments +were dominant throughout the land, possessing entire power over the +labor of thousands everywhere; and even then the raising of these +titanic masses is almost miraculous. + +But the history of the standing stones and cromlechs is not a page of +Irish history only, nor can we limit to our own isle the presence of +their builders, the conditions of dominion and order under which alone +they could have been raised. We shall gain our first trustworthy clue +by tracing the limits of the larger territory, beyond our island, where +these same gray memorials are found. + +[Illustration: Brandy Island, Glengarriff.] + +The limits of the region in which alone we find these piles and circles +of enormous stones are clearly and sharply defined, though this region +itself is of immense and imposing extent. It is divided naturally into +two provinces, both starting from a point somewhere in the neighborhood +of Gibraltar or Mount Atlas, and spreading thence over a territory of +hundreds of miles. + +The southern cromlech province, beginning at the Strait of Gibraltar, +extends eastward along the African coast past Algiers to the headland of +Tunis, where Carthage stood, at a date far later than the age of +cromlechs. Were it not for the flaming southern sun, the scorched sands, +the palms, the shimmering torrid air, we might believe these Algerian +megaliths belonged to our own land, so perfect is the resemblance, so +uniform the design, so identical the inspiration. The same huge +boulders, oblong or egg-shaped, formidable, impressive, are raised aloft +on massive supporting stones; there are the same circles of stones +hardly less gigantic, with the same mysterious faces, the same silent +solemnity. Following this line, we find them again in Minorca, Sardinia +and Malta; everywhere under warm blue skies, in lands of olives and +trailing vines, with the peacock-blue of the Mediterranean waves +twinkling beneath them. Northward from Minorca, but still in our +southern cromlech province, we find them in southeastern Spain, in the +region of New Carthage, but far older than the oldest trace of that +ancient city. In lesser numbers they follow the Spanish coast up towards +the Ebro, through vinelands and lands of figs, everywhere under summer +skies. This province, therefore, our southern cromlech province, covers +most of the western Mediterranean; it does not cover, nor even approach, +Italy or Greece or Egypt, the historic Mediterranean lands. We must look +for its origin in the opposite direction--towards Gibraltar, the Pillars +of Hercules. + +From the same point, the Pillars of Hercules, begins our second or +northern cromlech region, even larger and more extensive than the first, +though hardly richer in titanic memorials. From Gibraltar, the cromlech +region passes northward, covering Portugal and western Spain; indeed, it +probably merges in the other province to the eastward, the two including +all Spain between them. From northern Spain, turning the flank of the +giant Pyrenees at Fontarrabia, the cromlech region goes northward and +ever northward, along the Atlantic coast of France, spreading eastward +also through the central provinces, covering the mountains of the Cote +d'Or and the Cevennes, but nowhere entering north Italy or Germany, +which limit France to the east. There is a tremendous culmination of the +huge stone monuments on the capes and headlands of Brittany, where +France thrusts herself forward against the Atlantic, centring in Carnac, +the metropolis of a bygone world. Nowhere are there greater riches of +titanic stone, in circles, in cromlechs, in ranged avenues like huge +frozen armies or ordered hosts of sleeping elephants. From Brittany we +pass to Ireland, whose wealth, inherited from dead ages, we have already +inventoried, and Britain, where the same monuments reappear. More +numerous to the south and west, they yet spread all over Britain, +including remote northern Scotland and the Western Isles. Finally, there +is a streamer stretching still northeastward, to Norway and some of the +Baltic Islands. + +We are, therefore, confronted with the visible and enduring evidence of +a mighty people, spreading in two main directions from the Pillars of +Hercules--eastward through Gibraltar Strait to sunny Algeria, to +southern Spain and the Mediterranean isles; and northward, along the +stormy shores of the Atlantic, from within sight of Africa almost to the +Arctic Circle, across Spain, Portugal, France, Ireland, Britain, and the +lands of the Baltic and the North Sea. Throughout this vast territory +there must have been a common people, a common purpose and inspiration, +a common striving towards the hidden world; there must have been long +ages of order, of power, of peace, during which men's hearts could +conceive and their hands execute memorials so vast, so evidently meant +to endure to a far distant future, so clearly destined to ideal ends. +There must have been a great spiritual purpose, a living belief in the +invisible world, and a large practical power over natural forces, before +these huge monuments could be erected. Some of the stones upheld in the +air in the Irish cromlechs weigh eighty or ninety or a hundred tons. If +we estimate that a well-built man can lift two hundred pounds, it would +demand the simultaneous work of a thousand men to erect them; and it is +at least difficult to see how the effort of a thousand men could +be applied. + +We are led, therefore, by evidence of the solidest material reality to +see this great empire on the Atlantic and along the western +Mediterranean; this Atlantean land of the cromlech-builders, as we may +call it, for want of a better name. As the thought and purpose of its +inhabitants are uniform throughout its whole vast extent, we are led to +see in them a single homogeneous race, working without rivals, without +obstacles, without contests, for they seem everywhere to have been free +to choose what sites they would for their gigantic structures. And we +are irresistibly led to believe that these conditions must have endured +throughout a vast extent of time, for no nation which does not look back +to a distant past will plan for a distant future. The spiritual sweep +and view of the cromlech-builders are, therefore, as great as the extent +of their territory. This mysterious people must have had a life as +wonderful as that of Greece or Rome or Egypt, whose territories we find +them everywhere approaching, but nowhere invading. + +What we now know of the past history of our race is so vast, so +incredibly enormous, that we have ample space for such a territory, so +widespread, so enduring, as we have seen demanded by the position of the +cromlechs and standing stones; more than that, so overwhelming are the +distances in the dark backward and abysm of time, to which we must now +carry the dawn of human history, that the time needed for the building +of the cromlechs may seem quite recent and insignificant, in view of the +mightier past, stretching back through geologic ages. The nineteenth +century may well be called the age of resurrection, when long-forgotten +epochs of man were born again into our knowledge. We can carry back that +knowledge now to the early Miocene period, to which belong the human +relics found by the Abbe Bourgeois on the uplands of Thenay, in central +France; and no one believes that the early Miocene age can be as recent +as a million years ago. A vast space separates the Thenay relics from +the later traces of man found in Pliocene sands with the bones of the +archaic meridional elephant,--at a date when the German ocean was a +forest, full of southern trees and huge beasts now long since departed +from the earth. A period hardly less vast must separate these from the +close of the glacial age, when man roamed the plains of Europe, and +sketched the herds of mammoths as they cropped the leaves. That huge +beast, too, has long since departed into the abyss; but man the artist, +who recorded the massive outline, the huge bossed forehead, the +formidable bulk of the shaggy arctic elephant, engraved in firm lines on +a fragment of its tusk,--man still remains. Man was present when +rhinoceros and elephant were as common in Britain as they are to-day in +Southern India or Borneo; when the hippopotamus was as much at home in +the waters of the Thames as in the Nile and Niger; when huge bears like +the grizzly of the Rockies, cave-lions and sabre-toothed tigers lurked +in Devon caverns or chased the bison over the hills of Kent. Yet this +epoch of huge and ferocious monsters, following upon the Age of Ice, is +a recent chapter of the great epic of man; there lies far more behind +it, beyond the Age of Ice to the immensely distant Pliocene; beyond this +as far as the early Miocene; beyond this, again, how much further we +know not, towards the beginningless beginning, the infinite. + +We are, therefore, face to face with an ordered series of almost +boundless ages, geologic epochs of human history succeeding each other +in majestic procession, as the face of our island was now tropical, now +arctic; as the seas swelled up and covered the hills, or the bottom of +the deep drove back the ocean and became dry land, an unbroken +continent. The wild dreams of romance never approached the splendid +outlines of this certain history. + +There are dim outlines of man throughout all these ages, but only at a +comparatively recent date have we traditions and evidence pointing to +still surviving races. At a period of only a few thousand years ago, we +begin to catch glimpses of a northern race whom the old Greeks and +Romans called Hyperboreans or Far-Northerners; a race wild and little +skilled in the arts of life; a race of small stature, slight, dusky, +with piercing eyes, low brows, and of forbidding face. This race was +scattered over lands far north of the Mediterranean, dwelling in caves +and dens of the earth, and lingering on unchanged from the days of +mammoth and cave-bear. We have slight but definite knowledge of this +very ancient race--enough to show us that its peculiar type lingers to +this day in a few remote islands on the Galway and Kerry coast, mingled +with many later races. This type we find described in old Gaelic records +as the Firbolgs, a race weak and furtive, dusky and keen-eyed, subjected +by later races of greater force. Yet from this race, as if to show the +inherent and equal power of the soul, came holy saints and mighty +warriors; to the old race of the Firbolgs belong Saint Mansuy, apostle +of Belgium, and Roderick O'Conor, the last king of united Ireland. In +gloomy mountain glens and lonely ocean islands still it lingers, +unvanquished, tenacious, obscurely working out its secret destiny. + +This slight and low-browed race, of dark or sallow visage, and with +black crisp hair, this Hyperborean people, is the oldest we can gain a +clear view of in our island's history; but we know nothing of its +extension or powers which would warrant us in believing that this was +the race which built the cromlechs. Greek and Roman tradition, in this +only corroborating the actual traces we ourselves possess of these old +races, tells us of another people many thousand years ago overrunning +and dominating the Firbolgs; a race of taller stature, of handsome +features, though also dark, but with softer black hair, not crisp and +tufted like the hair of the dwarfish earlier race. Of this second +conquering race, tall and handsome, we have abundant traces, gathered +from many lands where they dwelt; bodies preserved by art or nature, in +caverns or sepulchres of stone; ornaments, pottery, works decorative and +useful, and covering several thousand years in succession. But better +than this, we have present, through nearly every land where we know of +them in the past, a living remnant of this ancient race, like it in +every particular of stature, form, complexion and visage, identical in +character and temper, tendency and type of mind. + +In Ireland we find this tall, dark race over all the west of the island, +but most numerous in Kerry, Clare, Galway and Mayo; in those regions +where, we know, the older population was least disturbed. In remote +villages among the mountains, reached by bridle-paths between +heath-covered hills; in the settlements of fishermen, under some cliff +or in the sheltered nook of one of our great western bays; or among the +lonely, little visited Atlantic islands, this dark, handsome race, with +its black hair, dark-brown eyes, sallow skin and high forehead, still +holds its own, as a second layer above the remnant of the far more +ancient Firbolg Hyperboreans. We find the same race also among the +Donegal highlands, here and there in the central plain or in the south, +and nowhere entirely missing among the varied races towards the +eastern sea. + +[Illustration: Sugar Loaf Mountain, Glengarriff.] + +But it is by no means in Ireland only that this tall, dark, western race +is found. It is numerously represented in the nearest extension of the +continent, among the headlands and bays and isles of Brittany--a land so +like our own western seaboard, with its wild Atlantic storms. +Following the ocean southward, we find the same race extending to the +Loire, the Garonne, the Pyrenees; stretching somewhat inland also, but +clinging everywhere to the Atlantic, as we also saw it cling in Ireland. +In earlier centuries, long before our era opened, we find this same race +spread far to the east,--as far, almost, as the German and Italian +frontier,--so that at one time it held almost complete possession of +France. South of the Pyrenees we find it once more; dominant in +Portugal, less strongly represented in Spain, yet still supplying a +considerable part of the population of the whole peninsula, as it does +in Ireland at the present day. But it does not stop with Spain, or even +Europe. We find the same race again in the Guanches of the Canary +islands, off the African coast; and, stranger still, we find mummies of +this race, of great antiquity, in the cave-tombs of Teneriffe. Further, +we have ample evidence of its presence, until displaced by Moorish +invaders, all along northern Africa as far as Tunis; and we come across +it again amongst the living races in the Mediterranean isles, in +Sardinia, Sicily and Southern Italy. Finally, the Tuaregs of the Central +Sahara belong to the same type. Everywhere the same tall, dark race, +handsome, imaginative; with a quite definite form of head, of brow, of +eyes; a well-marked character of visage, complexion, and texture +of hair. + +Thus far the southern extension of this, our second Irish race; we may +look for a moment at its distribution in the north. Across the shallow +sea which separates us from Britain we find the same race, clinging +always to the Atlantic seaboard. It dominates south Wales, where its +presence was remarked and commented on by the invading Romans. It is +present elsewhere through the Welsh mountains, and much more sparsely +over the east of England; but we have ample evidence that at one time +this tall, dark race held the whole of England in undisputed possession, +except, perhaps, for a remnant of the Hyperborean dwarfs. In the west of +Scotland, and especially in the Western Isles, it is once more numerous; +and we find offshoots of the same race in the dark-haired +Norwegians,--still holding to the seaboard of the Atlantic. + +Such is the distribution of this once dominant but now dwindled race, +which has gradually descended from the summit of power as ancient Rome +descended, as Greece descended, or Assyria or Egypt. But we can look +back with certainty to a time when this race, and this race only, held +complete possession of all the lands we have mentioned, in north or +south, in Europe or northern Africa; holding everywhere to the Atlantic +coast, or, as in the Mediterranean isles, evidently pressing inward from +the Atlantic, past the Pillars of Hercules, through the Strait of +Gibraltar. + +It is evident at once that the territory of this race corresponds +exactly, throughout many countries, with the territory of the cromlechs +and standing stones; where we find the one, as in Ireland, Brittany, +Spain, we find the other; where the one is absent, as in Germany, or +northern Italy or Greece, the other is likewise absent. The identity is +complete. We are justified, therefore, in giving the same provisional +name to both, and calling them Atlantean, from their evident origin not +far from Atlas, and their everywhere clinging to the Atlantic coast. We +can find traces of no other race which at all closely fulfills the +necessary conditions of uniform and undisputed extension, through a long +epoch, over the whole cromlech region--the only conditions under which +we can conceive of the erection of these gigantic monuments, or of the +long established and universally extended spiritual conditions which +make possible such vast ideal enterprises. + +In this race, therefore, which we have called Atlantean, we find the +conditions fulfilled; of this race, and of no other, we still find a +lingering remnant in each of the cromlech countries; and we hardly find +a trace of this race, either now or in the past, in the lands which have +no cromlechs or standing stones. + +We have already seen that the standing stones of Cavancarragh, four +miles from Fermanagh, were, within the memory of men still living or of +their fathers, buried under ten or twelve feet of peat, which had +evidently formed there after their erection. We have here a natural +chronometer; for we know the rate at which peat forms, and we can, +therefore, assign a certain age to a given depth. We have given one mode +of reckoning already; we find it corroborated by another. In the Somme +valley, in northern France, we have a Nature's timepiece; in the peat, +at different levels, are relics of the Roman age; of the Gaulish age +which preceded it; and, far deeper, of pre-historic races, like our +Atlanteans, who preceded the Gauls. The date of the Roman remains we +know accurately; and from this standard we find that the peat grows +regularly some three centimeters a century, or a foot in a +thousand years. + +On the mountain side, as at Cavancarragh, the growth is likely to be +slower than in a river valley; yet we may take the same rate, a foot a +thousand years, and we shall have, for this great stone circle, an +antiquity of ten or twelve thousand years at least. This assumes that +the peat began to form as soon as the monument was completed; but the +contrary may be the case; centuries may have intervened. + +We may, however, take this as a provisional date, and say that our +cromlech epoch, the epoch of the Atlantean builders, from Algeria to +Ireland, from Ireland to the Baltic, is ten or twelve thousand years +ago; extending, perhaps, much further back in the past, and in certain +regions coming much further down towards the present, but having a +period of twelve thousand years ago as its central date. It happens that +we have traditions of a great dispersion from the very centre we have +been led to fix, the neighborhood of Atlas or Gibraltar, and that to +this dispersion tradition has given a date over eleven thousand years +ago; but to this side of the subject we cannot more fully allude; it +would take us too far afield. + +We have gone far enough to make it tolerably certain, first, that these +great and wonderful monuments were built when uniform conditions of +order, uniform religious beliefs and aspirations, and a uniform mastery +over natural forces extended throughout a vast region spreading +northward and eastward from Mount Atlas or Gibraltar; we have seen, +next, that these conditions were furnished when a well-defined race, +whom we have called Atlantean, was spread as the dominant element over +this whole region; and, finally, we have seen reason to fix on a period +some eleven or twelve thousand years ago as the central period of that +domination, though it may have begun, and probably did begin, many +centuries earlier. The distribution of the cromlechs is certain; the +distribution of the race is certain; the age of one characteristic group +of the monuments is certain. Further than this we need not go. + +When we try to form a clearer image of the life of this tall archaic +race of cromlech-builders, we can divine very much to fill the picture. +We note, to begin with, that not only do they always hold to the +Atlantic ocean as something kindred and familiar, but that they are +found everywhere in islands at such distances from the nearest coasts as +would demand a certain seamanship for their arrival. This is true of +their presence in Malta, Minorca, Sardinia; it is even more true of +Ireland, the Western Isles of Scotland, the Norwegian Isles; all of +which are surrounded by stormy and treacherous seas, where wrecks are +very common even in our day. We must believe that our tail, dark +invaders were a race of seamen, thoroughly skilled in the dangerous +navigation of these dark seas; Caesar marveled at, and imitated, the +ship-building of the natives of Brittany in his day; we equally admire +the prowess of their sons, the Breton fishermen, in our own times. We +find, too, that in the western districts and ocean islands of our own +Ireland the tall, dark race often follows the sea, showing the same +hereditary skill and daring; a skill which certainly marked the first +invaders of that race, or they would never have reached our island at +all. We are the more justified in seeing, in these dark +cromlech-builders, the Fomorians of old Gaelic tradition, who came up +out of the sea and subjugated the Firbolgs. + +Even to those familiar with the geological record of man it is +sufficiently startling to find that the Firbolgs, the early dwarfish +race of Hyperboreans, in all probability were ignorant of boats; that +they almost certainly came to our island dry-shod, as they had come +earlier to Britain, migrating over unbroken spaces of land to what +afterwards became the isle of Erin; for this race we find everywhere +associated with the mammoth--on the continent, in Britain, in our own +island--and the mammoths certainly never came over in ships. Needless to +say, there is abundant geological evidence as well, to show our former +union with continental Europe,--though of course at a time immensely +more remote than ten or twelve thousand years ago. + +We are, therefore, led to identify our Atlantean race of hardy seamen +with the Fomorians who came up out of the sea and found the furtive +Firbolgs in possession of our island; and to this race, the Fomorians of +the sea, we credit the building of cromlechs and standing stones, not +only among ourselves, but in Norway, in Britain, in Brittany, in Spain, +in Africa. + +We shall presently pick up the thread of tradition, as we find it in +Ireland, and try to follow the doings and life of the Fomorian invaders; +but in the meantime we may try to gain some insight into the most +mysterious and enduring of their works. The cromlechs which have been +excavated in many cases are found to contain the funereal urns of a +people who burned their dead. It does not follow that their first and +only use was as tombs; but if we think of them as tombs only, we must +the more marvel at the faith of the builders, and their firm belief in +the reality and overwhelming import of the other world which we enter at +death. For of dwellings for the living, of fortresses or storehouses, of +defences against the foes who later invaded them, we find few traces; +nothing at all to compare with their massive mausoleums. The other +world, for them, was a far weightier concern than this, and to the +purposes of that world, as they conceived it, all their energies were +directed. We can hardly doubt that, like other races who pay extreme +reverence to the dead, their inner vision beheld these departed ones +still around them and among them, forming with them a single race, a +single family, a single life. This world was for them only the threshold +of the other, the place of preparation. To that other their thoughts all +turned, for that other they raised these titanic buildings. The solemn +masses and simple grandeur of the cromlechs fitly symbolize the mood of +reverence in which they drew near to the sublime world of the hidden; +the awe with which their handiwork affirmed how greatly that world +outweighs this. At these houses of the dead they were joined in spirit +and communion with those who had passed away; once more united with +their fathers and their fathers' fathers, from the dim beginning of +their race. The air, for them, was full of spirits. Only the dead +truly lived. + +The circles of standing stones are also devoted to ideal ends. Though +the men who set them up could have built not less wonderful forts or +dwellings of stone, we find none of these; nor has any worldly purpose +ever been assigned to the stone circles. Yet there seems to be a very +simple interpretation of their symbology; the circle, through all +antiquity, stood for the circling year, which ever returns to its point +of departure, spring repeating spring, summer answering to summer, +winter with its icy winds only the return of former winters: the +circling year and its landmarks, whether four seasons, or twelve months, +or twenty-seven lunar mansions, through one of which the wandering moon +passes in a day. We should thus have circles of twelve or twenty-seven +stones, or four outlying stones at equal distances, for the four +seasons, the regents of the year. By counting the stones in each circle +we can tell to which division of the year they belonged, whether the +solar months or the lunar mansions. + +But with all ancient nations the cycle of the year was only the symbol +of the spiritual cycle of the soul, the path of birth and death. We +must remember that even for ourselves the same symbolism holds: in the +winter we celebrate the Incarnation; in spring, the Crucifixion; in +summer, the birth of the beloved disciple; in autumn, the day of All +Souls, the feast of the dead. Thus for us, too, the succeeding seasons +only symbolize the stages of a spiritual life, the august procession +of the soul. + +We cannot think it was otherwise with a people who lived and built so +majestically for the hidden world; these great stone circles symbolized +for them, we must believe, the circling life of the soul, the cycle of +necessity, with the door of liberation to the home of the blest, who +have reached perfect freedom and go no more out. We may picture in +imagination their solemn celebrations; priests robed, perhaps, in the +mingled green and purple of their hills, passing within the circle, +chanting some archaic hymn of the Divine. + + + +IV. + +THE DE DANAANS. + +In the dim days of Fomorian and Firbolg, and for ages after, Erin was a +land of forests, full of wild cattle and deer and wolves. The central +plain was altogether hidden under green clouds of oak-woods, full of +long, mysterious alleys, dimpled with sunny glades, echoing in spring +and summer to the songs of innumerable birds. Everywhere through the +wide and gloomy forests were the blue mirrors of lakes, starred with +shaggy islands, the hanging hills descending verdant to the water's +edge. Silver rivers spread their network among the woods, and the lakes +and the quiet reaches of the rivers teemed with trout and salmon. The +hilly lands to the north and south showed purple under the sky from +among their forests, oak mingling with pine; and the four seas beat +around our island with their white fringe of hovering gulls. Over all, +the arch of the blue, clearer and less clouded then than now. A pleasant +land, full of gladness and mystery. + +We can but obscurely image to ourselves the thoughts and deeds of the +earliest dwellers in our island. We know that they were skilled in many +arts of peace and inured to the shock of war. The sky spread above them +as over us, and all around them was the green gloom of the forests, the +whiteness of lakes and rivers, the rough purple of the heather. The +great happenings of life, childhood and age and death, were for them +what they are for us, yet their blood flowed warmer than ours. Browned +by wind and sun, wet by the rain and the early dew of the morning, they +delighted in the vigor of the prime. Their love for kindred, for their +friends and lovers, was as ours; and when friends and kindred passed +into the darkness, they still kept touch with their souls in the +invisible Beyond. + +[Illustration: River Erne, Belleek.] + +The vision of our days is darkened by too much poring over earthly +things; but the men of old, like many of our simpler races now, looked +confidently and with intent faith across the threshold. For them the +dead did not depart--hidden but from their eyes, while very near to +their souls. Those in the beyond were still linked to those on earth; +all together made one undivided life, neither in the visible world alone +nor in the hidden world alone, but in both; each according to their +destinies and duties. The men of old were immeasurably strong in this +sense of immortality--a sense based not on faith but on knowledge; on a +living touch with those who had gone before. They knew both over-world +and under-world, because they held their souls open to the knowledge of +both, and did not set their hearts on earthly things alone. A strong +life close to the life of the natural world, a death that was no +separation, the same human hearts as ours,--further we need not go in +imagining that far-off time. + +A third people was presently added to these two, at an epoch fixed by +tradition some four thousand years ago. A vivid picture of their coming +has been handed down to us, and this picture we shall reproduce, as many +circumstances and particulars of our knowledge drawn from other sources +concur to show that our old legend is near to the truth, both in time +and happenings. + +The name these newcomers bore was Tuata De Danaan, the De Danaan tribes; +they were golden-haired and full of knowledge, and their coming was +heavy with destiny for the dark races of Fomor and Firbolg. Even to-day, +mysterious whispers of the De Danaans linger among the remote valleys +and hillsides of our island, and truth is hidden in every legend of +their deeds. They have borne a constant repute for magical knowledge, +and the first tradition of their coming not only echoes that repute, but +shows how first they came by it. + +The De Danaans came from the north; from what land, we shall presently +inquire. They landed somewhere on the northeast coast of our island, +says the tradition; the coast of Antrim was doubtless the place of their +arrival, and we have our choice between Larne and the estuary of the +Foyle. All between, lofty cliffs face a dark and angry sea, where no one +not familiar with the coast would willingly approach; their later course +in the island makes it very probable that they came to the Foyle. + +There, still within sight of the Caledonian isles and headlands hovering +in blue shadows over the sea, they entered, where the sun rose over long +silver sands and hills of chalk, with a grim headland on the west +towering up into sombre mountains. Once within the strait, they had a +wide expanse of quiet waters on all sides, running deep among the rugged +hills, and receiving at its further end the river Foyle, tempting them +further and further with their ships. Up the Foyle went the De Danaan +fleet, among the oak-woods, the deer gazing wide-eyed at them from dark +caverns of shadow, the wolves peering after them in the night. Then, +when their ships would serve them no further, they landed, and, to set +the seal on their coming, burned their boats, casting in their lot with +the fate of their new home. Still following the streams of the Foyle, +for rivers were the only pathways through the darkness of the woods, +they came to the Lakes of Erne, then, as now, beautiful with innumerable +islands, and draped with curtains of forest. Beyond Erne, they fixed +their first settlement at Mag Rein, the Plain of the Headland, within +the bounds of what afterwards was Leitrim; and at this camp their legend +takes up the tale. + +It would seem that the Fomorians were then gathered further to the west, +as well as in the northern isles. The Firbolgs had their central +stronghold at Douin Cain, the Beautiful Eminence, which, tradition tells +us, later bore the name of Tara. The chief among their chiefs was +Eocaid, son of Ere, remembered as the last ruler of the Firbolgs. Every +man of them was a hunter, used to spear and shield, and the skins of +deer and the shaggy hides of wolves were their garments; their dwellings +were built of well-fitted oak. To the chief, Eocaid, Erc's son, came +rumor of the strangers near the Lakes of Erne; their ships, burned at +their debarking, were not there to tell of the manner of their coming, +and the De Danaans themselves bruited it abroad that they had come +hither by magic, borne upon the wings of the wind. The chiefs of Tara +gathered together, within their fort of earth crowned with a stockade, +and took counsel how to meet this new adventure. After long consultation +they chose one from among them, Sreng by name, a man of uncommon +strength, a warrior tried and proven, who should go westward to find out +more of the De Danaans. + +Doubtless taking certain chosen companions with him, Sreng, the man of +valor from among the Firbolgs, set forth on his quest. As in all +forest-covered countries, the only pathways lay along the river-banks, +or, in times of drought, through the sand or pebbles of their beds. +Where the woods pressed closest upon the streams, the path wound from +one bank to the other, crossing by fords or stepping-stones, or by a +bridge of tree-trunks. So went Sreng, careful and keen-eyed, up the +stream of the Blackwater, and thence to the Erne, and so drew near to +the Plain of the Headland, where was the De Danaan camp. They, too, had +word of his coming from their scouts and hunters, and sent forth Breas, +one among their bravest, to meet the envoy. + +They sighted each other and halted, each setting his shield in the +earth, peering at his adversary above its rim. Then, reassured, they +came together, and Breas first spoke to Sreng. After the first words +they fell, warrior-like, to examining each other's weapons; Sreng saw +that the two spears of Breas the De Danaan were thin, slender and long, +and sharp-pointed, while his own were heavy, thick and point-less, but +sharply rounded. + +Here we have a note of reality, for spears of these two types are well +known to us; those of Sreng were chisel-shaped, round-edged, socketed +celts; the De Danaan lances were long and slender, like our spears. +There are two materials also--a beautiful golden bronze, shining and +gleaming in the sunlight, and a darker, ruddier metal, dull and heavy; +and these darker spears have sockets for greatly thicker hafts. Both +also carried swords, made, very likely, the one of golden, the other of +dull, copper-colored bronze. + +Then, putting these pleasant things aside, they turned to weightier +matters, and Breas made a proposal for the De Danaan men. The island was +large, the forests wide and full of game, the waters sweet and +well-stocked with fish. Might they not share it between them, and join +hands to keep out all future comers? Sreng could give no final answer; +he could only put the matter before the Firbolg chiefs; so, exchanging +spears in sign of friendship and for a token between them, they returned +each to his own camp. + +Sreng of the Firbolgs retraced his path some four-score miles among the +central forests, and came to the Beautiful Eminence, where the Firbolgs +had their settlement. Eocaid, Erc's son, their chieftain, called the +lesser chiefs around him, and Sreng made full report of what he had seen +and heard. The Firbolgs, pressed on by their fate, decided to refuse all +terms with the De Danaans, but to give them battle, and drive them from +the island. So they made ready, each man seeing to the straps of his +shield, the burnishing of his thick sword and heavy spear. Eyes gleamed +out beneath lowering brows all about the dwellings of Tara, and hot +words were muttered of the coming fight. The dark faces of the Firbolgs +were full of wrath. + +Breas, returning to the camp of the Tuata De Danaan, gave such account +of the fierceness and strength of Sreng, and the weight and sturdiness +of his weapons, that the hearts of the golden-haired newcomers misgave +them, and they drew away westward to the strip of land that lies between +the lakes of Corrib and Mask. There, tradition tells us, they made an +encampment upon the hill of Belgadan, near the stream that flows through +caverns beneath the rocks from the northern to the southern lake. From +their hill-top they had clear view of the plain stretching eastward, +across which the Firbolg warriors must come; to the right hand and to +the left were spread the great white waters of the lakes, stretching far +away to the northern and southern verge of the sky. Islands dotted the +lakes, and trees mirrored themselves in the waters. Behind them, to the +westward, rose a square-topped mountain, crowned by a clear tarn; and, +behind that, tier upon tier of hills, stretching dark and sombre along +Lough Mask to the north, and spreading westward to the twelve crystal +hills of Connemara. + +Across the plain to the east, then called the Plain of Nia, but +thereafter Mag Tuiread or Moytura, the Plain of the Pillars, lay the +forests, and thence issued forth the hosts of the Firbolgs, encamping on +the eastern verge of the open space. Nuada, the De Danaan king, once +more sought a peaceful issue to their meeting, but Erc's son Eocaid +refused all terms, and it was plain to all that they must fight. + +It was midsummer. The air was warm about them, the lake-shores and the +plain clothed in green of many gently blended shades. The sun shone down +upon them, and the lakes mirrored the clear blue above. From their hill +of encampment descended the De Danaans, with their long slender spears +gleaming like bright gold, their swords of golden bronze firmly grasped, +their left hands griping the thong of their shields. Golden-haired, with +flowing tresses, they descended to the fight; what stately battle-song +they chanted, what Powers they called on for a blessing, we cannot tell; +nor in what terms the dark-browed Firbolgs answered them as they +approached across the plain. All that day did the hosts surge together, +spear launched against spear, and bronze sword clashing against shield; +all that day and for three days more, and then the fate of the Firbolgs +was decided. Great and dire was the slaughter of them, so that Erc's son +Eocaid saw that all was lost. Withdrawing with a hundred of his own men +about him, Eocaid was seeking water to quench his thirst, for the heat +of the battle was upon him, when he was pursued by a greater band of +the De Danaans, under the three sons of Nemed, one of their chieftains. + +Eocaid and his bodyguard fled before Nemed's sons, making their way +northeastward along the Moy river, under the shadow of the Mountains of +Storms, now wrongly named Ox Mountains. They came at last to the great +strand called Traig Eotaile, but now Ballysadare, the Cataract of the +Oaks,--where the descending river is cloven into white terraces by the +rocks, and the sea, retreating at low tide, leaves a world of wet sand +glinting under the moonlight. At the very sea's margin a great battle +was fought between the last king of the Firbolgs with his men, and the +De Danaans under Nemed's sons; so relentless was the fight along the +tideways that few remained to tell of it, for Erc's son Eocaid fell, but +Nemed's three sons fell likewise, The three De Danaan brothers were +buried at the western end of the strand, and the place was called The +Gravestones of the Sons of Nemed, in their memory. The son of Erc was +buried on the strand, where the waves lap along the shore, and his cairn +of Traig Eotaile still stands by the water-side, last resting-place of +the last ruler of the Firbolgs. + +Meanwhile the fighting had gone on at Mag Tuiread by the lakes, till +but three hundred of the Firbolgs were left, with Sreng, the fierce +fighter, at their head. Sreng had gained enduring fame by meeting Nuada, +the De Danaan king, in combat, and smiting him so that he clove the +shield-rim and cut down deep into Nuada's shoulder, disabling him +utterly from the battle. Seeing themselves quite outnumbered, therefore, +the survivors of the Firbolgs with Sreng demanded single combat with De +Danaan champions, but the victors offered them worthy terms of peace. +The Firbolgs were to hold in lordship and freedom whichever they might +choose of the five provinces; the conquerors were to have the rest. + +Sreng looked around among his band of survivors,--a little band, though +of great valor,--and he remembered the hosts of his people that had +entered the battle three days before, but now lay strewn upon the plain; +and thinking that they had done enough for valor he accepted the offered +terms, choosing the Western Province for his men. In memory of him it +was called Cuigead Sreing for generations, until Conn of the Five-Score +Battles changed the name for his own, calling the province Connacht, as +it is to this day. + +It fared less well with the victors, and with their victory were sown +seeds of future discord. For Nuada, the king, being grievously wounded, +was in no state to rule, so that the chief power was given to Breas, +first envoy of the De Danaans. Now Breas was only half De Danaan, half +Fomor, and would not recognize the De Danaan rites or laws of +hospitality, but was a very tyrannous and overbearing ruler, so that +much evil came of his government. Yet for seven years he was endured, +even though meat nor ale was dispensed at his banquets, according to De +Danaan law. + +Mutterings against Breas were rife among the chiefs and their followers +when the bard Cairbre, whose mother Etan was also a maker of verses, +came to the assembly of Breas. But the bard was shown little honor and +given a mean lodging,--a room without fire or bed, with three dry loaves +for his fare. The bard was full of resentment and set himself to make +songs against Breas, so that all men repeated his verses, and the name +of Breas fell into contempt. All men's minds were enkindled by the bard, +and they drove Breas forth from the chieftainship. Breas fled to his +Fomor kindred in the isles, with his heart full of anger and revenge +against the De Danaans. + +He sought help of his kindred, and their design was told to the +Fomorian chieftains--to Balor of the Evil Eye, and to Indec, son of De +Domnand, chiefs of the Isles. These two leaders gathered ships from all +the harbors and settlements of the Fomorians, from the Hebrides, the +Shetlands, and far-distant Norway, so that their fleet was thick as +gulls above a shoal of fish along the north shores of Erin. + +Coming down from the northern isles, they sighted the coast of Erin, the +peaks of the northwestern mountains rising purple towards the clouds, +with white seas foaming around them. Past towering headlands they +sailed; then, drawing in towards the shore, they crept under the great +cliffs of Slieve League, that rose like a many-colored wall from the sea +to the sky--so high that the great eagles on their summits were but +specks seen from beneath, so high that the ships below seemed like +sea-shells to those who watched them from above. With the wall of the +cliffs on their left hand, and the lesser headlands and hills of Sligo +on their right, they came to that same strand of Ballysadare, the +Cataract of the Oaks, where the last of the Firbolgs fell. Drawing their +long ships up on the beach, with furled sail and oars drawn in, they +debarked their army on the shore. It was a landing of ill-omen for the +Fomorians, that landing beside the cairn of Eocaid; a landing of +ill-omen for Indec, son of De Domnand, and for Balor of the Evil Eye. + +It was the fall of the leaf when they came; the winds ran crying through +the forests, tearing the leaves and branches from the oaks, and mourning +among the pines of the uplands. The sea was gray as a gull's back, with +dark shadows under the cliffs and white tresses of foam along the +headlands. At evening a cold wind brought the rain beating in from the +ocean. Thus the Fomorians landed at the Cataract of the Oaks, and +marched inland to the plain now called Tirerril in Sligo. The murky sky +spread over the black and withered waste of the plain, hemmed in with +gloomy hills, wild rocks and ravines, and with all the northern horizon +broken by distant mountains. Here Indec and Balor, and Breas the cause +of their coming, fixed their camp. They sent a message of defiance to +the De Danaans, challenging them to fight or surrender. The De Danaans +heard the challenge and made ready to fight. + +Nuada, now called the chieftain of the Silver Arm, because the mischief +wrought by Sreng's blow on his shoulder had been hidden by a silver +casing, was once more ruler since Breas had been driven out. Besides +Nuada, these were De Danaan chieftains: Dagda, the Mighty; Lug, son of +Cian, son of Diancect, surnamed Lamfada, the Long Armed; Ogma, of the +Sunlike Face; and Angus, the Young. They summoned the workers in bronze +and the armorers, and bid them prepare sword and spear for battle, +charging the makers of spear-haft and shield to perfect their work. The +heralds also were ready to proclaim the rank of the warriors, and those +skilled in healing herbs stood prepared to succor the wounded. The bards +were there also to arouse valor and ardor with their songs. + +Then marching westward to the plain of the battle among the hills, they +set their camp and advanced upon the Fomorians. Each man had two spears +bound with a thong to draw them back after the cast, with a shield to +ward off blows, and a broad-bladed sword of bronze for close combat. +With war-chants and invocations the two hosts met. The spears, well +poised and leveled, clove the air, hissing between them, and under the +weight of the spear-heads and their sharp points many in both hosts +fell. There were cries of the wounded now, mingled with battle-songs, +and hoarse shouting for vengeance among those whose sons and brothers +and sworn friends fell. Another cast of the spears, seaming the air +between as the hosts closed in, and they fell on each other with their +swords, shields upraised and gold-bronze sword-points darting beneath +like the tongues of serpents. They cut and thrust, each with his eyes +fixed on the fierce eyes of his foe. + +They fought on the day of the Spirits, now the Eve of All Saints; the +Fomorians were routed, and their chieftains slain. But of the De +Danaans, Nuada, once wounded by Sreng of the Firbolgs, now fell by the +hand of Balor; yet Balor also fell, slain by Lug, his own +daughter's son. + +Thus was the might of the Fomorians broken, and the De Danaans ruled +unopposed, their power and the works of their hands spreading throughout +the length and breadth of the land. + +Many monuments are accredited to them by tradition, but greatest and +most wonderful are the pyramids of stone at Brugh on the Boyne. Some +nine miles from the sandy seashore, where the Boyne loses itself in the +waves, there is a broad tongue of meadowland, shut in on three sides +southward by the Boyne, and to the northeast cut off by a lesser stream +that joins it. This remote and quiet headland, very famous in the +annals, was in old days so surrounded by woods that it was like a quiet +glade in the forest rimmed by the clear waters of the Boyne. The Mourne +Mountains to the north and the lesser summits on the southern sky-line +were hidden by the trees. The forest wall encircled the green +meadowland, and the river fringed with blue forget-me-nots. + +In this quiet spot was the sacred place of the De Danaans, and three +great pyramids of stone, a mile apart along the river, mark their three +chief sanctuaries. The central is the greatest; two hundred thousand +tons of stone heaped up, within a circular wall of stone, itself +surrounded by a great outer circle of standing stones, thirty in number, +like gray sentinels guarding the shrine. In the very heart of the +pyramid, hushed in perpetual stillness and peace, is the inmost +sanctuary, a chamber formed like a cross, domed with a lofty roof, and +adorned with mysterious tracings on the rocks. Shrines like this are +found in many lands, whether within the heart of the pyramids of Egypt +or in the recesses of India's hills; and in all lands they have the same +purpose. They are secret and holy sanctuaries, guarded well from all +outward influence, where, in the mystic solitude, the valiant and great +among the living may commune with the spirits of the mighty dead. The +dead, though hidden, are not passed away; their souls are in perpetual +nearness to ours. If we enter deep within ourselves, to the remote +shrine of the heart, as they entered that secluded shrine, we may find +the mysterious threshold where their world and our world meet. + +In the gloom and silence of those pyramid-chambers, the De Danaans thus +sought the souls of their mighty ones--the Dagda, surnamed the Mighty, +and Lug the Long-Armed, and Ogma of the Sunlike Face, and Angus the +Young. From these luminous guardians they sought the inbreathing of +wisdom, drawing into themselves the might of these mightier ones, and +rising toward the power of their immortal world. And to these sacred +recesses they brought the ashes of their mighty dead, as a token that +they, too, had passed through the secret gateway to the Land of the +Ever Young. + +Some thirty miles to the west of Brugh, on the Boyne, a low range of +hills rises from the central plain, now bearing the name of Slieve na +Calliagh, the Witch's Hill. In the days of the great forest this was the +first large open space to the west coming from Brugh, and, like it, a +quiet and remote refuge among the woods. On the hillsides of Slieve na +Calliagh are other pyramids of stone, in all things like those of +Brugh, and with the same chambered sanctuaries, but of lesser size; +belonging, perhaps, to a later age, when the De Danaans were no longer +supreme in the land, but took their place beside newcome invaders. These +lesser shrines were also sacred places, doorways to the hidden world, +entrance-gates to the Land of the Ever Young. There also was beheld the +vision of the radiant departed; there also were fonts of baptism, basins +wrought of granite brought hither from the distant hills of Mourne or +Wicklow. As in all lands, these fonts were used in the consecration of +the new birth, from which man rises conscious of his immortality. + +In harmony with this faith of theirs, our present tradition sees in the +De Danaans a still haunting impalpable presence, a race invisible yet +real, dwelling even now among our hills and valleys. When the life of +the visible world is hushed, they say, there is another life in the +hidden, where the Dagda Mor and Ogma and Lug and Angus still guard the +De Danaan hosts. The radiance of their nearness is all through the land, +like the radiance of the sun hidden behind storm-clouds, glimmering +through the veil. + +[Illustration: White Rocks, Portrush] + +In the chambers of those pyramid-shrines are still traces of the +material presence of the De Danaans; not only their baptismal fonts, but +more earthly things--ornaments, beads of glass and amber, and combs with +which they combed their golden locks. These amber beads, like so many +things in the De Danaan history, call us to far northern lands by the +Baltic, whence in all likelihood the De Danaans came; for in those +Baltic lands we find just such pyramid shrines as those at Brugh and on +the hillsides of Slieve na Calliagh, and their ornaments are the same, +and the fashion of their spear-heads and shields. The plan of the Danish +pyramid of Uby is like the pyramids of Newgrange and Nowth and Dowth by +the Boyne, and the carvings on King Gorm's stone by the Baltic are like +the carvings of stones in our own island. On the Baltic shores, too, of +most ancient date and belonging to forgotten times, are still found +fragments and even perfect hulls of just such long ships as were needed +for the Danaans' coming, like the ships they burnt along the reaches of +the Foyle. + +By the Baltic, too, and nowhere else, were there races with hair yellow +as their own amber, or, as our island bards say, "so bright that the +new-molten gold was not brighter; yellow as the yellow flag-lilies along +the verges of the rivers." Therefore, in character of race, in face and +feature, in color and complexion, in the form and make of sword and +spear and shield, in their knowledge of ships and the paths of the sea, +as in their ornaments and decorative art, and in those majestic pyramids +and shrines where they sought mystic wisdom, and whither they carried +the ashes of their dead, as to a place of sacred rest--in all these the +life of the De Danaans speaks of the Baltic shores and the ancient race +of golden-haired heroes who dwelt there. The honoring of bards, the +heraldic keeping of traditions and the names of ancestors, also speak of +the same home; and with a college of heraldic bards, well-ordered and +holding due rank and honor, we can well see how the stories of their +past have come down even to our days, lingering among our hills and +valleys, as the De Danaan themselves linger, hidden yet not departed. + +The traditional time of their coming, too, agrees well with all we know. +Without bronze tools they could not have carved the beautifully adorned +stones that are built into the pyramids by the Boyne; yet there is a +certain early ruggedness about these stones that falls far short of the +perfection of later times. Early in the bronze age, therefore, they must +be placed; and the early bronze age, wherever its remoteness can be +measured, as in the Swiss lakes or the peat-mosses of Denmark, cannot be +less than four thousand years ago, thus well agreeing with our De Danaan +tradition. We are, therefore, led to believe that the tale told by these +traditions is in the main a true one; that the races recorded by them +came in the recorded order; that their places of landing are faithfully +remembered; that all traditions pointing to their earlier homes are +worthy of belief, and in full accord with all our other knowledge. + + + +V. + +EMAIN OF MACA. + +B.C. 50--A.D. 50. + +The battles of Southern and Northern Moytura gave the De Danaans sway +over the island. After they had ruled for many centuries, they in their +turn were subjected to invasion, as the Firbolg and Fomorian had been +before them. The newcomers were the Sons of Milid, and their former home +was either Gaul or Spain. But whether from Gaul or Spain, the sons of +Milid were of undoubted Gaelic race, in every feature of character and +complexion resembling the continental Gauls. + +We must remember that, in the centuries before the northward spread of +Rome, the Gauls were the great central European power. Twenty-six +hundred years ago their earlier tribal life was consolidated into a +stable empire under Ambigatos; Galicia in Eastern Austria and Galicia in +Western Spain mark their extreme borders towards the rising and +setting sun. + +Several centuries before the days of Ambigatos, in the older period of +tribal confederation, was the coming of the Gaelic Sons of Milid to +Ireland. Tradition places the date between three and four thousand years +ago. Yet even after that long interval of isolation the resemblance +between the Irish and continental Gaels is perfect; they are tall, +solidly built, rather inclined to stoutness; they are fair-skinned, or +even florid, easily browned by sun and wind. Their eyes are gray, +greenish or hazel, not clear blue, like the eyes of the Baltic race; and +though fair-haired, they are easily distinguished from the golden-haired +Norsemen. Such are the descendants of the Sons of Milid. Coming from +Gaul or Spain, the Sons of Milid landed in one of the great fiords that +penetrate between the mountains of Kerry--long after so named from the +descendants of Ciar. These same fiords between the hills have been the +halting-place of continental invaders for ages; hardly a century has +passed since the last landing there of continental soldiers; there was +another invasion a century before that, and yet another a hundred years +earlier. But the Sons of Milid showed the way. They may have come by +Bantry Bay or the Kenmare River or Dingle Bay; more probably the last, +for tradition still points to the battlefield where they were opposed, +on the hills of Slieve Mish, above the Dingle fiord. + +But wherever they debarked on that southwestern coast they found a land +warm and winning as the south they had left behind--a land of ever-green +woods, yew and arbutus mingling with beech and oak and fir; rich +southern heaths carpeting the hillsides, and a soft drapery of ferns +upon the rocks. There were red masses of overhanging mountain, but in +the valleys, sheltered and sun-warmed, they found a refuge like the +Isles of the Blest. The Atlantic, surging in great blue rollers, brought +the warmth of tropical seas, and a rich and vivid growth through all the +glens and vales responded to the sun's caress. + +The De Danaans must ere this have spread through all of the island, +except the western province assigned to the Firbolgs; for we find them +opposing,--but vainly opposing,--the Sons of Milid, at the very place of +their landing. Here again we find the old tradition verified; for at the +spot recorded of old by the bards and heralds, among the hills by the +pass that leads from Dingle to Tralee Bay, numberless arrow-heads have +been gathered, the gleanings after a great combat. The De Danaans fought +with sword and spear, but, unless they had added to their weapons since +the days of Breas and Sreng, they did not shoot with the bow; this was, +perhaps, the cause of their defeat, for the De Danaans were defeated +among the hills on that long headland. + +From their battlefield they could see the sea on either hand, stretching +far inland northward and southward; across these arms of the sea rose +other headlands, more distant, the armies of hills along them fading +from green to purple, from purple to clear blue. But the De Danaans had +burned their boats; they sought refuge rather by land, retreating +northward till they came to the shelter of the great central woods. The +Sons of Milid pursued them, and, overtaking them at Tailten on the +Blackwater, some ten miles northwest of Tara, they fought another +battle; after it, the supremacy of the De Danaans definitely +passed away. + +Yet we have no reason to believe that, any more than the Fomorians or +Firbolgs, the De Danaans ceased to fill their own place in the land. +They seem, indeed, to have been preponderant in the north, and in all +likelihood they hold their own there even now; for every addition to our +knowledge shows us more and more how tenacious is the life of races, how +firmly they cling to their earliest dwellings. And though we read of +races perishing before invaders, this is the mere boasting of +conquerors; more often the newcomers are absorbed among the earlier +race, and nothing distinctive remains of them but a name. We have +abundant evidence to show that at the present day, as throughout the +last three thousand years, the four races we have described continue to +make up the bulk of our population, and pure types of each still linger +unblended in their most ancient seats; for, though races mingle, they do +not thereby lose their own character. The law is rather that the type of +one or other will come out clear in their descendants, all undefined +forms tending to disappear. + +Nor did any subsequent invasion add new elements; for as all northern +Europe is peopled by the same few types, every newcomer,--whether from +Norway, Denmark, Britain or Continental Europe,--but reinforced one of +these earlier races. Yet even where the ethnical elements are alike, +there seems to be a difference of destiny and promise--as if the very +land itself brooded over its children, transforming them and molding +them to a larger purpose. The spiritual life of races goes far deeper +than their ethnic history. + +It would seem that with the coming of the Sons of Milid the destiny of +Ireland was rounded and completed; from that time onward, for more than +two thousand years, was a period of uniform growth and settled life and +ideals; a period whose history and achievements we are only beginning to +understand. At the beginning of that long epoch of settled life the art +of working gold was developed and perfected; and we have abundance of +beautiful gold-work from remote times, of such fine design and execution +that there is nothing in the world to equal it. The modern work of +countries where gold is found in quantities is commonplace, vulgar and +inartistic, when compared with the work of the old Irish period. +Torques, or twisted ribbons of gold, of varying size and shape, were +worn as diadems, collars, or even belts; crescent bands of finely +embossed sheet-gold were worn above the forehead; brooches and pins of +most delicate and imaginative workmanship were used to catch together +the folds of richly colored cloaks, and rings and bracelets were of not +less various and exquisite forms. + +We are at no loss to understand the abundance of our old goldsmiths' +work when we know that even now, after being worked for centuries, the +Wicklow gold-mines have an average yearly yield of some five hundred +ounces, found, for the most part, in nuggets in the beds of streams +flowing into the two Avons. One mountain torrent bears the name of Gold +Mines River at the present day, showing the unbroken presence of the +yellow metal from the time of its first discovery, over three thousand +years ago. It seems probable that a liberal alloy of gold gave the +golden bronze its peculiar excellence and beauty; for so rich is the +lustre, so fine the color of many of our bronze axes and spears, that +they are hardly less splendid than weapons of pure gold. From the +perfect design and workmanship of these things of gold and bronze, more +than from any other source, we gain an insight into the high culture and +skill in the arts which marked that most distinctively Irish period, +lasting, as we have seen, more than two thousand years. + +Early in this same epoch we find traditions of the clearing of forests, +the sowing of cornfields, the skill of dyers in seven colors, earliest +of which were purple, blue and green. Wells were dug to insure an easily +accessible supply of pure water, so that we begin to think of a settled +population dwelling among fields of golden grain, pasturing their cattle +in rich meadows, and depending less on the deer and wild oxen of the +forest, the salmon of lake and river, and the abundant fish along +the shores. + +Tradition speaks persistently of bards, heralds, poets and poetesses; +of music and song; of cordial and generous social life; and to the +presence of these bards, like the skalds of the Northmen, we owe +pictures, even now full of life and color and movement, of those days +of long ago. + +At a period rather more than two thousand years ago, a warrior-queen, +Maca by name, founded a great fort and citadel at Emain, some two miles +west of Armagh, in the undulating country of green hills and meadows to +the south of Lough Neagh. The ramparts and earthworks of that ancient +fortress can still be traced, and we can follow and verify what the +ancient bards told of the greatness of the stronghold of Maca. The plans +of all forts of that time seem to have been much the same--a wide ring +of earthwork, with a deep moat, guarded them, and a stockade of oak +stakes rose above the earthwork, behind which the defenders stood, +firing volleys of arrows at the attacking host. Within this outer circle +of defence there was almost always a central stronghold, raised on a +great mound of earth; and this was the dwelling of the chief, provincial +ruler, or king. Lesser mounds upheld the houses of lesser chiefs, and +all alike seem to have been built of oak, with plank roofs. Safe +storehouses of stone were often sunk underground, beneath the chief's +dwelling. In the fort of Emain, as in the great fort of Tara in the +Boyne Valley, there was a banqueting-hall for the warriors, and the +bards thus describe one of these in the days of its glory: "The +banquet-hall had twelve divisions in each wing, with tables and passages +round them; there were sixteen attendants on each side, eight for the +star-watchers, the historians and the scribes, in the rear of the hall, +and two to each table at the door,--a hundred guests in all; two oxen, +two sheep and two hogs were divided equally on each side at each meal. +Beautiful was the appearance of the king in that assembly--flowing, +slightly curling golden hair upon him; a red buckler with stars and +beasts wrought of gold and fastenings of silver upon him; a crimson +cloak in wide descending folds upon him, fastened at his breast by a +golden brooch set with precious stones; a neck-torque of gold around his +neck; a white shirt with a full collar, and intertwined with threads of +gold, upon him; a girdle of gold inlaid with precious stones around him; +two wonderful shoes of gold with runings of gold upon him; two spears +with golden sockets in his hand." + +We are the more disposed to trust the fidelity of the picture, since +the foundations of the Tara banquet-hall are to be clearly traced to +this day--an oblong earthwork over seven hundred feet long by ninety +wide, with the twelve doors still distinctly marked; as for the brooches +and torques of gold, some we have surpass in magnificence anything here +described, and their artistic beauty is eloquent of the refinement of +spirit that conceived and the skill that fashioned them. Spear-heads, +too, are of beautiful bronze-gold, with tracings round the socket of +great excellence and charm. + +[Illustration: Powerscourt Waterfall, Co. Wicklow] + +For a picture of the life of that age, we cannot do better than return +to Emain of Maca, telling the story of one famous generation of warriors +and fair women who loved and fought there two thousand years ago. The +ideal of beauty was still the golden hair and blue eyes of the De +Danaans, and we cannot doubt that their race persisted side by side with +the Sons of Milid, retaining a certain predominance in the north and +northeast of the island, the first landing-place of the De Danaan +invaders. Of this mingled race was the great Rudraige, from whom the +most famous rulers of Emain descended. Ros was the son of Rudraige, and +from Roeg and Cass, the sons of Ros, came the princes Fergus and +Factna. Factna, son of Cass, wedded the beautiful Nessa, and from their +union sprang Concobar, the great hero and ruler of Ulster--in those days +named Ulad, and the dwellers there the Ulaid. Factna died while Concobar +was yet a boy; and Nessa, left desolate, was yet so beautiful in her +sadness that Fergus became her slave, and sued for her favor, though +himself a king whose favors others sued. Nessa's heart was wholly with +her son, her life wrapt up in his. She answered, therefore, that she +would renounce her mourning and give her widowed hand to Fergus the +king, if the king, on his part, would promise that Nessa's son Concobar +should succeed him, rather than the children of Fergus. Full of longing, +and held in thrall by her beauty, Fergus promised; and this promise was +the beginning of many calamities, for Nessa, the queen, feeling her sway +over Fergus, and full of ambition for her child, won a promise from +Fergus that the youth should sit beside him on the throne, hearing all +pleadings and disputes, and learning the art of ruling. But the spirit +of Concobar was subtle and strong and masterful, and he quickly took the +greater place in the councils of the Ulaid, until Nessa, still confident +in her charm, took a promise from Fergus that Concobar should reign +for one year. + +Fergus, great-hearted warrior, but tender and gentle and fond of feasts +and merrymaking, was very willing to lift the cares of rule from his +shoulders to the younger shoulders of Nessa's son, and the one year thus +granted became many years, so that Fergus never again mounted his +throne. Yet for the love he bore to Nessa, Fergus willingly admitted his +stepson's rule, and remained faithfully upholding him, ever merry at the +banquets, and leading the martial sports and exercises of the youths, +the sons of chieftains, at the court. Thus Concobar, son of Nessa, came +to be ruler over the great fort of Emain, with its citadel, its +earthworks and outer forts, its strong stockade and moat; ruler of +these, and of the chiefs of the Ulaid, and chief commander of all the +fighting-men that followed them. To him came the tribute of cattle and +horses, of scarlet cloaks and dyed fabrics, purple and blue and green, +and the beryls and emeralds from the mountains of Mourne where the sea +thunders in the caves, near the great fort of Rudraige. Fergus was lord +only of the banqueting-hall and of the merrymakings of the young chiefs; +but in all else the will of Concobar was supreme and his word was law. + +It happened that before this a child had been born, a girl +golden-haired and with blue eyes, of whom the Druids had foretold many +dark and terrible things. That the evil might not be wrought through +this child of sad destiny, the king had from her earliest childhood kept +her securely hidden in a lonely fort, and there Deirdre grew in +solitude, daily increasing in beauty and winsomeness. She so won the +love of those set in guard over her that they relaxed something of the +strictness of their watch, letting her wander a little in the meadows +and the verges of the woods, gathering flowers, and watching the life of +birds and wild things there. + +Among the chieftains of the court of Emain was one Usnac, of whom were +three sons, with Naisi strongest and handsomest of the three. Naisi was +dark, with black locks hanging upon his shoulders and dark, gleaming +eyes; and so strongly is unlike drawn to unlike that golden-haired +Deirdre, seeing him in one of her wanderings, felt her heart go forth to +him utterly. Falling into talk with him, they exchanged promises of +enduring love. Thus the heart of Naisi went to Deirdre, as hers had gone +to him, so that all things were changed for them, growing radiant with +tremulous hope and wistful with longing. Yet the fate that lay upon +Deirdre was heavy, and all men dreaded it but Naisi; so that even his +brothers, the sons of Usnac, feared greatly and would have dissuaded him +from giving his life to the ill-fated one. But Naisi would not be +dissuaded; so they met secretly many times, in the twilight at the verge +of the wood, Deirdre's golden hair catching the last gleam of sunlight +and holding it long into the darkness, while the black locks of Naisi, +even ere sunset, foreshadowed the coming night. In their hearts it was +not otherwise; for Deirdre, full of wonder at the change that had come +over her, at the song of the birds that echoed ever around her even in +her dreams, at the radiance of the flowers and trees, the sunshine on +the waters of the river, the vivid gladness over all,--Deirdre knew +nothing of the dread doom that was upon her, and was all joy and +wonderment at the meetings with her lover, full of fancies and tender +words and shy caresses; but Naisi, who knew well the fate that +overshadowed them like a black cloud above a cliff of the sea, strove to +be glad and show a bold face to his mistress, though his heart many a +time grew cold within him, thinking on what had befallen and what +might befall. + +For the old foretelling of the star-watchers was not the only doom laid +upon Deirdre. Concobar the king, stern and masterful, crafty and secret +in counsel though swift as an eagle to slay,--Concobar the king had +watched Deirdre in her captivity, ever unseen of her, and his heart had +been moved by the fair softness of her skin, the glow of her cheek, the +brightness of her eyes and hair; so that the king had steadfastly +determined in his mind that Deirdre should be his, in scorn of all +prophecies and warnings; that her beauty should be for him alone. This +the king had determined; and it was known to Naisi the son of Usnac. It +was known to him also that what Concobar the king determined, he +steadfastly carried out; for the will of Concobar was strong and +masterful over all around him. + +Therefore at their meetings two clouds lay upon the heart of Naisi: the +presentment of the king's power and anger, and his relentless hand +pursuing through the night, and the darker dread of the sightless doom +pronounced of old at the birth of Deirdre, of which the will of Concobar +was but the tool. There was gloom in his eyes and silence on his lips +and a secret dread in his heart. Deirdre wondered at it, her own heart +being so full of gladness, her eyes sparkling, and endearing words ever +ready on her lips. Deirdre wondered, yet found a new delight and +wonderment in the silence of Naisi, and the gloomy lightning in his +eyes, as being the more contrasted with herself, and therefore the more +to be beloved. + +Yet the time came when Naisi determined to tell her all and risk the +worst that fate could do against them, finding death with her greatly +better than life without her. Yet death with her was not to be granted +to him. Deirdre heard, wondering and trembling, and Naisi must tell her +the tale many times before she understood,--so utter had been her +solitude and so perfect was yet her ignorance of all things beyond the +fort where she was captive, and of all the doings of men. Concobar was +not even a name to her, and she knew nothing of his power or the +stronghold of Emain, the armies of the Ulaid, or the tributes of gold +and cattle and horses. Spears and swords and those who wielded them were +not even dreams to her until the coming of Naisi, when his gloom blended +with her sunshine. + +Talking long through the twilight, until the red gold of the west was +dulled to bronze over the hills, and the bronze tarnished and darkened +with the coming of the eastern stars, they planned together what they +should do; and, the heart of Deirdre at last growing resolute, they made +their way through the night to where the brothers of Naisi were, and all +fled together towards the northern sea. Amongst the fishermen of the +north they found those who were willing to carry them beyond the reach +of Concobar's anger, and with a southerly breeze set sail for the +distant headlands of Scotland, that they had seen from the cliff-top +lying like blue clouds along the horizon. They set forth early in the +morning, as the sun came up out of the east over blue Alban capes, and +when the sun went down it reddened the dark rocks of Islay; so that, +making for the shore, they camped that night under the Islay Hills. On +their setting forth again, the sea was like a wild grey lake between +Jura on the left and the long headland of Cantyre on their right; and +thus they sped forward between long ranks of gloomy hills, growing ever +nearer them on both sides, till they passed through the Sound of Jura +and rounded into Loch Etive. + +There they made the land, drawing up under the shadow of dark hills, and +there they dwelt for many a day. Very familiar to Deirdre, though at +first strange and wild and terrible beyond words, grew that vast +amphitheatre of hills in their eternal grayness, with the long Loch +stretching down like a horn through their midst. Very familiar to +inland-bred Deirdre, though at first strange and fearful, grew the gray +surges of the incoming tides, the white foam of the waves seething along +boulders of granite, and the long arms of seaweed waving as she peered +downward into the clear green water. Very familiar to Deirdre, though at +first strange and confusing, grew the arms of Naisi around her in the +darkness and his warm lips on her cheek. Happy were those wild days in +the great glen of Etive, and dear did the sons of Usnac grow to her +heart, loved as brothers by her who never knew a brother, or the +gentleness of a mother's watching, or the solace of dear kindred. + +The sons of Usnac sped forth before dawn among the hills from their +green dwelling roofed with pine branches and reeds and moss; early they +went forth to track the deer, pursuing them with their arrows, till the +red flank of the buck was laced with brighter red. One of the three ever +stayed behind with Deirdre, whether it was Naisi himself, or Alny, or +Ardan, and the two thus remaining were like children playing together, +whether gathering sticks and dry rushes and long spears of withered +grass for their fire, or wandering by the white curling waves, or +sending flat pebbles skipping over the wavelets; and the sound of their +laughter many a time echoed along the Loch's green waters and up the +hills, till the does peered and wondered from among the heather, and the +heron, startled at his fishing, flew upwards croaking, with flapping +wings. Happy were those days for Deirdre, and with utter sadness she +looked back to them afterwards, when the doom foretold had fallen upon +her. Happy sped the days, till once in the gray of the dawn, while +Deirdre was resting in their green refuge with Naisi, she cried out in +her sleep and waked, telling him, weeping, that she had heard the voice +of the bird of doom in her dreams. + +The voice she heard was indeed the voice of their doom; yet it was a +cheerful voice, full of friendly gladness; the voice of Fergus, son of +Roeg, former King of Emain, and now come to Loch Etive as messenger of +Concobar, Fergus came up from the sea-beach towards the answering shout +of the sons of Usnac, and glad greetings passed among them at the door +of their refuge. Fergus looked long in admiration at the blue eyes and +golden locks, the clear skin and gentle breast of Deirdre, nor +wondered, as he looked, that Naisi had dared fate to possess her. Then +Fergus told the story of his coming; how they had discovered the flight +of the sons of Usnac from Emain, and how terrible was the black anger of +Concobar; what passionate fire had gleamed in his eyes as he tossed the +golden locks back from his shoulders and grasped the haft of his spear, +and pledged himself to be avenged on Naisi and all his kin, swearing +that he would have Deirdre back again. + +Thus Fergus told the tale, laughingly, as at a danger that was past, a +storm-cloud that had lost its arrows of white hail and was no longer +fearful. For, he said, Concobar had forgotten his anger, had promised a +truce to the sons of Usnac, and most of all to Naisi, and had bidden +them return as his guests to Emain of Maca, where Deirdre should dwell +happy with her beloved. The comrades of Fergus by this time had tied +their boat and come up from the shore, and the sons of Usnac were ready +to depart. Yet Deirdre's heart misgave her as she thought of the days +among those purple hills and granite rocks, by the long green water of +the Loch, and her clear-seeing soul spoke words of doom for them all: +words soon to be fulfilled. Amongst the comrades of Fergus were certain +of the adherents of Concobar, treacherous as he; for he had no thought +of pardoning the sons of Usnac, nor any intent but to draw Deirdre back +within his reach; the image of her bright eyes and the redness of her +lips, and her soft breast and shining hair was ever before him, and his +heart gnawed within him for longing and the bitterness of desire. + +Therefore he had designed this embassy; and Fergus, believing all things +and trusting all things, had gladly undertaken to be the messenger of +forgiveness; fated, instead, to be the instrument of betrayal. So they +turned their faces homewards towards Emain, Deirdre full of desponding, +as one whose day of grace is past. They set sail again through the long +Sound of Jura, with the islands now on their right hand and the gray +hills of Cantyre on their left. So they passed Jura, and later Islay, +and came at last under the cliffs of Rathlin and the white Antrim +headlands. Deirdre's heart never lightened, nor did laughter play about +her lips or in her eyes through all the time of her journey, but sadness +lay ever upon her, like the heavy darkness of a winter's night, when a +storm is gathering out of the West. But Fergus made merry, rejoicing at +the reconciling; bidden to a treacherous banquet by the partisans of +Concobar, his heart never misgave him, but giving the charge of Deirdre +and the sons of Usnac to his sons, he went to the banquet, delaying long +in carousing and singing, while Deirdre and the three brothers were +carried southwards to Emain. There the treachery plotted against them +was carried out, as they sat in the banquet-hall; for Concobar's men +brought against them the power of cowardly flames, setting fire to the +hall, and slaying the sons of Usnac as they hurried forth from under the +burning roof. + +One of the sons of Fergus shamefully betrayed them, bought by the gold +and promises of Concobar, but the other bravely fell, fighting back to +back with one of the sons of Usnac, when they fell overpowered by the +warriors of Concobar. Thus was the doom of Deirdre consummated, her +lover treacherously done to death, and she herself condemned to bear the +hated caress of Concobar, thinking ever of those other lips, in the days +of her joy among the northern hills. This is the lament of Deirdre for +Usnac's sons: + + The lions of the hill are gone, + And I am left alone, alone; + Dig the grave both wide and deep, + For I am sick and fain would sleep! + + The falcons of the wood are flown, + And I am left alone, alone; + Dig the grave both deep and wide, + And let us slumber side by side. + + Lay their spears and bucklers bright + By the warriors' sides aright; + Many a day the three before me + On their linked bucklers bore me. + + Dig the grave both wide and deep, + Sick I am and fain would sleep. + Dig the grave both deep and wide, + And let us slumber side by side. + + + +VI. + +CUCULAIN THE HERO. + +B.C. 50--A.D. 50. + +The treacherous death of Naisi and his brothers Ardan and Alny, and her +own bereavement and misery, were not the end of the doom pronounced at +her birth for Deirdre, but rather the beginning. Yet the burden of the +evils that followed fell on Concobar and his lands and his warriors. + +For Fergus, son of Roeg, former king over Emain, who had stayed behind +his charges feasting and banqueting, came presently to Emain, fearing +nothing and thinking no evil, but still warm with the reconciliation +that he had accomplished; and, coming to Emain of Maca, found the sons +of Usnac dead, with the sods still soft on their graves, and his own son +also dead, Deirdre in the hands of Concobar, and the plighted word of +Fergus and his generous pledge of safety most traitorously and basely +broken; broken by Concobar, whom he himself had guarded and set upon +the throne. + +Fergus changed from gladness to fierce wrath, and his countenance was +altered with anger, as he uttered his bitter indignation against +Concobar to the warriors and heroes of Emain and the men of Ulad. The +warriors were parted in two by his words, swaying to the right and to +the left, as tall wheat sways before one who passes through it. For some +of them sided with Fergus, saying that he had done great wrong to put +Concobar on the throne, and that even now he should cast him down again, +for the baseness and treachery of his deed; but others took Concobar's +part, saying that the first betraying was Naisi's, who stole away +Deirdre,--the hostage, as it were, of evil doom, so that he drew the +doom upon himself. They further said that Concobar was chief and ruler +among them, the strong and masterful leader, able to uphold their cause +amongst men. So indeed it befell, for the sedition of Fergus and his +fight to avenge his wrong upon Concobar failed, so that he fled defeated +to Meave, Queen of Connacht, at her stronghold amid the lakes whence +issues forth the Shannon. + +[Illustration: Honeycomb, Giant's Causeway.] + +Meave, whose power and genius overtopped her lord Ailill, received the +exiled king gladly, and put many honors upon him, holding him as the +pillar of her army, with the two thousand men of the Ulaid who came +with him;--those who had fought for him against the party of Concobar. +At Cruacan, on the hillside, with the lakes of the Great River all +around them, with the sun setting red behind the Curlew hills, with +green meadows and beech-woods to gladden them, Meave and Ailill kept +their court, and thence they sent many forays against Emain of Maca and +Concobar, with Fergus the fallen king ever raging in the van, and, for +the wrong that was done him, working measureless wrong on his own +kingdom and the kingdom of his fathers. + +After many a foray had gone forth against Ulad, crossing the level +plains, it befell that Meave and Ailill her lord disputed between them +as to which had the greatest wealth; nor would either yield until their +most precious possessions had been brought and matched the one against +the other. Their jewels of gold, wonderfully wrought, and set with +emeralds and beryls and red carbuncles, were brought forth, their +crescents for the brow, with hammered tracery upon them, their necklets +and torques, like twisted ribbons of gold, their bracelets and arm-rings +set with gold, their gems of silver and all their adornments, cloaks of +scarlet and blue and purple, were all brought, and no advantage in the +one was found over the other. Their battle-steeds also were brought, +their horses for chariots; and likewise their herds of lowing wealth, +their sheep with soft fleeces. When the cattle were driven up before +them, it was found that among the herds of Ailill was one bull, +matchless, with white horns shining and polished; and equal to this bull +was none among the herds of the queen. She would not admit her lord's +advantage, but sent forthwith to seek where another bull like the bull +of Ailill might be found, and tidings were brought to her of the brown +bull of Cuailgne,--of Cuailgne named after a chief of the Sons of Milid, +fallen ages ago in the pursuit of the De Danaans, when the De Danaans +retreated before the Sons of Milid from the southern headland of Slieve +Mish to the ford at green Tailten by the Boyne, and thence further +northwards to where Cuailgne of the Sons of Milid was killed. At that +same place had grown up a dwelling with a fortress, and there was the +brown bull that Meave heard the report of. She sent, therefore, and her +embassy bore orders to Daire, the owner of the bull, asking that the +bull might be sent to her for a year, and offering fifty heifers in +payment. Daire received her messengers well, and willingly consented to +her request; but the messengers of Meave from feasting fell to +drinking, from drinking to boasting; one of them declaring that it was a +small thing that Daire had granted the request, since they themselves +would have compelled him, even unwillingly, and would have driven off +the brown bull by force. The taunt stung Daire, after his hospitality, +and in wrath he sent them forth empty-handed, and so they came +slighted to Meave. + +The queen, conceiving her honor impeached, would by no means suffer the +matter so to rest, but stirred up wrath and dissension, till the armies +of Connacht with their allies set forth to sack and burn in Ulad, and at +all hazards to bring the brown bull. Fergus and the men who fought by +his side went with them, and marching thus eastwards they came, after +three days march through fair lands and fertile, to the river Dee--the +frontier of Ulad, and the scene of many well-fought fights. + +The army of Ulad was not yet ready to meet them, but one champion with +his band confronted them at the ford. That champion was Cuculain, whose +true name was Setanta, son of Sualtam, chief at Dundelga, and of Dectira +the sister of Concobar. Cuculain was accounted the greatest and most +skillful warrior of his time, and bards for ages after told how he kept +the ford. For by the laws of honor, amongst them, the host from Connacht +could not pass the ford so long as Cuculain held the ford and offered +single combat to the champions. They must take up his challenge one by +one; and while he stood there challenging, the host could not pass. + +Many of their champions fell there by the ford, so that queen Meave's +heart chafed within her, and her army was hot to do battle, but still +Cuculain kept the ford. Last of the western champions came forth +Ferdiad, taught in the famous northern school of arms, a dear friend and +companion of Cuculain, who now must meet him to slay or be slain. This +is the story of their combat, as the traditions tell it: + +When they ceased fighting on the first day, they cast their weapons away +from them into the hands of their charioteers. Each of them approached +the other forthwith, and each put his hand round the other's neck, and +gave him three kisses. Their horses were in the same paddock that night, +and their charioteers at the same fire; and their charioteers spread +beds of green rushes for them, with wounded men's pillows to them. The +men of healing came to heal and solace them, applying herbs that should +assuage to every cut or gash upon their bodies, and to all their +wounds. Of every healing herb that was laid on the hurts of Cuculain, he +sent an equal share to Ferdiad, sending it westward over the ford, so +that men might not say that through the healing virtue of the herbs he +was able to overcome him. And of all food and invigorating drink that +was set before Ferdiad, he sent an equal portion northwards over the +ford to Cuculain, for those that prepared food for him were more than +those who made ready food for Cuculain. Thus that night they rested. + +They fought with spears on the next day, and so great was the strength +of each, so dire their skill in combat, that both were grievously +wounded, for all the protection of their shields. The men of healing art +could do little for them beyond the staunching of their blood, that it +might not flow from their wounds, laying herbs upon their red wounds. + +On the third day they arose early in the morning and came forward to the +place of combat. Cuculain saw that the face of Ferdiad was dark as a +black cloud, and thus addressed him: "Thy face is darkened, Ferdiad, and +thine eye has lost its fire, nor are the form and features thine!" And +Ferdiad answered, "O, Cuculain, it is not from fear or dread that my +face is changed, for I am ready to meet all champions in the fight." +Cuculain reproached him, wondering that, for the persuasions of Meave, +Ferdiad was willing thus to fight against his friend, coming to spoil +his land. But Ferdiad replied that fate compelled him, since every man +is constrained to come unto the sod where shall be his last +resting-place. That day the heroes fought with swords, but such was the +skill of both that neither could break down the other's guard. + +In the dusk they cast away their weapons, ceasing from the fight; and +though the meeting of the two had been full of vigor and friendship in +the morning, yet was their parting at night mournful and full of sorrow. +That night their horses were not in the same enclosure, nor did their +charioteers rest at the same fire. + +Then Ferdiad arose early in the morning and went forth to the place of +contest, knowing well that that day would decide whether he should fall +or Cuculain; knowing that the sun would set on one of them dead that +night. Cuculain, seeing him come forth, spoke thus to his charioteer: "I +see the might and skill of Ferdiad, coming forth to the combat. If it be +I that shall begin to yield to-day, do thou stir my valor, uttering +reproaches and words of condemnation against me, so that my wrath shall +grow upon me, enkindling me again for the battle." And the charioteer +assented and promised. + +Great was the deed that was performed that day at the ford by the two +heroes, the two warriors, the two champions of western lands, the two +gift-bestowing hands of the northwest of the world, the two beloved +pillars of the valor of the Gael, the two keys of the bravery of the +Gael, brought to fight from afar through the schemes of Meave the queen. + +They began to shoot with their missiles from the dawn of the day, from +early morning till noon. And when midday came the ire of the men waxed +more furious, and they drew nearer together. Then Cuculain sprang from +the river-bank against the boss of the shield of Ferdiad, son of Daman, +to strike at his head over the rim of the shield from above. But Ferdiad +gave the shield so strong a turn with his left arm that he cast Cuculain +from him like a bird. Cuculain sprang again upon him, to strike him from +above. But the son of Daman so struck the shield with his left knee that +he cast Cuculain from him like a child. + +Then the charioteer of Cuculain spoke to chide him: "Woe for thee, whom +the warrior thus casts aside as an evil mother casts away her offspring. +He throws thee as foam is thrown by the river. He grinds thee as a mill +would grind fresh grain. He pierces thee as the ax of the woodman +cleaves the oak. He binds thee as the woodbine binds the tree. He darts +on thee as the hawk darts on finches, so that henceforth thou hast no +claim or name or fame for valor, until thy life's end, thou +phantom sprite!" + +Then Cuculain sprang up fleet as the wind and swift as the swallow, +fierce as a dragon, strong as a lion, advancing against Ferdiad through +clouds of dust, and forcing himself upon his shield, to strike at him +from above. Yet even then Ferdiad shook him off, driving him backwards +into the ford. + +Then Cuculain's countenance was changed, and his heart swelled and grew +great within him till he towered demoniac and gigantic, rising like one +of the Fomor upon Ferdiad. So fierce was the fight they now fought that +their heads met above and their feet below and their arms in the midst, +past the rims of the shields. So fierce was the fight they fought that +they cleft the shields to their centers. So fierce was the fight they +fought that their spears were shivered from socket to haft. So fierce +was the fight they fought that the demons of the air screamed along the +rims of the shields, and from the hilts of their swords and from the +hafts of their spears. So fierce was the fight they fought that they +cast the river out of its bed, so that not a drop of water lay there +unless from the fierceness of the champion heroes hewing each other in +the midst of the ford. So fierce was the fight they fought that the +horses of the Gael fled away in fright, breaking their chains and their +yokes, and the women and youths and camp-followers broke from the camp, +flying forth southwards and westwards. + +They were fighting with the edges of their swords, and Ferdiad, finding +a break in the guard of Cuculain, gave him a stroke of the +straight-edged sword, burying it in his body until the blood fell into +his girdle, until the ford was red with the blood of the hero's body. +Then Cuculain thrust an unerring spear over the rim of the shield, and +through the breast of Ferdiad's armor, so that the point of the spear +pierced his heart and showed through his body. + +"That is enough, now," said Ferdiad: "I fall for that!" Then Cuculain +ran towards him, and clasped his two arms about him, and bore him with +his arms and armor across the ford northwards. Cuculain laid Ferdiad +down there, bowing over his body in faintness and weakness. But the +charioteer cried to him, "Rise up, Cuculain, for the host is coming upon +us, and it is not single combat they will give thee, since Ferdiad, son +of Daman, son of Daire, has fallen before thee!" + +"Friend," Cuculain made answer, "what avails it for me to rise after him +that has fallen by me?" + +Thus did Cuculain keep the ford, still known as the ford of Ferdiad, +Ath-Fhirdia on the Dee, in the midst of the green plain of Louth. And +while he fought at the ford of Ferdiad the army of Ulad assembled, and +coming southwards over the hills before Emain, turned back the host of +Meave the queen and pursued them. The army of Meave fled westwards and +southwards towards Connacht, passing the Yellow Ford of Athboy and the +Hill of Ward, the place of sacrifice, where the fires on the Day of +Spirits summoned the priests and Druids to the offering. Fleeing still +westwards from the Yellow Ford, they passed between the lakes of Owel +and Ennel, with the men of Ulad still hot in their rear. Thus came +pursued and pursuers to Gairec, close by Athlone--the Ford of Luan--and +the wooded shore of the great Lough Ree. There was fought a battle +hardly less fatal to victors than to vanquished, for though the hosts of +Meave were routed, yet Concobar's men could not continue the pursuit. +Thus Meave escaped and Fergus with her, and came to their great fort on +the green hillside of Cruacan amid the headwaters of the Shannon. + +The victory of Concobar's men was like a defeat. There was not food that +pleased him, nor did sleep come to him by flight, so that the Ulad +wondered, and Catbad the right-wonderful Druid, himself a warrior who +had taught Concobar and reared him, went to Concobar to learn the secret +of his trouble. Therefore Catbad asked of Concobar what wound had +wounded him, what obstinate sickness had come upon him, making him faint +and pale, day after day. + +"Great reason have I for it," answered Concobar, "for the four great +provinces of Erin have come against me, bringing with them their bards +and singers, that their ravages and devastations might be recorded, and +they have burned our fortresses and dwellings, and Ailill and Meave have +gained a battle against me. Therefore I would be avenged upon Meave +the queen." + +"Thou hast already avenged it sternly, O Red-handed Concobar," Catbad +made answer, "by winning the battle over the four provinces of Erin." + +"That is no battle," Concobar answered, "where a strong king falls not +by hard fighting and by fury. That an army should escape from a goodly +battle! Unless Ailill should fall, and Meave, by me in this encounter +with valorous hosts, I tell you that my heart will break, O Catbad!" + +"This is my counsel for thee," replied Catbad, "to stay for the present. +For the winds are rough, and the roads are foul, and the streams and the +rivers are in flood, and the hands of the warriors are busy making forts +and strongholds among strangers. So wait till the summer days come upon +us, till every grassy sod is a pillow, till our horses are full of +spirit and our colts are strong, till our men are whole of their wounds +and hurts, till the nights are short to watch and to ward and to guard +in the land of enemies and in the territories of strangers. Spring is +not the time for an invasion. But meanwhile let tidings be sent to thy +friends in absence, in the islands and throughout the northern seas." + +Therefore messengers were sent with the tidings, and the friends in +absence of Concobar were summoned. They set forth with ships from the +islands of the northern seas, and came forward with the tide to the +Cantyre headland. The green surges of the tremendous sea rose about +them, and a mighty storm rose against them. Such was the strength of the +storm that the fleet was parted in three. A third of them, with the son +of Amargin, came under the cliffs of Fair Head, to the Bay of Murbolg, +where huge columns tower upward on the face of the cliff, high as the +nests of the eagles; cliffs ruddy and mighty, frowning tremendous across +the channel to Cantyre and Islay and far-away Jura. A third of the ships +came to the safer harbor of Larne, where bands of white seam the cliff's +redness, where the great headland is thrust forth northwards, sheltering +the bay from the eastern waves. A third of the fleet came to the strand +beside Dundelga, hard by the great hill of earth where was reared the +stronghold of Cuculain. + +At that same time came Concobar with a thousand men to the fort of +Cuculain, and feasting was prepared for him at the House of Delga. Nor +was Concobar long there till he saw the bent spars of sails and the +full-crewed ships, and the scarlet pavilions, and the many-colored +banners, and the blue bright lances, and the weapons of war. Then +Concobar called on the chiefs that were about him, for the territory +and land he had bestowed upon them, and for the jewels he had given +them, to stand firm and faithful. For he knew not whether the ships were +ships of his foes, of the Galian of Lagin, now called Leinster, or the +Munstermen of great Muma, or the men of Olnemact, called afterwards +Connacht; for the estuary of the river and the strand were full of men. + +Then Senca son of Ailill answered for the chieftains: "I give my word, +indeed, that Erin holds not a soldier who lays his hand in the hand of a +chieftain that is not known to me. If they be the men of Erin thy foes +that are there, I shall ask a truce of battle from them; but if they be +thy friends and allies, thou shalt the more rejoice." + +Then Senca son of Ailill went forward to the place where the ships were, +and learned that they were the friends in absence of Concobar, come to +be his allies against the four provinces of Erin. Then Concobar spoke +to Cuculain: + +"Well, O Cuculain, let the horses of the plain of Murtemni be caught by +thee; let four-wheeled chariots be harnessed for them; bring with them +hither my friends from the ships in chariots and four-wheeled cars, +that feasting and enjoyment may be prepared for them." + +[Illustration: Gray Man's Path, Fair Head.] + +They were brought in chariots to the feast, and carvers carved for them, +and serving-men carried the cups of mead. Songs were sung to them, and +they tarried there till sunrise on the morrow. Then Concobar spoke again +to Cuculain: + +"It is well, Cuculain. Let messengers now be sent through the lands of +the Ulaid to the warriors of the Ulaid, that the foreign friends may be +ministered to by them also, while I make my camp here by the river. And +bid the thrice fifty veteran champions come hither to me, that I may +have their aid and counsel in battle." + +But Cuculain would not. Therefore Concobar went himself to summon the +veterans. When they asked the cause of his coming, Concobar answered, +"Have you not heard how the four provinces of Erin came against us, +bringing with them their bards and singers, that their ravages and +devastations might the better be recorded, and burning and plundering +our fortresses and dwellings? Therefore I would make an expedition of +hostility against them, and with your guidance and counsel would I make +the expedition." + +"Let our old steeds be caught by thee," they answered, "and let our old +chariots be yoked by thee, so that we may go on this journey and +expedition with thee." Then their old chargers were caught, and their +old chariots yoked, so that they too came to the camp at the Water +of Luachan. + +This was told to the four provinces. The Three Waves of Erin thundered +in the night; the Wave of Clidna at Glandore in the South; the Wave of +Rudraige along the bent-carpeted sandhills of Dundrum, under the +Mountains of Mourne; and the Wave of Tuag Inbir, at the bar of northern +Bann. For these are the Three Waves of Fate in Erin. Then the four +provinces hosted their men. The son of Lucta, the north Munster king, +assembled his tribes at the Hill of Luchra, between the Shannon mouth +and the Summit of Prospects. Ailill and Meave hosted the men of the west +at Cruacan. Find, son of Ros, king over the Galian of Leinster, gathered +his army at Dinn-Rig by the Barrow. Cairpre Nia Fer assembled his host +about him at Tara, in the valley of the Boyne. + +This was the proposal of Eocu, son of Lucta, king of north Munster by +the Shannon: That everything should have its payment, and that +reparation should be made to Concobar for the invasion; that a fort +should be paid for every fort, for every house a house, for every cow a +cow, for every bull a bull; that the great brown bull should be sent +back, that the breadth of the face of the bull in red gold should be +given to Concobar, and that there should be no more hostility among the +men of Erin. + +This was reported to Meave, but the queen answered, "A false hand was +his who gave this counsel. For so long as there shall be among us one +who can hold a sword, who can wear the shield-strap about his neck, that +proposal shall not go to him." + +"Thy counsel is not mine," replied Ailill, "for not greater shall be our +part of that payment than the part of all the four provinces who went on +that raid for the bull." Therefore Meave consented, and messengers were +sent, and came to Tara by the Boyne, where were Find, son of Ros, king +of Leinster, and his brother Cairpre Nia Fer, king of Tara. Thence they +sent messengers to treat with Concobar, but Concobar rejected the terms. +"I give my word, indeed," answered Concobar, "that I will not take terms +from you till my tent has been pitched in every province of Erin." + +"Good, O Concobar," they replied; "where wilt thou now make thy +encampment to-night?" + +"In the Headland of the Kings, by the clear bright Boyne," answered +Concobar, for Concobar concealed not ever from his enemy the place in +which he would take station or camp, that they might not say that it was +fear or dread that caused him not to say it. Concobar, therefore, +marched toward the Headland of the Kings, across the Boyne to the +southward, and facing the northern bank where are the pyramids of the +Dagda Mor and the De Danaans. But the southern armies were there +already, so Concobar halted before the river. Then were their positions +fixed and their pavilions pitched, their huts and their tents were made. +Their fires were kindled, cooking and food and drink were prepared; +baths of clean bathing were made by them, and their hair was +smooth-combed; their bodies were minutely cleansed, supper and food were +eaten by them; and tunes and merry songs and eulogies were sung by them. + +Then Concobar sent men to reconnoitre the southern and western armies. +Two went and returned not, falling indeed into the hands of the foe. It +seemed long to Concobar that the two were gone. He spoke, therefore, to +his kinsman: "Good indeed, Irgalac, son of Macclac, son of Congal, son +of Rudraige, sayest thou who is proper to go to estimate and to +reconnoitre the army?" + +"Who should go there," answered Irgalac, "but Iriel good at arms, +great-kneed son of Conall Cernac. He is a Conall for havoc, a Cuculain +for dexterity of feats. He is a Catbad, a right-wonderful Druid, for +intelligence and counsel, he is a Senca son of Ailill for peace and for +good speech, he is a Celtcair son of Utecar for valor, he is a Concobar +son of Factna Fatac for kingliness and wide-eyed-ness, for giving of +treasures and of wealth and of riches. Who but Iriel should go?" + +Therefore Iriel went forward: standing on the pyramid of the Dagda, he +began measuring and reconnoitering the army. His spirit, or his mind, or +his thoughts did not fret over them at all. He brought their description +with him to the place in which Concobar was. + +"How, my life, Iriel?" said Concobar. "I give my word truly," said +Iriel; "it seems to me that there is not ford on river, or stone on +hill, nor highway nor road in the territory of Breg or Mide, that is not +full of their horse-teams and of their servants. It seems to me that +their apparel and their gear and their garments are the blaze of a royal +house from the plain." + +"Good, O Ulaid," said Concobar, "what is your advice to us for the +battle?" "Our advice is," said the Ulaid, "to wait till our strong men +and our leaders and our commanders and our supporters of battle come." +Not long was their waiting, and not great was their stay, till they saw +three chariot-warriors approaching them, and a band of twelve hundred +along with each rider of them. It is these that were there--three of the +goodly men of science of the Ulaid, to wit, Catbad the right-wonderful +Druid, and Aiterni the Importunate, and Amargin the man of science and +art. After them came other valiant leaders with troops. Then Concobar +arose and took his gear of battle and of conflict and of combat about +him, saying, "Why should we not give battle?" + +A third of the army of the Ulaid rose with him, too. And they went over +the river Boyne. And the other armies arose against them as they were +crossing the river. And each of them took to hacking and to cutting down +the other, destroying and wounding till there was no similitude of the +Ulaid at that point of time, unless it were a huge sturdy oakwood in +the middle of the plain, and a great army were to go close to it, and +the slender and the small of the wood were cut off, but its huge sturdy +oaks were left behind. Thus their young were cut off, and none but their +champions and their battle-warriors and their good heroes of valor +were left. + +The shield of Concobar was struck so that it moaned, and the three Waves +of Erin, the Wave of Clidna, the Wave of Rudraige, and the Wave of Tuag +Inbir echoed that moan, and all the shields of the Ulaid resounded, +every one of them that was on their shoulders and in their chariots. As +the Ulaid were retreating, fresh troops came up for them under Conall +Cernac. A tree of shelter and a wreath of laurel and a hand above them +was Conall to them. So their flight was stayed. Then Conall drew the +sharp long sword out of its sheath of war and played the music of his +sword on the armies. The ring of Conall's sword was heard through the +battalions on both sides. And when they heard the music of Conall's +sword their hearts quaked and their eyes fluttered and their faces +whitened, and each of them withdrew back into his place of battle and of +combat. But so fierce was the onset of the southern armies that the +fight of the Ulaid against them was as a breast against a great flood, +or an arrow against the rock, or the striking of a head against cliffs. +Yet through the great might of Cuculain the Ulaid prevailed, and Cairpre +the King of Tara was slain. After the battle, Concobar spoke thus: +"There were three sons of Ros Ruad the king--Find in Alend, Ailill in +Cruac, Cairpre in Tara; together they performed their deeds of valor, +the three brothers in every strife; together they used to give their +battle. They were three pillars of gold about their hills, abiding in +strength; great is their loss since the third son has fallen." + + + +VII. + +FIND AND OSSIN. + +A.D. 200--290. + +Seventeen centuries ago, two hundred summers after the death of Cuculain +the hero, came the great and wonderful time of Find the son of Cumal, +Ossin the son of Find, and Find's grandson Oscur. It was a period of +growth and efflorescence; the spirit and imaginative powers of the +people burst forth with the freshness of the prime. The life of the land +was more united, coming to a national consciousness. + +The five kingdoms were now clearly defined, with Meath, in the central +plain, predominant over the others, and in a certain sense ruling all +Ireland from the Hill of Tara. The code of honor was fixed; justice had +taken well-defined forms; social life had ripened to genial urbanity. +The warriors were gathered together into something like a regular army, +a power rivaling the kings. Of this army, Find, son of Cumal, was the +most renowned leader--a warrior and a poet, who embodied in himself the +very genius of the time, its fresh naturalness, its ripeness, its +imagination. No better symbol of the spirit of his age could be found +than Find's own "Ode to Spring": + +"May-day! delightful time! How beautiful the color! The blackbirds sing +their full lay. Would that Laigay were here! The cuckoos call in +constant strains. How welcome is ever the noble brightness of the +season. On the margin of the leafy pools the summer swallows skim the +stream. Swift horses seek the pools. The heath spreads out its long +hair. The white, gentle cotton-grass grows. The sea is lulled to rest. +Flowers cover the earth." + +Find's large and imaginative personality is well drawn in one of the +poems of his golden-tongued son Ossin, though much of the beauty of +Ossin's form is lost in the change of tongue: + + "Six thousand gallant men of war + We sought the rath o'er Badamar; + To the king's palace home we bent + Our way. His bidden guests we went. + 'Twas Clocar Fair, + And Find was there, + The Fians from the hills around + Had gathered to the race-course ground. + From valley deep and wooded glen + Fair Munster sent its mighty men; + And Fiaca, Owen's son, the king, + Was there the contest witnessing. + 'Twas gallant sport! With what delight + Leaped thousand pulses at the sight. + How all hearts bound + As to the ground + First are brought forth the Fian steeds, + Then those from Luimnea's sunny meads. + Three heats on Mac Mareda's green + They run; and foremost still is seen + Dill Mac Decreca's coal-black steed. + At Crag-Lochgur he takes the lead. + + "His is the day--and, lo! the king + The coal-black steed soliciting + From Dill the Druid!--'Take for it + A hundred beeves; for it is fit + The black horse should be mine to pay + Find for his deeds of many a day.' + + "Then spoke the Druid, answering + His grandson, Fiaca the king: + 'Take my blessing; take the steed, + For the hero's fitting meed: + Give it for thy honor's sake.' + And to Find the King thus spake + + "'Hero, take the swift black steed, + Of thy valor fitting meed; + And my car, in battle-raid + Gazed on by the foe with fear; + And a seemly steed for thy charioteer. + Chieftain, be this good sword thine, + Purchased with a hundred kine, + In thine hand be it our aid. + + Take this spear, whose point the breath + Of venomed words has armed with death, + And the silver-orbed shield, + Sunbeam of the battlefield! + And take with thee + My grayhounds three, + Slender and tall, + Bright-spotted all, + Take them with thee, chieftain bold, + With their chainlets light + Of the silver white, + And their neck-rings of the tawny gold. + Slight not thou our offering, + Son of Cumal, mighty king!" + + "Uprose Find our chieftain bold, + Stood before the Fian ranks, + To the king spoke gracious thanks, + Took the gifts the monarch gave; + Then each to each these champions brave + Glorious sight to see and tell, + Spoke their soldier-like farewell! + + "The way before us Find led then; + We followed him, six thousand men, + From out the Fair, six thousand brave, + To Caicer's house of Cloon-na-Dave. + + "Three nights, three days, did all of us + Keep joyous feast in Caicer's house; + Fifty rings of the yellow gold + To Caicer Mac Caroll our chieftain told; + As many cows and horses gave + To Caicer Mac Caroll our chieftain brave. + Well did Find of Innisfail + Pay the price of his food and ale. + + "Find rode o'er the Luacra, joyous man, + Till he reached the strand at Barriman; + At the lake where the foam on the billow's top + Leaps white, did Find and the Fians stop. + + "'Twas then that our chieftain rode and ran + Along the strand of Barriman; + Trying the speed + Of his swift black steed,-- + Who now but Find was a happy man? + + "Myself and Cailte at each side, + In wantonness of youthful pride, + Would ride with him where he might ride. + Fast and furious rode he, + Urging his steed to far Tralee. + On from Tralee by Lerg duv-glass, + And o'er Fraegmoy, o'er Finnass, + O'er Moydeo, o'er Monaken, + On to Shan-iber, o'er Shan-glen, + Till the clear stream of Flesk we win, + And reach the pillar of Crofinn; + O'er Sru-Muny, o'er Moneket, + And where the fisher spreads his net + To snare the salmon of Lemain, + And thence to where our coursers' feet + Wake the glad echoes of Loch Leane; + And thus fled he, + Nor slow were we; + Through rough and smooth our course we strain. + + "Long and swift our stride,--more fleet + Than the deer of the mountain our coursers' feet! + Away to Flesk by Carnwood dun; + And past Mac Scalve's Mangerton, + Till Find reached Barnec Hill at last; + There rested he, and then we passed + Up the high hill before him, and: + 'Is there no hunting hut at hand?' + He thus addressed us; 'The daylight + Is gone, and shelter for the night + We lack.' He scarce had ended, when + Gazing adown the rocky glen, + On the left hand, just opposite, + He saw a house with its fire lit; + 'That house till now I've never seen, + Though many a time and oft I've been + In this wild glen. Come, look at it!' + + "Yes, there are things that our poor wit + Knows little of,' said Cailte; 'thus + This may be some miraculous + Hostel we see, whose generous blaze + Thy hospitality repays, + Large-handed son of Cumal!'--So + On to the house all three we go...." + +Of their entry to the mysterious house, of the ogre and the witch they +found there, of the horrors that gathered on all sides, when + + "From iron benches on the right + Nine headless bodies rose to sight, + And on the left, from grim repose, + Nine heads that had no bodies rose,..." + +Ossin likewise tells, and how, overcome, they fell at last into a +deathlike trance and stupor, till the sunlight woke them lying on the +heathery hillside, the house utterly vanished away. + +The scenes of all the happenings in the story are well known: the rath +of Badamar is near Caher on the Suir, in the midst of the Golden Vale, a +plain of wonderful richness and beauty, walled in by the red precipices +of the Galtee Mountains, and the Knock-Mealdown Hills. From the rath of +Badamar Find could watch the western mountains reddening and glowing in +front of the dawn, as the sun-rays shot level over the burnished plain. +Clocar is thirty miles westward over the Golden Vale, near where Croom +now stands; and here were run the races; here Find gained the gift of +the coal-black steed. It is some forty miles still westwards to the +Strand of Tralee; the last half of the way among hills carpeted with +heather; and the Strand itself, with the tide out, leaves a splendid +level of white sand as far as the eye can reach, tempting Find to try +his famous courser. The race carried them southwards some fifteen miles +to the beautiful waters of Lough Leane, with its overhanging wooded +hills, the Lake of Killarney, southward of which rises the huge red +mass of Mangerton, in the midst of a country everywhere rich in beauty. +The Hill of Barnec is close by, but the site of the magic dwelling, who +can tell? Perhaps Find; or Cailte, or golden-tongued Ossin himself. + +There was abundant fighting in those days, for well within memory was +the time of Conn of the Five-score Fights, against whom Cumal had warred +because Conn lord of Connacht had raised Crimtan of the Yellow Hair to +the kingship of Leinster. Cumal fought at the Rath that bears his name, +now softened to Rathcool, twelve miles inward from the sea at Dublin, +with the hills rising up from the plain to the south of the Rath. Cumal +fought and fell, slain by Goll Mac Morna, and enmity long endured +between Find and Goll who slew his sire. But like valiant men they were +reconciled, and when Goll in his turn died, Find made a stirring poem on +Goll's mighty deeds. + +Another fateful fight for Find was the battle of Kinvarra, among the +southern rocks of Galway Bay; for though he broke through the host of +his foeman Uince, that chieftain himself escaped, and, riding swiftly +with a score of men, came to Find's own dwelling at Druim Dean on the +Red Hills of Leinster, and burned the dwelling, leaving it a smoldering +ruin. Find pursuing, overtook them, slaying them at the ford called to +this day Ath-uince, the ford of Uince. Returning homewards, Find found +his house desolate, and the song he sang still holds the memory of +his sorrow. + +Two poems he made, on the Plain of Swans and on Roirend in Offaly, full +of vivid pictures and legends; and one of romantic tragedy, telling how +the two daughters of King Tuatal Tectmar were treacherously slain, +through the malice of the Leinster king. But of romances and songs of +fair women in the days of Find, the best is the Poem of Gael, who +composed it to win a princess for his bride. + +Of fair Crede of the Yellow Hair it was said that there was scarce a gem +in all Erin that she had not got as a love-token, but that she would +give her heart to none. Crede had vowed that she would marry the man who +made the best verses on her home, a richly-adorned dwelling in the +south, under the twin cones of the Paps, and within sight of Lough Leane +and Killarney. Cael took up the challenge, and invoking the Genius that +dwelt in the sacred pyramid of Brugh on the Boyne he made these verses, +and came to recite them to yellow-haired Crede: + + "It would be happy for me to be in her home, + Among her soft and downy couches, + Should Crede deign to hear me; + Happy for me would be my journey. + A bowl she has, whence berry-juice flows, + With which she colors her eyebrows black; + She has clear vessels of fermenting ale; + Cups she has, and beautiful goblets. + The color of her house is white like lime; + Within it are couches and green rushes; + Within it are silks and blue mantles; + Within it are red gold and crystal cups. + Of its sunny chamber the corner stones + Are all of silver and yellow gold, + Its roof in stripes of faultless order + Of wings of brown and crimson red. + Two doorposts of green I see, + Nor is the door devoid of beauty; + Of carved silver,--long has it been renowned,-- + Is the lintel that is over the door. + Crede's chair is on your right hand, + The pleasantest of the pleasant it is; + All over a blaze of Alpine gold, + At the foot of her beautiful couch... + The household which is in her house + To the happiest fate has been destined; + Grey and glossy are their garments; + Twisted and fair is their flowing hair. + Wounded men would sink in sleep, + Though ever so heavily teeming with blood, + With the warbling of the fairy birds + From the eaves of her sunny summer-room. + If I am blessed with the lady's grace, + Fair Crede for whom the cuckoo sings, + In songs of praise shall ever live, + If she but repay me for my gift.... + There is a vat of royal bronze, + Whence flows the pleasant; nice of malt; + An apple-tree stands over the vat, + With abundance of weighty fruit. + When Crede's goblet is filled + With the ale of the noble vat, + There drop down into the cup forthwith + Four apples at the same time. + The four attendants that have been named, + Arise and go to the distributing, + They present to four of the guests around + A drink to each man and an apple. + She who possesses all these things, + With the strand and the stream that flow by them, + Crede of the three-pointed hill, + Is a spear-cast beyond the women of Erin. + Here is a poem for her,--no mean gift. + It is not a hasty, rash composition; + To Crede now it is here presented: + May my journey be brightness to her!" + +[Illustration: Colleen Bawn Caves, Klllarney.] + +Tradition says that the heart of the yellow-haired beauty was utterly +softened and won, so that she delayed not to make Cael master of the +dwelling he so well celebrated; master, perhaps, of all the jewels of +Erin that her suitors had given her. Yet their young love was not +destined to meet the storms and frosts of the years; for Cael the +gallant fell in battle, his melodious lips for ever stilled. Thus have +these two become immortal in song. + +We have seen Cailte with Ossin following Find in his wild ride through +the mountains of Killarney, and to Cailte is attributed the saying that +echoes down the ages: "There are things that our poor wit knows nothing +off!" Cailte was a great lover of the supernatural, yet there was in him +also a vein of sentiment, shown in his poem on the death of +Clidna--"Clidna the fair-haired, long to be remembered," who was +tragically drowned at Glandore harbor in the south, and whose sad wraith +still moans upon the bar, in hours of fate for the people of Erin. + +In a gayer vein is the poem of Fergus the Eloquent, who sang the legend +of Tipra Seangarmna, the Fountain of the Feale River, which flows +westward to the sea from the mountains north of Killarney. The river +rises among precipices, gloomy caverns and ravines, and passes through +vales full of mysterious echoes amid mist-shrouded hills. There, as +Fergus sings, were Ossin and his following hunting, when certain ominous +fair women lured them to a cave,--women who were but insubstantial +wraiths,--to hold them captive till the seasons ran full circle, summer +giving place again to winter and spring. But Ossin, being himself of +more than human wisdom, found a way to trick the spirits; for daily he +cut chips from his spear and sent them floating down the spring, till +Find at last saw them, and knew the tokens as Ossin's, and, coming, +delivered his son from durance among ghosts. + +The great romantic theme of the time binds the name of Find, son of +Cumal, with that of Cormac, son of Art, and grandson of Conn of the +Five-score Battles. This Cormac was himself a notable man of wisdom, and +here are some of the Precepts he taught to Cairbre, his son: + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac," Cairbre asked him, "what is good for a +king?" + +"This is plain," answered Cormac. "It is good for him to have patience +and not to dispute, self-government without anger, affability without +haughtiness, diligent attention to history, strict observance of +covenants and agreements, justice tempered by mercy in the execution of +the laws. It is good for him to make fertile land, to invite ships, to +import jewels of price from across the sea, to purchase and distribute +raiment, to keep vigorous swordsmen who may protect his territory, to +make war beyond his territory, to attend to the sick, to discipline his +soldiers. Let him enforce fear, let him perfect peace, let him give mead +and wine, let him pronounce just judgments of light, let him speak all +truth, for it is through the truth of a king that God gives +favorable seasons." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac," Cairbre again asked him, "what is good +for the welfare of a country?" + +"This is plain," answered Cormac. "Frequent assemblies of wise and good +men to investigate its affairs, to abolish every evil and retain every +wholesome institution, to attend to the precepts of the seniors; let +every assembly be convened according to the law, let the law be in the +hands of the noblest, let the chieftains be upright and unwilling to +oppress the poor." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac," again asked Cairbre, "what are duties of +a prince in the banqueting-house?" + +"A prince on the Day of Spirits should light his lamps and welcome his +guests with clapping of hands, offering comfortable seats; the +cup-bearers should be active in distributing meat and drink. Let there +be moderation of music, short stories, a welcoming countenance, a +greeting for the learned, pleasant conversation. These are the duties +of a prince and the arrangement of a banqueting-house." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac, for what qualifications is a king elected +over countries and tribes of people?" + +"From the goodness of his shape and family, from his experience and +wisdom, from his prudence and magnanimity, from his eloquence and +bravery in battle, and from the number of his friends." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac, what was thy deportment when a youth?" + +"I was cheerful at the banquet of the House of Mead, I was fierce in +battle, but vigilant and careful. I was kind to friends, a physician to +the sick, merciful to the weak, stern toward the headstrong. Though +possessed of knowledge, I loved silence. Though strong, I was not +overbearing. Though young, I mocked not the old. Though valiant, I was +not vain. When I spoke of one absent I praised and blamed him not, for +by conduct like this are we known to be courteous and refined." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac, what is good for me?" + +"If thou attend to my command, thou wilt not scorn the old though thou +art young, nor the poor though thou art well clad, nor the lame though +thou art swift, nor the blind though thou seest, nor the weak though +thou art strong, nor the ignorant though thou art wise. Be not slothful, +be not passionate, be not greedy, be not idle, be not jealous; for he +who is so is hateful to God and man." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac, I would know how to hold myself with the +wise and the foolish, with friends and strangers, with old and young." + +"Be not too knowing or simple, too proud or inactive, too humble or +haughty, talkative or too silent, timid or too severe. For if thou art +too knowing, thou wilt be mocked at and abused; if too simple, thou wilt +be deceived; if proud, thou wilt be shunned; if too humble, thou wilt +suffer; if talkative, thou wilt be thought foolish; if too severe, men +will speak ill of thee; if timid, thy rights will suffer." + +"O grandson of Conn, O Cormac, how shall I discern the characters of +women?" + +"I know them, but I cannot describe them. Their counsel is foolish, they +are forgetful of love, most headstrong in their desires, fond of folly, +prone to enter rashly into engagements, given to swearing, proud to be +asked in marriage, tenacious of enmity, cheerless at the banquet, +rejectors of reconciliation, prone to strife, of much garrulity. Until +evil be good, until hell be heaven, until the sun hide his light, until +the stars of heaven fall, women will remain as we have declared. Woe to +him, my son, who desires or serves a bad woman, woe to him who has a +bad wife." + +Was there some thought of his daughter Grania in Cormac's mind, behind +these keen-edged; words?--of Grania, beloved of Diarmuid? When the +winters of the years were already white on Find, son of Cumal, when +Ossin his son had a son of his own, Oscur the valiant, the two old men, +Cormac the king and Find leader of the warriors, bethought them to make +a match between Find and Grania, one of the famous beauties of the olden +time. A banquet was set in the great House of Mead, and Find and his men +were there, Diarmuid son of Duibne being also there, best beloved among +Find's warriors. There was a custom, much in honor among the chieftains, +that a princess should send her goblet to the guests, offering it to +each with gentle courtesy. This grace fell to the lady Grania, whose +whole heart rose up against her grey-bearded lover, and was indeed set +on Diarmuid the son of Duibne. Grania compounded a dreamy draught to +mix with the mead, so that all the chieftains and warriors, with Cormac +and Find himself, even while praising the drink, fell straightway +a-nodding, and were soon in silent sleep, all except Ossin and Diarmuid, +whom Grania had bidden not to drink. + +Then Grania, her voice all tremulous with tears, told to Ossin the fate +that awaited her, looking at him, but speaking for Diarmuid; bewailing +bitterly the misery of fair youth in the arms of withered eld, and at +last turning and openly begging Diarmuid to save her from her fate. To +carry away a king's daughter, betrothed to the leader of the warriors, +was a perilous thing, and Diarmuid's heart stood still at the thought of +it; yet Grania's tears prevailed, and they two fled forth that night to +the hills and forests. Dire and ruinous was the wrath of Cormac and of +Find when they awoke and found that these two were fled; and whatever +might was in the king's hand, whatever power in the hosts of Find, was +straightway turned against them in pursuit. Yet the two fled as the deer +might fly, visiting with their loves every wood and valley in Erin, till +the memory of them lingers throughout all the hills. Finally, after a +year's joyful and fearsome fleeing, the Fian warriors everywhere aiding +them for love of Diarmuid, swift death came upon Diarmuid, and Grania +was left desolate. + +But Angus the Ever-Young, guardian Genius of the pyramid-shrine of Brugh +by the Boyne, De Danaan dweller in the secret house, Angus of the +Immortals received the spirit of Diarmuid, opening for him the ways of +the hidden world. + +But enmity grew between Find with his warriors and Cormac the king, till +at last a battle was fought where Find's men fell, and Cairbre, the +well-instructed son of Cormac also fell. Thus passed away the ruling +spirits of that age, the flowering time of the genius of Erin. + + + +VIII. + +THE MESSENGER OF THE NEW WAY. + +A.D. 410-493. + +The valor of Fergus and Cuculain, the rich imaginative life of Find and +Ossin, were the flower of heroic centuries. Strong men had fought for +generations before Concobar reigned at Emain of Maca. Poets had sung +their deeds of valor, and the loves of fair women, and the magical +beauty of the world, through hardly changing ages. The heroes of fame +were but the best fruit in the garden of the nation's life. So ripe was +that life, more than two thousand years ago, that it is hard to say what +they did not know, of the things which make for amenity and comity. The +colors of the picture are everywhere rich, yet perfectly harmonized. + +The earliest forms of Irish writing seem to have come from the Baltic +runes, and these, in their turn, from an old Greek script of twenty-five +hundred years ago. The runes spread as far as the Orkneys, and there +they were well within the horizon of Ireland's knowledge. Nothing would +be more natural than the keeping of written records in Erin for three +or four hundred years before Cuculain's birth, nineteen hundred +years ago. + +The arts of life were very perfect; the gold-work of that time is +unsurpassed--has never been surpassed. At a far earlier time there were +beautifully moulded and decorated gold-bronze spears, that show what +richness of feeling and imagination, what just taste and fine skill were +there. All our knowledge goes to show that the suitor of Crede has drawn +a true picture of her house and the generous social life belonging to +it. We know, too, that the great dining-hall of Tara has been faithfully +celebrated by the bards; the picture of the king in his scarlet cloak is +representative of the whole epoch. + +The story of Crede also shows the freedom and honor accorded to women, +as does the queenship of Meave, with the record of her separate riches. +The tragedies of Deirdre and Grania would never have been remembered, +had not the freedom and high regard of women been universal. Such +decorative skill as is shown in the metal-work and pottery that have +come down to us must have borne fruit in every realm of social life, in +embroideries, tapestries, well-designed and beautifully adorned homes. +Music is everywhere spoken of in the old traditions, and the skill of +the poets we can judge for ourselves. + +In all that concerns the natural man, therefore, a very high perfection +had been reached. A frame of life had grown habitual, which brought out +the finest vigor and strength and beauty. Romantic love added its riches +to valor, and dignity was given by the ever-present memory of the heroic +past, merging on the horizon with the divine dawn of the world. Manhood +and womanhood had come to perfect flower. The crown rested on the brow +of the nation's life. + +When the life of the natural man is perfected, the time comes to strike +the note of the immortal, to open the door of our real and enduring +destiny. Sensual success, the ideal of unregenerate man, was perfectly +realized in Concobar and ten thousand like him. The destiny of +triumphant individual life, the strong man victorious over nature and +other men, was fulfilled. Individual prowess, individual accomplishment, +could go no further. + +Nor should we overlook the dark shadows of the picture. Glory is to the +victor, but woe to the vanquished. The continual warfare between tribe +and tribe, between chief and chief, which made every valley a home of +warriors dominated by a rath-fortress, bore abundant fruits of evil. +Death in battle need not be reckoned, or may be counted as pure gain; +but the fate of the wounded, maimed and miserable, the destitution of +women and children left behind, the worse fate of the captives, sold as +they were into exile and slavery,--all these must be included in +the total. + +Nor are these material losses the worst. The great evil of the epoch of +tribal war is its reaction on the human spirit. The continual struggle +of ambition draws forth egotism, the desire to dominate for mere +domination, the sense of separation and antagonism between man and man, +tribe and tribe, province and province. + +But our real human life begins only when these evil tendencies are +abated; when we learn to watch the life of others as if it were our +own,--as being indeed a part of our own life,--and in every act and +motion of our minds do only that which shall be to the best advantage of +both ourselves and our neighbor. For only thus, only by the incessant +practice of this in imagination and act, can the door of our wider and +more humane consciousness be opened. + +[Illustration: Ruins on Scattery Island.] + +Nor is this all. There are in us vast unexplored tracts of power and +wisdom; tracts not properly belonging to our personal and material +selves, but rather to the impersonal and universal consciousness which +touches us from within, and which we call divine. Our personal fate is +closed by death; but we have a larger destiny which death does not +touch; a destiny enduring and immortal. The door to this larger destiny +can only be opened after we have laid down the weapons of egotism; after +we have become veritably humane. There must be a death to militant +self-assertion, a new birth to wide and universal purposes, before this +larger life can be understood and known. + +With all the valor and rich life of the days of Cuculain and Ossin, the +destructive instinct of antagonism was very deeply rooted in all hearts; +it did endless harm to the larger interests of the land, and laid +Ireland open to attack from without. Because the genius of the race was +strong and highly developed, the harm went all the deeper; even now, +after centuries, it is not wholly gone. + +The message of the humane and the divine, taught among the Galilean +hills and on the shores of Gennesaret, was after four centuries brought +to Ireland--a word of new life to the warriors and chieftains, +enkindling and transforming their heroic world. Britain had received +the message before, for Britain was a part of the dominion of Rome, +which already had its imperial converts. Roman life and culture and +knowledge of the Latin tongue had spread throughout the island up to the +northern barrier between the Forth and Clyde. Beyond this was a +wilderness of warring tribes. + +Where the Clyde comes forth from the plain to the long estuary of the +sea, the Messenger of the Tidings was born. His father, Calpurn, was a +Roman patrician; from this his son, whose personal name was Succat, was +surnamed Patricius, a title raised by his greatness into a personal +name. His letters give us a vivid picture of his captivity, and the +stress of life which gradually aroused in him the inspiration of the +humane and divine ripened later into a full knowledge of his apostolate. + +"I Patricius, a sinner," he writes, "and most unlearned of believers, +looked down upon by many, had for my father the deacon Calpurn, son of +the elder Potitus, of a place called Bannova in Tabernia, near to which +was his country home. There I was taken captive, when not quite sixteen. +I knew not the Eternal. Being led into captivity with thousands of +others, I was brought to Ireland,--a fate well deserved. For we had +turned from the Eternal, nor kept the laws of the Eternal. Nor had we +heeded the teachers who urged us to seek safety. Therefore the Eternal, +justly wroth, scattered us among unbelievers, to the uttermost parts of +the earth; here, where my poor worth is now seen among strangers, where +the Eternal liberated the power hid in my unenkindled heart, that even +though late I should recognize my error, and turn with all my heart to +the Eternal.... + +"I have long had it in mind to write, but until now have hesitated; for +I feared blame, because I had not studied law and the sacred +writings,--as have others who have never changed their language, but +gone on to perfection in it; but my speech is translated into another +language, and the roughness of my writing shows how little I have been +taught. As the Sage says, 'Show by thy speech thy wisdom and knowledge +and learning.' But what profits this excuse? since all can see how in my +old age I struggle after what I should have learned as a boy. For then +my sinfulness hindered me. I was but a beardless boy when I was taken +captive, not knowing what to do and what to avoid; therefore I am +ashamed to show my ignorance now? because I never learned to express +great matters succinctly and well;--great matters like the moving of the +soul and mind by the Divine Breath.... Nor, indeed, was I worthy that +the Master should so greatly favor me, after all my hard labor and heavy +toil, and the years of captivity amongst this people,--that the Master +should show me such graciousness as I never knew nor hoped for till I +came to Ireland. + +"But daily herding cattle here, and aspiring many times a day, the fear +of the Eternal grew daily in me. A divine dread and aspiration grew in +me, so that I often prayed a hundred times a day, and as many times in +the night. I often remained in the woods and on the hills, rising to +pray while it was yet dark, in snow or frost or rain; yet I took no +harm. The Breath of the Divine burned within me, so that nothing +remained in me unenkindled. + +"One night, while I was sleeping, I heard a voice saying to me, 'You +have fasted well, and soon you shall see your home and your native +land.' Soon after, I heard the voice again, saying, 'The ship is ready +for you.' But the ship was not near, but two hundred miles off, in a +district I had never visited, and where I knew no one. Therefore I fled, +leaving the master I had served for six years, and found the ship by +divine guidance, going without fear.... + +"We reached the land after three days' sail; then for twenty-eight days +we wandered through a wilderness.... Once more, after years of exile, I +was at home again with my kindred, among the Britons. All welcomed me +like a son, earnestly begging me that, after the great dangers I had +passed through, I would never again leave my home. + +"While I was at home, in a vision of the night I saw one who seemed to +come from Ireland, bringing innumerable letters. He gave me one of the +letters, in which I read, 'The voices of the Irish ...;' and while I +read, it seemed to me that I heard the cry of the dwellers by the forest +of Foclut, by the Western Ocean, calling with one voice to me, 'Come and +dwell with us!' My heart was so moved that I awoke, and I give thanks to +my God who after many years has given to them according to +their petition. + +"On another night, whether within me or without me I know not, God +knows, One prayed with very wonderful words that I could not comprehend, +till at last He said, 'It is He who gave His soul for you, that speaks!' +I awoke for joy. And once in a vision I saw Him praying within me, as it +were; I saw myself, as it were, within myself; and I heard Him praying +urgently and strongly over the inner man; I being meanwhile astonished, +and wondering who thus prayed within me, till at the end He declared +that I should be an overseer for Him.... + +"I had not believed in the living Divine from childhood, but had +remained in the realm of death until hunger and nakedness and daily +slavery in Ireland--for I came there as a captive--had so afflicted me +that I almost broke down. Yet these things brought good, for through +that daily suffering I was so changed that I work and toil now for the +well-being of others, I who formerly took no care even for myself.... + +"Therefore I thank Him who kept me faithful in the day of trial, that I +live to offer myself daily as a living offering to Him who saves and +guards me. Well may I say, 'Master, what am I, what is my calling, that +such grace and divine help are given to me--that I am every day raised +to greater power among these unbelievers, while I everywhere praise thy +name? Whatever comes to me, whether happiness or misery, whether good or +evil fortune, I hold it all the same; giving Thee equal thanks for it, +because Thou hast unveiled for me the One, sure and unchanging, in whom +I may for ever believe. So that in these latter days, even though I am +ignorant, I may dare to undertake so righteous a work, and so wonderful, +that makes me like those who, according to His promise, should carry His +message to all people before the end of the world. + +"It were long in whole or even in part to tell of my labours, or how the +all-powerful One many times set me free from bondage, and from twelve +perils wherein my life was in danger, and from nameless pitfalls. It +were ill to try the reader too far, when I have within me the Author +himself, who knows all things even before they happen, as He knows me, +His poor disciple. The voice that so often guides me is divine; and +thence it is that wisdom has come to me, who had no wisdom, knowing not +Him, nor the number of my days: thence comes my knowledge and heart's +joy in His great and healing gift, for the sake of which I willingly +left my home and kindred, though they offered me many gifts with tears +and sorrow. + +"Many of the older people also disapproved, but through divine help I +would not give way. It was no grace of mine, but the divine power in me +that stood out against all, so that I came to bear the Message here +among the people of Ireland, suffering the scorn of those who believed +not, and bearing derision and many persecutions, and even chains. Nay, I +even lost my patrician rank for the good of others. But if I be worthy +to do something for the Divine, I am ready with all my heart to yield +service, even to the death, since it has been permitted that through me +many might be reborn to the divine, and that others might be appointed +to teach them.... + +"The people of Ireland, who formerly had only their idols and pagan +ritual, not knowing the Master, have now become His children. The sons +of the Scoti and their kings' daughters are now become sons of the +Master and handmaidens of the Anointed. And one nobly born lady among +them, a beautiful woman whom I baptized myself, came soon after to tell +me that she was divinely admonished to live in maidenhood, drawing +nearer to Him. Six days later she entered the grade that all the +handmaidens of the Anointed desire, though their fathers and mothers +would hinder them, reproaching and afflicting them; nevertheless, they +grow in number, so that I know not how many they are, besides widows and +continent women, who suffer most from those who hold them in bondage. +Yet they stand firm, and God grants grace to many of them worthily to +follow Him. + +"Therefore I might even leave them, to go among the Britons,--for +willingly would I see my own kindred and my native land again, or even +go as far as Gaul to visit my brothers, and see the faces of my Master's +holy men. But I am bound in the Spirit, and would be unfaithful if I +went. Nor would I willingly risk the fruit of all my work. Yet it is not +I who decide, but the Master, who bid me come hither, to spend my whole +life in serving, as indeed I think I shall.... + +"Therefore I should ever thank Him who was so tolerant of my ignorance +and sluggishness, so many times; treating me not in anger but as a +fellow-worker, though I was slow to learn the work set for me by the +Spirit. He pitied me amongst many thousands, for he saw that I was very +willing, but did net know how to offer my testimony. For they all +opposed my mission, and talked behind my back, saying, 'He wishes to +risk his life among enemies who know nothing of the Master'; not +speaking maliciously, but opposing me because I was so ignorant. Nor did +I myself at once perceive the power that was in me.... + +"Thus simply, brothers and fellow-workers for the Master, who with me +have believed, I have told you how it happened that I preached and still +preach, to strengthen and confirm you in aspiration, hoping that we may +all rise yet higher. Let that be my reward, as 'the wise son is the +glory of his father.' You know, and the Master knows, how from my youth +I have lived among you, in aspiration and truth and with single heart; +that I have declared the faith to those among whom I dwell, and still +declare it. The Master knows that I have deceived no man in anything, +nor ever shall, for His sake and His people's. Nor shall I ever arouse +uncharity in them or in any, lest His name should be spoken evil of.... + +"I have striven in my poor way to help my brothers and the handmaidens +of the Anointed, and the holy women who often volunteered to give me +presents and to lay their jewels on my altar; but these I always gave +back to them, even though they were hurt by it; and I have so lived my +life, for the hope of the life eternal, that none may find the least +cause of offence in my ministry; that my least act might not tarnish my +good name, so that unbelievers might speak evil of me.... + +"If I have asked of any as much as the value of a shoe, tell me. I will +repay it and more. I rather spent my own wealth on you and among you, +wherever I went, for your sakes, through many dangers, to regions where +no believer had ever come to baptize, to ordain teachers or to confirm +the flock. With the divine help I very willingly and lovingly paid all. +Sometimes I gave presents to the kings,--in giving presents to their +sons who convoyed us, to guard us against being taken captive. Once they +sought to kill me, but my time was not yet come. But they took away all +we possessed, and kept me bound, till the Master liberated me on the +fourteenth day, and all our goods were given back, because of the Master +and of those who convoyed us. You yourselves know what gifts I gave to +those who administer the law through the districts I visited oftenest. I +think I spent not less than the fine of fifteen men among them, in order +that I might come among you. Nor do I regret it, nor count it enough, +for I still spend, and shall ever spend, happy if the Master allows me +to spend my soul for you....For I know certainly that poverty and plain +living are better for me than riches and luxury. The Anointed our Master +was poor for us. I am poorer still, for I could not have wealth if I +wished it. Nor do I now judge myself, for I look forward daily to a +violent death, or to be taken captive and sold into slavery, or some +like end. But I fear none of these ...but let me not lose the flock I +feed for Him, here in the uttermost parts of the earth.... + +"I am willing for His sake to shed my blood, to go without burial, even +though my body be torn by dogs and wild beasts and the fowls of the air; +for I know that thus I should through my body enrich my soul. And I know +that in that day we shall arise in the brightness of the sun, in the +glory of the Anointed Master, as sons of the divine and co-heirs with +Him, made in His likeness. For the sun we see rises daily by divine +ordinance; but it is not ordained to rise for ever, nor shall its light +last for ever. The sun of this world shall fade, with those that worship +it; but we bow to the spiritual Sun, the Anointed, that shall never +perish, nor they who do His will, but shall endure for ever like the +Anointed himself, who reigns with the Father and the Divine Spirit now +and ever.... + +"This I beg, that no believer or servant of the Master, who reads or +receives this writing, which I, Patricius, a sinner and very unlearned, +wrote in Ireland,--I beg that none may say that whatever is good in it +was dictated by my ignorance, but rather that it came from Him. This is +my Confession, before I die." + +That is the story of the most vital event in the life of Ireland, in the +words of the man who was chiefly instrumental in bringing it about. +Though an unskilled writer, as he says himself he has nevertheless +succeeded in breathing into every part of his epistle the power and +greatness of his soul, the sense and vivid reality of the divine breath +which stirred in him and transformed him, the spiritual power, humane +and universal, which enkindled him from within; these are the words of a +man who had first-hand knowledge of the things of our deeper life; not a +mere servant of tradition, living on the words and convictions of other +men. He has drawn in large and universal outline the death to +egotism--reached in his case through hunger, nakedness and slavery--and +the new birth from above, the divine Soul enkindling the inner man, and +wakening him to new powers and a knowledge of his genius and +immortal destiny. + +Not less vivid is the sense he conveyed, of the world in which he moved; +the feeling of his dignity as a Roman Patrician, having a share of the +greatness of empire; the sense of a dividing-line between the Christian +realms of Rome and the outer barbarians yet in darkness. Yet the picture +he gives of these outer realms is as certainly true. There are the rival +chieftains, each with his own tribe and his own fort, and bearing the +title of king. They are perpetually striving among themselves, so that +from the province of one he must move to the province of another with an +escort, led by the king's son, who receives gifts in return for this +protection. This is the world of Concobar and Cuculain; of Find and +Ossin, as they themselves have painted it. + +The world of Find and Ossin, of Cael and Crede, was marked by a certain +urbanity and freedom, a large-mindedness and imaginative power. We are +therefore prepared to expect that the Messenger of the new life would be +received with openness of mind, and allowed to deliver his message +without any very violent opposition. It was the meeting of unarmed moral +power and armed valor; and the victory of the apostle was a victory of +spiritual force, of character, of large-heartedness; the man himself was +the embodiment of his message, and through his forceful genius his +message was effective. He visibly represented the New Way; the way of +the humane and the divine, transforming the destructive instinct of +self-assertion. He visibly represented the divine and the immortal in +us, the new birth from above. + +Yet there were tragedies in his apostolate. In another letter a very +vivid and pathetic account is given of one of these. Coroticus, a +chieftain of Britain, and therefore nominally a Christian and a citizen +of Rome, had sent marauding bands to Ireland to capture slaves. Some of +the new converts were taken captive by these slave-hunters, an outrage +which drew forth an indignant protest from the great Messenger: + +"My neophytes in their white robes, the baptismal chrism still wet and +glistening on their foreheads, were taken captive with the sword by +these murderers. The next day I sent letters begging them to liberate +the baptized captives, but they answered my prayer with mocking +laughter. I know not which I should mourn for more,--those who were +slain, those who were taken prisoner, or those who in this were Satan's +instruments, since these must suffer everlasting punishment in +perdition." + +He appeals indignantly to the fellow-Christians of Coroticus in Britain: +"I pray you, all that are righteous and humble, to hold no converse +with those who do these things. Eat not, drink not with them, accept no +gifts from them, until they have repented and made atonement, setting +free these newly-baptized handmaidens of Christ, for whom He died.... +They seem to think we are not children of one Father!" + +The work and mission of this great man grow daily better known. The +scenes of each marked event are certainly identified. His early slavery, +his time of probation, was spent in Antrim, on the hillside of Slieve +Mish, and in the woods that then covered its flanks and valleys. +Wandering there with his flocks to the hill-top, he looked down over the +green darkness of the woods, with the fertile open country stretching +park-like beyond, to the coast eight miles away. From his lonely summit +he could gaze over the silvery grayness of the sea, and trace on the +distant horizon the headlands of his dear native land. The exile's heart +must have ached to look at them, as he thought of his hunger and +nakedness and toil. There in deep pity came home to him the fate of the +weak ones of the earth, the vanquished, the afflicted, the losers in the +race. Compassion showed him the better way, the way of sympathy and +union, instead of contest and dominion. A firm and fixed purpose grew up +within him to make the appeal of gentleness to the chiefs and rulers, in +the name of Him who was all sympathy for the weak. Thus the inspiration +of the Message awakened his soul to its immortal powers. + +Later, returning with the clear purpose of his message formed, he began +his great work not far from his first place of captivity. His strong +personality led him always to the presence of the chiefs and warriors, +and he talked to them freely as an equal, gradually giving them an +insight into his own vision of life, of the kinship between soul and +soul, of our immortal power and inheritance. He appealed always to his +own inner knowledge of things divine, to the light and power unveiled +within himself; and the commanding genius in his words lit a like fire +in the hearts of those who heard, awakening an enthusiasm for the New +Way. He had a constant sense of his divine mission: + +"Was it without divine promise, or in the body only, that I came to +Ireland? Who led me? Who took captive my soul, that I should no more see +friends and kindred? Whence came my inspiration of pity for the race +that had enslaved me?" + +The memory of his first victories is perpetuated in the name, +Downpatrick,--that is: the Dwelling of Patrick.--where Dicu son of +Tricem, chief of the district, gave him a tract of land to build a place +of meeting and prayer for his disciples; while the church was being +built, the chief offered his barn as a meeting-place, an incident +commemorated in the name of Saul, on a hill above the town,--a name +softened from Sabal, "a barn." This first victory was won among the +rounded hills south of the Quoyle River, where it widens toward +Strangford Lough; from the hill-top of Saul there is a wide prospect +over the reed-covered flats with the river winding among them, the hills +with their oak-woods in the bends of the river, and the widening lough +with its innumerable islands, its sand-flats lit up with red under the +dawn. The sun sets among the mountains of Mourne, flushing from behind +the purple profile of the hills, and sending golden arrows over the rich +fertility of the plain. The year 432 is the probable date of this first +conversion. + +The strong genius of the Messenger carried him after a few months to the +center of power in the land, to Tara with its fortresses, its +earthworks, its great banquet-halls and granaries and well-adorned +dwellings of chief and king. A huge oval earthwork defended the king's +house; northward of this was the splendid House of Mead,--the +banquet-hall, with lesser fortresses beyond it. Southward of the central +dwelling and its defence was the new ringed fort of Laogaire the king, +son of the more famous king Nial of the Hostages. At this circular fort, +Rath-Laogaire, on Easter day, Saint Patrick met the king face to face, +and delivered to him the message of the New Way, telling him of the +unveiling of the Divine within himself, of the voice that had bidden him +come, of the large soul of immortal pity that breathed in the teachings +among the hills of Galilee, of the new life there begun for the world. +Tradition says that the coming of the Messenger had been foretold by the +Druids, and the great work he should accomplish; the wise men of the +West catching the inner brightness of the Light, as the Eastern Magians +had caught it more than four centuries before. The fruits of that day's +teaching in the plain of Tara, in the assembly of Laogaire the king, +were to be gathered through long centuries to come. + +In the year 444, the work of the teacher had so thriven that he was able +to build a larger church on a hill above the Callan River, in the +undulating country south of Lough Neagh. This hill, called in the old +days the Hill of the Willows, was only two miles from the famous +fortress of Emain of Maca. It was a gift from the ruler Daire, who, like +so many other chiefs, had felt and acknowledged the Messenger's power. +Later, the hill came to be called Ard-Maca, the Height of Maca; a name +now softened into Armagh, ever since esteemed the central stronghold of +the first Messenger's followers. + +The Messenger passed on from chief to chief, from province to province, +meeting with success everywhere, yet facing grave perils. Later +histories take him to the kings of Leinster and Munster, and he himself +tells us that the prayer of the children of Foclut was answered by his +coming, so that he must have reached the western ocean. It was a +tremendous victory of moral force, of the divine and immortal working +through him, that the Messenger was able to move unarmed among the +warriors of many tribes that were often at war with each other; +everywhere meeting the chiefs and kings, and meeting them as an equal: +the unarmed bringer of good tidings confronting the king in the midst of +his warriors, and winning him to his better vision. + +For sixty years the Messenger worked, sowing seed and gathering the +fruit of his labor; and at last his body was laid at rest close to his +first church at Saul. Thus one of the great men of the world +accomplished his task. + + + +IX. + +THE SAINTS AND SCHOLARS. + +A.D. 493-750. + +It would be hard to find in the whole history of early Christianity a +record of greater and more enduring success than the work of St. +Patrick. None of the Messengers of the New Way, as they were called +first by St. Luke, unless the phrase is St. Paul's, accomplished +single-handed so wonderful a work, conquering so large a territory, and +leaving such enduring monuments of his victory. Amongst the world's +masters, the son of Calpurn the Decurion deserves a place with +the greatest. + +Not less noteworthy than the wide range of his work was the way in which +he gained success. He addressed himself always to the chiefs, the kings, +the men of personal weight and power. And his address was almost +invariably successful,--a thing that would have been impossible had he +not been himself a personality of singular force and fire, able to meet +the great ones of the land as an equal. His manner was that of an +ambassador, full of tact, knowledge of men and of the world. Nor can we +find in him--or, indeed, in the whole history of the churches founded by +him--anything of that bitter zeal and fanaticism which, nearly two +centuries nearer to apostolic times, marred the work of the Councils +under Constantius; the fierce animosity between Christian and Christian +which marked the Arian controversy. The Apostle of Ireland showed far +more urbanity, far more humane and liberal wisdom, far more gentleness, +humor and good feeling, in his treatment of the pre-Christian +institutions and ideals of Ireland than warring Christian sects have +generally been willing to show to each other. + +It was doubtless due to this urbane wisdom that the history of the +conversion of Ireland is without one story of martyrdom. The change was +carried out in open-hearted frankness and good-will, the old order +giving place to the new as gently as spring changes to summer. The most +marvelous example of St. Patrick's wisdom, and at the same time the most +wonderful testimony to his personal force, is his action towards the +existing civil and religious law of the country, commonly known as the +Brehon Law. Principles had by long usage been wrought into the fabric of +the Brehon Laws which were in flat contradiction to St. Patrick's +teaching of the New Way. Instead of fiercely denouncing the whole +system, he talked with the chief jurists and heralds,--custodians of the +old system,--and convinced them that changes in their laws would give +effect to more humane and liberal principles. They admitted the justice +of his view, and agreed to a meeting between three great chieftains or +kings, three Brehons or jurists, and three of St. Patrick's converts, to +revise the whole system of law, substituting the more humane principles, +which they had already accepted as just and right. These changes were +made and universally applied; so that, without any violent revolution, +without strife or bloodshed, the better way became the accepted law. It +would be hard to find in all history a finer example of wisdom and +moderation, of the great and worthy way of accomplishing right ends. + +We have seen the great Messenger himself founding monasteries, houses of +religious study, and churches for his converts, on land given to him by +chieftains who were moved by his character and ideals. We can judge of +the immediate spread of his teaching if we remember that these churches +were generally sixty feet long, thus giving room for many worshippers. +They seem to have been built of stone--almost the first use of that +material in Ireland since the archaic days. Among the first churches of +this type were those at Saul, at Donaghpatrick on the Blackwater, and at +Armagh, with others further from the central region of St. Patrick's +work. The schools of learning which grew up beside them were universally +esteemed and protected, and from them came successive generations of men +and women who worthily carried on the work so wisely begun. The tongues +first studied were Latin and Irish. We have works of very early periods +in both, as, for instance, the Latin epistles of St. Patrick himself, +and the Irish poems of the hardly less eminent Colum Kill. But other +languages were presently added. + +[Illustration: Valley of Glendalough and Ruins of the Seven Churches.] + +These schools and churches gradually made their way throughout the whole +country; some of the oldest of them are still to be seen, as at +Donaghpatrick, Clonmacnoise and Glendalough. Roofed with stone, they are +well fitted to resist the waste of time. An intense spiritual and moral +life inspired the students, a life rich also in purely intellectual and +artistic force. The ancient churches speak for themselves; the artistic +spirit of the time is splendidly embodied in the famous Latin +manuscript of the Gospels, called the Book of Kells, the most beautiful +specimen of illumination in the world. The wonderful colored initial +letters reproduce and develop the designs of the old gold work, the +motives of which came, it would seem, from the Baltic, with the De +Danaan tribes. We can judge of the quiet and security of the early +disciples at Kells, the comfort and amenity of their daily life, the +spirit of comity and good-will, the purity of inspiration of that early +time, by the artistic truth and beauty of these illuminated pages and +the perfection with which the work was done. Refined and difficult arts +are the evidence of refined feeling, abundant moral and spiritual force, +and a certain material security and ease surrounding the artist. When +these arts are freely offered in the service of religion, they are +further evidence of widespread fervor and aspiration, a high and worthy +ideal of life. + +Yet we shall be quite wrong if we imagine an era of peace and security +following the epoch of the first great Messenger. Nothing is further +from the truth. The old tribal strife continued for long centuries; the +instincts which inspired it are, even now, not quite outworn. Chief +continued to war against chief, province against province, tribe +against tribe, even among the fervent converts of the first teachers. + +Saint Brigid is one of the great figures in the epoch immediately +succeeding the first coming of the Word. She was the foundress of a +school of religious teaching for women at Kildare, or Killdara, "The +Church of the Oak-woods," whose name still records her work. Her work, +her genius, her power, the immense spiritual influence for good which +flowed from her, entitle her to be remembered with the women of +apostolic times, who devoted their whole lives to the service of the +divine. We have seen the esteem in which women were always held in +Ireland. St. Brigid and those who followed in her steps gave effect to +that high estimation, and turned it to a more spiritual quality, so that +now, as in all past centuries, the ideal of womanly purity is higher in +Ireland than in any country in the world. + +This great soul departed from earthly life in the year 525, a generation +after the death of the first Messenger. To show how the old order +continued with the new, we may record the words of the Chronicler for +the following year: "526: The battle of Eiblinne, by Muirceartac son of +Erc; the battle of Mag-Ailbe; the battle of Almain; the battle of +Ceann-eic; the plundering of the Cliacs; and the battle of Eidne against +the men of Connacht." Three of these battles were fought at no great +distance from St. Brigid's Convent. + +The mediaeval Chronicler quotes the old Annalist for the following year: +"The king, the son of Erc, returned to the side of the descendants of +Nial. Blood reached the girdle in each plain. The exterior territories +were enriched. Seventeen times nine chariots he brought, and long shall +it be remembered. He bore away the hostages of the Ui-Neill with the +hostages of the plain of Munster." + +Ten years later we find the two sons of this same king, Muirceartac son +of Erc, by name Fergus and Domnall, fighting under the shadow of +Knocknarea mountain against Eogan Bel the king of Connacht; the ancient +Annalist, doubtless contemporary with the events recorded, thus +commemorated the battle in verse: + +"The battle of the Ui-Fiacrac was fought with the fury of edged weapons +against Bel; + +"The kine of the enemy roared with the javelins, the battle was spread +out at Crinder; + +"The River of Shells bore to the great sea the blood of men with their +flesh; + +"They carried many trophies across Eaba, together with the head of +Eogan Bel." + +During this stormy time, which only carried forward the long progress of +fighting since the days of the prime, a famous school of learning and +religion had been founded at Moville by Finian, "the tutor of the saints +of Ireland." The home of his church and school is a very beautiful one, +with sombre mountains behind rising from oak-woods into shaggy masses of +heather, the blue waters of Lough Foyle in front, and across the mouth +of the lough the silver sands and furrowed chalk hills of Antrim, +blending into green plains. Here the Psalms and the Gospels were taught +in Latin to pupils who had in no wise given up their love for the old +poetry and traditions of their motherland. Here Colum studied, +afterwards called Colum Kill, "Saint Colum of the Churches," and here +arose a memorable dispute concerning a Latin manuscript of the Psalms. +The manuscript belonged to Finian, founder of the school, and was +esteemed one of the treasures of his college. Colum, then a young +student, ardently longed for a copy, and, remaining in the church after +service, he daily copied a part of the sacred text. When his work was +completed, Finian discovered it, and at once claimed the copy of his +book as also his. The matter was submitted to an umpire, who gave the +famous decision: "Unto every cow her calf; unto every book its +copy"--the copy belonged to the owner of the book. This early decision +of copyright was by no means acceptable to the student Colum. He +disputed its justice, and the quarrel spread till it resulted in a +battle. The discredit attaching to the whole episode resulted in the +banishment of Colum, who sailed away northward and eastward towards the +isles and fiords of that land which, from the Irish Scoti who civilized +it, now bears the name of Scotland. Let us recall a few verses written +by Colum on his departure, in a version which echoes something of the +original melody and form: + + "We are rounding Moy-n-Olurg, we sweep by its head and + We plunge through the Foyle, + Whose swans could enchant with their music the dead and + Make pleasure of toil.... + Oh, Erin, were wealth my desire, what a wealth were + To gain far from thee, + In the land of the stranger, but there even health were + A sickness to me! + Alas for the voyage, oh high King of Heaven, + Enjoined upon me, + For that I on the red plain of bloody Cooldrevin + Was present to see. + How happy the son is of Dima; no sorrow + For him is designed, + He is having this hour, round his own Kill in Durrow, + The wish of his mind. + The sound of the wind in the elms, like the strings of + A harp being played, + The note of the blackbird that claps with the wings of + Delight in the glade. + With him in Ros-grenca the cattle are lowing + At earliest dawn, + On the brink of the summer the pigeons are cooing + And doves on the lawn...." + +In another measure, he again mourns his exile: "Happy to be on Ben Edar, +before going over the sea; white, white the dashing of the wave against +its face; the bareness of its shore and its border.... + + "How swiftly we travel; there is a grey eye + Looks back upon Erin, but it no more + Shall see while the stars shall endure in the sky, + Her women, her men, or her stainless shore...." + +This great-hearted and impetuous exile did not waste his life in useless +regrets. Calling forth the fire of his genius, and facing the reality of +life, he set himself to work, spreading the teaching of the New Way +among the Picts of the north--the same Picts who, in years gone by, had +raged against the barrier of Hadrian between Forth and Clyde. The year +of his setting out was 563; the great center of his work was in the +sacred isle of Iona, off the Ross of Mull. Iona stands in the rush of +Atlantic surges and fierce western storms, yet it is an island of rare +beauty amid the tinted mists of summer dawns. Under the year 592, a +century after Saint Patrick's death, we find this entry in the +Chronicle: "Colum Kill, son of Feidlimid, Apostle of Scotland, head of +the piety of the most part of Ireland and Scotland after Patrick, died +in his own church in Iona in Scotland, after the thirty-fifth year of +his pilgrimage, on Sunday night, the ninth of June. Seventy-seven years +was his whole age when he resigned his spirit to heaven." The corrected +date is 596. + +We can see in Colum of the Churches the very spirit of turbulence and +adventure, the fierce impetuosity and readiness for dispute, which led +to the contests between the chieftains of Ireland, the wars between +province and province, often between valley and valley. It is the same +spiritual energy, working itself out in another way, transmuted by the +sacred fire into a divine mission. In the same way the strong will of +Meave, the romantic power of Deirdre and Grania, transmuted to ideal +purposes, was the inspiration of Saint Brigid and so many like her, who +devoted their powers to the religious teaching of women. + +We should doubtless fail utterly to understand the riddle of history, +were we to regret the wild warring of these early times as a mere +lamentable loss of life, a useless and cruel bloodshed. We are too much +given to measuring other times and other moods of the soul by our own, +and many false judgments issue from this error. Peaceful material +production is our main purpose, and we learn many lessons of the Will +embodied in the material world when we follow this purpose honestly. But +before our age could begin, it was necessary for the races to come to +personal consciousness. This end seems everywhere to have been reached +by a long epoch of strife, the contending of man against man, of tribe +against tribe. Thus were brought to full consciousness the instinct of +personal valor, personal honor and personal readiness to face death. + +Only after this high personal consciousness is kindled can a race enter +the wider path of national life, where vivid and intense individuals +unite their forces to a common end, reaching a common consciousness, and +holding their power in common for the purposes of all. After the lessons +of fighting come the lessons of work. For these lessons of work, for +the direct touch with the everlasting Will gained in all honest work, +our own age is to be valued, far more than for the visible and material +fruits which that work produces. + +In like manner the old epoch of war is to be esteemed for the lessons it +taught of high valor, sacrifice, heroic daring. And to what admirable +ends these same qualities may tend we can see in a life like that of +Colum Kill, "head of the piety of the most part of Ireland and Scotland +after Patrick." + +Yet the days of old were grim enough to live in. Let this record of some +half-century later testify. It is but one year culled from a long red +rank of years. We give the Chronicler's own words: "645: The sixth year +of Conall and Ceallac. Mac Laisre, abbot of Bangor, died on May 16. +Ragallac son of Uatac, King of Connacht, was killed by Maelbrigde son of +Motlacan, of which was said: + + "Ragallac son of Uatac was pierced on the back of a white + steed; + + Muiream has well lamented him; Catal has well avenged him. + + Catal is this day in battle, though bound to peace in the + presence of kings; + + Though Catal is without a father, his father is not without + vengeance. + + Estimate his terrible revenge from the account of it related: + + He slew six men and fifty; he made sixteen devastations; + + I had my share like another in the revenge of Ragallac,-- + + I have the gray beard in my hand, of Maelbrigde son of Motlacan." + +These are evidently the very words of one who fought in the battle. Nor +need this in any way surprise us, for we have far older Chronicles set +down year by year in unbroken record. The matter is easy to prove. The +Chronicles of Ulster record eclipses of the sun and moon as early as +495,--two years after Saint Patrick's death. It was, of course, the +habit of astronomers to reckon eclipses backwards, and of annalists to +avail themselves of these reckonings. The Venerable Bede, for example, +has thus inserted eclipses in his history. The result is that the +Venerable Bede has the dates several days wrong, while the Chronicles of +Ulster, where direct observation took the place of faulty reckoning, has +them right, to the day and hour. It is only in quite modern times that +we have reached sufficiently accurate knowledge of the moon's movements +to vindicate the old Ulster Annalists, who began their work not less +than a hundred and fifty years before the battle we have just recorded. + +Nor should we exaggerate the condition of the time, thinking of it as +altogether given over to ravaging and devastation. Even though there +were two or three expeditions and battles every year, these would only +affect a small part of the whole country. Over all the rest, the tending +of cattle in the glades of the forest, the sowing and reaping of wheat +and oats, the gathering of fruit and nuts, continued in quiet +contentment and peace. The young men practiced the arts of war and +exercised themselves in warlike games. The poets sang to them, the +heralds recounted the great doings of old, how Cuculain kept the ford, +how Concobar thirsted in his heart for Deirdre, how the son of Cumal +went to war, how golden-tongued Ossin was ensnared by the spirits. The +gentle life of tillage and the keeping of cattle could never engage the +whole mental force of so vigorous a race. What wonder, then, that, when +a chieftain had some real or imagined wrong to avenge, or some adventure +to propose,--what wonder that bold spirits were ever ready to accompany +him, leaving the women to their distaffs and the tending of children and +the grinding of corn? Mounting their horses, they rode forth through the +woods, under the huge arms of the oak-trees; along the banks of +swift-gliding rivers, through passes of the lowering hills. While still +in familiar territory, the time of the march was passed in song and +story. Then came increased precaution, and gradually heightened pulses +marked the stages of the way. The rival chieftain, warned by his scouts +and outlying tribesmen, got word of their approach, and hastily +replenishing his granaries and driving the cattle into the great circle +of his embankments, prepared to meet the coming foe. Swords, spears, +bows, arrows were the arms of both sides. Though leather tunics were +common, coats of mail came only at a later date. The attackers under +cover of the night sped across the open ground before the fort, and +tried to storm the fortress, the defenders meanwhile showering down +keen-pointed arrows on them from above. Both parties, under the +chieftains' guidance, fought fiercely, in a fever of excitement, giving +no heed to wounds, seeing nothing but the foe and the battlements to be +scaled. Then either a successful sortie broke the ranks of the +assailants and sent them back to their forest camp in wild disorder, or, +the stockade giving way, the stormers swept in like a wave of the sea, +and all was chaos and wild struggle hand to hand. Whatever the outcome, +both sides thought of the wild surge of will and valor in that hour as +the crowning event of their lives. + +Meanwhile, within the quiet enclosures of the monasteries and religious +schools, the spirit of the time was working with not less fervor, to +invisible and ideal ends. At Bangor, on the neck of the northern Ards; +at Moville, where Lough Foyle spreads its inland sea; at Saul, where the +first Messenger won his first convert; at Devenish Island amid the +waters of Lough Erne; at Monasterboice in the plain of Louth; at +Grlendalough, among the solemn hills of Wicklow; at Kildare, beneath the +oak-woods; at Durrow, amid the central marshes, and many another ancient +seat of learning, the way of wisdom and holiness was trod with gladness. +Latin had been taught since the early days of the Message; the native +tongue of Ireland, consecrated in the hymns of St. Patrick and the poems +of St. Colum of the Churches, was the language in which all pupils were +taught, the modern ministrant to the classical speech of Rome. Nor were +the Scriptures alone studied. Terence, Virgil, Ovid, the Augustans and +the men of the silver age, were familiar in the Irish schools; and to +these Latin writers were soon added the Greeks, more especially--as was +natural--the Greek Fathers, the religious philosophers, and those who +embodied the thought and controversies of the early Christian centuries. +To Greek, Hebrew was added, so that both Old and New Testaments were +known in their proper tongues. About the time when "Ragallac son of +Uatac was pierced on the back of a white steed," Saint Camin in his +island school at Inis Caltra, where red mountains hem in Lough Derg of +the Shannon, was writing his Commentary on the Psalms, recording the +Hebrew readings on the margin of the page. A few years before that +battle, in 634, Saint Cummian of Durrow, some thirty miles to the east +of Camin's Holy Island, wrote to his brother, the Abbot of Iona in the +northern seas, quoting Latin writers sacred and secular, as well as +Origen, Cyril and Pachomius among the Greeks. The learned man discusses +the astronomical systems of the Mediterranean world, giving the names of +months and cycles in Hebrew, Greek and Egyptian, and telling of his +researches into the true time of Easter, while on a journey to Italy and +Rome. This letter, which has come down to our days, is first-hand +testimony to the learning of the early Irish schools. + +[Illustration: Ancient Cross, Glendalough.] + +Fifty years later, in 683, we hear of the Saxons for the first and +almost the last time in the history of Ireland. It is recorded that the +North Saxons raided Mag Breag in the East of Meath, attacking both +churches and chieftains. They carried away many hostages and much spoil, +but the captives were soon after set at liberty and sent home again, on +the intercession of a remarkable man, Adamnan, the biographer of Colum +of the Churches, whose success in his mission was held to be miraculous. + +For more than a century after this single Saxon raid Ireland was wholly +undisturbed by foreign invasion, and the work of building churches, +founding schools, studying Hebrew and Greek and Latin, went on with +increasing vigor and success. An army of missionaries went forth to +other lands, following in the footsteps of Colum of the Churches, and of +these we shall presently speak. The life of the church was so rich and +fruitful that we are led to think of this as a period of childlike and +idyllic peace. + +Nothing, however, could be further from the truth. The raids, +devastations and wars between province and province, tribe and tribe, +went on without a year's interruption. This was the normal course of the +nation's life, the natural outlet of the nation's energy: not less a +visible sign of invisible inward power than the faith and fervor of the +schools. We shall get the truest flavor of the times by quoting again +from the old Annals. That they were recorded year by year, we have +already seen; the records of frosts, great snow-storms, years of rich +harvests and the like, interspersed among the fates of kings, show how +faithfully the annals were kept,--as, for example, the winter of great +cold, "when all the rivers and lakes of Ireland were frozen over," in +the year after the Saxon raid. + +Here again, under the year 701, is the word of a man then living: "After +Loing Seac son of Angus son of Domnall had been eight years in the +sovreignty of Ireland, he was slain in the battle of Ceann by Cealleac +of Lough Cime, the son of Ragallac, as Cealleac himself testifies: + + + "'For his deeds of ambition he was slain in the morning at + Glas Cuilg; + + I wounded Loing Seac with a sword, the monarch of Ireland + round.'" + +Two years later Saint Adamnan died, after governing the Abbey of Iona +for six and twenty years. It was said of him that "He made a slave of +himself to his virtues," and his great life-work, the Latin history of +Saint Colum of the Churches, founder of the Iona Abbey, to this day +testifies to his high learning and wisdom. + +Fourteen years later "Leinster was five times devastated by the +Ui-Neill," the descendants of Nial, and a battle was fought between the +men of Connacht and Munster. Thus the lives of saints and warriors were +interwoven. On very rare occasions the two lives of the race came into +collision. Thus, a quarrel arose between Congus the Abbot and Aed Roin +king of Ulad. Congus summoned to his aid the chief of the Ui-Neill, Aed +Allan by name, in these verses: + + "Say to the cold Aed Allan that I have been oppressed by + a feeble enemy: + + Aed Roin insulted me last night at Cill Cunna of the sweet + music." + +Aed Allan made these verses on his way to battle to avenge the insult: + + "For Cill Cunna the church of my spiritual father, + I take this day a journey on the road. + Aed Roin shall leave his head with me, + Or I shall leave my head with him." + +The further history of that same year, 733, is best told in the words of +the Annals: "Aed Allan, king of Ireland, assembled his forces to +proceed into Leinster, and he arrived at the Ford of Seannait (in +Kildare). The Leinstermen collected the greatest number they were able, +to defend their rights against him. The king Aed Allan himself went into +the battle, and the chieftains of the north along with him. The +chieftains of Leinster came with their kings into the battle, and +bloodily and heroically was the battle fought between them. Heroes were +slaughtered and bodies were hacked. Aed Allan and Aed, son of Colgan, +king of Leinster, met each other, and Aed son of Colgan was slain by Aed +Allan. The Leinstermen were killed, slaughtered, cut off, and dreadfully +exterminated in this battle, so that there escaped of them but a small +remnant and a few fugitives." + +To round out the picture, to contrast the two streams of the nation's +life, let us give this, from the following year: "734: Fifth year of Aed +Allan. Saint Samtain, virgin, of Cluain Bronaig (Longford), died on +December 19. It was of her that Aed Allan gave this testimony: + + "Samtain for enlightening various sinners, + A servant who observed stern chastity, + In the wide plain of fertile Meath + Great suffering did Samtain endure; + She undertook a thing not easy,-- + Fasting for the kingdom above. + She lived on scanty food; + Hard were her girdles; + She struggled in venomous conflicts; + Pure was her heart amid the wicked. + To the bosom of the Lord, with a pure death, + Samtain passed from her trials." + + + +X. + +THE RAIDS OF THE NORTHMEN. + +A.D. 750-1050. + +Aed Allan, the king who so feelingly wrote the epitaph of the saintly +virgin Samtain, needed an epitaph himself four years later, for he fell +in battle with Domnall son of Murcad son of Diarmaid, who succeeded him +on the throne. It is recorded that, in the following year, the sea cast +ashore a whale under the mountains of Mourne, to the great wonder of +those who dwelt by the hill of Rudraige. Thus do the Chronicles +establish their good faith, by putting on record things trifling or +grave, with equal impartiality. + +They were presently to have something more memorable to record than the +loss of a battle or the stranding of a whale. But before we come to this +new chapter in the life of Ireland, let us show the continuity of the +forces we have already depicted. The old tribal turmoil went on +unabated. In 771, the first year of Doncad son of Domnall in the +sovereignty over Ireland, that ruler made a full muster of the Ui-Neill +and marched into Leinster. The Leinstermen moved before the monarch and +his forces, until they arrived at the fort called Nectain's Shield in +Kildare. Domcad with his forces was entrenched at Aillin, whence his +people continued to fire, burn, plunder and devastate the province for +the space of a week, when the Leinstermen at last submitted to his will. +Seventeen years later it is recorded that the church and abbey of +Ardmaca, or, as we may now begin to call it, Armagh, were struck by +lightning, and the night was terrible with thunder, lightning and wind. + +We see, therefore, that the double life of the people, the life of valor +and the life of wisdom, were following their steady course in camp and +school. We may call up a very interesting witness to the whole condition +of Ireland during this epoch: Alfred king of the Northumbrian Saxons, +who spent several years traveling through the land and studying in the +schools. On his departure, he wrote an ode of acknowledgment to the +country he was leaving, in the verse of the native Irish tongue. From +this ode we may quote a few picturesque lines, taking them from a +version which preserves something of the original rhythm: + + "I traveled its fruitful provinces round, + And in every one of the five I found, + Alike in church and in palace hall, + Abundant apparel and food for all. + Gold and silver I found, and money, + Plenty of wheat and plenty of honey; + I found God's people rich in pity; + Found many a feast and many a city.... + I found in each great church moreo'er, + Whether on island or on shore, + Piety, learning, fond affection, + Holy welcome and kind protection.... + I found in Munster unfettered of any + Kings and queens and poets a many, + Poets well skilled in music and measure; + Prosperous doings, mirth and pleasure. + I found in Connacht the just, redundance + Of riches, milk in lavish abundance; + Hospitality, vigor, fame, + In Crimean's land of heroic name.... + I found in Ulster, from hill to glen, + Hardy warriors, resolute men. + Beauty that bloomed when youth was gone, + And strength transmitted from sire to son.... + I found in Leinster the smooth and sleek, + From Dublin to Slewmargy's peak, + Flourishing pastures, valor, health, + Song-loving worthies, commerce, wealth.... + I found in Meath's fair principality + Virtue, vigor, and hospitality; + Candor, joyfulness, bravery, purity-- + Ireland's bulwark and security. + I found strict morals in age and youth, + I found historians recording truth. + The things I sing of in verse unsmooth + I found them all; I have written sooth." + +The modern form of the names used by the translator gives this version a +slightly misleading tone. Ulster, Munster, Leinster were still known by +their old names: Ulad, Mumain and Lagin. The Danish termination by which +we know them had not been added. In like manner, Dublin in those days +and far later was still called At-Cliat, the Ford of the Hurdles. Yet +the tribute which the Saxon king paid to Ireland has a true ring. It +thoroughly supports what we have said: that incessant tribal warfare +rather expressed than detracted from the vigor of the nation's life. It +had this grave defect, however: it so kindled and cherished the instinct +of separateness that union in face of a common foe was almost +impossible. Long years of adverse fate were needed to merge the keen +individual instinct of old into the common consciousness of to-day. + +Modern historians generally write as if the onslaught of the Northmen +had had this unifying effect; as if it had been a great calamity, +overwhelming the country for several centuries, and submerging its +original life under a tide of conquest. Here again the history of the +time, as recorded year by year in the Annals, leads us to a wholly +different conclusion. We find inroads of the Northmen, it is true; but +they are only interludes in the old national life of storm and struggle. +That enduring tribal conflict, of which we have already seen so much, +did not cease even for a year. Nor can it have greatly mattered to the +dwellers in some remote valley whether they were sacked, their cattle +driven off, and their children taken captive by strangers or by men of +their own land. + +There was one chief difference: the foreigners, being still heathens, +did not spare the churches and the schools. The golden or silver +reliquaries, the jeweled manuscript-cases, the offerings of precious +stones and rich ornaments laid on the altars: these things proved an +irresistible temptation to the roving sea-kings. They often burned or +cast away the manuscripts, eager only to take the jeweled coverings, and +in this way many monuments of the olden time have been lost, and many +gaps in the history of the nation made irreparable. Yet it would seem +that even the loss of manuscripts has been exaggerated, since such +lavish abundance remains to us from the times before the first northern +raiders came. Many a remote shrine was never even approached by the +northern wanderers; and, in the long times of peace between raid and +raid, one school had time to gain from another copies of the books which +were lost. We may hope that the somewhat rigid views of copyright +expressed in the matter of St. Finian's Psalter were not invariably +adhered to. We have Chronicles kept with unbroken regularity year by +year through the whole of the epoch of Northern raids, and they by no +means indicate a period of national depression, nor justify us in +thinking of these raids as much more than episodes in the general +fighting of the nation,--the martial state through which every modern +country has passed before emerging to homogeneous life. + +To come to the events themselves, as they appeared to the men who +witnessed them. We find the first record of the Northern raiders under +the year 795: "The burning of Lambay by the Gentiles. The shrines were +broken and plundered." This Lambay is an island of considerable extent, +off the Dublin coast, some six or seven miles north of Howth. It rises +gradually from the south extremity into a purple cliff of porphyry +facing the northern sea, and on the sheltered slope under the sun a +little church colony with schools and dwelling-houses had been built. +Against this peaceful solitude the raiders came, burning and plundering, +and when they rowed away again in their long ships towards the north, a +smoldering black ruin bore testimony that they were indeed Gentiles, +unblessed by Christian baptism. + +Three years later the little island of St. Patrick, six miles north of +Lambay, met with a like fate. It was "burned by the Gentiles," as the +Chronicles say. And from that time forth we hear of their long ships +again and again, hovering hawk-like around the coasts of Ireland and +Scotland. In 802, and again in 806, the Scottish Iona of Colum of the +Churches was raided, and the next year we find the pirates making a +descent upon Inismurray, off the Sligo coast, between the summit of +Knocknarea and the cliffs of Slieve League. This last settlement of +saints and scholars was founded by Molaise,--he who had pronounced +sentence of exile on Colum of the Churches, the banishment that was the +beginning of grace for the northern Picts. His oratory still remains on +the island, beside the Church of the Men, the Church of the Women and +the circular stone fort, which was very likely built to guard against +new attacks, after this first raid. There are holy wells and altars +there also, and Inismurray, better than any other place, gives us a +picture of the old scholastic life of that remote and wonderful time. + +Five years later, the Northern raiders made their way further round the +coast, under the shadow of the western mountains and the great cliffs of +Achill; we read of "a slaughter of the people of Connemara by the +Gentiles" in that year, and the year following, other battles with +Gentiles are recorded in the same part of Ireland. + +In 818, if we are to believe the Annalist, a singular thing happened: +"An army was led by Murcad, having the Ui-Neill of the North with him. +Concobar king of Ireland with the Ui-Neill of the South and the +Leinstermen came from the South on the other hand. When they came to one +place, it happened, through a miracle of God, that they separated from +each other for that time without slaughter or one of them spilling a +drop of the other's blood." That entry better than any other shows the +restless spirit of the times. It shows, too, that the first shock of +Norse invasion had not in any sense warned the people and chieftains of +Ireland of coming danger, nor had it in any degree checked the steady +course of the nation's growth through storm and strife to personal +consciousness, as the stepping-stone to the wider common consciousness +of the modern world. + +The year following we read of "a plundering of Howth by the Gentiles, +who carried off a great prey of women." These captives were doubtless +the first to bring the Message of the New Way to the wild granite lands +of the north, where the mountains in their grandeur frown upon the long +inlets of the fiords. They taught to their children in those wild lands +of exile the lessons of grace and holiness, so rudely interrupted when +the long ships of the Norsemen were sighted from the Hill of Howth. + +A year later, in 820, the raiders had found their way to the +southernmost extremity of the island; to Cape Clear, off the coast of +Cork. This once again brings to our notice the position of so many of +the early religious settlements,--on rocky islands off the coasts, well +out of the turmoil of tribal strife which raged uninterrupted on the +mainland. St. Patrick's Island and Lambay on the east, Clear Island on +the south, and Inismurray on the northwest, so well protected by the sea +from disturbance at home, were, by that very isolation, terribly exposed +to these foreign raiders from the sea. Howth, Moville and Bangor, all on +peninsulas, all by the seashore, enjoyed a like immunity and were open +to a like danger. Therefore we are not surprised to find that, two years +later, Bangor was "plundered by the Gentiles." + +It will be remembered that St. Patrick's first church was built on land +given him by Dicu, chieftain of the district round Downpatrick, a name +which commemorates the presence of the Messenger. Two sons of this same +Dicu had been held as hostages by Laogaire the king, and their marvelous +escape from durance was recorded in the name, Dun-da-lath-glas, the +Dwelling of the Two Broken Fetters, given to Downpatrick. The place was +of old renown. Known to Ptolemy as Dunum, it was, during Concobar's sway +at Emain of Maca, the fortress of the strong chief, Celtcar, whose huge +embattled hill of earth still rises formidable over the Quoyle River. In +the year 823, we read, Dundalathglas was plundered by the Gentiles; but +the story does not stop here, for we are further told that these same +Gentiles were beaten by the Ulad armies not far from the great fort of +Celtcar. This is the first entry of this tenor. Hitherto, the Northmen +seem to have fallen only on outlying religious communities, in remote +islands or on the seashore; but this last raid brought them to one of +the very few church-schools which had been built close to a strong +fortress, with the result that the Northmen were beaten and driven back +into their ships. + +Three years later the Gentiles plundered Lusk on the mainland opposite +Lambay, but in that same year they were twice defeated in battle, once +by Cairbre son of Catal, and once by the king of Ulad. The raids of the +Norse warriors grow more frequent and determined from this time; in +itself a testimony to the wealth and prosperity of the country, the +abundance of gold and of accumulated riches, whether cattle or corn, +ornaments or richly dyed stuffs, red and purple and blue. Word seems to +have been carried to the wild hills and fiords of frozen Scandinavia +that here was booty in abundance, and the pirate hordes came down +in swarms. + +Thus we read that Armagh, the center of St. Patrick's work, and the +chief home of learning, was thrice plundered in 830, the raiders sailing +up Carlingford Lough and then making a dash of some fifteen miles across +the undulating country separating them from the city of churches. This +is the first time they ventured out of sight of their boats. Two years +later they plundered Clondalkin, nine miles inland from the Dublin +coast, where the Round Tower still marks the site of the old church and +school. To the growing frequency of these raids, it would seem, the +building of Round Towers is to be attributed; they were at once belfries +and places of refuge. We find, therefore, that the door is almost always +many feet above the ground, being reached by a ladder afterwards drawn +up by those inside. The number of these Round Towers all over the +country, and the perfect preservation of many of them, show how +universal this precaution was, and how effective were the refugees thus +provided. It is instructive to read under this same year, 832, that "a +great number of the family of Clonmacnoise were slain by Feidlimid king +of Cashel, all their land being burned by him up to the door of the +church." Thus the progress of tribal struggle was uninterrupted by the +Gentile raids. + +Four years later, a fleet of sixty Norse fighting galleys sailed up the +Boyne. Sixty long ships entered the Liffey in the same year, and a year +later they captured the fortress of the Ford of the Hurdles, +At-Cliat,--the old name of Dublin. Three years later we find the king of +Munster plundering Meath and West Meath, showing that no sense of common +danger disturbed the native kings. This strengthens the view we have +already taken: that the attacks of the Norse sea-kings were only an +interlude in the incessant contests between the tribes of province and +province; contests perfectly natural and normal to the development of +the land, and through which every country has at some period passed. + +[Illustration: Round Tower, Antrim.] + +It would seem that the Northmen who captured the Ford of the Hurdles +departed from their former usage. Fortifying themselves, or +strengthening the existent fortress, they determined to pass the winter +in Ireland, instead of returning, as they had always done up to this +time, before the autumn storms made dangerous the navigation of the wild +northern seas. Their presence in this fort gave the native powers a +center upon which to concentrate their attack, and as a result the year +846 was marked by a signal victory over the Northmen, twelve hundred of +those at At-Cliat being slain. Four other successful contests with the +raiders are recorded for the same year, and we can thoroughly trust the +Annalists who, up to this time, have so faithfully recorded the +disasters of their own race. + +About the same time the Northmen gained a second point of vantage by +seizing and fortifying a strong position where the town of Cork now +stands. Indeed their instinct of seamanship, their knowledge of good +harbors and the conditions which make them, led them to fix their first +entrenchments at Dublin, Cork and Limerick,--which remained for +centuries after the great ports of the country on the east, south and +west; and the Norse flavor still lingers in the names of Carlingford, +Wexford and Waterford, the Fiords of Cairlinn, Weis and Vadre. A +wonderful side-light on the whole epoch is shed by this entry for 847: +"In this year sevenscore ships of the Gentiles from abroad fought +against the Gentiles in Ireland." It would seem that the earlier comers, +who had drawn up their long ships on the beach, and thrown up earthworks +round their camp, instantly resented the attempt of later arrivals to +poach on their preserves, and that a fierce fight was the result. During +the whole of the following century we find signs of like rivalry between +different bands of raiders, and it becomes evident that they were as +much divided amongst themselves as were the native tribes they +fought against. + +Two years later a further light is shed on this mutual strife when we +are told that "Dark Gentiles came to At-Cliat and slaughtered the Fair +Gentiles, plundering their fort and carrying away both people and +property." The next year saw a new struggle between the Dark Gentiles +and the Fair Gentiles, with much mutual slaughter. This leads us to +realize that these raiders, vaguely grouped by modern writers under the +single name of Danes, really belonged to several different races, and +doubtless came from many parts of the Baltic coasts, as well as from the +fiords of the great Scandinavian peninsula. The Dark Foreigners are +without doubt some of that same race of southern origin which we saw, +ages earlier, migrating northwards along the Atlantic seaboard,--a race +full of the spirit of the sea, and never happier than when the waves +were curling and breaking under their prows. They found their way, we +saw, as far northwards as the coast of Scotland, the Western Isles, and +distant Norway over the foam, where the long fiords and rugged +precipices gave them a congenial home. We find them hovering over the +shores of Ireland at the very dawn of her history; and, in later but +still remote ages, their power waned before the De Danaan tribes. This +same dark race returning now from Norway, swooped hawk-like upon the +rich shrines of the Irish island sanctuaries, only to come into hostile +contact once more with sons of that golden-haired race which scattered +the dark Fomorians at Mag Tuiread of the North. For the Fair Gentiles of +our mediaeval Chronicle are no other than the golden-haired +Scandinavians; the yellow-locked Baltic race that gave conquerors and a +new ideal of beauty to the whole modern world. And this Baltic race, as +we saw in an earlier epoch, was the source and mother of the old De +Danaans, whose hair was like new-smelted gold or the yellow flag-lilies +of our lakes and rivers. Thus after long ages the struggle of Fomor and +De Danaan was renewed at the Ford of the Hurdles between the Dark and +Fair Strangers, rivals for the plunder of the Irish religious schools. + +Though the personalities of this age do not stand forth with the high +relief of Cuculain and Concobar, though we can hardly quote poems to +equal the songs of Find son of Cumal and Ossin of the golden tongue, yet +genuine inspiration never failed in the hearts of the warriors and on +the lips of the bards. Thus in 860 did a poet lament the death of +a king: + + "Mournfully is spread her veil of grief over Erin + Since Maelseaclain, chieftain of our race has perished,-- + Maelseaclain of the flowing Shannon. + Many a moan resounds in every place; + It is mournful news among the Gael. + + Red wine has been spilled into the valley: + Erin's monarch has died. + Though he was wont to ride a white charger. + Though he had many steeds, + His car this day is drawn by a yoke of oxen. + The king of Erin is dead." + +Four years afterwards the contest between the raiders and the chieftains +grew keener, more centered, more like organized war. "A complete muster +of the North was made by Aed Finnliat, so that he plundered the +fortresses of the foreigners, wherever they were in the north; and he +carried off their cattle and accoutrements, their goods and chattels. +The foreigners of the province came together at Lough Foyle. After Aed +king of Ireland had heard that this gathering of strangers was on the +borders of his country, he was not negligent in attending to them. For +he marched towards them with all his forces, and a battle was fought +fiercely and spiritedly between them. The victory was gained over the +foreigners, and a slaughter was made of them. Their heads were collected +to one place, in the presence of the king, and twelve-score heads were +reckoned before him, which was the number slain in that battle, besides +the numbers of those who were wounded and carried off by him in the +agonies of death, and who died of their wounds some time afterwards." + +A renewal of tribal warfare in the second year after this, when this +same Aed the king was attacked by Flann the lord of Breag in Meath, +called forth certain battle-verses full of the fire and fervor of +the time. + +A poet sang: + + "At Kiladerry this day the ravens shall taste sips of blood: + A victory shall be gained over the magic host of the Gentiles + and over Flann." + +The mother of Flann sang: + + "Happiness! Woe! Good news! Bad news! The gaining of a great + triumphant battle. + + Happy the king whom it makes victorious; unhappy the king who + was defeated. + + Unhappy the host of Leat Cuin, to have fallen by the sprites + of Slain; + + Happy the reign of great Aed, and unhappy the loss of Flann." + +Aed the victorious king sang: + + "The troops of Leinster are with him, with the added men of + swift Boyne; + + This shows the treachery of Flann: the concord of Gentiles + at his side." + +After ten years, a bard thus sings the dirge of Aed: + + "Long is the wintry night, with rough gusts of wind; + Under pressing grief we meet it, since the red-speared king + of the noble house lives not. + It is fearful to watch how the waves heave from the bottom; + To them may be compared all those who with us lament him. + A generous, wise, staid man, of whose renown the populous + Tara was full. + A shielded oak that sheltered the palace of Milid's sons. + Master of the games of the fair hilled Taillten, + King of Tara of a hundred conflicts; + Chief of Fodla the noble, Aed of Oileac who died too soon. + Popular, not forgotten, he departed from this world, + A yew without any blemish upon him was he of the long-flowing + hair." + +Nor must it be thought that these repeated raids which we have recorded +in any way checked the full spiritual life of the nation. It is true +that there was not that quiet serenity from which came the perfect +beauty and art of the old Book of Kells, but a keenness and fire kindled +the breasts of those who learned the New Way and the Ancient Learning. +The schools sent forth a host of eminent men who over all western Europe +laid the intellectual basis of the modern world. This view of Ireland's +history might well be expanded almost without limit or possibility of +exaggeration. Receiving, as we saw, the learning and traditions of Rome +while Rome was yet mighty and a name of old imperial renown, Ireland +kept and cherished the classical wisdom and learning, not less than the +lore of Palestine. Then the northern garrisons of Rome were beaten back, +and Britain and Gaul alike were devastated by hordes from beyond the +Rhine. The first wild deluge of these fierce invaders was now over, and +during the lull of the storm teachers went forth from Ireland to +Scotland, as we have seen; they went also to Britain; to Belgium; to +northern, central and southern Gaul; and to countries beyond the Rhine +and in the south; to Switzerland and Austria, where one Irishman gave +his name to the Canton of St. Gall, while another founded the famous see +of Salzburg, a rallying-point through all the Middle Ages. It was not +only for pure spiritual zeal and high inspiration that these teachers +were famed. They had not less renown for all refined learning and +culture. The famous universities of Oxford, Paris and Pavia count among +the great spirits at their inception men who were worthy pupils of the +schools of Devenish and Durrow, of Bangor and Moville. + +We have recorded the tribute paid by Alfred the Saxon king to the +Ireland of his day. Let us add to it the testimony of a great divine of +France. Elias, Bishop of Angouleme, who died in 875, wrote thus: "What +need to speak of Ireland; setting at nought, as it does, the +difficulties of the sea, and coming almost in a body to our shores, with +its crowd of philosophers, the most intelligent of whom are subjecting +themselves to a voluntary exile." + +We have traced the raids of the Northmen for nearly a century. They +continued for a century and a quarter longer. Through all this time the +course of the nation's life was as we have described it: a raid from the +sea, or from one of their seaboard fortresses by the Dark Gentiles or +the Fair; an assembling of the hosts of the native chieftains against +them; a fierce and spirited battle against the pirates in their +mail-coats and armed with great battle-axes. Sometimes the chosen people +prevailed, and sometimes the Gentiles; but in either case the heads of +the slain were heaped up at the feet of the victor, many cattle were +driven away as spoil, and young men and maidens were taken into +captivity. It would seem that at no time was there any union between the +foreigners of one and another seaboard fortress, any more than there was +unity among the tribes whom they raided and who defeated them in their +turn. It was a strife of warring units, without fusion; small groups +round chosen leaders, and these merging for awhile in greater groups. +Thus the life of the times, in its warlike aspect. Its spiritual vigor +we have sufficiently shown, not less in the inspirations of the saints +than in the fiery songs of the bards, called forth by battles and the +death of kings. Everywhere there was fierce force and seething energy, +bringing forth fruit of piety or prowess. + +The raiders slowly lost their grasp of the fortresses they had seized. +Newcomers ceased to fill their thinning ranks. Their force was finally +shattered at the battle of Clontarf, which the Annalist thus records: +"1013: The Foreigners of the west of Europe assembled against Brian and +Maelseaclain, and they took with them a thousand men with coats of mail. +A spirited, fierce, violent, vengeful and furious battle was fought +between them, the likeness of which was not to be found in that time, at +Cluain-tarb, the Lawn of the Bulls. In this battle was slain Brian son +of Ceinneidig, monarch of Ireland, who was the Augustus of all the west +of Europe, in the eighty-eighth year of his age." + +The scene of this famous conflict is on the coast, between Dublin and +the Hill of Howth. A wide strand of boulders is laid bare by the +receding tide, with green sea-grass carpeting the stones. At the very +verge of the farthest tide are two huge sand-banks, where the waves roar +and rumble with a sound like the bellowing of bulls, and this tumultuous +roaring is preserved in the name of the place unto this day. + + + +XI. + +THE PASSING OF THE NORSEMEN. + +A.D. 1013-1250. + +There was, as we have seen, no "Danish Conquest" of Ireland, nor +anything approaching a conquest. What really happened during the ninth +and tenth centuries was this: Raiders from the shores of the Northern +seas, from the Scandinavian peninsula and the Western Isles of Scotland, +sailed in their long ships among the islands of the Irish coast, looking +for opportunities to plunder the treasuries of the religious schools, +and carrying off the gold and silver reliquaries and manuscript cases, +far more valuable to these heathen seamen than the Latin or Gaelic +manuscripts they contained. + +These raids had little connection with each other; they were the outcome +of individual daring, mere boat's-crews from one or another of the +Northern fiords. A few of the more persistent gradually grew reluctant +to retreat with their booty to the frozen north, and tried to gain a +footing on the shores of the fertile and wealthy island they had +discovered. They made temporary camps on the beach, always beside the +best harbors, and threw up earthworks round them, or perhaps more +lasting forts of stone. Thus they established a secondary base for raids +inland, and a place of refuge whither they might carry the cattle, corn +and captives which these raids brought them from the territories of the +native clans. These camps on the shore were the germ of a chain of +sea-ports at Dublin, Wexford, Waterford, Cork and Limerick. + +From these points raiding went on, and battles were fought in which the +raiders were as often vanquished as victorious. There was little union +between the various Norse forts, and indeed we sometimes find them +fighting valiantly among themselves. Meanwhile, the old tribal contest +went on everywhere throughout the island. The south invaded the north +and was presently invaded in return. The east and the west sent +expeditions against each other. Clan went forth against clan, chief +against chief, and cattle and captives many times changed hands. These +captives, it would seem, became the agricultural class in each clan, +being made to work as the penalty for unsuccessful fighting. The old +tribal life went on unbroken during the whole of this period; nor did +it subsequently yield to pressure from without, but rather passed +away, during succeeding centuries, as the result of inward growth. +Meanwhile the religious schools continued their work, studying Latin and +Greek as well as the old Gaelic, and copying manuscripts as before; and +one fruit of their work we see in the gradual conversion of the heathen +Norsemen, who were baptized and admitted to the native church. The old +bardic schools likewise continued, so that we have a wealth of native +manuscripts belonging to this time, embodying the finest tradition and +literature of the earlier pagan ages. + +[Illustration: Giant Head and Dunluce Castle, Co. Antrim.] + +If the Danes and Northern raiders never conquered Ireland, on the other +hand they never were expelled. Through the cessation of the original +impulse of unrest which brought them, they gradually ceased to receive +accessions from the North, and at the same time the forces of +amalgamation were slowly merging them into the national and tribal life +of their new home. Their separate influence grew less and less, but +their race continued, and continues to this day in the sea-ports we +have named. + +We shall presently have to record another series of Norse inroads, this +time not directly from the North, but mediately, through France and +Britain, and we shall find that much of our subsequent history was +influenced by the new elements and principles then added. We shall do +well, therefore, to linger for a moment before this new transition, to +gain a clear view of the tendencies of the epoch then closed, the wider +significance of that chapter of our nation's life. + +The culture of Ireland, during the period before the Northern raids, +bridged over the abyss between the classical and the mediaeval world. +During the whole of that period the rest of Europe was hidden under the +clouds of the Dark Ages. Ireland stood alone as the one cultured nation. +Receiving the classical learning from Roman Gaul and Britain and Italy, +while the old world was still alive, Ireland carried that culture onward +when Rome and the Roman Empire fell, crushed under the hordes of +Northern barbarians: the Franks in Gaul; the Lombards, Goths and Vandals +in Spain and Italy; the Angles, Saxons and Danes in Britain; and the +Picts and Northmen in the Scottish lowlands. Austria was meanwhile +overrun by Asian nomads, the Huns and Magyars; Russia and Germany, with +the Scandinavian lands, were still pagan. + +Thus all Europe was submerged under a deluge of heathenism, and the old +Latin culture was swept away. The tradition of ancient Greece still +lingered at Constantinople behind the wall of the Balkans, but it had no +influence at all on the northern nations beyond the wall. Ireland was +thus the one exception, the ark of safety for the old wisdom and beauty +of classical days. And from Ireland, when the tide of heathen invasion +slackened, the light of classical times and the spirit of the New Way +went forth to all the nascent nations, the great pagan tribes that were +to form the modern world. Thus Ireland was the bridge over the Dark +Ages, the first of modern nations, keeping the old and blending it +with the new. + +Yet another view of Ireland's significance must not be forgotten. Of the +original life of the great pagan world which swept over the Roman Empire +we know almost nothing. How much do we realize of the thought and genius +of Aleman, Frank and Vandal, of Angle and Lombard and Burgundian? + +Nothing at all. The darkness that shrouds them is complete. But what a +contrast when we come to Ireland! If we leave out the basin of the +Mediterranean, with its Asian and African traditions, Ireland is the one +European nation which has clear records of its pagan history. And how +excellent that history was, how full of humanity and the rich wine of +life, the stories of Fergus and Concobar and Cuculain, of Find and Ossin +and Gael, of Meave and Deirdre and Crede bear sufficient witness. The +tide of Irish life to which they belong, and which brought them forth, +flowed on without break to a time so recent that their whole tradition +has come down to us, practically at first hand, from the heralds and +bards themselves. Ireland is, therefore, our one doorway to the history +of northern Europe through the long era of pagan times. + +That history was everywhere a fierce tale of tribal warfare. Its heroes +are valiant fighters, keen leaders of forays, champion swordsmen and +defenders of forts. The air throbs to the battle-drum, rings to the call +of the war-trumpet. Every tribe, every clan, is in turn victor and +vanquished, raider and victim of raids. Everywhere are struggle and +unrest, tales of captivity and slaughter. + +We fall into vain lamenting over this red rapine and wrath, until we +divine the genius and secret purpose of that wonderful epoch, so wholly +different in inspiration from our own. The life of races, like the life +of men, has its ordered stages, and none can ripen out of season. That +was the epoch of dawning individual consciousness, when men were coming +to a keen and vivid realization of themselves and their powers. Keen +consciousness and strong personal will could be developed only through +struggle--through long ages of individual and independent fighting, +where the best man led, and often fought for his right to lead with the +best of his followers. Innumerable centers of initiative and force were +needed, and these the old tribal life abundantly gave. The territory of +a chief hardly stretched farther than he could ride in a day, so that +every part of it had a real place in his heart. Nor was he the owner of +that territory. He was simply the chosen leader of the men who lived +there, perhaps the strongest among many brothers who shared it equally +between them. If another thought himself the better man, the matter was +forthwith decided by fighting. + +The purpose of all this was not the "survival of the fittest" in the +material sense, but a harvest purely spiritual: the ripening of keen +personal consciousness and will in all the combatants, to the full +measure of their powers. The chiefs were the strongest men who set the +standard and served as models for the rest, but that standard held the +minds of all, the model of perfect valor was in the hearts of all. Thus +was personal consciousness gained and perfected. + +If we keep this in mind as the keynote of the whole pagan epoch, we +shall be better able to comprehend the new forces which were added to +that epoch, and which gradually transformed it. The greatest was the +Message of the New Way. Deeds are stronger than words, and in the deeds +of the first Messengers we can see the new spirit bearing fruit. The +slave of Slemish mountain returned breathing not vengeance for his +captivity but pity and generous kindness towards his captors. Colum the +exile did not seek to enlist the Picts against his native land, but +sought rather to give the message of that land to the wild Pictish +warriors, and to spread humane and generous feeling among them. Thus was +laid the foundation of a wide and universal consciousness; a bridge was +built between soul and soul. + +From the waning of the Norsemen to the first coming of the Normans is a +period of about a hundred and fifty years. We shall best gain an insight +into the national and religious life of that time by gleaning from the +Annals the vivid and living pictures they never fail to give,--pictures +which are the records of eye-witnesses. The strictly contemporary +character of the records is vouched for by the correct entry of +eclipses: for instance, "on the day before the calends of September, in +the year 1030, there was a darkening of the sun." + +We see the genius of the Norsemen suffering a like eclipse the year +before: "1029: Olaf son of Sitric, lord of the Foreigners, was taken +prisoner by Matgamain Ua Riagain lord of Breag, who exacted twelve +hundred cows as his ransom, together with seven score British horses, +three score ounces of gold, the sword of Carlus, the Irish hostages, +sixty ounces of white silver as the ransom of his fetters, eighty cows +for word and supplication, and four hostages to Ua Riagain as a security +of peace." + +Two generations later we read: "1088: Tigearnac Ua Briain, chief +successor of Ciaran and Coman, died. He was a paragon of learning and +history." The work of the paragon Tigearnac, a history of Ireland, is +extant and writ in choice Latin, a monument at once of the classical +learning of our schools and of the historical spirit carried down from +the days of the pagan heralds and bards. Tigearnac quotes abundantly +from Greek and Latin authors, fortifying his conclusions with passages +from Eusebius, Orosius, Julius Africanus, Josephus, Jerome and Bede. + +A half-century later we get a quaint and vivid glimpse into the +religious life of the time: "1145: A lime-kiln which was sixty feet +every way was erected opposite Emain Maca by Gilla Mac Liag, the +successor of Patrick, and Patrick's clergy in general." Here is the glow +of that devotion through work which gave us the great mediaeval +cathedrals, the fervor and artistic power, which in former times adorned +the Gospels of the Book of Kells, now working out its way in lasting +stone. The date of this lime-kiln lies indeed just half-way between the +consecration of Cormac's Chapel at Cashel in 1134 and the foundation of +the beautiful cathedral beside it by the lord of Tuaid-Muma or Thomond +in 1152. Cormac's Chapel is a very pure example of native style, +untouched by foreign or continental influence. + +[Illustration: Rock of Cashel, Ruins of Old Cathedral, King Cormac's +Chapel and Round Tower,] + +We can divine the figure of one of the great men of the religious world +in the records for the year 1148: "A synod was convened at Saint +Patrick's Isle by Maelmaedog, called also Malachias, successor of +Patrick, at which were present fifteen bishops and two hundred priests, +to establish rules and morals for all. Maelmaedog by the advice of the +synod went a second time to Rome, to confer with the successor of +Peter." A few months later we read this record of his death: "Malachias, +that is, Maelmaedog Ua Morgair, Archbishop of the chair of Patrick, +chief head of the piety of the West of Europe, legate of the successor +of Peter, the only head whom the Irish and the Foreigners obeyed, chief +paragon of wisdom and piety, a brilliant lamp which illumined +territories and churches by preaching and good works, faithful shepherd +of the church in general,--after having ordained bishops and priests and +persons of every degree; after having consecrated many churches and +cemeteries; after having performed every ecclesiastical work throughout +Ireland; after having bestowed jewels and food upon the mighty and the +needy; after having founded churches and monasteries, for by him was +repaired in Ireland every church which had been consigned to decay and +neglect, and they had been neglected from times remote;--after leaving +every rule and every good moral in the churches of Ireland in general; +after having been the second time in the legateship; after having been +fourteen years in the primacy; and after the fifty-fourth year of his +age, resigned his spirit to heaven on the second day of November, and +was buried in the monastery of Saint Bernard at Claravallis in France." + +This is the same worthy under whose influence was built the great +lime-kiln over against the fort of Emain, where Concobar once ruled. +Even from the scant notices which we have quoted he stands forth clear +and strong, full of spiritual and moral vigor, a great man in every +sense, and one in whom we divine a lovable and admirable spirit. At that +time there were four archbishoprics in Ireland, at Armagh, Cashel, +Dublin and Tuam; the primacy belonging to the first, as the seat of the +Damliag Mor or Great Stone Church, built by Saint Patrick himself. A +sentence in the Annals shows how the revenues were raised: "A horse from +every chieftain, a sheep from every hearth." A few passages like these +are enough to light up whole epochs of that mediaeval time, and to show +us how sympathetic, strong and pure that life was, in so many ways. + +We find, meanwhile, that the tribal struggle continued as of old: "1154: +Toirdealbac Ua Concobar brought a fleet round Ireland northwards, and +plundered Tir-Conaill and Inis Eogain. The Cinel Eogain sent to hire the +fleets of the Hebrides, Arran, Cantyre and Man, and the borders of Alba +in general, and they fell in with the other fleet and a naval battle +was fiercely and spiritedly fought between them. They continued the +conflict from, the beginning of the day till evening, but the foreign +fleet was defeated." This records perhaps the only lesson learned from +the Norsemen, the art of naval warfare. We may regret that the new +knowledge was not turned to a more national end. + +Four years later, "a wicker bridge was made by Ruaidri Ua Concobar at +Athlone, for the purpose of making incursions into Meath. There was a +pacific meeting between Ruaidri Ua Concobar and Tigearnan, and they made +peace, and took mutual oaths before sureties and relics." This is our +first meeting with a king as remarkable in his way as the great +archbishop his contemporary. Ruaidri descendant of Concobar was king of +Connacht, holding the land from the western ocean up to the great +frontier of the river Shannon. Eager to plunder his neighbors and bring +back "a countless number of cows," he undertook this wonderful work, a +pile bridge across the river, seemingly the first of its kind to be +built there, and in structure very like the famous bridge which Caesar +built across the Rhine,--or like many of the wooden bridges across the +upper streams of the Danube at the present day. We shall record a few +more of this enterprising and large-minded prince's undertakings, +following the course of the years. + +In parenthesis, we find a clue to the standard of value of the time in +this record: "1161: The visitation of Osraige was made by Flaitbeartac, +successor of Colum Kill; the tribute due to him was seven score oxen, +but he selected, as a substitute for these, four hundred and twenty +ounces of pure silver." The price of an ox was, therefore, three ounces +of silver. The old-time barter, an echo of which still lingers in the +word "pecuniary" from the Latin name for "cattle," was evidently +yielding to the more convenient form of exchange through the medium of +the metals, which are easily carried and divided, and suffer no +detriment from the passage of time. With the wicker bridge and the +lime-kiln, this change from a tribute in cattle to a payment in silver +may remind us that we are on the threshold of the modern world. + +In 1162 we find the king of Connacht in a new adventure: "An army was +led by Muirceartac Ua Lochlain, accompanied by the people of the north +of Ireland, the men of Meath, and a battalion of the Connacht men, to +At-Cliat, to lay siege to the Foreigners and the Irish; but Ua Lochlain +retired without battle or hostages after having plundered the Fair +Strangers. A peace was afterwards concluded between the Foreigners and +the Gaels; and six score ounces of gold were given by the Foreigners to +Ua Lochlain, and five score ounces of gold were paid by Diarmaid Ua +Maelseaclain to Ruaidri Ua Concobar for West Meath." Here again we see +the "countless cows" giving place to counted gold in the levying of +tribute. We note also, in the following year, that "a lime-kiln +measuring seventy feet every way was made by the successor of Colum Kill +and the clergy of Colum Kill in twenty days," in evident emulation of +the work of the Armagh see. + +The synod already recorded as having been held in the little island of +Saint Patrick off the Dublin coast, gives us a general view of the +church at that time, the number of sees and parishes, and the spirit +animating them. We gain a like view of the civil state in the record of +a great assembly convened in 1167 by the energetic and enterprising +Connacht king: "A great meeting was called together by Ruaidri Ua +Concobar and the chiefs of Leat Cuin, both lay and ecclesiastic, and the +chiefs of At-boy,--the Yellow Ford across one of the streams of the +Boyne in Meath. To it came the successor of Patrick, the archbishop of +Connacht, the archbishop of Leinster, the lord of Breifne, the lord of +Oirgialla, the king of Ulster, the king of Tara, and Ragnall son of +Ragnall, lord of the Foreigners. The whole of their gathering and +assemblage was 19,000 horsemen, of which 6000 were Connachtmen, 4000 +with the lord of Breifne, 2000 with the king of Tara, 4000 with the lord +of Oirgialla and the king of Ulster, 2000 with the chief of Ui-Failge, +and 1000 with the Foreigners of At-Cliat. They passed many good +resolutions at this meeting, respecting veneration for churches and +clerics, and control of tribes and territories, so that women used to +traverse Ireland alone; and a restoration of his prey was made by the +chief of the Ui-Failge at the hands of the kings aforesaid. They +afterwards separated in peace and amity, without battle or controversy, +or without anyone complaining of another at that meeting, in consequence +of the prosperousness of the king, who had assembled these chiefs with +their forces at one place." + +Here is a foreshadowing of the representative assemblies of our modern +times, and the same wise spirit is shown in another event of the same +year, thus recorded: "A hosting and a mustering of the men of Ireland, +with their chieftains, by Ruaidri Ua Concobar; thither came the lord of +Deas-muma, the lord of Tuaid-muma, the king of Meath, the lord of +Oirgialla and all the chieftains of Leinster. They arrived in +Tir-Eogain, and allotted the part of it north of Slieve Gullion,--now +the eastern part of Derry,--to Nial Ua Lochlain for two hostages, and +allotted the part of the country of the clan to the south of the +mountain to Aed Ua Neill for two other hostages. Then the men of Ireland +returned back southwards over Slieve Fuaid, through Tir-Eogain and +Tir-Connaill, and over Assaroe--the Cataract of the Erne--and Ruaidri Ua +Concobar escorted the lord of Deas-muma with his forces southwards +through Tuaid-muma as far as Cnoc-Aine--in Limerick--and the lord of +Deas-muma departed with gifts of many jewels and riches." + +While the Norse foreigners were a power at Dublin, Waterford, Cork and +Limerick, there were not wanting occasions when one of the native tribes +called on them for aid against another tribe, sharing with them the joys +of victory or the sorrow of defeat, and, where fortune favored, dividing +with them the "countless cows" taken in a raid. In like manner the +Cinel Eogain, as we saw, hired the fleet of the Norsemen of the Western +Isles of Scotland to help them to resist a raid of the Connachtmen. The +example thus set was followed repeatedly in the coming years, and we +find mention of Flemings, Welshmen and Saxons brought over to take one +side or other in the tribal wars. + +In the same year that saw the two assemblings of the chieftains under +Ruaidri Ua Concobar, another chieftain, Diarmaid son of Murcad brought +in from "the land of the Saxons," as it was called, one of these bands +of foreign mercenaries, for the most part Welsh descendants of the old +Gaelic Britons, to aid him in his contest for "the kingdom of the sons +of Ceinnsealaig." Two years later, Ruaidri Ua Concobar "granted ten cows +every year from himself and from every king that should follow him for +ever, to the Lector of Ard Maca, in honor of Patrick, to instruct the +youths of Ireland and Alba in Literature." + +For the next year, 1170, we find this record: "Robert Mac Stepni and +Ricard Mac Gillebert--Iarl Strangbow--came from Saxonland into Erin with +a numerous force, and many knights and archers, in the army of the son +of Murcad, to contest Leinster for him, and to disturb the Gaels of +Erin in general; and the son of Murcad gave his daughter to Iarl +Strangbow for coming into his army. They took Loch Garman--Wexford--and +Port Lairge--Waterford--by force; and they took Gillemaire the officer +of the fortress and Ua Faelain lord of the Deisi and his son, and they +killed seven hundred persons there. Domnall Breagac with numbers of the +men of Breag fell by the Leinstermen on that occasion. An army was led +by Ruaidri Ua Concobar with the lord of Breifne and the lord of +Oirgialla against Leinster and the Foreigners aforesaid, and there was a +challenge of battle between them for the space of three days." This +contest was indecisive. The most noteworthy event of the battle was the +plundering and slaughter of the Danes of At-Cliat by the newcomers under +Iarl Strangbow. The Danes had long before this given up their old pagan +faith, converted by their captives and their Gaelic neighbors. Christ +Church Cathedral in At-Cliat or Dublin was founded early in the +preceding century by Sitric son of Olaf, king of the Danes of Dublin, +and Donatus the first Danish bishop; but the oldest part of the present +structure belongs to the time we are now speaking of: the close of the +twelfth century. The transepts with their chevron mouldings and the +principal doorway are of that period, and we may regard them as an +offering in expiation of the early heathen raids on Lambay, Saint +Patrick's Isle, and the early schools of the church. + +The ambitious Diarmaid Mac Murcad died shortly after the last battle we +have recorded, "perishing without sacrament, of a loathsome disease;" a +manifest judgment, in the eyes of the Chronicler, for the crime of +bringing the Normans to Ireland. In the year that saw his death, "Henry +the Second, king of the Saxons and duke of the Normans, came to Ireland +with two hundred and forty ships." He established a footing in the land, +as one of many contesting powers, but the immediate results of his +coming were slight. This we can judge from the record of three years +later: "A brave battle was fought by the Foreigners under Iarl Strangbow +and the Gaels under Ruaidri Ua Concobar at Thurles, in which the +Foreigners were finally defeated by dint of fighting. Seventeen hundred +of the Foreigners were slain in the battle, and only a few of them +survived with the Iarl, who proceeded in sorrow to his home at Port +Lairge--Waterford." Iarl Strangbow died two years later at Dublin. + +Norman warriors continue to appear during the succeeding years, +fighting against the native chieftains and against each other, while the +native chieftains continue their own quarrels, just as in the days of +the first Norse raids. Thus in the year of Iarl Strangbow's death, Kells +was laid waste by the Foreigners in alliance with the native Ui-Briain, +while later in the same year the Foreigners were driven from Limerick by +Domnall Ua-Briain, who laid siege to them and forced them to surrender. + +Two years later, four hundred and fifty of the followers of De Courcy, +another great Norman warrior, were defeated at Maghera Conall in Louth, +some being drowned in the river, while others were slain on the +battlefield. In the same year De Courcy was again defeated with great +slaughter in Down, and escaped severely wounded to Dublin. For At-Cliat, +from being a fortress of the Danes and Norsemen, was gradually becoming +a Norman town. The doorway of Christ Church Cathedral, which dates from +about this time, is of pure Norman style. + +In 1186 we find a son of the great Ruaidri Ua Concobar paying a band of +these same Foreigners three thousand cows as "wages," for joining him in +some plundering expedition against his neighbors. The genius of strife +reigned supreme, and the newcomers were as completely under its sway as +the old clansmen. Just as we saw the Dark Norsemen of the ninth century +coming in their long ships to plunder the Fair Norsemen of At-Cliat, and +the Fair Norsemen not less vigorously retaliating, so now we find wars +breaking out among the Normans who followed in the steps of the +Norsemen. In 1205 the Norman chieftain who held a part of Meath under +his armed sway, and who had already built a strong castle at Kells, was +at war with the De Bermingham family, who at that time held the old +Danish stronghold of Limerick. Two years later another contest broke out +between the De Berminghams and William Marescal, and yet another +struggle between Hugo de Lacy and De Bermingham, very disastrous to the +retainers of the latter, for the Chronicler tells us that "nearly all +his people were ruined." + +Thus the old life of tribal struggle went on. The country was wealthy, +full of cattle and herds, silver and gold, stored corn and fruit, rich +dyed stuffs and ornaments. The chieftains and provincial kings lived in +state within their forts, with their loyal warriors around them, +feasting and making merry, and the bards and heralds recited for their +delight the great deeds of the men of old, their forefathers; the +harpers charmed or saddened them with the world-old melodies that +Deirdre had played for Naisi, that Meave had listened to, that Crede +sang for her poet lover. + +The life of the church was not less vigorous and vital. There are many +churches and cathedrals of that period of transition, as of the epoch +before the first Norman came, which show the same fervor and devotion, +the same faith made manifest by works of beauty. In truth no country in +the world has so full and rich a record in lasting stone, beginning with +the dwellings of the early saints who had seen the first Messenger face +to face, and passing down through age after age, showing the life and +growth of the faith from generation to generation. + +The schools, as we saw, carried on the old classical tradition, bringing +forth monuments like the Annals of Tigearnac; and there was the same +vigor and vital force in every part of the nation's life. The coming of +the Normans changed this in no essential regard. There was something +added in architecture, the Norman modifying the old native style; the +castle and keep gradually taking the place of the earthwork and stone +fort. And in the tenure of land certain new principles were introduced. +But the sum of national life went on unbroken, less modified, probably, +than it had been by the old Norse raids. + + + +XII. + +THE NORMANS. + +A.D. 1250-1603. + +When summing up each epoch of Irish history, we may find both interest +and profit in considering what the future of the land and the people +might have been had certain new elements not been added. Thus we may try +to picture to ourselves what would have been our history had our life +moved forward from the times of Cuculain and Concobar, of Find and +Cormac son of Art, without that transforming power which the fifth +century brought. We may imagine the tribal strife and stress growing +keener and fiercer, till the whole life and strength of the people was +fruitlessly consumed in plundering and destroying. + +Or we may imagine an unbroken continuance of the epoch of saintly +aspiration, the building of churches, the illumination of holy books, so +dividing the religious from the secular community as almost to make two +nations in one, a nation altogether absorbed in the present life, with +another nation living in its midst, but dwelling wholly in the thought +of the other world. Religion would have grown to superstition, ecstasy +would have ruled in the hearts of the religious devotees, weakening +their hold on the real, and wafting them away into misty regions of +paradise. We should have had every exaggeration of ascetic practice, +hermitages multiplying among the rocks and islands of the sea, men and +women torturing their bodies for the saving of their souls. + +The raids of the Norsemen turned the strong aspirations of the religious +schools into better channels, bringing them to a sense of their identity +with the rest of the people, compelling them to bear their part of the +burden of calamity and strife. The two nations which might have wandered +farther and farther apart were thus welded into one, so that the spirit +of religion became what it has ever since remained, something essential +and inherent in the life of the whole people. + +After the waning of the Norsemen, a period opened full of great national +promise in many ways. We see the church strengthened and confirmed, +putting forth its power in admirable works of art, churches and +cathedrals full of the fire and fervor of devotion, and conceived in a +style truly national, with a sense of beauty altogether its own. Good +morals and generous feeling mark the whole life of the church through +this period, and the great archbishop whose figure we have drawn in +outline is only one of many fine and vigorous souls among his +contemporaries. + +[Illustration: Dunluce Castle.] + +The civil life of the nation, too, shows signs of singular promise at +the same time, a promise embodied in the person of the king of Connacht, +Ruaidri Ua Concobar, some of whose deeds we have recorded. There was a +clearer sense of national feeling and national unity than ever before, a +recognition of the method of conciliation and mutual understanding, +rather than the old appeal to armed force, as under the genius of tribal +strife. We see Ruaidri convoking the kings, chieftains and warriors to a +solemn assembly, presided over by the king and the archbishops of the +realm, and "passing good resolutions" for the settlement of religious +and civil matters, and the better ordering of territories and tribes. +That assembly was convened a half-century before the famous meeting +between King John and his barons, at Runnymead among the Windsor +meadows; and the seed then sown might have brought forth fruit as full +of promise and potency for the future as the Great Charter itself. The +contrast between these two historic assemblies is instructive. In the +one case, we have a provincial king from the rich and beautiful country +beyond the Shannon, gradually gaining such influence over the kings of +the provinces and the chieftains of the tribes that he had come to be +regarded as in a sense the overlord of the whole land, not through +inherent sovreignty or divine right, but first as the chosen chief of +his own tribe, and then as the elect of the whole body of chieftains, +first among his peers. In this character we see Ruaidri settling +disputes between two sections of the great Northern clan, and fixing a +boundary between them; giving presents to the chieftains of the south +for their support in this difficult decision, and exercising a +beneficent influence over the whole people, a moral sway rather than a +sovereign and despotic authority. It is pleasant to find the same king +establishing a college foundation for the instruction of the youth of +Ireland and Scotland in literature. + +This is what we have on the one hand. On the other, we have the Norman +king surrounded by his barons, over whom he claimed, but could not +exercise, despotic authority; and the Norman barons taking advantage of +his necessity to extort promises and privileges for their own order +rather than for the whole people. For we must remember that the Angles +and Saxons had been reduced by conquest to a servile condition, from +which they never wholly recovered. The ruling classes of Britain at the +present day are at least nominal descendants of those same Norman +barons; and between them and the mass of the people--the sons of the +Saxons and Angles--there is still a great gulf fixed. It is quite +impossible for one of the tillers of the soil to stand on a footing of +equality with the old baronial class, and the gulf has widened, rather +than closed, since the battle of Hastings and the final overthrow of the +Saxon power. + +We see here the full contrast between the ideal of kingship in Ireland +and that which grew up among the Norman conquerors of the Saxons. The +Irish king was always in theory and often in fact a real representative, +duly elected by the free suffrage of his tribesmen; he was not owner of +the tribal land, as the duke of the Normans was; he was rather the +leader of the tribe, chosen to guard their common possessions. The +communal system of Ireland stands here face to face with the feudal +system of the Normans. + +It would be a study of great interest to consider what form of national +life might have resulted in Ireland from the free growth of this +principle of communal chieftainship. There are many analogies in other +lands, all of which point to the likelihood of a slow emergence of the +hereditary principle; a single family finally overtopping the whole +nation. Had this free development taken place, we might have had a +strong and vigorous national evolution, an abundant flowering of all our +energies and powers through the Middle Ages, a rich and vigorous +production of art and literature, equal to the wonderful blossoming of +genius in the Val d'Arno and Venice and Rome; but we should have missed +something much greater than all these; something towards which events +and destiny have been leading us, through the whole of the Middle Ages +and modern times. + +From this point forward we shall have to trace the working of that +destiny, not manifested in a free blossoming and harvesting of our +national life, but rather in the suppression and involution of our +powers; in a development arrested by pressure from without and kept thus +suspended until the field was ready for its real work. Had our fate been +otherwise, we might now be looking back to a great mediaeval past, as +Spain and Austria look back; it is fated that we shall look not back but +forwards, brought as we are by destiny into the midst of the modern +world, a people with energy unimpaired, full of vigorous vital force, +uncorrupted by the weakening influence of wealth, taught by our own +history the measureless evil of oppression, and therefore cured once for +all of the desire to dominate others. Finally, the intense inner life +towards which we have been led by the checking of our outward energies +has opened to us secrets of the invisible world which are of untold +value, of measureless promise for all future time. + +We have, therefore, to trace the gradual involution of our national +life; the checking and restraining of that free development which would +assuredly have been ours, had our national life grown forward unimpeded +and uninfluenced from without, from the days when the Norse power waned. +The first great check to that free development came from the feudal +system, the principle of which was brought over by Robert FitzStephen, +Richard FitzGilbert, the De Courcys, the De Lacys, the De Berminghams +and their peers, whose coming we have recorded. They added new elements +to the old struggle of district against district, tribe against tribe, +but they added something more enduring--an idea and principle destined +almost wholly to supplant the old communal tenure which was the genius +of the native polity. The outward and visible sign of that new principle +was manifested in the rapid growth of feudal castles, with their strong +keeps, at every point of vantage gained by the Norman lords. They were +lords of the land, not leaders of the tribe, and their lordship was +fitly symbolized in the great gloomy towers of stone that everywhere +bear witness to their strength, almost untouched as they are by the +hand of time. + +When the duke of the Normans overthrew the Saxon king at Hastings, he +became real owner of the soil of England. His barons and lords held +their estates from him, in return for services to be rendered to him +direct. To reward them for supporting him, first in that decisive +battle, and then in whatever contests he might engage in, they were +granted the right to tax certain tracts of country, baronies, earldoms, +or counties, according to the title they bore. This tax was exacted +first in service, then in produce, and finally in coin. It was the +penalty of conquest, the tribute of the subject Saxons and Angles. +There was no pretence of a free contract; no pretence that the baron +returned to the farmer or laborer an equal value for the tax thus +exacted. It was tribute pure and simple, with no claim to be anything +else. That system of tribute has been consecrated in the land tenure of +England, and the class enriched by that tribute, and still bearing the +territorial titles which are its hall-mark, has always been, as it is +to-day, the dominant class alike in political and social life. In other +words, the Norman subjugation of Saxon and Angle is thoroughly effective +at this moment. + +This principle of private taxation, as a right granted by the sovereign, +came over to Ireland with the De Courcys and De Lacys and their like. +But it by no means overspread Ireland in a single tide, as in England, +after Hastings was lost and won. Its progress was slow; so slow, indeed, +that the old communal system lingers here and there at the present day. +The communal chiefs lived their lives side by side with the Norman +barons, fighting now with the barons, now with each other; and the same +generous rivalry, as we have seen, led to abundant fighting among the +barons also. The principle of feudal ownership was working its way, +however. We shall see later how great was its ultimate influence,--not +so much by direct action, as in the quite modern reaction which its +abuse provoked--a reaction from which have been evolved certain +principles of value to the whole world. + +Leaving this force to work its way through the centuries, we may turn +now to the life of the times as it appeared to the men and women who +lived in them, and as they themselves have recorded it. We shall find +fewer great personalities; nor should we expect this to be otherwise, if +we are right in thinking that the age of struggle, with its +efflorescence of great persons, had done its work, and was already +giving way before the modern spirit, with its genius for the universal +rather than the personal. We shall have contests to chronicle during the +following centuries, whether engendered within or forced upon us from +without; but they are no longer the substance of our history. They are +only the last clouds of a departing storm; the mists before the dawn of +the modern world. + +The most noteworthy of these contests in the early Norman age was the +invasion under Edward Bruce, brother of the Scottish king, who brought a +great fleet and army to Larne, then as now the Irish port nearest to the +northern kingdom. The first sufferers by this invasion were the Normans +of Heath, and we presently find these same Normans allied with Feidlimid +son of Aed Ua Concobar and the Connachtmen, fighting side by side +against the common foe. This was in 1315; two years later Robert Bruce +joined his brother, and it was not till 1319 that Edward Bruce finally +fell at Dundalk, "and no achievement had been performed in Ireland for a +long time before," the Chronicler tells us, "from which greater benefit +had accrued to the country than from this; for during the three and a +half years that Edward had spent in it, a universal famine prevailed to +such a degree that men were wont to devour one another." + +A ray of light is thus shed on the intellectual and moral life of the +time: "1398: Garrett Earl of Desmond--or Deas-muma--a cheerful and +courteous man, who excelled all the Normans and many of the Irish in the +knowledge of the Irish language, poetry, history and other learning, +died after the victory of peace." We see that the Normans are already +fallen under the same influence of assimilation which had transformed +the Danes two hundred years before. + +A half-century later, we get a vigorous and lurid picture of the +survival of the old tribal strife: "1454: Donell O'Donell was installed +in the lordship of Tyrconnell, in opposition to Rury O'Donell. Not long +after this, Donell was treacherously taken captive and imprisoned in the +castle of Inis--an island in Lough Swilly. As soon as Rury received +tidings of this, he mustered an army thither, and proceeded to demolish +the castle in which Donell was imprisoned with a few men to guard him. +Rury and his army burned the great door of the castle, and set the +stairs on fire; whereupon Donell, thinking that his life would be taken +as soon as the army should reach the castle,--it being his dying +request, as he thought--that he might be loosed from his fetters, as he +deemed it a disgrace to be killed while imprisoned and fettered. His +request was granted, and he was loosed from his fetters; after which he +ascended to the battlements of the castle, to view the motions of the +invading army. And he saw Rury beneath, with eyes flashing enmity, and +waiting until the fire should subside, that he might enter and kill him. +Donell then, finding a large stone by his side, hurled it directly down +upon Rury, so that it fell on the crest of his helmet, on the top of his +head, and crushed it, so that he instantly died. The invading forces +were afterwards defeated, and by this throw Donell saved his own life +and acquired the lordship of Tyrconnell." + +There is a whole historical romance in that single picture; the passage +could not easily be surpassed for direct and forcible narrative. A few +years later, we come on one of the most amusing things in the whole +series of annals, a perfect contrast to the grim ferocity of the feud of +the O'Donells. In 1472 "a wonderful animal was sent to Ireland by the +king of England. She resembled a mare, and was of a yellow color, with +the hoofs of a cow, a long neck, a very large head, a large tail, which +was ugly and scant of hair. She had a saddle of her own. Wheat and salt +were her usual food. She used to draw the largest sled-burden behind +her. She used to kneel when passing under any doorway, however high, and +also to let her rider mount." It is evident that the Gaelic language in +the fifteenth century lacked a name for the camel. The same year, we are +told, "the young earl of Desmond was set at liberty by the MacCarthys; +he disabled Garrett, son of the earl of Kildare." + +Here is another passage which vies in vividness and force with the story +of the death of Rury O'Donell: "1557: Two spies, Donough and Maurice by +name, entered the camp of John O'Neill by Lough Swilly, and mingled with +the troop without being noticed; for in consequence of the number and +variety of the troops who were there, it was not easy for them to +discriminate between one another, even if it were day, except by +recognizing their chieftains alone. The two persons aforesaid proceeded +from one fire to another, until they came to the great central fire, +which was at the entrance of the son of O'Neill's tent; and a huge +torch, thicker than a man's body, was continually flaming at a short +distance from the fire, and sixty grim and redoubtable warriors with +sharp, keen axes, terrible and ready for action, and sixty stern and +terrific Scots, with massive, broad and heavy striking swords in their +hands, ready to strike and parry, were guarding the son of O'Neill. When +the time came for the troops to dine, and food was divided and +distributed among them, the two spies whom we have mentioned stretched +out their hands to the distributor like the rest, and that which fell to +their share was a measure of meal, and a suitable complement of butter. +With this testimony of their adventure they returned to their +own people." + +Here again, what a picture of the camp-life of the age; the darkness of +night, the great central fire with the sixty grim and redoubtable +warriors armed with keen axes, terrible and ready for action, and the +sixty stern and terrific Scots with their massive swords. The admirable +manner of the narrative is as striking as the fierce vigor of the life +portrayed. So we might go on, adding red pages of martial records, but +in reality adding nothing to our understanding of the times. The life of +the land was as full and abundant as of old, and one outcome of that +life we may touch on rather more at length. + +We have said much of the old religious schools of Ireland, with their +fine and vigorous intellectual life, which did so much to carry forward +the torch of culture to our modern world. For nearly seven hundred years +these great schools seem to have developed wholly along indigenous +lines, once they had accepted the body of classical culture from the +Roman Empire, then tottering to its fall. The full history of that +remarkable chapter in the world's spiritual life has yet to be written; +but this we can foretell, that when written, it will abound with rich +material and ample evidence of a sound and generous culture, inspired +throughout with the fervor of true faith. + +About the time when the Norman warriors began to mingle with the +fighting chieftains of the old native tribes, a change came over the +religious history of the country. After sending forth men of power and +light to the awakening lands of modern Europe, Ireland began to receive +a returning tide, to reap a harvest from these same lands, in the friars +and abbots of the great Continental orders founded by men like Saint +Bernard, Saint Dominick and Saint Francis of Assisi. A change in the +church architecture of the period visibly records this spiritual change; +continental forms appear, beginning with the rounded arches of the +Normans, and passing gradually into the various forms of pointed arches +which we know as Gothic. Very beautiful Abbeys belonging to this epoch +remain everywhere throughout the island, making once more evident--what +strikes us at every point of our study--that no country in the world is +so rich in these lasting records of every step of our national life, +whether in pagan or Christian times. + +We have said much of the archaic cromlechs. We have recorded the great +Pyramids by the Boyne telling us of the genius of the De Danaans. The +Milesian epoch is even now revealed to us in the great earthworks of +Tara and Emain and Cruacan. We can, if we wish, climb the mound of +heaped-up earth where was the fortress of Cuculain, or look over the +green plains from the hill of Find. + +[Illustration: Mellifont Abbey, Co. Louth.] + +In like manner, there is an unbroken series of monuments through the +early Christian epoch, beginning with the oratories of the sixth +century, continuing through the early churches of Killiney, Moville, +Dalkey, Glendalough and Monasterboice, from before the Norse inroads; +followed by the epoch of Round Towers, or protected belfries, with their +churches, nearly three score of these Round Towers remaining in fair +preservation, while many are perfect from base to apex; and culminating +in Cormac's chapel and the beautiful group of buildings on Cashel Rock. +For the next period, the age of transition after the waning of the +Norsemen and the coming of the first Normans, we have many monuments in +the Norman style, like the door of Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin, +with its romance of Danish conversion and Norse religious fervor. + +Finally, we come to the age whose progress we have just recorded, which +covers the whole of the Middle Ages. For this period, which was for +Ireland an epoch of foreign influence much more than of foreign rule, we +have many beautiful Abbeys, built for those foreign orders whose coming +was in a sense a return tide, a backward flow of the old missionary +spirit which went forth from Ireland over nascent modern Europe. The +life of these abbeys was full of rich imaginative and religious power; +it abounded in urbanity and ripe culture of a somewhat selfish and +exclusive type. Yet we cannot but feel a limitless affection and +sympathy for the abbots and friars of the days of old who have left us +such a rich heritage of beauty and grace. + +All these abbeys seem to have been formed on a single plan: a cruciform +church symbolized the source of all their inspiration, its choir +extending towards the east, whence the Light had come; the nave, or main +body of the church, was entered by the great western door, and the arms +of the cross, the transepts, extended to the north and south. Here is a +very beautiful symbol, a true embodiment of the whole spirit and +inspiration of the monastic orders. From one of the transepts a side +door generally led to the domestic buildings, the dormitory, the +refectory, the chapter house, where the friars assembled in conclave +under the presidency of the abbot. There were lesser buildings, +store-rooms, granaries, work-rooms, but these were the kernel of the +establishment. The church was the center of all things, and under its +floor the friars were at last laid to rest, while brother friars carved +tombs for them and epitaphs, adding a new richness of decoration to the +already beautiful church. + +We may record a few of these old foundations, showing at the same time +the present state of the old abbey buildings. At Newtown on the northern +bank of the Boyne, about a mile below Trim, Simon Rochfort founded an +abbey for the Augustinian Canons in 1206, dedicating it to Saint Peter +and Saint Paul. The capitals of the pillars in the church, the vaulting +of the roof and the shafts of the arches which supported the tower are +full of singular grace and beauty, even now when the abbey is roofless +and in part destroyed, while the corbels and mouldings round the +lancet-shaped windows are full of luxuriant fancy and charm. We can +divine from them the full and rich spiritual life which brought forth +such exquisite flowers of beauty; we can imagine the fine aroma of +fervor and saintly peace which brooded over these consecrated aisles. + +A few miles below Trim, and an equal distance from the old royal palace +of Tara, Bective Abbey stands on the northern bank of the Boyne, with a +square, battlemented tower overshadowing its cloistered quadrangle. The +cinque-foil cloister arches, the fillets that bind the clustered shafts +of the pillars, the leaf ornaments of the plinths at their base all +speak of a luxuriant sense of beauty and grace, of a spirit of pure and +admirable artistic work. This rich creative power thus breaking forth in +lovely handiwork is only the outward sign of a full inner life, kindled +by the fire of aspiration, and glowing with the warm ardor of devotion. +Bective Abbey dates from about 1150. We are told that the king of Meath +who founded it for the Cistercian order "endowed it with two hundred and +forty-five acres of land, a fishing-weir and a mill." From this meager +outline we can almost restore the picture of the life, altogether +idyllic and full of quiet delight, that the old Friars lived among the +meadows of the Boyne. + +Grey Abbey was founded a little later, in 1193, for the same Cistercian +order, where the promontory of the Ards divides Strangford Lough from +the eastern sea. Over the waters of the lough, the red sandstone hills +of north Down make a frame for the green of the meadows, as the tide +laps and murmurs close to the old monastic church. Grey Abbey owes its +foundation to the piety of a princess of the Isle of Man, wedded to De +Courcy, the Norman warrior whose victories and defeats we have recorded. +The great beauty of its church is due to the soaring loftiness of the +eastern window, and the graceful daring of the arches which in former +days upheld the central tower. + +Other Cistercian foundations are commemorated in the names of +Abbey-leix in Queen's county, and Abbey-dorney and Abbey-feale in Kerry; +all three dating from after the reformation of the order by Saint +Bernard the Younger, though the work of that ardent missionary did not +apparently extend its influence to Ireland until a later date. This +reformer of the Cistercians must not be confused with the elder Saint +Bernard, whose hospice guards the pass of the Alps which bears his name. +Saint Bernard of the Alps died in 1008, while Saint Bernard the reformer +was born in 1093, dying sixty years later as abbot of Clara vallis or +Clairvaux, on the bank of the Aube in northern France. It was at this +Abbey of the Bright Vale, or Clara vallis, that Archbishop Maelmaedog +resigned his spirit to heaven, five years before the death of the +younger Saint Bernard, then abbot there. This is a link between the old +indigenous church and the continental orders of the Friars. + +Killmallock Abbey, in Limerick, belonged to the order of the Dominicans, +founded by the scion of the Guzmans, the ardent apostle of Old Castile, +known to history as Saint Dominick. Here again we have a beautiful abbey +church with a square central tower, upborne on soaring and graceful +arches from the point where the nave joined the choir. There is only one +transept--on the south--so that the church is not fully cruciform, a +peculiarity shared by several other Dominican buildings. The eastern +window and the window of this transept are full of delicate grace and +beauty, each containing five lights, and marked by the singularly +charming manner in which the mullions are interlaced above. Enough +remains of the cloister and the domestic buildings for us to bring back +to life the picture of the old monastic days, when the good Friars +worked and prayed there, with the sunlight falling on them through the +delicate network of the windows. + +Holycross Abbey, near Thurles in Tipperary, was another of the +Cistercian foundations, its charter, dating from 1182, being still in +existence. Its church is cruciform; the nave is separated from the north +aisle by round arches, and from the south aisle by pointed arches, which +gives it a singular and unusual beauty. The great western window of the +nave, with its six lights, is also very wonderful. Two chapels are +attached to the north transept, with a passage between them, its roof +supported by a double row of pointed arches upheld by twisted pillars. +The roof is delicately groined, as is the roof of the choir, and the +whole abbey breathes a luxuriant richness of imagination, bearing +everywhere the signs of high creative genius. The same lavish +imagination is shown everywhere in the interlaced tracery, the black +limestone giving the artist an admirable vehicle for his work. Though +the charter dates from the twelfth century, some of the work is about +two centuries later, showing finely the continuity of life and spiritual +power in the old monastic days. + +[Illustration: Holy Cross Abbey, Co. Tipperary.] + +The Friars of Saint Augustine, who were in possession of the abbey at +Newtown on the Boyne, had another foundation not far from West port in +Mayo, in the Abbey of Ballintober, founded in 1216 by a son of the great +Ruaidri Ua Concobar. Here also we have the cruciform church, with four +splendid arches rising from the intersection of nave and choir, and once +supporting the tower. The Norman windows over the altar, with their +dog-tooth mouldings, are very perfect. In a chapel on the south of the +choir are figures of the old abbots carved in stone. + +One of the Ui-Briain founded a Franciscan Abbey at Ennis in Clare about +1240, which is more perfectly preserved than any of those we have +described. The tower still stands, rising over the junction of nave and +choir; the refectory, chapter house, and some other buildings still +remain, while the figure of the patron, Saint Francis of Assisi, still +stands beside the altar at the north pier of the nave. + +Clare Abbey, a mile from Ennis, was founded for the Augustine Friars in +1195, and here also the tower still stands, dominating the surrounding +plain. Three miles further south, on the shore of Killone Lake, was yet +another abbey of the same period, while twenty miles to the north, at +Corcomroe on the shore of Galway Bay, the Cistercians had yet +another home. + +We might continue the list indefinitely. Some of the most beautiful of +our abbeys still remain to be recorded, but we can do no more than give +their names: Bonamargy was built for the Franciscans in Antrim in the +fifteenth century; the Dominican priory at Roscommon dates from 1257; +the Cistercian Abbey of Jerpoint in Kilkenny was begun in 1180; Molana +Abbey, in Waterford, was built for the Augustinians on the site of a +very old church; and finally Knockmoy Abbey in Galway, famous for its +fourteenth century frescoes, was begun in 1189. We must remember that +every one of these represents, and by its variations of style indicates, +an unbroken life through several centuries. The death-knell of the old +life of the abbeys and priories, in Ireland as in England, was struck in +the year 1537 by the law which declared their lands forfeited to the +crown; as the result of the religious controversies of the beginning of +the sixteenth century. + + + +XIII. + +THE TRIUMPH OF FEUDALISM. + +A.D. 1603-1660. + +The confiscation of the abbey lands, as the result of religious +controversy, closed an epoch of ecclesiastical life in Ireland, which we +cannot look back on without great regret for the noble and beautiful +qualities it brought forth in such abundance. There is a perennial charm +and fascination in the quiet life of the old religious houses--in the +world, yet not of the world--which appeals to aesthetic and moral +elements in our minds in equal degree. From their lovely churches and +chapter-houses the spirits of the old monks invite us to join them in an +unworldly peace on earth, a renewal of the golden age, a life full of +aspiration and self-forgetfulness, with all the burdens of egotism +laid aside. + +Yet after all is said, we can hardly fail to see that out of the +spoliation and scattering of the religious orders much good came. There +was a danger that, like the older indigenous schools which they +supplanted, these later foundations might divide the nation in two, all +things within their consecrated walls being deemed holy, while all +without was unregenerate, given up to wrath. A barrier of feelings and +hopes thus springing up, tends to harden from year to year, till at last +we have a religious caste grown proud and arrogant, and losing all trace +of the spiritual fervor which is its sole reason for being. + +The evils which surround a wealthy church are great and easily to be +understood, nor need we lay stress on them. There is, indeed, cause for +wonder in the spectacle of the followers of him "who had not where to +lay his head" become, in the Middle Ages, the greatest owners of land in +Europe; and we can see how temptations and abuses without number might +and did often arise from this very fact. Ambition, the desire of wealth, +the mere love of ease, led many to profess a religious life who had +never passed through that transformation of will and understanding which +is the essence of religion. The very purpose of religion was forgotten, +or allowed to be hidden away under things excellent in themselves, yet +not essential; and difference of view about these unessential things led +to fierce and bitter controversy, and later to open strife and war. + +We take religion, in its human aspect, to mean the growth of a new and +wider consciousness above the keen, self-assertive consciousness of the +individual; a superseding of the personal by the humane; a change from +egotism to a more universal understanding; so that each shall act, not +in order to gain an advantage over others, but rather to attain the +greatest good for himself and others equally; that one shall not +dominate another for his own profit, but shall rather seek to draw forth +in that other whatever is best and truest, so that both may find their +finest growth. Carried far enough, this principle, which makes one's +neighbor a second self, will bring to light in us the common soul, the +common life that has tacitly worked in all human intercourse from the +beginning. Individual consciousness is in no way effaced; something new, +wider and more humane, something universal, is added to it from above; +something consciously common to all souls. And through the inspiration +of that larger soul, the individual life for the first time comes to its +true power--a power which is held by all pure souls in common. + +We can see that something like this was the original inspiration of the +religious orders. Their very name of Friars or Brothers speaks of the +ideal of a common life above egotism. They sought a new birth through +the death of selfishness, through self-sacrifice and renunciation. All +their life in common was a symbol of the single soul inspiring them, the +very form of their churches bearing testimony to their devotion. More +than that, the beauty and inspiration which still radiate from the old +abbey buildings show how often and in how large a degree that ideal was +actually attained. + +Nevertheless we can very well see how the possession of large wealth and +costly offerings might be a hindrance to that spirit, fanning back to +life the smouldering fires of desire. We can see even more clearly that +the division between the secular and the religious life would tend to +raise a moral barrier, hardening that very sense of separation which the +humane and universal consciousness seeks to kill. Finally, we should see +what the world has often seen: the disciples of the Nazarene dwelling in +palaces, and vying with princes in the splendor of their retinues. This +is hardly the way to make real the teaching of "the kingdom not of this +world." This world, in the meaning of that saying, is the old world of +egotism, of self-assertion, of selfish rivalry, of the sense of +separation. The kingdom is that very realm of humane and universal +consciousness added from above, the sense of the one soul common to all +men and working through all men, whether they know it or not. + +We can, therefore, see that the confiscation of the monasteries, and +even the persecution of the religious orders, might be the cause of +lasting spiritual good; it was like the opening of granaries and the +scattering of grain abroad over the fields. The religious force, instead +of drawing men out of the world, thenceforth was compelled to work among +all men, not creating beautiful abbeys but transforming common lives. +Persecution was the safeguard of sincerity, the fire of purification, +from which men's spirits came forth pure gold. Among all nations of the +world, Ireland has long held the first place for pure morals, especially +in the relations of sex; and this is increasingly true of those +provinces where the old indigenous element is most firmly established. +We may affirm that the spiritualizing of religious feeling through +persecution has had its share in bringing this admirable result, +working, as it did, on a race which has ever held a high ideal +of purity. + +Thus out of evil comes good; out of oppression, rapacity and +confiscation grow pure unselfishness, an unworldly ideal, a sense of the +invisible realm. We shall presently see the same forces of rapacity and +avarice sowing the seeds for a not less excellent harvest in the world +of civil life. + +The principle of feudalism, though introduced by the first Norman +adventurers in the twelfth century, did not gain legal recognition over +the whole country until the seventeenth. The old communal tenure of the +Brehon law was gradually superseded, so that, instead of innumerable +tribal territories with elected chiefs, there grew up a system of +estates, where the land was owned by one man and tilled by others. The +germ of this tenure was the right of private taxation over certain +districts, granted by the Norman duke to his barons and warriors as the +reward for their help in battle. Feudal land tenure never was, and never +pretended to be, a contract between cultivator and landowner for their +mutual benefit. It was rather the right to prey on the farmer, assigned +to the landowner by the king, and paid for in past or present services +to the king. In other words, the head of the Norman army invited his +officers to help themselves to a share of the cattle and crops over +certain districts of England, and promised to aid them in securing their +plunder, in case the Saxon cultivator was rash enough to resist. The +baronial order presently ceased to render any real service to their +duke, beyond upholding him that he might uphold them. But there was no +such surcease for the Saxon cultivator. The share of his cattle and +crops which he was compelled to give up to the Norman baron became more +rigidly defined, more strictly exacted, with every succeeding century, +and the whole civil state of England was built up on this principle. + +The baronial order assembled at Runnymead to force the hand of the king. +From that time forward their power increased, while the king's power +waned. But there was no Runnymead for the Saxon cultivator. He +continued, as to this day he continues, to pay the share of his cattle +and crops to the Norman baron or his successor, in return for +services--no longer rendered--to the king. The whole civil state of +England, therefore, depends on the principle of private taxation; the +Norman barons and their successors receiving a share of the cattle and +crops of the whole country, year after year, generation after +generation, century after century, as payment for services long become +purely imaginary, and even in the beginning rendered not to the +cultivator who was taxed, but to the head of the armed invaders, who +stood ready to enforce the payment. The Constitution of England embodies +this very principle even now, in the twentieth century. Two of the three +Estates,--King, Lords and Commons,--in whom the law-making power is +vested, represent the Norman conquest, while even the third, still +called the Lower House, boasts of being "an assembly of gentlemen," that +is, of those who possess the right of private taxation of land, the +right to claim a share of the cattle and crops of the whole country +without giving anything at all in return. + +This is the system which English influence slowly introduced into +Ireland, and with the reign of the first Stuarts the change was +practically complete, guaranteed by law, and enforced by armed power. +The tribesmen were now tenants of their former elected chief, in whom +the ownership of the tribal land was invested; the right of privately +taxing the tribesmen was guaranteed to the chief by law, and a share of +all cattle and crops was his by legal right, not as head of the tribe, +but as owner of the land, with power to dispossess the tribesmen if they +failed to pay his tax. + +But very many districts had long before this come under the dominion of +Norman adventurers, like the De Courcys, the De Lacys, and the rest, of +whose coming we have told. They also enjoyed the right of private +taxation over the districts under their dominion, and, naturally, had +power to assign this right to others,--not only to their heirs, but to +their creditors,--or even simply to sell the right of taxing a certain +district to the highest bidder in open market. + +The tribal warfare of the Middle Ages had brought many of the old chiefs +and Norman lords into open strife with the central power, with the +result that the possessions of unsuccessful chiefs and lords were +continually assigned by the law-courts to those who stood on the side of +the central power, the right to tax certain districts thus changing +hands indefinitely. The law-courts thus came into possession of a very +potent weapon, whether for rewarding the friends or punishing the +enemies of the central power, or simply for the payment of personal and +partisan favors. + +During the reign of the first Stuarts the full significance of this +weapon seems to have been grasped. We see an unlimited traffic in the +right to tax; estates confiscated and assigned to time-serving +officials, and endless abuses arising from the corruption of the courts, +the judges being appointed by the very persons who were presently to +invoke the law to their own profit. The tribal system was submerged, +and the time of uncertainty was taken advantage of to introduce +unlimited abuses, to assign to adventurers a fat share of other men's +goods, to create a class legally owning the land, and entitled, in +virtue of that ownership, to a share of the cattle and crops which they +had done nothing to produce. + +The Stuarts were at this very time sowing the seeds of civil war in +England by the introduction of like abuses, the story of which has been +repeatedly told; and we are all familiar with the history of the great +uprising which was thereby provoked, to the temporary eclipse of the +power of the crown. The story of the like uprising at the same epoch, +and from kindred causes, in Ireland, is much more obscure, but equally +worth recording, and to this uprising we may now turn. + +Its moral causes we have already spoken of. There was, first, the +confiscation of the abbey lands, and the transfer of church revenues and +buildings to Anglican clergy--clergy, that is, who recognized the +sovreign of England as the head of the church. This double confiscation +touched the well-springs of intense animosity, the dispossessed abbots +using all the influences of their order in foreign lands to bring about +their re-installation, while the controversy as to the headship of the +church aroused all the fierce and warring passions that had been raging +on the Continent since the beginning of the sixteenth century. + +There were, besides, the griefs of the dispossessed chieftains, whose +tribal lands had been given to others. Chief among these was the famous +house of O'Neill, the descendants of Nial, the old pagan monarch whose +wars are thought to have brought the captive of Slemish Mountain to +Ireland. The O'Neills, like their neighbors the O'Donnells, descendants +of Domnall, had been one of the great forces of tribal strife for eighty +generations, and they now saw their lands confiscated and given over to +strangers. But they were only representatives of a feeling which was +universal; an indignant opposition to arbitrary and tyrannous +expropriation. + +The head of the O'Neills had made his peace with the Tudors on the very +day Queen Elizabeth died, and the tribal lands had been guaranteed to +him in perpetuity. But within four years plots were set on foot by the +central authorities, possibly acting in good faith, to dispossess him +and the chief of the O'Donnells on a charge of treason; and in 1607 +both fled to the Continent. Their example was followed by numberless +others, and the more restless and combative spirits among the tribesmen, +who preferred fighting to the tilling of their fields, entered the +continental armies in large numbers. + +When the chiefs of the north fled to the Continent, their lands were +held to have reverted to the crown; and not only was the right to tax +the produce of these lands assigned to adherents of the central power, +but numbers of farmers from the Scottish lowlands, and in lesser degree +from England, were brought over and settled on the old tribal territory. +The tribesmen, with their cattle, were driven to less fertile districts, +and the valleys were tilled by the transplanted farmers of Scotland. +This was the Plantation of Ulster, of 1611,--four years after the flight +of O'Neill and O'Donnell. The religious controversies of Scotland were +thereby introduced into Ireland, so that there were three parties now in +conflict--the old indigenous church, dispossessed of revenues and +buildings, and even of civil rights; the Anglicans who had received +these revenues and buildings, and, lastly, the Dissenters--Presbyterians +and Puritans--equally opposed to both the former. + +The struggle between the king and Parliament of England now found an +echo in Ireland, the Anglican party representing the king, while the +Scottish and English newcomers sympathized with the Parliament. A +cross-fire of interests and animosities was thus aroused, which greatly +complicated the first elements of strife. The Parliament at Dublin was +in the hands of the Puritan party, and was in no sense representative of +the other elements of the country. There was a Puritan army of about ten +thousand, as a garrison of defence for the Puritan newcomers in Ulster, +and there were abundant materials of an opposing national army in the +tribal warriors both at home and on the Continent. + +These national materials were presently drawn together by the head of +the O'Neills, known to history as Owen Roe, an admirable leader and a +most accomplished man, who wrote and spoke Latin, Spanish, French and +English, as well as his mother-tongue. Owen Roe O'Neill had won renown +on many continental battlefields, and was admirably fitted by genius and +training to lead a national party, not only in council but in the field. +The nucleus of his army he established in Tyrone, gaining numbers of +recruits whom he rapidly turned into excellent soldiers. + +This took place at the end of 1641 and the beginning of 1642, and the +other forces of the country were organized about the same time. The +lines of difference between the Anglican and Catholic parties were at +this time very lightly drawn, and the Norman lords found themselves able +to co-operate with the Catholic bishops in forming a General Assembly at +Kells, which straightway set itself to frame a Constitution for +the country. + +The Norman lords had meanwhile assembled and organized their retainers, +so that there were now three armies in Ireland: the garrison of the +Scottish settlers under Monroe, strongly in sympathy with the Puritans; +the tribal army under Owen Roe O'Neill; and the army of the Norman +lords. The General Assembly outlined a system of parliamentary +representation in which the Lords and Commons were to form a single +House, the latter, two hundred and twenty-six in number, representing +all the important cities and towns. A supreme Cabinet was to be formed, +composed of six members for each of the four provinces, twenty-four in +all, who might be lords spiritual or temporal, or commoners, according +to the choice of the Parliament. This Cabinet, thus selected from the +whole Parliament, was the responsible executive of the country; and +under the Supreme Council a series of Provincial Councils and County +Councils were to be formed along the same lines. + +[Illustration: Donegal Castle.] + +This plan was adopted at a general meeting of all the influential forces +of the country, which assembled in May at Kilkenny, where many +Parliaments had sat during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Writs +were issued for elections under the new Constitution, and the date of +the first assembly of the new Parliament was fixed for October. The new +national body enjoyed abundant revenues, and no small state marked its +deliberations in Kilkenny. We read of an endless series of +illuminations, receptions, banquets and balls,--the whole of the Norman +nobility of Leinster lavishing their great wealth in magnificent +display. The Supreme Council journeyed in state from Kilkenny to +Wexford, from Wexford to Waterford, from Waterford to Limerick and +Galway, surrounded by hundreds of horsemen with drawn swords, and +accompanied by an army of officials. We hear of "civil and military +representations of comedies and stage plays, feasts and banquets, and +palate-enticing dishes." + +The General Assembly, duly elected, finally met on October 23, 1642, at +Kilkenny. On the same day was fought the battle of Edgehill, between +the king of England and the forces of the English Parliament. This +battle was the signal for division of counsels in the new Assembly. The +Norman lords of Leinster, who stood on the ground of feudalism, and +lived under the shadow of royal authority, were strongly drawn to take +the side of the king against the English Parliament, and overtures of +negotiation were made, which came near gaining a recognition and +legalization of the General Assembly by the English Crown. + +While the leaders at Kilkenny were being drawn towards the royalists of +England, Owen Roe O'Neill was successfully holding Ulster against the +Puritan forces under Monroe and Leslie, with their headquarters at +Carrickfergus. Thus matters went on till the autumn of 1643, when we +find him inflicting a serious defeat on the English army under Monk and +Moore at Portlester in Meath, in which Moore was killed and his forces +driven back within the walls of Drogheda. + +The General Assembly continued to exercise sovreign authority at +Kilkenny, collecting revenues, maintaining courts of justice in the +provinces, and keeping several armies in the field, most effective of +which was undoubtedly that of Owen Roe O'Neill. We find matters still in +this condition three years later, in May, 1646, when Monroe and the +Scottish forces prepared to inaugurate an offensive campaign from their +base at Carrickfergus. General Robert Monroe had about seven thousand +men at Carrickfergus; his brother George had five hundred at Coleraine; +while there was a Scottish army at Derry, numbering about two thousand +men. It was decided to converge these three forces on Clones, in +Monaghan, and thence to proceed southwards against the government of the +General Assembly, then centered at Limerick. Clones was sixty miles from +Derry, and rather more from Coleraine and Carrickfergus, the two other +points of departure. + +Owen Roe O'Neill was then at Cavan, fourteen miles south of Clones, with +five thousand foot and five hundred horse, all "good, hopeful men," to +use his own words. General Robert Monroe, starting from Carrickfergus, +and marching by Lisburn and Armagh, expected to reach Glasslough, some +sixteen miles from Clones, on June 5th. By a forced march from Cavan, +Owen Roe O'Neill reached Glasslough a day earlier, and marching along +the northern Blackwater, pitched his camp on the north bank of the +river. Here he was directly in the line between the two Monroes, who +could only join their forces after dislodging him; and Robert Monroe, +who by that time had reached Armagh, saw that it would be necessary to +give battle without delay if the much smaller forces from the north were +not to be cut off. + +Robert Monroe began a movement northwards towards Owen Roe's position at +dawn on June 5th, and presently reached the Blackwater, to find himself +face to face with Owen Roe's army across the river. The two forces kept +parallel with each other for some time, till Robert Monroe finally +forded the Blackwater at Caledon, Owen Roe then retiring in the +direction of the current, which here flows north. Owen Roe, in his +movement of withdrawal, brought his army through a narrow pass, which he +left in charge of one of his best infantry regiments, with orders to +hold it only so long as the enemy could be safely harassed, meanwhile +carrying his main body back to the hill of Knocknacloy, the position he +had chosen from the first for the battle, and to gain which he had up to +this time been manoeuvering. + +At Knocknacloy he had the center of his army protected by the hill, the +right by a marsh, and the left by the river, so that, a flanking +movement on Monroe's part being impossible, the Scottish general was +forced to make a frontal attack. Under cover of the rearguard action at +the pass, which caused both delay and confusion to Monroe's army, Owen +Roe formed his men in order of battle. His first line was of four +columns, with considerable spaces between them; his cavalry was on the +right and left wings, behind this first line; while three columns more +were drawn up some distance farther back, behind the openings in the +front line, and forming the reserve. We should remember that not only +was Owen Roe's army outnumbered by Monroe's, but also that Owen Roe had +no artillery, while Monroe was well supplied with guns. + +Meanwhile Monroe's army came into touch with Owen Roe's force, and the +Scottish general opened fire with guns and muskets, to which the muskets +of Owen Roe as vigorously replied. The Scottish artillery was planted on +a hillock a quarter-mile from Owen Roe's center, and under cover of its +fire an infantry charge was attempted, which was brilliantly repulsed by +the pikemen of Owen Roe's army. A second attack was made by the Scottish +cavalry, who tried to ford the river, and thus turn the left flank of +the Irish army, but they were met and routed by the Irish horse. This +was about six in the evening, and the sun, hanging low in the sky, fell +full in the faces of the Scottish troops. Owen Roe promptly followed up +the rout of the Scottish horse by an advance, making a sweeping movement +from right to left, and thereby forcing Monroe towards the junction of +two streams, where he had no space to move. At this point Owen Roe's +army received a notable accession of strength in the form of four +squadrons of cavalry, sent earlier in the day to guard against the +possible approach of George Monroe from Coleraine. + +At a signal from Owen Roe, his army advanced upon Monroe's force, to be +met by a charge of the Scottish cavalry, instantly replied to by a +charge of the Irish cavalry through the three open spaces in the front +infantry line of Owen Roe's army. Monroe's first line was broken, and +the Irish pikemen, the equivalent of a bayonet charge, steadily forced +him backwards. It was a fierce struggle, hand to hand, eye to eye, and +blade to blade. The order of Owen Roe's advance was admirably preserved, +while the Scottish and English forces were in confusion, already broken +and crowded into a narrow and constricted space between the two rivers. +Finally the advancing Irish army reached and stormed the hillock where +Monroe's artillery was placed, and victory was palpably won. The defeat +of the Scottish and English army became an utter rout, and when the sun +set more than three thousand of them lay dead on the field. + +It is almost incredible that the Irish losses were only seventy, yet +such is the number recorded, while not only was the opposing army +utterly defeated and dispersed, but Monroe's whole artillery, his tents +and baggage, fifteen hundred horses, twenty stand of colors, two months' +provisions and numbers of prisoners of war fell into the hands of Owen +Roe; while, as a result of the battle, the two auxiliary forces were +forced to retreat and take refuge in Coleraine and Derry, General Robert +Monroe escaping meanwhile to Carrickfergus. It is only just to him to +say that our best accounts of the battle come from officers in Monroe's +army, Owen Roe contenting himself with the merest outline of the result +gained, but saying nothing of the consummate generalship that gained it. + +For the next two years we see Owen Roe O'Neill holding the great central +plain, the west and most of the north of Ireland against the armies of +the English Parliamentarians and Royalists alike, and gaining victory +after victory, generally against superior numbers, better armed and +better equipped. We find him time after time almost betrayed by the +Supreme Council, in which the Norman lords of Leinster, perpetually +anxious for their own feudal estates, were ready to treat with whichever +of the English parties was for the moment victorious, hoping that, +whatever might be the outcome of the great English struggle, they +themselves might be gainers. At this time they were in possession of +many of the abbey lands, and there was perpetual friction between them +and the ecclesiastics, their co-religionists, who had been driven from +these same lands, so that the Norman landowners were the element of +fatal weakness throughout this whole movement, willing to wound, and yet +afraid to strike. While praying for the final defeat of the English +parliamentary forces, they dreaded to see this defeat brought about by +Owen Roe O'Neill, in whom they saw the representative of the old tribal +ownership of Gaelic times, a return to which would mean their own +extinction. + +Matters went so far that the Supreme Council, representing chiefly these +Norman lords, had practically betrayed its trust to the Royalist party +in England, and would have completed that betrayal had not the +beheading of King Charles signalized the triumph of the +Parliamentarians. Even then the Norman lords hoped for the Restoration, +and strove in every way to undermine the authority of their own general, +Owen Roe O'Neill, who was almost forced to enter into an alliance with +the Puritans by the treachery of the Norman lords. It is of the greatest +interest to find Monroe writing thus to Owen Roe in August, 1649: "By my +own extraction, I have an interest in the Irish nation. I know how your +lands have been taken, and your people made hewers of wood and drawers +of water. If an Irishman can be a scourge to his own nation, the English +will give him fair words but keep him from all trust, that they may +destroy him when they have served themselves by him." + +On November 6, 1649, this great general died after a brief illness, +having for seven years led his armies to constant victory, while the +Norman lords, who were in name his allies, were secretly plotting +against him for their own profit. Yet so strong and dominant was his +genius that he overcame not only the forces of his foes but the +treacheries of his friends, and his last days saw him at one with the +Normans, while the forces of the Parliamentarians in Ireland were +calling on him for help. + +We sea, therefore, that for full eight years, from the beginning of 1642 +to the close of 1649, Ireland had an independent national government, +with a regularly elected Representative Assembly, and a central +authority, the Supreme Council, appointed by that Assembly, with judges +going circuit and holding their courts regularly, while the Supreme +Council held a state of almost regal magnificence, and kept several +armies continuously in the field. While Owen Roe O'Neill lived, that +part of the army under his command was able not only to secure an +unbroken series of victories for itself, but also to retrieve the +defeats suffered by less competent commanders, so that at his death he +was at the summit of power and fame. If regret were ever profitable, we +might well regret that he did not follow the example of the great +English commander, his contemporary, and declare himself Lord Protector +of Ireland, with despotic power. + +After his death, the work he had done so well was all undone again, in +part by treachery, in part by the victories of Oliver Cromwell. Yet ten +years after the Lord Protector's arrival in Ireland, his own work was +undone not less completely, and the Restoration saw once more enthroned +every principle against which Cromwell had so stubbornly contended. + + + +XIV. + +THE JACOBITE WARS. + +A.D. 1660-1750. + +The Restoration saw Cromwell's work completely undone; nor did the class +which helped him to his victories again rise above the surface. The +genius of the Stuarts was already sowing the seeds of new revolutions; +but the struggle was presently to be fought out, not between the king +and the people, but between the king and the more liberal or more +ambitious elements of the baronial class, who saw in the despotic +aspirations of the Stuarts a menace to their own power. + +These liberal elements in England selected as their champion Prince +William of Nassau, before whose coming the English king found it +expedient to fly to France, seeking and finding a friend in that apostle +of absolutism, Louis XIV. We have already seen how the interests of the +feudal lords of Ireland, with the old Norman families as their core, +drew them towards the Stuarts. The divine right of the landowner +depended, as we saw, on the divine right of kings; so that they +naturally gravitated towards the Stuarts, and drew their tenants and +retainers after them. Thus a considerable part of Ireland was enlisted +on the side of James II, and shared the misfortunes which presently +overtook him--or in truth did not overtake him, as the valiant gentleman +outran them and escaped. Nothing is more firmly fixed in the memories of +the whole Irish people than a good-natured contempt for this runaway +English king, whose cause they were induced by the feudal lords to +espouse. We shall follow the account of an officer in the Jacobite army +in narrating the events of the campaigns that ensued. + +James, having gained courage and funds from his sojourn at the court of +Louis XIV, presently made his appearance in Ireland, relying on the +support of the feudal lords. He landed at Kinsale, in Cork, on March 12, +1688, according to the Old Style, and reached Dublin twelve days later, +warmly welcomed by Lord and Lady Tyrconnell. The only place in the +country which strongly declared for William was the walled city of +Derry, whence we have seen the Puritan forces issuing during the wars of +the preceding generation. James, this officer says, went north to Derry, +in spite of the bitterness of the season, "in order to preserve his +Protestant subjects there from the ill-treatment which he apprehended +they might receive from the Irish," and was mightily surprised when the +gates were shut in his face and the citizens opened fire upon him from +the walls. + +[Illustration: Tullymore Park, Co. Down.] + +James withdrew immediately to Dublin, assembled a Parliament there, and +spent several months in vain discussions, not even finding courage to +repeal the penal laws which Queen Elizabeth had passed against all who +refused to recognize her as the head of the church. James was already +embarked on a career of duplicity, professing great love for Ireland, +yet fearing to carry out his professions lest he might arouse animosity +in England, and so close the door against his hoped-for return. + +Enniskillen, on an island in Lough Erne, dominated by a strong castle, +was, like Derry, a settlement of Scottish and English colonists brought +over by the first of the Stuarts. These colonists were up in arms +against the grandson of their first patron, and had successfully +attacked his forces which were besieging Derry. James, therefore, sent a +small body of troops against them; but the expedition ended in an +ignominious rout rather than a battle, for the Jacobite army seems +hardly to have struck a blow. The Irish leader, Lord Mountcashel, who +manfully stood his ground in the general panic, was wounded and +taken prisoner. + +The armies of James, meanwhile, made no headway against the courageous +and determined defenders of Derry, where the siege was degenerating into +a blockade, the scanty rations and sickness of the besieged being a far +more formidable danger than the attacks of the besiegers. James even +weakened the attacking forces by withdrawing a part of the troops to +Dublin, being resolved at all risks to protect himself. + +So devoid of resolution and foresight was James that we only find him +taking means to raise an army when Schomberg, the able lieutenant of +William, was about to invade the north of Ireland. Schomberg landed at +Bangor in Down in August, 1689, and marched south towards Drogheda, but +finding that James was there before him, he withdrew and established a +strongly fortified camp near Dundalk. James advanced to a point about +seven miles from Schomberg, and there entrenched himself in turn, and so +the two armies remained; as one of Schomberg's officers says, "our +General would not risk anything, nor King James venture anything." The +long delay was very fatal to Schomberg's army, his losses by sickness +and disease being more than six thousand men. + +Early in November, as winter was already making itself felt, James +decided to withdraw to Dublin; as our narrator says, "the young +commanders were in some haste to return to the capital, where the ladies +expected them with great impatience; so that King James, being once more +persuaded to disband the new levies and raising his camp a little of the +soonest, dispersed his men too early into winter quarters, having spent +that campaign without any advantage, vainly expecting that his +Protestant subjects of England who were in the camp of Schomberg would +come over to him. And now the winter season, which should be employed in +serious consultations, and making the necessary preparations for the +ensuing campaign, was idly spent in revels, in gaming, and other +debauches unfit for a Catholic court. But warlike Schomberg, who, after +the retreat of James, had leisure to remove his sickly soldiers, to bury +the dead, and put the few men that remained alive and were healthy into +winter quarters of refreshment, took the field early in spring, before +Tyrconnell was awake, and reduced the castle of Charlemont, the only +place that held for James in Ulster, which was lost for want of +provisions; and the concerns of the unfortunate James were ill-managed +by those whom he entrusted with the administration of public affairs." + +We come thus to the spring of 1690. Derry was still holding out +valiantly against the horrors of famine and sickness, the blockade being +maintained, though nothing like a determined storm was attempted. A +little of the courage shown by the apprentices of Derry, had he +possessed it, might have revived the drooping fortunes of the fugitive +English king. It seems, however, that even Schomberg's withdrawal to +Carrickfergus failed to arouse him to more vigorous and valiant +measures. It is clear that he was ready to abandon his Irish allies, +hoping by their betrayal to gain favor with his "subjects in England," +whom he confidently expected to recall him, as they had recalled his +brother Charles thirty years before. James found an able lieutenant in +Tyrconnell, who thoroughly entered into his master's schemes of +duplicity; and it is fairly clear that these two worthies, had occasion +offered, would have betrayed each other with a perfectly good grace. + +Thus matters dragged on quite indecisively until June, 1690, when King +William landed at Carrickfergus with a mixed force of English, Scottish, +Dutch, Danish, Swedish and German troops, and joined his forces to the +remnant of Schomberg's army. James, as we saw, had disbanded his army on +breaking up his camp in the previous autumn, and had made no effective +effort to get a new army together. Nor could he have used a strong army, +had he possessed one. Nevertheless James marched north with such troops +as were available, leaving Dublin on June 16th. He took up a strong +position on the borders of Ulster and Leinster, thus blocking William's +way south to the capital, only to abandon it again on the news of +William's approach, when he retired to Drogheda and encamped there. He +thus gave the whole advantage of initiative into the hands of his +opponent, a brave man and a skillful general. + +James seems to have hoped that William's army would be mowed down by +disease, as Schomberg's had been in the preceding campaign. And there is +reason to believe that Tyrconnell, foreseeing the defeat of James, +wished to avoid any serious fighting, which would be an obstacle in his +way when he sought to patch up a peace with the victor and make terms +for himself. But his opponent was inspired by a very different temper, +and William's army advanced steadily southwards, to find James encamped +on the southern bank of the Boyne. + +There were several fords by which William's army would have to cross on +its way south. But James was such an incapable general that he did not +even throw up trenches to defend the fords. William's army arrived and +encamped on the north bank of the river, and the next day, June 30th, +was employed in an artillery duel between the two armies, when +considerable injury was inflicted on William's forces, although he was +far stronger in artillery than his opponent. During that night, James, +already certain of defeat, sent away most of his artillery to Dublin, +leaving only six guns with his army on the Boyne. + +It seems tolerably certain that, when the battle began again next day, +William's army numbered between forty-five and fifty thousand, with the +usual proportion of cavalry,--probably a tenth of the whole. James, on +the other hand, had from twenty to twenty-five thousand men, about a +tenth of them, probably, being mounted; he had, by his own fault, only +six guns against about fifty in William's batteries. William's line of +battle was formed, as usual, with the infantry in the center and the +cavalry on the wings. He gave the elder Schomberg command of the center, +while Schomberg's son, with the cavalry of the right wing, was sent four +or five miles up the river to Slane, to cross there and turn the left +flank of the opposing army. William himself led the cavalry on the left +wing, and later on in the battle, descending the river, crossed at a +lower ford. He could thus attack the right flank of his opponent; the +infantry composing the center of his army advancing, meanwhile, under +cover of a heavy artillery fire, and forcing the fords of the Boyne. + +The river is shallow here, and in the middle of summer the water is +nowhere too deep for wading, so that it was a very slight protection to +the army of James. A better general would at least have chosen a +stronger position, and one which would have given him some manifest +advantage. Such positions were to be found all along the road by which +William had advanced from Carrickfergus. The country on both sides of +the Boyne is flat; rolling meadows with the shallow river dividing +them--a country giving every opportunity to cavalry. + +William's right, under the younger Schomberg, made several unsuccessful +attempts to cross the river at Slane, being repeatedly beaten back by +Arthur O'Neill's horse. Finally, however, the way was cleared for him by +a vigorous cannonade, to which O'Neill, having no cannon, was unable to +reply, and William's right wing thus forced the passage of the Boyne. + +William's center now advanced, and began the passage of the river, under +cover of a heavy artillery fire. Every foot of the advance was +stubbornly contested, and such headway was made by the Irish troops that +Schomberg's bodyguard was scattered or cut to pieces, and he himself was +slain. The center of William's army was undoubtedly being beaten back, +when, crossing lower down with eighteen squadrons of cavalry, he +fiercely attacked the right flank of the Irish army and thus turned the +possibility of defeat into certain victory. That the Irish troops, +although outnumbered two to one and led by a coward, fought valiantly, +is admitted on all sides. They charged and re-charged ten times in +succession, and only gave way at last under pressure of greatly superior +numbers. The retreat of the Irish army was orderly,--the more so, +doubtless, because the former king of England was no longer among them, +having most valiantly fled to Dublin, and thence to Kinsale, where he +took ship for France, leaving behind him a reputation quite singular in +the annals of Ireland. + +Within a week after the battle, the Irish army, which had preserved +order and discipline even in the face of the flight of James, occupied +Limerick, and made preparations to hold that strong position, with the +untouched resources of the western province behind them, and the hope, +unshaken by their rude experience, that the runaway king might reinforce +them by sea. Through all the events that followed, presently to be +narrated, it must be understood that Tyrconnell was steadily seeking to +undermine the resolution of the Irish army, hoping the sooner to make +his peace with King William, to secure his Irish estates, and, very +possibly, be appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, under the new king. + +William meanwhile brought his army southwards, being welcomed to Dublin +by the large English element there, and presently continued his march to +Waterford, which was surrendered to him, as was alleged, by Tyrconnell's +orders. He also reduced Kilkenny, to which Tyrconnell had failed to +send reinforcements, though repeatedly appealed to by its commander. +About this time, on July 28th or a day or two later, the brave garrison +of Derry was relieved by some of William's ships, which broke the line +of blockade across the river and brought abundant provisions to the +emaciated defenders. + +A section of William's army under Douglas was sent to take Athlone, the +strong fortress which guarded the ford, and later the bridge across the +Shannon--the high road from Leinster to the western province of +Connacht, beyond the river. Douglas, after a fierce attack lasting seven +days, was compelled to retreat again to the main army encamped at +Waterford. The French auxiliaries under Lauzun, who had not hitherto +greatly distinguished themselves for valor, losing less than a score of +men at the Boyne, now deserted Limerick and retreated to Galway, taking +with them, if the fugitive king may be credited, a great quantity of +ammunition from the fortress of Limerick. + +[Illustration: Thormond Bridge, Limerick.] + +Finally, on August 9th, William's army appeared before Limerick, and the +famous siege began. Tyrconnell signalized himself by deserting the fords +over the Shannon and departing to Galway, declaring that the town would +certainly surrender within a week. The city, however, was of a +different opinion. The garrison, under Sarsfield, made vigorous +preparation for a defence, and a party under Sarsfield himself cut off +one of William's convoys from Dublin, destroying the siege-train which +was being brought for the attack on the city. William's cavalry, taking +advantage of Tyrconnell's retreat, crossed the ford of the Shannon to +complete the investment of the city on that side, but they presently +returned, having done nothing effective. + +We hear of more attempts by Tyrconnell to undermine the resolution of +the army, and of attacks by William's force, which gave him possession +of the outworks, so that he was able presently to begin cannonading the +walls, to make a breach for an assault. The officer in the Irish army +whom we have already quoted, gives this account of the siege: "Never was +a town better attacked and better defended than the city of Limerick. +William left nothing unattempted that the art of war, the skill of a +great captain and the valor of veteran soldiers could put in execution +to gain the place; and the Irish omitted nothing that courage and +constancy could practice to defend it. The continual assaults of the one +and the frequent sallies of the other consumed a great many brave men +both of the army and the garrison. On the nineteenth day, William, after +fighting for every inch of ground he gained, having made a large breach +in the wall, gave a general assault which lasted for three hours; and +though his men mounted the breach, and some even entered the town, they +were gallantly repulsed and forced to retire with considerable loss. +William, resolving to renew the assault next day, could not persuade his +men to advance, though he offered to lead them in person. Whereupon, all +in a rage, he left the camp, and never stopped till he came to +Waterford, where he took shipping for England; his army in the meantime +retiring by night from Limerick." + +During this first siege of Limerick the garrison numbered some twenty +thousand, by no means well armed. William's besieging army was about +forty thousand, with forty cannon and mortars. His loss was between +three and four thousand, while the loss of the defenders was about half +that number. + +William, presently arriving in England, sent reinforcements to his +generals in Ireland, under Lord Churchill, afterwards famous as the Duke +of Marlborough. Tyrconnell had meantime followed his runaway king to +France, as was involved in a maze of contradictory designs, the one +clear principle of which was the future advantage of Tyrconnell. Louis +XIV, who had reasons of his own for wishing to keep the armies of +William locked up in Ireland, was altogether willing to advise and help +a continuance of hostilities in that country. James seems to have +recognized his incapacity too clearly to attempt anything definite, or, +what is more probable, was too irresolute by nature even to determine to +give up the fight. Tyrconnell himself sincerely wished to make his peace +with William, so that he might once more enjoy the revenues of his +estates. The Irish army was thoroughly determined to hold out to +the end. + +With these conflicting desires and designs, no single-hearted and +resolute action was possible. Matters seem to have drifted till about +January, 1691, when Tyrconnell returned; "but he brought with him no +soldiers, very few arms, little provision and no money." A month later a +messenger came direct to Sarsfield, then with the army at Galway, from +Louis XIV, promising reinforcements under the renowned soldier Saint +Ruth. This letter to a great extent revealed the double part Tyrconnell +had been playing at the French court, and did much to undermine his +credit with the better elements in the Irish army. + +The French fleet finally arrived at Limerick in May, 1691, under Saint +Ruth, bringing a considerable quantity of provisions for the Irish army; +but it is doubtful whether this arrival added any real element of +strength to the army. The Irish army, soon after this, was assembled at +Athlone, to defend the passage of the Shannon. Much vigorous fighting +took place, but Ginkell, William's general, finally captured that +important fortress in June. The road to Galway was now open, and +Ginkell's army prepared to march on that important city, the strongest +place in Connacht. Saint Ruth prepared to resist their approach, fixing +his camp at Aughrim, The Hill of the Horses, some eighteen miles from +Athlone and thirty-five from Galway. We may once more tell the story in +the words of an eye-witness: + +"Aughrim was then a ruined town, and the castle was not much better, +situated in a bottom on the north side of the hill, where the Irish army +encamped. The direct way from Ballinasloe was close by the castle, but +there was another way about, on the south-east side of the hill. The +rest of the ground fronting the camp was a marsh, passable only for +foot. The army of Ginkell appeared in sight of Aughrim on July 12th. The +Irish army, composed of about ten thousand foot, two thousand +men-at-arms, and as many light horse, was soon drawn up by Saint Ruth in +two lines; the cavalry on both wings flanking the foot; and having +placed Chevalier de Tesse on the right wing of the horse, and Sarsfield +on the left, and giving their several posts to the rest of the chief +commanders, Saint Ruth obliged himself to no certain place, but rode +constantly from one side to another to give the necessary orders where +he saw occasion. Ginkell being now come up at so near a distance that +his guns and other battering engines might do execution, he ordered them +to be discharged, and as he had a vast number of them he made them play +incessantly on the Irish army, hoping by that means to force them from +the hill, which was of great advantage. But the Irish, encouraged by the +presence and conduct of Saint Ruth, kept their ground and beat the +English as often as they advanced towards them. The fight continued from +noon till sunset, the Irish foot having still the better of the enemy; +and Saint Ruth, observing the advantage of his side, and that the +enemy's foot were much disordered, was resolved, by advancing with the +cavalry, to make the victory complete, when an unlucky shot from one of +the terrible new engines, hitting him in the head, made an end of his +life, and took away the courage of his army. For Ginkell, observing the +Irish to be in some disorder, gave a notable conjecture that the general +was either killed or wounded, whereupon he commanded his army to +advance. The Irish cavalry, discouraged by the death of Saint Ruth, and +none of the general officers coming to head them in his place, gave +back, and quitted the field. The foot who were engaged with the enemy, +knowing nothing of the general's death or the retreat of the cavalry, +continued fighting till they were surrounded by the whole English army; +so that the most of them were cut off, and no quarter given but to a +very few; the rest, by favor of the night then approaching, for Saint +Ruth was killed about sunset, made their escape." + +To this we may add the testimony of the runaway monarch: "The Irish +behaved with great spirit. They convinced the English they had to do +with men no less resolute than themselves. Never assault was made with +greater fury nor sustained with greater obstinacy. The Irish foot +repulsed the enemy several times, particularly in the center. They even +looked upon the victory as certain.... The Irish lost four thousand +men. The loss of the English was not much inferior." + +The army of Ginkell, thus in possession of the key of Connacht, advanced +upon its most important city, arriving before Galway a few days after +the battle of Aughrim. Galway, however, was full of divided counsels, +and speedily surrendered, so that Limerick alone remained. Limerick was +greatly weakened, now that Galway, and with Galway the whole of Connacht +to which alone Limerick could look for supplies, was in the hands of the +enemy. Ginkell turned all his efforts in the direction of Limerick, +appearing before the city and pitching his camp there on August 25, +1691. Beginning with the next day, our narrator tells us, "he placed his +cannon and other battering engines, which played furiously night and day +without intermission, reducing that famous city almost to ashes. No +memorable action, however, happened till the night between September 15 +and 16, when he made a bridge of boats over the Shannon, which being +ready by break of day, he passed over with a considerable body of horse +and foot on the Connacht side of the river, without any opposition. This +so alarmed Sheldon, who commanded the cavalry at that time, that without +staying for orders, he immediately retired to a mountain a good +distance from Limerick, and marched with such precipitation and +disorder, that if a hundred of the enemy's horse had charged him in the +rear, they would in all likelihood have defeated his whole party, though +he had near upon four thousand men-at-arms and light horse; for the man, +if he was faithful, wanted either courage or conduct, and the party were +altogether discouraged to be under his command. But Ginkell did not +advance far, and after showing himself on that side of the bridge, +returned back into his camp the same day. Yet Sheldon never rested till +he came, about midnight, fifteen miles from the Shannon, and encamped in +a fallow field where there was not a bit of grass to be had: as if he +had designed to harass the horses by day and starve them by night.... +Ginkell, understanding that the Irish horse was removed to such a +distance, passed the river on the twenty-third day with the greatest +part of his cavalry, and a considerable body of foot, and encamped +half-way between Limerick and the Irish horse camp, whereby he hindered +all communication between them and the town. On the twenty-fourth, the +captains within Limerick sent out a trumpet, desiring a parley," and as +a result of this parley, a treaty was ultimately signed between the two +parties, Limerick was evacuated, and the war came to an end. This was +early in October, 1691. + +The war had, therefore, lasted nearly four years, a sufficient testimony +to the military qualities of the Irish, seeing that throughout the whole +period they had matched against them greatly superior numbers of the +finest troops in Europe, veterans trained in continental wars, and at +all points better armed and equipped than their adversaries. + +What moves our unbounded admiration, however, is to see the troops +displaying these qualities of valor not only without good leadership, +but in face of the cowardice of the English king, and of duplicity +amounting to treachery on the part of his chief adherents. Foremost +among these time-servers was Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnell, whose name +shows him to have sprung from one of the Norman families, and we see +here the recurrence of a principle which had worked much harm in the +eight years' war of the preceding generation. The Duke of Ormond, sprung +from the Norman Butlers, was then the chief representative of the policy +of intrigue, and many of the reverses of both these wars are to be +attributed to the same race. + +It is tragical to find the descendants of the old Norman barons, who at +any rate were valiant fighters, descending thus to practices quite +unworthy; yet we can easily understand how the fundamental injustice of +the feudal principle on which they stood, not less than the boundless +abuse of that already bad principle under the first Stuarts, could not +fail to undermine their sense of honor and justice, preparing them at +length for a policy of mere self-seeking, carried on by methods always +doubtful, and often openly treacherous. + +The old tribal chieftains lived to fight, and went down fighting into +the night of time. Owen Roe O'Neill, last great son of a heroic race, +splendidly upheld their high tradition and ideal. No nobler figure, and +few more gifted captains, can be found in the annals of those warlike +centuries. The valor of Cuculain, the wisdom of Concobar, the chivalry +of Fergus--all were his, and with them a gentle and tolerant spirit in +all things concerning religion, very admirable in an age when so many +men, in other things not lacking in elements of nobility, were full of +bitter animosity, and zealous to persecute all those who differed from +them concerning things shrouded in mystery. + +It may be said, indeed, that Owen Roe is in this only a type of all his +countrymen, who, though they suffered centuries of persecution for a +religious principle, never persecuted in return. Their conduct +throughout the epoch of religious war and persecution was always +tolerant and full of the sense of justice, contrasting in this, and +contrasting to their honor, with the conduct of nearly every other +nation in Christendom. + +The history of Ireland, for the half century which followed this war, +offers few salient features for description. The Catholics during all +this time were under the ban of penal laws. The old tribal chiefs were +gone. The Norman lords were also gone. The life of the land hardly went +beyond the tilling of the fields and the gathering of the harvests. And +even here, men only labored for others to enter into their labor. The +right of private taxation, confirmed by law, and now forfeited by the +feudal lords, was given as a reward to the adherents of the dominant +party in England, and their yearly exactions were enforced by an armed +garrison. The more vigorous and restless elements of our race, unable to +accept these conditions of life, sailed in great numbers to the +continent, and entered the armies of many European powers. It is +estimated that, during the half century after the Treaty of Limerick, +fully half a million Irishmen fell in the service of France alone. + + + +XV. + +CONCLUSION. + +A.D. 1750-1901. + +The Treaty of Limerick, signed when the army of Sarsfield came to terms +with the besiegers, guaranteed equal liberty to all Ireland, without +regard to difference of religion. There is no doubt that William of +Nassau, scion of a race which had done much for liberty, a house that +had felt the bitterness of oppression, would willingly have carried this +treaty out in a spirit of fidelity and honor. But he was, helpless. The +dominant powers in England and Ireland were too strong for him, and +within the next few years the treaty was violated in letter and spirit, +and the indigenous population of Ireland was disarmed, deprived of civil +rights, reduced to servitude. + +It is best, wherever possible, to secure the word of witnesses who +cannot be suspected of prejudice or favor. We shall do this, therefore, +in describing the condition of Ireland during the eighteenth century. We +find the Lord Chancellor of England declaring, during the first half of +that period, that "in the eye of the law no Catholic existed in +Ireland." The Lord Chief Justice affirms the same doctrine: "It appears +plain that the law does not suppose any such person to exist as an Irish +Roman Catholic." The law, therefore, as created by England for Ireland, +deprived of all civil, religious, intellectual and moral rights +four-fifths of the whole population, and gave them over as a lawful prey +to the remaining fifth: a band of colonists and adventurers, who favored +the policy of the party then dominant in England. This was the condition +of the law. We shall see, presently, what was its result on the life of +the nation. It should be a warning, for all time, of the dangers which +arise when one nation undertakes to govern another. For it must be +clearly understood that the Sovreign and Parliament of England believed +that in this they stood for honor and righteousness, and had a true +insight into the spirit and will of the Most High. It was, indeed, on +this superior knowledge of the divine will that they based their whole +policy; for what else is the meaning of legal discrimination against the +holders of a certain form of faith? + +[Illustration: Salmon Fishery, Galway.] + +In the second half of the eighteenth century, in 1775, the Congress of +the United States sent its sympathy in these words to the people of +Ireland: "We know that you are not without your grievances; we +sympathize with you in your distress, and we are pleased to find that +the design of subjugating us has persuaded the administration to +dispense to Ireland some vagrant rays of ministerial sunshine. Even the +tender mercies of the government have long been cruel to you. In the +rich pastures of Ireland many hungry parasites are fed, and grow strong +to labor for her destruction." + +Three years later, in 1778, Benjamin Franklin wrote thus to the Irish +people: "The misery and distress which your ill-fated country has been +so frequently exposed to, and has so often experienced, by such a +combination of rapine, treachery and violence as would have disgraced +the name of government in the most arbitrary country in the world, has +most sincerely affected your friends in America, and has engaged the +most serious attention of Congress." + +It must be assumed that the men who drew up the Declaration of +Independence knew the value of words, and that when they spoke of misery +and cruelty, of rapine, treachery and distress, they meant what they +said. Franklin's letter brings us to the eve of the Volunteer Movement, +of which much has been said in a spirit of warm praise, but which seems +to have wrought evil rather than good. This Movement, at first initiated +wholly by the Scottish and English colonists and their adherents, was +later widened so as to include a certain number of the indigenous +population; and an armed force was thus formed, which was able to gain +certain legislative favors from England, with the result that a +Parliament sitting in Dublin from 1782 to 1799 passed laws with +something more resembling justice than Ireland was accustomed to. + +But this Parliament was in no sense national or representative. It was +wholly composed of the Scottish and English colonists and their friends, +and the indigenous population had no voice in its deliberations. It is, +therefore, the more honor to Henry Grattan that we find him addressing +that Parliament thus: "I will never claim freedom for six hundred +thousand of my countrymen while I leave two million or more of them in +chains. Give the Catholics of Ireland their civil rights and their +franchise; give them the power to return members to the Irish +Parliament, and let the nation be represented." At this time, therefore, +four-fifths of the nation had neither civil rights nor +franchise,--because they differed from the dominant party in England as +to the precedence of the disciples of Jesus. + +It may be supposed, however, that, even without civil or religious +rights, the fate of the people of Ireland was tolerable; that a certain +measure of happiness and well-being was theirs, if not by law, at least +by grace. The answer to this we shall presently see. The Volunteer +Movement, as we saw, included certain elements of the indigenous +population. The dominant party in England professed to see in this a +grave danger, and determined to ward off that danger by sending an army +to Ireland, and quartering troops on the peasants of all suspected +districts. We must remember that the peasants, on whom a hostile +soldiery was thus quartered, had no civil rights as a safeguard; that +the authorities were everywhere bitterly hostile, full of cowardly +animosity towards them. + +The result we may best describe in the words of the English generals at +the head of this army. We find Sir Ralph Abercrombie speaking thus: "The +very disgraceful frequency of great crimes and cruelties, and the many +complaints of the conduct of the troops in this kingdom--Ireland--has +too unfortunately proved the army to be in a state of licentiousness +that renders it formidable to everyone except the enemy." Sir Ralph +Abercrombie declared himself so frightened and disgusted at the conduct +of the soldiers that he threw up his commission, and refused the command +of the army. + +General Lake, who was sent to take his place, speaks thus: "The state of +the country, and its occupation previous to the insurrection, is not to +be imagined, except by those who witnessed the atrocities of every +description committed by the military,"--and he gives a list of +hangings, burnings and murders. + +Finally, we have the testimony of another English soldier, Sir William +Napier, speaking some years later: "What manner of soldiers were these +fellows who were let loose upon the wretched districts, killing, burning +and confiscating every man's property? ... We ourselves were young at +the time; yet, being connected with the army, we were continually among +the soldiers, listening with boyish eagerness to their experiences: and +well remember, with horror, to this day, the tales of lust, of bloodshed +and pillage, and the recital of their foul actions against the miserable +peasantry, which they used to relate." + +The insurrection against this misery and violence, which began in May, +1798, and its repression, we may pass over, coming to their political +consequences. It is admitted on all hands that the morality and religion +of England reached their lowest ebb at this very time; we are, +therefore, ready to learn that the Act of Union between England and +Ireland, which followed on the heels of this insurrection, was carried +by unlimited bribery and corruption. The Parliament of Ireland, as we +know, was solely composed of Protestants, the Catholics having neither +the right to sit nor the right to vote; so that the ignominy of this +universal corruption must be borne by the class of English and Scottish +settlers alone. + +The curious may read lists of the various bribes paid to secure the +passage of the Act of Union in 1800, the total being about six million +dollars--a much more considerable sum then than now. And it must be +remembered that this entire sum was drawn from the revenues of Ireland, +besides the whole cost of an army numbering 125,000 men, which England +maintained in Ireland at the time the Act was passed. What the amenities +of the last three years of the eighteenth century cost Ireland we may +judge from these figures: in 1797, while the hangings, burnings and +torturings which brought about the insurrection of the following year +were in an early stage, the national debt of Ireland was under +$20,000,000; three years later that debt amounted to over $130,000,000. +It is profitless to pursue the subject further. We may close it by +saying that hardly can we find in history a story more discreditable to +our common humanity than the conduct of England towards Ireland during +the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. + +The French Revolution wrought a salutary change of heart in the +governing class in England, for it must in justice be added that the +tyranny of this class was as keenly felt by the "lower orders" in +England as in Ireland itself. It is fairly certain that only the Reform +Bill and the change of sovreigns which shortly followed prevented an +insurrection of the peasants and servile classes in England which would +have outdone in horrors the French Revolution itself. The Reform Bill +was the final surrender of the baronial class in England; a surrender +rather apparent than real, however, since most of the political and all +the social power in the land still remains in the hands of the +same class. + +[Illustration: O'Connell's Statue, Dublin.] + +Through the salutary fear which was inspired by the horrors of the +French Revolution, and perhaps through a certain moral awakening, the +governing classes in England came to a less vicious mind in their +dealings with Ireland. They were, therefore, the more ready to respond +to the great national movement headed by Daniel O'Connell, with his +demand that Irishmen might all equally enjoy civil and political rights, +regardless of their form of faith. In 1829, as the result of this great +movement, the Catholics were finally relieved of the burden of penal +laws which, originally laid on them by the Tudors, were rendered even +more irksome and more unjust by Cromwell and William of Nassau,--men in +other things esteemed enlightened and lovers of liberty. + +Thus the burden of persecution was finally taken away. To those who +imposed it, the system of Penal Laws will remain a deep dishonor. But to +those who bore that burden it has proved a safeguard of spiritual purity +and faith. The religion of the indigenous race in Ireland was saved from +the degeneration and corruption which ever besets a wealthy and +prosperous church, and which never fails to engender hypocrisy, avarice +and ambition. In England, the followers of the Apostles exercise the +right to levy a second tax on the produce of all tilled lands, a second +burden imposed upon the conquered Saxons. As a result, the leaders of +the church live in palaces, while the people, the humbler part of their +congregation; have sunk into practical atheism. In France, the reaction +against a like state of things brought the church to the verge of +destruction, and led the masses to infidelity and materialism. The +result to the moral life of the people is too well known to need remark. +Not less evil consequences have flowed from the enriching of the church +in other lands. That wealth has always carried with it the curse, so +prophetically pronounced, against those who trust in riches. For the +ministers of religion, in a supreme degree, the love of money has been +the root of evil. + +We may, therefore, see in the spirituality and unworldliness of the +native church in Ireland a result of all the evil and persecution the +church suffered during almost three hundred years. From this +purification by fire it comes that the people of Ireland are almost +singular throughout Christendom in believing sincerely in the religion +of gentleness and mercy--the kingdom which is not of this world. + +In 1829 the Catholics were at last freed from the galling burdens which +had weighed on them since 1537, when they failed to recognize Henry VIII +as the representative of God on earth. They were still, however, under +the shadow of a grave injustice, which continued to rest on them for +many years. When their church lands were confiscated and their faith +proscribed by law under the Tudors, a new clergy was overlaid on the +country, a clergy which consented to recognize the Tudors and their +successors as their spiritual head. As a reward, these new ministers of +religion were allowed to levy a second tax on land, exactly as in +England; and this tax they continued to collect until their privilege +was finally taken away by Gladstone and the English Liberals. Needless +to say that through three centuries and more four-fifths of this tax was +levied on the indigenous Catholics, in support of what was to them an +alien, and for most of the time a persecuting church. + +One heavy disability still lay on the whole land. With its partial +removal a principle has emerged of such world-wide importance in the +present, and even more in the future, that we may well trace its history +in detail. + +The Normans, as we saw, paid themselves for conquering the Saxons and +Angles by assuming a perpetual right to tax their produce; a right still +in full force, and forming the very foundation of the ruling class in +England. The land tenure thus created was, under the Tudors and the +first Stuarts, bodily transferred to Ireland. In Ireland the land had +ever been owned by the people, each tribe, as representing a single +family, holding a certain area by communal tenure, and electing a chief +to protect its territory from aggression. For this elective +chieftainship the English law-courts substituted something wholly +different: a tenure modeled on the feudal servitude of England. This new +principle made the land of the country the property not of the whole +people but of a limited and privileged class: the favorites of the +ruling power--"hungry parasites" as the Congress of 1775 called them. +This "landed" class continued to hold absolute sway until quite +recently, and it was this class which succumbed to bribery in 1800, and +passed the Act of Legislative Union with England. The clergy of the +Established church were little more than the private chaplains of the +"landed" class, the two alien bodies supporting each other. + +Folly, however, was the child of injustice; for so shortsighted were +these hungry parasites that they developed a system of land-laws so bad +as to cause universal poverty, and bring a reaction which is steadily +sweeping the "landed" class of Ireland to extinction and oblivion. The +fundamental principle of these bad land-laws was this: the tenant was +compelled to renew his lease from year to year; and whenever, during the +year, he had in any way improved the land in his possession,--by +draining marshes, by reclaiming waste areas, by adding farm-buildings, +the "owner" of the land could demand an enhanced rent, as the condition +of renewing the lease. The tenant had to submit to a continually +ascending scale of extortion, sanctioned by law and exacted by armed +force; or, as an alternative, he had to give up the fruit of his +industry without compensation and without redress. + +Anything more certain to destroy energy, to cut at the roots of thrift, +to undermine all the best qualities of manhood, it would be impossible +to imagine. The slave on the plantation could in time purchase his +freedom. The tiller of the soil in Ireland found, on the contrary, that +the greater his industry, the greater was the sum he had to pay for the +right to exercise it. We saw that there never was any pretence of free +contract in the feudal land-tenure of England; that there never was any +pretence of an honest bargain between farmer and landlord, for their +mutual benefit. The tenant paid the landlord for services rendered, not +to him, but to his Norman conqueror. So it was, in an even greater +degree, in Ireland. There was no pretence at all that tenant and +landlord entered into a free contract for their mutual benefit. Nor did +either law, custom, religion or opinion require the landlord to make any +return to his tenants for the share of the fruit of their toil he +annually carried away. + +The tiller of the soil, therefore, labored from year to year, through +droughts and rains, through heat and cold, facing bad seasons with good. +At the end of the year, after hard toil had gathered in the fruit of the +harvest, he saw the best part of that fruit legally confiscated by an +alien, who would have been speechless with wonder, had it been suggested +to him that anything was due from him in return. Nor was that all. This +alien was empowered, and by the force of public opinion incited, to +exact the greatest possible share of the tiller's produce, and, as we +saw, he was entitled to the whole benefit of whatever improvements the +tiller of the soil had made; and could--and constantly did--expel the +cultivator who was unable or unwilling to pay a higher tax, as the +penalty for improving the land. + +It may be said that bad as this all was, it was not without a remedy; +that the cultivator had the choice of other occupations, and might let +the land lie fallow, while its "owner" starved. But this only brings to +mind the fact that during the eighteenth century England had legislated +with the deliberate intention of destroying the manufactures and +shipping of Ireland, and had legislated with success. It should be added +that this one measure affected all residents in Ireland equally, +whatever faith or race. There was practically no alternative before the +cultivator. He had the choice between robbery and starvation. + +It would be more than miraculous if this condition of things had not +borne its fruit. The result was this: it ceased to be the interest of +the cultivator of the land to till it effectively, or to make any +improvement whatever, whether by drainage, reclaiming waste land, or +building, or by adopting better agricultural methods. In every case, his +increase of labor, of foresight and energy, would have met with but one +reward: when the time came to renew the lease, he would have been told +that his land had doubled in value during the year, and that he must, +therefore, pay twice as much for the privilege of tilling it. If he +refused, he at once forfeited every claim to the fruit of his own work, +the whole of his improvements becoming the property of the land owner. + +The cultivators, as an inevitable consequence, lost every incentive to +labor, energy, foresight and the moral qualities which are fostered by +honestly rewarded work. They worked as little as possible on their +farms, and the standard of cultivation steadily declined, while the mode +of living grew perpetually worse. If it were intended to reduce a whole +population to hopeless poverty, no better or more certain way could +be imagined. + +The steady lowering of the arts of cultivation, the restriction of +crops, the tendency to keep as close as possible to the margin of +sustenance, thus zealously fostered, opened the way for the disastrous +famine of 1846 and 1847, which marks the beginning of a rapid decline in +population,--a decrease which has never since been checked. The +inhabitants of Ireland shortly before the famine numbered considerably +over eight millions. Since that time, there has been a decrease of about +four millions--a thing without parallel in Christendom. + +The amendment of the land-laws, which were directly responsible for +these evil results, was by no means initiated in consequence of the +famine. It was due wholly to a great national agitation, carried out +under the leadership of Charles Stewart Parnell, which led to the +land-acts of 1881 and 1887. These new laws at last guaranteed to the +cultivator the fruit of his toil, and guarded him against arbitrary +increase of the tax levied on him by the "owner" of the land. But they +did not stop here; they initiated a principle which will finally make +the cultivator absolute owner of his land, and abolish the feudal class +with their rights of private taxation. This cannot fail to react on +England, so that the burdens of the Angles and Saxons will at last be +lifted from their shoulders, as a result of the example set them by the +Gaels, for generations working persistently, and persistently advancing +towards their goal. Nor will the tide thus set in motion spread only to +Saxon and Angle; its influence will be felt wherever those who work are +deprived unjustly of the fruit of their toil, whether by law or without +law. The evils suffered by Ireland will thus be not unavailing; they +will rather bring the best of all rewards: a reward to others, of +whatever race and in whatever land, who are victims of a like injustice. + +The story of Ireland, through many centuries, has thus been told. The +rest belongs to the future. We have seen the strong life of the prime +bringing forth the virtues of war and peace; we have seen valor and +beauty and wisdom come to perfect ripeness in the old pagan world. We +have seen that old pagan world transformed by the new teaching of +gentleness and mercy, a consciousness, wider, more humane and universal, +added from above to the old genius of individual life. With the new +teaching came the culture of Rome, and something of the lore of Hellas +and Palestine, of Egypt and Chaldea, warmly welcomed and ardently +cherished in Ireland at a time when Europe was submerged under barbarian +inroads and laid waste by heathen hordes. We have seen the faith and +culture thus preserved among our western seas generously shared with the +nascent nations who emerged from the pagan invasions; the seeds of +intellectual and spiritual life, sown with faith and fervor as far as +the Alps and the Danube, springing up with God-given increase, and +ripening to an abundant harvest. + +To that bright epoch of our story succeeded centuries of growing +darkness and gathering storm. The forces of our national life, which +until then had found such rich expression and flowered in such abundant +beauty, were now checked, driven backward and inward, through war, +oppression and devastation, until a point was reached when the whole +indigenous population had no vestige of religious or civil rights; when +they ceased even to exist in the eyes of the law. + +The tide of life, thus forced inward, gained a firm possession of the +invisible world, with the eternal realities indwelling there. Thus fixed +and founded in the real, that tide turned once again, flowing outwards +and sweeping before it all the barriers in its way. The population of +Ireland is diminishing in numbers; but the race to which they belong +increases steadily: a race of clean life, of unimpaired vital power, +unspoiled by wealth or luxury, the most virile force in the New World. + +It happens very rarely, under those mysterious laws which rule the life +of all humanity, the laws which work their majestic will through the +ages, using as their ministers the ambitions and passions of men--it +happens rarely that a race keeps its unbroken life through thirty +centuries, transformed time after time by new spiritual forces, yet in +genius remaining ever the same. It may be doubted whether even once +before throughout all history a race thus long-lived has altogether +escaped the taint of corruption and degeneration. Never before, we may +confidently say, has a single people emerged from such varied +vicissitudes, stronger at the end in genius, in spiritual and moral +power, than at the beginning, richer in vital force, clearer in +understanding, in every way more mature and humane. + +For this is the real fruit of so much evil valiantly endured: a deep +love of freedom, a hatred of oppression, a knowledge that the wish to +dominate is a fruitful source of wrong. The new age now dawning before +us carries many promises of good for all humanity; not less, it has its +dangers, grave and full of menace; threatening, if left to work +unchecked, to bring lasting evil to our life. Never before, it is true, +have there been so wide opportunities for material well-being; but, on +the other hand, never before have there been such universal temptations +toward a low and sensual ideal. Our very mastery over natural forces and +material energies entices us away from our real goal, hides from our +eyes the human and divine powers of the soul, with which we are +enduringly concerned. Our skill in handling nature's lower powers may be +a means of great good; not less may it bring forth unexampled evil. The +opportunities of well-being are increased; the opportunities of +exclusive luxury are increased in equal measure; exclusion may bring +resentment; resentment may call forth oppression, armed with new +weapons, guided by wider understanding, but prompted by the same corrupt +spirit as of old. + +In the choice which our new age must make between these two ways, very +much may be done for the enduring well-being of mankind by a race full +of clean vigor, a race taught by stern experience the evil of tyranny +and oppression, a race profoundly believing the religion of gentleness +and mercy, a race full of the sense of the invisible world, the world of +our immortality. + +We see in Ireland a land with a wonderful past, rich in tradition and +varied lore; a land where the memorials of the ages, built in enduring +stone, would in themselves enable us to trace the life and progress of +human history; we see in Ireland a land full of a singular fascination +and beauty, where even the hills and rivers speak not of themselves but +of the spirit which builds the worlds; a beauty, whether in brightness +or gloom, finding its exact likeness in no other land; we see all this, +but we see much more: not a memory of the past, but a promise of the +future; no offering of earthly wealth, but rather a gift to the soul of +man; not for Ireland only, but for all mankind. + + + + +INDEX. + + +Abbey-Dorney, 303 +Abbey-feale, 303 +Abbey-leix, 303 +Abbey of Ballintober, 305 +Abbey-quarter, 29 +Abercrombie, Sir Ralph, words of, 369, 370 +Achill Island, 30 +Act of Union, 371 +Aed Allan, 225, 231 +Aed Finnliat, 247 +Aed Roin, 225 +Aed, son of Colgan, 226 +Ailill, 130, 131, 132, 141, 142, 146, 147, 152 +Aiterni, 150 +Alfred, king of the Northumbrian Saxons, 232 +Alfred, king, ode of to the country he visited, 232, 233 +Alny, 120, 129 +Amargin, 150 +Ambigatos, 103 +Ancient seats of learning, 221 +Ancient seats of learning, studies therein, 221, 222 +Anglicans, 322 +Angus, the Young, 92, 95, 96, 173 +"Annals," history of the times as recorded in the, 235, 252 +"Annals," quotations from, 224, 244, 264, 277, 293 +Antrim, 5, 196 +Archaic Darkness, 11 +Archaic Dawn, 12 +Ardan, 120, 129 +Ard-Maca, 200 +Armagh, 200, 208, 232, 241 +At-Cliat, 242, 243, 275 +Athlone, 140, 350, 354 +Ath-uince, 163 +Aughrim, 354, 355 + +Ballinasloe, 354 +Ballysadare, 27, 87, 90 +Balor of the Evil Eye, 90, 91, 93 +Bangor, 221, 239, 240, 250, 342 +Bann, 146 +Bantry Bay, 104 +Barrow, valley of the, 42 +Battle of Kinvarra, 162 +Battle of the Headland of the Kings, 13 +Battle-verses, 248, 249 +Bay of Murbolg, 143 +Bay of Sligo, 29 +Bective Abbey, 301 +Bede, Venerable, 218 +Belgadan, 85 +Beltane, festival of, 47 +Beltaney, 47 +Black Lion Cromlech, 46 +Blackwater, 39, 82 +Bonamargy Abbey, 306 +Book of Kells, 209, 249 +Boyne, the, 5, 150, 242, 350 +Brandon Hill, 42 +Breagho, 34 +Breas, 83, 84, 99, 91, 105 +Breg, 149 +Brehon Laws, the, 206 +Brehon Laws, changes of, effected by St. Patrick, 207, 316 +Bruce, Edward, invasion by, 292 +Bruce, Edward, death of, 293 +Brugh, on the Boyne, 93, 95 +Bundoran, 29 + +Cael, 163, 165, 194, 262 +Cael, poem of, 164, 165 +Caher, 161 +Caherconree, 32 +Cailte, 162, 166 +Cairbre, 89, 167, 168, 173, 241 +Cairpre Nia Fer, 146, 147, 132 +Callan River, 199 +Calpurn, 182 +Cantyre, 119, 123, 143 +Carlingford Lough, 241 +Carlingford Mountains, 44 +Carrickfergus, 331, 344, 345, 347 +Carrowmore, 27, 29 +Cataract of the Oaks, 87, 90, 91 +Catbad, 141, 142, 150 +Cavan, 46 +Cavancarragh, 35, 66 +Cealleac, 224 +Charlemont, castle of, 343 +Chevalier de Tesse, 355 +Chiefs of Tara, 82 +Chieftain of the Silver Arm, 91 +Chronicler's record of battles fought, 210, 211, 212, 217, 218 +Chronicles of Ulster, 218 +Church architecture, 298 +Ciar, 104 +Cistercian Abbey, 306 +Clare, 31, 62 +Clare Abbey, 306 +Clidna, 166 +Clocar, 161 +Clondalkin, 241 +Clonmacnoise, 208 +Cluain Bronaig, 226 +Coleraine, 331 +Colum Kill, 208, 212 +Colum Kill, death of, 215 +Colum Kill, verses written by, 213, 214 +Colum of the Churches, 223, 237 +Conall Cernac, 149, 151 +Concobar, 13, 113, 114, 117, 121, 122, 123, 124, 129, 130, 131, 141, +142, 143, 144, 145, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 177, 194, 246, 258, +262, 360 +Conditions existing in early years, 219, 220, 221, 222 +Congus the Abbot, 225 +Connacht, 5, 88, 133, 140, 144, 350, 357 +Connemara, 85 +Conn, lord of Connacht, 162 +Conn of the Five-Score Battles, 88, 162 +Copyright decision, an early, 213 +Cork, 5 +Cormac, 167, 171, 172 +Cormac, precepts of, 167, 168, 169, 170, 171 +Coroticus, 195 +Corrib, 85 +Crede of the Yellow Hair, 163, 178, 194, 262 +Crimtan of the Yellow Hair, 162 +Cromlech-builders, the, 51, 68 +Cromlech of Howth, 43 +Cromlech of Lisbellaw. 47 +Cromlech of Lough Rea, 46 +Cromlechs, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 37, 39, 42, 43, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52. 53, +54, 55, 56, 57, 58 +Cromwell, 334, 339 +Croom, 161 +Cruacan, 131, 141, 146 +Cryptic Designs on cromlechs, 47 +Cuailgne, 132 +Cuigead Sreing, 88 +Culdaff, 47 +Cumal, 162 +Curlew hills, 37, 131 +Cuculain, 13, 14, 15, 16, 133, 134, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 143, 144, +145, 152, 155, 181, 194, 246, 262, 360 + +DAGDA Mor, 96, 148 +Dagda, the Mighty, 92, 95 +Daire, 132, 133, 200, 262 +Danes, conversion of the, 275 +Danish Pyramid of Uby, 97 +Dark Ages, the, 260, 261, 262 +Day of Spirits, 140 +De Danaans, the, 77, 79, 80, 82, 84, 86, 87, 89, 91, 93, 94, 95, 96, +97, 98, 99, 103, 105, 106, 112, 132, 148 +De Courcey, 277 +De Courceys, the, 319 +Deer-park, 29 +Deirdre, 13, 14, 15, 115, 123, 124, 129, 130, 178, 262 +Deirdre, the fate of, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 122 +Deirdre, the Lament of, 125 +De Lacys, the, 319 +Deny, 331, 341, 342, 344, 350 +Devenish, 250 +Devenish Island, 221 +Diarmuid, 171, 172, 173 +Dicu, 240 +Dingle Bay, 104 +Dinn-Rig by the Barrow, 146 +Dissenters, 322 +Domnall, 211, 231 +Donaghpatrick, 208 +Doncad, 231, 232 +Donegal, 29, 47 +Donegal Highlands, 26 +Donegal ranges, 5 +Douglas, 350 +Douin Cain, 81 +Down, 5, 46 +Downpatrick, 198, 240 +Drogheda, 342, 345 +Druids, 140 +Druim Dean, 162 +Drumbo, 46 +Dublin, 5, 252, 340, 345 +Dublin Parliament, 368 +Duke of Ormond, 359 +Dundalathglas, 240 +Dundalk, 342 +Dundelga, 143 +Dundrum, 146 +Dundrum Bay, 44, 45 +Durrow, 221, 250 + +Early churches, 208 +Early schools of learning, tongues first studied in, 208 +Eclipses of the sun and moon, record of, 218 +Edgehill, battle of, 326 +Elias, Bishop of Angouleme, France, testimony of, 250, 251 +Elizabeth, Queen, 321, 341 +Emain, Banquet-hall of, 111 +Emain of Maca, 13, 110, 112, 115, 122, 123, 129, 131, 140 +Engineering skill ten thousand years ago, 43 +Enniskillen, 34, 35, 341 +Eocaid, son of Erc, 81, 84, 86, 87 +Eocu, 146 +Erin, 141, 144 +Established Church, clergy of the, 376 +Etan, 89 +Evangel of Galilee, the, 16 + +Factna, son of Cass, 113 +Fair Head, 143 +Feidlimid, 242 +Ferdiad, 134, 135, 136, 138, 139, 140 +Fergus mac Roeg, 13, 15, 16, 113, 114, 121, 122, 123, 124, 129, 130, +131, 133 +Fergus the Eloquent, 166, 177, 262, 360 +Fermanagh, 33 +Feudal system, the, 289 +Feudal ownership, 291 +Find, ode to Spring of, 156 +Find, son of Cumal, 14, 16, 155, 161, 162, 163, 166, 167, 171, 172, +173, 177, 194, 246, 262 +Find, son of Ros, 146, 147, 152 +Finian, school of learning and religion founded by, 212 +Finvoy, 46 +Firbolgs, 60, 61, 69. 70, 77, 81, 82, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 90, 105, 106 +Flann, 248 +Fomorians, 69, 70, 77, 81, 90, 91, 92, 93, 106, 246 +Ford of Ferdiad, Ath-Fhirdia, 140 +Ford of Luan, 140 +Ford of Seannait, 226 +Ford of the Hurdles, 242, 243, 246 +Ford of the river, 14 +Franklin, Benjamin, letter of to Irish people, 367 +French Revolution, the, 372 + +Gairec, 140 +Galian of Lagin, 144 +Galtee Mountains, 161 +Galway, 5, 62, 350, 357 +Galway Bay, 31, 162 +Galway Lakes, 31 +Gauls, the, 103 +Giant Stones, 30 +Ginkell, 354, 355, 357, 358 +Gladstone, 375 +Glanworth, 39 +Glendalough, 208, 221 +Glen Druid, 42 +Gold Mines River, 109 +Golden Vale, 161 +Goll Mac Norna, 162 +Grania, 15, 171, 172, 173, 178 +Grattan, Henry, address of, to Dublin Parliament, 368 +Gray Lake, 37 +Grey Abbey, 302 + +Headland of the Kings, 148 +Hill of Barnec, 162 +Hill of Howth, 239, 252 +Hill of Luchra, 146 +Hill of Rudraige, 44 +Hill of Tara, 155 +Hill of the Willows, 200 +Hill of Ward, 140 +Holycross Abbey, 304 +House of Delga, 143 +House of Mead, 199 +Howth, 239 +Howth Head, 43 +Hyperboreans, 60, 61, 62, 64, 69 + +Iarl Strangbow, 275 +Indec, son of De Domnand, 90, 91 +Inis Fail, the Isle of Destiny, 21 +Inismurray, 237, 238, 239 +Iona, 215 +Ireland, art of working gold in, 108, 178 +Ireland, causes of uprising in, 320 +Ireland, condition of, in the eighteenth century, 365, 366, 367 +Ireland, English influence in, 318 +Ireland, life in, two thousand years ago, 177, 178, 179, 180 +Ireland, national debt of, 372 +Ireland, sympathy of U. S. Congress for people of, 366, 367 +Ireland, traditions of, 110 +Ireland, the Insurrection of, 370, 371, 372 +Ireland, visible and invisible, 3 +Irgalac, 149 +Iriel, 149 +Irish writing, earliest forms of, 177 +Islay, 143 +Islay Hills, 119 + +James II., 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346, 347, 353 +Jura, 119, 123, 143 + +Kenmare, 39 +Kenmare Kiver, 39, 104 +Kerry, 5, 62 +Kildare, 210, 221, 232 +Kilkenny, 42, 325, 326, 349 +Killarney, 36, 39, 163 +Killee, 34 +Killmallock Abbey, 303 +Killteran Village, 43 +Kinsale, 340, 349 +King Gorm's Stone, 97 +King William, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 352, 365 +Knock-Mealdown Hills, 161 +Knockmoy Abbey, 306 +Knocknarea, 30 + +Lake, General, statement of, 370 +Lake of Killarney, 161 +Lakes of Erne, 81 +Lambay, 236, 239, 241 +Land of the Cromlech-builders, 57 +Land of the Ever Young, 95, 96 +Land tenure, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, 380 +Laogaire, 199, 240 +Lame, 143 +Lauzun, 350 +Legamaddy, 45 +Leinster, 5, 162, 225, 226, 232, 345, 350 +Leitrim, 81 +Leitrim Hills, 26 +Lennan in Monaghan, 46 +Life of the Cromlech-builders, 68 +Liffey, the, 242 +Limerick, 349, 350, 351, 354, 357 +Leinstermen, 232, 238 +Loing Seac, 224 +Lough Erne, 341 +Loch Etive, 119, 121 +Lough Foyle, 247 +Lough Garra, 37 +Lough Gill, 29 +Lough Gur, 38, 39 +Lough Key, 37 +Lough Leane, 161, 163 +Lough Mask, 85 +Lough Neagh, 110, 200 +Lough Ree, 140 +Loughcrew Hills, 43 +Louis XIV, 337, 340, 353 +Lug, surnamed Lamfada, the Long-Armed, 92, 93 +Lusk, 241 + +Maca, Queen, 110 +Maelbridge, 217 +Mag Breag, 223 +Mag Rein, 81 +Mag Tuiread, 85, 87, 246 +Mangerton, 162 +Marlborough, Duke of, 352 +Mask, 85 +Mayo, 5, 62 +Mayo Cliffs, 26 +Meave, Queen of Connacht, 13, 14, 15, 25, 130, 131, 132, 133, 134, +136, 137, 140, 141, 142, 146, 147, 178, 262 +Meath, 155, 242 +Men of Oluemacht, 144 +Message of the New Way, 264 +Messenger of the Tidings, 182 +Mide, 149 +Miocene Age, the, 58 +Modern form of old Irish names, 234 +Monasterboice, 221 +Monk, 326 +Molana Abbey, 306 +Molaise, 237 +Monasteries and religious schools, 221 +Monroe, 324, 326, 327, 323, 329, 330, 331, 333 +Monument of Pillared Stones, 30 +Moore, 326 +Mount Venus Cromlech, 42 +Mountcashel, Lord, 342 +Mountains of Mourne, 44, 94, 146, 193, 231 +Mountains of Storms, 26, 87 +Moville, 221, 239, 262 +Moytura, 31, 85 +Munster, 5 +Munstermen of Great Muma, 144 +Murcad, 238 + +Naisi, 115, 116, 117, 118, 120, 121, 122, 129, 130 +Napier, Sir William, testimony of, 370 +Nectain's Shield, 232 +Nemed's sons, 87 +Nessa, 15, 113 +Norsemen, waning of the, 284 +Northern Cromlech Region, 54 +Northmen, 234, 235, 236, 243, 251 +Nuada, the De Danaan king, 85, 88, 89, 91, 92, 93 + +O'Connell, Daniel, 373 +O'Donnell, 321, 322 +O'Neill, Owen Roe, 321, 322, 323, 324, 332, 333, 334, 338 +O'Neill, death of, 333 +O'Neill, defeat of English army by, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 360 +Ogma, of the Sunlike Face, 92, 95, 96 +Oscar, son of Ossin, 14 +Oscur, 155, 171 +Ossin, son of Find, 14, 15, 16, 155, 161, 162, 167, 171, 172, 177, 181, +194, 246, 262 +Ox Mountains, 87 + +Parliament at Dublin, 323 +Parliament of Ireland, 371 +Parnell, Charles Stewart, 380 +Patricius, 182 +Patricius, appeal of, to fellow-Christians of Coroticus, 195, 196 +Patricius, birthplace of, 182 +Patricius, letter of, 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191, +192, 193 +Patrick, 17 +Patrick, his first victory commemorated, 198 +Patrick, the dwelling of, 198 +Peat, age of, 34, 36 +Peat, rate of growth of, 33, 35, 66, 67 +Penal Laws, the system of, 373 +Plain of Nia, 85 +Plain of the Headland, 82 +Plain of the Pillars, 85 +Plain of Tirerril, 91 +Plantation of Ulster, 322 +Poem of Ossin, 156 +Potitus, 182 +Prince William of Nassau, 339, 340, 342 +Private taxation, 291 +Pyramids of stone, 93, 94 + +Quoyle River, 198, 240 + +Ragallac, 217 +Raid of the Northmen, 234, 235, 236, 237, 238, 239, 240, 241, 242, 243 +Raids on islands of Irish coast, 257, 258, 259 +Raphoe, 47 +Rathcool, 162 +Rath-Laogaire, 199 +Rath of Badamar, 161 +Red Hills of Leinster, 162 +Reform Bill, the, 372 +Restoration, the, 339 +Roderick O'Conor, 61 +Ros Ruad, 152 +Ros, son of Rudraige, 112 +Rudraige, 44, 112 +Rudraige, hill of, 44, 231 +Runnymead, 317 + +Saint Adamnan, 223, 224 +Saint Bernard, 298 +Saint Brigid, 210 +Saint Camin's "Commentary on the Psalms," 222 +"Saint Colum of the Churches," 212 +Saint Dominick, 298 +Saint Francis of Assisi, 298 +Saint Mansuy, 60 +Saint Patrick, body of laid at rest, 201 +Saint Patrick, delivery of message by, to King Laogaire, 199 +Saint Patrick, visit of to kings of Leinster and Munster, 200 +Saint Patrick, work of, 199, 205 +Saint Ruth, 354, 355 +Saint Ruth, death of, 356 +Saint Samtain, 226 +Saint Samtain, epitaph of the saintly virgin, 226, 227 +Sarsfield, 351, 353, 355 +Saul, 208, 221 +Schomberg, 342, 343, 344, 345, 347, 348 +Second Epoch, 13 +Senca, 144 +Shannon, the, 5, 32, 37, 130, 141, 146, 350, 354, 357 +Sheldon, 357, 358 +Slane, 347, 348 +Slieve Callan, 31, 39 +Slieve League, 26, 90 +Slieve Mish, 104, 132, 196 +Slievemore Mountain, 30 +Slieve na Calliagh, 95, 97 +Slieve-na-griddle, 45, 46 +Sligo, 25, 29, 90, 91 +Sligo Hills, 26 +Sons of Milid, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 112, 132 +Sound of Jura, 119, 123 +Southern Cromlech Province, 53 +Sreng, 82, 83, 84, 91, 93, 105 +Stone Circles, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 38, 42, 45, 46, 47, 51, 52, +53, 55, 72 +Stone Circles, clue to their building, 40 +Stone Circles, measure of their years, 40 +Strand of Tralee, 161 +Strangford, 45 +Strangford Lough, 198 +Stuarts, the, 339 +Sualtam, 13 +Succat, 182 +Suir, 161 +Sullane River, 39 +Summit of Prospects, 146 + +Tailten, 106, 132 +Talbott, Earl of Tyrconnell, 359 +Tara, 81, 84, 106, 146, 147, 198 +Tara, Banquet-hall of, 112 +"The Church of the Oak-woods," 210 +The Gravestones of the Sons of Nemed, 87 +Thenay Relics, the, 58 +Third Epoch, 14 +Three Waves of Erin, the, 146 +Tigearnac, 265 +Toppid Mountain, 35, 36 +Traig Eotaile, 87 +Tralee, 32 +Treaty of Limerick, 361, 365 +Tuata De Danaan, 79, 84 +Twelve Peaks of Connemara, 31 +Tyrconnell, Lady, 340 +Tyrconnell, Lord, 340, 343, 344, 345, 349, 351, 352, 353 + +Uince, 162 +Ui-Neill, the, 225, 232 +Ulad, 113, 130, 131, 133, 141, 151 +Ulaid, 113, 145, 150, 152 +Ulaid, Councils of the, 113 +Ulaid, men of the, 130 +Ulster, 5, 345 +Upper Erne, 32 +Usnae, 115 + +Venice of Lough Rea, 37 +Volunteer Movement, the, 367, 369 + +Waterford, 349, 350, 352 +Water of Luachan, 146 +Wave of Clidna, the, 146, 151 +Wave of Rudraige, the, 146, 151 +Wave of Tuag Inbir, the, 146, 151 +Waves of Erin, the three, 146, 151 +Weight of Cromlech-stones, 56 +Wexford Harbor, 42 +Wicklow, 5 +Wicklow Gold-mines, the, 108, 109 + +Yellow Ford of Athboy, 140 + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ireland, Historic and Picturesque +by Charles Johnston + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK IRELAND, HISTORIC AND PICTURESQUE *** + +***** This file should be named 12078.txt or 12078.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be 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