THE H I S T K Y IRELAND; COMMENCING WITH ITS EARLIEST PERIOD, GREAT EXPEDITION AGAINST SCOTIiAND IN 1545. THOMAS MOORE, ESa- PHILADELPHIA: LEA & BLANCHARD. ' 1843.* NOTICE OF THE AMERICAN PUBLISHERS. The present Volume of " Moore's Ireland" contains all that the author has ■written and published. As it may be a long time before it is concluded, the pub- lishers beg to present this portion, embracing, as it does, the Three Volumes of the London Edition, with a promise of furnishing the remainder in the same style when published by the author. Philadelphia, May 1843. /.v*.62B ^^ GRIGGS & CO., PRINTERS. ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE OP THE HISTORY OF IRELAND. CHAPTER I. B. c. Page 1000. Celtic Origin of the Irish 25 Different Fortunes of Ireland and Britain . . 25 PhcEnician Intercourse with the Irish , . .25 The BelgEe, or Fir-bolgs . 26 Objections answered ; Autho- rity of Tacitus . . 26 Homer's Knowledge of Isles beyond the Pillars from the Phoenician Voyagers . 27 The Argonautics ; Ireland named lernis . . 27 A Work of the Age of Aris- totle names the two cliief British Isles, Albion and lerne . . .27 The Phoenicians keep their Trade secret . . 27 The Western or Tin Isles first explored by the Massilian Greeks . . .27 The Periplus of Hanno . 27 Ciiaracteristic Features of An- cient Ireland . . 28 Inscription at Tangiers . 28 Authority of Herodotus . 29 Ancient Ireland better known than Britain ; Authorities 29 Geography of Ptolemy . 29 Tacitus; Life of Agricola . 30 Intercourse of Ireland with the PhcBnician Spaniards . 80 The Title, Sacred Isle ; Autho- rity of Plutarch ; Diodorus Pass Siculus . . .30 Geography of Strabo; Ireland likened to Samothrace . 31 Traditions of Ireland; Inter- course with Gallicia . 31 Opinions of Antiquaries . 32 CHAPTER II. The earliest Superstitions traceable in the Monuments of Ireland . . 32 Three Stages of Superstition 33 Magi, or Druids . . 33 Sun Worship . . 33 Moon Worship . . 34 Fire and Water Worship . 34 Sacred Fountains . . 34 The Field of Slaughter; Child- sacrifice . • .35 Round Towers of Ireland . 36 Opinions about them . 36 Christain Emblems on those of Swords and Donoughmore 37 Probably Fire-Temples . 37 Connexion of Sun-Worship with Astronomy . . 38 The Round Towers called Celestial Indexes . . 39 Beyond the reach of Historical Record . . .39 Other ancient Monuments of Ireland ; the Cromleach 40 The Lia Fail, or Stone of Des- tiny . . .41 IV ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Page Rocking Stones . . 41 Sacred Hills . . 42 The Dynasts inaugurated thereon . . .42 Barrows and Cairns . . 43 Sacred Groves and Trees . 43 CHAPTER IIL Irish Druidism; of a mixed Character . . .45 Different from that of Gaul, as Recorded by the Romans 45 British Druids not mentioned by Csesar; the Inference . 45 Early Heathen Pre-eminence of Ireland . . 47 CHAPTER IV. Learning of the Irish Druids; Ancient Language . 47 Phoenician and Irish Alpha- bets . . .48 Early Use of Letters in Ireland 49 Proofs thereof . . 49 Ogham Character . . 49 Introduction of the Roman Character . . .52 Mistaken Identify of the Irish Language with the Punic of Plautus . . .52 Astronomical Skill of the Irish Druids . . .53 CHAPTER V. Opposite Opinions respecting ancient Ireland . . 55 Mixture of Truth and Fable 56 Fabulous x'\ccounts of Parlho- lan ... 56 The Fir-bolgs . . 57 The Tuatha-de-Danaan . .57 Milesian or Scolic Race . 57 CHAPTER VL Colonization of Ireland. . 58 Spanish Settlors . . 59 Supposed Gaulish Colony . 59 Question whether the Belgse were Celtic or Teutonic . 60 Colonization of the south-wes- tern Pnrts from Spain . 60 Various Spanish Colonies . 61 The Scythic or Scotic Settle- ments . . . 62 Fabulous Accounts by the Bards . . .62 Recent Date of the Scotic Co- lony . . .63 Proofs thereof . . 63 B. c. Pace Antiquarian Errors . .65 The Picts . . .66 The ancient Britons and Welsh probably not the same Race . . 67 Radical Differences between the Gaelic and Cumraig . 67 The Picts were the Progeni- tors of the Welsh . . 67 Of Cimbric Origin . . 67 Romances of the Round Table 68 CHAPTER VIL 200. Reign of Kimbaoth . . 69 Of Heber and Heremon, Sons ofMilesius . . 70 First Coming of the Picts . 70 Gold Mines . . .71 Classes distinguished by Co- lours . . .71 The royal Legislator, Ollamh Fodhla . . .71 His institutions; Convention ofTara . . . 72 Chronicle of Events ; Psalter of Tara . . .72 Palace of Emania . . 72 Reign of Hugony the Great . 73 A. D. 2. Reign of Conary the Great; Ossianic Poems . . 73 40. Privileges of the Bards; abused by them . . 74 The Bardic Order reformed , Conquovar . . 74 75-82. Expedition of Agricola to Bri- tain . . .74 An Irish Traitor in the Roman Camp . . .75 The Irish aid the Picts against the Romans . . 76 Belgic Revolt and Massacre . 76 90. Carbre Cat-can raised to the Throne . . .76 Disinterestedness of his Son Moran ; Moran's Collar . 76 126. Second Revolt (of the Atti- cots) . . .76 130. Tuathal the Acceptable . 77 Assembled States at Tara . 77 Bonrian Tribute . . 77 164. Jurisprudence ; the Eric . 78 Feidlim the Legislator ; Con of the Hundred Battles . 78 258. Irish Settlement in Argyle- shire; Carbury Riada . 79 The Irish exclusively called Scoti ; North Britain called Albany . . .79 Cormac Ulfadha . . 79 His Accomplishments and Achievements . . 80 Slate of Religion . . 80 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. O. PaGB Recluse Druidesses . . 81 Fin-Mac-Cumhal, by Moderns called Fingal . . 81 Oisin and 0?^ar . . 81 The Fianna Eirinn, or Militia of Ireland . . .81 Slaughter of them . . 82 Groundless Pretensions of Scotch Writers ; Forgeries of Boece . . .82 Fabric of Buchanan, Macken- zie, &c. . . .83 Destroyed by Stillingfleet . 83 Forgeries of Macpherson . 83 Examination thereof . . 85 Historic Value of the Impos- ture . . .86 None but Irish Books among the Highlanders . . 86 Long connexion of the Irish and Highlanders . . 87 Expedition of Theodosius . 87 327. Battle of Dnbcomar; the Druid of the Bloody Hand . 87 A six Days' Battle . . 88 396. Irish Invasion of Britain . 88 Nial of the Nine Hostages . 88 Passes from Britain to Armoric Gaul . . -89 Providential Captivity of an Armorican Youth • . 89 406. Dathy, the last Pagan King of Ireland . . .89 CHAPTER VIII. Credibility of Irish Annals; Tigernach ; the Four Mas- ters . . .89 Nennius and Geoffry of Mon- mouth . . .90 Collation of Annals . . 90 Reception of Christianity in Ireland . . .92 Its easy Adoption . . 93 Record of Events continued . 93 Its Authenticity . . 94 CHAPTER IX. Early State of the Heathen Irish . . .96 Features visible to this day . 96 Partition of Sovereignty . 96 Succpssion ; Tanistry . 97 Exchange of Subsidy and Tri- bute . . ,97 Cause of Discords . . 98 And of the Want of a National Spirit . . .98 Division of Lands and Goods npon each elective Succes- sion . . .99 P^GE Gavelkind; Females Excluded 99 Natural Children admitted with legitimate . . 100 Custom of Slavery . . 100 Social Contracts . . 101 Urged respectively in support of adverse Opinions . 101 Examination of Authorities . 102 Ancient Contrasts of Manners visible at the Close of the last Century in Ireland . 103 The early Britons of ill Repute like the Irish . . 104 Testimony of St. Jerome . 104 Early Irish Navigation ; Cur- rachs . . . 10.5 Himilco's Voyage . . 10.5 The great road from Gal way to Dublin . . .105 The great Road from Dover to Anglesey, called "the Way of the Irish" . . 105 The Inference . . 105 The Irish Raths or Hill-fort- resses . . . 106 Curious and costly Remains dug up . . . 108 Coal Works . . .109 Swords of Brass like those found at Canna3 . . 109 CHAPTER X. Mission of St. Patrick. . 110 His Success with little Vio- lence . . . 110 His judicious Conduct . 110 Adopts the Pagan Customs . 110 The Heresiarchs, Pelagius and Celestus . . Ill Palladius . . .112 Sketch of the Life of St. Pa- trick . . .113 Born near the Site of Bou- loffne-sur-mer . . 113 Probably in 387 . . 113 Made captive by Nial of the Nine Hostages . .113 403. Carried captive to Ireland . 113 Escaped or released from Bondage . . .113 410. His studies at Tours . . 114 His Remembrances and Dreams of Ireland . . 114 422. Arrives there . .114 Sudden Conversion of Dicho 115 His old Master, Milcho, an in- veterate Heathen, would not see him . .115 His Paschal Fire; Prophecy of thp Ma.ii . .115 VI ANALYTICAL AND CHEONOLOGICAL TABLE. He preaches at Tara, before the King and States . 116 Tolerant Genius of Paganism 116 Revisits the Scene of his Dream . . . 116 Converts two Princesses . 116 Destroys the Idol of "The field of Slaughter" . 116 His successful Career . 117 Establishes the See of Armagh 119 Writes his Confession . 119 465. Dies in his Retreat at Sabhul 119 His Disciples Benignus, Se- cundians, &.c. . . 119 The Irish Poet Sedulius, or Shiel . . .120 CHAPTER XL Retrospect of Christianity in Britain . . .120 Britain reluctantly separates from Rome . . 121 The Letter styled "The Groans of the Britons" . 121 The three Devastations of Bri- tain . . .121 Peaceful Triumps of Religion in Ireland . . 122 500. Establishment of the Sons of Erck in North Britain . 122 Povi^er of the Hy-Nial Fami- ly .. . 122 Kenneth Mac-Alpine van- quishes the Picts . . 12.3 The Apostle Columkill . 123 Historic Use of Livesof Saints; Montesquieu ; Gibbon . 123 Dependence of the Church of Ireland on Rome . . 124 Mistaken Opinion of Archbi- shop Usher . . 124 Prayers for the Dead . 124 Pilgrimages . . 125 Marriage of the Clergy . 125 CHAPTER XII. Parentage of Columkill . 125 Why so named . . 126 His Labours , . 126 563. His Mission to the Western Isles . . .127 572. Death of Conal, King of the British Scots . . 128 St. Columkill revisits Ire- land . . .128 Interferes on behalf of the Bards . . .129 Death of the Saint . . 129 St. Columbanus, also Irish ; often confounded with him 130 Keign of Diarniid . . L:!l Last Meeting at Tara 131 529 . Retrospect of the Institution ofNunneries 132 St. Brigid ofKildare 132 Career of Columbanus abroad 134 He rebukes King Thierry 134 His Courage and Labours 134 610 Arrives at Milan 135 615 Founds the Monastery of Bob- bio; dies . 136 His Writings 136 CHAPTER XIIL Paschal Differences . 137 630. Letter of Pope Honorius . 1.38 633. Deputation to Rome . 138 Its return and Report . 138 Effects of the controversy be- neticial . . . 138 Cummian, an Irish Saint, op- posed to Columbanus . 189 Mutual Tolerance . . 139 St. Aidan and King Oswald (Anglo-Saxon ;) See of Lin- disfarne, called the Holy Isle . . .139 Rapid succession of Irish Kings; the Inference . 140 Gallus founds the Abbey of St. Gall (Switzerland) . 141 650. Irish Missionaries in France 141 Irish Missionaries in Brabant 141 Irish Missionaries on the Rhine . . .142 Solar Eclipse; the Yellow Plague . . .142 664. Hospitable Reception of Fo- reign Students in Ireland . 142 Disputation at the Monastery of St. Hilda . . 143 Controversy of the Tonsure . 143 684. Northumbrian Expedition to Ireland . . . 144 King Egfrid, the Aggressor, slain . . . 144 Paschal System of Rome esta- blished by Adamnan . 144 St. Kilian, Apostle of Franco- nia ... 145 Divorce of Geilana by the Per- suasion of the saint . 145 She causes him to be waylaid and murdered . . 14.5 The Scholastic Philosophy ori- ginated with Irish Divines 146 Decay of Irish Learning at the Approach of the Eighth Cen- tury . . .146 Virgilius, or Feargal . 146 His conjecture of the Spheri- city of the Earth . . 14T ■v^ ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. VU Page Accused of Heresy therein . 147 Is made a Bishop, and canon- ized . . .147 Clement and Albinus, Irish Scholars; become known to Charlemagne ; their Curi- ous Device • • 148 Reference toDenina, Tirabos- chi, and Muratori . 148 Dungal ; his Letter to Charle- magne . . • 148 Greek Ecclesiastics attracted to Ireland . • 149 The Saxson Scholar x\dhelm 150 Sedulius the Second and Do- natus . - • 150 j John Scotus called, Erigena 151 Translates into Latin the Greek Writings Supposed of | Dionysius the Areopagite; j his consequent Mysticism . 151 His notions of God and the Soul . . .152 Denies the Eternity of Punish- ment . . • 152 Fables of his being known to King Alfred . . 153 His Character . . 153 CHAPTER XIV. Review of Learning and the Arts . . .154 Value of the Argument of the WantofMSS. Remains . 154 Remains Preserved by the An- nalists . . • 155 Origin and Use of Rhyme . 155 Early Connexion of Poetry and Music . . 156 The Irish Harp . . 156 Excellence of Early Music . 156 Irish Psalmody . . 157 Church Architecture . 157 State of Agriculture . 158 Works in Metal, stone, and Colours . . . 159 Chariots used in War and Travelling . . 159 The Brehon Laws . . 159 CHAPTER XV. 787. Invasion of Ireland by the Danes . . . 160 795. The Island ofRaglin laid waste by the Danes . . 160 The Lochlanders . . 160 Supposed Intercourse of the Irish with the Northern Na- tions preceding the Birth of Christ .... Papas, or Irish Priests . Arrival of the Norwegians in Iceland .... Black Strangers and white Strangers .... A strong Similitude between the political Institutions of Britian and Ireland at the Time of the Northern Inva- sion ..... Reign of King Neil of the Showers .... Boarian Tribute , 722. Invasion of Leinster by the Monarch Fergall Battle of Almhain General State of Ireland at this Period .... Weakness of the Monarch , The great O'Niell of the Nine Hostages .... The North Hy-Niells and the South Hy-Niells Increasing Strength of the Throne of Munster and its Cause .... Dalgais or Delcassians . Cause of the Weakness of the Monarchy .... 795. The Reign of the Monarch Aldus . . . . Devastations of the Danes 810. Conflicts with the Northmen Political Connexion of the Irish Kinsrs with Charlemagne . 799. Privilege of the Irish Clergy . Inroads of the Monarch into Leinster . . . . Page 161 161 161 162 162 162 163 163 163 163 163 164 164 164 164 164 165 165 166 166 166 167 818. 826, CHAPTER XVL Achievements of Ragnar Lod- brog, the Sea King . . 168 Traditions of the Northmen respecting Ireland . • 168 Arrival of Turgesius with a large Fleet in Ireland . 168 Hatred of the Northmen to Christianity . . . 168 Persecution of the Saxons, its Cause . . . .169 Reign of Concobar . . 169 Depredations of the Danes . 170 The Monastery of Banchor . 170 The Invasions of the Danes repelled by the Jltonians . 170 Lethlobar, King of Dalaradia 170 Carbry, KingofHy-Kinsellagh 170 Dissensions of the Irish among themselves . . . 170 Vlll ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. r. Page 839. Life and triumphs of Feidlim, King of Munster . . 171 832-3. Death of the Monarch Conco- bar . . . . ITl 844. Death of Turgesius and expul- sion of the Foreigners . 173 846. Death of Feidlim, King of Munster . . . 173 A romantic Account of his Death . . .173 CHAPTER XVII. 849. Arrival of Reinforcements of the Danes . . .174 850. Alliances between these Fo- reigners and the Natives . 174 Demoralizing Effect thereof . 174 Divisions among the Northmen themselves . . • 17-5 853. Arrival of three Norwegian Brothers, Anlaf, Iver, and Sitric . . . 175 A Tax called Nose-money im- posed on the Irish . . 175 863. Death of the Monarch Melach- lin, and the succession of Aodh Finliath . . 176 Exploits of Anlaf the Dane . 176 879. Death of Aodh Fmiiath . 176 Reign of Flan Siona . . 176 Retrospect of the Affairs of the Scotsof North Britain . 176 901 to Reign of Cormac Mac Cu- 903. linan, King of Munster . 178 907-8. Death of Cormac at the great Battle of Moylena . . 180 His Character . . 180 Death of the Monarch Flati Siona . . . 182 CHAPTER XVIII. State of Learning and Litera- ture amongst the Irish in the Ninth Century . . 182 iEngus, the learned Hagiolo- gist . . .183 Fothadh the Poet . . 183 884. Death of Maolmura, the Histo- rian . . • 183 Flann Mac Lonan chief Poet of all Ireland . . 183 King Cormac, Author of the Psalter of Cashel . • 184 King Cormac's Chapel on the Rock of Cashel . • 184 Date and Progress of Stone Architecture in Ireland • 184 Round Towers . • 185 Account of the Culdees . 185 Bishops styled Princes . 187 A. D. Page Usurpation of the See of Ar- magh by Laymen . . 187 CHAPTER XIX. Accounts of the Danish Trans- actions in Ireland . . 187 Traditions concerning Ragnar Lodbrog . . .188 902. Expulsion of the Danes from Dublin by the People of Leinster . . . 188 917. Reign of the Monarch Niell Glundubh, his Successor Donogh . . .188 926, Heroic Character of the Roy- 931. damna Murkertach; his Vic- 936. tories over the Danes . 189 939. Exploits of Callachan, King of Cashel . . .189 Alliances between the North- men and the Irish . . 190 937. Battle of Brunanburh . 190 Norse Account of this great Battle . . .190 Irish Mode of Fighting . 190 948. Conversion of the Northmen ; the Abbey of St. Mary's, Dublin, founded by them . 191 950. The Church of Slane burned by the Danes . . 192 Probus, the Historian of St. Patrick, perished in the Flames - . .192 Subdivision of the Royal Pow- er adopted by the Northmen in Ireland ; the weakening Effects of such Policy . 192 9.39. Triumphal Progress of the Roydamna through the Kingdom . . . 193 Takes Callachan Prisoner . 193 943. Death of the Roydamna . 193 944. Death of the Monarch Donogh 193 CHAPTER XX. Early Life of Brian Boru . 194 His first Battle under his Bro- ther Mahon . . 195 Their Defeat . . 195 959. The Victory of Sulchoid over the Danes of Limerick achieved by Brian Bom . 195 Murder of Mahon . . 195 Accession of Brian to the Throne of all Munster; at- tacks and defeats the Mur- derer of his Brother . 196 956. Death of the Monarch Conge- lach . . .196 Accession of Domnal . • 196 A pretended Charter of the En- glish King Edgar . . 196 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. IX A D. 980. 983. 988. 997. 1000. 1001. 1008. 1005. 1013. Death of Dotnnal, and Succes- sion of Malachy the Great . Power of the Kingdom of Munster increased conside- rably under Brian . , 197 Malachy the Great gains a great Victory over the Danes . . .198 His "Noble Proclamation" . 198 The Battle of Tara . . 198 Defeat of the People of Lein- ster by Brian . . 198 Growing Jealousy between Brian and Malachy ; the sa- cred Tree in the Plain of Adoration at Adair cut down by Order of Malachy . 199 Invasion of Leinster by Mala- chy ... 199 An army marched against him by Brian . . .199 A Convention between the two Kings . . .199 Renewal of Hostilities . 199 They again form a Treaty of Peace . . .200 Their joint Victories over the Danes . . .200 Renewal of their mutual Hos- tilities . . .200 Brian invades the Territory of Malachy . . . 201 CHAPTER XXL Usurpation of the Throne of Tara by Brian . . 202 His triumphant Progress through the Country . 202 His Victory over the Southern Hy-Niells in Athlone . 202 The Battle of the Wood of Tulka . . . 202 Brian's vigorous Policy . 203 Gifts and Privileges bestowed by him on the Church . 203 State of the Country under his Dominion . . . 203 An unusually long interval of Peace . . .203 Disturbed by the Restlessness and Perfidy of the People of Leinster . . . 204 Invasion of Meath . . 204 Malachy defeated by the Peo- ple of Leinster . . 204 Applies for Assistance to Brian 204 Is refused . . . 204 Preparations of the Northmen, in League with tiie Lage- nians, for a Descent upon Ireland . . .204 2 page A D. 1U14. 197 975. 947. 1016. 1022. Page (Friday, April 23.) The great Battle of Clontarf, and its Consequences . . 205 Assassination of Brian . 208 His Burial . . . 208 A Review of the Life and Ac- tions of Brian Boru . 210 Patriotism of the Irish . 213 CHAPTER XXII. State of the Schools of Ireland in the Tenth Century . 214 Armagy still visited by Stran- gers . . . 214 Eminent native Scholars during this Period . . 214 Probus Chief Lecturer of the School of Slane . . 215 Eochaidh O'Floinn, a Bardic Historian . . . 21.5 Keneth O'Artegan, a Poet . 215 A School established by the Irish in England, called "Glastonbury of St. Pat- rick" . . . 215 The Monasteries of the Scots or Irish in France and Ger- many . . . 216 An Irish Bishop named Israel at a Synod held at Verdun 216 Finden, an Irish Abbot of Ce- lebrity . . .216 The Literary Works of an Irish Ecclesiastic named Duncan . . . 216 Numbers of Bishops from Ire- land on the Continent ; Ef- forts made by Council to de- stroy them . . . 216 CHAPTER XXIIL Restoration of the Monarch Malachy . . .217 His Victories over the North- men . . . 217 The Battle of the Yellow Ford 217 Death of Malachy . . 218 Social State of Ireland at this Period . . .219 Decline of Religion and Morals throughout the Country . 219 Ecclesiastical Abuses . 220 Corbes and Erenachs . . 220 Comorban . . . 220 Succession of the Monarchy suspended . . . 220 Provisional Government esta- blished . , .221 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. P. Page 1023. The Kingdom of Munster ruled jointly by Teige and Doncliad, the Sons of Brian 221 Murder of Teige throiinfh the Contrivance of his Brother 221 1058. Donchad titular Monarch of Ireland . . . 221 1063. His complete Overthrow . 221 Turlogh, his Nephew, aspires lo the Throne . . 221 1064. Death of Donchad . . 222 Turiongli, Monarch of Ireland 223 1072. Death of Derrnot . 223 Events of Turlougii's Reign 223 Godfred, King of the Dublin Danes . . . 223 1070. Murchad the first Irish King of the Danes . . 223 1086. Death of Turlongh . . 224 Is succeeded by his Son Mur- kertach . . . 224 Letter of Lanfranc to Tur- lough . . .224 Character of Turlough . 224 CHAPTER XXIV, Munster divided between the three Sons of Turlough . 225 Contest between Murkertach and Dermot for that Throne 225 Derinot assisted by M'Lochlin, Prince of Alichia . . 225 M'Lochlin Competitor with Murkertach for the Sove- reignty . . . 225 Division of the Kingdom . 226 Interposition of the Ecclesias- tical Authorities . . 226 Alienation of Church Property 227 Grant of the City of Cashel to the Church . . 227 Invasion of Ulster . . 227 Destruction of the Palace of the Princes of Alichia . 227 Ireland threatened with Inva- sion by Godred Crovan . 228 1102. Descent of Magnus on her Shores . . .228 Marriage of his Son with Mur- kertach's Daughter . 228 Defeat and Death of Magnus 228 Arnulf de Montgomery assist- ed by Murkertach in his Rebellion against Henry I. 228 Marries a Daughter of Mur- kertach . . .229 1103. Defeat of Murkertach on the Plains of Cobha . . 229 1119. Death of Murkertach . 229 Affairs of the Church . 229 Bishops of the Danish Sees in 1088. 1090. 1099. 1001. A. D. Page Ireland consecrated by the Archbishop of Canterbury . 230 Correspondence of the Irish Kings with the two Pre- lates, Lanfranc and Anselm 230 Ecclesiastical Irregularities . 230 St. Bernard's gloomy Picture of Ireland . . . 231 1111. Synod held at Fiodh-^ngusa 231 Synod of Rath-Breasail, for the Regulation of the Dioceses 231 CHAPTER XXV. Learned Irishmen of the Ele- venth Century . . 232 Tigernach the Chronicler . 232 Great value of his Annels . 232 Dates of Eclipses preserved by him . . .232 Proof of the Antiquity of Irish Records . . . 232 1056. Marianus Scotus . . 2.33 Account of his Works . 233 St. Col man, a Patron Saint of Austria . . . 233 Helias of the Monastery of Monachan, introduced first the Roman Chant at Cologne 234 1036. Monastery erected for the Irish at Erford . . 234 Another at Fulda . . 234 Poems of Mac Liag, the Secre- tary of Brian Boru . 234 Flann and Gilla-Coeman, Met- rical Chronographers . 234 Gilla-Moduda, a Metrical Chronographer . . 235 Visit of Sulgenus, Bishop of St. David's, to the Schools of Ireland . . .235 CHAPTER XXVI. English Students at Armagh 236 Interregnum of Fifteen years 236 Contentions among the Irish Princes for the Monarchy . 236 1132, Tordelvach O'Conner the suc- 1133. cessful Candidate . . 236 Account of the Reigns of the 236 O'Brian Princes . • 236 1151. Battle of Moinmor • • 237 1153. Decline of Tordelvach's good Fortune . . .237 Is opposed by O'Lochlin, King ofTirone . . .237 Interference of the Clergy in the Quarrels of the Princes 238 Its salutary Effects . . 238 1156. Death of Tordelvach . 238 1152. Synod of Kells . . 239 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XI A. D. Page Palliums distributed by tho Pope's Legate Paparo . 239 Labours and Death of the great Saint Malachy . . 239 First Introduction of Tithes into Ireland . . 240 Misrepresentation of the Irish Church corrected . . 240 1161. Murtogh O'Loghlin acknow- ledged King of Ireland . 241 His Contention with Eochad the King of Ulidia . 241 1166. Is killed in Battle . . 242 1157. Synod at Mellifont . . 242 1158. Synod of Meath . . 242 1166. Roderic O'Connor, King of Connaught, succeeds to the Monarchy . . . 242 1167. Great Convention at Athboy 242 1153. Abduction of the Wife of O'Ruarc by Dermot . 243 Supposed, but erroneously, to have been the immediate Cause of the Invasion of Ire- land by the English . 243 Enmity between O'Ruarc and Dermot . . .243 1168. The latter, expelled from his Dominions, embarks for England . . .244 Designs of Henry II. upon Ire- land . . .245 Obtains a Grant of that Island from Pope Adrian IV. . 245 CHAPTER XXVII. Letters Patent granted by Henry II. to Dermot . 247 Return of Dermot to England 247 He applies to Richard de Clare, Earl of Pembroke, surnamed Strongbow . . 247 The latter assents to his Pro- posal . . . 247 Maurice Fitz-Gerald and Ro- bert Fitz-Stephens, both Normans, and.maternal Bro- thers to Strongbow, engage in the Service of Dermot 247 1169. Dermot's return to Leinster 247 His critical State, by his rash and weak Movement . 248 1169. Arrival of Robert Fitz-Stephen 248 The first Landing of the Anglo- Norm:ins in Ireland . 24S Attack and Surrender of Wex- ford . . . 249 Dermot obtains Possession of Wexford . . .249 He fulfils his Engagements to liie two Norman Brotliers 249 PiOE Invasion of Ossary by Dermot and his Allies . . 250 The Convocation of the Princes and Nobles of tho Land in general at Tara . 250 Dermot invested at Ferns by Roderic . . . 251 A compact entered into be- tween Roderic and Dermot 251 Insincerity of Dermot . 252 Defeat of the Monarch Ro- deric . . . 252 Arrival of Raymond le Gros 253 O'Faolan, Prince of the Desies, and O'Ryan of Idrone, march against Raymond le Gros . . .253 Barbarity towards the Irish Prisoners taken at Water- ford . . .253 Strongbow, his Arrival with his Fleet near Waterford 2-54 Is joined by Raymond le Gros 254 They attack Waterford . 254 And take Possession of it . 224 Reginald, a Dano-Irisli Lord, and O'Faolen, Prince of the Desies, on the Point of being put to death by Raymond . 254 Tiiey are rescued by the Inter- position of King Dermot . 254 The Marriage of Strongbow with Eva, Daughter of King Dermot . . . 254 Sack and Ruin of Waterford 254 Defection of Hasculf, Gover- nor of Dublin, from Dermot 254 St. Laurence O'Toole, Archbi- shop of Dublin, solicited by the Citizens to intercede with Dermot in their Behalf; his Exertions . . 254 Taking of Dublin by Dermot 255 Escape of Hasculf and a num- ber of the leading Citizens to the Orkney Isles . 255 Cormac M'Cartliy, King of Desmond, his successful At- tack on the Garrison of W^aterford, left by Strong- bow for the Defence of that City . . . 255 Milo de Cogan intrusted with the Government of Dublin through the Recommenda- tion of Strongbow . 255 The excess of Barbarity which marked the Course of the confederate Chiefs through the Parts of Meath under the Government of O'Ruarr 255 xu ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. ». D. Page Weakness of Roderic . 255 Orders the unoffending Son of Dermot to be beheaded ; at the same Time, a Grandson of that Prince; also a Hos- tage he had received from liim, the Son of his Foster- brother, O'Coallag . 256 Remarkable Synod of Armagh 256 Slavery among the Irish . 257 CHAPTER XXVIII. Alarm of Henry at Strong- bow's Progress . . 257 Henry's Edict . . 257 Strongbow despatches Ray- mond le Gros with a Letti r to the English King . 258 Deatii of Dermot M'Murrough, King of Leinster, at Ferns 258 Succession of Earl of Pem- broke to the Throne of Lein- ster . . . 258 Attack ofHasculf on the City of Dublin . . 259 His Repulse and Death . 2.59 Exertions of St. Laurence O'Toole to expel the English from Ireland . . 259 Strongbow returns to defend Dublin . . .260 Negotiations between Strong- 260 bow and Roderic . . 260 Filz-Siephen besieged in the Fort of Carrig . . 260 Strongbow intrepidly sallies from Dublin to relieve him 261 Treacherous conduct towards Fitz-Stephen . . 262 He surrenders and is thrown into Prison . . 262 The Irish, in a Panic, set fire to Wexford . . 262 Strongbow retires to Water- ford . . .263 Strongbow Repairs to Eng- Innd , . .263 Makes his Peace with King Kenry . . . 263 117L King Henry lands in Ireland 263 O'Ruarc Makes a fruitless at- tack on tiie City of Dublin . 263 Deputation of the Citizens of Wexford wait on King Henry . . . 264 Receives the Submission of several of the Irish Princes 265 King Henry holds his Court in Dublin . . .265 O'Ruarc of BrefTny joins him 26.5 1172. Synod hold at Cash6l . 206 A. D. Page Decrees of the Synod . 266 Council held by Henry at Lis- more . . . 267 Laws enacted by him . 268 Grants of Lands to Hugh de Lacy and others . . 269 Henry removes to Waterford 269 Henry returns to England . 270 CHAPTER XXIX. Conference of Hugh De Lacy with O'Ruarc . . 271 Death of O'Ruarc . . 272 Strongbow retires to Ferns . 272 Marriage and Death of De Quincy . . .272 Strongbow obeys the Mandate of King Henry to Join him in France . . . 272 Rivalry between Hervey and Raymond . • . 272 Strongbow returns to Ireland 272 1173. Raymond placed at the Head of the Army . . 272 Retires in discontent to Wales 274 1174. Command of the Forces com- mitted to Hervey of Mount Maurice . . .274 Raymond is recalled . . 274 Raymond is married, at Wex- ford, to Basilia, llie Earl's Sister . . . 274 Meath over run and despoiled by Roderic ». . 275 His Retreat , . . 275 Raymond makes himself Mas- ter of Limerick . . 275 1175. Bull of Pope Adrian Promul- gated . . .275 O'Brian of Thomond Besieges Limerick . . . 276 Roderic's Success . . 276 Treaty between Henry and Roderic . . .277 CHAPTER XXX. False Notions concerning the Conquest of Ireland . 278 First appointment of an Irish Bishop by Henry . . 280 1178. Death of Strongbow . . 280 Basilia summons Raymond to Dublin . . .280 Entrusts the Custody of Lim- erick to O'Brian . .280 Remains of Strongbow inter- red in Ciirisl's Church in Dublin . . .280 Character of Strongbow . 280 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XUI A. D. Page Fitz-Aldelm appointed chief Governor . . .282 Jealousy entertained of the Geraldines. . . 282 Death of Maurice Fitz-Ger- ald. . . .282 Illiberal Conduct of Fitz-Ald- elm to his Sons . . 282 Successes of the Irish in Meath 282 Character of Fitz-Aldelm's Government . . 282 Expedition of De Courcy into Ulster . . .282 Prophecies of Merlin and St. Columba . . .283 Council convoked by the Pope's Legate . . 283 Dissentions in the family of Roderic . . .283 Unsuccessful Expedition of the English into Connaught . 284 1177. Henry Constitutes his Son John Lord of Ireland . 285 1178. Grants of Lands to Fitz-Ste- phen and others . . 285 Fitz-Aldelm recalled from the Government . . 286 Hugh De-Lacy appointed his Successor . . . 280 CHAPTER XXXI. Unsuccessful incursions of John de Courcy into Ulster 237 Removal of Hugh de Lacy from the Government . 287 His Reinstatement in the Government . . 287 1180. Death of St. Laurence O'Toole 288 His Parentage and early Life 2S8 His Character . . 288 1226. Canonization of Lawrence O'Toole . . ,269 John Gumming elected Arch, bishop of Dublin . . 289 A Bull issued by Pope Lu- cius III., exempting the Diocess of Dublin from a great Part of the Jurisdic- tion exercised over it by the See of Armagh . . 289 Murder of Milo de Cogan and young Fitz-Stephen, with four other Knights . 289 1182. Dermod Macarthy, King of Desmond, Besieges the Town of Cork . . 289 Richard de Cogan, Brother to Milo, takes his place as the Associate of Fitz Stephen in the Government . 290 The landing of Philip Biny , D. Page with a considerable Force 290 Giraldus Cambrensis . 290 The Abbey of Dunbrody found- ed and endowed by Hervey of Mount-Maurice . . 290 Two Monasteries erected in Meath for Augustine Ca- nons by Hugh de Lacy . 290 The Benedictine Priory of the Island of Neddrum, also the Priory of St. John the Baptist, founded by John de Courcy . . .290 The origin of the disgraceful Feuds which distracted the domestic Relations of Rod- eric O'Connor explained . 290 Increasing Popularity of Hugh de Lacy . . . 291 Philip of Worcester Deputy Governor of Ireland . 291 1184. John Earl of Moreton and Lord of Ireland knighted by his Father at Windsor; em- barks at Milford Haven with a large Force . 291 Arrival of, in Waterford . 291 His Expedition into Ulster . 291 His grinding Exactions from the Clergy . . 291 Prince John's contemptuous Reception of the Irish Chiets who came to wel- come him on his Arrival in Ireland . . . 292 Determination on the Part of the Chieftians to seek Re- venge for tiiose Insults . 292 Policy pursued by Prince John's Courtiers calculated to aggravate rather than remove these revengeful Feelings . . .292 The Erection of three Forts or Castles at Tipperary . 293 The Castle of Ardfinnan at- tacked by Donald O'Brian, Prince of Limeric . . 293 The brave Robert Barry, who accompanied Fitz-Stephen into Ireland, taken and slain in an Assault on Lismore 293 An Attack upon Cork by Mac Carthy resisted by Theo- bald Walter . . 293 Success of the English Arms in Meath . . .293 Recall of Prince John and his Advisers to England . 293 The Government, both Civil and Military, placed in the Hands of De Courcy . 293 XIT ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. Page 293 Assassination of de Lacy CHAPTER XXXIL On the Subject of Henry's Grant of Ireland to John, and the supposed Effects of that Measure considered . 1186. The Translation of the Re- mains of the three great National Saints, Patrick, Columba, and Brigid 1188. Deposition of O'Loghlin, Prince of Tyrone Death of Rhoderic O'Lacher- lair, his successor Restoration of O'Loghin His Death .... The Invasion of Connaught by Cornelius O'Dermot and De Courcy Retreat of De Courcy from Connaught, and Re-establish- ment of O'Connor Murder of Rhoderic O'Connor 1189. Death of Henry 11. . The kindly Feelings of Ri- chard I. towards his Bro- ther John On the Question of Henry's Grant of Ireland to his Son John .... The Curia Regis, or Common Council, held by Henry at Lismore, styled prematurely a Parliament . At what Time Parliaments, properly so called, began to be held by the English in Ireland The Subject considered Views of Molyneux on the Subject Hugh de Lacy, Son of the first Lord of Meath, appointed Deputy Governor of Ireland by King John Dissatisfaction and retirement to Ulster of John de Courcy in consequence Cathal 0'Connor,of the Bloody Hand The Abbey of the Hill of Vic- tory founded by him 1194. Death ofDonaldO'Brian, King of Thomond and Ormond . Numerous religious Establish- ments founded by him Carbrach, Son of Donald, raised to the Sovereignty William Marshall, second earl of Pembroke, appointed Go- vernor of Ireland . . 300 294 294 295 295 295 295 295 295 295 295 296 296 297 297 298 298 299 299 299 299 300 300 300 A. D. Page His Administration . . 300 Its Results . . . 300 The Successes of Cathal of Connaught, and Mac Carthy of Desmond . . 300 Hamo de Valois appointed Go- vernor of Ireland in place of Earl Marshall, who resigned 301 His forcible Invasion of the Property of the Church, not- withstanding the angry Re- monstrances of Cuming, Archbishop of Dublin . 301 Recall of Hamo, and appoint- ment of Meyler Fitz-Henry to the Government . 301 Death of Roderic O'Connor . 301 His Character . . 301 His efforts to revive the al- most extinct Learning of the Country - . .301 Giolla Moduda, Author of a Metrical Catalogue of the Kings of Ireland . . 302 1129. Celsns, or Cellach, Archbishop of Armagh, his Death . 302 Some Remarks respecting the Social Condition of the Irish People at this Period . 302 The Character of Giraldus as a Censor . . .302 Some of his Charges against the Irish Clergy; his Ac- count of the State of Manu- factures and the useful Arts among the Irish . . 303 CHAPTER XXXIIL John. Condition of Ireland . 304 1198. Dissensions among the Natives 304 Contentions between Cathal and Carrach for the Princi- pality of Connaught . 304 1205. Cathal surrenders to King John two thirds of Connaught 304 Rivalry between John de Courcy and Hugh de Lacy 305 De Courcy sent Prisoner to England ; his Title to the Earldom of Leinster trans- ferred to Hugh de Lacy . 305 1210. King John undertakes a mili- tary Expedition against Ire- land . . .305 Exaction and Cruelty of the English . . . 305 Cathal, Prince of Connaught, ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XV A. B. Page pays Homage to the English Crown . . .305 Flight of William de Bravia and the De Lacys ; Capture of the Wife and Daughter of the former by King John 305 The De Lacys return to Ire- land, and are reinstated in their Possessions . . 306 1209. Massacre of the inhabitants of Dublin by the Septs . 306 Introduction of English Laws and Usages by King John . 306 He returns to England, leaving John de Grey to the Admi- nistration of Affairs in Ire- land . . .307 1215. Peaceable Disposition of the Inhabitants . . 307 CHAPTER XXXIV. Henry III. 1216. Accession of Henry III., and Appointment of the Earl of Pembroke as protector . 308 Grant of the Great Charter to his English Subjects in Ire- land . . .308 Difference of the two Char- ters . . .309 Exclusion of the Natives from all Share of English Laws and Liberties . . 309 1219. Hostilities between Hugh de Lacy and the young Earl of Pembroke . . .309 1220. Surrender of their Principali- ties by the Irish Chiefs . 309 1221. Henry's Breach of Faith to- wards Cathal . . 310 He bestows the Principality of Connaught on Henry de Burgh . . .310 1223. The People ofthe Province, in Defiance of the Royal Au- thority, proceed to elect another Chief . . 310 1233. Rebellion of Richard Earl of Marshal . . .310 1234. Treachery practised towards him ... 310 His Death . . .311 1240. Feidlim, Chief of Connaught, visits England . . 311 Subject of his Conference with Henry . . .311 Henry's Disputes and War- fare with the Welsh . 312 A. D. Page Is joined by the Irish Forces under Maurice Fitz Gerald and the prince of Connaught 312 Death of Fitz Gerald , 312 Henry's Disputes with Ireland 312 1246. Admission of a few Natives only to the Participation of English Law . . 312 Threatened Invasion of Hen- ry's Dominions in Gascony 313 1254. Henry makes a Grant of the Kingdom of Ireland to his Son Prince Henry . 313 Reservations in that Grant . 313 1255. Renewed Hostilities with Wales . . .314 Prince Edward defeats the Irish Force sent to the As- sistance of the Welsh . 314 1259. Death of O'Neill, and 350 of his Followers, in an En- counter with Sir Stephen Longespe, Lord Justice of Ireland . . .314 Rising of the Mac Carlhys of Desmond . . . 314 Massacre of a Number of Ger- aldines . . . 314 Contention between the De Burghs and Geraldines . 314 The King recalls the Lord Justice, appointing David Barry in his stead . . 315 Peace restored between the two rival Houses . . 315 1267. David Barry replaced by Sir Robert de Ufford . . 315 1270. Administration of Sir James Audley . . .315 The Natives rise up in arms . 315 The Prince of Connaught takes the Field against Walter de Burgh, Earl of Ulster . . . 315 Close of Henry's Reigu . 315 CHAPTER XXXV. Edward I. 1272. The Irish petition Edward re- garding the Extension to them of the Laws of Eng- land . . .316 Revolt of the Natives . 316 Incursion of the Scots into Ire- land . . .316 1267. Robert de Ufford succeeds Genevil as Lord Justice . 316 XVI ANA.LYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. Page Battle of Glandelory and De- feat of the Enojlish . 317 1277. Treachery and Cruelty of Tho- mas de Clare . . 317 His Wars in Thomond . 317 1280. Edward calls upon the Enorlish Lords to consider the Peti- tion of the Irish regarding the Extension of the Eng- lish Law . . .318 The King favourable to this Extension . . . 318 Continued Feuds between the Geraidines and De Burghs 318 1286. Ascendancy of the latter . 319 1288. Richard Earl of Ulster, the Head of the De Burgh family invades Meath . . 319 John Sandford, Archbishop of Dublin, Chief Governor . 319 1289. The Statute entitled "An Or- dinance for the State of Ireland" . . . 319 1290. Contest between De Vesey and the Baron of ofFaley . 319 De Vesey retires to France, and the King bestows on Offaley the Lordships of Kildare and Rathangan . 319 1294. Triumph and Insolence of the latter in consequence . 319 Truce between the Geraidines and de Burghs . , 320 1295. A parliament assembled . 320 New Division of the Kingdom into Counties . . 320 Other Acts passed by this par- liament . . .320 1299. John Wogan joins the King in Scotland with a select force .320 1298. Tranquillity in Ireland under the Government of Wogan 321 1303. Renewed Revolt of the Scots . 321 The Irish Forces again sum- moned to attend the King . 321 Savage Murders committed by the Englisli and Irish . 321 Regulation of the Coinage of Ireland . . .322 CHAPTER XXXVL Edward II. 1307. The King recalls Gaveston . 322 Espouses Isabella, Daughter of Philip the Fair, and appoints Gaveston Regent . . 322 Discontent of the Barons and Expulsion of Gaveston . 322 A. D. 1308. 1309. 1311. 1312. 1309. 1314. 1315. 1316. Page The King appoints him Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland . 323 Rivalry between Gaveston and the Earl of Ulster . . 323 Gaveston recalled to England and succeeded by Sir John Wagan . . . 323 Parliament at Kilkenny . 323 Conflicts between Richard Earl of Ulster and the De Clares 323 English Feuds . . 323 Defeat of the Lord Justice . 324 Truce between Edward and the Scots violated through the Impatience of both Par- ties . . .324 War between England and Scotland . . . 324 Edward summons the Irish Chieftains to his aid ; they refuse to obey the Call . 324 Continued Exclusion of the Irish from Justice . . 324 Interest felt by the Irish in the Fortunes of Robert Bruce . 324 Bruce takes refuge in Ireland; his Expedition from thence attended by his Irish Friends . . .324 Victory of Bannockburn; its Effects on the Minds of the Irish . . .325 Deputies sent by them to in- vite Bruce to Ireland . 325 Edward sendsover John de Ho- thum to treat with the Irish Lords . . .325 Edward Bruce appears off the Coast of Antrim . . 325 Is joined by the Irish . 325 De Burgh summons his Vas- sals, and marches in pursuit of the Invaders ; joined by Feidlin Prince of Connaught 326 Bruce crowned Kingof Ireland 326 Defeat of De Burgh . . 326 Feidlim O'Connor joins the Scots . . . 326 Battle between the O'Connor's 326 Continued Success of Bruce . 327 Policy of tlie English Govern- ment towards Ireland . 327 Feidlim O'Connor takes the Field . . .328 Battle of Athenry ; Defeat of the Irish; and Death of Feid- lim. . . .328 Robert Bruce joins his brother in Ireland . . . 328 Supposed Treachery of the De Lacys . . .328 Success of the English Arms . 328 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XVll A. D. Page Bruce, with a large Force, ad- vances towards Dublin • 329 Arrest of the Earl of Ulster 329 Intrepidity of the Citizens of Dublin . . . .329 Bruce retires into Kilkenny; Sufferings of his Army . 329 Inactivity of the English . 330 1317. Parliaments held at Kilkenny and Dublin . . .330 Retreat of Bruce into Ulster 330 Returns to his own Dominions 339 Arrival of the new Lord Jus- tice, Sir Roger Mortimer, afterwards Earl of March 330 Liberation of the Earl of Ulster . . . . .330 Petition of the Irish respecting the holding of Parliaments 331 Disaffection among the Cler- gy - . • . .331 Sentence of outlawry passed against the de Lacys . 321 Famine in Ireland . . 331 1318. Edward Bruce again takes the Field . . . .332 Death of Bruce and Defeat of his Army . . . 332 Disaffection of the clergy ; the Pope addresses a Letter to them .... 333 O'Neill, Prince of Tyrone, his memorable Remon- strance to the Pope . . 323 State of the country from Ci- vil Wars . . .333 State of the Irish Church . 333 Iniquity of the Laws governing Ireland . . . .334 Extinction of the Order of Knights Templars . . 335 CHAPTER XXXVn. EDWARD III. 1327. State of Ireland on the Ac- cession of Edward III. . 336 Civil Dissensions among the English Families . . 337 Irruption and Defeat of Mac Murough . . .337 1328. Roger Outlaw, Prior of Kil- mainham, appointed Lord Justice .... 337 The Natives again petition for English Law . . .338 f329. Insurrections in the South of Ireland . . . .338 Massacre of English by En- glish at Orgiel . . 338 A A. D. 1830, 1331. 1332. 1331, 1332. 1833, 1336. 1339. 1341. 1342. 1343. 1346. 1344. 1355. Page Defeat of the English Troops 338 The Lord Justice summons to his aid the Earl of Des- mond .... 338 Desmond takes the Field against the Insurgents . 338 Continued Insurrection . 339 Parliament at Kilkenny . 339 The Kmg appointed the Earl of Ulster Lord-Lieutenant 339 Sir Anthony Lacy sent over as Lord Justice . 339 Severe Measures of the New Lord Justice , . . 339 Arrest of Lord Henry Mande- ville and the Earl of Des- mond .... 340 Arrest and Execution of Lord William Bermingham . 340 The King an nounces his Intention of visiting Ireland, his real Purpose, however, being an Expedition to Scot- land .... 340' Murder of William De Burgh, the third Earl of Ulster . 341 Release of the Earl of Des- mond .... 341 Victory gained by the English over the natives in Con- naught .... 342 The Earl of Desmond attacks and defeats the Insurgents of Kerry .... 342 The Earl of Kildare attacks the Insurgents of Leinster 342 Roger Outlaw holds the Office of Chief Governor for the fourth Time, and dies the following Year . . 342 Arrival of the new Lord Justice, Sir John Darcy . 342 Arbitrary Measures of the English Government . 342 A Parliament summoned to meet at Dublin . . 343 The Earl of Desmond and his party refuse to attend it . 343 Convention at Kilkenny, and Petition to the King . 343 Sir Ralph appointed Lord Jus- tice ; rigorous Measures adopted by him towards Des- mond .... 344 Arrest of the Earl of Kildare 345 Death of Ufford . . . 34.5 Renewal of Hostilities with France .... 345 Tranquil State of Ireland . 345 Desmond appointed to the Go- vernment of Ireland . . 346 His Death .... 346 XVlll ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. D. Page Is succeeded by Sir Thomas Rokeby . . .346 Law Retbrms . . 346 Administration of the Earl of Ormond . . .346 136L The King sends his Son, Lio- nel Duke of Clarence, as Deputy to Ireland . . 346 Measures for the defence of Ireland . . .346 The Duke marches against the Insurgents of Munster . 347 1364. He returns to England . 347 1367. Is twice again appointed to the Office . . .347 Parliament at Kilkenny . 347 The Statute of Kilkenny . 347 The Duke of Clarence returns to England . . 347 Is succeeded by the Earl of Desmond . . . 348 1369. Sir William de Windsor ap- pointed to the Government 348 Disturbances in Lemster and Limerick . . . 348 Arbitrary Conduct of the new Governor . . . 348 Order issued to Absentees . 349 1376. James, second Earl of Ormond appointed Lord Justice . 349 Struggles between the Civil and Ecclesiastical Judica- tures . . 349 Foundation of Dublin Univer- sity . . . 350 CHAPTER XXXVIII. Richard II. 1377. A Council of Regency chosen during the young King's Minority . . .352 1379. Ordinance against Absentee* ism . . . 352 1380. Edmund Mortimer Earl of March, Son of the Duke of Clarence, sent to Ireland as Lord-Lieutenant . . 353 1381. His Death ; is succeeded by John Col ton, and afterwards by Roger Earl of March, Son of the former Lord-Lieute- nant . . . 353 1383. The Desire of the Regency to reform the Affairs of Ireland frustrated by the new Lord Justice, Philip deCourtenay 354 1385. The King's Favourite, Robert de Vcre, created, succes- A. D. Page sively. Marquess of Ireland and Duke of Dublin . 354 Is invested by the King with tlie Sovereignty of Ireland 354 His Death at Louvain . 354 1389. The great Northern Chieftain, O'Neill, sends in his Sub- mission to the Government 354 1393. The King resolves to conduct an Expedition into Ireland . 354 1394. Lands with his Army at Wa- terford . . .355 Panic of the Natives . . 355 Submission of O'Neill and other Chiefs . . 355 Tiie King entertains them in Dublin . . .356 1394, Richard's projected Reforms . 357 1395. Urijent Reasons for his Return to England . . 357 He leaves the Earl of March as his Lieutenant . . 357 Revolt of the Native Chieftains 358 Death of the Earl of March in a Conflict with the Natives 358 1398. The Duke of Surrey sent over as Lord-Lieutenant . 358 The King resolves on another Expedition to Ireland, and appoints the Duke of York Regent in his Absence . 358 He marches against Mac Mo- rough . . . 359 Difficulties of the Royal Army 359 Returns towards Dublin . 360 Meeting between the Earl of Gloucester and Mac Mo- rough who refuses to submit 360 The King receives Intelli- gence of the landing of Hen- ry of Bolingbroke Duke of Lancaster . . . 361 He embarks for Milford Haven 361 CHAPTER XXXIX. Henry IV. Struggle between the Houses of York and Lancaster . 362 Invasion of Scotland by Henry 362 1400. Ireland attacked by the Scots 362 1401. The King appoints his Son Lord-Lieutenant . . 362 1402. The Mayor of Dublin marches against and defeats the In- surgents of Wicklow . 363 Murder of the Sheriff of Louth 363 The Right of the Sword con- ferred on the Corporation of Dublin . . -363 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XIX 1404. 1406. 1407. 1408. 1409. 1413. 1414. 1417. 1419. 1421. The Lord-Lieutenant returns to England, leaving as De- puty Sir Stephen Scroope, who afterwards resigns the Office to the Earl of Ormond Infraction of the Truce be- tween England and Scot- land Parliament held at Trim A Force despatched against Mac Moniugh His gallant Resistance and De- feat The Duke of Lancaster again appointed Lord-Lieutenant Causes the Arrest of the Earl ofKildare Is wounded in an Affray Summons a Parliament at Kil- kenny Returns to England, leaving his Brother, the Prior of Kil- mainham, his Successor Death of Henry State of Ireland Restrictions on the native Irish CHAPTER XL. Henry V. Thomas Cranley, Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Deputy Continued Hostilities between the English and the Natives Sir Thomas Talbot elected Lord-Lieutenant Makes a martial Circuit round the Borders of the Pale Reduces to Submission a great Number of the Irish Chiefs Measures for the Defence of Ireland Petition addressed to the En- glish Parliament The King summons a Body of native Irish to join his Standard in Normandy Their gallant Conduct under the Prior of Kilmainham . Laws against Absentees Mac Morough taken Prisoner and committed to the Tower The Lord-Lieutenant sum- moned to England . James Earl of Ormond re- ceives the Appointment Impeachment of the Arch- bishop of Cashel Petition of Grievances to the King ... Page A. D. 36.3 363 363 364 364 364 364 364 364 364 364 36.5 366 367 367 367 367 367 368 368 368 368 368 368 369 369 369 369 1422. 1423. 1438. 1439. 1441. 1442. 1446. 1449. 14.50. 145.5. 1460. Conflicts between the English and Natives CHAPTER XLL Henry VI. Alliances by Marriage and otherwise between the two Races The Customs of Gossifred and Fostering . The Earl of March appointed Lord- Lieutenant His Death Lord Talbot Appointed his Successor . Frequent Appointment of Go- vernors during the next ten Years Severe Measures against Ab- sentees Desmond's romantic Marriage Is forcibly expelled from his States Large Grants to his Succes- sor ... Decline of the King's Govern- ment in Ireland "Articles" of Accusation against the Earl of Ormond He is appointed Lord-Lieute- nant Extensive Grants bestowed on Desmond . Renewal of the Charges against Ormond Retires from the Lord-Lieute- nancy, and is succeeded by John Talbot, Earl of Shrews- bury Richard Duke of York appoint- ed Viceroy Committal of Ormond to the Tower Intended Duel between Or- mond and the Prior of Kil- mainham Reduction of the English Power Wise Policy of the Duke of York Cade's Rebellion The Duke of York proceeds to Eno-land The Battle of St. Albans The Defeat of the Yorkists at Blore Heath The Duke of York takes Re- fuge in Ireland His Conference with War- wick at Dublin Page 370 371 372 372 372 373 373 373 373 373 373 374 374 374 374 375 376 376 376 376 377 377 377 377 378 378 378 378 XX ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A- »• Page Makes his public Entry into London . . ,378 Is defeated and slain at Wake- field . . .378 Liberal Conduct of this Prince 379 ,€HAPTER XLII. EWDARD IV, Reduced State of the English Power . . .379 Predatory Inroads of the Na- tives . . . 380 ■The Duke of Clarence appoint- ed Lieutenant for Life . 380 1463. The Earl of Desmond his De- puty . . .380 Lavish Grants to Desmond . 380 The College of Youghall founded and endowed by Desmond . . . 381 Establishment of a University at Drogheda . . 381 Desmond is succeeded as De- puty by Lord Worcester . 381 Worcester's Hostility towards Desmond . , . 381 1467. Charge of Treason against Desmond . . .381 His Execution . . 382 1468. The Earl of Kildare appointed Deputy . . .382 1472. Institution of the Brotherhood of St. George . . 382 1476. The Earl of Ormond restored to Favour . . .382 Gerald, eighth Earl of Kildare, appointed Lord Deputy . 382 Marriage of his Sister with Con O'Neill . . 383 1478- Death of the DukeofClarence, 1483. and Appointment of Richard Duke of York to the Office of Lord-Lieutenant . . .383 Low State of the Irish Revenue 383 CHAPTER XLIIL Edward V. and Richard IM. 1483. The Geraklines in Power . 383 Parliament in Dublin . 383 Enactment passed at this Par- liament . . . 383 Battle of Bosworth and Death of Richard III. . . .3^13 CHAPTER XLIV. Henry VII. A. D. Page Policy of Henry . . 384 Strength of the Yorkists in Ireland . . . 3a4 1485. The Family of Ormond re- stored to Favour . . 385 1486. The Earl of Kildare suspected by the King . . 385 Henry's Cruelty towards the young Earl of Warwick . 385 The Sminel Plot . . 386 Movements in his favour . 386 Arrival in Dublin of Martin Swartz with a Body of Ger- man Troops, accompanied by the Earls of Lincoln and Level 1 . . .386 Simnel crowned at Dublin by the Bishop of Meath . 387 The Anglo-Irish Leaders re- solve to invade England . 387 Defeat of the Invaders at Stoke, by Henry . . . 387 Simnel made Prisoner and transferred to the Royal Kitchen . . .387 The King rewards the Loyalty ofWaterford . . 388 He pardons Kildare . . 388 Henry's mistaken Policy to- wards Ireland . . 388 1488. Sir Richard Edgecomb or- dered to repair to Ireland to receive the Allegiance of the People . . .389 Kildare absolved . . 390 1489. Henry summons the Lords of the Pale to meet him at Greenwich . . 390 Murder of the ninth Earl of Desmond . . . 391 Wars of his Successor with the Irish . . .391 Hostilities between O Neill and O'Donnell . . 391 1490. Appearance of another Impos- tor, Perkin Warbeck . 391 1492. Dismissal of the Earl of Kil- dare from the Office of De- puty, and his father-in-law from that of High Treasurer 392 Walter Fitz Symons made Deputy . . .392 The Duchess of Burgundy sends for Warbeck to Ire- land . . . 392 Warbeck invited to the French Court . . . 392 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXI A* XT* Withdraws himself privately to Flanders The Earl of Kildare in Di grace 1494. Sir Edward Poynings sent to Ireland as Deputy . His Expedition into Ulster Kildare suspected of Disloyal ty . Parliament at Drogheda Poynings' Act Other Acts passed in this par liament " Great Treaty of Commerce" between England and the Netherlands 1495. Warbeck visits tlie Scottish Court Marries the Daughter of the Earl of Huntley O'Donnell's Visit to Scotland 1496. Arrest of Kildare His Committal to England and Examination Is acquitted and made Lieu- tenant 1497. Warbeck again visits Ireland Is joined by the Earl of Des- mond Their unsuccessful Expedition against Walerford . Warwick escapes to Cornwall His Execution at Tyburn Warfare among the Irish Chiefs Kildare's Successes Confederacy among the Chiefs 1504. Battle of Knoc-tuadh and De feat of the Rebels . Kildare receives the Honour of Knighthood CHAPTER XLV. I'ago 892 398 898 893 393 894 394 394 895 395 395 895 896 896 896 896 896 896 897 897 397 397 397 397 398 Henry VIII. 1509. Kildare continued Chief Go- vernor . . . 398 Success of his Arms . . 398 1513. His Death . . .899 Is succeeded by his Son Gerald 399 1514. Military Exploits of the new Governor . . . 399 1516. Is summoned to England for Maladministration . . 400 1519, Thomas Howard, Earl of Sur- rey, appointed Lord-Lieu- tenant . . . 400 Secret Designs against Kil- dare . . .400 Violent proceedings of Des- mond . . 400 A. B. Page Dissensions between Desmond and Ormond . . 401 Surrey effects a Reconciliation between them • . 401 His ill Success in governing Ireland . . .401 1521. Returns to England . . 401 League between the Scots and Natives . . .401 Ormond receives the Appoint- ment of Lord Deputy . 402 1.524. Is supplanted by Kildare . 402 Desmond enters into a Treaty with tlie Kmg of France . 402 1.526. Impeachment of Kildare . 402 Is committed to the Tower and afterwards released . 403 Richard Nugent, Baron of Delvin, the new Lord Deputy 403 1528. Daring Act of O'Connor, who takes Prisoner the Lord De- puty . . . 403 Feuds among the English . 403 The Duke of Norfolk's (late Earl of Surrey) Opinions respecting Ireland . . 404 1.530. The Duke of Richmond ap- pointed Lord-Lieutenant . 404 Triumph of Kildare . . 404 Sir William Skcffington Lord Deputy . . . 405 1.532. Removal of Skeffington and Appointment of Kildare in his Place . . .405 Allies himself to O'Connor and O'Carrol, Enemies of Eng- land , . . 405 1.533. Is seriously wounded . 40.5 Combination affainst him . 40.5 1.534. Kildare summoned to England 406 Report on the State of Ireland 406 Encroachment of the O'Brians 406 Condition of the Country . 407 Rebellion of Lord Thomas Fitz Gerald, Vice Deputy . 407 Dublin Castle besieged . 408 Archbishop Allen barbarously murdered . . . 408 Fitz Gerald invades the Terri- tory of the Earl of Ossory 408 Endeavours, without Success to induce Ossory to join him 408 Truce with the Citizens of Dublin . . .409 Sentence of Excommunication passed against Fitz Gerald 410 Death of Kildare in the Tower 410 Outrages committed by Fitz- Gerald . . .410 Applies for Aid to Foreign Powers . . . 410 XXll ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. A. n. Page 1535. Sir William SkefBngton lays siege to Maynooth . . 411 Surrender of the Castle . 411 Fitz Gerald takes refuge with O'Brien . . .412 Inactivity of the English Go- vernment . . . 412 Sir John Saintclow appointed Marshal of the Army . 412 Feuds among the Chiefs . 412 Destructive Effects of the War 413 Arrival of Lord Leonard Gray to conduct the War . 413 Sir William SkefEngton marches against Offaley . 414 O'Connor surrenders . . 414 Submission of O'Connor who is sent prisoner to England 414 His Execution together with his five Uncles . . 414 The Destruction of O'Brian's Bridge . . . 414 1536. Rumoured Return of Lord Thomas Fitz Gerald . 415 1537. Expedition of the Lord Deputy into Offaley, and Expulsion of Brian O'Connor . . 415 That Territory bestowed on the Chief's Brother . 415 The CastleofDengen besieged 415 Conduct of the Brothers . 415 Parley between the Lord De- puty and O'Connor . . 416 Gerald Fitz Gerald, the Bro- ther of Lord Thomas . 416 1538. The Aid of the Scottish Mo- narch solicited in his favour 417 Marriage of Gerald's Aunt, Lady Eleanor, to O'Donnell 417 Lord Gray's military Progress through the Kingdom . 417 Charges against him . . 417 League between Desmond and O'Brian . . 417 Unworthy Submission to Des- mond . . • 418 Contest between Desmond and Fitz Maurice for Right of Inheritance . . 418 Countenance afforded by Des- mond to young Fitz Gerald 418 Lord Gray suspected of favour- ing Gerald . . . 418 Religious Differences . 519 Supposed League of the Scot- tish Court with the Irish Chief . . .419 Expulsion of the Scotch Re- fugees . • . 419 The Goraldine League . 420 Expedition into Munster under the Cominand of the Lord A. D. Page Deputy and the Earl of Or- mond . . .420 Submission of the Geraldines 420 Defiance of Desmond . . 421 " The Battle of Bellahoe " . 421 Escape of Gerald into France 421 His subsequent Adventures . 421 CHAPTER XLVI. Henry VIII. (Continued.) Progress of the Reformation in England . . .422 Henry's Differences with the Pope . . . 423 Fate of Sir Thomas More . 423 Henry's Cruelty . . 423 1.5.39. The act for abolishing Diver- sity of Opinions . . 424 The Reformation in Ireland . 424 Opposed by Archbishop Cro- mer . . . 424 Supported by Archbishop Browne . . . 425 Parliament in Ireland . 425 Opposition of the Proctors to the Act of Supremacy . 42-5 Traffic in spiritual Patronage 425 Continued Opposition of the Proctors . . . 425 Bill for their Expulsion from Parliament. . . 426 Character of Archbishop Brosvne . . . 426 Henry's Letter to him . 426 Differences between Browne and Lord Gray . . 426 Attachment of official and other Persons to the ancient Faith . . .426 Comparative Tranquillity of Ireland . . . 427 Two Archbishops and eight Bishops take the Oath of Supremacy . . 427 Act for the Suppression of re- ligious Houses . . 428 Urgent request of Archbishop Browne for a Share of the religious Plunder . . 428 Silence of the Clergy. . 428 1540. Lord Gray returns to England 429 Differences between Ormond and the late Deputy . 429 Fresh Indications of Revolt . 429 Peace concluded with O'Niell 430 General Muster of the Irish at Fowre . . . 430 Mutual Concessions . . 430 Desmond supposed to submit , 430 Murder committed by his Bro- ther . . .430 ANALYTICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. XXIU A. r. Page Ormond endeavours to conci- liate Desmond . . 430 Sir Anthony Sentleger, Lord Deputy . . .431 Peaceful Disposition of the na- tive Chiefs . . 431 Submission of Mac Morough . 431 O'Connor at first refractory, at length submits . . 431 1541. Parliament held . . 432 Proclamation for a general Pardon . . . 432 Chivalrous Conduct of Tirlogh O'Toole . . .432 Submission of Desmond . 432 Meeting of the Lord Deputy with O'Brian . . 433 Parliament at Dublin attended by the Irish Chiefs . 433 An Act passed conferring on Henry the Title of Kmg of Ireland . . .433 Execution of Lord Leonard Gray . , . 433 Kindness of the King to Des- mond and other Chiefs . 434 A. D. Page Arrest of Lord Roche and the White Knight . . 434 1542. Submission of O'Neill and O'Donnell . . .434 Titles bestowed on O'Neill and other Chiefs . . 435 Description of O'Connell's Dress . . .435 1543. Particulars of the Anglo-Irish Peerage . . . 435 Want of Money in Ireland . 436 Wise Policy of Henry's Go- vernment . . . 436 1544. Preparations for the Campaign in France . . . 437 Irish Troops employed in France . . . 437 Their Bravery at the Siege of Boulogne . . . 437 1545. Expedition against Scotland under Lord Lennox . 437 Rumours of the Return of Ger- ald Fitz Gerald . . 437 The Squadron sails under the Command of Lennox and Ormond . . " . 437 HISTORY OF IRELAND. CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF THE IRISH PEOPLE. EARLY NOTICES OF IRELAND. There appears to be no doubt that the first inhabitants of Ireland were derived from the same Celtic stock which supplied Gaul, Britain, and Spain with their original population. Her language, the numerous monuments she still retains of that most ancient superstition which the first tribes who poured from Asia into Europe are known to have carried with them wherever they went, sufficiently attest the true origin of her people. Whatever obscurity may hang round the history of the tribes that followed this first Eastern swarm, and however opinions may still vary, as to whether they were of the same, or of a difFe- rentrace,it seems, at least, certain, that the Celts were the first inhabitants of the western parts of Europe ; and that, of the language of this most ancient people, the purest diale&t now existing is the Irish. It might be concluded, from the near neighbourhood of the two islands to each other, that the fortunes of Britain and Ireland would, in those times, be similar; that, in the various changes and mixtures to which population was then subject, from the successive incursions of new tribes from the East, sucli vicissitudes would be shared in common by the two islands, and the same flux and reflux of population be felt on both their shores. Such an assumption, however, would, even as to earlier times, be rash ; and, how little founded it is, as a general conclusion, appears from the historical fact, that the Romans continued in military possession of Britain for near four hundred years, without a single Roman, during that whole period, having been known to set foot on Irish ground. The system of Whitaker and others, who, from the proximity of the two islands, assume that the population of Ireland must have been all derived from Britain, is wholly at variance, not merely with probability, but with actual evidence. That, in the general and compulsory movement of the Celtic tribes towards the west, an island, like Ireland, within easy reach both of Spain and Gaul, should have been left unoccupied during the long interval it roust have required to stock England with inhabitants, seems, to the highest degree, improbable. But there exists, independently of this consideration, strong evidence of an early intercourse between Spain and Ireland, in the historical traditions of the two countries, in the names of the different Spanish tribes assigned to the latter by Ptolemy, and, still more, in the sort of notoriety Vvhich Ireland early, as we shall see, acquired, and which could only have arisen out of her connexion with those Phoenician colonies, through whom alone a secluded island of the Atlantic could have become so well known to the world. At a later period, when the Belgic Gauls had gained such a footing in Britain, as to begin to encroach on the original Celtic inhabitants, a remove still farther to the west was, as usual, the resource of this people ; and Ireland, already occupied by a race speak- ing a dialect of the same language,— the language common, at that period, to all the 3 26 HISTORY OF IRELAND. Celts of Europe, — afForded the refuge from Gothic invasion* which they required. It has has been shown clearly, from the names of its mountains and rivers, — those unerring memorials of an aboriginal race, — that the first inhabitants of the country now called Wales must have been a people whose language was the same with that of the Irish, as the mountains and waters of that noble country are called by Irish names.f At what time the Belgae, the chief progenitors of the English nation, began to dispossess the original Celtic inhabitants, is beyond the historian's power to ascertain; as is also the question, whether those Belgae or Fir-bolgs, who are known to have passed over into Ire- land, went directly from Gaul, or were an offset of those who invaded Britain. But however some of the ingredients composing their population may have become, in the course of time, common to both countries, it appears most probable that their primi- tive inhabitants were derived from entirely different sources; and that, while Gaul poured her Celts upon the shores of Britain, the population of Ireland was supplied from the coasts of Celtic Spain.J It is, at least, certain, that, between these two latter coun- tries, relations of afHnity had been, at a very early period, established ; and that those western coasts of Spain, to which the Celtic tribes were driven, and where afterwards Phoenician colonies established themselves, were the very regions from whence this communication with Ireland was maintained. The objections raised to this supposed origin and intercourse, on the ground of the rude state of navigation in those days, are deserving of but little attention. It was not lightly, or without observation, such a writer as Tacitus asserted, that the first colonizing expedi- tions were performed by water, not by land ;5 and however his opinion, to its whole extent, may be questioned, (he result of inquiry into the affinities of nations seems to have established, that at no time, however remote, has the interposition of sea presented much obstacle to the migratory dispositions of mankind. The history, indeed, of the Polynesian races, and of their common origin — showing to what an immense extent, over the great ocean, even the simplest barbarians have found the means of wafting the first rudiments of a people|| — should incline us to regard with less skepticism those coasting and, in general, land-locked voyages, by which most of the early colonization of Europe was effected; — at a period, too, when the Phoenicians, with far more knowledge, it is pro- bable, of the art of navigation, than modern assumption gives them credit for, were to be seen in the Mediterranean, the Baltic, the Atlantic, — every where upon the waters. With respect to the facilities of early intercourse between Ireland and Spain, the distance from Cape Ortegal to Cape Clear, which lie almost opposite to each other, north and south, is not more than 150 leagues, — two thirds of which distance, namely, as far as the island of Ushant, might all have been performed within sight of land. H Reserving, how- ever, all farther investigation into this point, till we come to treat of the different colo- nies of Ireland, I shall here endeavour to collect such information respecting her early fortunes as the few, but pregnant, notices scattered throughout antiquity afford. With one important exception, it is from early Greek writers alone that our first * Without entering here into the still undecided question, as to whether the BelgcC were Celts or Goths, I shall merely observe, that tlie fair conclusion from the following passage of Csesar is, that this people were of a Gothic or Teutonic descent. " Cum ab his qiiaereret, qua; civitates quantcpque in armis essent, et quid in bello possent, sic reperiebat; plerosque Belgas esse ortos ab Germanis; Rhenumque antiquitus Iransductos, propter loci fertilitatem ibi consedisse; Gallosque, qui ea loca incolerent, expuliss(^" — De Bell. Gall. lib. ii. c. 4. t Lhuyd's Preface to his Irish Dictionary, in the Appendi.\ to Nicholson's Historical Library. — Lhuyd extends his remark to England as well as Wales. " Whoever lakes notice," he says, " of a great number of the names of the rivers and mountains throughout the king.lom, will find no reason to doubt but the Irish must have been the inhabitants when those names were imposed on them." In other words, the first inha- bitants of Britain and Wales were Celts of Gael. The author of Mona Antiqua has, without intending it, confirmed the truth of Lhuyd's remark, by stating that the vestiges of old habitations still to be seen on the lieaths and hills of Anglesey, are called, to this day, Cyttie'r Gwyddelod, or the Iris-hmen's Cottages. These words, too, it appears (see Preface to O'Brien's Irish Dictionary,) "should more properly and literally be rendered Irishmen's habitations, or seats; for the Irish word Calhair, of which Ceilir is a corruption, signifies either a city or town, or habitation." X That the Irish did not consider themselves as being of Gaulish origin, appears from their having uni- formly used the word Gall to express a foreigner, or one s-peaking a different language. § Nee terra olim, sed classibiis advehebantiir, qui mutare sedes qiia?rebant.— German, c. 2. Il " A comparison of their languages (those of the Polynesian races) has furnished a proof, that all the most remote insular nations of the Great Ocean derived their origin from the same quarter, and are nearly related to some tribes of people inhabiting a part of the Indian continent, and the Isles of the Indian Archi- pelago."— PritcAarrf'*- Eastern Origin of the Celtic JVations. Dr. Rennel, in noticing some doubts respecting the circumnavigation of Africa by the Egyptians, says sensibly, "Since so many of these (ancient) aiithoritips concur in the behalf that Africa had been sailed round, we cannot readily guess why it should be doubted at present, unless the moderns wish to appro- priate to themselves all the functions and powers of nautical discovery."— On the Geographical System of H/'-rodotus. ir See Smith's History of Cork, book, i. chap. i. According to Appian, the Spaniards for his lime used to perform the passage to Britain, with the tide in their favour, in half a day.—" auando in Britanniam, una cum eestu maris transvehuntur qua; quidem trajectio dimidiati diei ii7(rav, vocasse videatur."— Cam^fen, Britan. II " Nempe edoctus a Phoetiicibus, Grsecis enim tunc temporis hsEC loca erant inaccefsn."—Bockart, Oeog- Sac. lib. i. c. 39. Tlie epithet, Cronian, applied by this Orphic poet to this sea in the neighbourhood of the Hyperboreans, is, according to Toland, purely Irish; the word Croin, in that language, signifying Frozen. , , , ^^ This circumstance of Iieland having been known to the Argonauts, is thus alluded to by a Dutch writer of the sixteenth century, Adrian Junius: ■' Ilia ego sum Graiis olim glacialis lernc Dicta, et Jasoni puppis bene cognita nautis." IT De Mundo. -, c\ u ** The Athenians had already, in this philosopher's time, as he himself mentions (CEconnmic. 1, 2) t)een advised to secure to themseivefi the monopoly nf the Tyrian market, by buying up all the lead. 28 HISTORY OF IRELAND. Himilco in one of the temples of Carthage, and still existed in the fourth century, when Avienus, having access, as he mentions, to the Punic records, collected from thence those curious details which he has preserved in his Iambics,* and which furnish by far the most interesting glimpse derived from antiquity of the early condition of Ireland. The OSstrum- nides, or Scilly Islands, are described, in this sketch, as two days' sail from the larger Sacred Island, inhabited by the Hiberni; and in the neighbourhood of the latter, the island of the Albiones, it is said, extends.f Though the description be somewhat obscure, yet the Celtic names of the two great Islands, and their relative position, as well to the CEstrumnides as to each other, leave no doubt as to Britain and Ireland being the two places designated. The commerce carried on by the people of Gades with the Tin Isles is expressly mentioned by the writer, who adds, that "the husbandmen, or planters, of Carthage, as well as her common people, went to those isles," — thus implying that she had established there a permanent colony. In this short but circumstantial sketch, the features of Ireland are brought into view far more prominently than those of Britain. After a description of the hide-covered boats, or currachs, in which the inhabitants of those islands navigated their seas, the populous- nessof the isle of the Hiberni, and the turfy nature of its soil, are commemorated. But the remarkable fact contained in this record — itself of such antiquity — is, that Ireland was then, and had been from ancient times, designated " The Sacred Island." This refe- rence of the date of her early renown, to times so remote as to be in Himilco's days ancient, carries the imagination, it must be owned, far back into the depths of the past, yet hardly farther than the steps of history will be found to accompany its flight. Re- specting the period of the expeditions of Hanno and Himilco, the opinions of the learned have differed ; and by some their date is referred to so distant a period as 1000 years before the Christian era.J Combining the statement, however, of Pliny, that they took place during the most flourishing epoch of Carthage,^ with the internal evidence furnished by Hanno's'own Periplus, there is no doubt that it was, ift least, before the reign of Alex- ander the Great that these two memorable expeditions occurred. Those "ancients," therefore, from whom the fame of the Sacred Island had been handed down, could have been no other than tiie Phosnicians of Gades, and the Gallician coasts of Spain, who throuo-h so many centuries, had reigned alone in those secluded seas, and were the dis- pensers of religion, as well as of commerce, wherever they bent their course.|| At how early a period this remarkable people began to spread themselves over the globe, the inscription legible, for many an age, on the two Pillars, near the Fount of the Magi, at Tanglers, — " We fly from the face of Joshua, the robber," — bore striking testi- mony. IT Nothing, ip.deed, can mark more vividly the remote date of even the maturity * " HiPc nos ab imis Punicorum annalibus I'lolata longo tempore edidinms tibi." Fest. Jlvicnus, de Oris Maritim. It would appear from this, that tJie records to which Avienus had access, were written in Punic,— a cir- cumstance which, if true, says Dodwell, would aflurd a probable reason for the name of Himilco having been BO long unknown to the Greeks :— " Ea causa satis verisimilis esse potuit cur tamdiu Gra;co3 laieuril Himilco, etiani eosqui collega> meminerint llannonis:'— Dissert, de Peripli Hannonis tetate. I " Ast hinc duobus in Sacram, sic Insulam Dixere prisci, solibus cursus rati est. Hiec inter undas niultum cespitem jacit, Kamque late gens Hibernoruai colit. Propinqua rursus insula Albionura patet. Tartesiisque in terminos CEstrumniduni Negociandi nios erat, Carthaginis Etiam colonis, et vulgus inter Herculis Agilans columnas ha;c adibant lequora." 'One of the reasons assigned by Dodwell for rejecting the Periplus of Hanno, as a work fabricated, after his death by some Sicilian Greek, is the occurrence of Greek names instead of Phoenician for the ditterent places mentioned in it. This objection, however, does not apply to the account of Himilco, as reported by Avienus, in which the old names Gadir, Albion, and Hibernia declare sufficiently their Phoenician and Celtic ** Speaking of the Argonautics and the record of Himilco, Bishop Stillingfleet says, " These are undoubted testimoiueg of the ancient peopling of Ireland, and of far greater authority than those domestic annals now so much extolled. — ilntiquUies cf the Brilish. Churches, c. 5. , 1 Nouscroyons done, que cette expidition, a du preceder Hesiode de trente ou quarante ans, et qu on pent la fi.\er vers mille ans avant I'ere Chretienne.— Gfls«*/ijf, Rcthcrches sur la Ocographie des Anciens. K Et Hanno, Carthaginis potentia florente, circumvectus a Gadibus ad tinem Arabia;, navigationem earn prodidit scripto: sicut ad exlera Europa; nosccnda missus eodem tempore liimi\co.—Plin. JVat. Hist. ' II See, for a learned and luminous view of the relations of ancient Ireland with the East, Lord Rosse's Vindication of the V\'ill of the Rt. Hon. Henry Flood. ... r.- IT Procop Vandal, lib. 2. c. 10.— Even this is by Bishop Cumberland considered too stinted a range ol time for their colonizations. " They seem to me," he says. " to have had much more time to make then; planta- tions than that learned man (Bochart) thought of; for, as I understand their history, they had time from .oboul Abraham's death, which was about 370 years before Joshua Invaded Canaan, Irom wnicli liocudii begins."— JVuics on the Synchronism of Canaan and Kgypt. HISTORY OF IKELAND. 29 of their empire, than the impressive fact, that the famed temple which they raised, at Gades, to their Hercules, was, in the time of the Romans, one of the most memorable remains of ancient days.* Not to go back, however, as far as the period, little less than 1500 years before our era, when their colonies first began to swarm over the waters, we need but take their most prosperous epoch, which commenced with the reign of Solomon, and supposing their sails to have then first reached the Atlantic, the date of the pro- bable colonization of that region must still be fixed high in time. In the days of Hero- dotus, by whom first vaguely, and without any certain knowledge of a sea beyond the Straits, the importation of tin from the Cassiterides is mentioned, it is hardly too much to assume that the Phoenicians had, for some time, formed a settlement in these islands. That they must have had a factory here is pretty generally conceded:! but a people, whose system it was to make colonization the basis of their power, were assuredly not likely to have left a position of such immense commercial importance unoccupied ; and the policy, first taught by them to trading nations, of extending the circle of their cus- tomers by means of colonies, was shown in the barter, which they thenceforward main- tained with the British Isles — exchanging their own earthen vessels, salt, and brass, for the tin, lead, and skins produced in these islands.^ There are grounds for believing, also, that to the Phoenicians, and consequently to the Greeks, Ireland was known, if not earlier, at least more intimately, than Britain.^ We have seen that, in the ancient Poem called the " Argonautics," supposed to have been written in the time of the Pisistratidae, and by a poet instructed, it is thought, from Pho3- nician sources, lerne alone is mentioned, without any allusion whatever to Britain ; and in the record preserved by Himilco's voyage to these seas, while the characteristic features of the Sacred Isle are dwelt upon with some minuteness, a single line alone is allotted to the mere geographical statement that in her neighbourhood the Island of the Albiones extends. Another proof of the earlier intimacy which the Phoenician Spaniards maintained with Ireland, is to be found in the Geography of Ptolemy, who wrote at the beginning of the second century, and derived chiefly, it is known, from Phoenician authorities, his infor- mation respecting these islands. For while, in describing the places of Britain, more especially of its northern portion, this geographer has fallen into the grossest errors, — placing the Mull of Galloway to the north, and Cape Orcas or Dunsby Head to the east,|| — in his account of Ireland, on the contrary, situated as she then was beyond the bounds of the Roman Empire, and hardly known within that circle to exist, he has shown considerable accuracy, not only with respect to the shores and promontories of the island, but in most of his details of the interior of the country, its various cities and tribes, lakes, rivers, and boundaries. It is worthy of remark, too, that while of the towns and places of Britain he has in general given but the new Roman names, those of Ireland still bear on his map their old Celtic titles ;ir the city Hybernis still tells a tale of far distant times, and the Sacred Promontory, now known by the name of Carnsore Point, transports our imagination back to the old Phoenician days.** When it is considered that Ptolemy, or rather Marinus of Tyre, the writer, whose steps he implicitly followed, is believed to * Diodor. Siciil. lib. iv. t "During lliis commerce, it can scarce lie doubted that tliere might be establislied, on the different coasts, factories for the greater convenience of trading with the natives for skins, furs tin, and such other commodities as the respective countries then produced."— Beauf or d, Druidism Revived, Collect. Hib. No. VII, X M^T«^^a J*£ £;^ovtjj KctTrtripov kx.i noAvdS'ou, KipxitiV etvrt toutoiv k-u imv J'lpnot.Tuv S^iuXXattovthi, Ksit etxctc, uti ^aXKoinxTa, vrpoi rev; (uTropou;. — Strah. Geograph. lib. iii. § It may appear inconsistent with the claim of Ireland to priority of reputation, that the whole of the Cassiterides were, in those days, called the Britannic Isles,— a circumstance which, taken as implying that the others had derived their title from Britain, and had so far merged their reputation in hers, would doubtless indicate so far a preeminence on her part. The name Britannia, however, which, in Celtic, means a land of metals, was applied gcnerically to the whole cluster of the Tin Isles,— the Isle of Man and those of Scilly included, — and being, therefore, a title common to all, could not imply, in itself, any supe- riority of one over another. Whether tin has been ever found in Ireland is doubtful; but lead mines, which were, at least, equally a source of lucre to the Pliojniciaiis, have been, not long since, discovered and worked. II " By an error in the geographical or astronomical observations preserved by Ptolemy, the latitudes north of this point (the Novantum Chersonesus, or Rens of Galloway ,3 appear to have been mistaken for the longitudes, and consequently this part of Britain is thrown to the east."— J\rotes on Richard of Cirencester. IT "Ireland plainly preserves, in her topography, a much greater proportion of Celtic names than the map of any other country." — Chalmer's Caledonia, vol. i. hook i. chap. i. ** " In the remote ages of Phoenician commerce, all the western and south-western promontories of Europe were consecrated by the erection of pillars or temples, and by religious names of Celtic and prima;val anti- quity: this is expressly stated by Strabo. These sacred headlands multiplied in proportion as new discove- ries were made along the zoasls."— Letters of Columbanus, by O'Connor, Letter Third. The learned writer adds in a note:— "The Sacrum Promontorium, or south- western headland of Iberia Antiqua. was Cape St. Vincent. That of Ireland was Carne-soir point, as stated by Ptolemy." This headland of Carnsore would be the first to meet the eyes of the Phcenician navigators in their way from Cornwall to Ireland, 30 HISTORY OF IRELAND. have founded his geographical descriptions and maps on an ancient Tyrian Atlas,* this want of aboriginal names for the cities and places of Britain, and their predominance in the map of Ireland, prove how much more anciently and intimately the latter island must have been known to the geographers of Tyre than the former. But even this proof of her earlier intercourse with that people and their colonies, and her proportionate advance in the career of civilization, is hardly more strong than the remarkable testimony, to the same effect, of Tacitus, by whom it is declared that, at the time when he wrote, " the waters and harbours of Ireland were better known, through the resort of commerce and navigators, than those of Britain."f From this it appears that, though scarce heard of, till within a short period, by the Romans, and almost as strange to the Greeks, this sequestered island was yet in possession of channels of intercourse distinct from either; and that while the Britons, shut out from the Continent by their Roman masters, saw themselves deprived of all that profitable intercourse which they had long maintained with the Venoti, and other people of Gaul, Ireland still continued to cultivate her old relations with Spain, and saw her barks venturing on their accustomed course, between the Celtic Cape and the Sacred Promontory, as they had done for cen- turies before. Combining these proofs of an early intercourse between Ireland and the Phoenician Spaniards, with the title of Sacred bestowed on this island in far distant times, it can hardly be doubted, that her pre-eminence in religion was the chief source of this dis- tinction ; and that she was, in all probability, the chosen depository of the Phoenician worship in these seas. By the epithet Sacred, applied to a people among the ancients, it was always understood that there belonged to them some religious or sacerdotal cha- racter. In this sense it was, that the Argippaei, mentioned by Herodotus,]; were called a Holy People; and the claim of Ireland to such a designation was doubtless of the same venerable kind. It has been conjectured, not without strong grounds of probability, that it was a part of the policy of the Phoenician priesthood to send out missions to their dis- tant colonies, on much the same plan as that of the Jesuits at Paraguay, for the purpose of extending their spiritual power over those regions of which their merchants had possessed themselves ;5 and it is by no means unlikely that the title of Sacred, bestowed thus early upon Ireland, may have arisen from her having been chosen as the chief seat of such a mission. The fact, that there existed an island devoted to religious rites in these regions, has been intimated by almost all the Greek writers who have treated of them; and the posi- tion, in every instance, assigned to it, answers perfectly to that of Ireland. By Plutarch|| it is stated, that an envoy despatched by the Emperor Claudius to explore the British Isles, found on an island, in the neighbourhood of Britain, an order of Magi accounted holy by the people: and, in another work of the same writer.lT some fabulous wonders are related of an island lying to the west of Britain, the inhabitants of which were a holy race; while, at the same time, a connexion between them and Carthage is indistinctly intimated. Diodorus Siculus also gives an account, on the authority of some ancient writers, of an island** situated, as he says, "over against Gaul;" and which, from its * " Ft lias been shown by Bremer (De Fonlibns Gcograplwrum PloUmin, S,-c.,) a writer quoted by Ileeren, "that Ptolemy's work itself, as well as the accompanying charts, usually attributed to a certain Agalho- daemon, wlio lived at Alexandria in the fifth century, were, in reality, derived from Phoenician or Tyrian sources; — in other words, that Ptolemy, or, more properly speaking, Marinus of Tyre, who lived but a short time before him, and whose work he only corrected, must have founded his geographical descriptions and maps on an ancient Tyrian Atlas." — See Heerev's Hisiorical Researches, vol. iii. Append. C. t " Melius aditu-i portus(iue, per coinmercia et negociatores,cngniti." — Tacit. Agricol. c. 24. An attempt has been made, by some of the commentators, to deprive Ireland of most of the advantages of this testimony, by the suggestion of a new and barbarous reading, which transfers the word " melius" to the preceding sentence, and is not less unjust to the elegant Latinity of the historian, than to the ancient claims of the country of which he treats. It is, however, gratifying to observe that, in spite of this effort, the old reading in general maintains its ground; thouah, with a feeling but too characteristic of a certain class of Irishmen, Arthur Murphy has, in his translation, adopted the new one. X Lib. ii. § " I believe it will be found that many of their regular priests, the Magi, or Gours, did (as the regulars of modern times and relieions have done) settle missions amongst the nations in those most distant parts." — Wise's Inquiries coneerning the First Inhabitants, Language. Sfc. of Europe. Sir Isaac Newton, too, as quoted by Powuall, says, " With these Phcenicians came a sort of men skilled in religious mysteries." 11 In Numa. IT De Fac. in Orb. I.una;. " Marcellus, who wrote a history of Ethiopian affairs, says, that such and so great an island (the Atalanlis) once existed, is evinced by those who composed histories of things relative to the external sea. For they relate that, in those times, there were seven islands in the Atlantic Sea sacred to Proserpine." — Proclus on the Timwus. quoted in Clarke's Maritime Discoveries.' See, for the traditions in India respecting the White Island of the West, Asiastic Transactions, vol. ii. " Hiran'ya and Su-varn'eyn (says Major Wilford) are obviously the same with Erin and .luvernia.or Ireland. Another name for it is Surya Dwipa, or the Island of the Sun, and it is probably the old Garden of Phcebus of the western mytholngists." — Ks.iaij on the Sacred Isles in the West. ** This island has been claimed on the part of several countries. The editor of Diodorus, in a short note on his Index, suggests that it may have been meant for Britain :— " Vide num de Anglia intelligi qiieat." HISTORY OF IRELAND. 31 position and size, the rites of sun-worship practised by its people, their Round Temple, their study of the heavens, and the skill of their musicians on the harp, might sufficiently warrant the assumption that Ireland was the island so characterized, did not the too fanciful colouring of the whole description rather disqualify it for the purposes of sober testimony, and incline us to rank this Hyperborean island of the historian along with his Isle of Panchsea and other such fabulous marvels. At the same time, nothing is more probable, than that the vague, glimmering knowledge which the Greeks caught up occa- sionally from Phoenician merchants, respecting the sun-worship and science of the Sacred Island, lerne, should have furnished the writers referred to by Diodorus with the ground- work of this fanciful tale. The size attributed to the island, which is described as "not less than Sicily," is, among the many coincidences with Ireland, not the least striking; and, with respect to its position and name, we find, that so late as the time of the poet Claudian, the Scotior Irish were represented as in the immediate neighbourhood of the Hyperborean Seas.* But the fragment of antiquity the most valuable for the light it throws upon this point, is that extracted from an ancient geographer, by Strabo, in which we are told of an island near Britain, where sacrifices were offered to Ceres and Proserpine, in the same manner as at Samothrace.f From time immemorial, the small Isle of Samothrace, in the ^gean, was a favourite seat of idolatrous worship and resort; and on its shores the Cabiric Mysteries had been established by the Phoenicians. These rites were dedicated to the deities who presided over navigation ;| and it was usual for mariners to slop at this island on their way to distant seas, and offer up a prayer at its shrines for propitious winds and skies. From the words of the geographer quoted by Strabo, combined with all the other evidence adduced, it may be inferred that Ireland had become the Samothrace, as it were, of the western seas ; that thither the ancient Cabiric gods had been wafted by the early colonizers of that region ;5 and that, as the mariner used on his departure from the Mediterranean to breathe a prayer in the Sacred Island of the East, so, in the seas beyond the Pillars, he found another Sacred Island, where to the same tutelary deities of the deep his vows and thanks were offered on his safe arrival. In addition to all this confluence of evidence from high authentic sources, we have likewise the traditions of Ireland herself, — pointing invariably in the same eastern direc- tion, — her monuments, the names of her promontories and hills, her old usages and rites, all bearing indelibly the same oriental stamp. In speaking of traditions, I mean not the fables which may in later times have been grafted upon them; but those old, popular remembrances, transmitted from age to age, which, in all countries, fiirnish a track for the first footsteps of history, when cleared of those idle weeds of fiction by which in time they become overgrown. According to Strabo, it was chiefly from Gades that the Phoenicians fitted out their expeditions to the British Isles; but the traditions of the Irish look to Gallicia as the quarter from whence their colonies sailed, and vestiges of intercourse between that part of Spain and Ireland may be traced far into past times. The traditionary history of the latter country gives an account of an ancient Pharos, or light-house, erected in the neighbourhood of the port now called Corunna, for the use of navigators on their passage between that coast and Ireland ;[| and the names of the tribes marked by Ptolemy, as Rowland insists it can be no other than his own Isle of Anglesea ; while Toland fixes its site in the Western Isles of Scotland ; and the great Swedish scholar Rudbeck, places it boldly in the peninsula of Scandinavia. * Scotumque vago miicrone secntus Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas. De III. Cons. Honor, v. 55. Marcianus Heracleota, too, describes Hibernia as bounded on the north by the Hyperborean Sea. t 4«17"/V itVAl VH qu'elle avoit d'etre consacr6es specialement aux Divinites tulijlaires des iiavigateurs. On alloit y prier les Dieux d'accorder des vents favourables, et soUicitfir des apparitions ou Epiphanies des Dii)scurt;s." — Dupuis, Orig. de tous les Cultes, torn iv. premiere partie. See, for the appearance of these twin stars, or fires, to Orpheus and his Argonautic companions at Samothrace, Diodorus, lib. 4. In some of the old Irish tradi- tions, those African sea-rovers, called Fomorians, who are said to have visited these shores in ancieitS times, are represented as worshipping certain stars, which had "derived a power from the God of the Sea."— See Keating, p. 87. § "That the Atlantian, or Cabiric, superstition prevailed in Ireland, there cannot be a doubt." — Rev. O. L. Fabcr, On the Cabiric Mysteries, vol. ii. II There is a remarkable coincidence between this tradition and an account given by .(Ethicus, the cosmo- grapher, of a lofty Pharos, or lighthouse, standing formerly on the seacoast of Gallicia, and serving as a beacon in the direction of Britain : — " Secundiis angulus intendit, ubi Brigantia Civitas sita est Gallecas, et altissimum Pharum, et inter pauca memorandi operis ad speculam BritannitE." Whether the translation I have given of the last three words of this passage convey their real meaning, I know not ; but they have been hitherto pronounced unintelligible. The passage is thus noticed by Casaubon, in a note on Strabo, lib. 3 .— " .iEthicus in Hispaniae descriptione altissimi cujusdam Fari meniinit." 32 HISTORY OF IRELAND. inhabiting those parts of the Irish coast facing Gallicia, prove that there was a large infusion of Spanish population from that quarter. So irresistible, indeed, is the force of tradition, in favour of a Spanish colonization, that every new propounder of an hypothesis on the subject is forced to admit this event as part of his scheme. Thus, Buchanan, in supposing colonies to have passed from Gaul to Ireland, contrives to carry them first to the west of Spain;* and the learned Welsh antiquary, Lhuyd, who traces the origin of the Irish to two distinct sources, admits one of those primitive sources to have been Spanish.f In the same manner, a late writer,J who, on account of the remarkable similarity which exists between his country's Round Towers and the Pillar-temples of Mazanderan, deduces the origin of the Irish nation from the banks of the Caspian, yields so far to the current of ancient tradition, as, in con- ducting his colony from Iran to the West, to give it Spain for a resting-place. Even Innes,5 one of the most acute of those writers who have combated the Milesian preten- sions of the Irish, yet bows to the universal voice of tradition in that country, which, as he says, peremptorily declares in favour of a colonization from Spain. CHAPTER II. ANTIQUITY OF THE IRISH PEOPLE^ In those parts of the Spanish coasts with which the Irish were early conversant, the Ph(Enicians became intermixed with the original race, or Celts; and it would appear, from the mixed character of her ancient religion, that Ireland was also peopled from the same compound source. The religion the Celts brought with them to this island, was the same, we may take for granted, with that which their kindred tribes introduced into Spain, Britain, and Gaul. That corruption of the primitive modes of adoration into which the Canaanites early lapsed, by converting into idols the rude stones and pillars set up by their fathers but as sacred memorials, and transferring to inanimate symbols of the Deity the veneration due only to himself — this most ancient superstition of which the annals of human faith bear record, is still traceable in the old traditions and monuments of Ireland. The sacred grove and well — the circle of erect stones surrounding either the altar or the judgment- seat — the unhewn pillars, adored, as symbols of the Sun, by the Phoenicians — the sacred heaps, or Games, dedicated to the same primitive worship — the tomb-altars, called Crom- lech, supposed to have been places as well of sepulture as of sacrifice — and, lastly, those horrible rites in which children were the "burnt ofl^erings," which the Jewish idolaters perpetrated in a place called from thence the Valley of Shrieking,|| while, in Ireland, the scene of these frightful immolations bore the name of Magh-Sleacth, or the Place of * The opinion of Buclianan on the point will be found worthy of attention. "It is," he says, "an unvarying tradition, and with many marks of truth to confirm it, that a multitude of Spaniards, whether driven from their homes by the more powerful among their fellow-countrymen, or, on account of the increase of population, emigrating of themselves, did pass over into Ireland, and take possession of the places neigh- bouring to that island." He adds farther; " It is not probable that the Spaniards, leaving Ireland at their backs, — a country nearer to them, and of a milder temperature, — should have landed first in Albyn ; but rather that, first making their descent on Hibernia, they should afterwards have sent colonies to Britain." — Lib. ii. c. 17. t Preface to his Glossography.— In one of his letters to Mr. Rowland, Lhuyd says, in speaking of the Irish, "For, notwithstanding their histories (as those of the origin of other nations) be involved in fabulous accounts, yet that there came a Spanish colony into Ireland is very manifest." O'Brien, also, in the Pre- face to his Dictionary, follows the same views: — "The fact of the old Spanish language having been brought very anciently into Ireland is not the less certain, and that by a colony of the old Spaniards, who co-inha- bited with the Gadelians." I Popular History of Ireland, by Mr. Whitty, part i. J "Since the Irish tradition will absolutely have the inhabitants of that country come from Spain." — Crilcal Essay, vol. ii. dissert, i. chap. 3. A no less determined opponent of the Milesian history, though far inferior to Innes in learning and sagacity, concedes, also, on this point to traditional authority. "At the same time, still farther be it from me to deny my assent to the tradition that a people, coming last from Spain, did settle here at a very early period."— CamJeWs Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ireland, sect. 4. II Jeremiah, vii. 31, 32. This valley was also named Tophet, from the practice of beating the drums, during tlie ceremony, to drown the cries of the children sacrificed in tlie fire to Moloch. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 33 Slaughlcr,*— of all these known and acknowledged features of the ancient Celtic wor- ship, of that superstition wliich spread wherever the first races of men dispersed them- selves, there remain, to this day, undoubted traces and testimonies, not only in the traditions and records of Ireland, but in those speaking monuments of antiquity which are still scattered over her hills and plains. Combined with this old and primitive system of idolatry are to be found, also, a number of rites and usages belonging evidently to much later and less simple modes of worship. There may be traced, indeed, in the religious remains of the Irish, the marks of three distinct stages of superstition ; namely, that first rude ritual which their Celtic progeni- tors brought with ttiem from the East; next, the introduction of images somevvhat approaching the human shape; and, thirdly, those monuments of a more refined system of fire-worship which still embellish this country. While some of their rites and names of deities are traceable directly to the PhoDnicians, tliere are other religious customs which seem to have been derived, through the means of this people, from Persia. f It was on the whole the description of religion likely to spring up in a country into which a variety of modes of devotion and doctrine had been imported ; and it is well known that the Phoenicians, with that utter indifl^erence to diversity of worship which forms one of the most striking difl'erences between the Pagan and the Christian religionist, set no limit to the varieties of creed and ritual, with which, in their career over the globe, they furnished their colonies. Being in constant communication with Persia, for the sake of the Eastern trade, it was even a part of the commercial policy of this people to encourage an intercourse, on religious subjects, between their Eastern and Western customers, of which they themselves should be made the channel, and so convert it to their own advantage in the way of trade. The mixed nature, indeed, of the creed of the ancient Irish seems to be intimated in their mode of designating their own priesthood, to whom they applied as well the Persian as the Celtic denominations; calling them indifferently either Magi, or Druids. Thus, those Magi described, in the Lives of St. Patrick, as warnino: tiie king against the con- sequences of the new faith, are, in the ancient Hymn of Fiech, on the same subject, denominated Druids. The great object of Phoenician adoration, the Sun, was, under the same name of Baal, or Bel, the chief deity of the Irish. Even the very title of Beel-Samen, or Lord of Heaven, by which the PhcEnicians, with outstretched hands, invoked their G()d,f was preserved in the Pagan worship of Ireland ;5 and the Festival of Samhin, or Heaven, the great Cabiric divinity, (honoured, under the same: name at Samothrace,) marked one of the four divisions of the Irish year. That the worship of the Sun formed a part of the Pagan system which St. Patrick found established on liis arrival, appears from the following passage of his Confession : — "That Sun whom we behold, rises daily, at the command of God, for our use. Yet will he never reign, nor shall his splendour endure ; and all those who adore him will descend wretchedly into punishment. But we believe and adore the true Sun, Christ."|| Even to our own days the names of places, — tliose significant memorials, by which a whole history is sometimes conveyed in a single word, — retain vestiges of the ancient superstition of the land, and such names as Knoc-greinc and Tuam Greine, "Hills of the Sun," still point out the high places and cairns where, ages since, the solar rites were solemnized. It will be found, in general, that names formed from the word Grian, which, still in ihe Irish, as in the old Celtic language, signifies the Sun, and from which, evidently, the epithet Grynaeus, applied to Apollo, was derived, marked such places as were once devoted to the solar worship.lT Thus Cairne-Grainey, or the Sun's Heap, Granny's Bed, corrupted from Grain Bcacht, the Sun's Circle, &,c. * "Magli-Sleacth, so called from an idol of the Irish, named CromCriiach— a stone capped with gold, about which stood twelve other rough stones. Every people that conquered Ireland (that is, every colony esta- blished in Ireland) worshipped this deity, till the arrival of St. Patrick. They sacrificed the first-born of every species to this deity; and Tighernmas Mac Follaigh King of Ireland, commanded sacrifi'-es to this deity on the day of Saman, and that both men and women should worship him prostrated on the ground, till they drew blood from their noses. fi)reheads, ears, and elbows. Many died with the severity of this worship, and hence it was called Magh-Sleacth." — Fet. JUSS. quoted in the CoUectan. de Reb. Hibern. No. XII. t See Borlase, bonk ii. ch. 23. " On the Resemblance betwixt the Druids and the Persians." t Tatf X'''i*^ ogryiiv iK Tcv; ou^xvoug Tr^o; lov 'Ha/sv. — Euseb. PrcBparat. lib. i. c. 7, § TouTov y*g 0>icri S-sov ivofxiPcv /xovov cvpuvou icu^tov BEEASAMHN kakouvth, c t^ri TTctfi'^^olvl^t Kt/gwc Ovgi.vou. — P/ti/o. Bijb. ex Sanchoniath. See Orellius on this pa.ssage, for his view of Sanchoniathon's account of the progress of idolatry, "a cultu arborum et plantarum ad solis astroruraque cultum, a Fetischismo ad SabEBismum." Ij Nam Sol iste quern videmus Deo jubente, propter nos quotidie oritur, sed nunquam regnabit, neque per- manebit splendor ejus.sed et omnes qui adoranteum in pcenam miseri male devenient. Nos autem credinius et adoramus Solem verum, Christum. — St.. Patricii Confessio. If Rer. Hibern. Scriptor. prol. I 54. 4 34 HISTORY OF IRELAND. From the same associations, a point of land, in the neighbourhood of Wexford, is called Grenor, or the Place of the Sun's Fire; and the ancient town of Granard, where there existed, in tlie fifth century, a sacred well of the Druids, and where also St. Patrick is said to have overturned an altar of the Sun, and erected a church in its place, was so named from being a site of the ancient Irish worship. On like g-rounds, the appellation of Grange is supposed to have been given to that curious cavern near Drogheda, which, from the manner of its construction, as well as from the pyramidal obelisk* found in its recesses, is thought to have been consecrated, like the caves of the Mithraic worship, to the Sun. f Airiong various other monuments of solar worship through Ireland, may be noticed the remains of a cromlech, or tomb-altar, near Cloyne, which bore, originally, the name of Carig Croith, or the Sun's Rock. Wherever the sun has been made an object of adoration, the moon has naturally shared in the worship; and, accordingly, in Ireland this luminary was adored under the sacred name of Re. While some of their mountains, too, appear to have been dedicated to the sun, we meet with Siieve-Mis, in the county of Antrim, signifying Mountains of the Moon. Those golden ornaments, in the shape of a crescent, which have been found frequently in the Irish bogs, are supposed to have been connected with this lunar worship, and to have been borne by the Druids in those religious ceremonies which took place on the first quarter of the moon's age.f The worship of fire, once common to all the religions of the world, constituted also a part of the old Irish superstitions.; and the Inextinguishable Fire of St. Bridget was but a transfer to Christian shrines and votaries of a rite connected, through long ages, with the religious feelings of the people. Annually, at the time of the vernal equinox, the great festival of La Baal-tinne, or the Day of the Baal-Fire, was celebrated ;5 and through every district of Ireland it was strictly ordered that, on that night, all fires should be extinguished; nor were any, under pain of death, to be airain lighted till the pile of sacrifices in the palace of Tara was kindled. Among the Persians the same ceremony, according to Hyde, still prevails: after their festival of the 24th of April, the domestic fires are every where extinguished, nor would any good believer rekindle them but by a taper lighted at the dwelling of the priest.[| A similar relic of Oriental paganism exists also in Jerusalem, where, annually, at the time of Easter, a sacred fire is supposed to .descend into the Holy Sepulchre, and of the tapers lighted at its flame a considerable traffic is made by the priests. To this day the custom of making bonfires on the first night of May prevails throughout Ireland ; — the change of the period of the festival from the vernal equinox to the commencement of May having been made soon after the introduction of Christianit}', in order to guard against its interference with the holy season of Lent. With the worship of fire, that of water was usually joined by the Gentiles; and we find, in like manner, particular fountains and wells were held sacred among the Irish. Even that heresy, or, at least, variety of opinion, which is known to have prevailed among the Easterns on this subject, existed also in Ireland; as we are told, in the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick, of a certain Magus, or Druid, who regarded water alone as an object of reverence, considering fire to be an evil genius. IT Hence, by his own wish, it is added, he was buried under a stone in a certain well, in Mayo, which had been long venerated by the people under the name of the King of the Waters. In another history of St, * It was to a stonR, we }jnnw, of this pyramidal sfcapR, that tlie Phnenicians of Einesa offered up their vows, invoking it, as a symbol of the siin, l)y ihe mystic name Rlagabalus.— See Gibbon, vol. i. cli. 6. — This stone, like most of those dedicated to the sun, was black; and it is rather remarkable that, at Stonehenge, which is supposed in general lo have been a temple consecrated to the sun, the altar-stone has been lately discovered, on examinniinn, to be black. t '■ The mociiiiient at the New Grange exactly points out to us the manner in which the Mithratic cavern is connected wih the Mithratic pyramid." — "The narrow passage, in fact, and the stone howls of this Irish grotto are merely the counterpart of those in the cave of Troplionius, the pagodas of Hindostan, and the pyramids of Egypt." — Fabpr, on the Cabiric MtisUries. vol ii. The reverend writer adds, that "the island of Ogygia, which lintarch atfiinis to lie due west of Hritian. must certainly he Ireland, and no other." \ Sec, for a description of these crescents, Collectan No. XI[I. Cough's Camden, vol. iii.— A bas-relief, found at Autun, of which there is an engraving given by Monlfaucon, represents a Gallic Druid h. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 35 Patrick it is mentioned, as the motive of this lioly man fur visiting Siane, that he had heard of a fountain there which the Magi honoured, and made offerings to it as to a god.* Even in our own times the Irisli are described, by one well versed in their antiquities,! as being in the habit of visiting fountains, or wells, more particularly such as are in the neighbourhood of an old blasted oak, or an upriglit unhewn stone, and hanging rags upon the branches of the trees. When asked their reason for this practice, the answer of the oldest among them is generally, we are told, to the effect that their ancestors did the same, and that it was designed as a preventive against the sorceries of the Druids. There is scarcely a people throughout the East, among whom this primitive practice, of hanging pieces torn from their garments upon the branches of particulur tree?, has not been found to prevail. The wild-olive of Arrica,:f and the Sacred Tree of the Hindus,5 bear usually strung upon them this simple sort of offering ; and more tlian one observant traveller in the East has been reminded, by this singular custom, of Ireland, Tiiere are, however, some far less innocent coincidences to be remarked between the Irish and Eastern creeds. It is, indeed, but too certain that the sacrifice of human victims formed a part of the Pagan worship in Ireland, as it did in every country where the solar god, Baal, was adored. On the eve of the Feast of Samhin, all those whom, in the month of March preceding, the Druids had, from their tribunal on Mount Usneach, con- demned to death, were, in pursuance of this solemn sentence, burned between two fires.|| In general, however, as regarded both human creatures and brutes, the ceremony of passing them between two fires appears to have been intended not to affect life, but merely as a mode of periodical puntication.lT Thus, in an old account of the Irish rites, it is said, "The Druids lighted up two blazing fires, and having performed incantations over them, compelled the herds of cattle to pass through them, according to a yearly custom." But it cannot be denied that, to a late period, some of the most horrible fea- tures of the old Canaanite superstition continued to darken and disgrace the anriala of the Irish; for, like the Israelite idolaters, not only did they "burn incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree," but also the denounced crime of Manasseh and Ahaz, in "causing their children to pass through the fire," was but too faithfully acted over again in Pagan Ireland. A plain, situated in the district at presenl called the county of Leitrim, to which they gave the name of Magh-Sleacth, or Field of Slaughter, was the great scene, as already has been stated, of these horrors of primseval superstition; for there, on the night of Samhim, the same dreadful tribute which the Carthaginians are known to have paid to Saturn, in sacrificing to him their first-born children,** was by the Irish offered up to their chief idol, Crom-Cruach.ft This frightful image, whose head was of gold, stood surrounded by twelve lesser idols, representing, it is most probable, the signs of the zodiac; — the connexion of sun-worship with astronomy * Sir W. Betham's Irish Antiquarian Researches, Append. 29. t Letters of Columbanus, by Dr. O'Connor, let. ill. I The Argali.— rratiefe iii Europe and Africa, by Colonel Keating. "A traveller," ohserres this writer, " will see precisely the like in the west of Ireland." Mnnco Park, too, speaks of the large tree called Neema Tooba. "decorated with innumerable rags and scraps of cloth," and which " nobody now presumed to pass without haneing up something." § See Sir William Ouseley's interesting Travels through Persia, vol. ii. Append. No. 9.— Among the trees thus decorated, seen by Sir William in the vale of Abdui, and elsewlieie, he mentions one in the neighbour- hood of a stone pillar; bringing to his recollection, he says, various remains which he had seen in Wales and Ireland. II From an old Irish manuscript in the possession of the learned antif]iiary, Lbuyd, cited by Dr. O'Connor. See also O'Brien's Irish Dictionary, Beol, linne, where, however, the translation is somewhat diflerent from that of Dr. O'Connor. IT The superstition of purifying between two fires appears to have been as universal as it was ancient. "I.es adorateurs de feu, dit Maimonide (lib iii. c. 3-f.,) publierent qui ceu.x qui ne feraient point passer leurs enfans par le feu, les e.\posoient au danger de mourir."— jDupui,',-, tom. iii. p 740. "The narrative of an embassy from Justin to the Khakan, or emperor, who then resided in a fine vale near the Irtish, mentions the Tartarian custom of purifying the Roman ambassadors by conducting them between ' two fires.' "—Sir. W. Jones, Fifth Discourse, on the Tartars. "The more ignorant Irish," says Ledwich, "still drive their cattle through these fires as an efiectual means of preserving them from future accidents;" and Mariin tells us that the natives of the Western Isles of Scotland, which are known to have been peopled from Ireland, " when they would describe a man as being in a great strait, or difficulty, say that he is between two fires of Bel." The same superstitious practice was observed at the festival of the goddess Pales, at Rome. " Per flammas saluisse pecus, saluisse co\>mos."— Ovid Fast. lib. iv. Of this old Roman ceremony, Niehuhr thus speaks :— "The Festival of Pales, the 21st, when the country people and the earliest inhabitants of Rome used to purify themselves by passing through a strong fire, as our ancestors used to kindle fires on Mayday." ** Diodor. Sicul. lib. 20. tt Dinseanchus, MS., quoted Rer. Hihrrnic. Script, prol. I. 25fe. This image was destroyed by St Patrick.— " In commemoration," says O'Flaherty, "of this memorable amiihilation of idolatry, I believe, the last Sun- day in sunimer is, by a solemn custom, dedicated throughout Ireland, and commonly called Domnach Crom- cruach, that is, the Sunday of Black Croni; I suppose on account of the horrid and deformed appearance of this diabolical spectre."— O^-ywia, part iii. ch. x.xii. " Cromcruach." says Keating, " was the same god that Zoroaster worshipped in Greece." To this one flighty assertion of Keating may be traced the origin, perhaps, of all those wild notions and fancies which Vallancey afterwards promulgated. 36 HISTORY OF IRELAND. having been, in all countries, a natural consequence of that creed, insomuch that science, no les^s than poetry, may be said to have profited largely by superstition. How far those pillar-temples, or Round Towers, which form so remarkable a part of Ireland's antiquities, and whose history is lost in the night of time, may have had any connexion with the Pyrolatry, or Fire-worship, of the early Irish, we have no certain means of determining. That they were looked upon as very ancient, in the time of Giraldus, appears from the tale told by him of the fishermen of Lough Neagh pointing to stranp-ers, as they sailed over that lake, the tall, narrow, ecclesiastical round towers under the water,* supposed to have been sunk there from the time of the inundation by which the lake was formed. This great event, — the truth or falsehood of which makes no difference in the fact of the period assigned to it, — is by the annalist Tigernach refer- red to the vear of Christ 62; thus removing the date of these structures to far too remote a period to'admit of their being considered as the work of Christian hands. The notion, that they were erected by the Danes,! is unsupported even by any plau- sible oTownds. In the time of Giraldus, the history of the exploits of these invaders was yet recent; and had there been any tradition, however vague, that they were the builders of these towers, the Welsh slanderer would not have been slow to rob Ireland of the honour. But, on the contrary, Giraldus expressly informs us that tliey were built "in the manner peculiar to the country." Had they been the work of Danes, there would assuredly have been found traces of similar edifices, either in their own Scandinavian regions, or in the other countries of Europe which they occupied. But not a vestige of any such buildings has been discovered, nor any tradition relating to them ; and while, in Ireland, Round Towers, or the remains of them, are found in places which the Danes never pos- sessed, in some of the principal seats of these people, such as Waterford and Wexford, no building of the kind has been ever known to exist. In despair of being able to ascertain at what period, and by whom, they were con- structed, our antiquaries are reduced to the task of conjecturing the purposes of their construction. That they may have been appropriated to religious uses in the early ages of the church, appears highly probable from the policy adopted by the first Christians in all countries, of enlisting in the service of the new faith the religious habits and associa- tions of the old. It is possible, therefore, that they might, at some period, have been used as stations for pilgrims ; for to this day, it appears, the prayers said at such stations are called Turrish prayers.J Another of the notions concerning them is, that they were places of confinement for penitents. But, besides the absurdity of the supposition, that a people, whose churches were all constructed of wood and wicker, should have raised such elaborate stone towers for the confinement of their penitents, we have means of knowing the penitential discipline of the early Christian Irish, and in no part of it is such a penance as that of imprisonment in a Round Tower enjoined. The opinion of Harris, that they were intended, like the pillars of the Eastern Stylitcs for the habitation of soli- tary anchorets,5 is in so far, perhaps, deserving of notice, as showing how naturally the eye turns to the East, in any question respecting the origin of Irish antiquities. It is pretended that the models of these Liclusorii, — as, according to this hypothesis, the towers are supposed to have been, — were brought from the East by some of those Irish monks who are known to have visited the places of the Holy L:ind. But of any such Oriental importation, at that period, there exists no record whatever; and Adamnan, an Irish writer of the seventh century, who, in a work taken down by him from the lips of a French traveller to the East, gives an account of the Tombs of the Patriachs and other holy wonders, makes no mention of the abodes of these Pillar Saints, nor of the models which they are alleged to have furnished for bis country's Round Towers. It may be mentioned, too, as one of the points in which the resemblance here assumed is wanting, * " Piscatores Torres istaa, quit, more patriaj, avctm sunt et aUs, necnon et rotunda:, sub undis manifeste, sereno tempore, conspiciunt." — Oiralds. Ca.mbrevs. IJist. II. c. 9. t The chief supporters of this opinion, as weU as of the notion that these towers were intended for belfries, are Molyneui (Natural History of Ireland, Discourse concerning tlie Danish l\Iounls,&c ,) and Dr. Ledwich, in his Antiquities. As an instance of the vitality of a misrepresentation, it may be noticed that Lynch, the author of the Defence of Ireland aeainst Giraldus, was the first who mentioned, and only upon hearsay, that the Danes were the builders of the Round Towers, — " primi erexisse dicuntur." The Franciscan, Vv''alsh, professinff to copy Lynch, converts into certainly what Lynch gave but as a report ; and on this authority, so misrepresented, the learned Molyneux, and others, found their conclusions. See, on this subject, Dr. Lani^an, chap. 32. 9 I "A pilgrimage is called Turrish in Irish, and prayers said by pilgrims at stations are called Turrish prayers; a term peculiar to this country, and perhaps allusive to these towers." — William Tighc, Survey of the Co. of Kilkenny. § '• This opinion seems to have been first proposed by a Dean Richardson, of Beltnrbet, from whom it was taken by Harris, who has endeavoured to make it appear probable." — Lanigan, Ecclosiast, hist. chap. 32. The same opiiuon was adopted abo by Doctor Milner.—LeUers from Ireland, Let. 14. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 37 that Simon Stylites, and his fanatical imitators, lived upon, not within, their high columns. To the notion that our Irish structures were intended for watch-towers or beacons, there are the most conclusive objections; — their situation being frequently on low grounds, where they are overlooked by natural elevations,* and the apertures at their summit not being sufficiently large to transmit any considerable body of light. Their use occasionally as belfries may be concluded from the term, Clocteach, applied to some of them ; but, besides that their form and dimensions would not admit of the swing of a moderately sized bell, the very circumstance of the door or entrance being usually from eight or ten to sixteen feet above the ground, proves them to have been in no degree more fitted or intended for belfries, than for any of the other various modern uses assigned to them. In the ornaments of one or two of these towers, there are evident features of a more modern style of architecture, which prove them to have been added to the original struc- ture in later times; and the same remark applies to the crucifix and other Christian emblems, which are remarked on the tower at Swords, and also on that of Donoughmore.)- The figures of the Virgin and St. John, on one of the two Round Towers of Scotland, must have been, likewise, of course, a later addition; unless, as seems likely from the description of the arches in which those figures are contained, the structure itself is entirely of recent date, and, like the tower of Kineth, in Ireland, a comparatively modern imitation of the old Pagan pattern. As the worship of fire is known, unquestionably, to hav'e formed a part of the ancient religion of the country, the notion that these towers were originally fire-temples, appears the most probable of any that have yet been suggested. To this it is objected, that enclosed structures are wholly at variance with that great principle of the Celtic reli- gion, which considers it derogatory to divine nature to confine their worship within the limits of walls and roofs; — the refined principle upon which the Magi incited Xerxes to burn the temples of the Greeks. It appears certain, however, that, at a later period, the use of fire-temples was adopted by the Persians themselves; though, at the same time, they did not the less continue to ofter their sacrifices upon the hills and in the open air, employing the Pyreia introduced by Zoroaster, as mere repositories of the sacred fire.| A simple altar, with a brazier burning upon it, was all that the temple contained, and at this they kindled the fire for their worship on the high places. To this day, as modern writers concerning the Parsees inform us, the part of the temple called the Place of Fire, is accessible only to the priests \) and on the supposition that our towers were, in like manner, temples in which the sacred flame was kept safe from pollution, the singular circumstance of the entrance to them being rendered so difficult by its great height from the ground is at once satisfactorily explained. But there is yet a far more striking corroboration of this view of the origin of the Round Towers. While in no part of Continental Europe has any building of a similar construction been discovered, there have been found, near Bhaugulpore, in Hindostan, two towers, which bear an exact resemblance to those of Ireland. In all the peculiarities of their shape,|| — the door or entrance, elevated some feet above the ground, — the four windows near the top, facing the cardinal points, and the small rounded roof, — these Indian temples are, to judge by the description of them, exactly similar to the Round Towers; and, like them also, are thought to have belonged to a form of worship now extinct and even forgotten. One of the objections brought against the notion of the Irish Towers having been fire-temples, namely, that it was not necessary for such a purpose to raise them to so great a height, IT is abundantly answered by the description given of some * In the deep and secluded valley of Glendalough stands one of the most interesting, from its romantic posi- tion, of all these Round Towers. t A print of this tower at Swords, with a crucifix on the top, may be seen at the end of Molyneux's work. X "Cependant, tous les auteurs, Arabes et Persans, cites par M. Hyde et M. D'Herbelot, attribuent a Zer- dusht l'6tablissement des Pyrees." — Fouclier, Memoires de I' Acad. torn. xxis. M. Foucher has shown, that tlie two apparently inconsistent systems, — that of Zoroaster, which introduced fire-temples, and the old primitive mode of worshipping in the open air, — both existed together. " Pour lever cette contradiction apparente, il sulht d'observer que les Pyrees n"eloient pas des temples proprcment dits, mais de simples oraloires, d'uii Ion tiroit le feu pour sacritier sur les montajfnes." ^ Anquetil du Perron, Zend Avesta. torn. ii. |( Voyages and Travels, by Lord Valentia, vol. ii. — " I was much pleased," says his lordship, " with the sight of two very singular Round Towers, about a mile north-west of the town. They much resemble tljose buildings in Ireland, which have hitherto puzzled the antiquaries of the sister kingdoms, excepting that they are more ornamented. It is singular that there is no tradition concerning them, nor are they held in any respect by the Hindoos. The Rajah of Jyanegur considers them as holy, and has erected a small building to shelter the great number of his subjects who annually come to worshiphere." IT Dr. Milner, Tour in Ireland, letter xiv. " The tower at Kildare is calculated to be four feet loftier than the pillar of Trajan at Rome."— i)'.d/(o«. 38 HISTORY OF IRELAND. of the Pyrea, or fire-temples of the Guebres. Of these, some, we are told, were raised to so high a point as near 120 feet,* the height of the tallest of the Irisli towers ; and an iutelligent traveller, in describing the remains of one seen by him near Bagdad, says, " the annexed sketch will show the resemblance this pillar bears to those ancient columns so common in Ireland."! On the strength of the remarkable resemblance alleged to exist between the pillar- temples near Bhaugulpore and the Round Towers of Ireland, a late ingenious historian does not hesitate to derive the origin of the Irish people from that region ; and that an infusion, at least, of population from that quarter might, at some remote period, have taken place, appears by no means an extravagant supposition. The opinion, that Iran and the western parts of Asia were originally the centre from whence population diffused itself to all the regions of the world, seems to be confirmed by the traditional histories of most nations, as well as by the results both of philological and antiquarian inquiries. To the tribes dispersed after the Trojan war, it has been the pride equally both of Celtic and of Teutonic nations to trace back their origin. The Saxon Chronicle derives the earliest inhabitantsof Britain from Armenia; and the great legislator of the Scandinavians, Odin, is said to have come, with his followers, from the neighbourhood of the Euxine Sea. By those who hold that the Celts and Persians were originally the same people4 the features of affinity so strongly observable between the Pagan Irish and the Persians will be accounted for without any difficulty. But independently of this hypothesis, the early and long-continued intercourse which Ireland appears to have maintained, through the Phojnicians, with the East, would sufficiently explain the varieties of worship which were imported to her shores, and which became either incorporated with her original creed, or formed new and distinct rallying points of belief. In this manner the adoration of shaped idols was introduced; displacing, in many parts — as we have seen, in the in- stance of the idol Crom-Cruach— that earliest form of superstition which confined its worship to rude erect stones. To the same later ritual belonged also those images of which some fragments have been found in Ireland, described^ as of black wood, covered and plated with thin gold, and the chased work on them in lines radiated from a centre, as is usual in the images of the sun. There was also another of these later objects|| of adoration, called Kerman Kelstach,*!! the favourite idol of the Ultonians, which had for its pedestal, as some say, the golden stone of Clogher, and in which, to judge by the description of it, there were about the same rudiments of shape as in the first Grecian Hermae.** Through the same channel which introduced these and similar innovations, it is by no means improbable that, at a still later period, the pillar-temples of the Eastern fire-wofship might have become known; and that even from the shores of the Caspian a colony of Guebres might have found their way to Ireland, and there left, as enigmas to posterity, those remarkable monuments to which only the corresponding remains of their own original country can now afford any clue. The connexion of sun-worship with the science of astronomy has already been briefly adverted to; and the four windows, facing the four cardinal points, which are found in the Irish as well as in the Eastern pillar-temples, were alike intended, no doubt, for the purposes of astronomical observation, — for determining the equinoctial and solstitial times, and thereby regulating the recurrence of religious festivals. The Phojnicians them- selves constructed their buildings on the same principle; and, in the temple of Tyre, where stood the two famous columns dedicated to the Wind and to Fire, there were also * These edifices are rotundas, of about thirty feet in diameter, and raised in height to a point near 120 feet." — Hanway's Travels in Persia, vol. i. part iii. chap. 43. t Hon. Major Keppel's Personal Narrative, vol. i. chap. 7. I Cluverius, Keysler, Pelloutier, and others. "A regard des Porses," says Pelloulier, "ils etoient cer- tainement le meine peuple que les Celtes." § By Governor Pownall, in his account of these and other curious Irish remains to the Society of Anti- quaries, 1774. In speaking of one of the images, which he supposes to have been a symbolic image of Mithra, he remarks, that the Gaditanians used such radiated figures, and adds, " from the known and con- firmed intercourse of this Phoenician or Carthaginian colony with Ireland, all difficulty as to this symbolic form ceases." Pursuing the view that naturally suggests itself on the subject, the learned antiquary adds, "Whatever the image was, I must refer it to the later line of theology rather than to the Celtic Druidic theology of the more ancient Irish. To the colonies, or rather to the settlements and factories of the later people of (/arthage and Gades, and not to the original Phoenicians, I refer those several things heretofore and hereinafter described." II To a still later mythology belong the belief of the Irish in a sort of Genii or Fairies, called Siilhe. sup- posed to inhiibit pleasant hills. Lanigan, vol. i. chap. 5. In the same class with the Sidlie, Vallancey places the Bansidhe, or Banshee. — "a young demon," as he e.xplains it, "supposed to attend each family, and to give notice of the death of a relation to persons at a distance."— Findic. of Ave. Hist. There were also the Suire, or Nymphs of the Sea, claimed by Vallancey as the Dew Syria-; and described by Keating, as playing around the ships of the Milesian heroes during their passage to Ireland. IT The scholia of Cathold Maguir, quotod by O' Flaherty, Ogygia, part iii. chap. 22. ** " nxaTT2T:«< Ji Kxi ct^ii^., x.:n oLTTw;, Kxt TSTgaj-wof, Tai v^iif^uTi tf' EgjUJif." — Pnurnulus dc Nalur, Deor, HISTORY OF IRELAND. 39 pedestals, we are told, whose four sides, facing the cardinal points, bore sculptured upon them the four figures of the zodiac, by which the position of those points in the heavens is marked.* With a similar view to astronomical uses and purposes the Irish Round Towers were no doubt constructed ; and a strong evidence of their having been used as observatories is, that we find them called by some of the Irish annalists Celestial Indexes. TJius in an account given in the Annals of the Four Masters, of a great thunder-storm at Armagh, it is said that " the city was seized by lightning to so dreadful an extent as to leave not a single hospital, nor cathedral church, nor palace, nor Celestial Index, that it did not strike with its flame."f Before this and other such casualties diminished it, the number of these towers must have been considerable.^ From the language of Giraldus, it appears that they were common in his time through the country ; and in thus testifying their zeal for the general object of adoration, by multiplying the tecnples dedicated to its honour, they but followed the example as well of the Greek as of the Persian fire- worshippers.^ There remain yet one or two other hypotheses, respecting the origin and purposes of these structures, to which it may be expected that I should briefly advert. By some the uses to which tliey were destined have been thought similar to that of the turrets in the neighbourhood of Turkish mosques, and from their summits, it is supposed, proclamation was made of new moons and approaching religious festivities. A kind of trumpet,|| which has been dug up in the neighbourhood of some of these towers, having a large mouth-hole in the side, is conjectured to have been used to assist the voice in these announcements to the people. Another notion respecting them is, that they were symbols of that ancient Eastern worship, of which the god Mahadeva, or Siva, was the object ;ir while, on the other hand, an ingenious writer, in one of the most learnedly argued, but least tenable, of all the hypotheses on the subject, contends that they were erected, in the sixth and seventh centuries, by the primitive Coenobites and Bishops, with the aid of the newly converted Kings and Toparchs, and were intended as strong-holds, in time of war and danger, for the sacred utensils, relics, and books, belonging to those churches** in whose immediate neighbourhood they stood. To be able to invest even with plausi- bility so inconsistent a notion as that, in times when the churches themselves were framed rudely of wood, there could be found either the ambition or the skill to supply them with adjuncts of such elaborate workmanship.ff is, in itself, no ordinary feat of ingenuity. But the truth is, that neither then nor, I would add, at any other assignable period, within the whole range of Irish history, is such a state of things known authenti- cally to have existed as can solve the difficulty of these towers, or account satisfactorily, at once, for the object of the buildings, and the advanced civilization of the architects who erected them. They must, therefore, be referred to times beyond the reach of historical record. That they were destined originally to religious purposes can hardly admit of question; nor can those who have satisfied themselves, from the strong evidence which is found in the writings of antiquity, that there existed, between Ireland and some parts of the East, an early and intimate intercourse, harbour much doubt as to the real * Joseph. Antiq. 1. viii. c. 2. t Aniial. Ult. ad ann. 995.; also Tis;ernach, and the Annals of the Four Masters for the same year. Tigernaoh adds, that "there never happened before in Ireland, nor ever will, till the day of judgment, a similar visitation." The learned Colgan, in referring to this record of the annalists, describes the ruin as extending to the "church, belfries, and Towers of Armagh;" thus clearly distinguishing the Round Towers from the belfries. I It is generally computed that there are now remainins fifty-six; but the Rev. Mr. Wright, in his account ofGlendalougli, makes the number sixty-two; and Mr. Brewer (Beauties of Ireland, Introduction,) is of opinion, that "several, still remaining in obscure parts of the country, are entirely unnoticed by topo- graphical writers." § In speaking of the Prytanea, which, according to Bryant, were properly towers for the preservation of the sacred fire, a learned writer says, " When we consider that before the time of Theseus, every village in Attica had its Prytaneum. we may collect how generally the fire-worship prevailed in those limes." — Disser- tation vpon the Mhenian Skirophoria. So late as the lOtii century, when Ebn Haukal visited Pars, there was not, as he tells us, "any district of that province, or any village, without a fire-temple." II See a description of these trumpets in Cough's Camden, and in Collectan de Keb. Hibern. No. 13. IT .'See, for the grounds ol this view. General Vallancey's imaginary coincidences between the Eocad of the Irish and the Bavani of the Hindoos; as also between the Muidhr or ;^unstone of the former, and the Mahody of the Gentoos. — Vindication of an ancient History of Ireland, pp. 160, 212. 506. The same notion has been followed up in Mr. O'Brien's clever, but rather too fanciful disquisition, on the subject, lately published. '** Inquiry into ths Origin and primitive Use of the Irish Pillar ■ Toieer , by Colonel Harvey de Montmorency Morres. tt Dr. Milner, a high authority on such subjects, says of these structures : — " The workmanship of them is excellent, as appears to the eye, and as is proved by their durability." — Inquiry. S^-c. Letter 14. No words, however, can convey a more lively notion of the time they have lasted and may still endure, than dots the simple fact stated in the following sentence. — "In general, they are entire to this day; though many churches, near which they stood, are either in ruins or totally destroyed."— S. Brereton.on the Round Towers, ..^rchirolog. Lond. Soe. 40 HISTORY OF IRELAND. birth-place of the now unknown worship of which these towers remain the solitary and enduring monuments. Having now devoted to tlie consideration of these remarkable buildings that degree of attention which their connexion with the history of the country seemed to call for, I shall proceed to notice those other ancient remains with which Ireland abounds, and which, though far less peculiar and mysterious, bear even still more unquestionable testimony to the origin and high antiquity of her people. That most common of all Celtic monuments, the Cromleach,* which is to be found not only in most parts of Europe, but also in Asia,t and exhibits, in the strength and simplicity of its materials, the true character of the workmanship of antiquity, is also to be found, in various shapes and sizes, among the monuments of Ireland. Of these I shall notice only such as have attracted most the attention of our antiquaries. In the neighbourhood of Dundalk, in the county of Louth, we are told of a large Cromleach, or altar, which fell to ruin some time since, and whose site is described as being by the side of a river, "between two Druid groves."J On digging beneath the ruins, there was found a great part of the skeleton of a human figure, which bore the appearance of having been originally enclosed in an urn. There were also, mixed up with the bones, the fragments of a broken rod or wand, which was supposed to have been part of the insignia of the person there interred, and might possi- bly have been that badge of the Druidical office which is still called in Ireland, the con- juror's or Druid's wand. In the neigiibourhood of this ruined Cromleach is another, called by the inhabitants " the Giant's Load," from the tradition attached to most of these monuments, that they were the works of giants in the times of old.§ At Castle-Mary, near Cloyne, are seen the remains of a large Cromleach, called an Irish Carig Croith, or the Rock of the Sun, — one of those names which point so significantly to the ancient worship of tiie country ; and, in the same county, near Glanworth, stands a monument of this kind, called Labacolly, or the Hag's Bed, of such dimensions as to form a chamber about twenty-five feet long and six feed wide.|| Not less ancient and general, among the Celtic nations, was the circle of upright stones, with either an altar or tall pillar in the centre, and, like its prototype at Gilgal, serving sometimes as a temple of worship, sometimes as a place of national council or inauguration. That the custom of holding judicial meetings in this manner was very ancient appears from a group which we find represented upon the shield of Achilles, of a Council of Elders, seated round on a circle of polished stones.H The rough, unhewn stone, however, used in their circular temples by liie Druids, was the true, orthodox observance** of the divine command delivered to Noah, " If thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone:" for even those nations which lapsed into idolatry still retained the first patriarchal pattern, and carried it with them in their colonizing expeditions throughout the world. All monuments, therefore, which depart from the primitive observance just mentioned are to be considered as belonging to a com- paratively recent date. * So called in Irish. " It is remarkable that all the ancient altars found in Ireland, and now distinguished by the name of Cromleachs or sloping stones, were originally called Bothal, or the House of God, and they seem to be of the same species as those mentioned in the [?ook of Genesis, called by the Hebrews, Bethel, which has the same signification as the Irish Bolhal."— Beaw/urd, Druidism revived. Collect. Hibern. jYo 7. From the word Bethel, the name BcElyli, applied to the sacred stones of the Pagans, was evidently derived. " This sort of monument," says Scaliger, (in Euseb.) " though b>iloved by God at first, became odious to him when perverted to idolatrous purposes by the Canaanites." — Odit eum quod Clianana;i deduxerunt ilium ungendi seu consecrandi rilum in ritum idololatriaj. t In Sir Richard Hoare's History of Wiltshire, there are representations given of two Cromleachs in Malabar, exactly similar to those of tlie British Isles. See also, Maundrell's Travels, for an account of a monument of the same description upon the Syrian coast, " in the very region," says King, "of the Phoeni- cians themselves." — Munimenta Jintiqua. King supposes this structure, described by Maundrell, to have been of nearly the very same form and kind as the cromleach. or altar, called Kit's Cotty House, in Kent. J Lout/liana, book iii. '1 he frequent discovery of human bones under these monuments favours the opinion of Wright and others, that they were, in general, erected over graves. See, for some of the grounds of this view, Wright's Remarks on Plate V., Loulhiana. It is, indeed, most probable, that all the Druidical monu- ments, circles, cromleachs, &c., whatever other uses they may liave served, were originally connected with interment. § " Tne native Irish tell a strange story about it, relating how the whole was brought all at once, from the iieishhouring mountains, by a giant called Parrah bough M'Shaggean, and who, they say, was buried near this place." — Louth. II For an account of various other remains of this description in Ireland, see King's Muniment. Antiq., vol. i. pp i.'53, 2.51, &.c. E/5tT iTi ^iTTolfi x<9o/?, li^co ivt Kux.xa>, — I>'iad, xviii. 503. For the credit of the antiquity of these stones. King chooses to translate PiTToia-;(l know not on what authority,)" rough, unhewn stiuies." *♦ It appears extremely probable, that all the Cities of Refuge, of which so niucli is said in the Scriptures, %vcre temple.s erected in this circular iwiinner."— Identity of the Reliffions called Druidical and Ilebreic. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 41 The ruinous remains of a circular temple, near Dundalk, formed a part, it is supposed, of a great work like that at Stonehenge, being open, as we are told, to the east, and composed of similar circles of stone within.* One of the old English traditions respecting Stonchenge is, that the stones were transported thither from Ireland, having been brought to the latter country by giants from the extremities of Africa; and in the time of Giraldus Cambrensis there was still to be seen, as he tells, on the plain of Kildare, an immense monument of stones, corresponding e.xactly in appearance and construction with that of Stonehenge.f The heathen Irish, in their feeling of reverence for particular stones and rocks, but followed the example of most of the Eastern nations; and tiie marvellous virtue supposed to lie in the famous Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, used in the election of Irish monarchs, finds a parallel in the atizoe,J or silvery stone of the Persians, to which a similar charm, in the choice of their kinirs, used to be attributed by the Magi. Tliose monuments, too, known by the name of Rocking Stones, and found in Ireland as well as in Cornwall and Wales, appear in some respects to resemble that sort of natural or artificial wonders, which the Phoenicians held sacred, under the name of BaDtyli, or animated stones. These they declare to have been fabricated by the god Ouranos, or Heaven, ij the deity wor- shipped by the Samothracians, and also, under the title of Samhin, or Heaven, by the Irish. That these stones — which moved, it is said, as if stirred by a demon, || — formed a part of the idolatrous ceremonies of the East, may be concluded from the mention of them, by some ancient writers, as having been seen at that great seat of sun-worship, Helio- polis, or the ancient Balbic. In some instances it would appear that the Baetyli were, in so far, unlike the mobile monument of the Druids, that they were but small and portable stones, worn by the religious as amulets.lT There were also, however, some answering exactly to the description of the Druid ical rocking-stones, as appears from the account given in Ptolemy Hephseestion, an author cited by Photius, of a vast Gigonian stone, as he calls it, which stood on the shores on the ocean, and which, though it might be stirred by the stalk of an asphodel, no human force could remove.** It is rather remarkable, too, that, as we learn from a passage of Apollonius Rhodius,ft not only was this delicate poise of * The remains, according to Wright, of a temple or theatre. " It is enclosed on one side with a rampart or ditch, and seems to have been a very great work, of the same kind with that of Stonehenge, in Eng- land." — Louthiana. t Unde et ibidem lapides quidam aliis simillimi similique modo erecti, usque in hodlernum conspiciunter. Mirum qualiter tanli lapides, tot eliam, &c. &,c. — Topograph. Hibcrn., c. 18. t " .Atizflen in India et in Perside ac Ida inonte naaci tradit, argenteo nitore fiilgentem necessa- riam Magis regem coiistituentibus.'' — Plin. lib. xx.xvii. c. 54. See also Boethius, de Oemmis. In Borlase's Antiquities of Cornwall, the name of this stone is printed incorrectly Ai-tizoe, and as no reference is given to the passage of Pliny where it is mentioned, the word has been taken on trust from Borlase by all succeeding writers. Among others. General Valiancy has amusingly founded on the typographical error one of his ever ready etymologies. " Now, Art in Irish signifying a stone as well as Clock, the name of this stone of oint- ment, viz. Artdusaca, may have been corrupted by Pliny into Artizoe of the Persians." — ViniXst; ts Juee KxQATTfqBiv iTiv^iv, ' nv erf^H, ^AfxCoi TTigtoTicv OLvS^^tn xiuastv, Ktmstl n^uiVTog VTTCi TTvom jSi^iit.. Irgonaut. 1. 1. In Tenns, by the blue waves compass'd round. High o'er the slain he heap'd the funeral mound ; Then rear'd two stones, to mark that sacred ground, — One, poised so light that, (as the mariner sees With wondering gaze,) it stirs at every breeze ! The term Xrnxyt, here used, though in its most general acceptation signifying a pillar or obelisk, was sometimes also employed to denote a rock.— See Donnegfin, who refers for this meaning of the word to Hermsterlt, ad Lucian, 1. p. 267. 42 HISTORY OF IRELAND. the stone produced sometimes, as among the Druids, by art, but a feeling of sacredness was also attached to such productions, and they were connected, as in the Druidicai ritual, with interment. The sacred Hills and Tumuli of the Irish were appropriated to a variety of purposes; for there the sacrifice was offered by tlie priest, from ihence the legislator or judge pro- mulgated his decrees, and there the king, on his inauguration, was presented with the Wand of Power. Of these consecrated higii places,* the most memorable was the Hill of Usneach, in West Meath, as well from the National Convention of which it was fre- quently the scene,f as because upon its summit, the limits of the five Provinces of Ireland touched ; and, in like manner as the field of Enna was called " the navel of Sicily,"| and the site of the Temple of Delphi "the navel of the carth,"^ so the stone which marked this conmion boundary of the five Provinces into which the island was then divided, was termed the "navel of Ireland. "|| Here the Druids, on solemn occasions, were accustomed to hold their meetings;'^r according to the practice of their Gaulish brethren, who, as we learn from Ca;sar, used to assemble annually on the confines of the Carnutes, in a place accounted to be the centre of all Gaul, and there, consulting upon all controversies referred to them, pronounced decrees v^'hich were universally obeyed.** In the peculiar sacredness attached to the Hill of Usneach, as the common limit of the five Pronvinces, we recognise that early form of idolatry which arose out of Uie natural respect paid to boundaries and frontiers, and which may be traced throughout the ancient superstitions of most countries. Hence mountains, those natural barriers between con- tiguous nations, first came to be regarded with reverence; and it has been shown,tt that the Holy Mountains of the ancient Greeks, Asiatics, and Egyptians, were all of them situated upon marches or frontier grounds. When artificial limits or Termini^]: came to be introduced, the adoration that had long been paid to the mountain, was extended also to the rude stone, detached fiom its mass, which performed conventionally the same im- portant function. From this reverence attached to boundaries, the place chosen by the Gaulish Druids, for their meetings, derived likewise its claim to sacredness, being on the confines of that tribe of Celts, called the Carnutes. Whenever an Irish King, or Chief, was to be inaugurated on one of their Hills, it was usual to place him upon a particular slone,^^ whereon was imprinted the form of their first Chieftain's foot, and there proffer to him an oath to preserve the customs of the country. "There was then," says Spenser, who had himself witnessed the election of an Irish Dynast in this mnnner, "a wand delivered to him by the proper officers, with which in his hand, descending from the stone, he turned himself round, thrice forward and thrice backward. "|||1 In an account of the ceremonies performed at the initiation of the Kings of Tirconnel, we are told that, in presenting the new king with the wand, which was perfectly white and straight, the Chief who officiated used this form of ^ The worship ch" mountains, hills, and rivers, among the ancient Britons, is mentioned by Gildas, "monies ipsos aul colles aut fluvins .... qiiibus divinus honour a ceeco tunc popiilo cumiilabatur," c. 2. ; and that such supfirstilion was not peculiar to the Celtic tribes, appears from the laws which, down to the eleventh century, prohibiti d ttie AH{,'loPaxons from worthippinj the tree, the rock, the stream, or fountain. — See Palgrave's Rise and Progress of the English Commonwealth, part i. chap. 4. t li cerlo aiini tempore, in fiiiibus Carniitum. qua; regio totiiis Gallia; media habetur, considunt in loco coiisecrato. Hic otnnes undiqnequi controversias habent conveniunt, eorumque judiciis decretisque parent — Vc Bella Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 13. I Diodor. lib. V. § Strab. lib. ix. |( In lapide quodam conveiiiunt apnd mediara ju.iita castrum de Kyllari, qui locus et umbilicus Hiberniee dicitur quasi in medio et medullitio terra- positus. — Cap. 4. ir " The Dynast, or Chieftain, had certain judges under hitn, called Brehons, who, at stated times, sat in the open air, generally upon some hill, on a bench raised with green sods, where they distributed justice to tile neiglibiurs " — Ware, JtiiUquities of Ireland, chap xi. ** CsE.sar, lib vi. c. 1:1. tt bulaure, Des Cultcs anterieiirs a Vldolalrie, chap. 8. Among the Holy Mountains of Greece, this writer _has enumerated nearly a dozen, all bearing the name of Olympus, and all situated upon frontiers. Chap. i.v. XX Such was the homage paid to this Deity of landmarks and boundaries, that when room was required for the temple of Jupiter Olympius in the Capitol, the seat of every god, e.xcept Terminus, was removed. §§ The practice of sealing the new king upon a stone, at his initiation, was the practice in many of the countries of Europe. The Duitcs of Carinthia were thus inaugurated (Joan. Boem. de Morib. Gentium, lib. iii ) The monarchs of Sweden sat upon a stone placed in the centre of twelve lesser ones (Olaus Magn. de Uitti gent septent i. c. 18 ) and in a similar kind of circle the Kings of Denmark were crowned.— (Hist, de Daneuiarck ) In reference to llie enormous weight of the stones composing this last mentioned monument, Mallet livelily remarks, "que de tout temps la superstition a imagine qu'on ne pouvait adorer la divinite qu'en faisant pour elle des tours de force." III! The practice of turning round the body, in religious and other solemnities, was performed differently by different nations of antiquity ; and Pliny, in stating that the Romans turned from the left to the right, or sunwise, adds, that the Gauls tliought it more religious to turn from the right to the left, lib. xxviii. c. 5. !r^ee the commentators on this passage of I'liny, who trace the enjoinment of the practice in question to no less authorities than I'ythagoras and Numa. The Celts, according to Posidonius (apud Allien, lib. iv.,) turned always to the right in worshipping.— Tst/f •&sot/f TTparKvvou^ tv tvi m Si^ix a-T^iepi/uivoi. This practice, under the name of Deasoil, or motion according to the course of the sun, is still retained in the Scottish Isles.— .''t'e Jumieson's Scollish Dictionartj, Toland's History of the Druids, Borlasc's Cornwall, &.C.. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 43 words, — "Receive, O King ! the auspicious badge of your authority, and remember to imitate, in your conduct, the staightncss and whiteness of tiiis wand." So solemn and awful were the feelings associated with their Sacred Hills by the Irish, that one of their poets, in singing the praises of St. Patrick, mentions particularly, as a proof of his zeal and courage, that he "preached of God in the Hills and by the Sacred Founts."* With such tenacity, too, was transmitted from age to age the popular reve- rence for all such judgments as were issued from those high places, that so late as the time of Henry VIII. the same traditional feeling prevailed; and we have it on high authority that, at that period, "the English laws were not observed eight days, whereas the laws passed by the Irish in their hills they kept firm and stable, without breaking them for any fee or reward. "t Such of these Sacred Mounts as are artificial have in general been called either Barrows or Cairns, according as the materials of which they are composed may have been earth or stones; and both kmds, though frequently appropriated to the various purposes just mentioned, were, it is plain, in their original destination, tombs, — such as are to be found in every region of the habitable world, and preceded, as monuments of the dead, even the Pyramids themselves. | Among the Greeks, it was not unusual to erect a pillar upon the summit of the barrow, as in the instance of the tumulus of Elpenor, described in the twelfth book of the Odyssey, and still more memorably in that of Achilles, on the Sigean promontory, which is said still to bear traces of the sepulchral pillar, that once surmounted it. A similar form of memorial is mentioned by antiquaries as existing in different parts of Ireland,^ and the great barrow at New Grange is said to have originally had a stone of considerable bulk upon its summit. Of the dedication of the Cairns and Barrows to the Sun,|| there are abundant proofs throughout antiquity ; and as from Grian, the Celtic name of the sun, Apollo evidently derived his title of Gryneeus, so to Carne, the term, in Celtic, for these tumuli, his title Carneus is no less manifestly to be traced. The veneration of particular groves and trees was another of those natural abuses of worship, into which a great mass of mnnKJnd, in the first ages, lapsed; and, as happens in all such corrupions of religion, a practice innocent and even holy in its origin soon degenerated into a system of the darkest superstition. It was in a grove planted by himself, that Abraham "called on the everlasting God," and Gideon's offering under the oak was approved by the same heavenly voice, which yet doomed the groves of Baal that stood in its neighbourhood to destruction. 11 In the reign of Ahab, the period when Idolatry was in its most flourishing state, we find that, besides the priests of Baal, or the sun, there existed also a distinct order of priesthood, who, from the peculiar worship they presided over, were called Prophets of the Groves.** In the religious system of the Celts is found a combination of both these forms of superstition, and there exist in Ireland, to this day, in the old traditions, and the names of places, full as many and striking vestiges of the worship of trees as of that of the sun. Thotigh at present so scantily clothed with wood, one of the earliest vernacular names, this country Fiodha Inis, or the Woody * Metricnl Life of St. Patricl?, attributed to his difciple Fiech; but evidently of a somewtiat later period. t '* A Breviate of the gettini; of Ireland, and of the Decay of the same." by Baron Finglas. an Irishman, made Chief Baron of the Exclieijuer, in Ireland, by Henry VIII., and afterwards Chief Justice of the King's Bench. — Ware's fVriters. I Afier comparing the primajval Celtic mound with the pyramidal heaps of the East, Clarke says, " In fact, the Scythian Mound, the Tartar Tepe, the Teutonic Barrow, and the Celtic ( aim, do all of tlierti pre- serve a mimiimental form, which was more anciently in use than that of the Pyramid, because it is less artificial ; and a proof nf its alleged antiquity may be deduced from the mere circumstance of its association with the Pyramids of Egypt, even if the testimony of Herodotus were less e.xpiicit as to the remote period of its existence among northern nations." — Travels, vol. v. chap. 5. In the Travels of Professor Pallas may be found an account of the immense variety of these sepulchral heaps, some of earth, some of stones, which he saw in traversing the regions inhabited by the Cossacks, Tartars, and Monjul tribes. § See Oough's Camden, vol. iii.; King's Munimcnta Avtiqua, book i. This latter writer, in speaking of ]Vew Grange, says, that it " so completely corre.*pnnds with the accounts we have of the Asiatic Barrows of Patroclus and of Halyattes, and with the description of the Tartarian Barrows of the Schythian Kings, that in reading an account of one, we even seem to be reading an account of the other." — Book i chap. 6. Re- jecting as vague and unsatisfactory the grounds on which New Grange and other such monuments are attributed to the Danes, this well-informed antiquary concludes, " VVe may, therefore, from such strong resemblance between primaeval and nearly patriarchal customs in the East, and those aboriginal works in Ireland and Britain in the West, much more naturally infer that these sepulchral barrows are almost with- out exception the works of tlie first race of settlers in these countries." — lb. II Silius Italicus represents Apollo as delighting in the Cairn-lires.— "Quum pius Arcitenens incensis gaudet acervis." — Lib. v. 177. Among the different sorts of Cairns in Cornwall, there is one which they call Karn Leskyg, or the Karn of Burnings. IT Gen. xxi. 33 —Judges vi. 23—28. ** "The Prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the Prophet? of the Groves, four hundred."—! Kings, xviii. 19. 44 HISTOKY OF IRELAND. Island, proves that the materials for tree worship were not, in former ages, wanting on her shores. The name of the Vodii, an ancient tribe inhabiting the southern coast of the county of Cork, signifies dwellers in a woody country,* and Youghall, formerly Ochill, is said to have been similarly derived. It appears that in general the old names of places, whether hills or plains, are found to be words implying forests, groves, or trees. The poet Spenser has commemorated the Ireland of his day as abounding in shade and foliage,f and we collect from Stanihurst that the natives had been accused of living savagely in the dark depths of their forests. It is, indeed, alleged, by competent authority, f to have been made evident from an examination of tiie soil, that, at no very remote period, the country must have been abundantly wooded. The oak, the statue of the Celtic Jove,^ was here, as in all other countries, selected for peculiar consecration ; and the Plain of Oaks, the Tree of the Field of Adoration, || under which the Dalcassian Chiefs were inaugurated, and the Sacred Oak of Kildare, show how early and long this particular branch of the primitive worship prevailed. By some antiquaries, who alfect to distinguish between the Celtic and Gothic customs in Ireland, the mode of inaugurating the Dalcassian Cliiefs is alleged to have been derived from the first inhabitants or Celts; while, on the other hand, the use of the Lia Fail, or Stone of Destiny, in the ceremony, was introduced, they say, by the later, or Scythic colonies. In this latter branch of the opinion, they are borne out by the ancient traditions of the country, which trace to the Danaans, a Scythic or Gothic tribe, the first importation of the custom. That the worship of stones, however, out of which this cere- mony sprung, was a superstition common not only to both of these races, but to all the first tribes of mankind, is a fact admitted by most inquirers on the subject. The same may he affirmed of every branch of the old primitive superstition; and, therefore, to attempt to draw any definite or satisfactory line of distinction, between the respective forms of idolatry of the two great European races, is a speculation that must be discon- certed and baflled at every step. A well-known dogmatist in Irish antiquities, desirous to account, by some other than the obvious causes, for that close resemblance which he cannot deny to exist between the Celtic and Gothic superstitions, has had recourse to the hypothesis, th;it a coalition between the two rituals must, at some comparatively late period, have taken place.H But a natural view of the subject would, assuredly, have led to the very reverse of this conclusion, showing that, originally, the forms of idolatry observed by both races were the same, and that any difference observable, at a later period, has been the natural result of time and circumstances. * Quasi Britannice dicas Sylvcsircs, sive, apud sylvas degciites. — Baxter. Glossar. Jlntiquitat. Brit. — Smith's County of Cork. ■f Cantos of Mutability ; where in describing Ireland, lie spealis of " woods and forests which therein abound." In his View of the State of Ireland, also, speakinjr more particularly of the country between Dublin and Wexford, he says: — "Though the whole track of llie country be mountainous and woody, yet there are many goodly valleys," &c. Campion likewise asserts, that the island was covered with forests; yet, so rapid must have been their destruction, that, not much more than a century after Spenser and Campion wrote, we find Sir Henry Piers, in his Chorographical Description of the County of Meath, com- plaining of the want of timber of bulk, " wherewith it was anciently well stored ;" and recommending to parliament a speedy provision for " planting and raising all sorts of forest trees." — Collectan, vol. i. J " I never saw one hundred contiguous acres in Ireland in which there were not evident signs that they were once wood, or at least very well wooded. Trees, and the roots of trees, of the largest size, are dug up in all the bogs; and, in the cultivated countries, the stumps of trees destroyed show that the destruction has not been of very ancient date." — Artliut i'ouvir. Tour in Ireland. § AyuKfAX S'i Aim KiXTtKOV v-^nXn J'guc. — Maz. Tyr. Serm. 38. II MaghAdhair. — " A plain, or lield of adoration or worship, where an open temple, consisting of a circle of tall straight stone pillars, with a very largo fiat stone, called cromlcac. serving for an allar, was constructed by the Druids, . . . several plains of this name, Magh-Adhair, were known in Ireland, particularly one in the country now called the County of Clare, wliere the kines of the O'Brien race were inaugurated." — O'Brien's Irish Dictionary. It was under a remarkable tree on this plain tliat the ceremony of initiating the Dalcas- sian Kings took place. {O' Brien, in voce Magh bile.) In the Annals of the Four Masters for the year 981, there is an account of the destruction of this Sacred Tree. For the origin of four of the great Dalcassian families, viz the O'Briens, the Mac Mahons, the O'Kennedys, and the Mar.namaras, see Rer. Biberniear. Script, prol. 1. 133. IT The Druids, when known to the Greeks and Romans, had united the Celtic and Scythic rituals, and exercised their functions both in groves and caves."— Ledwich, ..Antiquities of Ireland, p. 49. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 45 CHAPTER III. THE DRUIDS, OR MAGI OF THE IRISH. The religious system of the Pagan Irish having been thus shown, as regards both its ceremonies and its objects, to have been, in many respects, peculiar to themselves, it remains to be considered whether the order of priesthood which presided over their religion did not also, in many points, differ from the Priests of Britain and of Gaul. Speaking generally, the term Druidism applies to the whole of that mixed system of hierurgy, consisting partly of patriarchal, and partly of idolatrous observances, wliich the first inhabitants of Europe are known to have brought with them in their migration from the East; and the cause of the differences observable in the rituals of the three countries where alone that worship can be traced, is to be sought for as well in the local circum- stances peculiar to each, as in those relations towards other countries in which, either by commerce or position, they were placed. Thus, while to her early connexion with the Phoenicians the Sacred Island was doubtless indebted for the varieties of worship wafted to her secluded shores, the adoption by the Gallic Druids of the comparatively modern gods of Greece and Rome, or rather of their own original divinities under other names, may, together with the science and the learning they were found in possession of by the Romans, be all traced to the intercourse held by them, for at least five hundred years before, with the colony of Phocaean Greeks established at Marseilles. Of all that relates to the Druids of Gaul, their rites, doctrines, and discipline, we have received ample and probably highly coloured statements from the Romans. Our know- ledge of the Irish Magi, or Druids, is derived partly from the early Lives of St. Patrick, affording brief but clear glimpses of the dark fabric which he came to overturn, and partly from those ancient records of tiie country, founded upon others, as we shall see, still more ancient, and so reaching back to the times when Druidism was still in force. With the state or system of this order, in Britain, there are no such means of becoming acquainted. It is a common error, indeed, to adduce as authority respecting the British Druids, the language of writers who profess to speak only of the Druidical priesthood of Gaul; a confusion calculated to convey an unjust impression of both these bodies; as the latter, — even without taking into consideration their alleged conferences with Phy- thagoras, which may be reasonably called in question, — had access, it is known, through the Massilian Greeks, to such sources of science and literature, as were manifestly beyond the reach of their secluded brethren of Britain. Even of the Gaulish Druids, however, the description transmitted by the Romans is such as, from its vagueness alone, might be fairly suspected of exaggeration; and the indefinite outline they left has been since dilated and filled up by others, till there is scarcely a department of human know- ledge with which these Druids are not represented to have been conversant. Nor is this embellished description restricted merely to the Gaulish priesthood, but given also as a faithful picture of the Druids of Britain; though, among all the Greek and Roman writers who have treated of the subject, there is not one — with a slight exception, perhaps, as regards Pliny, — who has not limited his remarks solely and professedly to Gaul. The little notice taken by the Romans of the state of this worship among the Britons, is another point whicli appears worthy of consideration. Instead of being general throughout the country, as might have been expected from the tradition mentioned by Caesar, the existence of Druidism appears to have been confined to a few particular spots; and the chief seat of its strength and magnificence lay in the region nearest to the siiores of Ireland, North Wales. It was there alone, as is manifest from their own accounts, and from the awe and terror with which, it is said, the novelty of the sight then affected them,* that the Romans ever encountered any Druids during their whole stay in Britain ; nor did CaBsar, who dwells so particularly upon the Druids of Gaul, and even mentions the prevalent notion that they had originated in Britain, ever hint that, while in that country, he had either met with any of^ their order, or been able to collect any informa- tion concerning their tenets or rites. The existence still, in various parts of England, of * Novilate ai^jjettus perculuic inililes.— Tacit. Annal. lib. xiv. c. 30. 46 HISTORY OF IRELAND. what are generally called Druidical monuments, is insufficient to prove that Druidism had ever flourished in those places ; such monuments having been common to all the first races of Europe,* and though forming a part of the ritual of the Druids, by no means necessarily implying that it had existed where they are found. In the region of Spain occupied anciently by the Turditana, the most learned of all the Celtic tribes, there is lo be found a greater number of what are called Druidical remains than in any other part of the Peninsula. t Yet, of the existence of an order of Druids among that people, neither Strabo nor any other authority makes mention. The only grounds that exist for extending and appropriating to the British Druids all that the Greek and Roman writers have said solely of those of Gaul, are to be found in the single, but doubtless important, passage wherein it is asserted by Csesar,^ that Druidism had first originated in Britain, and was from thence derived by the Gauls. Presuming on the truth of this assertion, it has been farther concluded, as a matter of course, that all the features of the parent were exactly similar to those attributed to the offspring; and upon this arbitrary assumption have all the accounts, so fully and confi- dently given, of the rites, doctrines, and learning of the British Druids been founded. With respect to the statement, however, of Csesar, an obvious solution suggests itself, arising naturally out of all that has been advanced in the preceding pages, and amply sufficient, as I think, to account for the curious tradition which he mentions. We have seen, by the strong, though scattered, lights of evidence, which have been brought to concentre upon this point, at what an early period Ireland attracted the notice of that people, who were, in those times, the great carriers, not only of colonies and commerce, but also of shrines and divinities, to all quarters of the world. So remote, indeed, is the date of her first emergence into celebrity, that at a time when the Carthaginians knew of Albion but the name, the renown of lerne as a seat of holiness had already become ancient; her devotion to the form of worship which had been transported, perhaps from Samothrace, to her shores, having won for her, as we have seen, the designation of the Sacred Island. Those who look back to the prominent station then held by her, as a sort of emporium of idolatry, will not deem it unlikely that a new religion may have originated on her shores; and that it was to her alone the prevalent tradition of the times of Csesar must have attributed the reputation of having first moulded the common creed of all the Cells into that peculiar form which has become memorable under the appellation of Druidism. Whatever changes this form may have undergone in its adoption by Gaul and Britain, were the natural result of local circumstances, and the particular genius of each people; while the greater infusion of orientalism into the theology of the Irish, arose doubtless from the longer continuance of their intercourse with the East. How large a portion of the religious customs of Persia were adopted by the Magi or Druids of Ireland, has already been amply shown; and to these latter Pliny^ doubtless refers, under the same mistake as Cjesar, when, in speaking of the Magi of difl^erent countries, he remarks of the ceremonies practised in Britain, that they were of such a nature as to render it pro- bable that they were the original of those of the Persians. The favourite tenet as well of Druidism as of Magism, the transmigration of the soul,i| which the Druids of Gaul are thought to have derived from the Massilian Greeks, might have reached them, through Ireland, from some part of the East, at a much earlier period; this favourite doctrine of all Oriental theologues, from the Brachmans of India to the priests of Egypt, being found inculcated also through the medium of some of the traditions of the ancient Irish. The use, both by Pliny and Csisar, of the name Britain instead of Ireland argues but little against the presumption that the latter was the country really designed. The frequent » For prnof:i of the adoption of ciicular stone temples, and other such monuments, by the Gothic nations, sec Ledwich's Antiquities {Pagan Stale nf Ireland, and its Remains,) and Pinkerton"s Inquiry, &.c. part iii. chap. 12. t History of Spain and Portugal, Cab. Ctclo. Introduction. % Disciplina in Britannia reperta, atqne inde in Galliam translata esse e.\istimatur. — De Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 13. § Britannia hodiequo earn attonito celebrat tanlis ca-remoniis, nt dedisse Persis videri possit. — Plin. JVal. I/ist. lib. x.\.\. c. 4. On the intimation contained in this passage, VVhitaker lias founded a supposition, that, at some period, which lie calls the Divine Age, the doctrine of the Western Druids may have penetrated so far East; " thus solving," he says, '• Pliny's conjecture of the Persians receiving it from them, which must have been in times comparatively to which the foundation of Rome is hardly not a modern incident." — CcUic Vor.ahulary. \\ The prevalence, among them, of a belief in the transmigration of the soul, may be inferred from the fable respecting Ruan, one of ilie colony that landed in Ireland, under Partholan, some two or three centuries after the Flood. Of this ancient personage, it was believctd that he continued to live, through a long series of transmigrations, till so late as the time of St. Patrick, when, having resumed the human shape, he com- municated to the saint all he knew of the early history of the island, and was then baptised and died. — Ji'icholson' s Library, chap. ^.—lierum Ilibcrn. Script, lip. Nunc, HISTORY OF IRELAND. 47 employment of the plural, Britanniao * to denote the whole of the British Isles, was, in itself, by no means unlikely to lead to such a confusion. Besides, so ignorant were the Roman scholars respecting the geography of these regions, that it is not impossible they may have supposed Britain and Ireland to be one and the same country; seeing that, so late as the period when Agricola took the command of the province, they had not yet ascertained whether Britannia was an island or continentf To his statement, that Britain was thought to have originated the institution of Druidism, Csesar adds, that those who were desirous of studying diligently its doctrines, repaired in general to that country for the purpose.^ If, as the reasons I have above adduced render by no means improbable, the school resorted to by these students was really Ireland, the religious pre-eminence thus enjoyed by her, in those pagan days, was a sort of type of her social position many centuries after, when again she shone forth as the Holy Island of the West; and again it was a common occurrence, as in those Druidical times, to hear said of a student in divinity, that he was "gone to pursue a course of sacred instruction in Hibernia."^ While, from all that has been here advanced, it may be assumed as not improbable that Ireland was the true source of this ancient creed of tiie West, there is yet another point to be noticed, confirmatory of this opinion, which is, that the term Druid, concern- ing whose origin so much doubt has e,\isted, is to be found genuinely, and without any of the usual straining of etymology, in the ancient Irish language. The supposed deriva- tion of the term from Drus, the Greek word for an oak, has long been rejected as idle;|| the Greek language, though flowing early from the same Asiatic source, being far more likely to have borrowed from than contributed to that great mother of the most of the European tongues, the Celtic. It is, however, unnecessary to go any farther for the origin of the name than to the Irish language itseltj in which the word Draoid is found, signifying a cunning man, or Magus, and implying so fully all that is denoted by the latter designation as to have been used as an equivalent for it in an Irish version of the Gospel of St. Matthew, where, instead of " the wise men, or Magi, came from the East," it is rendered, "the Druids came from the East;" and, in like manner in the Old Testa- ment, Exod. vii. 11., the words "magicians of Egypt" are made "Druids of Egypt."!! CHAPTER IV. ANTIQUITY OF THE IRISH LANGUAGE, LEARNING OF THE IRISH MAGI OR DRUIDS. Our accounts of the learning of the Irish Druids, though far more definite and satis- factory than any that relate directly to the Druids of Britain, are still but imperfect and vague. Before we enter, however, on this topic, a few remarks on a subject intimately connected with it, the ancient language of the countr}', will not be deemed an unne- cessary preliminary. Abundant and various as are the monuments to which Ireland can point, as mute evidences of her antiquity, she boasts a yet more striking proof in the living language of her people, — in that most genuine, if not only existing, dialect, of the oldest of all European tongues, — the tongue which, whatever name it may be called by, according to the various and vague theories respecting it, whether Japhetan, Cimmerian, * Thus Catullus :— " Hunc GalliaR timent, hiinc timent Britanisc."— Corm. 27. t Hanc Oram novissimi maris tunc primum Roniana classis circumvecta insulam esse Britanniam aflirm- avit — Tacit. Agric. 10. Plutarch, in his Life of C;esar, asserts tliat the very existence of such a place as Britain had been doubted. X Et nunc qui diligentius earn rem cognoscere volunt plerumque illo discendi causa proficiscuntur— Z>c Bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 13. § '• St. Patrick's disciples in Ireland were such great proficients in the Christian religion, that, in the age following, Ireland was termed Sanctorum Patria, i. e the Country of Saints The Saxons, in that age, flocked hither as to the great mart of learning; and this is the reason why we find this so often in our writers, — ' Amondatus est ad disciplinam in Hibernia,' sucti a one was sent over into Ireland to be educated." — Cavidcn. II For the various derivations of the term Druid that have been suggested by different writers, see Frickius de Druid, pars i. cap. i. IT Matt. ii. 1. The Irish version is thus given by Toland :— Feuch tangadar Draoithe o naird shoir go Hirulasem:— and the passage in Exod. vii. 11. is tlius rendered :— Anos Draoithe na Hegipte dor innedur- sanfis aran modligceadna Ic nandroigheachtuibh. 48 HISTORY OF IRELAND. Pelasgic, or Celtic, is accounted most generally to have been the earliest brought from the East, by the Naochidae, and accordingly to have been "the vehicle of the first know- ledge that dawned upon Europe."* In the still written and spoken dialect of this primEeval languagef we possess a monument of the high antiquity of the people to whom it belongs, which no cavil can reach, nor any doubts disturb. According to the view, indeed, of some learned philoiogers, the very imperfections attributed to the Irish language, — tlje predominance in it of gutturals, and the incom- pleteness of its alphabet, — are both but additional and convincing proofs, as well of its directly Eastern origin, as of its remote antiquity; the tongues of the East, before the introduction of aspirates, having abounded, as it appears, with gutturals,| and the alphabet derived from the Phoenicians by the Greeks having had but the same limited number of letters which compose the Irish. 5 That the original Cadmeian number was no more than sixteen is the opinion, with but few exceptions, of the whole learned world ; and that such exactly is the number of the genuine Irish alphabet has been proved satis- factorily by the reverend and learned librarian of Stowe.|| Tiius, while all the more recent and mixed forms of language adopted the additional letters of the Greeks, the Irish alonelT continued to adhere to the original number — the same number no doubt which Herodotus saw graven on the tripods in the temple of Apollo at Thebes — the same number which the people of Attica adhered to with such constancy, that it became a customary phrase or proverb, among the Greeks to say of any thing very ancient, that it was "in Attic letters."** To so characteristic an extent did the Irish people imitate this fidelity, that even the introduction among them of the Roman alphabet by St. Patrick did not tempt them into any innovation upon their own. On the contrary, so wedded were they to their own letters, that, even in writing Latin words, they would never admit any Roman character that was not to be found in their primitive alphabet, but employed two or more of their own ancient characters to represent the same organic sound.ft * Inquiries concerning the First Tiiliahitants, Languages, &.c. of Europe, by Mr. Wise. t According to the learned but fanciful Lazius, the Irish language abounds with Hebrew words, and had its origin in tjie remotest ages of the world. {De Oentium Mig-rationibus.) A French writer. Marcel, also, in speaking of the Irish idiom or dialect, says, " On pent dire avec quelque probabilitiS qu'il doit remonter ii une 6pnque beuucoup plus recul6e que les idiomes de la plupart des autres contrees de I'Europe." This writer, wlio was Directeur de I'Empriinerie Impiriale, under Napoleon, published an Irish alphabet from types belonging to the Propaganda of Home, which uere sent, by the order of Napoleon, to Paris. Prefixed to his publication are some remarks on the grammatical structure of the Irish language, which he thus con- cludes; — " Par cette rnarche conjugati ve elle se rapproche de la simplicity des langues anciennes et orientales. Elle s"en rapproche encore par les lettres serviles ou auxiliares, les affixes et Ics pr^fi.xes, qu'elle eraploie comme la Inngue Htibraique." With the types of tlie Propaganda, the Irish Catechism of Molloy, called Lucerna Fidelium, was printed. I " La lingua Punica certamente venne pronnnziata anticamente colla gorgia, e ne resla provato in quel piccol monumento che la scena prima rii Plauto ci ha lasciato col caratter* Letino."— G. P. Agius de Solandis, quoted in Vallencey's Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language " In the Oriental languages gutturals abounded; those by degrees softened into mere aspirates." &c. — Rees's Cyclopedia, art. Oothic Language. In tracing the Eastern origin of the Celtic, Dr. Pritchard remarks, that " words derived by the western from the eastern languages are changed in a peculiar way. The most general of these alterations is the substituting of guttural for sibilant letters. May not such words, however, have been derived previously to the introduction of aspirates and sibilants? § " Now, if this alphabet (the Irish) had not been borrowed at least before the time of the Trojan war. when Palamedes made the first addition to it, we can hardly conceive it should be so simple. Or, if the Druids should cull it, it would be remarkable that they should hit precisely on the letters of Cadmus, and reject none but the later additions." — Smith's Qaelic Antiquities, chap. 4. Iluddlestone, the editor of Toland, also remarks upon this subject, — " If the Irish had culled or selected their alphabet from that of the Romans, how, or by what miracle, could they have hit on the identical letters which Cadmus brought from Phoenicia, and rejected all the rest? Had they thrown sixteen dice sixteen times, and turned up the same number every time, it would not have been so marvellous as this."- II Delractis itaque quinque diptliongis, et consonantihus supra memoratis, qui nullibi in lingua Hibernica extant, non remanent plures quarn sexdecim simplicia elementa, quot fuisse antiquissimas Cadmeias, Plinius, et Nonnus, et antiquissimi scriptores una voce testatum reliquere. — O'Connor, Annal. Inisfall. Dc Iiiscript. Ogham. H " If they had letters first from St. Patrick, would they have deviated from the forms of the letters ? Would they have altered the order? Would they have sunk seven (eight) letters? For in every country they have rather increased than diminished the number of letters, except those of the Hebrew and Irish, which are in statu qvo to this day " — Parson's Remains ofjaphct. ** In reference to this proverb, Lilius Geraldus, quoting the assertion of some ancient writer that treaties against the barbarians were ratified in Ionic, not iu Attic, letters, adds, "quasi, ut puto, dicat Uteris recen- tioribus."— ii/. Girnld. de Poetis. ft " Thus in all words begun or ended by X, instead of writing that simple character, they never chose to represent it otherwise than by employing two of the Roman characters, viz. gs or cs ; a trouble they cer- tainly might have saved themselves, at least in writing the Latin, had they not rejected it as an exotic character, and not existing in their alphabet." — Literature of the Irish after Chrislianilij, CoUectan. No. 5. This mode of expressing this letter X was anciently practised by the Romans themselves ; but had been disused ages before the time when it could be supposed to have been communicated to them by the Irish. Another curious point, respecting the Irish alphabet, is thus noticed by the author of Oalic Antiquities : — " They could much easier have spared one of Cadmus's letters than some of those which have been after- wards joined to it. The Greek ^, for example, expresses a sound so common in the Galic, and so imperfectly expressed by the combined powers of c (or k) and A, that they could not possibly have omitted it, had it been in the alphabet when they adopted the rest of the letters." HISTORY OF IRELAND. 49 It will be perceived, from the foregoing remarks, that I conceive the Irish to have been early acquainted with the use of letters; and such appears to me, I own, the con- elusion to which — attended, though it be, with some difficulties — a fair inquiry into lliig long-agitated question ought to lead. In asserting that letters were anciently known to this people, it is by no means implied that the knowledge extended beyond the learned or Druidical class — the diffusion of letters among the community at large being, in all countries, one of the latest results of civilized life. It is most probable, too, that, among the Irish, the art was still in a rude and primitive state; their materials having been, as we are told, tablets formed of the wood of the beech, upon which they wrote with an iron pencil, or stylus, and from whence the letters themselves were called, originally, Feadha, or Woods. With implements denoting so early a stage of the art — a stage cor- responding to that in which the Romans wrote their laws upon wood — the uses to which writing could have been applied were of course limited and simple, seldon> extending, perhaps, beyond the task of transmitting those annals and genealogies which, there is every reason to believe, as we shall see, were kept regularly from, at least, the first century of our era. By the doubters of Irish antiquities the time of the apostleship of St. Patrick has been the epoch generally assigned for the first introduction of letters into that country. This hypothesis, however, has been compelled to give way to the hi^h authority of Mr. Astle, by whom inscribed monuments of stone were discovered in Ireland, which prove the Irish, as he says, " to have had letters before the arrival af St. Patrick in that kingdom."* It is true, this eminent antiquary also asserts, that "none of these inscribed monuments are so ancient as to prove that the Irish were possessed of letters before the Romans had intercourse with the Britons; but the entire surrender by him of the plaasible and long- maintained notion, that to St. Patrick the Irish were indebted for their first knowledge of this gift, leaves rw other probable channel through which, in later times, it could have reached them ; and accordingly sends us back to seek its origin in those remote ages, towards which the traditions of the people themselves invariably point, for its source. Of any communication held by the Romans with Ireland, there is not the least trace or record; and the notion that, at a period when the light of history had found its way into these regions, such an event as the introduction of letters into a newly discovered island should have been passed unrecorded by either the dispensers or the receivers of the boon, seems altogether improbable. Besides the alphabet they used for ordinary occasions, the ancient Irish were in pos- session also, we are told, of a secret mode of writing, such as is known to have been used for sacred purposes among the hierarchies of the East. And here, again, we find their pretensions borne out by such apt concurrence with antiquity, as could hardly have been concerted in even the most subtle scheme of vanity and imposture. It has been already mentioned, that the first Irish letters were, from the material on which they had been first inscribed, called Feadha, or Woods, — in the same manner as, according to a learned Hebraist, every word denoting books in the Pentateuch has direct reference to the material, whether wood or stone, of which they were composed. f With a similar and no less striking coincidence, the name Ogam, or Ogma, applied traditionally to the occult forms of writing among the Irish, and of whose meaning the Irish themselves seem, till of late, to have been ignorant,| is found to be a primitive Celtic term, signify- ing the Secrets of Letters ;•§ and, to confirm still farther this meaning, it is known that the Gaulish god of Eloquence was, on account of the connexion of his art with letters, called, by his worshippers, Ogmius.|| We have seen that, among the inscribed monuments of stone, of which there are so many throughout Ireland, the learned Astle found proofs to satisfy him that the Irish had letters before the arrival of St. Patrick. Could some of the inscriptions, said to be in the Ogham character, be once satisfactorily authenticated, they would place beyond a doubt the claims of the natives to an ancient form of alphabet peculiarly their own. It is possible that, in a few of these instances, the lines taken for letters may have been no more than the natural marks, or furrows, in the stone; as was frequently the case with * Origin and Progress of Writing, chap. v. t " II n'y a pas une e.xpression dans Moyse on il parle des I jvres qui ne puisse s'expliquer dans le sens de ces tables de pierre et de bois." — Calmet. The wood of the beech has been the material used for the tirst attempts at writing in most countries. " Non displicet a fago arbore derivari quae Gernianis adhuc hodie die Buche, Suecis Soken, Danis Bog dicitur." See J. P. Murray, Animadvers. in Literal. Runic Commentat. Soc. Reg. Scient. Ootting. torn, ii., where a number of other curious particulars on this subject may be found. t The word is not to be found in O'Brien's Irish Dictionary, and is, I believe, omitted, also in most of the others. § Probe noverim vocabulum Oga, Ogum, vel Ognia,Celte significasse secreta lilerarum, vel Irteras ipsas.— Keyslcr, Jintiqq. Scptent. II Lucian. Hercul. Gall, 6 50 HISTORY OF IRELAND. those lines, supposed to be mystic characters, upon the Bsetyli, or Charmed Stones of the ancients.* The professed date, too, of the Ogham inscription, on the mountain of Callan, of which so many and various versions have been suggested, has been called in question by a learned antiquary seldom slow to believe in the evidence of his country's early civiliza- tion. f Neither does any discovery seem to have been yet made of the tomb of Fiacra, a hero commemorated in the ancient Book of Ballymote, who received his death-wound in the battle of Caonry, a. d. 380, and was buried in Mcath, with his name inscribed, in the Ogham character, on his tomb.| There is, however, an account given in the Trans- actions of the Royal Irish Academy, on the authority of two most intelligent and trust- worthy witnesses,^ of the discovery of a stone inscribed with undoubted Ogham letters, in the neighbourhood of the town of Armagh, and on a spot resembling, in many of its features, the remarkable tumulus at New Grange.|j In addition to the consistency of this hierogrammatic mode of writing, with all else that is known of the antiquities of the country, the traditions relating to its use in sepul- chral inscriptions may be traced far into past times; and among other ancient writings in which allusion to it occurs, may be mentioned the tale of the Children of Usneach, " one of the Three Tragic Stories of Eirin," in which the interment of the young lovers is thus druidicaliy represented: — "After this song, Deirdri flung herself upon the Naisi in the grave, and died forthwith; and stones were laid over their monumental heap, their Ogham name was inscribed, and their dirge of lamentation was sung.*'ir I have already mentioned, as a proof of the existence of an original alphabet in the country before the introduction of that of the Romans, the characteristic obstinacy with which they adhered to their own limited number of letters, — insomuch as that, even in writing Latin words, they took the unnecessary trouble of supplying, by combinations from their own original characters, the place of those additional letters of the Romans which they regarded as exotic. It may here be added, that the peculiar order of their native alphabet, in which b, l, i, r, stand as the initial letters, would afford such an instance of downright caprice and dictation, in mere beginners with these elements, as may be pronounced utterly incredible. Another argument, equally strong, in favour of their claims to an original ancient alphabet, may be drawn from the use, in Irish orthography, of what are called quiescent consonants, which, though always preserved in writing, are omitted in pronunciation. If this characteristic of the language be really ancient, and not rather one of those cor- ruptions or innovations which the bardic rhymers are accused of introducing for the sake of thee uphony of the rhythm,** there could be no more convincing proof of the existence of letters, from a very early period ; as by no other means, it is plain, than by a written standard could the memory of letters, left unpronounced in speaking, have been pre- served. The state of purity in which, considering its great primaeval antiquity, the dialect of the Celtic spoken in Ireland was found existing, when first that country attracted the notice of modern Europe, appears in itself a sufficient proof that the use of letters had long been known to her people. It seems hardly possible, indeed, to conceive that, without the aid of a written standard, this language could have retained to such a degree its original structure and forms, as even to serve as a guide and auxiliary to the philologer in his researches info the affinities and gradual formation of other more recent tongues. That there may be inherent in an original language like the Irish a self-conservative principle, it is most easy to believe ; but we yet perceive, in the instance of the Highlands * " Some of the Bastyls," says M. Falconnet, " avoiont dos l/gnns gravces sur leiir surface. Damasciiis les appelle lettics pour reiulre la chose plus myeterieuse : elit'ctivcuient, ces lisnes que je orois etrc precisement ce qu'Orpliiie appelle riiies, forment tine apparence do caracleres." — Dissert, sur les Bwtyls. t Dr. O'Connor, de inscript. Ogliani. — Jlnnal. Inisfal. f Vallancey, Irish Grammar, Pref i2.—0'Convor. E-p. JVunc 33. and Mnval. Tnisfall. 136. § Doctor Brown and the Rev. Mr. Young, both fellows of Trin. Coll., Dublin. In a letter from Doctor Brown (quoted in a paper, vol. viii. of the Irish Transactions,) he is represented to have said, that, " not- withstanding all that lias been written, by very learned men, of the Ogham character, and some modern testimonies respecting its e.xistence, he was extremely incredulous as to any monuments being actually extant on which it could be found, and disposed to thinli that literary enthu.siasm had mistaken natural furrows on the stone for engraved characters: but, having satisfied himself that he was in error, he thought it a duty to the Academy to mention a monument of the kind that had come under his knowledge." II " They observed enough to impress them with a strong persuasion that the hill is excavated, the entrance being very like that at New Grange. Another resemblance is in the surrounding circle of upright stones, which (together with the want of a ditch or fosse) always distinguishes such tumuli."— />»-. Brown's .Account. IT For a prose version of this ancient Irish story, which furnished the foundation of Macpherson's Dar- thula, see Travsactions of the Gaelic Society of Dublin. ** See, for the modes by which " the bards, or versificators, were accustomed to stretch out words by miiltiplying the syllables according to the exigency of their rhymes," O'Brien's Irish Diet. {Remarks on the Letter A.) One of those methods was " by ihrovving between two vowels an adventitious consonant, to stretch and divide the two vowels with two difflrcnt syllables." HISTORY OF IRELAND. 51 of Scotland,* how much the dialect of the Irish spoken by that people has, from the want or disuse of a written standard, become, in the course of time, changed and cor- rupted ; and still more remarkably in the instance of Ireland itself, where, notwithstanding its acknowledged possession of the art of writing from the time of the mission of St. Patrick, so great a change has the language undergone during that interval, not only as spoken but as written, that there are still extant several fragments, of ancient laws and poems, whose obsolete idiom defies the skill of even the most practised Irish scholars to interpret them.t When so signal a change has been operated in the Irish language, during this period, in spite of the standard maintained, through a considerable portion of it, by a regular succession of public annalists, as well as by the writings of native legendaries and bards, it seems fair to conclude, that, if left without any such safeguards, and in the state of barbarism their absence would imply, the general speech of the people must, in time, have degenerated into a mere vague jargon, retaining but little trace of those features of relationship towards some of the most polished tongues of Europe, which induced the great Leibnitz to recommend a diligent study of the Irish language as highly conducive, in his opinion, to the knowledge and promotion of Celtic literature.j With respect to the medium through which the Irish may be supposed to have early received the knowledge of letters, it might be sufficient to point to Gaul as the not improbable region from whence the British, as well as the Irish Druids, may have been furnished with the gift. That the use of letters was known to the Gauls, the whole context of Caesar's remarks on the subject proves. The single sentence, indeed, where he states that the Druids forbade their doctrines to be committed to writing, fully suffices to prove this art to have been already introduced into the country; the very circumstance of its being prohibited clearly implying its pre-existence. For all the ordinary purposes of life, they made use, adds Cassar, of the Greek letters; and those they derived, it is supposed, from the Greek colonies established at Marseilles. We have already seen, and also on Caesar's authority, that to Britain, the cradle and school of Druidism, such Gaulish students as wished to perfect themselves in its mysteries, resorted. Without insisting any farther on the highly probable supposition, that the Magi or Druids of Ireland were, in realty, those instructors to whom the Gauls sent their youth to be initiated in the higher mysteries, and whose rites Pliny describes as so singularly resembling those of the Persians, there would be at least no violent degree of assumption in supposing such an intercourse to have early existed between the three countries, as might have been the means of supplying the Druids, both of Britain and Ireland, with that knowledge of letters so long possessed by their brethren of Gaul. But there is still an earlier and, as far as Ireland is concerned, more obvious channel, through which this acquisition may have been derived by her people. Those who have accompanied the course of inquiry pursued in the foregoing pages, may have seen reason to believe that the Irish, from their evident connexion both with Phoenician and Cartha- ginian sources, were far more early and more directly, than even the Gauls themselves, in the way of receiving a gift so familiar to most of their Eastern visiters, and which, there are good grounds for supposing, was in those days much more extensively circu- lated, among at least the learned or sacred classes of all countries, than it has been the fashion of modern hypothesis to admit. How wholly improbable it is, that the Irish should not have been furnished with this important knowledge from the same nation that supplied, in a great part, their creed and their ritual, the names of their gods and festivals, of their sacred hills and promontories, has already, perhaps, been more than sufficiently urged. In those parts of Spain with which the Irish were most acquainted, the Phoenicians had, from the time of Moses, established themselves ;5 and, accordingly, letters are known to * " It is well known that the Erse dialect of the Gaelic was never written nor printed until Mr. Macfar- lane, late Minister of Killinvir, in Argyleshire, published, in 1754, a translation of Baxter's 'Call to the Unconverted.' " — Shaw's Inquiry, i^c. The author of the " Claims of Ossian," also, asserts that, " till within these thirty years, the Caledonians had never possessed so much as the skeleton of a national grammar." t Lingua enim Hibernica qua incoloe Hiberniae et Alhaniguoient " Pinkerton, also, has given an explanation, perhaps still more satisfac- tory, of the origin of this confusion between the races . — " As the Celts had anciently possessed all Gaul, their name was continued by some, and by the distant Greek writers especially, to all the Gauls : though the Belgae and Aquitani, the Galii Braccati, and others, or the far greater part of the Gauls, were not Celts, but the expellers of the Celts. The case is the same as that of the English, who ate called Britons, not as being old Britons, but as expellers of those Britons, and as living in Britain." — Dissertalion on the Scythians or Ooths, part ii. ch. 4. t Researches ivto the Physical History of Mankind. One of the reasons alleged by this writer, for supposing the Belgic to have been akin to the Erse, is, that "several names of persons and places in those parts of South Britain which were probably occupied by Belgic people, belong, according to their orthography, to the Erse, and not to the CambroCeltic dialect." But the real solution of the ditficulty here stated is to be found in the fact demonstrated by Lhuyd and others, that the primitive possessors of the country now called Wales were a race speaking a dialect of the Erse, or Irish, and that from them, not from the BelgK, the permanent features of the country derived their names. I " The main body of the population of England is derived from the Belgic nation, one of the three great families into which the Teutones are divided." — Sir F. Palgrate's Rise and Progress of the English Common- veallh, vol. i. ch. 2. See, also, for curious remarks upon tlie affinity between the Frisic and Anglo-Saxon languages (the former being, it is there paid, the least altered branch of the Belgic,) Ed. Rev. vol iii. art. 1.— Nor must the acute, though dogmatic, Pinkerton, be forgotten among the supporters of the Gothic origin of the BelgE. See Dissert, on the Goths, part ii ch. 3., where, in addition to his own opinion and authority, he adds the following in a note: — " Paul Merula, in his Cosmographia, seems to be the first who saw that the ancient BelgjB, on account of their German origin, spoke the Gothic tongue; and his reasons to prove it (pars i. lib. 3.) cannot be answered." § As quoted by Wood (Inquiry into the Primitive Inhabitants, &.C )— This writer, who follows Pinkerton in supposing the Belga? to have been the Scots, adopts also, of course, his opinion as to the former being Teu- tones. "The only inhabitants of Ireland (he says) who seem to have attracted the notice of British, Roman, and other foreign writers, were the enterprising Belgae, whom, as Goths or Scythians, they denominated Bcoti or Scuit." II " From hence, perhaps, they borrowed the name of Tuath Dee ; that is, a people living contiguous to the river Dee." — Ozyg., part i. IT See Translation of an Ode, attributed to Goll, by OHalloran, Transactions of Royal Irish Academy for the year 1788. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 61 bearing the same name. The term thus applied signifies, in Celtic, Ihe ulterynost point ; and in its appropriation thus successively to each of these places, we trace, by stages, as it were, the progress of Phoenician discovery in the west; ihe same name, which they who first reached the western coasts of Spain left as a mark of the uttermost bounds of their knowledge in that direction, having been afterwards, on the discovery of Ireland, transferred, in the same sense, to her shores.* The Velabri, a people situated near Kerry Head, were also, it is supposed, of Spanish origin ; while the Gangani (more properly Concani) and the Luceni,t tribes inhabiting near each other in Spain, continued also, after migration, to be near neighbours in Ireland; the Luceni having established themselves on the eastern side of the Shannon, while the Concani, from whom Connaught is said to have been named, fixed their station upon the western. The claims of Brigantes to be accounted a Spanish colony, appear by no means so valid ; though from the share assigned to this people in the romantic adventures of the Milesians, it becomes a point of importance with the believers in that story to establish their direct descent from Spain. According to the Bards, it was by Breoghan, the great ancestor of the Milesians, that their city Brigantia, near the site of the present Corunna, was built; and it was from the top, as they tell us, of a lofty light- house, or Pharos, erected on the Gallician coast, tliat Ith, the son of Breoghan, looking northward, one starry winter night, discovered, by means of a miraculous telescope, the Isle of Erin to which they were destined. It is added, that the descendants of these Spanish heroes were, to a late period, distinguished by the title of the Clan Breogan,J and that to them the name of Brigantes was applied by Ptolemy in his map. All this, however, plausibly as it may seem to be supported by the existence of an actual city named Brigantia,^ in Gallicia, — the very region from whence most of the Spanish colo- nies were derived, — is but a creation evidently of the later national historians, founded upon the true and ancient traditions of a colonization from the north-west of Spain. The most probable account of the Brigantes is, that they were a branch of that power- ful tribe of the same name in Britain, whose territories extended over no less than five of the present English counties, and who became the most potent and numerous people of all the ancient Britons. || On the strength of a mere conjecture, suggested by Camden, IF the date of their migration into Ireland is fixed so late as the year of our era 76, when Petilius Cerealis was Governor of Britain. But for this assumption there appears to be no historical authority whatsoever. The mention, indeed, of the Brigantes in Ptolemy's map of Ireland, where, as we have seen, only the more ancient of her tribes are marked down, sufliciently disproves the recent date thus assigned to their migratior>. The Nagnatse, a people inhabiting Connaught, and supposed to have contributed to * "The reason which concludes me in the helief that Ireland took its name from the Phoenicians, is because in the uttermost coast of Spain, westward, is a promontory, called by Strabo, lerne, and the river next to it is called by Mela, lerne ; but when tlrese islands were discovered, then Ireland tooii this name as the uttermost." — Sammes. Brilann. .intiq. Illust. chap. 5. Though by Camden and several other writers, the authority of Strabo is, in like manner, referred to, for the existence of a Spanish promontory, called lerne, there is, in reality, no such headland mentioned by that geographer. According to Hoifman, it was a moun- tain that was thus named {Lexic. in voce ;) and he also refers to Strabo, but, as far as I can find, with no better authority. Similar to Sammes's derivation of the name lerne, is that of Hibernia, as given by Bochart, who says that it signifies the last or most western dwelling-place. "Nihil aliud est quam /Aern(« ultima habitatio; quia ultra Hiberniam versus occasum veteres nihil noverant quam vastum mare." — Ocograph.. Sac. lib. xii. c. 39. t "The Luceni of Ireland seem to derive their name and original from the Lucensii of Gallitia, in the opposite coast of Spain, of whose names some remains are to this day in the barony of Lixnaw." — Camden. X Dissertations on the History of Ireland., chap. 13. § On no other grounds did Florianus del Campo, an author mentioned by Camden, undertake to prove that the Brigantes of Britain were derived, through Ireland, from his own country, Spain. There is also an Essay, by Mons. le Brigant (published 1762,) in which he professes to prove that they " were the most ancient inhabitants of Spain, France, Germany, Portugal, England, and of Ireland in part." Baxter had already given much the same account of them, deriving them originally from the ancient Phrygians. Availing him- self, too, of a whimsical reading of Scaliger. who, in a passage of Seneca, converts "Scuto Brigantes" into " Scoto-Brigantes," Baxter applies this latter name, througlwut bis work, to the Scots who colonized North Britain, choosing to consider them as a mixed race between the Brigantes of Britain, and the Ix'i&h.—Qlossar. Antiq. passim. .. |l Brigantium civitatem, qujb numerosissima provincis totius perhibetur. — Tacit. Agric. c. 17. IT "If it may not be allowed that our Brigantes and those in Ireland bad the same names, upon the same account, I had rather, with my learned friend, Air. Thomas Savil, conjecture that some of our Brigantes, with others of the British nations, retired into Ireland upon the coming over of the Romans— some for tlie sake of ease and quietness, others," «fcc. &c. On this point, Whitaker and his follower. Wood, are, as usual, satisfied with the authority of the Monk Richard, whose words bear most suspiciously, I must say, the ap- pearance of having been copied from the above passage of Camden: — " Nationes quae cum vel ab hoste finitimo non daretur quies vel, &c. &c. in hanc terram trajecerunt." There are, indeed, strong grounds for suspecting that this pretended work of the Monk of Cirencester, upon which Whitaker, Chalmers, Wood, and others, have founded so many speculations, was but a clever forgery of the last century, fabricated, it is probable, for the express purpose of imposing upon the learned but credulous Dr. Stukely, to whom the manuscript sf it was so suspiciously transmitted. 62 HISTORY OF IRELAND. ; compound name of that province,* deserve to be peculiarly noticed on account of jir cliief city, Nagnata, to which Ptolemy applies the epithet "eminent," or "illus- the their . ■ ^ ■ - trious,"! and wiiich is conjectured to have stood not far from the present Sligo4 We find, also, among the towns enumerated by this geographer, Eblana, or Deblana,§ a city belonging to the tribe called the Eblanii, and placed by Ptolemy under the same parallel with the present Dublin. Having touched briefly on all that appeared to me most worthy of observation among the earlier tribes and septs of Ireland, I shall now proceed to the consideration of that latest and most important of all her settlements, the Scythic, or Scotic, from whence the whole of her people in the course of time received the name of Scots, and retained it exclusively to so late a period as the tenth century of our era. 11 A sketch of the history of this colony, as contained in the Psalters and metrical records of the Bards, has been already given in the preceding chapter, and may be found at large in the work of Keating, which is drawn almost wholly from these romantic sources. It is a task ungracious and painful, more especially to one accustomed from his early days to regard, through a poetic medium, the ancient fortunes of his country, to be obliged, at the stern call of historical truth, not only to surrender his own illusions on the subject, but to undertake also the invidious task of dispelling the dreams of others who have not the same imperative motives of duty or responsibility for disenchanting themselves of so agreeable an error. That the popular belief in this national tale should so long have been cherished and persevered in, can hardly be a subject of much wonder. So consolatory to the pride of a people for ever struggling against the fatality of their position has been the fondly imagined epoch of those old Milesian days, when, as they believe, the glory of art and arms, and all the blessings of civilization came in the train of their heroic ancestors from the coasts of Spain, that hitherto none but the habitual revilcrs and depreciators of Ireland, the base scribes of a dominant party and sect, have ever thought of calling in question the authenticity of a legend to which a whole nation had long clung with retrospective pride, and which substituting, as it does, a mere phantom of glory for true historical fame, has served them so mournfully in place of real independence and greatness. Even in our own times, all the most intelligent of those writers who have treated of ancient Ireland, have each, in turn, adopted the tale of the Milesian colonization, and lent all the aid of their learning and talent to elevate it into history. IF But, even in their hands, the attempt has proved an utter failure; nor could any effort, indeed, of ingenuity succeed in reconciling the improbabilities of a story, which in no other point of view differs from the fictitious origins invented for their re- spective countries by Hunibald, Suffridus,** Geoffrey Monmouth, and others, than in having been somewhat more ingeniously put together by its inventors, and far more fondly persevered in by the imaginative people, whose love of high ancestry it flatters, and whose wounded pride it consoles. In one respect, the traditional groundwork on which the fable is founded, may be accounted of some value to the historian, as proving the prevalence in the country itself of early traditions and remembrances respecting that connexion with the coasts of Spain and the East, which, as well from Punic as from Grecian authorities, we have shown that the lerne of other ages must have maintained. Had the Bards, in their account of the early settlements, so far followed the natural course of events as to place that colony which they wished to have considered as the * Compounded, possibly, says Camden, of Concani and Nagnatae. t TloKi; iTTta-nfAOi. J " I cannot discover," says Ware, " the least footsteps of a city so called, in all that tract of country— so all-devouring is Time !"— Chap. 6. $ Ita enim plan6 reponendum in Ptoleniaeo pro truncato Eblana. — Baxter, Gloss. Antiq. Britan. li Quod ut ante undecimum post Christi navitatem seculum haud quaquam factum, in fine prEecedentis Capitis declaravimus; ita neminem qui toto antecedentium annoram spatio scripserit, produci posse arbi- tramur qui Scotia: appellatione Albaniam unquara designaverit.— f/sAer, De Britannic. Eccles. Primord. cap. IG. ir Lord Rosse, (Observations on the Bequest of Henry Flood,) Dr. O'Connor, (Rerum Hihernicarum Scriplorea Veteres.) and Mr. D'Alton, the able and well-infonned author of the Essay on Ancient Ireland, are among the distinguished writers here alluded to as having graced, if not invigorated, this view of the question by their advocacy. To these has lately been added Sir William Betham, who, in his ingenious worlt, entitled "The Gael and the Cymbri," has shaped hia hypothesis to the same popular belief ** A fabricator of fictitious origins for the Prisons, as Hunibald was an inventor in the same line for the Franks; the latter founding his fictions professedly upon Druidical remains. According to SuflVidus, the Prisons were in possession of an uninterrupted series of annals from the year 313 before Christ. " Itaque cum ab anno 313 ante natum Christum exordium sumant." — Di Oriff. Fris. See the Essay of M. du Ron- deau, Mem. de VAcad. de Bruxelles, art. 2d, 1773. There is scarcely a nation, indeed, in Europe which has not been provided thus with some false scheme of antiquity; and it is a fact, mournfully significant, that the Irish are now the only people among whom such visionary pretensions are still clung to with any trust. iftSTORY OF IRELAND. 63 original of the Irish people at the commencement instead of at the end of the series, we should have been spared, at least, those difficulties of chronology which at present beset the whole scheme. By making the Milesian settlement posterior in time to tlie Fir-Bolgs and the Tuatha-de-Danaans, both the poetry and the reality of our early annals are alike disturbed from their true stations. The ideal colony, which ought to have been placed beyond the bounds of authentic record, where its inventors would have had free scope for their flights, has, on the contrary, been introduced among known personages and events, and compelled to adjust itself to the unpliant neighbourhood of facts; while, on the other hand, the authentic Belgae and Damnii, accredited beings of history, have, by the interposition of this shadowy intruder, been separated, as it were, from the real world, and removed into distant regions of time, where sober chronology would in vain attempt to reach them.* It is true, the more moderate of the Milesian believers, on being made aware of these chronological difficulties, have surrendered the remote date at first assigned to the event, and, in general, content themselves with fixing it near 1000 years later. But this remove, besides that it exposes the shifting foundation on which the whole history rests, serves but to render its gross anachronisms and improbabilities still more glaring. A scheme of descent which traces the ancestors of the Irish, through a direct series of generations, not merely to the first founders of PhoBnician arts and enterprise, but even to chieftains connected by friendship with the prophet Moses himself,! had need of a remote station in time to lend even a colouring of probability to such pretensions. When brought near the daylight of modern history, and at the distance of nearly a thousand years from their pretended progenitors, it is plain these Milesian heroes at once shrink into mere shadows of fable; and, allowing them their fullest scope of antiquity, there appear no grounds for believing that the Scotic colony settled in Ireland at a remoter period than about two centuries before our era. That they succeeded the Fir-Bolgs and Danaans in their occupation of the country, all its records and traditions agree; and the first arrival of the Belgic tribes in Ireland from the coasts of Britain, or even direct from Gaul, could hardly have been earlier than about the third or fourth century before Christ. Another strong proof of the comparatively recent date of the Scotic colony, is the want of all trace of its existence in Ptolemy's map of Ireland,:}: where the entire omission of even the name of the Scoti among the tribes of that island, shows that, not merely to the Tyrian geographers, who chiefly drew up that map, was this designation of her people wholly unknown ; but that so late as the beginning of the second century, it had not yet reached the knowledge of Ptolemy himself. For this latter fact the state of seclusion in which Ireland had so long remained, — shut out, as she was, entirely from the circle of the Roman Empire, — may be thought sufficiently, perhaps, to account; as well as for the equally certain fact, that not till towards the end of the third century docs there occur a single instance, in any writer, of the use of the term Scotia for Ireland, or Scoti for any of her people. But the most remarkable and, as it appears to me, decisive proof of the recent date of the Scotic settlement, still remains to be mentioned. We learn from the Confession of St. Patrick, a writing of acknowledged genuineness, that, so late as the life-time of that Saint, about the middle of the fifth century, the name of Scots had not yet extended to the whole of the Irish nation, but was still the distinctive appellation of only a particular portion of it.^ It is, indeed, evident that those persons to whom St. Patrick applies the * According to the calculation of the Bards, the arrival of the Belga3 must have been at least 1500 years before the Christian era. t Among the memorable things related of Moses during his intercourse with the ancestors of the Irish, we are told of a prediction uttered Ijy him to their chief Gadelius, that " wheresoever his posterity should remain or inhabit, serpents should have no power in that land to hurt either man or beast. And this prophecy is verified by Candia and Ireland; for in neither of those islands, as being inhabited by the Gadelians, it is manifest that serpents had any power as they have in any oilier countries." — M'Curtin's Vindication of the JJntiquity of Ireland, copied chiefly from Keating. t This fact is noticed by the geographer Cellarius, and the same conclusion deduced from it. After review- ing the other tribes of Ireland, he says: " Hos populos Ptojemaus in Hibernia prodidit : nullos autem in illis recensuit Scotos quod ideo posteriores, saltern nomen illorum, oportet in hac insula fuisse." — L. ii. c. 4. § Unde autem Hiberione, qui nunquam notiliam Dei habuerunt, nisi idola et inimunda usque nunc semper coiuerunt, quomodo nuper facta est piebs Domini et filii Dei nuncupantur? Filii Scoltorum et filiie Kegu- lorum monachi et virgines Christi esse vidcntur. Et etiam una benedicla Scotta, genitiva nobilis, pulcher- rima, adulta erat, quam ego baptizavi.— S. Patricii Confessio. This strong proof of the comparatively modern date of the Scotic settlement has not escappd the notice of unprejudiced inquirers into our antiquities. The Bollandists.Tillemonl, Father Innes, and, lately, the learmd historian of the lush church. Dr. Lanigan, have all perceived and remarked upon the passage; the two latter showing how fatal to the dreams of Milesian antiquity must be considered the state of things disclosed in this authentic document. The nature and object of the valuable work of Dr. Lanigan were such as to lead him only to the consideration of our ecclesiastical antiquities; but the few remarks made by him upon the passage of St. Patrick's Confession, just cited, leave no doubt as to the view taken by his clear and manly intellect of that whole apparatus of pompous fable, to which so many of the antiquaries of this country still 64 HISTORY OF IRELAnS. name of Scots, were all of the high and dominant class ; whereas, in speaking of the great bulk of the people, he calls them Hiberionaces, — from the name Hiberione, which is always applied by him to the Island itself. Such a state of things, — resembling that of the Franks in Gaul, when, although masters of the country, they had not yet imposed upon it their name, — shows clearly that the Scotic dynasty could not then have numbered many ages of duration ; and that to date its commencement from about a century or two before the Christian era is to allow the fullest range of antiquity to which, with any semblance of probability, it can pretend. Even when lightened thus of the machinery of fable, and of all its unfounded preten- sions to antiquity, the Scotic settlement must still continue a subject of mystery and discussion from the state of darkness in which we are left as to its real race and origin; and in this the Scoti and the Picts have shared a common destiny. In considering the Scots to have been of Scythian extraction, all parties are agreed, — as well those who contend for a northern colonization as they who, following the Bardic history, derive their settlement, through Spain, from the East. For this latter view of the subject, there are some grounds, it must be admitted, not unplausible : the Celto-Scytha?, who formed a part of the mixed people of Spain, having come originally from the neighbourhood of the Euxine Sea,* and therefore combming in themselves all the peculiarities attributed to the Milesian colony of being at once Scythic, Oriental, and direct from Spain. Of the actual settlement of several Spanish tribes in Ireland, and in those very districts of the Irish coast facing Gallicia, we have seen there is no reason to doubt; and there would be, in so far, grounds for connecting them with the Scotic colonization, as in that very region, it appears, was situated the principal city of the Scoti, in whose name, Hybernis, may be found the mark of its Iberian origin. But however strongly these various facts and coincidences tend to accredit the old and constant tradition of a coloni- zation from Spain, at some very remote period, and however adroitly they have been turned to account by some of the favourers of the Milesian romance, it is evident that, to the comparatively modern settlement of the Scots, they are, in no respect, applicable ; the race to whom the southern region of Ireland owed its Iberi and Hybernis, the names of its river lerne and of its Sacred Promontory, having existed ages before the time when the Scoti — a comparatively recent people, unknown to Maximus of Tyre, or even to Ptolemy himself, — found their way to these shores. We have, therefore, to seek in some other direction the true origin of this people: and the first clue to our object is afforded by the Bardic historians themselves, who re- present the Scoti to have been of Scythic descent, and to have from thence derived their distinctive appellation. By the term Scythia, as applied in the first centuries of Chris- tianity, was understood Germany and the more northern regions of Europe ;t and to confirm still farther the origin of the Scots from that quarter,f it is added by the Bards that they were of the same race with three colonies that had preceded them ; namely, the Nemedians, the Tuatha-de-Danaans, and the Fir-Bolgs or Belgse. Now, that these tribes, whether coming through the medium of Britain, or, as some think, direct from their own original countries, were all of German extraction, appears to be the prevailing opinion. One of the most enthusiastic, indeed of the Milesian believers is of opinion that the Nemedians, or Nemetha;, belonged to that German people, the Nemetes, who lend Uieir sanction. The result of his observations on the subject is, that " following the analogy usual in such cases, we may conclude that the invasion of Ireland by the Scots ought not to be referred to as high an antiquity as some of our historians have pretended ; otherwise it would be very difficult to explain how they could have been in our Saint's time considered as a nation distinct from the greater part of the people of Ireland." — Eccles. Hist, of Ireland, vol. i. ch. 5. He adds afterwards, that " the Scots might have been 400 or 500 years in Ireland before the distinction of names between them and the other inhabitants totally ceased;" thus assigning even a later date for their arrival in the country than, it will be seen, I have allowed in the text. * That the ScythER of Europe came from the northern parts of Persia seems to be the opinion of most inquirers on the subject. Hence the near affinity which is found between the German and the Persian lan- guages. Among those authorities which have run the round of all the writers in favour of the Milesian story is that of Orosius, tlie historian, who is represented as stating, that " Scythians, expulsed from Gallicia in Spain by Constantino the Great, took shelter in Ireland "—See Dr. Campbell. (Strictures on the Ecclesiastical and Literary History of Ireland, sect. 5.) This apthority, which Dr. Campbell has, in his turn, taken im- plicitly for granted, would, if genuine, be doubtless highly important. But there is, in reality, no such state- ment in Orosius, who merely mentions, in describing the position of Ireland, that a part of her coasts ranges opposite to the site of the Gallician city, Brigantia, in Spain. t Thus Anastasius, the Sinaite, a monkish writer whom Pinkerton cites as of the ninth age, but who lived as early as the sixth :— " SkuSwv tTs e/aflac-/ nxxuv ct ttclkmoi to KhtfAO. ttTraa to Bogiioy, evflst Uftv ot TotSoi t The genealogy of the Milesians, or Scoti, as given by Keating, lies all in the Sarmatian line ; and no less personages than Petorbes, King of the Huns, and the great Attila himself, are mentioned as belonging to one of the collateral branches of their race. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 65 inhabited the districts at present occupied by Worms, Spire, and Mentz.* By some the Danaaiis are conjectured to liave been Danes; or, at least, from the country of the people afterwards known by that name ;f and the Bardic historians, who describe this colony as speaking the German^ Iann[uay Keating, called the Fine of Leins'er, tliis tribute, whicli was paid through the reigns of forty kings, consisted of 3000 cows, as many liogs and sheep, 3000 copper caldrons, as many ounces of silver, and the same number of mantles. The number of each kind of cattle demanded is stated variously by ditferent authorities; some making it so few as 300 (MacCurtin's Brief Discourse,) and others as high as I.') 000.— MS. quoted by Dr. O'Connor. t Sec Warner (History of Ireland, vol. i. book 4.,) whose confu.sed notions respecting this law are adopted, and rendered still " worse confounded," by the author of the Dissertations on the Hist, of Ireland, sect. 11. I The following is Spenser's account of the Law of the Eric, as existing among the Irish. Having remarked that, in the Brehon Law, there were " many things repugning both to God's law and man's," he adds, " as for example, in the case of murder, the Brehon, tliat is, their Judge, will compound between the murderer and the friends of the party murdered, which prosecute the action, that the malefactor shall give iitito them, or to the child or wife of him that is slain, a recompense which they call an Eriach; by which wild law of theirs many murders amongst them are made up and smothered." — View of the state of Ireland. Both by Spencer and Sir John Davis this custom of compounding the crime of homicide by a fine is spoken of as peculiar to the Irish; and the latter writer even grounds upon it a most heavy charge against that peo- ple ; either forgetting that this mode of composition for manslaughter formed a part of tlie AngloSa.ton code, or else wilfully suppressing that fact for the purpose of aggravating his list of charges against the old Brehon law. As there will occur other opiiortunities for considering this question, I shall here only remark that, however it may have been customary among the ancient Pagan Irish to punish homicide by a mulct, or Eric, alone, there are proofs that, in later times, and before the coming of the English, not only was wil- ful murder, but also the crimes of rape and robbery, made legally punishable by death.— See Dissertations on the Laws of the ancient Irish, Collcctan. vol. i.—O'/ieilly, on the Brehon Laws, sect. 8.—Ledwich, Antiquities.— Hume, vol. i. Appendi.v. § Iliad, I. i.x. V. 030., where, by Homer, the blood-flne is called a penalty or mulct, and the relatives of the murdered person arc represented as satisfied with the imposition. II "In these Scoto-Irish chiefs of Argyleshire," says Sir Waller Scott, " historians must trace the original roots of the royal line."— History of Scotland, vol. i. chap 2. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 79 course of time, into the kingdom of Dalriada; and finally, on the destruction of llic Picts by Kenetii Mac-Alpine, became the kingdom of all Scotland. The incursions of the Irish into those northern parts of Britain had commenced at a very remote period; and in the reigns of Olmucad, Tigerniimas, Reatch, and other mo- narchs, such expeditions to the coast of Albany are recorded to have taken place.* Without depending, however, solely on Irish authorities, the language of the Roman panagyrist, Eumenius, in extolling the victory gained in Britain by Constantius Chlorus, would fully suffice to prove that, previously to the coming of Caesar, the neighbourhood of Ireland had been found troublesome to the Britons, and that they had been " ac- customed" — for such is the phrase used by the orator — to invasions from that quar- ter.f But the first permanent settlement of the Irish in North Britain was the small colony, just mentioned, under Carbry Riada; which, fixing its abode in a part of those rc'ions inhabited previously only by the Picts, or Caledonians, acquired, as Bede tells us, partly by friendship and partly by the sword, a settled home in the country;]; while tlieir founder, already possessing, in the north of Ireland, a seigniorial territory named, after himself, Dalriada,§ transmitted the same name to the infant kingdom he was thus the means of establishing in Albany. || As at this period, and for a long course of centuries after, the name of Scoti, or Scots, was applied exclusively to the Irish, I shall, to avoid confusion in speaking of the country now known as Scotland, call it either North Britain, or else by the name which it bore in those early days, Alba, or Albany. The most tedious, as well as most sanguinary of the many wars in which the mo- narch of the Hundred Battles was engaged, was that maintained by him against the heroic Mogh-Nuad, king of the province of Lcinster, during which, the latter carried away the palm of victory in no less than ten successive pitched battles. In consequence of these numerous defeats, to so low an ebb was the power of the monarch reduced that liis antagonist became at length possessor of one half of the kingdom. A new division of the country accordingly took place,^ which continued, nominally at least, to be recog- nised to a late period, assigning the northern part, under the name of Leath-Cuinn, or Con's half, to the monarch ; while the southern, under the designation of Leath-Mogh, or Mogh's half, fell to the jurisdiction of the crown of Munster. The most accomplished of all the Milesian princes, whether as legislator, soldier, or scholar, was, according to the general report of all his historians, the monarch Cor- mac Ulfadha, who flourished about the middle of the third century, and was a. d. the only one of the few sensible princes whom the line of Milesius produced 254. that was able to inspire enough of respect for his institutions to secure their ex- * These early incuysions are thus acknowledged by Buclianan ;— "Nee semel Scotorum ex Hibcrnia tran- situm in Albium factum nostri annales referunt." — Hist. Scot. 1. 2. t '■ Adhuc natio (Britannica) eliani tunc rudis et solis Britanni Pictis modo et Hibernis adsueti hostibus, adliuc seminudi, facile Rornanis arniis signisque cesserunt." — Panegyric. Vet. i "Procedente autem tempore Britannia post Britoneset Pictos, tertiam Scotorum nalionem in Pictoruin parte recepit, qui, duce Reuda, de Hibernia egressi, vel amicitia vel ferro, sibimet inter eos sedes quas hecte- nus habent vindicarunt, a quo videlicet duce usque hodie Dalreudini vocantur." — L. i. e. 1. § This territory, which comprehended the north, north-west, and part of the south of the coivnty of An- trim, is sometimes confounded with Dalaradia, which, as described by Harris, comprehended the southeast parts of the same county, and the greatest part, if not all, of the county of Down. II For the truth of this important and now undoubted historical fact, we need but refer to the admissions of Scotch writers themselves. After mentioning the notice, Amniianus, of Scots in Britain, a. d. 3G0, the judicious Innes adds, "This may very well agree with the placing the coming in of Eocha Riada (the same as Bede's Reuda.) the first leader of the colony of the Scots into Britain, about the beginning of the third age. It is like he brought over at tirsl but a small number, not to give jealousy to the ancient inhabitants of these parts, the Caledonians; but in the space of one hundred, or about one hundred and fifty years, that passed betwixt the time of iheir first coming in, and their being mentioned by Aramian, a. d. 30O, they might have so increased both within themselves, and by accession of new auxiliaries fronr Ireland, that the Caledonians or Picts, finding them serviceable in their wars against the Romans and provincial Britons, were easily disposed to enlarge their possessions." — Crit. Essay, vol. ii. Dissert, li. chap. 2. Thus Pinkerton, also, whose observations prove hini to have been thoroughly well informed upon the sub- ject :—" Concerning the origin of the Dalreudini of Ireland, all the Irish writers, Keating, Usher, O'Flaherty, &c. &c. are concordant, and say the name sprung from Carbry Riada. Beda, a superior authority to all the Irish annalists put together, informs us that this very Riada led also the first colony of Scots to North Bri- tain. So that the point stands clear, independently of the lights wliich Kennedy and O'Connor throw upon It."— Inquiry, part iv. chap. 2. Chalmers, also, concurs in the same view. " The new settlers." he adds, "conti- nued, to the age of Bede, to be commonly called from the original district (in Ireland) the Dalreudini, though they will be herein 'denominated the Scoto-Irish."— C(i/crfon!«, vol i. book ii. chap. 6. But the most ancient testimony of the Scots of North Britain to the descent of their kings from the royai Irish raceior Conary, is tobe found in a Gaelic Duan,or Poem, written by the court bard of Malcolm HI. about A. D. 1057,) which has been pronounced the most ancient monument of Dalriadic history remaining. For this very curious genealogical poem, see Ogvg. Vind. chap. x. Rer. Hibern. Script, prol. i. Pinkcrlon's In- quiry, part iv. chap. 5. ir According to O'Flaherty, this division of the kingdom continued in reality but a year;—" in reputation, however," says Hams, "it subiibts among the Irish to this dav." 80 HISTORY OF IRELAND. istence beyond his own life-time. To Fiis munificence and love of learningthe country was indebted, it is said, for tlie foundation of three Academies at Tara: in the first of which the science of war was taught; in the second, historical literature; while the third academy was devoted to the cultivation of jurisprudence. It was a remarkable tribute to the powerful influences of literature (if the learning of the Fileas and Seanachies may be dignified with that name,) that the various schemes of state reform brought for- ward by these legislators all commenced with the reformation of the Literary Order. Among the rest, the monarch Cormac, who was himself a distinguished ornament of that class, applied his earliest care to the correcting of those abuses which had, in the course of time, deteriorated its spirit. Under his auspices, too, a general revision of the annals of the kingdom was entered upon; and the national records which, since the days of the illustrious Ollamh, had been kept regularly, it is said, in the Psalter of Tara, received such corrections and improvements as the growtli of knowledge since that remote period must have suggested. It is even alleged that, in the course of this reign, which introduced that mode of ascertaining the dates of regal successions, called Syn- chronism, which consists in collating the times of the respective reigns with those of con- temporary Princes in other countries. This form of chronology was adopted also by an Irish historian of the eleventh century, named Flann, whose annals, formed upon this principle, are said to be still extant in the valuable library at Stovve. It is, however, not easy to conceive, that so general a knowledge of foreign history as this task of syn- chronizing seems necessary to imply, and which, even in writers so late as Tigernach and Flann," is sufficiently remarkable, could have been found among a people so entirely secluded from most of the other European nations, as were the Irish in the time of their King Cormac. The abdication of the supreme power by this monarch, in the full vigour of his age and faculties, was the consequence, it appears, of an ancient law or custom of the coun- try, which forbade that any one who was affected with a personal blemish should hold possession of the throne; and as, in resisting a rebellious attack on his palace, he in- curred the loss of an eye,f- this accomplished monarch was thereby disqualified from longer retaining the sovereignty. In the law thus enforced may be observed another instance, rather remarkable, of coincidence with the rules and customs of the East. In a like manner, we read in the Persian history, that the son of the monarch Kobad, having by a singular accident lost the use of an eye, was in consequence precluded, by an old law of the country, from all right of succession to the throne. The nature of the religious opinions held by this monarch have been made a subject of some discussion; and the reverend librarian of Stowe has thought it no waste of his learned leisure to devote a distinct chapter to the consideration of" the Religion of King Cormac." By some writers it is alleged, that he was converted to Christianity seven years before his death; being, it is added, the third person in Ireland who professed that faith before the coming of St. Patrick. That this prince was enlightened enough to roject the superstitions of the Druids, and that, in consequence of his free thinking on such subjects, he had that powerful body opposed to him throughout the whole of his reign, there appears little reason to doubt; but whether he substituted any purer form of faith for that which he had repudiated, is a point not so easily ascertained. A circum- stance recorded of him, however, shows how vigorously he could repress intolerance and cruelty, even when directed against a body of religionists to v/hom he was himself op- posed. Among the ancient institutions of Tara was a sort of College of Sacred Virgins, whose vocation it appears to have been, like the Dryads or fortune-tellers among the Gauls, to divine the future for the indulgence of the superstitious or the credulous. In one of those incursions, or forays, of which the territory of the monarch was so often the * Planus Junior, Plann. Mainislreach cognominatus, cuius Synchrona pariler extant in vetusto codice membraneo ejusdem Bibliotheca;, No. i. quique ohiil anno 1056, plura ilideui subaiinistravit, quibus traditio historica aur.loritate coslanea fulcitur.— flcr. Ilibern. Script. Ep. J^unc. A list of no less than fourteen poems attributed to this synchronist, who is known also by the title of Flann of Bute, is given, in Mr. O'Reilly's chronological list of Irish writers, as being still preserved in the Book of Leacan, in the O'Cleary's Book of Invasions, and other such collections. t VVe find this accident otherwise accounted for, in a curious narrative, containing some picturesque eir- cnmstances, which General Vallancoy gives as a translation from an old Irish law book. Ceallach MacCor- mac, a kinsman, as it appears, of the monarch, having carried away by force, the niece of another Irish chieftain, the latter, determined to take revenge for the insult, hurried to Tara, the royal residence, where the offender was then a guest. " lie made directly towards Tara," says the MS., " where he arrived after sun- set. Now, there was a law prohibiting any person from coming armed into Tara after sunset, so he went un- armed, and, taking down Cormacs spear from the place where it huni in the hall of Tara, he killed Ceallach IVlacCormac on the spot, and drawing hack the spear with great force, the forrol stuck out Cormac's eye, and wounded tlie Rcuctaire, or Judge of Tura, in the back, of wliich ho died."— Fragment of the Brc/ioii Laics. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 81 object, the place where these holy Druidesses resided,* and which bore tlie name of" The Retreat until Death," was attacked by the troops of the King of Leinster, and the whole of its sacred inmates, together with their handmaids, most inhumanly massacred.f This brutal sacrilege the monarch punished by putting twelve of the Lagenian chieftains most concerned in it to death, and exacting rigorously the Boarian tribute from the province to which they belonged. In the course of this reign considerable additions are said to have been made to that body of laws, or legal axioms, which had been, from time to time, compiled, under the name of Celestial Judgments; and, among other contributors to this great legislative work, is mentioned Finn Mac-Cumhal — or, as known to modern ears, Fingal — the son- in-law to the monarch Cormac, and general of the famed Fianna Eirinn, or ancient Irish militia. It has been the fate of this popular Irish hero, after a long course of traditional renown in his own country, where his name still lives, not only in legends and songs, but in the yet more indelible record of scenery connected with his memory,]: to have been, at once, transferred by adoption to another country, and start, under a new but false shape, in a fresh career of fame. Besides being himself an illustrious warrior and bard, this chief transmitted also to his descendants, Oisin and Osgar, the gifts of heroism and song; and died, by the lance, as we are told, of an assassin, in the year 273. In the humble abode where King Cormac passed his latter days, — a thatched cabin, as it is said, at Aicill, or Kells,^ — he produced those works which entitle his name to a place in the list of Royal Authors. " The Advice to a King," which he wrote for the instruction of his son, Carbre, on resigning to him the throne, is said to have been extant so late as the seventeenth century ;|| as well as a poem likewise attributed to him, on the virtues of the number Three, — somewhat resembling, most probably, the Gryphus of the poet Ausonius on the same mysterious subject. Among the remarkable events that passed during the reign of this monarch, it is worthy of mention that, after having defeated the Ultonians, in a great battle at Granard, he banished numbers of the people of that province to the Isle of Man and the Hebrides. That the island of Eubonia, as Man was then called, belonged in early times to Ireland, appears from Ptolemy, by whom it is marked as a dependency of that country; and, in a work attributed to the cosmographer ^Ethicus, we are told, " The Isle of Man, as well as Hibernia, is inhabited by tribes of the Scots."!! In the time of St. Patrick it was still an Irish island, and the favourite resort of such holy persons as wished to devote themselves to a life of seclusion and prayer. It was in the reign of Carbre, the son and successor of Cormac, that the famous Fianna Eirinn, or Militia of Erin, whose achievements formed so often the theme of our ancient romances and songs, was, in consequence of the dissensions within its own body, as well as of the formidable degree of power which it had attained, put down summarily by force. This national army had been for some time divided into two rival septs, the Clanna Boisgne, commanded by Oisin, the son of Finn, and the Clanna Morna, which was at * " Dryades erant Gallicanee mutieres fatidicae."— Siztoos. in Lamprid. " Dicebat quodem tempore Aurelia- nura Gallicanas consuluisse Dryadas." — Vopisc. in Atirel. We have Toland's authority for their having been of Druidesses in Ireland; and Gealcossa's Mount, as he tells us, situated in Inisowen, in the county of Donegal, was so called from a female Druid of that name. " Her name," he adds, " is of the Honierical strain, signifying The White-li'gged. On this hill is her grave, and hard by is her temple, being a sort of diminutive Stonehenge, which many of the old Irish dare not, even at this day, any way profane." — Letters to Lord Molesworth. t Annal. IV. Magist. ad ann. 241. i " I must not omit that, in the centre of this cotinty (the county of Donegal,) the cloudcapt mountain of Alt Ossein presides, and around him is the whole scenery of Ossian and Fingal, which has been so beauti- fully described by Mr. Macpherson, and to the northward of Lough Dearg are the mountains, caverns, and lakes of Finn, or Fingal." — Collectan de Reb. Hibeni. No. .\ii. A writer in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy (vol. xv.,) mentions a great rock in the county of Meath, under shelter of which Finn and his faithful wolf-dog, Brann, once rested from the chase; and it is added that on the top of the hill of Shanthamon, in the county of Cavan, may be seen his " Fingers," in the shape of five enormous stones, each about five feet high, and of four tons weight. A similar tribute has been paid to our Irish heroes by that country of poesy and song which has adopted them as her own. " All over the Highlands," says Sir John Sinclair (Dis.sert. on the Authenticity, &c.,) the names of Ossian, Fingal,- Comhal, Trenmor, Cuchullin, are still familiar, and held in the greatest respect. Straths or valleys, moun- tains, rocks, rivers, are named after thorn. There are a hundred places in the Highlands and Isles which derive their name from the Feinne, and from circumstances connected witli their history." § In his first version, from an Irish M3., of the details of the accident by which Cormac lost his eye. Gene- ral Vallancey printed and published the following sentence ; " But the famous Aicill performed a cure for his eye." Finding, subsequently, however, that Aicill was not a physician, but a small town in the county of Meath, lie thus corrected the passage ; " Cormac was sent to Aicill to be cured." This mistake of the great Irish scholar has been made the subject of some dull facetiousness in Doctor Campbell's Strictures, Sect. 3. II Bishop Nicholson has, by an oversight, transferred both this work and the son for whom it was written, to Cormac Mac-Cuillenan, the Royal Compiler of the Psalter of Cashel, who died in the beginning of the tenth century. The confusion is carried still farther by representing the latter also as having died in "a thatched house at Anachiul, in Ceananus near Tara."— fiist. Lib. Appendix. U " Hibernia a Scotorum gentibus colitur.— Menavia insula apque ac Hibernia a Scotorum eentibus habi- tatur."— Co^wo^. 10 82 HISTORY OF IRELAND. this time protected by the King of Munster; and the rights claimed by the former sept, to take precedence of all other military tribes, had been long a source of violent feuds between their respective chieftains. A celebrated contention of this nature between Goll and Finn Mac-Cumhal, near the palace of the latter at Almhain,* had risen to such a height that it could only be appeased, we are told, by the intervention of the bards, who, shaking the Chain of Silence between the chiefs, succeeded in calming their strife.f To such a pitch, however, had the presumption of the Clanna Boisgne at length arrived, that in the reign of Carbre, having had the audacity to defy the throne itself, they were attacked by the united force of almost all the royal troops of the kingdom (the King of Munster alone taking part with the rebellious Fians,) and a battle, memorable for its extent of carnage, ensued, in which Osgar, the son of Oisin, or Ossian, was slain by the monarch's own hand, and scarcely a man of the Glanna Boisgne escaped the slaughter of that day. The victorious monarch, too, surviving but a short time his dreadful combat with Osgar, was himself numbered among the slain. The fame of this fatal battle of Gabhra, and the brave warriors who fell in it, continued long to be a favourite theme of the Irish bards and romancers; and upon no other foun- dation than the old songs respecting the heroes of this combat, mixed up with others relating to chieftains of a still more ancient date, has been raised that splendid fabric of imposture which, under the assumed name of Ossian, has for so long a period dazzled and deceived the world ;| being not more remarkable for the skill and fancy displayed in its execution than for the intrepidity with which its author presumed on the general ignorance and credulity of his readers. The close connexion of this work of Macpherson with the History of Ireland, as well as of North Britain, at this period, and the false views which it is meant to convey of the early relations between the two countries, demand for it a degree of notice in these pages to which, as a mere work of fiction, however brilliant, it could not have any claim. Such notice, too, appears the more called for, from the circumstance of this fabrication forming but one of a long series of attempts, on the part of Scottish writers, to confound and even reverse the historical affinities between the two countries, for the purpose of claiming, as the property of Scotland, not only those high heroic names and romantic traditions which belong to the twilight period of Irish history we are now considering, but also the most distinguished of those numerous saints and scholars, who are known, at a later and more authentic period, to have illustrated our annals. This notable scheme, to which the community of the name of Scotia between the two countries afforded pecu- liar facilities, commenced so early as the thirteenth century, when, on the claim ad- vanced by Edward I. to a feudal superiority over Scotland, it became an object with the people of that country to assert the independency of the Scotish crown, and when for the first time pretensions were set up by them to a scheme of antiquities of their own, partly borrowed from that of the parent country, but chiefly intended to supersede and eclipse it. The pretensions but faintly sketched out at that crisis, assumed, in the hands of suc- ceeding chroniclers, a more decided shape; till at length, with the aid of the forged authorities brought forward by Hector Boece,^ an addition of from forty to five-and-forty Scotish kings were at once interpolated in the authentic Irish list of the Dalriadic rulers; by which means the commencement of the Scotish kingdom in Britain was removed from its true iiistorical date, — about the beginning, as we shall see, of the sixth century, — to as far back as three hundred and thirty years before the Incarnation. It is worthy of remark, too, that far more in political objects and designs than in any ro- mantic or vain-glorious ambition, is to be found the source of most of these efforts on the part of the Scotch to construct for themselves this sort of spurious antiquity. We have seen tiiat the first notions of such a scheme arose out of the claims set up by Edward I. to a rigiit of superiority over Scotland; and as the English monarch had backed his preten- sions by reference to a long line of kings, through which he professed to have descended * "Situatert in Lninster. on tlie summit of Allen, or rather, as the natives of that country pronounce it, Allovvin. The village and bog of Allen have thence derived their name. There are still the remains of some trenches on the top of the hill where Fin Mac Cumhal and Jiis Fians were wont to celebrate their feasts."— Dr. Young, Trarts. Irish Acad. t " 'I'he Hook of llowth affirms that, in the battle between the Fenii and Carbre, the Fenii were all de- stroyed, Oisin excepted ; and that he lived till the time of St. Patrick, to whom he related the exploits of the Fenii."— flcWci of Irish Poetry. See also Walker's Irish Bards. " It would be tedious," adds Miss Brooke, "to relate the various causes assigned by difiijrent writers for this battle. Historians, in general, lay the chief blame upon the Fenii ; and the poets, taking part with their favourite heroes, cast the odium upon Carbre, then monarch of Ireland. The fault, most likely, was mutual." t " There arc at least three Poems, of considerable antiquity, in Irish, written on the battle of Gabhra, upon which Mr. Macpherson founded his poem of ' Temoru.' "—Essay to investigate the Authenticity, &c., by Edward O'Reilly, Esq, J e § Innes acquits his countryman Boece of having been himself the author of this forgery.— Ch. ii. ail. ii. §8. Hl.STORY OF IRELAND. 83 from Brutus, Locrine, Albanact, &c., the Scotch, in their counter-memorials,* deemed it politic to have recourse to a similar parade of antiquity, and brought forward, for the first time, their additional supply of ancient kings, to meet the exigencies of the occasion. In like manner, when, at a later period, their eloquent Buchanan lent all the attractions of his style to adorn and pass into currency the absurd legends of Hector Boece respecting the forty kings, it was not that he conceived any glory or credit could redound to his country from such forgeries,! but because the examples he found in these pretended records of the deposition and punishment of kings by their subjects, fell in with the prin- ciples at that time afloat respecting the king-deposing power, and afforded precedents for that right of revolt against tyranny which he had himself so strenuously and spirit- edly advocated.l From this period the boasted antiquities of the British Scots were suffered to slumber undisturbed, till, on the appearance of the work of the Bishop of St. Asaph, entitled, an Historical Account of Ancient Church Government in Great Britain and Ireland, when that learned prelate, having occasion to notice the fabricated succession of Scotish kings from an imaginary Fergus I., exposed the falsehood and utter absurdity of the whole fable. This simple historical statement called forth a champion of the forty phantom kings, in the person of Sir George Mackenzie, the King's Advocate for Scotland, who, resenting warmly, as " a degree of leze-majeste," this curtailment of the royal line, went so far as to identify the honour and safety of the British monarchy with the credit of the fabulous kings of Boece.^. It is, indeed, not a little curious to observe, that while politi- cal views and objects continued to be the motive of most of this zeal for the antiquities of their country, the ground taken by the Scotish champions was now completely changed ; and whereas, Boece, and, far more knowingly, Buchanan, had supported the forgery of the forty kings for the sake of the weapons which it had furnished them against the eacredncss of hereditary monarchy. Sir George Mackenzie, on the contrary, overlooking, or rather, perhaps, not acknowledging this alleged tendency of the Scotish fictions, upheld them as so essentially connected with the very foundations of the British monarchy, that to endeavour to bring them into any disrepute was, in his eyes, a species of high treason. The masterly hand of Bishop Stillingfleet gave the last blow to that shadowy fabric of which Sir George Mackenzie had proved himself but a feeble defender ; and the preten- sions of the Scots to a high line of antiquity, independent of that of their ancestors, the Irish, fell, never again to rise in the same ostensible shape. But there remained another mode of undermining the Scotic history of Ireland, or rather of confounding it with that of the Scotia derived from her, so as to transfer to the offspring much of the parent's fame; and of this Macpherson, with much ingenuity, and a degree of hardihood almost without parallel, availed himself. Counting upon the obscurity of Irish history at the commencement of the Christian era, he saw that a supposed migration of Caledonians into that country in the first century, would not only open to hm a wide and safe field for the fanciful creations he meditated, but would also be the means of appropriating to his own country the romantic fame of those early heroes and bards, those traditional sub- jects of story and song, which are, after all, more fondly clung to by every ancient people, than even their most authentic and most honourable history. It is true this adoption and appropriation by the British Scots, of the songs and tradi- tions of the Irish, had been carried on for ages before the period when it was so expertly turned to account by Macpherson; being the natural result of the intimate intercourse so long subsisting between the two countries. The original fragments, indeed, of Erse poetry, which formed the foundation of most of his Epics, were, in fact, but versions of * These memorials, which were addressed to the Popp, are to be found in Hearne's edition of Fordun, " Those productions of the Scots (says Innes,) I mean as to their remote antiouities, ought to be considered such as they truly were, as the pleadings of advocates, who commonly make no great ditficulty to advance with great assurance all that makes for the adva-ntage of therr cause or clients, though they have but proba- ble grounds, and sometimes bare conjectures to go upon." — Critical Essay. t It is but fair to observe, that by none of tliese writers was so bold a detiance of the voice of history ven- tured upon as to deny that the Scots of Albany had originally passed over from Ireland. Even Sir George Mackenzie, who endeavours to set aside the relationship as much as possible, says, — " We acknowledge our- selves to have come last from Ireland;" while of all those Scotish writers who preceded him in the same track, John Major, Hector Boece, Leslie, Buchanan, not a single one has thought of denying that the Scots were originally of Irish extraction. See Ogygia Vindicated, chap. 3. X In his work De Jure regni apud Scotos. § See his letter to the lord chancellor, wherein Sir George " admires that any of the subjects of Great Bri- tain did not think it a degrees of lese-majesty to injure and shorten the royal line of their kings." In speaking of the Scoto Irish chiefs of Argyleshire, Sir Walter Scott says, (Hist, of Scotland, vol. i. ch. 2.) "Not to incur the charge of lezn-inajestii, brought by Sir G. Mackenzie against Dr. Stillinglleet, for abridging the royal pedigree by some links, we will briefly record that, by the best authorities, twenty-eight of these Dalriadic kings or chiefs reigned successively in Argyleshire." It was, however, iK>t in reference to the Dalriadic kings that Sir George's remark was made, nor was it directed against Stillingfleet, but against Lloyd, the learned Bishop of St. Asajdi. 84 HISTORY OF IRELAND. old Irish songs relating to the Fenian heroes,* which, though attributed to the poet Oisin, were the productions of bards of the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and, finding their way among the highlanders of Britain, from the close connexion between the two coun- tries, came, in the course of time, to be adopted by them, both heroes and songs, as their own.| The various adaptations and corruptions of the original ballads by which this process of naturalization was effected, and the chieftains Finn, Oisin, Osgar, Cuchullin, GoU Mac- Morn were all in the Erse songs converted into Highland heroes, have been pointed out by critics familiar with the dialects of both countries; and though some of the variations from the original ballads arose, doubtless, from the want of a written standard, there occur others — such as the omission frequently of the name of Ireland, and of St. Patrick — which could iiave arisen from no other cause than a deliberate intention to deceive.]: In all such prepense modes of falsification, Macpherson improved boldly on his rude originals -,5 thougl) still with so little regard to consistency, as often to justify the suspi- cion, that liis great success was owing fully as much to the willingness of others to be deceived, as to his own talent in deceiving. The conversion of Finn, an Irish chieftain of the third century, into a Caledonian "King of Morven," and the chronological blunder of giving him Cuchullin for a contemporary, who had flourished more than two centuries before, are errors, which, gross as they are, might, under cover of the darkness of Irish history, at that period, have been expected to pass unnoticed. But his representing this Finn, or Fingal, as in the year 208 commanding the Caledonians against Caracalla,li and then brinijing him forward again, at the interval of more than a century, to contend with Cathmor in single combat, is one of those daring flights of improbability and absurdity, upon which none but a writer so conscious of his own powers of imposture could have ventured.ll * For the best account of these Fenian Poems, and of the general nature of their style and subjects, the reader is referred to an able essay on the authenticity of Ossian's Poems, by Dr. William Hamilton Drum- mond, in the 16th volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy. A MS. collection of the Fenian tales and songs is said to be in the possession of Mr. James Hardiman, the intelligent author of the History of Gal way. t Even among the Lowlattders, too, the traditional renown of Finn and his heroes had long made itself known, as the following instance proves:— When Bruce was defeated byMacDougal, Lord of Lorn, he placed himself in the rear of his retreating followers, and checked the pursuit. " Behold him," said MacDougal to one of his leaders, " he protects his followers against us, as Gaul, the son of Morni, defended his tribe against the rage of Fingal." — duoted from Barbour, in an article of the Edinburgh Review, (attributed, I believe justly, to the pen of Sir Walter Scott,) on the Report of the Highland Society, vol. vi. That the true birth- place, however, of Finn and his heroes was sometimes acknowledged even in Scotland, appears from two verses, quoted in the same article, from the old Scotch poet Douglas: " Great Gow MacMorn, and Fin MacCoul, and how They suld be Goddis in Ireland, as men say." Neither were the English ignorant of our claims to these ancient heroes and bards, as may be seen from the following passage quoted by Camden, in speaking of the Irish: — " They think the souls of the deceased are in communion with famous men of those places, of whom they retain many stories and sonnets, as of tlie giants Fin MacHuyle, O'Shin MacOwen ; and they say, through illusion, that they often see them." The origin of the addition of the word Gai to Finn's name is thus satisfactorily explained: Oal, the latter part of the compound, signifies a stranger; and being applied by Scotchmen to Fin, the son of Cumhal, it affords a decisive proof that they did not consider him as their countryman." — Essay on Ossian, by the Rev. Dr. Drummond. I Of one of these Erse Poems, a Conversation between Ossian and St. Patrick, Dr. Young says: — " The Highland Sgeulaiches have been very busy in corrupting this poem, partly of necessity from the want of a written standard From their vain desire of attributing Fin Mac-Cumhal and his heroes to Scotland, they seem to have intentionally corrupted it in some passages, as may be seen by comparing the Erse copies with each other. Thus, in the verse before us, the word Ireland is omitted." Again Dr. Young remarks: — "The Highland Sgeulaiches have taken the liberty of totally perverting this stanza, and changing it into another, which might make Fin Mac Cumhal their own countryman." § The late Dr. Young, Bishop of Clonfert, who, in the year 1784, made a tour to the Highlands of Scotland, for the purpose of seeing the original poems from which Macpherson had constructed his Epics, has accused him of altering the dates of his originals, of attributing to them a iHuch higher antiquity than belongs to them, of suppressing the name of St. Patrick, and, in short, of corrupting and falsifying, by every means, even the few scanty fragments of Irish poetry he could produce to sanction his imposture. II See Gibbon's detection of the anachronism of Macpherson respecting Caracalla, (vol. i. ch. 6) where, however, he expresses himself with a degree of deference and timidity well deserving of Hume's rebuke to him on his credulity. "You are therefore,'" says his shrewd friend, "over and above indulgent to us in speaking of the matter with hesitation." IT The primary and insurmountable argument against even the possibility of their authenticity, is thus well stated by Hume: — "It is, indeed, strange lliai any man of sense could have imagined it possible that above twenty thousand verses, along with numberless historical facts, could have been preserved by oral tradition during fifty generations, by the rudest, perhaps, of all the European nations, the most necessitous, the most turbulent, and the most unsettled. Where a supposition is so contrary to common sense, any positive evidence of it ought never to be regarded."— Letter to Gibbon, in Gibbon's Memoirs of his own Life and Writings. So slow, however, has the delusion been in passing away, that so late as the year 1825, when Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary was published, we hud the author of that work boasting of Ossian, as " the great poet of the Gael," and citing him as authority for the early manners and customs of the Highlanders. HISTORY OF IRELAND. 85 It is true that, in most of those poems, attributed to our bard Oisin, which funished the grounds, or rather pretext, for the elaborate forgeries of Macpherson, the very same license of anachronism is found to prevail. The son of Finn, in these rude and spurious productions, has not only his life prolonged as far as the fifth century for the convenience of conversing with St. Patrick, but finds himself engaged, so late as the commencement of the twelfth, in single combat with the Norwegian king, Magnus. It is to be remem- bered, however, that these vagaries of chronology occur in detached pieces of poetry, written by different authors, and at different periods; whereas, the pretended epics of Ossian are the production professedly of one great and known poet, at a defined period of history ; and yet, in the very face of this assumed character, abound with such mon- strous anachronisms, such utter confusion of times, places, persons, and manners as renders the belief, for so long a period, in the authenticity of such a work, one of the most startling marvels in all literary history. To mention but two or three more instances in which this personator of a bard of the third century forestalls the manners and customs of a far later period, we find him bestowing on his Irish heroes, some centuries before the coat of mail was introduced, bright corslets of steel,* and describing castles as existing in Ireland, at a time when the most stately palaces of her kings were as yet constructed but of wood. In still more wanton defiance both of history and common sense, he brings together the expedition of Caracalla at the commencement of the third century, that of Carausius at its close, and the invasions of the Danes and Norwegians, in the ninth and tenth centuries, as all of them contemporary events. Not content with the many violations of chronology that have been mentioned, the pretended translator of Ossian takes no less liberties both with geography and topography, transporting Moylena, for instance, the scene of two famous battles, from the King's County to Ulster, and transferring even Teamor, or Tara, the celebrated residence of the ancient monarchs, from its natural site in Meath to the same northern province.f While thus lavishing upon Ulster glories that do not belong to it, he has, on the other hand, robbed it of some peculiarly its own; and passing in silence over the memorable Emania, the seat of the old Ultonian kings, he has chosen to substitute some castle of Tura, his own invention, in its place. Instead of Craove-Roe, too, the military school of the Red-Branch Knights, near Emania, he has called up some structure, under the exotic name of Muri's Hall, which is no less the baseless fabric of his own fancy than the castle ofTura.t It may be thought that animadversions of this nature upon a romance still so popular, belong more properly to the department of criticism than of history. But a work which Gibbon, in tracing the fortunes of Imperial Rome, has turned aside from his stately march to notice, may well lay claim to some portion of attention from the humble historian of the country to which all the Chiefs so fabulously commemorated by it, in reality belonged. Had the aim of the forgery been confined to the ordinary objects of romance, namely, to delight and interest, any such grave notice of its anachronisms and inconsistencies would have been here misplaced. But the imposture of Macpherson was, at the least, as much historical as poetical. His suppression, for it could hardly have been ignorance,^ of the true history of the Irish settlement in Argyleshire, so early as the middle of the third cen- tury, — a fact fatal to the whole groundwork of his pretended Scottish history, — could have proceeded only from a deliberate system of deception, having for its object so far to reverse the historical relationship between the two countries, as to make Scotland the * " The Irish annalists speak of the Danes in the latter end of the eighth century, as being covered with armour; but they never speak of the Irish troops being so equipped. Giraldus Canibrensis describes particu- larly the arms of the Irish, but says not one word of their wearing armour." — Essay upon Ossian, by Edward O'Reilly, Esq. f For a more detailed exposure of these, and many other such blunders, see Dissertation on the First Migrations and Final Settlement of the Scots in North Britain, by Mr. O'Connor, of Belanagare. i The fortress of Tura is, indeed, mentioned by Mr. Beauford, who as an authority, however, is of little more value than Macpherson himself: — " In the neighbourhood of Cromla," says this writer, " stood the ratJi or fortress of Tura, called by the Irish writers Alich Neid." — indent Topography of Ireland. § Some of his own countrymen think more charital)ly of him.— " Above all," says a writer already referred to, "Macpherson was ignorant of the real history of the colony of the Dalriads, or Irish Scots, who possessed themselves of a part of Argyleshire, in the middle of the third century; an indubitable fact, inconsistent with his whole syslem."— Edinburgh Review, \o\. \\i.. Report of the Highland Society . We are, however, justified in imputing to Macpherson something much worse than ignorance, when, in works professedly historical and argumentative, we find him falling into the same disingenuous practices, and not hesitating to alter, suppress or falsify, according as it suited his immediate purpose. Of all this lie is proved to have been guilty in his Introduction to the History of Great Britain and Ireland. "The total omission," says his opponent, "of some expressions that must have disproved the application of the passages, the careful discharge of all hostile words from the quotations, and the officious interpolation of friendly in their room— facts that appear evident upon the face of the extracts above— certainly give an unhappy aspect of disingenuousness to the whole, and may seem to discredit the integrity and honour of Mr. Macpherson."— Genuine /iistori/ of the Britons Asserted, chap. i. 86 HISTORY OF IRELAND. sole source of all those materials for poetry which she had in reality derived througli colonization from Ireland. The weight given to these compositions, as historical evidences, by the weak credulity with which°they were at first received, has now long passed away. But it ought never, in recording the "follies of the wise," to be forgotten that the critical Blair believed implicitly in the genuineness of these rhapsodies; and that by two grave historians, Henry and Whitaker, they have been actually referred to as authentic historical docu- ments; the former having made use of their authority in illustrating the early poetry of the Britons, while the latter, in his account of the expedition of the emperor Severus into North Britain, makes up for the silence of all the ancient historians, as to its details, by some important particulars derived from the authentic page of the Bard of Selma ; in- forming us that Fingal, who was at that time, as it seems, the Pendragon of Caledonia, negotiated a peace with the Romans,* upon the banks of the river Carron. With the same ludicrous seriousness, in relating the events of the naval expedition, under Niall Giallach, against the coasts of Britain, he describes the movements of the numerous navy of the ancient Irish, the boatmen singing to the chime of their oars, and the music of the harp, — the shield of the admiral hung upon the mast, "a sufficient mark of itself in the day, and frequently beat as a signal at night," — all upon the joint authority of the poets, Claudian and Ossian I In one point of view, the imposture has not been unserviceable to the cause of histori- cal truth, inasmuch as, by directing public attention to the subject, it has led to a more correct and more generally diffused knowledge of the early relations between Scotland and Ireland, and rendered impossible, it is to be hoped, any recurrence of that confusion between the annals of the two countries, — that mist thrown purposely, in many instances, around their early connexion, — in which alone such antiquarian pretensions and histori- cal fictions as those of Fordun, Hector Boece, Dempster, and lastly, Macpherson himself, could have hoped to escape detection. The spirit of inquiry, too, that was awakened by so long a course of controversy, has proved favourable no less to the literary than to the historical claims of ancient Ireland ; as it was found that, in her songs and romances, which had been adopted by the Scots of Britain, as well as her heroes, lay the ground- work, however scanty, of this modern fabric of fiction ; that, eo far from her descendants, the Scots of Albany, having any pretensions to an original literature or distinct school of poesy, there had never existed, among the Highlanders, any books but Irish ;t and while the scholars of Ireland could boast of manuscripts in their own tongue, near a thousand years old, it was not till so late as the year 1778 that even a Grammar of the Erse dialect of the Gaelic was in existence. It has been already mentioned, that between the Irish and the first inhabitants of North Britain there had commenced an intercourse at a very early period. According to all accounts, the ancient Piclish colony that finally fixed themselves in Britain, had, on their way to that country, rested for a time in Ireland, and had been provided from thence, at their own request, with wives. The friendship founded upon this early connexion was kept alive by continued intercourse between the two nations; and though the footing the Irish obtained in the third century upon the western coast of North Britain, produced a jealousy which sometimes disturbed, and, even at one period, endangered this small colony,! the advantage derived by both nations from such an alliance, kept their fierce and feverish union unbroken. In addition to the pride which Ireland naturally felt in the task of watching over and nursing into vigour that germ of future dominion which she had planted in North Britain, her kings and princes, eternally at war with each other, as naturally looked beyond their own shores for allies; and, accordingly, as in the instance of the monarch Tuathal, who owed his throne to the aid of Pictish arms, we ♦ History of Manchester, book i. chap. xii. sect. 2. t " It might boldly ho averred that the Irish, who have written a host of grammars, did not derive their prosody from the Caledonians, who, till within these thirty years, had never jiossessed so much as the skele- ton of a national grammar."— /Jacics's Claims of Ossian. Dr. Ferguson, loo, in his communication to the JJighlanil Society, admits that there were " no hooks in the Gaelic language but the manuals of religion ; and these in so awkward and clumsy a spelling, that few could read them." X According to some writers, almost the whole of this Irish colony, reduced to extremity by the constant attacks of the I'icts, were compelled, in the middle, it is said, of the fiftli century, (about tifty years before the establishment of ihu Scotic kingdom in North Britain,) to abandon their possessions in Argyleshire, and lake flight to Ireland, where they found a refuge in the hereditary territory of the Dalriadic princes. Neither in Tigernach, however, nor in the Annals of the Four Masters, does there occur any mention of such an event, which seems to depend wholly upon the authority of theScotish writers, Major, Boece, Buchanan, &c., whose misrepresentation of most of the other facts connected with the event, renders them but suspicious testimonies on tlie subject of the Dalriadic settlement. Mr. O'Connor, however, has adopted the same unau- thorized view. " The British Dalriada," he states, " was exercised by frequent hostilities from the Cruthneans, and, at one period, with so good success, that they forced almost the whole colony to take flight i^nto Ireland, under their leader, Eochad Munrevar, who found a secure retreat for his followers in the Insii Dalriada." — Dissert, on hist, of Scotland, HISTORY OF IRELAND. 87 find the alliance of that people frequently resorted to as a means of turning tlie scale of internal strife. On the other hand, the hardy highlanders of Caledonia, in the constant warfare they waged with their southern neighbours, were no less ready to resort to the assistance of a people fully as restless and pugnacious as themselves, and whose manners and habits, from a long course of connexion, were, it is probable, but little different from their own. As some defence against the incursions of these two hostile tribes, the Romans had, at different intervals during the second and third centuries, erected those three great walls or ramparts on the northern frontier of their province, whose remains still continue to occupy the curious research and speculation of the antiquary. But the hostility of these highlanders had, at the period of which we are now treating, assumed a still more auda- cious and formidable character; and, about the middle of the fourth century, so destruc- tive had become their inroads, that it required the presence of the son of Constantine, to make head against and repel them. Whatever differences their relative position, as rival neighbours, had given rise to, were entirely merged in their common object of harassing the Britons, whom a native historian describes as trembling with the fear of a new visi- tation, while still fainting from the dire effects of the tempest which had just swept over them. To deliver the province from this scourge, one of the bravest of the Roman generals, Theodosius, was now appointed to the military command of Britain ; and after two active campaigns, during which he had to contend, not only with the Picts and Scots by land, but also with their new allies, the Saxon pirates, by sea, he at length succeeded in de- livering Britain from her inveterate invaders. To such daring lengths had some of these incursions into her territory extended, that, on the arrival of the Roman general, he had found the Picts and their allies advanced as far as London and Kent.* In all this war- fare the Scots of Ireland were no less active than their brethren of Albany; and it is, therefore, remarkable that the Roman commander, though fitting out a fleet to chastise the Saxons in the Orcades, should yet have left Ireland, whose currachs wafted over such hostile swarms to his shores, still exempt from invasion. That his fleet chased, however, some of her vessels into their own northern harbours, may be concluded from a passage of the poem of Claudian, which commemorates this war: — " Nee falso nomine Pictos Edomuit, Scotumque vago mucrone secutus, Fregit Hyperboreas remis audacibus undas." The few following lines from the same poem describe, briefly and picturesquely, the signal triumph over the three hostile nations which Theodosius had achieved : — " Maduerunt Saxone fuso Orc.ides, incaluit Pictoruni sanguine Thule, Scotorum cumulos flevii glacialis lerne." From this period there occurs nothing very remarkable in the course of Irish affairs till about the beginning of the fourth century, when the violent usurpation of the sove- reign throne by Huas Colla, one of three brothers bearing the same name, produced a long series of tumultuous and sanguinary scenes. The battle, in which the rightful monarch, Fiacb, lost his crown and his life to the usurper, is distinguished among the countless fields of carnage upon record, by the title of the Battle of Dubcomar; from the circumstance of the monarch's favourite Druid of that name having been among the number of the slain. This and other such known instances of Druidical warriors, show that justly as Macpherson has, in general, been accused of giving false pictures of Irish manners, his introduction of "Fighting Druids" is not to be reckoned among the nutn- ber.f The name of Landerg, or Bloody Hand, affixed by tradition, as we are told, to the Druid who has lived enchanted, it is thought, for ages, in one of the mountains of the county of Donegal, proves the sort of warlike reputation that was attached to some of this priesthood ; and we learn from Caesar, that even so solemn a question as the election of a High Priest used, among the Gaulish Druids, to be decided sometimes by an appeal to arms. * See Ammian. lib. xxvii. c. 8., who describes them as penetrating "ad Lundinium vetus oppidum, quod Augustam posteritas appellavit." r b t O'Reiily's Essay upon Ossian, where this objection is brought forward. " From the very name of Lam- derg, says Toland, " we learn what sort of man the Druid was, who, by the vulgar, is thought to live en- chanted in the mountain between Buniranach and Fathen, in the county of Donegal." lie adds, that the Uruids were many of Ihem warriors, 88 HISTORY OF IRELAND. After a reign of five years, the usurper Colla was compelled to abdicate the sovereignty by the rightful successor of the late monarch, Muredach Tiry, and the three Collas took flight, attended by 300 followers, to North Britain.* From thence returning in the course of a year, they found means to conciliate, through the intervention of the Druids, the good-will of the monarch Muredach, and were also by his aid enabled to make war on the King of Ulster, and dispossess him of his dominions. It was in the course of the struggle consequent on this invasion, that the princely palace of Emania, whose construc- tion formed one of the great epochs of Irish chronology, was, after a battle, upon which, we are told, six successive suns went down, destroyed by the victorious army, and not a trace of its long-celebrated glories left behind. An invasion of Britain, on a far more extensive and formidable scale than had A. D. yet been attempted from Ireland, took place towards the close of the fourth cen- 390-7. tury, under the auspices of Nial of the Nine Hostages, one of the most gallant of all the princes of the Milesian race. Observing that the Romans, after breaking up their lines of encampment along the coast opposite to Ireland, had retired to the east- ern shore and the northern wall, Nial perceived that an apt opportunity was thus offered for a descent upon the now unprotected territory. Instantly summoning, therefore, all the forces of the island, and embarking them on board such ships as he could collect, he ranged with his numerous navy along the whole coast of Lancashire, effected a landing in Wales, from whence he carried off immense plunder, and, though compelled ultimately to retreat, left marks of depredation and ruin wherever he passed. f It was against the incursions of this adventui'ous monarch, that some of those successes were achieved by the Romans, which threw such lustre around the military administration of Stilicho, and inspired the muse of Claudian in his praise. " By him," says the poet, speaking in the person of Britannia, " was I protected when the Scot moved all Ireland against me, and the ocean foamed with his hostile oars."J From another of this poet's eulogies, it appears that the fame of that Roman legion which had guarded the frontier of Britain against the invading Scots,5 procured for it the distinction of being one of those summoned to the banner of Stilicho, when the Goths threatened Rome.}] Joined with the Picts and Scots, in these expeditions, were also another warlike Irish tribe, the Attacots ; who, at an earlier period of their country's history, had distinguished themselves by their turbulent bravery; having been the chief movers of those two rebel- lions known by the name of the Attacottic Wars. The fierce valour of these wild warriors, who, after their settlement in North Britain, inhabited chiefly the districts close to Adrian's Wall, seems to have attracted the especial attention of the Romans, who, acting upon the policy, which proved so fatal to them in the decline of the empire, of incorporating with their own legions, and even with Palatine troops, auxiliaries or deserters from the barbarian camps, succeeded in detaching some of these Attacotti from the Scoto-Pictish league, and enrolling them in the regular force of the empire.lT * A poem is extant, written in the twelfth century, by Giolla na Naomh O'Dunn, giving " an account of the chief tribes descended from tlie three Collas, sons of Carbre Leffoachar, monarch of Ireland, who was killed at the battle of Gabhra, k. d. 290." — Trans, of lb. Celt. Society. A manuscript copy of this poem is in the possession of Mr. O'Reilly, the Secretary of the Iberno-Celtic Society. t " In the days of Stilicho particularly, leaving the country between the Walls to be ravaged by their bre- thren of Argyle and the Picts, they (the Scots of Ireland) made a descent on the provinces that were inac- cessible to them, landed in both of the divisions of Wales, and now, for the first time, possessed themselves of the Island of Man." — Oenuine Hist, of the Britons. I Totam cum Scotus Icrnin Movit et infesto spumavit remige Tethys. In I. Cons. Stilich. lib. i. Thus well translated in the English Camden :— When Scots came thundering from the Irish shores. And th' ocean trembled, struck with hostile oars. § The following remarks are not the less worthy of being cited for their having come from the pen of a writer who was either so ignorant or so prejudiced as to contend, that the Scots who fought by the side of the Picts against the Romans were not really Irish: — " There can be no greater proof of the Scots never having been conquered, than the very Roman walls themselves, built as fences against their hostilities; which, while there is a stone of them remaining, will be undeniable monuments of the valour and prowess of that nation." — Gordon, Itinerarium Hcptentrionale, chap. xiv. II Venit et extremis Legio prtetenta Britannis, Quffi Scoto dat fra;na truci, ferroque notatas Perlegit exanimes Picto moriente figuras. De Bella Oeiico. IT In the JiTotitia Imperii, the Attacotti are expressly named. " Procedente tempore cum bellicosos et for- midandos Romani invenissent, pra-miis propositis et sese auxiliariis adscriberent allexerunt, ideoque Atta- cottos in Notitia Imperii nominatos invenimus, curante Honorio, ut ex inimicis amici et vacillantis Imperii defensores haberentur."— Acr. Ilibern. Script., Prol. 1. Ixxi. HISTOPvY OF IRELAND. 89 The tottering slate of the Roman dominion in Gaul, as well as in every other quarter, at this period, encouraged the Hero of the Nine Hostages to extend his enterprises to the coast of Britany; where, after ravaging all the maritime districts of the north-west of Gaul, he was at length assassinated, with a poisoned arrow, by one of his own followers, near the Portus Iccius, not far, it is supposed, from the site of the present Boulogne. It was in the course of this predatory expedition that, in one of their descents on the coast of Armoric Gaul, the soldiers of Nial carried off with them, among other captives, a youth, then in his sixteenth year, whom Providence had destined to be the author of a great religious revolution in their country; and whom the strangely fated land to which he was then borne, a stranger and a slave, has now, for fourteen hundred years, com- memorated as its great Christian apostle. An accession of territory was, during this reign, added to the Irish possessions in North Britain ; the two sons of Cork, King of Munster, having acquired seigniories in the neigh- bourhood of the Picts, the one of Levinia, or Lenox ; the other, of Moygergin, in Mar, a county of the present Scotland. To Nial the Great succeeded Dathy, the last of the Pagan monarchs of Ireland, and not unworthy to follow, as a soldier and adventurer, in the path opened to him by A. n. his heroic predecessor. Not only, like Nial, did he venture to invade the coasts 406. of Gaul ; but, allured by the prospect of plunder, which the state of the province, then falling fast into dismemberment, held forth, forced his way to the foot of the Alps, and was there killed, it is said, by a flash of lightning, leaving the throne of Ireland to be filled thenceforward by a line of Christian kings. CHAPTER VIII. CREDIBILITY OF THE HISTORY OF PAGAN IRELAND. Before entering upon the new epoch of Irish history, which is about to open upon us with the introduction of Christianity, a review of the general features of the period over which we have passed may be found not uninteresting or unuseful. With regard to the first and most material question, the authenticity of those records on which the fore- going brief sketch of Pagan Ireland is founded, it is essential, in the first place, to distinguish clearly between what are called the Bardic Historians, — certain metrical writers, who flourished from the ninth to the eleventh century, — and those regular chroniclers or annalists of whom a long series was continued down, there is every reason to believe, from very early ages, and whose successive records have been embodied and transmitted to us in the Annals of Tigernach,* in those of the Four Masters,! of Inisfallen, of Ulster,J and many others. § To the metrical historians above mentioned is to be attributed the credit, if not of originally inventing, at least of amplifying and embellishing, that tale of the Milesian colonization which so many grave and respectable writers have, since their time, adopted. In his zeal for the credit of this national legend, the late learned librarian of Stowe has endeavoured to enlist some of the more early Irish poets in its support. || On his own " The Attacotti make a distinguislied figure in the Notitia Imperii, where numerous bodies of them appear in the list of the Roman army. One body was in Illyricum, their ensign a kind of mullet ; another at Rome, their badge a circle ; the .Attacotti Hoiioriani were in Italy." — Pinkerton, Inquiry, part iv. chap. 2. * In the Annals of the Four Masters for the year 1088, the death of this annalist is thus recorded :— " Tiger- nach O'Braoin, Comorhan, or Successor of Kieran of Clonmacnois and of St. Coman (i. e. Abbot of Clonmac- nots and Roscommon,) a learned lecturer and historian." t Compiled in the seventeenth century, by Michael O'Clery, with the assistance of three other antiquaries, and "chiefly drawn," says Harris, "from the annals of Clonmacnois, Inisfall, and Senat, as well as from other approved and ancient chronicles of Ireland." For a fuller account of the various sources from whence these records were derived, see Mr. Petrie's Remarks on the History and Authenticity of the Autograph Original of the Annals of the Four Masters, now deposited in the library of the R. I. A. Academy. X Published, for the first time, by Dr. O'Connor, from a Bodleian manuscript of the year 1215. § A long list of these various books of Annals maybe found in Nicholson's Historical Library, chap. 2; also in the preface to Keating's History, xxi. |[ For the very slight grounds, or, rather, mere pretence of grounds, upon which Dr. O'Connor lays claim to Fiech and Confealad, Irish poets of the si.xth and seventh centuries, as authorities for the Milesian story, see, among other passages, Ep. Nunc, xxxiv., Prol.2. xv. xxvi Having once claimed them, thus gratuitously, as favouring his views of tlie subject, he continues constantly after to refer to them, as concurrent authorities 11 90 HISTORY OF IRELAND. sbowino-, however, it is manifest that in no Irish writings before those of Maolmura,* who died towards the close of the ninth century, are any traces whatever of the Milesian fable to be found. There appears little doubt, indeed, that to some metrical writers of the ninth century the first rudiments of this wild romance respecting the origin of the Irish people are to be assigned; that succeeding writers took care to amplify and embellish the original sketch r and that in the hands of the author or authors of the Psalter of Cashel,f it assumed that full-blown form of fiction and extravagance in which it has ever since flourished. It is worthy of remark, too, that the same British writer, Nennius, who furnished Geoffry of Monmouth with his now exploded fables of tiie descent of the Britons from King Brute and the Trojnns, was tlie first also who put forth the tale of the Scythian ancestors of the Irish, and of their coming, in the fourth age of the world, by the way of Africa and Spain, into Hibernia. Having conversed, as he himself tells us, with the most learned among the Scots.J and been by tiiem, it is evident, informed of their early tradi- tions respecting a colony from Spain, he was tempted to eke out their genealogy for them by extending it as far as Scythia and the Red Sea, just as he had provided the Britons with Trojan progenitors, under the command of King Brute, from Greece. To our metrical historians may be assigned also the credit of inventing that specious system of chronology upon which the fabric of their fabled antiquity entirely rests, and which, though well calculated to eflx;ct the object of its inventors, — that of carrying back to remote times the date of the Milesian dynasty, — proves them not to have been over- scrupulous in the means they used for that purpose.^ It is. Indeed, as I have already, more than once, remarked, far less in the events themselves, than in the remote date assigned to those events, that much of the delusion attributed in general to Irish history lies. The ambition of a name ancient as the world, and the lax, accommodating chronology, which is found ever ready, in the infancy of science, to support such preten- sions, has led the Irish, as it has led most other nations, to antedate their own existence and fame. II Together with the primitive mode of numbering ages and ascertaining the dates of. public events, by the successions of kings and the generations of men, the ancient Irish possessed also a measure of time in their two great annual festivals of Baal and of Samhin, the recurrence of which at certain fixed periods furnished points, in each year, from whence to calculate. How far even History may advance to perfection where no more regular chronology exists, appears in the instance of Tliucydides, who was able to enrich the world with his " treasure for all time" before any era from whence to date had yet with those later bardic historians, in whom alone tlic true origin and substance of the whole story is to be found. The Psalter-na-Rann attributed to tlie Culdee, iCngus, which is another of the writings appealed to by Dr. O'Connor, on this point, was, however, not the work of that pious author (who wrote solely on religious subjects,) nor of a date earlier, as is evident, than the tenth century. See Lanigaii, Ecclesiast. Hist., chap. XX. note 107. * This writer, who died in the year 884, was the author of a poem, beginning, " Let ns sing the origin of the Gadelians:" in which, deriving the origin of the Miles