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XL4--7I2, e . 4^3
/
A SOCIAL HISTORY
ANCIENT IRELAND
TREATING OF
Thi Govfmment, Military System, and Law;
Rtligion, Ltanting, and Art; Trades, Induitriis, and Com
Manners, Cuiloms, and Domtstic Lift,
of the Ancient Irish PtafU
P. W. JOYCE,
LL.D., TKHr. COLL., DUB. ; H.K.r.A.
OtHt/llu Cammittientn/tT He PKtIiialitm oflkt AmcirnI Loan of /rtlamt
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, AND BOMBAY
1903
i.A...; r
The PlacCy Timey Author ^ afid Cause of Wriitngy of
this booky are : — lis place is Lyre^na-Grena^ Leinster-roady
RathmineSy Dublin; its time is the year of our Lord
one thousand nine hundred and three; the author is
Patrick Weston foyce^ Doctor of Laws ; and the cause
of writing the same hook is to give glory to God^ honour
to Irelattdy and knowledge to those who desire to learn
all about the Old Irish People.
PREFACE
An important function of History is to depict
social and domestic life. If we wish to obtain a
clear view of the general state of any particular
country in past times, we shall need to have a
good knowledge of the people, high and low, rich
and poor; their standards of civilisation, religion,
and learning ; their wrtues and failings ; their
industries, occupations, and amusements ; their
manners and customs ; and the sort of life they
led day by day in their homes.
The social condition of most of those ancient
nations that have made any figure in the world
has been investigated and set forth in books ; and
perhaps it will be acknowledged that Ireland
deserves to be similarly commemorated. For,
besides the general importance of all such studies
in elucidating the history of the human race,
the ancient Irish were a highly intellectual and
interesting people ; and the world owes them
something, as I hope to be able to show. In this
book an attempt is made to picture society, in
Vin PREFACE
all its phases, as it existed in Ireland before the
Anglo-Norman Invasion ; and to accomplish this
work — to bring together into one Essay all that is
known on the subject — every authentic source of
information within my reach has been turned to
account. I have collected the scattered Sibylline
leaves with much loving labour, and sorted and
pieced them together slowly and patiently, so as to
form a connected and intelligible statement; but
in my case there were a hundred times more
inscribed leaves to deal with than ever any votary
picked up in the SibyFs cave. Or perhaps some
of my readers, putting aside this metaphor, may
rather see in the book the likeness of some spacious
edifice, with symmetrical wings and numerous
bright apartments, all differently furnished and
ornamented. The visitor who wishes to enter here
and explore the interior will find the way plainly
pointed out at the opening of every corridor, and
each apartment labelled to indicate, in a general
way, what is to be seen inside.
The society depicted here — as the reader will
soon discover for himself — was of slow and methodi-
cal growth and development; duly subordinated
from the highest grades of people to the lowest ;
with clearly-defined ranks, professions, trades, and
industries ; and in general with those various pur-
suits and institutions found in every well-ordered
community : a society compacted and held together
by an all-embracing system of laws and customs,
long established and universally recognised.
This subject has been to some extent treated of
PREFACE IX
by Other writers, notably by Ware, O' Curry, and
Sullivan ; and I have taken full advantage of their
learned labours. But they deal with portions only,
and of course give only partial views : my Essay
aims at opening up the entire field. I am fully
sensible of the shortcomings of this first attempt to
bring the whole social life of the ancient Irish
people under one broad view; for besides the
liability to error and imperfection incident to
every new undertaking, the sources of information
on the state of ancient Ireland are not yet fully
available. But it is better to make the attempt
now, even under some disadvantages, than to post-
pone it indefinitely.
This book does not deal with pre-historic times,
except by occasional reference, or to illustrate the
historic period. My survey generally goes back
only so far as there is light from living record —
history or tradition. I am content to stand near
the outer margin of the fog, and observe and
delineate the people as they emerge from darkness
and twilight. At first indeed there is often only a
faint glimmer, and the figures and their surround-
ings are shadowy and indistinct : but subsequent
observation, made in broad historical daylight,
generally enables us to clear up the uncertainty
or correct the error of the first dim view.
Where such a vast variety of subjects had to
be treated of within the compass of two medium-
sized volumes, it would be manifestly impossible
to pursue inquiries exhaustively, or to go quite to
the bottom of things. But so far as the Essay is
X PREFACE
intended to reach, I have done my very best to
secure accuracy — accuracy of statement, of infer-
ence, of quotation, and of reference ; and whoever
discovers an error may be assured that it is not the
result of haste or carelessness.*
I have been very particular to give exact
references for all statements of any importance.
Quotations from other languages are always given
in English: but wherever it seemed necessary or
desirable the originals also are quoted. Where
there are two or more editions or versions of works
consulted, references are given as far as possible to
those that are most easily accessible to the general
reader. I have utilised without stint the labours of
others, both of the past and of the present, but
never, I think, without acknowledgment.
Attention has been given to the forms and
meanings of words and names so far as it tended
to elucidate the general subject: but it must be
remembered that the main intention of this book
is to deal, not with words, but with things. When
an Irish word or name varies in spelling, the
several forms are given, either in the text or in the
Index. Animals, plants, minerals, and external
nature in general, are treated of only so far as they
come directly into touch with the Social Life of the
people : and they are brought in under the several
chapters wherever they fit best.
The numerous Illustrations relate to the several
* Those who wish to study particular portions of the subject further
wiU be aided by the references all through the book, and by the List of
Authorities at the end.
PREFACE XI
current parts of the text ; and I hope they will be
found an instructive and pleasing feature of the
book.
I have taken occasion all along to compare
Irish Social Life with that of other ancient nations,
especially pointing out correspondences that are
the natural consequence of common Aryan origin :
but want of space precluded much indulgence in
this very desirable direction.
The writer who endeavours to set forth his
subject — whatever it may be — in ** words of truth
and soberness/' is sure to encounter the disapproval
or hostility of those who hold extreme opinions on
either side. In regard to my subject, we have,
on the one hand, those English and Anglo-Irish
people — and they are not few — who think, merely
from ignorance, that Ireland was a barbarous
and half-savage country before the English came
among the people and civilised them ; and, on
the other hand, there are those of my countrymen
who have an exaggerated idea of the greatness
and splendour of the ancient Irish nation.* I
have not been in the least influenced by writers
belonging to either class. Following trustworthy
authorities, I have tried to present here a true
picture of ancient Irish life, neither over-praising
nor depreciating. I have not magnified what
was worthy of commendation, nor suppressed, nor
unwarrantably toned down, features that told un-
favourably for the people: for though I love the
honour of Ireland well, I love truth better.
*See on this Stokes's Life of Petrie, p. 2(i.
Xll PREFACE
The Irish race, after a long-protracted struggle,
went down before a stronger people ; and in addi-
tion to this, from causes which it would be out of
place to discuss here, they suffered almost a total
eclipse at home during a period nearly coincident
with the eighteenth century. Chiefly for these
reasons the old Irish people have never, in modem
times, received the full measure of credit due to
them for their early and striking advance in the
arts of civilised life, for their very comprehensive
system of laws, and for their noble and successful
efforts, both at home and abroad, in the cause of
religion and learning. Of late indeed we can
perceive, among Continental and British writers,
something like a spontaneous movement showing a
tendency to do them justice; but the essays in
this direction, though just, and often even generous,
as far as they go, are fragmentary, scattered, and
fitful. Those who are interested in this aspect of
the subject will perhaps be pleased to have the
whole case presented to them in one Essay.
I now submit to the judgment of the public
this book, the outcome of eight years* congenial
and pleasant work, hoping that it will prove
acceptable, not only to those who desire informa-
tion on the Institutions and Social Life of the
ancient Irish, and of the Celtic people in general,
but also to that wider circle who are interested in
the early History of Mankind.
1 have now to discharge the pleasant duty of recording my
thanks for help towards illustrating this book.
PREFACE Xlil
The Coancils of the Royal Irish Academy, and of the Royal
Society of Antiqaaries, Ireland, gave me the use of the blocks
of great numbers of the illustrations in their respective publica-
tions, and where the blocks were not available, permitted me to
copy any of their illustrations I wanted. That the book is so
well illustrated is mainly owing to the liberality of these two
distinguished Societies. There is no need to enter into detail
here, as under every illustration in the book is mentioned the
source from which it is derived : but I wish to direct attention
to the number of valuable and accurate figures I have borrowed
from Wilde's ** Catalogue of Irish Antiquities," belonging to the
Ro3^1 Irish Academy.
Messrs. Hodges, Figgis, & Co., of Dublin, placed at my dis-
posal the blocks of as many of Petrie's and Wakeman's beautiful
drawings as I chose to ask for.
Colonel Wood-Martin lent me the blocks of many of the
illustrations in his " Pagan Ireland " and ''Traces of the Elder
Faiths of Ireland."
From the Board of Education, South Kensington, I have
received permission to use electrotypes from the original blocks
of nearly a dozen of the illustrations in Miss Stokes's " Early
Christian Art in Ireland."
The Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office, London,
allowed me to reproduce some of the illustrations in Sir JohnT.
Gilbert's " Facsimiles of Irish National Manuscripts."
I am indebted to the late Mr. Bernard Quaritch of London
for leave to reproduce the beautiful illuminated page of the Book
of MacDuman, from Westwood's "Facsimiles of Anglo-Saxon
and Irish Manuscripts."
Messrs. George Bell & Sons lent me the blocks of some of
the illustrations in Miss Stokes*s *' Three Months in the Forests
of France," and " Six Months in the Apennines."
I had the permission of the Rev. Dr. Abbott, s.f.t.c.d., to
copy some of the figures in his *' Reproductions of Portions of
the Book of Kells."
Lord Walter Fitz Gerald gave me leave to copy some of the
illustrations in the ''Journal of the County Kildare Archaeo-
logical Society."
XIV PREFACE
The Editor of the " Revue Celtique " has given me permis-
sion to reproduce two of the figures in that periodical.
Besides the above, a number of illustrations have been taken
from books having no copyright, and others have been purchased
from the proprietors of copyright works: all of which are acknow-
ledged in the proper places. And there are a good many original
sketches appearing here now for the first time.
Dr. Petrie and Miss Margaret Stokes have been the chief
illustrators of the Scenery and Antiquities of Ireland ; and even
a casual glance will show to what an extent I have been enabled
to enrich this book with their beautiful and accurate drawings.
P. W. J.
Dublin,
October ^ igo^.
Fig. 4.— Ornament composed from the Book of KcUs.
CONTENTS OF VOL. I
-•o*-
PART I
GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAAAT
CHAPTER I
Laying the Foundation
Section
1. Native Dsvslc^ment,
2. Evidences feom Literature,
3. Evidences feom Material Remains, ..
4. Concurrence of Testimonies,
5. Population of Ireland in Ancient Times,
PAOB
3
5
20
23
25
CHAPTER II
A Preliminary Bird's-eye View,
27
CHAPTER III
Monarchical Government,
Section
1. Territorial Subdivision, ..
2. Classes of Kings,
3. Election and Inauguration,
4. Revenue and Authority, ..
5. Privileges,
6. Limitations and Restrictions,
7. Household, Retinue, and Court Officers,
8. List of Over-Kings,
36
36
41
43
50
55
60
61
68
xvi CONTENTS
CHAPTER IV
PAGE
Warfare, 72
Section
1. Foreign Conquests and Colonisations, .. .. 72
2. Military Ranks, Orders, and Services, . . . . «3
3. Arms, Offensive and Defensive, 100
4. Strategy, Tactics, and Modes of Fighting, .. 132
CHAPTER V
Structure of Society, 155
Section
1. Five main Classes OF People, 155
2. Flaiths or Nobles, 156
3. Non-noble Freemen with Property, 157
4. Non-noble Freemen without Property, .. .. 160
5. The Non-free Classes, 162
6. Groups of Society, 166
CHAPTER VI
The Brehon Laws, i6«
Section
1. The Brehons, 168
2. The Senchus Mor and other Books of Law, .. 172
3. Absence of Legislation, 178
4. Suitability of the Brehon Laws, 181
CHAPTER VII
The Laws relating to Land, 184
Section
1. The Land ORIGINALLY Common Property, .. .. 184
2. Five Ways of holding Land, 186
3. Tenants, their Payments and Subsidies, .. .. 188
4. Fudirs or Serfs on the Land, 194
5. Descent of Land, 196
CHAPTER VIII
The Administration OF Justice, .. .. .. ., 198
Section
1. The Law of Compensation, 198
2. Procedure by Distress, 200
3. Procedure by Fasting, ,, 204
4. Eric or Compensation Fine, 207
5. Modes of Punishment, T 211
6. Courts of Justice, 214
CONTENTS XVll
PART II
RELIGION, LEARNING, ART
CHAPTER IX
PAOB
Paganism, 219
Section
1. Druids: their Functions and Powers, .. .. 219
2. Points of Agreement and Difference between Irish
AND Gaulish Druids, « .• 238
3. Sorcerers and Sorcery, 240
4. Mythology: Gods, Goblins, and Phantoms, .. 248
5. Worship OF Idols, 274
6. Human Sacrifice, 281
7. Worship of Weapons, 286
8. Worship of the Elements, 288
9. The Pagan Heaven and a Future State, .. .. 293
10. Turning Deisiol or Sunwise, 301
11. The Ordeal, 302
12. Preference for certain Numbers, 307
13. The Evil Eye, •• •« 309
14. Geasa, OR Prohibitions, 310
CHAPTER X
•Christianity, „ .. 313
Section
1. Christianity before St. Patrick's Arrival, .. 313
2. Three Orders of Irish Saints, 317
3. First Order: Patrician Secular Clergy, .. 319
4. Second Order: Monastic Clergy, 322
5. Third Order : Anchorites or Hermits, and Hermit
Communities, 348
6. Buildings, and other Material Requisites, . . 354
7. Revenue and Means of Support, 378
8. Various Features of the Ancient Irish Church, 382
9. Popular Religious Ideas, 391
b
xviii CONTENTS
CHAPTER XI
PAOB
Learning and Education, 396
Soction
1. Lbarnino in Pagan Times: Oohah, 396
2. Monastic Schools, 40^
3. Lay Schools, 4^7
4* SoiiB General Features of both Classes of Schools :
Tables of Degrees and Subjects, 422
5. The Men of Learning, 442
6. Honours and Rewards for Learning, .. •• 459
7. The Knowledge of Science, 464
CHAPTER Xn
Irish Language and Literature, 471
Section
1. Divisions and Dialects of Celtic, 471
2. Writing, and Writing Materials, 477
3. Ancient Libraries, 485
4. Existing Books, 492
CHAPTER XIII
Ecclesiastical and Religious Writings, .. .. 500
CHAPTER XIV
Annals, Histories, and Genealogies, 512
Section
1. How THE Annals were compiled, 512
2. Tests of Accuracy, 513
3. Principal Books of Annals, 521
4. Histories: Genealogies: Dinnsenchus, .. .. 526
CHAPTER XV
Historical AND Romantic Tales, 531
Section
1. Classes, Lists, and Numbers, 531
2. Chronological Cycles of the Tales, 535
3. General Character of the Tales, 53S
4. Story-telling and Recitation, 540
5. Translations and Versions in Modern Languages, 542
COKTENTS
XIX
CHAPTER XVI
Art, ,,
S6CUOB
1. PsNwo&K AMD Illumination,
2. grold, slltbr, and enamel, as working materials,
3. Artistic Metal Work,
4. Stone Carting,
• •
PAOB
544
544
554
559
566
CHAPTER XVII
Music,
1. History,
2. Musical Instruments,
3. Characteristics, Classes, Styles,
4. Modern Collections of Ancient Irish Music,
571
571
575
586
59a
CHAPTER XVIII
Medicine and Medical Doctors,
Section
1. Medical Doctors,
2. Medical Manuscripts,
3. Diseases,
4. Treatment,
5. Popular Cures,
••
597
597
604
607
616
625
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I
I. FkfevfBookofDiUTOW, PrvKtbtaa
ler, ClonmacnoiM, TiiUPate
Sn^tan In Coniu'i Clupel,
Onument boa Book of EbIIv,
Senlpttn in Cinircb, Glendstongli,
OmamoBt from Book of E«ns,
CuUedBBOt CIiBrcb ud Roond
■. HolT Well of
St. Dfcni
I. HoUnsoldball, . .
^ Bnnie utiile, liM onkootni,
S. Do., do.,
r. Do., do.,
I. AbdaDt fanrboat, .
^ Rqju od IniihcAltra, »
i. AbcisBt IiUh bobkbUdJng,
I. Group of ([old onumsnti,
I. AHl-u-UeenDMUihnagb. .
|. Cl>d>ta,Coii|AblMT,
h (mtflU* luncnnlloD Cliur, .
I. 0*Conon' lunflanUloD HonDd,
S. Kill:* u^ Aicfakn, .
;. OnukaaUl Mooe MTTing,
B. C^ltilLfromBookotEstli,.
^ Dimd«lc*B, Cncnlainn'i reddt
rh Ratb-Keltdr at Dowopatrick,
I. GtOBp of wHnlon frotai HIgli Ci
>■ Flint UTowihud,
!. Do..
x Broutf Gurtuui,
I. BroDM ipeu-lirad, Itif-iluped,
]. nrinlgipsar.bBad, .
I. Dsdamun ipear-bead,
49. Bfonitf dacfesr, '.
ji. BroBU) icallbard, .
ji. Stone celt is oilgiaal faaodlc,
S3> Bnnue celt,
54. Pure copper celt.
XXll
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL I
FIO.
56. Bronze celt,
57« Celt on handle, .
58. Do.,
59. Two galloglasset,
60. DermotMacMorrogh,
6z. Bronze shield, outside,
62. Do., inside,
63. Foot>so1dier receiving charge,
64. Horse-soldier and attendants,
65. Two galloglasses on tomb,
66. Ornament from Book of Kells,
67. Ornament on leather,
68. Specimen of SenchasM6r,
69. Ornament from Book of Kells,
70. Sculpture on window, Glendalough
70A. Ornament from Book of Kells,
7z. Sculpture on church, Glendalough,
72. MS. ornamentation, .
73. A £aii7 hai, . .
74* A fairy moat, .
75* The Cathubodvae stone,
76. Killeen Cormac,
77> Church doorway, Glendalough,
78. St. Brc's Hermitage,
79> Killashee near Naas> •
80. Baptismal font, • . .
8z. St. Columb's H9use, Kells,
82. Doorway of Round Tower,
83. St. Doulogfa's Church, .
84. Church of the Fire, Inishmurray
85. Chancel Arch, Monaincha,
86. Cave of St. Columbanus, Luzeuil,
87. St. Columbanus taming bears. Bob
bio, ••••••
88. Irish Shrine in Copenhagen, •
89. Clochan or beehive-shaped house,
90. Gougane Barra, • • •
91. Kilcrea Abbey, . . . •
92. Mac Dara's Church, .
93* Church doorway in Aran, .
94* High Cross Dysart O'Dea,
95* Bnnis Abbey, • •
96. Round Tower, Devenish, .
PAGE
1x9
Z20
lao
I2Z
X23
126
126
143
14s
146
ISS
z68
Z76
x«3
184
197
198
2x9
«55
256
267
3x4
318
320
3ax
322
325
327
33X
335
338
34a
346
347
349
3SZ
353
355
356
359
362
363
FIG.
97. Round Tower, Kilkenny, •
98. Klilmallock Abbey, . • •
99. St. Senan's Holy Well, Clare,
xoo. Well of Help, Inishmurray, •
xox. St. Kieran's Trout Well, Meath,
X02. Altar-Stone, • • . .
X03. Ancient stone Chalice, .
X04. St. Patrick's Bell, .
Z05. BellofMacAilello,
106. Ancient Iron Bell, .
Z07. Bronze Crotal, or closed Bell,
X08. Gold Amulet, ....
Z09. Do., do., ....
xio. Stone Amulet,
ixx. Slane Monastery, .
XZ2. Mellifont Abbey, •
1x3. Portion of Bell-shrine, .
XX4. Ogham Alphabet, •
115. Bilingual Stone, Killeen Cormac,
xx6. Ogham Stone,
Z17. Two ancient Irish Alphabets,
X18. John Scotus Erigena,
1x9. Tomb of the Seven Romans, Aran
Z20. Clonmacnoise,
I2X. Ancient Alphabet on Stone, .
Z22. " The Colledge," Yougfaal, .
123. Andent Irish Astronomical Dia
gr^oif
Z24. Scribe writing, . .
125. Cover of Book of Armagh, •
X26. Facsimile from Book of the Dun
Cow, .
X27. Sculpture on Ci^iital, Glenda
lough, • .
Z28. Movilla Monastery,
129. Dysert-Aengus,
X30. Noah's Ark, •
131. Sculpture 00 Ci^^ital,
lough, • • •
X32. KObarron Castle, .
Z33. Tubbrid Church,
Z34. Sculpture on Column,
X3S. Irish Ornament,
Glenda
PAOB
363
364
367
368
369
371
37a
373
375
377
377
385
385
38s
387
395
396
397
399
400
406
4"
413
4x5
439
463
465
48X
488
494
500
502
508
5x1
5X2
5*4
527
53X
543
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS IN VOL. I
XXlll
FIG.
PAOB
136. Sculpture on Arch,
- 544
Z37. ninmmated Page, . facing 547
Z38. Outlines of same, .
. 548
139. Rock Scorings,
. 550
140. Orzuunental page of Gospel, .
. 553
Z4Z. The Ardagh Chalice,
. 560
Z43. The Tara Brooch, .
. 562
Z43* The Cross of Cong,
• 563
144. Ornament carved on Bone, .
. 566
Z45. Do., do..
. . 566.
146. Do., do..
. 566
Z47. The Cross of Monasterboice,
. 568
Z48. Interlaced Stone Ornament,
. . 569
Z49. Haxp-Plajrer, .
. 576
250. Do.,
. 576
151. Do.,
. . 576
FIG. PAGE
253. Ancient Irish Harp, . 577
153. Piper, 580
154. Harp- and Pipe-Players, . 582
155. Do., do., . 582^
156. Do., do., . 582
157. Group of Trumpets, . 584
158. Riveting on Trumpets, . •585
159. Ornamental Plate of Trumpet, . 586-
z6o. Ornament, Devenish Round Tower, 597
x6z. Conach (Medical Charm), . . 615
162. Sweating- House, .... 625.
Z63. Healing-Stone, .... 628
264. Gamavilla Amulet (front), . . 629
165. Do. (side), . . 629
x66. Toberaraght, a Healing Holy Well, 630
167. Ornament from Book of Kells, . 632
PART 1
GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW
CHAPTER I
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
Section i. Native Development.
[E Institutions, Arts, and Customs of
Ancient Ireland, with few exceptions,
grew up from within, almost wholly
lafTected by external influence. The
:ceptions will be noticed in the proper
j,.aces in this book. The Romans never
set foot in Ireland ; though their influence was felt to some
slight extent, either by direct communication or indirectly
through the Britons. The first foreigners to appear as
invaders were the Danes, who began their raids about the
beginnii^ of the ninth century. Though they harassed
the country for about two centuries, and established them-
selves in many parts of it, especially on the coasts, they
never brought it under subjection : and they effected no
changes of any consequence in the customs or modes of
life of the people. Next came the Anglo-Konnans near the
end of the twelfth century. But though this was a much
more serious invasion than that of the Danes, and though
these new comers continued to make settlements in various
parts of the country, the Irish people still adhered every-
where to their native customs. Indeed it is well known
B2
4 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
that, except in a small district round Dublin, the settlers
generally intermarried and became incorporated with the
natives, adopting their lang^uage, laws, dress, and usages, so
as to be quite undisting^uishable from them, and becoming
''more Irisli tlian fhe Irish fhemsdveB.*' Accordingly, for
several centuries the Anglo-Norman colonisation had no
more effect in altering the general state of society than the
Danish invasions : and matters went on very much as of
old, till the time of the Tudors, when English influence at
last made itself felt. Then the old system of tribal land
tenure began to be changed for the English custom : and
with the abolition of the Brehon Law and the substitution
of English Law, in the beginning of the seventeenth cen-
tury, it may be said that the old order of things in Ireland
was broken up. But even after this most of the ancient
native customs remained, and indeed many remain to this
day.
In the long lapse of ages there were of course changes
and developments from time to time : many new modes,
fashions, and usages gradually grew up, while others fell
into disuse : but the main institutions and customs of the
country retained their hold with astonishing tenacity : so
that in some aspects of society, a description of the state of
things as they existed in, suppose, the fifteenth century,
would apply equally well to that in the sixth or seventh.
Many illustrations of this might be given ; but one will be
sufficient here. It was customary with the ancient Irish
poets — as will be described farther on — to make circuits
through the country, visiting the houses of the principal
people, and receiving payment for their poetry, besides
welcome and entertainment : composing laudatory poems
for those who received them well, and lampooning those who
refused them. This remarkable custom is mentioned in
innumerable passages in both the lay and ecclesiastical
literature as existing in the most remote pagan times ;
it was not in the least affected by war or invasion, but
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 5
continued uninterruptedly from age to age down to our
own time, as may be seen by reference to chap, xi., sect 5.
But one momentous effect of the Danish and Anglo-
Norman invasions must here be noted : fhey arrested fhe
fTogrew of native learning and art, which, though disturbed
by the Danes, still lingered on for several centuries after
the first English settlements, but gradually declined, and
finally died out Ireland presents the spectacle of an
arrested civilisation. What that civilisation would have
come to if allowed to follow out uninterruptedly its natural
course of development it is now impossible to tell, and
useless to conjecture ; but there is no reason to think that
in this respect Irishmen would not have kept well abreast
with the rest of the world. One object of this book is to
present the intellectual and artistic state of the country
when at its best — though still imperfect — namely, from the
seventh or eighth to the eleventh or twelfth century.
2. Evidences from Literature.
The evidences relied on throughout this book are de-
rived from two main sources : — Literary Beoords, and
Material Bemains.
The literary works used as authorities are referred to in
the book as occasion arises, and they are all named in one
general list at the end ; but as they vary greatly, both in the
value to be attached to their testimony, and in point of
antiquity, it may be well, at the outset, to give some idea
of the kind of evidence we obtain from them, and to indi-
cate, in a general way, how far they are to be trusted as
guides in our present inquiry. Two main points I wish to
bring out clearly in this short chapter : — First, the authen-
ticity and general trust\vorthiness of the evidence ; Second,
the period or periods of the country's history to which this
evidence applies.
The Literary Records may be classed as follows :—
Lives of Saints, Martyrologies, and other religious writings:
6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Romantic Literature : the Brehon Laws : Glosses and
Glossaries : Annals, Genealogies, and Local Historical
Memoirs : and the works of English, Anglo-Irish, and
foreign writers. These several classes will be now briefly
examined.
Lives of Saints. — The Lives and other written memorials
of the Irish saints, most in Irish, some in Latin, of which
great numbers are still preserved in our manuscripts, and
of which many have been published, form a very important
source of information. The oldest documents of this kind
are the original memoirs of St. Patrick. The principal of
these are : — The two documents now generally admitted to
have been written by Patrick himself — the " Confession,"
and the "Epistle to Coroticus," both fifth century; and two
others, the Memoir of the saint by Muitchu Maccu Machteni,
and the Notes by Tirechan, both written in the seventh
century, but embodying traditions of a much earlier date.
These are of the highest authority, but they do not give us
much information regarding the social life of the people.
Next in point of antiquity, but more detailed and more
valuable for our purposes, is the Latin Life of St. Colum-
kille, written in or about A.D. 695, by Adamnan. Columkille
was the founder and first abbot of lona^and Adamnan was
the ninth abbot : both were Irishmen ; and the illustrious
establishment over which they presided was an Irish eccle-
siastical colony. Adamnan was a writer of great dignity
and integrity : and his pictures of the daily life of the
people of Ireland, Scotland, and Iona,both lay and clerical,
in the sixth and seventh centuries, though not very full,
are absolutely trustworthy so far as they go, and most
valuable as being the earliest detailed accounts we
possess.
The Celtic people who inhabited the western coasts and
islands of Scotland were descended from Irish colonists, as
.will be shown in chap, iv., sect i, and intimate intercourse
;was kept up from the beginning between the two countries
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION /
The two peoples were in fact identical, having the same
customs, language, and modes of life ; so that Adamnan's
descriptions of the Scottish Gaelic people apply equally to
Ireland. His remarks also about the daily life of the
Northern Picts, whom he converted, may be applied, with,
little or no reservation, to the Scots or Irish : for we know
that the Picts lived much the same sort of life as their
neighbours, the Gaels, both of Ireland and Scotland. The
Britons are often mentioned in Irish writings, for there was
much intercourse between them and the Irish in early ages,
so that they often intermarried (chap, iv., sect i). Tacitus,,
writing in the end of the first century, states that there was
little difference between them in disposition, manners, and
customs : and, as corroborating this, we find that the
British customs incidentally noticed by Irish writers are
found to be generally identical with those of the Irish
themselves.
Here it may be proper to remark that many ancient
Gaelic customs that have died out, or are only faintly
remembered, in Ireland, are still preserved, with most of
their antique features, in the Islands and Highlands of Scot-
land, of which several examples will be given in this book,
from Martin, Pennant, Scott, Carmichael, and other deli-
neators of Scottish manners. The desolating wars in Ire-
land, especially those of the time of Elizabeth, in which the
country was almost cleared of inhabitants, broke, as it
were, the continuity of the race, so that many old customs
and traditions were neglected and forgotten in Ireland^
which in Scotland have been preserved without a break
from the time of the earliest colonists to the present day.
The great majority of the saints whose biographies have
been preserved flourished in the period from the fifth to the
eighth or ninth century. But it is well known that in the
case of most of them — though not of all — long intervals
elapsed after their death, intervals often of centuries, be-
fore the memoirs of their Lives and Acts — that is, those
«: GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
memoirs that are now extant — were committed to writing.
A vast proportion of the ancient books of Ireland were
destroyed by the Danes in the ninth and tenth centuries,
and among them, no doubt, numerous original Memoirs of
saints ! so that the later bic^aphers had to depend very
much on verbal tradition. These compilers constructed
their narratives as best they could, under great difficulties,
collecting their materials from remnants of written records
in the several monasteries, from the scanty entries in old
Annals, Genealogies, and other such documents, and lately
iirom oral tradition, the most uncertain source of all.
Though constructed round a frame-work of truth, these
Lives, as they have reached us, are much mixed with
legend and fable, a circumstance which detracts from their
value as mere historical records ; though it does not at all
affect our researches. The long intervals account in great
part for the marvellous element : for oral tradition tends,
in the slow lapse of ages, to magnify everything, and to
attribute all unusual occurrences of past times to preter-
natural agency.
•CHAP. I] LAVING THE FOUNDATION 9
There is good reason to believe that the biographers
■committed to writing faithfully the accounts they received,
whether from tradition or written record — truth and fiction
alike — without adding or distorting. But taking these old
Lives as they stand, we are generally enabled, by an exa-
mination of internal evidence, and by careful comparison
with other authorities, to distinguish fact from Bction : at
least, in the case of the matters dealt with in this book —
the main tiling that concerns us. Interspersed through
the narratives there are frequent references to dwellings,
furniture, dress, ornaments, occupations, customs, pastimes,
food, and many other concomitants of the everyday life of
the people, which are inoideutally menttoaed with all the
lO GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
marks of truth and reality. The fact that these brief
records are incidental, casual, and unintentional, is what
stamps them with authenticity and gives them their value.
When we follow the g^uidance of these side lights, using
ordinary circumspection, we are pretty sure to keep on safe
grpund, even though many of the main incidents related
directly are fabulous or doubtful.
I will illustrate these remarks by an example. In the
Irish Life of St. Brigit, it is related that on one occasion,
soon after she had settled in Kildare, Ailill, king of Lein-
ster, passed near her establishment, with a hundred horse-
loads of peeled rods ; whereupon Brigit sent two of her
girls to ask him for some of the rods ; but he refused them.
Forthwith all the horses fell down helpless under their
loads : and there they remained unable to rise, till Ailill
granted Brigit's request : on which she released them. The
Irish narrative adds incidentally that it was from these rods
St. Brigit s house in Kildfire was built,* Passing by, as
foreign to our purpose, the miraculous part of this story,
which was the thing mainly in the mind of the writer, we
may infer from the rest that in those times it was the
custom to build houses of rods or wattles, cleaned up and
peeled before being used : and there is abundant evidence
elsewhere to show that this would be a correct conclusion.
Bearing in mind that the customs and habits of a people
change slowly, that the original biographers must have had
written authority of a much earlier age for some portion of
their statements, and that the dates of the composition of
the Lives or other Memoirs range from the fifth to the
fourteenth or fifteenth century, we shall be safe in assuming
that these incidental allusions generally represent the state
of society existing in Ireland from the time of the comme-
morated saints down at least to the periods of the writers.
This incidental testimony is specially noticed here in
connexion with the Lives of the Saints ; but in reality it
• Stokes, Three Irish Homilies, page 77.
CHAP.l] LAVING THE FOUNDATION II
pervades all classes of Irish writings, as will be seen as we
go on. Along with the Lives of the Saints, we may class
Martyrol(^es and Calendars, Hymns, Sermons, and other
religious writings, which will be specified and referred to
whenever necessary.
Komaatio Literature. — The ancient Irish Tales, Histori-
cal and Romantic, which are described in some detail in
chap. XV., furnish our next group of authorities. A large
proportion of the stories are contained in the Book of the
Dun Cow, which was transcribed about the year i lOO, and
in the Book of Leinster, transcribed in or before 1160;
and others are found in later manuscripts. All these
books were copied from much older volumes : and there
is good reason to believe that the principal stories were
committed to writing at various periods from the seventh
to the tenth century, having been handed down orally for
ages previously by the professional poets and shanachies.
Though the stories are partly or wholly fictitious, they
abound, like the Lives of the Saints, in incidental pictures
of real life, which, speaking generally, are as true, and
consequently as valuable for our purposes, as if the main
narratives were strictly historical.
. It is, however, necessary to observe that when we have
to deal with the direct descriptions of men and their
surroundings found in many of the heroic romances —
12 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
direct and intentional descriptions as distinguished from
casual or incidental — we must be cautious in accepting
statements, and careful in drawing conclusions from them.
The heroes and the events which are the subjects of these
Tales, belong for the most part to the first three or four
centuries of our era, and some are assigned to a much
earlier period. The old romancers, who committed the
stories to writing many centuries later, magnified and
glorified everything pertaining to their favourite heroes ;
and have left us gorgeous descriptions of houses, furniture,
arms, dress, and ornaments, of which a great number may
be seen translated into English in O'Curry's " Lectures on
the Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish." In the
case of most of these, no one would seriously think of
accepting them as literal sober truth : they merely
embody the shanachies' exaggerated conceptions of the
great champions of the heroic ages ; like the Homeric
descriptions of Greek and Trojan heroes. Moreover these
direct descriptions, so far as they are to be credited, as
well indeed as the incidental references, must be taken
generally as applying to the time of the original writers
— or a little earlier in case of each individual writer —
namely from the seventh to the tenth century, though,
as we shall see, a good proportion of them apply to a
much earlier period.
But we may err on the side of excessive scepticism
as well as by undue credulity. The most exaggerated
description, if read in the right way, and checked and
tested and toned down by other authorities, may yield
solid information. And in regard to ornaments and
equipments : that the Shanachies did not often invent,
but merely magnified, is proved by the fact, that in our
museums we have weapons and ornaments answering to
most of those described in the stories, though generally on
a scale less magnificent. Mere creations of imagination
as well as gross exaggeration can be eliminated or brought
CHAP. I]
LAYING THE FOUNDATION
IS
down to the solid level of reality, by rigorously adhering
to the rule of accepting nothing that does not of itself
appear reasonable, or that is not corroborated by other
authority.
All the old Tales have been transmitted to us — as
remarked elsewhere (chap, xv., sect i) — ^by Christian
copyists, who have in most of them — though not in all —
Fic. xo.
Group of Torques for the neck : aD MUd gold : now In the National Museum. Dublin : Ailljr con*
inning the descriptioos of Torqnes glren In the Talc«. The outer one is 15K Inches In diameter,
and 5 feet 7 inches in total length. See, for Torques, chap. xxIL, sect 3. or " Torques" in Index.
From Wilde's CataL, Gold. p. 71.
added on, as it were from the outside, Christian allusions,,
leaving the general pagan framework almost unchanged.
Accordingly, even those of the Tales that show Christian
influence, are full of pagan ideas, and of references to pagan
customs, while some are thoroughly pagan in character,,
without a trace of Christianity : so that we may safely apply
14 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
—with due discrimination^ — many of the features of social
life in the oldest Tales to a period much earlier than the
seventh century.
Many of the Tales will be referred to as we go along :
but as exemplifying how much may be learned from them,
I will here mention one piece contained in the Lebar Brecc,
The Vision of Mac Conglinn6, which was evidently written
by a skilled epicure, and which, though purely fictitious,
has afforded a vast amount of information, undoubtedly
authentic, especially on food and drink, and on the various
modes of preparing, cooking, and presenting them at table.
Professor Kuno Meyer, the editor, believes that this tale
began to assume its present form about the end of the
twelfth century : but that the original and shorter narrative
was written at a much earlier period.
The Brehon Laws. — In the ancient Laws of Ireland we
have another rich mine of materials. These Laws or
Customs grew up among the people from the very begin-
ning of society, and took cognisance of them from almost
every conceivable point of view, following them as it were
into their very houses and laying bare to view the details
of their home life. They professed to regulate social and
domestic rdations of every kind, as well as professions,
trades, industries, occupations, and wages. As laws they
err in being too minute ; but this very defect renders them
all the more valuable for our purposes.
The two most important of the Brehon Law tracts are
the Senolms Mor [Shanahus More] and the Book of Aoaill
[Ackill]. In Cormad's Glossary, a document of the ninth
or tenth century, the Senchus M6r is quoted and referred
to several times as a well-known work, even at that early
time ; and as further showing the great antiquity of the
text, it may be mentioned that many of the terms occur-
ring in it had, when the Glossary was compiled, fallen so
much out of use, that they are included among the obsolete
and forgotten old words needing explanation. As to the
CHAP. I] I-AYING THE FOUNDATION 1 5
Book of Acaill, it is generally admitted that it is at least
as old as the Senchus M6r : probably older. Other por-
tions of the written law, including the Commentaries and
Glosses, are, however, much less ancient than these : and
some are not older than the fifteenth or sixteenth century :
though no doubt they transmit traditional interpretations
of a much earlier time.
But this important fact must be remembered : — At
whatever times the several tracts of the Laws were first
written down, it was merely transferring to parchment
usages that had been in existence for centuries: for the
customs of a people take long to grow, and still longer to
establish themselves as laws. It seems evident therefore
that the information regarding social life supplied by the
Laws taken as a whole, applies to a period coinciding in
great part with that covered by the Lives of the Saints
and the Romantic Literature — a period reaching in some
instances as far back as the date assigned by tradition to
the original compilation of the Senchus M6r : namely, the
time of St. Patrick, i,e, the fifth century. (See chap, vi.,
sect 2.)
A few of the legal rules and decisions laid down in
the Laws are obviously unreal and fictitious and hardly
intended to have any application to practical life. Some
seem to be mere intellectual problems, invented to show
the cleverness of the writers, or to test the ingenuity of
the learners in solving theoretical difficulties: a practice,
by the way, not peculiar to the ancient Irish ; for one
may find examples of it elsewhere, even at the present
day. But such cases form only a very small portion of
the whole body of the Laws, and they are easily detected.
The Laws moreover are sometimes perplexingly incon-
sistent, which probably arises from the fact that many
of the tracts transmit to us local customs of different
periods, or from different parts of the country, or perhaps
the decisions of different jurists. But these unrealities
l6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and inconsistencies chiefly concern those persons who-
study the Laws as legal documents: they hardly touch
our inquiry : and so far as the objects of this book are
concerned, the Laws, as a whole, may be taken as repre*
senting faithfully the actual state of society.
0108868 and Olo88arie8. — The ancient Irish Glosses and
Glossaries, which will be found described in chap, xii.,
have been all turned to account, especially the Glosses
in Zeuss's "Grammatica Celtica," and the Glossaries of
Cormac MacCullenan, O'Clery, and O'Davoren. Zeuss's
Glosses, with the corresponding Latin phrases, are given
fully by Zimmer in his book "Glossae Hibernicae"; and
the whole of the Irish Glosses, wherever found all over
Europe, including those of Zeuss, are brought together,,
with English translations of the old Irish passages, in
" Thesaurus Palaeohibemicus," by Doctors Stokes and
Strachan. Cormac's Glossary contains a great deal of
authentic and most valuable information. Many of the
words explained in it had then — that is in the ninth or
tenth century — become so antiquated as to be unintel-
ligible to the generality of readers: and the numerous
customs mentioned must have taken many generations,
to grow up. The notices of manners and customs found
in this Glossary may accordingly be taken to apply ta
a period extending backwards for several centuries — Le,
a period generally coincident with that covered by the
preceding three classes of authorities. Cormac's Glossary
is, for my purposes, somewhat like a cake of highly
concentrated food — pemmican or desiccated soup — dry
and unattractive looking, but yielding under proper treat-
ment plenty of intellectual nutriment It abounds in
references, illustrations, indirect allusions, and quotations
from archaic lore — all very brief — relating to history, law,
romance, druidism, mythology, handicrafts, domestic life ;
showing the writer to have been a man of exceptional
powers of observation and illustration ; and I think that^
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 17
for its size, I have obtained more information from this
book than from any other. To about the same period,
or earlier, and for much the same reasons, may be ascribed
the information derived from the Glosses, most of which,
according to Zeuss, were written in the eighth century,
and others in the beginning of the ninth : while some of
the oldest of them have been assigned by other Continental
scholars to the seventh.
Axmals, Histories, Oenealogies, &c. — Besides the classes
of writings already noticed, there are Annals, Genealogies,
Local Memoirs, Historical Poems, and such like, all help-
ing to accumulate evidence. Among the later writings in
the Irish language are three local memoirs, translated and
edited by O'Donovan : one on the district and people of
Hy Fiachrach in Sligo; another on Hy Many or the
O'Keliys country in Galway; and the third on Corca-
luidhe [Corkalee] or the O'Driscoll's territory in South
Cork. These describe the people of the three several
districts, their government, and modes of life, in the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. One great
value of these three comparatively late tracts consists in
this : — that they fully corroborate the evidences of much
earlier writings ; and show that the habits and customs
of the older times were preserved almost unchanged down
to the period of the writers.
Although this book professedly deals with Ireland be-
fore the Anglo-Norman Invasion (i 171), it will be observed
that I sometimes notice matters belonging to much later
periods, and later authorities referring to them are often
quoted. But the object of this is clear enough — to illustrate
the earlier history. A statement in a late book asserting
or implying the prevalence of a certain custom at the time
of the writer, though it could not be accepted of itself as
evidence of the existence of the same custom at a period
several centuries earlier, might corroborate a similar record
or incidental reference in an ancient document, which, if
C
1 8 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
unsupported, would be too weak or uncertain to warrant a
conclusion. The late authority in such a case is something
like a flying buttress erected to sustain a weak or yielding
old wall : both will stand by mutual support, where either,
if left to itself, might fall. A good example of this sort of
corroboration is Froissart*s account of the custom of knight-
ing boys at seven. (See chap, xiv., sect 2, farther on.)
There is yet another source of information existing in
the Irish language — the loan-words from other languages.
But this branch of the subject has not yet been sufficiently
investigated by philologists to be turned to much account ;
and accordingly I have made little use of it.
English and Foreign Writers. — The authorities hitherto
referred to are all native. In early Greek and Roman
writings there is not much reliable information about Ire-
land, which was in those times very remote and hard to
reach. The stories regarding Ireland in those days are
mere hearsay reports, and often remind one of the Greek
accounts of the Cimmerians, the Cyclops, Scylla and
Charybdis, the Harpies, and so forth. For example, Solinus,
a Latin writer of about the third century, states that there
were few birds in Ireland, that there are no such things
as bees in it, that dust or small pebbles from Irish soil,
if taken to other countries and scattered among hives, will
frighten away and banish all the bees. In like manner
Strabo has a number of odd fables about Ireland.* But as
I make little use of the writings of these authors, there is
no need to notice them further here. Sometimes, how-
ever, passages in the works of foreign writers, when they
had opportunities of coming at facts, and leave records of
what they knew, afford valuable corroboration of Irish
records, of which Bede's account of the students from
Britain residing in Ireland, and Ethicus's mention of
* A brief but useful collection of Greek and Roman writers' stories about
Ireland, compiled by John O'Donovan, will be found in the Ulst. Journ.
Archaeol., viii. 239.
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION I9
. books existing in Ireland in the fourth century, are good
examples. (See chap, xi., sects, i and 2, farther on.)
When we come to the literature of later times, we have,
in addition to the native writings in Irish or Latin, many
other works, chiefly in English, written by English and
foreign writers, and some by Irishmen belonging to the
English colony.
Giraldus Cambrensis was the first foreigner who wrote
a detailed description of Ireland. He spared no pains to
collect materials for his work, during his visit in 1185 : and
his " Topography of Ireland," written in Latin, contains a
great amount of most interesting and valuable matter —
valuable partly as an independent authority, and partly as
a confirmation of the native accounts. But he was bitterly
prejudiced against the Irish people, whom he misrepresents
to their disadvantage whenever he finds an opportunity,
and he often breaks out into blind, passionate abuse of
them. He was very narrow-minded too, and everything
not exactly squaring in with his own experience of fashion
and custom he pronounced barbarous. Yet, when he was
able to conquer his prejudices, he bestowed praise where
he thought it was deserved. He describes in enthusiastic
terms of laudation the ornamentation of Irish books and
the skill of the Irish harpers ; and he praises the Irish
clergy for the purity of their lives. He was excessively
credulous, and his book abounds in marvellous stories,
some of them very silly, for which Lynch and other Irish
writers censure him. But in justice to him it should be
mentioned that many of his stories are versions — occasion-
ally distorted — of Irish legends, which must have been
related to him or translated from Irish books by natives :
and he transferred them all to his book with undiscriminat-
ing credulity as if they were sober history. However, in
perusing the " Topography," it is not difficult to separate
the wheat from the chaff.
In the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries a
C2
20 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
number of English and Anglo-Irish writers described Ire-
land and its people ; but though the works of several of
these are very solid and valuable, many are disfigured by
prejudice and misrepresentation, and their testimony has
to be carefully sifted.
3, Evidences from .Material Remains.
Hitherto we have treated of the evidences afforded by
written Literature. Material Bemains constitute the other
boldKeibEladcBllv Nunc ud ue unkiioini. iFnm WDdc'I ClUliw«>J 3m
main source of information. They consist of antiquarian
objects of various kinds, found underground from time to
time, and now preserved in museums ; and of numerous
monuments and ruins of buildings scattered over the face
of the country. These, so far as they go, and so far as we
are able to ascertain their uses, give us perhaps the most
CIIAP. l] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 21
certain and satisfactory evidence of all. Besides affording,
of themselves, independent testimony, they serve to con-
firm, and in many cases to correct and tone down the
written accounts.
Here a very important
fimction of the inquirer is to
bring the existing remains into
connexion with the records,
by identifying the several ob-
jects with those mentioned in
the ancient writings. In case
of the great majority of mu-
seum articles the chain of con-
nexion is complete : that is to
say, we are able to pronounce
with certainty that such and
such an object is the very one mentioned in the writings,
or belongs to the same class, and with the same use;
Thus, we find brooches of various kinds, sizes, and materials
spoken of everywhere in the ancient tales and bic^raphles :
and there before our eyes in the museums are numerous
22 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
brooches answering in every respect to those described.
In many such cases the existence of the objects affords
valuable corroboration of the accuracy of the records, which
otherwise we might be often inclined to doubt as mere
bardic inventions. Thus, to continue the above illustra-
tion : — We often find mentioned in the Tales that a chief
had his cloak fastened in front by a brooch of such a
length as to extend across his breast from shoulder to
shoulder, a record which, if unsupported by other testi-
mony, would probably be considered
an exaggeration. But when we find
among the collection of brooches in
the National Museum in Dublin, two
Fio. 15.
Fig. 16.
Fio. 17.
In 1781 six bronze articles, all thin and flat, were dug up near Slanc in Meath,
of shape like those seen in the fifrures (of which the orifpnals are in the National
Museum, Dublin), and from 3 to 5 inches long. The spiral wire seen on one is
also on another, now in Trinity College, Dublin, and it is prol>able was originally
on alL Name and use unknown. Wilde (Catalogue. 566. 590) thinks they were
brooches, and calls them " Spectacle brooches " from their shape. (From
Wilde's Catalogue.)
specimens 22 and 20 inches long, respectively, we can no
longer doubt the old romancer's truthfulness. And as a
further confirmation, we find that the Brehon Law pre-
scribes penalties for personal injuries caused by brooches
whose points project beyond the shoulders.
But in some cases we are unable to connect the remains
with the literature : in other words, some articles are men-
tioned and named in the ancient writings which we cannot
identify with any existing objects : and on the other hand
we have several antique articles in the museums (some
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 23
pictured here : pp. 20, 22) whose names and uses are
unknown, and which we are unable to identify with any
of those occurring in the records. These remarks apply
to the ancient buildings and structures of various kinds
scattered over the country: while a large proportion are
identified and their uses known, numerous others are still
a puzzle to antiquarians.
Other classes of ancient remains, such as pictures^
coloured or plain, inscriptions on stone or brick, sculptured
representations of scenes of real life, all which are so abun-
dant elsewhere — for example in Egypt — and which have
led to such wonderful discoveries, are scanty in Ireland.
Costumes, arms, and active life are represented in the
sculptures of the High Crosses, and in some of the
illustrations in the illuminated manuscripts, which go to
confirm the written accounts of dress and ornaments ;
but, on the whole, we do not obtain much information
on the social and domestic life of the people from this
class of remains.
4. Concurrence of Testimonies,
It is most important to bear in mind that the validity
of our conclusions regarding ancient customs and manners
does not depend on any one authority or class of autho-
rities, but in nearly all cases on the concurrence of several.
For example : In one of the ancient tales we come, sup-
pose, across a statement or an allusion relating to some
long-forgotten custom, which looks so strange and odd
that we might at first be inclined to pass it by as a random
expression of no significance. But we find it repeated in
other tales ; and something to the same effect is alluded to
in one or more of the Lives of the Saints, documents of a
totally different origin ; while perhaps these are confirmed
by an incidental reference or explanation in a Glossary or
in the Brehon Laws ; or a corroborative passage occurs in
a foreign writer ; and it may happen that some monument
24 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
or some article in a museum supports the written accounts
by its mute but unquestionable testimony. Thus all doubt
is removed and the matter becomes a certainty. It is this
undesigned concurrence of several independent authorities that
constitutes the main strength of the evidence for the state-
ments and conclusions all through this book.
From all that has been said here, then, it will, I think,
be conceded that we have materials that will enable us
to construct a Social History of Ireland for the interval
between the introduction of Christianity and the Anglo-
Norman Invasion, tx. from the fifth to the twelfth century.
And while, on the one hand, we know that the state of
society in the time of the Anglo-Normans continued with-
out extensive or violent changes to the sixteenth or seven-
teenth century, we may be pretty certain, on the other
hand, though we have little direct historical evidence to
prove it, that the institutions and ways of life found in the
country by the early missionaries were in most cases iden-
tical with those existing far back towards the beginning of
the Christian Era, or before it.
The ancient Irish were a branch of the continental
Celts : and they brought with them the language, mytho-
logy, and customs of their original home, all of which,
however, became modified in course of ages after the
separation. But the main characteristics were maintained,
and a comparison of the native accounts of the ancient
Irish people with the classical writers' descriptions of the
continental Celts shows close resemblances in many impor-
tant particulars. Each class of writings throws light on
the other, so as often to clear up obscure passages in both :
and in many cases statements in the ancient Irish Tales,
which, if unsupported, might be regarded as doubtful, are
corroborated by passages concerning the Gaulish Celts in
Caesar, Solinus, Posidonius, and other classical writers.
These observations will be found illustrated in many parts
of this book.
CHAP. I] LAYING THE FOUNDATION 2$
5. Population of Irelandin Ancient Times,
It is important that we should have some general idea
of the population of Ireland during the period treated of
in this book. According to the best Anglo-Irish authorities
the population at the time of the Restoration — 1660 — was
something over a million. But for a whole century before
that time the country had been devastated by continuous
war, probably the most destructive ever experienced by any
nation within historic times ; so that the people of three of
the provinces, Ulster, Munster, and Connaught, as well as
of a considerable part of Leinster, were almost exter-
minated. At the beginning of these wars there must have
been three or four times more people than in 1660.
There are various considerations leading to the belief
that Ireland was well populated in the early ages of Chris-
tianity. All over the country — in Connaught as well as in
the other provinces — there are many districts in which we
find multitudes of small church ruins : districts which are
now half waste and solitary, and have been so for centuries :
these churches, of course, were not erected without having
people to fill them.* Then again, many parts of the coun-
try are now studded over with raths or residential forts —
the ancient homesteads — quite as thickly as with modem
residences, notwithstanding that a large proportion of the
original structures have been obliterated by cultivation.f
Observe also that round every good-sized rath a number of
workpeople and other followers lived with their families in
wicker houses without any special fortifications, so that no
traces of their dwellings remain.
It has been observed by many modern writers that
plain traces of tillage, such as ridges formed by digging
^ lar Connauglit, p. 14, note g,
t On the multitude of raths or forts, see Brash, Ogams, pp. 99, loi ;
Westropp's papers on '* Prehistoric Forts in the Co. Clare," in Joum. R. Soc.
Antiqq., IreL, for 1896 and 1897 ; and Wilde's Boyne and Blackwater,
p. 138. See also Kilk. Arch. Joum. for 1879-82, p. 259.
26 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and ploughing, are found all over Ireland in places now
waste and uninhabited ; such as the tops and sides of
mountains, and even under deep bogs : and several of
those writers, on this score alone, are of the opinion ex-
pressed by one of their number that "for certain Ireland
has been better inhabited than it is at present"*
Other circumstances point independently to the same
conclusion ; such as the outflow of the population in the
early centuries to Scotland, Wales, and Man, as mentioned
in chapter iv.; the numerous schools and colleges in the
sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries — of which a partial list
may be seen at the opening of chapter xi. — all with crowds
of students ; and the vast assemblages at the periodical
fairs, described in chapter xxix., of which we may instance,
as one example out of many, that of Tailltenn in 1169,
when the chariots and horse alone extended along a
distance of six miles. In this connexion we must not over-
look the ancient tradition cited farther on (chap, vii., sect, i.),
that in the reign of the sons of Aed Slaine (joint kings^
A.D. 656-664) the people grew so numerous that for the
first time the use of fences became general.
We should remember, too, Caesar's statement regarding
Britain in his time — the first century B.C. — "the number of
people is countless and their buildings are exceedingly
numerous" (Gallic War, v., xii.); and there seems no
reason why Ireland should have been behindhand in this
respect at that time and subsequently.
Besides all that has been said, there is another most
important observation to be made. It seems inconceivable
that such a complete, close, and symmetrical network of
laws and institutions as will be found described in the fol-
lowing pages, embracing every member of the community,
from the highest to the lowest, could have grown up and
♦ Boate, Nat. Hist., p. 47; Smith, Hist, of Cork, i., 198; Joyce, Irish
Names of Places, i., 228.
CIIAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 2/
held the people together for so many centuries, without
having a good solid population to work upon.
From all these considerations, then, we may conclude
that Ireland was well peopled during the period passing
under review in this book.
CHAPTER II
A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
RELAND, from the sixth to the twelfth century of
the Christian Era, presented an interesting spec-
tacle, which, viewed through the medium of
history, may be sketched in broad outline as
follows.
In those early times the physical aspect of
Ireland was very different from what it is at
present. All over the country there were vast
forests, and great and dangerous marshes, quagmires, and
bogs, covered with reeds, moss, and grass. But though
bogs existed from the beginning, many districts, where we
now find them lying broad and deep, were once forest
land ; and the bog grew up after the surface had, in some
manner, become denuded of trees. Buried down at a depth
of many feet in some of our present bogs great tree trunks
are often found, the relics of the primaeval forest.
But outside forest and bog, there were open plains,
valleys, and hillsides, under cultivation and pasturage, and
all well populated. The woods and waste places were
alive with birds and wild animals of all kinds, and the
people were very fond of hunting and fishing ; for there
was plenty of game, both large and small, and the rivers
and lakes teemed with fish. Sometimes they hunted hares
28 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and foxes for mere sport But they had much grander
game : wild boars with long and dangerous tusks, deer in
great herds, and wolves that lurked in caves and thick
woods. There were the same broad lakes, like inland seas,
that still remain : but they were generally larger then than
they are now; and they were surrounded with miles of
reedy morasses: lakes and marshes tenanted everywhere
by vast flocks of cranes, wild geese, wild swans, and other
fowl. Kites and golden eagles skimmed over the plains
peering down for prey; and the goshawks, or falcons,
used in the old game of hawking, were found in great
abundance.
A person traversing those parts of the country that
were inhabited found no difficulty in getting from place to
place ; for there were roads and bridle-paths everywhere,
rough indeed, and not to be compared with the roads of
!•' '/f!ii!inri!'-t!Miiiiii''ii^;aw
Fig. x8.
Ferryboat. 3i fe«t tonn: by z foot broad : now in National Museum, Dublin. <From Wilde's Catalof^e.)
our day, but good enough for the travel and traffic of the
time. If the wayfarer did not choose to walk, there were
plenty of ox-waggons ; and among the higher classes
rough springless chariots, drawn by one or two horses.
Horse-riding, though sometimes adopted, was not in those
times a very general mode of travelling. What with rough
conveyances, and with roads and paths often full of ruts,
pools, and mire, a journey, whether by walking, driving, or
horse-riding, was a slow, laborious, and disagreeable busi-
ness, and not always free from danger. Rivers were crossed
by means of wooden bridges, or by wading at broad
shallow fords, or by little ferry-boats, or, as a last
resource, by swimming : for in those days of open-air life
everyone could swim. Fords were, however, generally very
easy to find, as the roads and paths usually impinged on
CHAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 29
them, and in many places lights were kept burning beside
them at night.
In the inhabited districts the traveller experienced little
difficulty on the score of lodging: for there were open
houses of hospitality for the reception of strangers, where
bed and food were always ready. If one of these happened
not to be within reach, he had only to make his way to the
nearest monastery, where he was sure of a warm welcome :
and whether in monastery or hostel, he was entertained
free of charge. Failing both, there was small chance of
his having to sleep out : for hospitality was everywhere
enjoined and practised as a virtue, and there was always
a welcome from the family of the first private house he
turned into.
The people were divided into tribes and clans, each
group, whether small or large, governed by a king or chief;
and at the head of all was the high king of Ireland. But
these kings could not do as they pleased : for they had to
govern the country or the district in accordance with old
customs, and had to seek the advice of the chief men on all
important occasions— much the same as the limited mon-
archs of our own day. There were courts of justice pre-
sided over by magistrates and judges, with lawyers to
explain the law and plead for their clients.
The houses were nearly all of wood, and oftener round
than quadrangular, the dwelling of every comfortable
family surrounded by a high rampart of earth with a
thorn hedge or strong palisade on top, to keep out wild
animals and robbers. Beside almost every homestead
was a kitchen garden for table vegetables, and one or
more enclosed spaces for various purposes, such as out-
door games, shutting in cattle at night, or as haggards
for corn-stacks. In some places the dwellings were
clustered in groups or hamlets, not huddled close as the
houses in most of our present villages, but with open
spaces between. The large towns — which, however, were
30 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
very few — lay open all round, without any attempt at
fortification.
The people were bright and intelligent and much given
to intellectual entertainments and amusements. They
loved music and singing, and took delight in listening
to poetry, history, and romantic stories, recited by pro-
fessional poets and shanachies ; or in the absence of
these, by good non-professional storytellers, who were
everywhere to be found among the peasantry. They
were close observers of external nature, too, and had an
intense admiration for natural beauty, a peculiarity every-
where reflected in their literature, as well as in their place-
names.
In most parts of the country open-air meetings or fairs
were held periodically, where the people congregated in
thousands, and forgetting all the cares of the world for the
time, gave themselves over to unrestrained enjoyment —
athletic games and exercises, racing, music, recitations
by skilled poets and storytellers, jugglers* and showmen's
representations, eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage. So determined were they to ward off all
unpleasantness on these occasions, that no one, at the
risk of his life, durst pick a quarrel or strike a blow : for
this was one of the rules laid down to govern all public
assemblies. An Irish fair in those times was a lively and
picturesque sight. The people were dressed in their best,
and in great variety, for all, both men and women, loved
bright colours, and from head to foot every individual
wore articles of varied hues. Here you see a tall gentle-
man walking along with a scarlet cloak flowing loosely
over a short jacket of purple, with perhaps a blue trousers
and yellow headgear, while the next showed a colour
arrangement wholly different ; and the women vied with
the men in variety of hues. Nay, single garments were
often particoloured; and it was quite common to see the
long outside mantle, whether worn by men or women.
CHAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 31
Striped and spotted with purple, yellow, green, or other
dyes.
But outside such social gatherings, and in ordinary life,
both chiefs and people were quarrelsome and easily pro-
voked to fight. Indeed they loved fighting for its own
sake ; and a stranger to the native character would be
astonished to see the very people who only a few days
before vied with each other in good-natured enjoyment,
now fighting to the death on some flimsy cause of variance,
which in all likelihood he would fail to understand if he
made inquiry. These everlasting jars and conflicts —
though not more common in Ireland than in England
and Scotland — brought untold miseries on the people, and
were the greatest obstacle to progress. Sometimes great
battles were fought, on which hung the fate of the nation,
like those we have seen contested in Ireland within the
last two or three hundred years. But the martial instincts
of the people were not always confined within the shores
of Ireland; for Irish leaders often carried war into the
32 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
neighbouring countries both of Great Britain and the
Continent
In all parts of the country were monasteries, most of
them with schools attached, where an excellent education
was to be had by all who desired it, for small payment, or
for nothing at all if the student was poor : and besides
these there were numerous lay schools where young
persons might be educated in general learning and for
Cbrifttiu An [a [EcUbd, p. iick |S<C v^tt 34. top tii/t^t
the professions. The teaching and lecturing were carried
on with life and spirit, and very much in the open air
when the weather permitted. In the monasteries and
schools, as well as in some private houses, there were
libraries of manuscript books containing all the learning
CHAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 33
then known : but when you walked into the library room
you saw no books on shelves : but numbers of neat
satchels hanging on hooks round the walls, each contain-
ing one or more precious volumes and labelled on the
outside.
Learning of every kind was held in the highest estima-
tion ; and learned men were well rewarded, not only in the
universal respect paid to them, but also in the solid worldly
advantages of wealth and influence. Professional men —
physicians, lawyers, builders, &c. — went on their visits,
each attended by a group of scholars who lived in his
house and accompanied him to learn their profession by
actual practice.
34 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Some gave themselves up to the study and practice of
art in its various forms, and became highly accomplished :
and specimens of their artistic work remain to this day,
which are admitted to be the most perfect and beautiful of
the kind existing in any part of the world (see fig. 20, p. 32).
In numerous districts there were minerals which, though
not nearly so abundant as in the neighbouring island of
Great Britain, were yet in sufficient quantity to give rise to
many industries. The mines were worked too, as we know
from ancient documents ; and the remains of old mines of
copper, coal, and other minerals, with many antique mining
tools, have been discovered in recent times in some parts
of Ireland. Gold was found in many places, especially in
the district that we now call the county Wicklow ; and the
rich people wore a variety of gold ornaments, which they
took great pride in (fig. 21). Many rivers produced the
pearl mussel, so that Ireland was well known for its pearls,
which were unusually large and of very fine quality : and
in some of the same rivers pearls are found to this day.
Though there were no big factories there were plenty
of industries and trades in the homes of the people, like
what we now call cottage industries. Coined money was
hardly known, so that all transactions of buying and selling
were carried on by a sort of barter, values being estimated
by certain well-known standards, such as cows, sacks of com
of a fixed size, ounces of gold and silver, and such like. To
facilitate these interchanges the people had balances and
weights not very different from those now used.
The men of the several professions, such as medical
doctors, lawyers, judges, builders, poets, historians : and the
tradesmen of various crafts — carpenters, smiths, workers in
gold, silver, and brass, ship and boat builders, masons, shoe-
makers, dyers, tailors, brewers, and so forth — all worked
and earned their bread under the old Irish laws, which
were everywhere acknowledged. Then there was a good
deal of commerce with Britain and with Continental coun-
CHAP. II] A PRELIMINARY BIRD'S-EYE VIEW 35
tries, especially France ; and the home commodities, such
as hides, salt, wool, etc., were exchanged for wine, silk,
satin, and other goods not produced in Ireland.
From what has been said here, we may see that the
ancient Irish were as well advanced in civilisation, as
orderly, and as regular, as the people of those other Euro-
pean countries of the same period that — like Ireland — had
a proper settled government ; and it will be shown farther
on in this book that they were famed throughout all
Europe for Religion and Learning.
As the population of the country increased, the culti-
vated land increased in proportion. But until a late time
there were few inhabited districts that were not within view,
or within easy reach, of unreclaimed waste lands — forest,
or bog, or moorland : so that the people had much ado to
protect their crops and flocks from the inroads of animals.
All round near the coast ran, then as now, the principal
mountain ranges, with a great plainrin the middle. The
air was soft and moist, perhaps even more moist than at
present, on account of the great extent of forest The
cleared land was exceedingly fertile, and was well watered
with springs, streamlets, and rivers, not only among the
mountainous districts, but all over the central plain. Pas-
ture lands were luxuriant and evergreen, inviting flocks and
herds without limit. There was more pasture than tillage,
and the grass land was, for the most part, not fenced in,
but was grazed in common.
Some of the pleasing features of the country have been
well pictured by Denis Florence McCarthy in his poem of
**The Bell Founder":-^
" O Erin ! thou broad-spreading valley, thou well-wacered land of fresh
streams,
When I gaze on thy hills greenly sloping, where the light of such loveliness
beams,
When I rest on the rim of thy fountains, or stray whei-e thy streams dis-
embogue,
Then I think that the fairies have brought me to dwell in the bright
Tirnanogue."
D2
J6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Ireland, so far as it was brought under cultivation and pas-
ture in those early days, was — as the Venerable Bede calls
it — "a land flowing with milk and honey"; a pleasant,
healthful, and fruitful land, well fitted to maintain a pros-
perous and contented people.
Though the period from the sixth to the twelfth cen-
tury has tjeen specified at the opening of this chapter, the
state of things depicted here continued, with no very
decided changes, for several hundred years afterwards ;
and many of the customs and institutions, so far from
being limited backwards by the sixth century, existed from
prehistoric times.
All these features, and many others not noticed in this
brief sketch, will now be examined by turning on them,
one by one, the field of a big telescope, which will bring
out the details ; and the resulting enlarged views will be
photographed in the following chapters of this book.
CHAPTER in
MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT
Section i. Territorial Subdivision.
;fore entering on the subject of Government,
it will be useful to sketch the main features
of the ancient territorial divisions of the
country. It was parcelled out into five pro-
vinces from the earliest times of which we
have any record : — Leinster ; East Munster ;
West Munster ; Connaught ; and Ulster : a
partition which, according to the legend, was made by
the five Firbolg brothers, the sons of Dela." Laigin or
•J(»yce, Short Histoiy or Ireland, p. 125.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 37
Leinster originally extended — in coast line — from Inber
Colptha (the mouth of the Boyne at Drogheda) to the
river Suir : East Muman or Munster from the Suir to
the Lee at Cork: West Munster from the Lee round to
the Shannon : Olnegmacht or Connaught from Limerick
and the Shannon to the little river Drowes, which issues
from Lough Melvin and flows between the counties of
Leitrim and Donegal : and Ulaid or Ulster from this
round northwards to the Boyne.
This division became modified in course of time. The
two Munsters, East and West, gradually ceased to be dis-
tinguished, and Munster was regarded as a single province.
A new province, that of Mide [Mee] or Meath, was formed
in the second century of the Christian Era by Tuathal
the Acceptable, king of Ireland.* Down to his time the
provinces met at a point on the hill of Ushnagh (in the
* Joyce, Short History of Ireland, p. 130.
38 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
present county Westmeath) marked by a great stone
called Aill-na-Mirenn [Aill-na-Meeran], the * Stone of the
Divisions,* which stands there a conspicuous object stilL
Round this point Tuathal formed the new province by
cutting off a portion of each of the others. It was designed
to be the mensal land or personal estate of the Ard-ri or
supreme king of Ireland, that he might be the better able
to maintain his court with due state and dignity. Previous
to his time the King of Ireland had only a small tract —
a single tuaih (see next page) — for his own use. This new
province was about half the size of Ulster, extending from
the Shannon eastwards to the sea, and from the confines
of the present county Kildare and King's County on the
south to the confines of Armagh and Monaghan on the
north. The present counties of Meath and Westmeath
retain the name, but comprise only about half the original
province.
At the time of Tuathal's accession — A.D. 130 — there
were four places belonging severally to the four provinces,
situated not far from each other, which for centuries pre-
viously— as will be shown farther on — had been celebrated
as residences and as centres for great periodical meetings
for various purposes : — Tara in Leinster ; Tailltenn in
Ulster (now Teltown on the Blackwater, midway between
Navan and Kells) ; Tlachtga in Munster (now the Hill of
Ward near Athboy in Meath) ; and Ushnagh in Connaught,
nine miles west of Mullingar in the present county West-
meath. All these were included in the new province ; and
Tuathal built a palace in each, of which some of the mounds
and fortifications remain to this day. After his time the
five provinces generally recognised and best known in Irish
History were Leinster, Munster, Connaught, Ulster, Meath.
Besides the formation of a new province there were
several minor changes. Murthemne and Cuailnge [Quelna],
both forming the present county Louth, were transferred
from Ulster to Leinster ; the present county Cavan, which
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 39
originally belonged to Connaught, was given to Ulster;
and the territory now known as the county Clare, was
wrested from Connaught and annexed to Munster. Down
to the time of Tuathal, Connaught included a large tract
east of the Shannon, a part of the present county West-
meath ; but in accordance with his arrangements, the
Shannon in this part of its course, became the eastern
boundary of that province. The most ancient division of
Munster, as has been said, was into East and West : but a
later and better known partition was into Thomond or
North Munster, which broadly speaking included Tip-
perary, Clare, and the northern part of Limerick ; and
Desmond or South Munster, comprising Kerry, Cork,
Waterford, and the southern part of Limerick. In latter
ages, however, the name Thomond has been chiefly con-
fined to the county Clare, the patrimony of the O'Briens.
Recently Meath has disappeared as a province : and the
original provinces, now remain — Leinster, Munster, Con-
naught, and Ulster.
The provinces were subdivided into territories of various
sizes. The political unit, t,e, the smallest division having
a complete political and legal administration, was the
Tuath, The original meaning of tuath was populus (Zeuss^
34, 32), a tribe of people : but in accordance with a well-
known custom in Ireland, the term came to be applied to
the land occupied by the tribe. In its original application
a tuath must have represented roughly a definite popula-
tion : for we are told that its king had 700 fighting men :♦
and as the term had reference to a tribe rather than to the
district they occupied, the several tuath-districts must have
varied in size. But when once the term began to be
applied to the land, it came in course of time to be used
as designating — in theory, at least — a territory of fixed
area. In this sense a tuath was usually considered as
equivalent to what was called a tricha-c^d^ containing 30
♦ Br. Laws, V. 51, top.
40 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
ballys or ballybetaghs (Irish baile-biataigti)* Each bally-
betagh contained 12 sesreachs or ploughlands, and each
ploughland 120 large Irish acres. A bally or townland
was of a size sufficient to sustain four herds of cows of 75
each, i.e, 300 cows in all, "without one cow touching
another": and a ploughland was as much as a single
plough could turn up in a year. In tabular form this
subdivision is : —
I Tricha-C^d, or Tuath = 30 Ballybetaghs.
I Ballybetagh = 12 Sesreachs.
I Sesreach =120 Irish acres.
This \s in accordance with what is laid down in an
ancient poem, quoted by O'Curry in Moylena (p. 108),
which is followed by Keating (p. 86) : but other autho-
rities, as followed by O'Donovan and OTlaherty,t while
agreeing in the first item (i tricha = 30 ballys), give the
ballybetagh as containing 4 sesreachs or quarters ; and
each quarter 120 Irish acres.
The province of Meath contained 18 tricha-cdds; Lein-
ster, ^i ; Ulster, 35 ; Connaught, 30; the two Munsters, 70 :
184 fricha-c^ds, cantreds, or tuaths, in all Ireland, con-
taining collectively 5520 ballybetaghs. A tuath contained
about 177 English square miles, and might be represented
in area by an oblong district, sixteen miles by eleven.
Sometimes three, four, or more tuaths were united to form
one large territory under a king : this was called a MSr-
tuathy or great tuath,\ The present subdivision into
baronies is partly of English origin : but the old divisions
were very often followed : so that many of the ancient
tuaths or tricha-cids are represented, more or less nearly,
♦ Br. Laws, v. 51, 5; Sullivan, Introd., p. 229, note 413; O'Cuny, Man.
and Cust., ii. 503, note seo*
tO'Donovan, HyF, p. 149, and O'Flaherty, Ogyg., Part I. For
more on this subject, and for the smaller measures of land, see chap, xxvii.,
infra.
X Br. Laws, iv. 331, s, 4 ; v. 51, ^/ seq. ; SuUiv., Introd., p. 80.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 4I
by the modem baronies, most of which retain their old
names. Hence, tricha-c^d (which literally signifies * thirty-
hundreds ': a cid^ or 'hundred/ being equivalent to a
* bally,' or * ballybetagh '), is often translated * cantred,'
or * barony.'
2. Classes of Kings.
The government of the whole country, as well as that
of each division and subdivision, was in the hands of a
constitutional king or chief, who had to carry on his govern-
ment in accordance with the immemorial customs of the
country or sub-kingdom : and his authority was further
limited by the counsels of his chief men. The usual name
for a king in the ancient as well as in the modem language
is ri [ree], genitive rig or righ [ree]. Other less usual
terms were fdl^ mal, and triath [trih], all given in Cor-
mac's Glossary ; and torc^ which is glossed by ri in LU
(49, a, i). A queen was, and is, rigan or rioghan [reean],
genitive rigna or rtoghna [reena]. Sometimes a queen was
called banrigan [banreean]. Over all Ireland there was
one king, who, to distinguish him from others, was desig-
nated the Ard-ri, or over-king {drd^ high). The over-kings
lived at Tara till the sixth century A.D. ; after that, else-
where : hence the Ard-ri was often called " King of Tara,"
even after its abandonment. Within historic times no
woman was sovereign of Ireland. But in the half-legend-
ary history we have one, and only one, queen, who however
succeeded to the sovereignty, not by election, but by force :
— Macha Mongruad the founder of Emain, about 370 years
B.C., who seized the throne after the death of her father,
a previous monarch. At the end of this chapter will be
found a List of the Supreme Kings of Ireland. The last
over-king was Roderick O'Conor. Wearied with the tur-
moil of the Anglo-Norman Invasion, which he was unable
to repel, and with domestic discord, he retired from the
world to the monastery of Cong, where he ended his troubled
42 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
career in i ig8. After his death there were no more supreme
monarchs :" but the provinces and the smaller kingdoms
continued to be ruled by their native kings in succession
down to a much later period.
There was a king over each of the five provinces — an
arrangement commonly known as the Pentarchy. If a
provincial king was elected monarch of Ireland a new king
had to be elected over his province ; for it was the rule that
the same person could not be king of Ireland and of a
province at the same time. The provinces, again, included
many sub-kingdoms, some consisting of a single tuath, and
some of more, as has been said. The tuath was the smallest
territory whose ruler could claim the title of W, or king; but
all the 184 tuaihs had not kings.
From this it will be seen that, speaking in a general
sense, there were four classes of kings : — the king of the
tuatk ; the king of the m6r-tuath', the king of a province ;
and the king of all Ireland : forming a regular gradation,
kingdom within kingdom. This agrees generally with the
* See Joyce, Sborl Hbtory of Ireland, pp. 2E1, zSi, 283.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 43
curious classification given in the Laws (iv. 329) : — i, the
" king of hills or peaks," i.e. of a tuath ; 2, the " king of
companies," ue, of a mSr-tuath ; and 3, the " king who is
the source of every chief," that is, the king of kings, which
includes the Ard-ri, and the provincial kings.
The kings of the provinces were subject to the over-
king, and owed him tribute and war service. A similar
law extended to all the sub-kingdoms : in other words, the
king of each territory, from the tuath upwards to the pro-
vince, was — at all events nominally — subject to the king of
the larger territory in which it was included. Some of the
sub-kingdoms were very large, such as Tyrone, Tirconnel,
Thomond, Desmond, Ossory, Hy Many, &c., each of which
comprised several tuaths and several tribes. A minor king
under a king of one of these large territories was often
called an xur-ri, or oir-ri, or " under-king," called an ur-
riagh by English writers.*
3. Election and Inauguration.
Election. — The king or ruling chief was always elected
from members of one fin^ or family, bearing the same sur-
name (when surnames came into use) ; but the succession
was not hereditary in the present sense of the word : it was
elective, with the above limitation of being confined to one
family. Any freebom member of the family was eligible :
the successor might be son, brother, nephew, cousin, &c., of
the chief. That member was chosen who was considered
best able to lead in war and govern in peace ; and of
course he should be of full age. Two essential conditions
are expressly laid down : — that he should be free from all
personal deformities or blemishes likely to impair his effi-
ciency as a leader, or to lessen the respect of the people for
him :f and that both his father and grandfather had been
• O'Donovan, Moyrath, 103, note g, Ur-ri is to be distinguished from
ur-rad.
t Br. Laws, i. 73; 11. 279; ni. 85, 5: Spenser, View, 10, 12.
44 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
flaiths or nobles. For the election of a ruling chief or
minor king, the proceedings, which were carried on with
much ceremony and deliberation, are described in the Law.
Every freeman of the rank of aire (chap, v., sect, i, tnfra) had
a vote. If there were several candidates, a court was held
for the election in the house of the chief brewy or hosteller
of the district, to which all the chiefs about to take part in
the election proceeded, each with his full retinue : and
there they remained in council for three days and three
nights, at the end of which time the successful candidate
was declared elected. The electors — says the Law (v. 441)
— were bound to see " that the person they select is the
man to whom the chieftainship is due : viz. that he is the
son of a flaith or noble and the grandson of another, that
he has the three chief residences (p. 58, tnfra\ and that he
is pure, without stain of stealth or [unlawful] wounding."
For the higher classes of kings, such as the supreme mon-
arch or the king of a province, the proceedings were much
more formal, solemn, and imposing ; and the court for the
election was probably held in one of the palaces.
With the object of avoiding the evils of a disputed
succession, the person to succeed a king or ruling chief
was often elected by the chiefs convened in formal meet-
ing during the lifetime of the king himself: when elected
he was called the tanist — Irish tdnaiste — a word meaning
second^ i.e. second in authority. Proper provision was
made for the support of the tanist by a separate estab-
lishment and an allowance of mensal land (see p. 50,
tnfra), a custom which continued, in case of the tanists
of provincial and minor kings, till the time of Elizabeth,
and even later: "the tanist," says Spenser (p. 12), "hath
also a share of the country allotted to him, and certain
cuttings and spendings \t\e. tribute of several kinds] upon
all the inhabitants under the lord." He was subordinate to
the king or chief, but was above all the other dignitaries of
the state. The other persons who were eligible to succeed
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 45
in case of the tanist's failure were termed Roydamna (Ir.
rig-domna^ i.e. * king-materiar).*
A curious arrangement sometimes adopted was the
election of two joint kings of Ireland, who reigned simul-
taneously. By reference to the Table at the end of this
chapter it will be seen that there were five joint reigns
between A.D. 565 and 664. Sometimes the joint kings
were brothers, sometimes not. We have no details as to
the arrangements adopted to define the authority of each,
or of the measures taken to avoid friction or quarrels.
The Inaugnratioii or making of a king was a very
impressive ceremony. Of the mode of inaugurating the
pagan kings we hardly know anything, further than this,
that the kings of Ireland had to stand on an inauguration
stone at Tara called Lta Fail^ which uttered a roar^ as was
believed, when a king of the old Milesian race stood on it.
But we possess full information of the ceremonies used
in Christian times. The mode of inaugurating was much
the same in its general features all over the country ; and
was strongly marked by a religious character. But there
were differences in detail ; for some tribes had traditional
customs not practised by others. There was a definite
formula, every portion of which should be scrupulously
carried out in order to render the ceremony legal. Some of
the observances that have come within the ken of history,
as described below, descended from pagan times. Each
tribe, or aggregation of tribes, with a king at their head, had
a special place of inauguration, which was held in much
respect — invested indeed with a half-sacred character. It
was on the top of a hill, or on an ancestral cairn (the
sepulchre of the founder of the race), or on a large lis
or fort, and sometimes under a venerable tree, called in
Irish a bile [billa]. Each tribe used an inauguration stone
— a custom common also among the Celts of Scotland.
• For tanist and election of, see also Lynch, Cambr. Ev. iii. 325 ;
O'Flaherty, Ogyg., Part I. ; and O'Curry's Moylena, Introd., viii., ix.
46 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [I'ART I
Some of the inauguration stones had the impression of two
feet, popularly believed to be the exact size of the feet of
the first chief of the tribe who took possession of the
territory. Sometimes there was a stone chair, on which
the king sat during part of the ceremony. On the day
of the inauguration the sub-chiefs of the territory, and
all the great officers of state, with the brehons, poets,
and historians, were
present, as also the
bishops, abbots, and
other leading eccle-
siastics.
The hereditary
historian of the tribe
read for the elected
chief the laws that
were to regulate his
conduct ; after which
the chief swore to
observe them, to
maintain the ancient
customs of the tribe,
and to rule his peo-
ple with strict justice.
Then, while he stood
on the stone, an offi-
cer— whose special
duty it was — handed
sio«in««p.«a<.= ch.:.'^u"oNeiu..rfa«uuboy: «.- him a straight white
•Vkp-'H s«iiioDuiii.pHLj«mi.,L«e.) wane, a symooi oi
authority,andalsoan
emblem of what his conduct and judicial decisions should
be — straight and without stain. Having put aside his
sword and other weapons, and holding the rod in his hand,
he turned thrice round from left to right, and thrice from
right to left, in honour of the Holy Trinity, and to view
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 47
his territoiy in every direction. In some cases one of
the sub-chiefs put on his sandal or shoe, in token of
submission* or threw a slipper over his head for good
luck and prosperity. Then one of the sub-chiefs ap-
pointed for this purpose pronounced in a loud voice his
surname — the surname only, without the Christian name —
which was afterwards pronounced aloud by each of the
clergy, one after another, according to dignity, and then
by the sub-chiefs. He was then the lawful chief; and
ever after, when spoken to, he was addressed " O'Neill " —
" MacCarthy More " — " O'Conor," &c. ; and when spoken of
in English he was designated " The O'Neill," &c., a custom
existing to this day, as we see in " The O'Conor Don,"
" The Mac Dermot," and in Scotland " The Mac Callum
More,"
The main parts of the inauguration ceremony were
performed by one or more sub-chiefs : this office was
highly honourable, and was hereditary. The inaugurator
had a tract of land and a residence free, which remained
in the family. The O'Neills of Tyrone were inaugurated
by O'Hagan and O'Cahan at Tullaghoge, near Dungannon,
where the fine old inauguration moat still remains ; the
O'Donnells of Tirconnell by O'Freel, at the Rock of Doon,
near Kilmacrenan. The fort of Magh Adkair [Mah-ire]
•FourMasteis, a.d. 1488, p. 1161.
48 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
near the village of Quin in Clare, on which the Dalcassian
kings were made, has been described by Mr. Westropp ; *
and Canrfree, the mound on which the O^Conors, kings of
Connaught, were inaugurated, is to be seen in the town-
land of Cams, near Tulsk, in Roscommon.t The rich
dress and, robes worn by the king, for the first and only
time, on the day of inauguration, and commonly the horse
he rode to the place, with all trappings, became the pro-
perty of the chief officer or officers who performed the
ceremony ; but in this respect customs varied in different
places.
The oldest record in our ancient writings of the
inauguration of a king — probably the oldest reference to
Christian inauguration anywhere to be found J — is given
by Adamnan (ill. v.) where he mentions the ordination,
by St. Columba, of Aedan as king of the Dalriadic Scots,
A.D. 574. He calls the ceremony " Ordinatio," and states
that Columba blessed {benedixii) the new king as part of
the ceremony ; but he gives no further details.
Giraldus Cambrensis, in a chapter of his Topography,§
has an account of a disgusting ceremony which he says
was observed by the Kinel-Connell at the inauguration of
their chiefs : — that at the inauguration meeting, which
was attended by the whole people of the territory, a white
mare was brought forward, towards which the chief about
to be elected crept all fours — on hands and knees. Then
the animal was killed, its flesh boiled, and a bath made
of the broth. Into this the elected chief plunged, and
while sitting in it he ate and drank his fill of flesh and
broth, helping himself by dipping down his mouth ; and
what he left his subjects finished : whereupon he became
chief. Here it will be observed that Giraldus reports the
♦ Proc. R. I. Acad., 1896-8, p. 55.
t See O'Donovan in FM, a.d. 1225, p. 221, note a,
X Innes, Critical Essays, ii., xlix.
§ III., XXV., headed ** Of a New and Monstrous Way of inaugurating their
Kings.**
CliAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 49
•ceremony of one particular tribe, not the general custom
all over Ireland ; and the story is obviously one of the
many silly fables which we find in his book — like those
of the sorcerers who used to turn stones into red pigs at
fairs, of a lion that fell in love with a young woman, and
many others of a like kind. Then we must remember that
he does not record from personal experience, for he was
never in Tirconnell, nor within a hundred miles of it : and
the whole story is so absurd that many are convinced it
was told to him in a joke by some person who was aware
of his unlimited credulity : for no person believes he
deliberately invented it Irish and other writers have left
us detailed descriptions of the installation ceremonies, in
none of which do we find anything like what Giraldus
mentions, and some have directly refuted him. His state-
ment is absolutely unsupported. Harris, the editor of
Ware's Works, says (Antiqq. 65): — "The falsity of this
filthy fable will best appear by giving a candid relation
of the true ceremonies used at the initiation of the kings
of Tirconnell": and he then goes on to detail the ceremony,
which agrees with the description given at p. 45, above.
Harris's account, and also those by the native writers,
have been corroborated in all leading particulars by a
writer whom many will perhaps consider the best authority
of all — Edmund Spenser. Spenser knew what he was
writing about; and his description, though brief, is very
correct, and agrees, so far as it goes, with the Irish ac-
counts ; while he has not a word about the Tirconnell
ceremony described by Giraldus : — " They use to place
him, that shal be their Captain, upon a stone alwayes re-
served for that purpose, and placed commonly upon a hill :
In some of which I have seen formed and ingraven a foot,
which they say was the measure of their first Captain's
foot, whereon hee standing, receives an oath to preserve
all the ancient former customes of the countrey inviolable,
and to deliver up the succession peaceably to his Tanist,
E
50 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and then hath a wand delivered unto him by some whose
proper office that is : after which, descending from the
stone, he turneth himself round, thrice forward, and thrice
backward." *
As the tribe elected their king through the votes of
their representative men, so they might at any time depose
him if he proved unsatisfactory. The O'Kelly, king of
Hy Many, was inaugurated by the two families of Clann
Diarmada and Hy-Cormaic and by the family of Mithighen
or Meehan ; which families had also the function of depos-
ing him " at the instance [and by the authority of the whole
tribe] of Hy Many." The Senchus M6rf mentions the
liability pf a king to deposition : — " There are four digni-
taries of a territory who may be degraded : — A false-
judging king, a stumbling bishop, a fraudulent poet, an
unworthy chieftain who does not fulfil his duties." It is
probable that there was a formal ceremony for deposition ;
but I do not find it anywhere described.
In case of an interregnum some eminent man— often
an ecclesiastic or an ollave — was appointed regent: for
which see chap, xi., sect 6.
4. Revenue and Authority.
The revenue of the king or ruling chief, of whatever
grade, which enabled him to support his court and house-
hold, was derived from three main sources. First : he was
allowed, for life or for as long as he continued chief, a tract
of land called Ferann buird^ * land of the bdrd or table,*
* Spenser's View, p. 11. For an exhaustive account by O'Donovan of
the inauguration of Irish kings, see his Hy Fiachrach, pp. 425 to 432. See
also Paper on the Inauguration of Irish Chiefs, by Herbert J. Hore, in
Ubter Joum. Archaeol., v. 216. In both 0*Donovan*s and Hore's papers-
Giraldus's calumny is effectively expK>sed. Other references and descriptions,
will be found in Lynch, Cambr. Ev., in. 325 et seq, : 0*Flaherty, Ogyg., Part
I. : Kilk. Archseol. Joum., 1852-3, p. 335 : Harris's Ware, Antiqq., 11. z. :
alsoFM, A.D. 1315, 1461, 1488, 1589.
t Br. Laws, I. 55.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 5 1
mensal land, some of which he cultivated by his own
bondsmen, and some he let to tenants. Second \ subsidies
of various kinds mentioned in chap, vii., sect 3, paid him
by his free tenant farmers and other free members of the
tribe, by the unfree families and tribes, and also by his
subject kings or chiefs.* Third \ payment for stock as
described in chap, vii., sect. 3. But in addition to all this
he might have land as his own personal property : and
other minor sources of income will be noticed in next
section.
The king or chief was the military leader in war, the
governor in peace ; and he and his people lived in mutual
dependence. He was bound to protect the tribesmen from
violence and wrong, and they maintained him in due
dignity (Br. Laws, II. 345). It was both a danger and a
disgrace not to have a chief to look up to: hence the
popular saying, "Spend me and defend me." Craftsmen
of the various trades, like tenant farmers, had to place
themselves under the protection of the chief, and pay
tribute — often in kind — the articles made by themselves :
which formed an important item of the chiefs revenue.
While the inferior chief, of whatever grade, paid tribute
(called in Irish ds : pron. keece) to his superior, the latter,
by a curious custom, was bound to give his dependent a
stipend of some kind, called taurcrec or tuarastal : much
smaller, however, than what he received. The tribute
paid to the superior— whether by a subordinate chief or
by an individual tribesman — consisted mainly of cattle
and provisions of various kinds, plough-oxen, hogs, sheep,
with mantles and other articles of dress : and it often
included such things as dyestuffs, woollen sewing-thread,
firewood, wood for carpentry work : and sometimes gold
and silver reckoned in ounces. In all cases the quantity
or amount, whatever the commodity, was defined by law
* For various kinds of cess and tribute in the sixteenth century, see
article on Ancient Irish Income, Ulst. Joum. ArchseoL, iv. 241.
E 2
52 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and custom. The tributary king made up part of his
payments by levying tribute, according to well-defined
custom, on his own inferiors.
On the other hand the taurcrec given by the superior
to his sub-king or chief consisted mainly of such articjps
as arms, steeds, drinking-horns, brooches, &c. For ex-
ample, while the king of Dal Riada, in north-east Ulster,
gave 300 oxen every year to his superior, the king of
Ulaid or Ulster (worth say ;^S000 or £6000 of our money),
the latter gave the king of Dal Riada a tuarastal of
three steeds, three bondmen, three bondwomen, and three
[small] ships, all which might now represent ;^6oo or
£700^'
The acceptance of taurcrec or tuarastal, or stipend, by
the inferior was an acknowledgment of submission and
allegiancef : a refusal to accept it was equivalent to re-
nouncing, or refusing to acknowledge, allegiance. When
Malachi II. came to Brian Boru's tent in 1002 with a
retinue of twelve score men to offer him submission,
Brian gave him a taurcrec of twelve score steeds, which
he accepted : but the retinue felt so mortified at their
own kingfs submission that to a man they refused to take
charge of them, so Malachi presented them in token of
friendship to Brian's son Murrogh.J Sometimes — in case
of the lower order of dependents — this subsidy was called
raith [ra] or wages. The tributes and stipends for the
various ranks are set forth in detail in the Book of
Rights.
The Book of Bights " gives an account of the rights of
the monarchs of all Ireland, and the revenues payable to
them by the principal kings of the several provinces, and
* Book of Rights, 155, last two lines, and 169, 10. The special articles
^ven as dir or tribute and as taurcrec^ respectively, may be seen by glancing
through this Book of Rights.
t O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 160.
J Wars of GG., 133. Another example in O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 62.
CHAP, ni] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 5 J
of the Stipends paid by the monarchs to the inferior kings
for their services. It also treats of the rights of each of the
provincial kings, and the revenues payable to them from
the inferior kings of the districts or tribes subsidiary to
them, and of the stipends paid by the superior to the
inferior provincial kings for their services. These accounts
are authoritatively delivered in verse, each poem being
introduced by a prose statement" *
According to the old authorities, St. Benen or Benignus
was the author of the original Book of Rights. The pre-
sent transcripts of it, which were we know copied from
more ancient versions, are not older than the end of the
fourteenth century. This, however, refers to the mere pen-
manship : the language is much older ; and it is O'Dono-
van's opinion that the prose Introductions, which are much
less ancient than the text, were written in their present
form at a time not far removed from the period of Brian
Bom. The Book of Rights has been published, with trans-
lation and most valuable Introduction and Notes, by John
O'Donovan, LL.D.t
A king usually secured the allegiance of his sub-kings
and chiefs by taking hostages from them {giall^ a hostage) ;
so that every king had hostages residing in his palace : a
custom noticed by Adamnan (p. 167). " He is not a king,'*
says the Brehon Law (IV. 51), "who has not hostages in
fetters." Notwithstanding the expression used in this quo-
tation— ^which probably is in a great measure figurative —
hostages appear in fact to have been generally treated
with consideration. They were seldom kept in fetters ;
they were permitted to have their own retinue ; and were
admitted to the court society, so long as they conducted
• Bk. of Rights, Introd. vi.
tThis Introduction was written by O'Donovan himself— as I have the
best reason to know — and not by William Elliot Hudson, as someone has
erroneously stated (but I cannot lay my hand on the passage). And more
than that, it may be asserted that O'Donovan was the only man living at the
time (1846-7) who was capable of writing it.
54 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
themselves with propriety. But sometimes, either on
account of misconduct, or where there was special reason
for unfriendly feeling, they were treated with great harsh-
ness or cruelty : heavily fettered and closely confined.
Except in very few cases they were not permitted to
carry arms. Hostages must have been very numerous
in every king's palace: for we are told in the Life of
St. Patrick that in his time Laeghaire, king of Ireland,
had in Tara nine hostages from one chief alone, namely,
Dicho, prince of Lecale.*
In every palace there was a special house for lodging
hostages. In Tara one of the mounds was called Duma-
nan-giall, the * Mound of the hostages,' which still remains ;
and beside it stood the hostage house. "King Cormac
made a visitation of Ireland thrice, and brought a hostage
from every fortress, . , . and to these he gave Dumha nan
giair'f [with a house beside it to reside in]. In the " Feast
oi Dun-nan-ged^' we are told that Domnall, king of Ireland,
built his palace at Dun-nan-ged in imitation of that at Tara,
and among other buildings he erected the Carcair-nan-gtall,
the * prison-house of the hostages.'^ In a poem in the Book
of Lecan, describing the building of Aileach, it is stated
that " one stone closed the top of the house of the groaning
hostages ": from which words we may infer that this was
a beehive-shaped house, like those pictured and described
elsewhere in this book, of which numberless specimens still
remain. § The Crith Gabhlach, in describing the residence
of a king, speaks of a " moat or trench of servitude "
(drecht gialnai) for hostages, and states that its length is
thirty feet.
♦ On the above points about hostages : see O'Curry, Man. & Cost., Ii. 145 :
Stokes, Lives of the SS., 157, 158: Keating, 456: Sullivan, Introd., 355,
note, 6U.
t Cuan 0*Lochain*s words quoted by Petrie, Tara, 144.
{ Moyrath, 7.
§ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 9 ; Ordn. Surv. Londonderry, 226.
11 Br. Laws, iv. 337.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 55
5. Privileges,
A king enjoyed many privileges, and was bound by
many restrictions. It will be shown farther on that he was
subject to the ordinary law like his free subjects. But if
a distress lay against him he was not to be distrained
directly: one of his officers, called a "steward-bailiff"
{aithech'forthd) — a sort of deputy — was to be distrained
in his place: — "this is an original steward who always
sustains the liability of a king : it is what saves him [the
king] from being distrained ":* like the prerogative of the
crown in British law, by which the monarch sues and is
sued through the attorney-general.
According to the Senchus M6r a king's evidence in a
brehon's court against all of a rank below him was accepted
without question, as they had not the right to be heard in
evidence against him : but this privilege did not hold
against a bishop, a doctor of learning, or a pilgrim, all of
whom were regarded as of equal rank with himself — so far
as giving evidence was concerned : — " The king excels all
in testimony" — says the Senchus M6r — "for he can [by
his mere word] decide against every class of persons
except those of two orders, namely, of religion and
learning, who are of equal rank with himself, as the
doctor \sui\ or the bishop, or the pilgrim."f Whatever
was found on a highroad, if the owner was not forth-
coming, belonged to the king, except the finder's reward :
also a certain proportion of everything cast ashore by the
sea ; a third of every treasure found within his territory ;
and one-ninth of the reward paid by the owner to the
finder of a thing in a waste place. These rights continued
to be enjoyed by the provincial kings down to the fifteenth
century." J
When a king of any grade ascended the throne he
usually made a visitation or royal progress through his
•Br. Laws, il, 121. \ Jhid, I. 79.
X Sullivan, Introd., 240; O'Donovan, HyM, 65.
S6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
kingdom, to receive allegiance and hostages from his sub-
kings ; and this was sometimes repeated during his reign *
Visitations of this kind were called saerchuairt [saircoort],
*free circuit,' intimating that the king was to be enter-
tained, with all his retinue, free of charge. The king of
Ireland, when on free circuit, always brought a numerous
escort, or even an army if opposition was anticipated : and
he was received by the provincial kings with much state
and formality. He always proceeded in the same direction
— sunwise ("Deisiol " in Index). Brian Boru, when making
his visitation, A.D. 100$, proceeded with an army from his
palace of Kincora (at the present town of Killaloe) to
Connaught, thence by Assaroe, and all around — " keeping
his left hand to the sea"— till he reached Kincora again.
In these visitations the Ard-ri proceeded very leisurely :
and on his march, each provincial king, and each king of
a m6r-tuath, escorted him in state as far as the residence
of the neighbour king.t A king of any lower grade
followed the same course on his visitations, and was
received and escorted similarly.
It was the belief of the ancient Irish that when a
good and just king ruled — one who faithfully observed in
his government the royal customs and wise precepts fol-
lowed by his ancestors — the whole country was prosperous :
the seasons were mild, crops were plentiful, cattle were
fruitful, the waters abounded with fish, and the fruit trees
had to be propped owing to the weight of their produce.
Under bad kings it was all the reverse. In the reign of
the plebeian usurping king Carbery Kinncat, " evil was the
state of Ireland : fruitless her corn, for there used to be
only one grain on the stalk ; fruitless her rivers ; milkless
her cattle ; plentiless her fruit, for there used to be but one
acorn on the stalk " (FM, A.D. 14). " There are seven
proofs which attest the falsehood of every king \i.e. seven
proofs or testimonies of the king's badness] :— to turn a
• Br. Laws, rv. 332, note. t Ihid. 333 : Book of Rights, 31, 33.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 5/
church synod out of their lis: to be without truth, without
law : defeat in battle : dearth in his reign : dryness of
cows : blight of fruit : scarcity of com. These are the
seven live candles that expose the falsehood of every [bad]
king."* This belief is referred to everywhere in Irish
literature, and even found its way into Christianity : in an
ancient canon attributed to St. Patrick, among other bless-
ings attending the reign of a just king, are enumerated
" fine weather, calm seas, crops abundant, and trees laden
with fruit."t
The belief in the beneficent influence of a just king pre-
vailed among the Greeks and Romans. Ulysses (in dis-
guise) says to Penelope — speaking of a good king — " The
dark earth bears wheat and barley, and the trees are laden
with fruit, and the sheep bring forth without fail, and the
sea yields plenty of fish, and all from his wise rule, and the
people prosper under him" (Odyss. xix.). Similar testimony
might be adduced from Roman writers about their rulers.
The ancient Irish had a very high ideal of what a king
should be : and we meet with many statements throughout
our literature of the noble qualities expected from him.
He should be " free from falsehood, from the betrayal of
his nobles, from unworthy conduct towards his people." J
" For what is a prince selected over a country ?" asks Car-
bery of King Cormac, who replies : " For the goodness of
his form and race, and sense, and learning, and dignity,
and utterance : he is selected for his goodness and for his
wisdom, and strength, and forces, and valour in fighting." §
A just sovereign "exercises not falsehood, nor [unnecessary]
force, nor oppressive might. He is perfectly recognisant
and righteous to his people, both weak and strong." A
king ** must be a man of full lawfulness in all respects : he
must be a man that is consulted for knowledge : he must
be learned and calm."!
• Br. Laws, iv. 53.
+ Stokes, Trip. Life, 507 : see also Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc. Sch., 61, 62.
X Br. Laws, iv. 51. { Ibid, 377. || Ibid. 335.
58 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
A king was also to be hospitable, and keep an open
house. " A prince," says Cormac Mac Art, " should light
his lamps on Samain day (ist November, the beginning of
winter), and welcome his guests with clapping of hands
and comfortable seats, and the cup-bearers should be active
in distributing meat and drink." A good idea of what was
expected in this way from a king is obtained from a state-
ment, in the story of the second battle of Moytura, about
King Bres. The people complained bitterly of his churl-
ishness and inhospitality : — " The knives of his people were
not greased at his table, nor did their breath smell of ale, at
the banquet. Neither their poets, nor their bards, nor their
satirists, nor their harpers, nor their pipers, nor their trum-
peters, nor their jugglers, nor their buffoons, were ever seen
engaged in amusing them in the assembly at his court":
so that in the end they rose up, for this and other reasons,
and drove him from the throne. The native Gaelic ideal
of what a king should be is set forth in several descriptions
of individual monarchs, to which references are given
below.* Similar maxims are inculcated in the ecclesias-
tical legislation of St. Patrick. The duties of a king are
fully set forth in one of the Patrician canons,f which, as
might be expected, lays great stress on what was to be
expected from him in regard to his moral and religious
obligations.
A king should have three chief residences. " Every
king is a pauper," says the Law, as quoted by Sullivan, J
" who hath not three chief residences : that is, it is three
chief residences each king is entitled to have, t,e, three
houses or three duns." A similar statement is made in the
Law tract, called the " Small Primer " (v. 53, 21, 26) ; and
and also in vol. iv. 377, is ; but in this last the translation
• O'Curry, Sick Bed, Atlantis, I. 387-9: Dub. Pen. Journ., I. 215 (from
Br. Laws) : Hyde, Lit Hist., 247-8-9 ; O'Cuny, MS. Mat., 45.
t Published by Stokes in Trip. Life, p. 507 : see also Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc.
Sch., 61.
X Introd. to O'Curry, p. 238.
CHAP.m] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 59
does not show it See Atkinson's Glossary to Brehon Laws,
vol. VI., p. i8o, "conntairisem," a residence ; and also v. 441,
36. A king wore a crown or diadem called mind or minn,
for which see chapter xxii., section 3. Kings had certain
heirlooms which descended to their successors. The rotk
croiy or ' royal wheel-brooch,' which the poets insolently
demanded from Aed Mac Ainmirech, king of Ireland
{A.D, 572-598), was, according to a passage translated
by Stokes," "a brooch which each king would leave to
another," A king's throne was called rigkshuidhe [reehee],
'royal seat.'
IDub^ Pennj JourBAl. iSji, pp. »a. 999. Dtikh by Fm1e.»
From the quaint language of a passage in the Brehon
Law we may infer that kings made some sort of distri-
bution of duty and amusement according to the days of
the week. Thus we find it stated — evidently in view of
the king of some particular territory — that on Sunday he
indulged in festivity, and exercised lavish hospitality —
otherwise he could not be a true king: Monday and
Saturday he devoted to the administration of justice:
Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday he engaged in sports
of various kinds, such as chess, horseracing, coursing :
and on Thursday he and his wife devoted themselves to
■ Rev. Cell., iz. 411. Keating (446) teUs the whole story or the poets'
demand and its pmuihineiil : and he says that " each king was wont to leave
this brooch as an beirtoom and precious relic to his si
6o GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
their children, and to domestic duties in general (Brehon
Laws, IV. 335).
6. Limitations and Restrictions,
Irish Kings were not despotic : they were all, from the
supreme monarch down to the king of the tuatk, in every
sense, limited monarchs ; they were subject to law like their
own free subjects. We have seen (p. 46, supra) that at
their inauguration they had to swear that they would
govern their people with strict justice, and in accordance
with the ancient customs of the kingdom ; and their
duties, restrictions, and privileges were strictly laid down
in the Brehon code. This idea pervades all our literature,
from the earliest time ; of which examples may be seen
in the passages referred to at bottom *
We shall see in chapter ix., sect. 14, that kings, like
many others, were subject to £easa — prohibitions from doing
certain things. But besides these there were many lines of
action forbidden to them, as either dangerous or unbecom-
ing— prohibitions which could hardly be called £'easa in the
usual sense of the word. A king was neither to do any
work nor concern himself about servile work of any kind,
on penalty of being ranked as a plebeian : or, as the law
expresses it, he should not employ himself with "the
handle of a shovel, a spade, or a clod-mallet."f On a
certain occasion Fiachna, the father of the over-king
Sweny Menn (A.D. 614 to 627), went out to view his men
ploughing : and the annalist who relates the circumstance
is careful to add, by way of explanation or apology, " for
Fiachna was not at all a king." J It was not lawful for a
king to slaughter and cook an animal — such as an ox —
for food.§ It was not permitted to a king or ^aith (noble)
♦ O'Donovan, Moyrath, 121 : Joyce, Short Hist., 201 : Dub.Pen. Joum.,
I. 102 (Charter of Newry) : Henderson, Fled. Bricrenn, § 5 : Stokes, Trip.
Life, 285: Br. Laws, 11. 121 : O'Grrady, Silva Gad., 357 (The Lawsuit).
t Br. Laws, iv. 335. { Three Fragm., 17. § Silva Gad., 351, hot.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 6 1
to keep pigs:* that is to have them managed for him
round or near his house by any of his immediate depen-
dents. But swineherds living in their own homes at a
distance from the palace, fed great herds of swine in the
woods for the king (Keat 91) : and we know that the
king's chief swineherds were held in honour (" Swineherd,"
Index). So the swineherd of Ulysses lived in a fine house
on a farm at a distance from the palace (Odyss. xiv.). If a
king got wounded in the back during battle he was subject
to the disabilities of a plebeian.
7. Household^ Retinue^ and Court Officers,
Under the king, of whatever grade, and forming part of
his household, persons held various offices of trust, with
special duties, all tending to support the dignity or ensure
the safety of the king ; just as we find in royal households
of modem times. The persons appointed to each office
always belonged to some particular family, in whom the
office was hereditary ; and all were paid liberal allowances
for their services.
The higher the king's status the more numerous were the
offices, and the more important the positions of the persons
holding them. Some of these were in constant attendance,
and lived in or about the palace : others attended only on
special great occasions : and these commonly lived at a
distance in their own territories — for they were themselves
generally sub-chiefs or sub-kings. Most of the higher class
of officers, such as professional men (who will be treated of
in chapter xi.), who were supposed to give their whole —
or nearly their whole — time to the service, had land and
houses for their support, not far from the royal residence.
On state occasions, all these officers attended the presence
of the monarch, and were assigned their proper places in
the great hall. The disposition of the whole company
♦ Br. Laws, iv. 383.
62 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
on such occasions will be found described in the Crith
Gabhlach,* and also in Petrie's Tara (p. 205 et seq.). But
in accordance with an ordinance made by king Cormac
Mac Art, the Ard-Ri, or king of Ireland, was at all times —
and not merely on state occasions — to be accompanied by a
retinue of at least ten persons : — diflaitk or noble ; a brehon
or judge ; a druid ; a sat or doctor ; a poet ; a historian ; a
musician ; and three servants — all to exercise their several
professional functions when required.f This arrangement
continued in force till the death of Brian Boru in 1014,
except that in Christian times a bishop took the place of
a druid.
A few picked men commonly accompanied the king as
personal and immediate guards, and stood beside him
when he sat down, with swords or battleaxes in their
hands : for Irish kings were not less liable to assassination
than others, from ancient times to the present day. Some-
times, as the Law states, there were four such men, one
standing in front of the king, one behind, and one on each
side. A Brehon Law tract tells us that, in selecting these,
the king often gave preference to men whom he had saved
from execution or redeemed from slavery ; for such persons
would naturally be expected to be faithful from a feeling
of gratitude. But he is enjoined not to have among them
a man of an opposing party whom he has saved on the
battlefield, lest feelings of attachment to a former lord
might tempt to treachery.J This custom continued down
to the sixteenth century : for the Four Masters have left us
a description of Shane CNeilFs bodyguard, which has all
the antique flavour of the period of the Red Branch Knights.
In front of Shane's tent burned a great fire, "and a huge
torch, thicker than a man's body, was constantly flaring at
♦ Br. Laws, iv. 339.
fO'Flaherty, Ogyg., Part ill., chap. Ixix.: and O'Curry, Man. 6c
Cust., I. 23.
X Br. Laws, IV. 339.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 63
a short distance from the fire, and sixty grim and redoubt-
able galloglasses, with sharp keen axes, terrible and ready
for action, and sixty stem and terrific Scots [hired soldiers
from Scotland], with massive broad and heavy-striking
swords in their hands [ready] to strike and parry, were
watching and guarding O'Neill."*
The king commonly kept in his retinue a tr^n-fher
[trainar], a * strong man,' or cath mllid, * battle soldier,*
his champion or chief fighting man, to answer challenges
to single combat. Concobar Mac Nessa's champion Tris-
catal, who lived in the palace of Emain, is described in the
ancient tale in the Book of Leinster in terms that remind
us of the English writer's description of a much later
trht-fher^ John de Courcy, whose very look — in the day
of single combat before King John of England and King
Philip of France, so frightened the French champion that he
" turned round and ranne awaie off the fielde."f Triscatal
was a mighty broadfronted, shaggy-haired man, with thighs
as thick as an ordinary man's body, wearing a thick leathern
apron from his armpit down : his limbs were bare, and his
aspect was so fierce that he killed men by his very look. J
The trhi'fher of the romances was probably the same as
the aire-echtay or avenger of insults, described more quietly
in the Laws (see " Aire-Echta " in Index).
We know that St Patrick kept a household in imita-
tion of the ancient Irish custom : and one of his attendants
was his trin-fher or * strong man,* St Mac Carthen, after-
wards first bishop of Clogher, whose peaceful function
was to carry the aged saint on his back across fords and
other difficult places, on their missionary journeys.
At the entrance to the royal palace or council chamber
stood the doorkeepers {dSrsid) to scan and interrogate all
• See FM, A.D. 1557, p. 1555 : Joyce, Short Hist., 403.
t This whole story about John de Courcy and the French champion is
told in my Reading Book in Irish History.
X Hennessy, Mesca, pp. 33-35.
64 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
visitors. The nine guardsmen {comitaide) of Conari the
Great, king of Ireland in the first century, stood threaten-
ingly at the door of the royal apartment, with shields and
ivory-hilted swords ; and they allowed no one to enter
who did not give a satisfactory account of himself.*
There was a Rechtaire or house-steward, also called
Taisech'ieglatgy i.e. * chief of the house ' : sometimes also
called Fer-thaigtSy * man of the household ' — * major-
domo,* whose office was a very dignified one. The
house-steward of King Conari's household is described in
the Bruden Da Derga as wearing a fleecy mantle, and
holding in his hand his " wand of office," which was no
small ornamental rod, but a huge black beam "like a
mill-shaft" He placed the guests in their proper places
at table, assigned them their sleeping apartments, and
determined each morning the supplies of food for the day.
If a dispute arose on any matter connected with the
arrangements for receiving, placing, or entertaining the
guests, he decided it ; and his decision was final. When
he stood up to speak all were silent, so that a needle
might be heard if it dropped on the floor.t From this
description it will be seen that the rechtaire corresponded
closely with the Anglo-Norman seneschal of later times.
A particular officer had charge of the king*s (or queen's)
s^ds^ * jewels,* or personal treasures. That the post was
considered of importance is shown by the fact that the
lady Erni who had charge of the caskets and combs and
golden ornaments of Maive, queen of Connaught, in the
time of the Red Branch Knights, is described as mistress
of all the maidens who waited on the queen in the palace
of Croghan. J The sids were generally kept in a corrbolgy
or large round ornamental satchel, or in a number of such
♦ O'Curry, Man. 6c Cust., ii. 147, 148.
t Stokes's Da Derga, 185. Other references to the rechtaire in Trip.
Life, 185, hot. : and in Moyrath, 18.
} O'Looney, Bee Fola, 187, 189. See ako Oss. Soc., iv. 289 and 301.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 65
receptacles. One man, and sometimes two, had charge of
the chessboard and chessmen. The board was enclosed in
some sort of case, and the men were often kept in a bag of
wire netting *
There was a tdisech scutrot master of the horse, who
had charge of the king's stables and horses, and there was
an echere or groom. Three outriders or esquires {tnarcatg
or riiiri: * horsemen' or* knights*) attended king Conari,
each of them — even when off duty — holding a whip or
scourge {sraigell) in his hand, symbolical of office.f We
find mentioned, among the other officials, chief swineherds
and chief cooks, whose positions were obviously considered
of importance.} Runners, t.e. messengers or couriers, were
always kept in the king's or chiefs employment : and not
unfrequentiy we find women employed in this office. Finn
Mac Cumail had a female runner who figures in the story
of Dermot and Grania.
A king kept in his court an ollave of each profession: —
poet, historian, storyteller (or most commonly one ollave
combining these three professions), physician, brehbn,
builder, &c. Each of these gave his services to the king, for
which an ample stipend was allowed, including a separate
dwelling-house and free land. But besides this the pro*-
fessional man had private practice, and the law set forth
the exact remuneration for each kind of work.§ The
whole institution flourished in the time of Camden, who
correctly describes it: — "These lords \ix. the Irish kings
and chiefs] have their historians about them, who write
their acts and deeds: they have their physicians, their
rymers whom they call bards, and their harpers : all of
whom have their several livelihoods, and have lands set
out for them." Fools, jugglers, and jesters were always
kept in the king's court for the amusement of the house-
♦ O'Grady, SUva Gad., 133. f O'Cuny, Man. U Gust., 11. 146.
} 0*Curry, Man. & Gust. HI. 145, 147.
\ See 0*Gurty, Man. & Gust., 11. 52, 53 : see also chap. xxiv. sect. 2, infva,
F
€6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
hold and guests. They and their functions will be
described in chapter xxix., sect 9. Those immediate
retainers and officers of the king who lived in or near the
palace, and took their meals in their own apartments —
a very numerous company — were supplied with food each
day from the royal stores *
That the above details of the king's household are not
fictitious is shown by several statements in Irish autho-
rities setting forth the households of Irish kings and chiefs
in comparatively late times, from the eleventh to the
thirteenth or fourteenth century, written by persons who
described things as they actually saw them, and whose
descriptions are still extant. These set forth the various
hereditary offices, similar to those stated above for the
older kings, though with differences in detail, as might be
expected. For example — the following were the chief
officers of the household of O'Kelly, king of Hy Many,
in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries : — Marshal of
the forces, O'Conaill ; master of the horse, Hy Fiachrach
Finn ; door-keeper, Hy Fiachrach Finn ; butler, O'hUroin ;
superintendent of banquets (i.e. rechtaire\ O'Lomain ;
king's immediate guard, Clann Indrechtaigh ; keeper of
cattle, treasures, and chessboard, OTlahilly ; keeper of
arms and dresses, Clann Bresail ; answerer of challenges
to single combat from outside territories, Clann Bresail ;
avenger of insults, Clann Egan ; steward, Aes Brengair ;
keeper of hounds, the Cruffanns ; inaugurators and
deposers, Clann Diarmada, Hy Cormaic, and O'Meehan ;
rearers of horses, Kinel-Aeda ; rearers of hounds, the
people of Slieve Aughty ; carriers of wine from the
harbours to the king's residence, Dal Druithne ; builders
or erectors of edifices, Hy Docomlann ; stewards of rents
and tributes, the chiefs of the Cantred of Cala.f Each
•See, for example, Stokes, Lives of SS., 161, top line,
t O'Donovan, HyM, 87. For other similar households see O'Flaherty,
lar C, 139, and 368 to 372.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 6y
chief, of whatever grade, kept a household after the
manner of a king, but on a smaller scale, with the several
offices in charge of the members of certain families. In
the Ulster Journal of Archaeology, III. 117, will be found a
valuable paper on "Gaelic Domestics," compiled chiefly
from Anglo-Irish sources, in which this custom, as it existed
in the sixteenth century, is very fully described.
From the description given at page 43 it will be seen
that there was a regular gradation of authority. The king
of the tuath owed allegiance to the king of the mSr-tuath :
the king of the ifwr-tuath to the provincial king : the pro-
vincial king to the ard-rt of all Ireland. But this was
merely the theoretical arrangement : in the higher grades
it was very imperfectly carried out The authority of the
supreme monarch over the provincial kings was in most
cases only nominal, like that of the early Bretwaldas over
the minor kings of the Heptarchy. He was seldom able
to enforce obedience, so that they were often almost or
altogether independent of him. There never was a king
of Ireland who really ruled the whole country ; the king
that came nearest to it was Brian Boru. In like manner
the urrees or under-kings often defied the authority of their
superiors. The people, grouped into families, clans, tribes,
and ktnelSy with only slight bonds of union, and with
their leaders ever ready to quarrel, were like shifting sand.
If the country had been left to work out its own destinies,
this loose system would in the end have developed into
one strong central monarchy, as in England and France.
As matters stood it was the weak point in the govern-
ment. It left the country a prey to internal strife, which
the supreme king was not strong enough to quell ; and the
absence of union rendered it impossible to meet foreign
invasion by effectual resistance.
F2
68 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
8. List of Over 'Kings.
According to the ancient bardic legends, five succes-
sive colonies arrived in Ireland many centuries before
the Christian era :— the Parthalonians, the Nemedians^
the Firbolgs, the Dedannans, and the Milesians * The
bards say that government by monarchy began with the
Firbolgs ; whose first king — and the first king of Ireland —
was Slainge [two-syll.]. From the time of his accession
down to the birth of Christ, they allow 107 monarchs, of
whom 9 were Firbolgs ; 9 Dedannans ; and 89 Milesians.
The last king of the period before the Christian era was
Nuada Necht or Nuada the White : and his successor,
Conari the First, or Conari the Great, was the first king
belonging to the Christian era. The Milesian kings
continued to reign till the time of Roderick O'Conor,
the last over-king of Ireland, who died in 1198 (p. 42,
supra) ; and who, according to the bardic accounts, was
the 193rd monarch of Ireland. A full list of the monarchs
who reigned from the beginning of the Christian era is
given below. A few of those before the Christian era —
viz. those that figure most prominently in ancient Irish
literature — are also given, with their approximate dates.
The dates down to the time of Laegaire (A.D. 428) are
given chiefly on the authority of OTlaherty, who, in his
Ogygia, has corrected the chronology of the bards and
shanachies.
As to the records of the very early kings, they cannot,
of course, be received as history : but neither should they
be rejected altogether : it is as much of a fault to be too
sceptical as to be too credulous. On this subject of the
Irish records of the early kings. Dr. Petrie ("Tara," p. 51),
who was himself rather over-cautious than otherwise, makes
the following judicious observations, quoting the distin-
guished Scotch historian Pinkerton, who was a determined
♦ For an account of all these see Joyce, Short History of Ireland, p. 123.
CHAP. Ill] MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT 69
opponent of Ireland's early claims to distinction. Writing
of the reign of Tuathal the Legitimate, king of Ireland in
the second century, Dr. Petrie observes : —
"It is true, indeed, that the learned and judicious Sir James
Ware has rejected, as of no certainty, the whole list of Irish kings
anterior to the establishment of Christianity ; but this over-cautious
rejection will have little weight now, even with the most judicious
investigators* and in the opinion of Pinkerton, one of the most
sceptical of modem antiquaries *was at best rash.* 'Mr. O'Conor
remarks' — says this writer [Pinkerton] — 'that Tuathal's reign
[A.D. 130-160] forms a new and certain epoch in the progress of
Irish history. Foreigners may imagine that it is granting too
much to the Irish to allow them lists of kings more ancient than
those of any other country in modem Europe : but the singularly
compact and remote situation of that island, and its freedom from
Roman conquest, and from the concussions of the fall of the Roman
empire, may infer this allowance not too much. But all contended
for, is the list of kings, so easily preserved by the repetition of the
bards at high solemnities ; and some grand events of history. For
to expect a certain detail, and regular order, in the pagan history
of Ireland, were extravagant.* "
So far Pinkerton as quoted by Petrie.
MONARCHS OF IRELAND BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA.
B.C.
Heremon, the 19th Monarch, was the first of the Milesian kings, . 1015
Tlgemmas, the 26th king, was the first to smelt gold : )ie and his
successor arranged the colours to be worn by the different classes, 939
Ollamh Fodla [OUave F61a], the 40th, founded the triennial ///j or
convention of Tara, 7^4
Aed Ruadh, \
Dithorba, > reigned in turn immediately before Macha.
Cimbaeth, /
Macha Mongruadh, or Macha of the Golden Hair, the 76th monarch,
daughter of Aed Ruadh : the only female monarch. She founded
the palace of Emain, 377
Hugony the Great, the 78th, 331
Labrad Loingsech, the 81st, 268
Kudmighe, king of Ulster^ who became king of Ireland.: the; 97tb, 105
Eochaid Feidlech, the 104th, « . . 28
Nuada Necht, or Nuada the White, the 107th ;nonsM-ch, , , , i
yo GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Kings of Ireland: Christian Era.
In the early part of this list there is some uncertainty
as to the exact dates : but after the time of Colla Huas
(327 to 331) the dates may be taken as generally correct
In the latter part of the list * S/ means Southern Hy Neill ;
* N.' Northern Hy Neill ; for which, and for " Kings with
Opposition," see Joyce, " Short History of Ireland," pp. 134
and 228.
A.D.
Conari I. (the Great) began to
reign about the first year of
the Christian Era
Lugaid Riab Derg (Lewy of
the Red Circles)
Concobar Abrat Rnad (Conor
of the Red Brows)
Crimthann (or Criflfan) Nia N&ir,
son of Lugaid Riab Derg .
Carbery Cinncat (Cat-head) .
Feradach Finn Fachtnach
Fiatach Finn .
Fiacha Finnola
Elim Mac Connra .
Tuathal the Legitimate
Mai Mac Rochride .
Fedlimid Rechtmar (Felim the
Lawgiver), son of Tuathal the
Legitimate ....
Cathair M6r [Cahir More]
Conn Cedcathach (the Hundred-
fighter) ....
Conari Moglama (Conari II.) .
Art Aenfer (the Solitary), son of
Conn Cedcathach
Lugaid (or Levry) Mac Con
Fergus Dubhdedach (of the
Black Teeth)
Cormac Mac Art or Cormac Ul-
fada (son of Art the Solitary)
Eochaid (or Ochy) Gunnat
Carbery Liffechair (of the Lifiey)
Fiacha Sraibtine
Colla Huas • • . .
Mnredach Tirech •
Cadbad
65
73
74
90
95
"7
119
126
130
160
164
174
177
212
220
250
253
254
277
279
297
327
331
357
A.D.
Eochaid Muigmedon (Ochy
Moyvane) ....
Crimthan M6r (Criflfan More) .
Niall of the Nine Hostages
Dathi [Dauhi]
Laeghaire [Lcary] .
Olioll Molt, son of Dathi
S. Lugaid (or Lewy), son of
Laeghaire ....
N. Murkertach Mac Erca
N. Tuathal Mailgarb
S. Diarmaid or Dermot, son of
Fergus Kervall .
N. Domnall \ joint kings, sons 1
N. Fergus / of Murkertach i
N. Baitan ) . . . , .
N. Ainmire [An'mira] .
N. Baitan
N. Aed MacAinmirech, or Hugh
son of Ainmire •
S. Aed Slaine ) • • * 1 • . ©
N. Aed (or Hugh) Uaridnach . 605
358
366
379
405
428
463
483
5"
533
544
565
566
568
571
572
N. Mailcoba
N. Suibne [Sweeny] Menn
N. Domnall or Donall, son of
Aed Mac Ainmirech.
N. Cellach or Kellach ) joint \
N. ConaU CaU } kings )
S. Blathmac ) joint kings : sons )
S. Diarmaid ) of Aed Slaine ;
S. Sechnasach, son of Blath-
mac 664
S. Cennfaelad [Kenfaila], son
of Blathmac . . .671
611
614
627
641
656
CHAP, ni]
MONARCHICAL GOVERNMENT
S. Finachta Fledach (the Fes-
li*e) ....
N. Longsech .
N, Congal
N. Fergal
5. Fogarttch Mac NeUl .
S. Cionetb {or Kenneth),
of Irgalach .
N. Flathbeitacb or Plaherlagh
N. Aed (or Hngh) Allan, aoa
of King Fergal .
S. Domnall or Donall, soa of
Mnrchad
N. NiaU Fraswcli {i.e. of the
Showers), .
S. Donnchad or Donogh .
N. Aed (or Hugh) Oidnee, soi
of Hiall Frassach
S. Concobhar or Conor .
N. NiaU Cailinc .
S. Mailsechlann or Malachi I.
N. Aed (or Hugh) Finnliath
S Flann Sinna (of the Shaonon)
N. NiaU Glunduff .
S. Donnchad or Donogh .
S. Congalacb .
N. Domnall Q-Neill, son of
Murkertagh of the Leather
Cloaks 956
S. Mailsechlann or Malacbi II. 9S0
Brian Boroma, or Boruma, or
Bom 1001
S. Mailsechlann or Malachl II.
(resumes] .... 1014
"Kings with Opposition."
. Io»7
Donnchad or Donogli,
Brian Boru ,
Diatraaid Mac Mail-na-mbo
(Detinot Mac Maitnamo), of
the race of Cahir More , 1064
Turlogh O'Brien of the Dalgos 1071
MnrkertacbotMartoghO'Brien 10S6
N, Donall O'Loghbum . , 1086
(Both reckoned as kings of
Ireland.]
Turioch O'Conor . . .1136
N. Murkertagh O'Logblann . 1156
R017 or Roderick O'Cooor . tt6i
72 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
CHAPTER IV
WARFARE
Section i. Foreign Conquests and Colonisations.
the Continental
am the earliest
for war and a
'he Roman geo-
ting in the third
lat Irish mothers
nt the first food
sword to their
'ants, as it were
War. There is
; custom in the
native records,
so that we may
safely set down
the account as a
fable, like some
otherstatements
of his about Ire-
land already
noticed at p. iS,
supra. But the
Fio.rt. story may be
ctciBi L ftom Book «( K^; fuB Ha. taken as ind Seat-
ing the warlike
character the ancient Irish had earned for themselves
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 73
among foreign nations. They were not contented with
fighting at home, but made themselves formidable in other
lands. Their chief foreign conquests were in Wales and
Scotland : but they not unfrequently found their way to
the Continent. In those times the Scots, as the Irish were
then called, seem to have been almost as much dreaded as
the Norsemen were in later ages. Irish literature of every
kind abounds in records of foreign, invasions and alliances ;
and it will be seen that the native accounts are corrobo-
rated by Roman writers, so far as they touch on these
matters.*
In the bardic legends there is an account of an expedi-
tion " beyond the sea " — probably to Britain — in the first
century, by Crtmthann Nia Ndir [Criffan-nee-nawr], king
of Ireland (A.D. 74 to 90), and, of his return with much
treasure to his palace of Dun-CrifTan on Ben-Edar or
Howth (FM, A.D. 9). At a still earlier time the old
shanachies celebrate the foreign expeditions of two other
kings — Aengus Ollmucad and Hugony the Greatf
All who have read the histories of England and Rome
know how prominently the " Picts and Scots " figure during
the first four centuries of our era, and how much trouble
they gave to both Romans and Britons. The Picts were
the people of Scotland : the Scots were the Irish Gaels : —
** The Scots, who afterwards settled in what is now known
as Scotland, at that time dwelt in Ireland."^ The invasidns
of the Picts and Scots are celebrated by many ancient
writers, among others by Gildas in his History. As a
protection against these two tribes the Romans, at different
intervals in the second and third centuries, built those great
walls or ramparts from sea to sea between Britain and Alban,
so well known in the history of those times, of which there
* For a good abstract of Irish foreign expeditions and conquests, see
Sullivan*s Introd. to 0*Curry, Lect., pp. 22-48.
t O'Flaherty, Ogyg., in. xxvi. and xxxviii.
X Gardiner's Students' Hist, of Engl., 1892, pp. 23, 24.
74 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
are still considerable remains. For three or four centuries
the Irish continued their incursions to Britain and Scotland^
sometimes fighting as invaders against the Picts, sometimes
combining with them against Romans and Britons : and as
a consequence there were several settlements of colonies
from Ireland in Wales and Scotland. An ancient Irish
historical tale entitled "The Banishment of the Desii*^
gives an account of one of these migrations. It is a well-
known historical fact, noticed in the Irish annals of those
times, that a numerous and powerful tribe called the Desii^
who dwelt near Tara, were expelled for a breach of law
from their district (which retains the name of Deece to this
day) by Cormac Mac Act in the third century (see " Deise **
in Index). Part of these went to Munster and settled in a
territory which still retain? their name — the two baronies
of Decies in the Co. Waterford. Another part, crossing
over to Wales under a leader named Eochaid [Ochy], settled
down in a district called Dyfed, and preserved their indi-
viduality as an immigrant tribe for many generations.
This migration and settlement is related in detail in one
of the Irish historical stories — a relation that receives so
much collateral and incidental confirmation from Welsh
records totally independent of the Irish authorities, that
we cannot doubt its substantial accuracy.
The account of the conquests of the Irish in West
Britain given in Cormac's Glossary (written in the ninth
or tenth century from older authorities) may be regarded
as generally reliable : for it is corroborated by other records
and indications from independent sources. In this Glossary
we are told a story about a lapdog which was " brought
from the east from Britain" by Carbery Muse, a well-
known historical Irish personage, from whom certain dis-
tricts in Ireland, still called Muscraidhe or Muskerry, took
their name. He was the son of Conari II., king of Ireland
from A.D. 212 to 220 : and was brother of that Reuda men-
tioned by Bede as the leader of a colony from Ireland to
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 75
Scotland (see p. 82, infra), Cormac's Glossary (p. iii)
says : — " For when great was the power of the Gael in
Britain, they divided Alban between them into districts,
and each knew the residence of his friend, and not less
did the Gael dwell on the east side of the sea than in
Scotia (Ireland), and their habitations and royal forts
were built there. Whence is named Dinn Tradui^ i.e. the
triple-fossed fort of Crimthann [Criffan] the Great (son
of Fidach), king of Ireland and of Alban to the Ictian Sea
(the English Channel), and hence also is Glasimpere or
Glastonbury of the Gael, ix, a church on the border of the
Ictian Sea. . . . Thus every [Irish] tribe divided [the land]
on that side ; for its \ix. the tribe's] property on that side
was equal [to that on the west] ; and they continued
in this power till long after the coming of Patrick. Hence
Cairbre Muse was visiting his family and friends in the
east" [when the episode of the lapdog occurred]. This
Criffan the Great, "king of Ireland and of Alban to the
Ictian Sea," who is to be distinguished from the Criffan men-
tioned at p. 73, reigned in Ireland from A.D. 366 to 379: he is
celebrated for his conquests in Britain, not only in Cormac's
Glossary as quoted above, but in all the Irish histories and
traditions dealing with that time. His reign is almost
exactly coincident with the command of the Roman
general Theodosius (father of the emperor Theodosius the
Great), who, according to the Roman historians, checked
the career of the Gaels and their allies. The Irish accounts
of Criffan's invasion of Britain are in the main corrobo-
rated by the Roman poet Claudian, in those passages of
his poem that celebrate the victories of Theodosius. While
Criffan and his allies the Picts were vigorously pushing
their conquests in Britain, the Saxons, who were at this
time beginning their inroads, made themselves equally
formidable. The continual attacks of the three tribes be-
came at last so intolerable that the Roman government was
forced to take defensive measures. In 367, the year after
76 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Criffan*s accession, Theodosius was appointed to the military
command of Britain, and, after two active campaigns, he suc-
ceeded in delivering Britain for the time from the invaders.
The following short passage, translated from Claudian's
poem, pictures vividly the triumph achieved by Theodosius
over the three hostile tribes : — " The Orcades flowed with
Saxon gore ; Thule became warm with the blood of the Picts ;
and icy lerne {t\e, Ireland) wept for her heaps of [slaughtered]
Scots." In another passage of the same poem Claudian
boasts that Theodosius chased the Irish from the British
shores and pursued them out to sea.* Though all this no
doubt is in the main true history, we must make some
allowance for the poet's natural tendency to exaggeration in
his laudatory record of the great Roman general's exploits.
Criffan was succeeded as king of Ireland by Niall of
the Nine Hostages (a.d. 379 to 405), who was still more
distinguished for foreign conquests than his predecessor.
Moore (Hist. I. 150) thus speaks of his incursions into
Wales : — "An invasion of Britain, on a far more extensive
and formidable scale than had yet been attempted from
Ireland, took place towards the close of the fourth century
under Niall of the Nine Hostages, one of the most gallant
of all the princes of the Milesian race." Observing that
the Romans had retired to the eastern shore of Britain,
Niall collected a great fleet, and, landing in Wales, carried
off* immense plunder. He was forced to retreat by the
valiant Roman general Stilicho, but " left marks of depre-
dation and ruin wherever he passed." On this occasion
Claudian, when praising Stilicho, says of him — speaking in
the person of Britannia : — " By him was I protected when
the Scot [i.e. Niall] moved all Ireland against me, and the
ocean foamed with their hostile oars."
Niall's invasion is mentioned by several Irish autho-
rities, as, for instance, an ancient Latin Life of St Patrick,
♦ See O'Flaherty, Ogyg., part iir., chaps, xxxiv., xxxvii., Ixxxv., Ixxxvii.,
and Ixxxviii.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 7/
from which the following extract is quoted by Ussher in
his Primordia, p. 587 : — " The Scoti of Hibernia, under
their king Niall of the Nine Hpstages, devastated several
of the Roman provinces of Britain during the reigfn of
Constantius, the son of Constantine. They began their
incursions on the north of Britain, from which, after a time,,
by their armies and fleets, they expelled the inhabitants
and took possession of the country."* This old writer,,
however, is in error as to the time of Niall's invasion*
Constantius had, indeed, as we know from other sources,,
to proceed against the Picts and Scots; but he died in
361 ; and Niairs expedition did not take place in his reign,
but in that of Theodosius the Great. The extensive scale
of these terrible raids is strikingly indicated by no less
an authority than St. Patrick, who, in his "Confession,"
speaking of the expedition— probably led by Niall— in
which he himself was captured, says : — " I was then about
sixteen years of age, being ignorant of the true God ; I was
brought captive into Ireland, with so many thousand men^
according as we had deserved." f
The Irish narratives of Niall's life and actions add that
he invaded Gaul, which was his last exploit ; for he was
assassinated (A.D. 405) on the shore of the river Loire by
one of his own chiefs, the king of Leinster, who shot him
dead with an arrow. The Irish legendary account of the
origin of Niall's cognomen runs parallel with the history
of his foreign conquests. O'Clery gives it in his Glossary
from some old authority : — " because he took hostages
from the five provinces of Ireland ; and also French^
Saxon, British, and Alban hostages." J
Welsh scholars, from Lhuyd of two centuries ago, to
Principal Rhys of the present day,§ as well as historical
♦O'Donovan, HyF, 318, and note p : Petrie's Tara, 93.
t Trip. Life, 357. t Rev. Celt., V. 2, 3.
{ See Rhys's valuable article, The Early Irish Conquests of Wales and
Domnonia, in Proc* Roy. Soc. Antiqq. of Irel. for 1890-1891, p. 642. See
78 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
inquirers of other nationalities, have investigated this
question of the Irish conquests in Wales, quite indepen-
dently of Irish records : and they have come to the
conclusion that, at some early time, extensive districts of
Wales were occupied by the Irish ; that is to say, Goidels
or Gaels direct from Ireland, as distinct from an earlier and
far more extensive occupation by Goidels from continental
Gaul. As a consequence of the later occupation by Irish
Gaels, numerous places in Wales have to this day names
commemorating the invaders : as, for instance, the Welsh
name of Holyhead, Cerrig y Gwyddell^ the * Rocks of the
Goidels or Gaels * ; and the Welsh language contains
many Irish words, or words evidently derived from Irish.
There are still in Anglesey, says Dr. Jones, in his book on
this subject,* " oval and circular trenches which we see
in great plenty . . . called Cyttie r* Gwyddelod^ * the Irish-
men's cottages.' " These, of course, are what we know in
Ireland as lisses or rathsy which the Irish built up in their
newly-adopted country according to the fashion of their
own. After careful examination of all the evidence.
Dr. Jones comes to the conclusion that the Gaels from
Ireland once occupied the whole of Anglesey, Carnarvon,
Merioneth, and Cardiganshire, and parts of Denbighshire,
Montgomery, and Radnor. Still another trace of the foot-
steps of the Irish Gael in Britain is the existence of a
number of oghams in Wales ; for, so far as we know,
ogham was peculiar to the Irish.f But besides all this,
also Stokes, On the Linguistic Value of the Irish Annals, p. 25 ; O'Donovan,
HyF, 318; and Todd, St. Patrick, 352, note i.
♦Vestiges of the Gael in Gwynedd (North Wales), 185 1, by Dr. Jones,
Bishop of St. David*s, in which this whole question is fully discussed.
In the Revue Celtique, xvii. 102, Principal John Rhys gives a long list of
Welsh words borrowed from Irish. It is to be observed that the Britons
often made reprisals by incursions into Ireland, as we see in the case of
Coroticus (Lanigan, Eccl. Hist., I. 296). See also on this *< Bretons
Insulaires en Irlande,'* by J. Loth, in Revue Celtique, xviii. 304, in
which M. Loth gives many examples of British plundering incursions to
Ireland.
t See Hyde, Lit. Hist., 109.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 79
ancient Welsh literature— history, annals, tales, legends —
like that of Ireland, abounds in references to invasions of
Wales and other parts of Britain by Irishmen.
The continual intimate relationship by intermarriage
between the Irish kings and chiefs on the one side, and
the ruling families of western and northern Britain on the
other, are fully set forth in a series of valuable genealogical
articles by the Rev. John Francis Shearman in the Kil-
kenny Archaeological Journal for 1879 to 1884: which are
reprinted in his " Loca Patriciana."
We have seen the record in Cormac's Glossary (p. 75,
supra) that the Irish retained their sway in Britain long
after the arrival of St. Patrick (in 432). Of this there
is a curious incidental corroboration in a passage in the
story of the Boroma. When BrandufT, the powerful king
of Leinster, in the end of the sixth century, heard that
prince Cummuscach was coming to Leinster on "a youthful
free circuit " — about A.D. 597 — he did not wish to receive
him personally, knowing his licentious character. " Let a
messenger," said he, " be sent to them [prince and retinue],
and let them be told that I have gone into Britain
{% m-Bretnaib) to levy rent and tribute."*
About the period of the series of expeditions to Wales,
the Irish also mastered the Isle of Man : and Irish litera-
ture abounds with references to the constant intercourse
kept up by the parent people with those of their little
t
insular colony. Though the Norsemen wrested the sove-
reigfnty of the island from them in the ninth century, they
did not succeed in displacing either the Gaelic people
or their langfuage. The best possible proof of the Irish
colonisation and complete and continued occupation of
the island is the fact that the Manx language is merely a
dialect of Irish, spelled phonetically, but otherwise very
little altered. There are also still to be seen, all over the
island, Irish buildings and monuments, mixed up however
* O'Grady, Silva Gad., 408.
8p GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
with many of Norse origin : and the great majority of
both the place names and the native family names are
Gaelic*
It is curious that the idea of having a sort of claim to
the Isle of Man still lingered among the Irish at the end
of the eleventh century, when the Danes held it : for the
annalist Tigernach records an expedition to the island
from Leinster in 1060, which occurred during his own
lifetime : a record given also by the Four Masters, as well
as by other annalists. Tigemach's words are : — [A.D.
1060] " Murchad, king of Leinster, son of [king] Dermait
Mac Mailnamo, invaded Mann and took tribute out of it,
and defeated Ragnall's son " [the Danish ruler].f
Niairs successor Dathi [Dauhy], king of Ireland, A.D.
405 to 428, followed in the footsteps of his predecessors,
and according to Irish authorities invaded Gaul : but was
killed by a flash of lightning at the foot of the Alps, after
his followers had destroyed the hermitage of a recluse
named Formenius or Parmenius. Although this legend
looks wild and improbable, it is in some respects corrobo-
rated by continental authorities, and by present existing
names of places at the head of Lake Zurich : so that there
is likely some foundation for the story. J
The record of the death of Laegaire, Dathi's successor,
and king of Ireland when St. Patrick arrived, which is
mainly historical, though somewhat mixed with legend,
tends to confirm the preceding accounts of the foreign
expeditions of the Irish kings. It had been prophesied for
this king by some old druid that he was destined to be
killed between Erin and Alban ; and accordingly, in order
to circumvent the prophecy, he remained at home, and
never attempted to imitate the foreign expeditions of his
predecessors. But on one occasion he invaded Leinster
♦ See Lynch, Cambr. Ev., i. 159.
+ Rev. Celt., xvii. 402.
J Ferguson, Legend of Dathi, Proc. R. L Acad., Feb. 1882, p. 167.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 8l
in violation of a solemn oath sworn by the elements :
whereupon, says the legend, he was killed by the sun and
wind, at the side of a little river named Cas, at a marshy
spot situated between two hills named " Erin and Alban " :
so that the prophecy was fulfilled.
We will now go back in point of time to sketch the
Irish colonisation of north Britain, the accounts of which,
however, are a good deal mixed with those of the Welsh
settlements. From very early ages, the Irish of Ulster
were in the habit of crossing the narrow sea to Alban or
Scotland, where colonies were settled from time to time :
and constant intercourse was kept up between the two
•countries down to a late period. The authentic history
of these expeditions ^nd settlements begins in the early
part of the third century, during the reign of Conari 11.
{a.D. 212-220). This king had three sons, Carbery Muse
(who has been already mentioned in connection with
Wales, p. 74), Carbery Baskin, and Carbery Riada. At
this time a great famine devastated Munster ; and Carbery
Riada led a number of his people to the north of Ireland
and to the south-west of Scotland, in both which places
they settled down permanently. A brief statement of this
migration, and of its cause, is given in Lebar Brecc : part
of the Irish text may be seen in Stokes's Lives of SS.*
The following is a translation of that portion of the
passage immediately bearing on our subject : — " Dal-Riata
"and the Fir Alban [men of Scotland]. They are both of the
seed of Coirpre Rigfota \i,e. Carbery Riada], son of Conaire,
"son of Mog of Munster. Great famine came on Munster,
so that the seed of Coirpre Rigfota departed from it, and
"one division of them reached Scotland, while the other
"division remained in Erin [in the present county Antrim] :
whence the Dal Riata [of both Scotland and Ireland] to
this day. They afterwards increased and multiplied in
these [two] districts, till the time of Aedan Mac Gabrain,
* Lebar Brecc, 2384/, 2nd col., line 15 ; Liyes of SS., Pref. cxiv, note i.
G
•4(
■<i
«
82 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
"king of Alban (Scotland), and of Aed Mac Ainmirech,
"king of Ireland." The Lebar Brecc then goes on to give
an account of the dispute between these two kings, which
was subsequently settled at Drumketta.* Adamnan more
than once mentions both Aedan and Aed Mac Ainmirech^
as well as the Convention at Drumketta, and so far corro-
borates the accounts in the native Irish authorities.t
These Irish narratives are confirmed by the Venerable
Bede in his Ecclesiastical History (I. i.), where he says : —
" In course of time, besides the Britons and Picts, Britain
" received a third nation, the Scots, who, migrating from
" Ireland under their leader Reuda, obtained for themselves^
" either by friendly agreement or by force of arms, those
" settlements among the Picts which they still hold. From
" the name of their commander they are to this day called
" Dalreudini : for in their tongfue dal signifies a part." The
"Dalreudini" of Bede is the Dalriada of Irish history. He
correctly interprets ddl\ for Ddl-Riada signifies Riada's
or Reuda's portion : and the word ddl or ddil is in use at
the present day. These primitive settlers increased and
multiplied, as the Lebar Brecc says ; and, supported from
time to time by contingents from the mother country,
they held their ground against the Picts. But the settle-
ment was weak and struggling till the reign of Lewy,
king of Ireland (A.D. 483 to 512), about three centuries
after the time of Carbery Riada. In the year 503 three
brothers named Fergus, Angus, and Lome, sons of a chief
named Ere, a direct descendant of Carbery Riada, led a
colony to Scotland from their own district in the Irish
Dalriada: descendants of the Munster settlers of three
centuries before. They appear to have met with little
or no opposition, and being joined by the previous settlers,
* For the Convention at Druim-Cete or Drumketta, and for this celebrated
dispute and its settlement, see Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 151.
t See also Ogyg., in. Ixiii. For the genealogy of Carbery, see Keating,
692-3.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 83
they took possession of a large territory, of which Fergus^
commonly called Fergus Mac Ere, and also known as
Fergus More (the Great), was the first king. The descen-
dants of these colonists ultimately mastered the whole
country, and from them its name was changed from
Alban to Scotia or Scotland. Fergus was the ances-
tor of the subsequent kings of Scotland ; and from him,
in one of their lines of genealogy, descend, through
the Stuarts, our present royal family. The memory of
these three princes is deeply graven on the history of
Scotland ; and many Scottish persons and places have
been named from them, of which examples will occur
to anyone moderately acquainted with the history and
topography of Scotland.
2. Military RankSy Orders^ and Services.
At different periods of our early history the kings had
in their service bodies of militia, who underwent a yearly
course of training, and who were at call like a standing
army whenever the monarch required them. The most
celebrated of these were the "Red Branch Knights" of
about the time of the Incarnation, and the ^^Fianna or Fena
of Erin," who flourished in the third century. Though the
accounts that have come down to us of these two military
oi^nisations are much mixed up with romance and fable,
there is sufficient evidence, both literary and material, to
show that they really existed and exercised great influence
in their day.
The Bed Branch Knights belonged wholly to Ulster,
and in the ancient Tales they are represented as in the
service of Concobar Mac Nessa, king of that province, but
not king of Ireland. The king's palace was Emain or
Emania near Armagh, of which a description will be found
in chapter xx., sect. 5, infra.
Every year during the summer months, various com-
panies of the Knights came to Emain under their several
G2
84 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
commanders, to be drilled and trained in military science
and feats of arms. The greatest Red Branch commander
was Cuculainn, a demigod, the mightiest of the heroes of
Irish romance. The other chief heroes were Conall Ker-
nach ; Laegaire (or Leary) the Victorious ; Keltar of the
Battles ; Fei^us Mac Roy ; the poet Bricriu Nemthenga
(' Venom tongue '), who lived at Loughbrickland, where
his fort still remains near the little lake; and the three
sons of Usna — Naisi, Ainnle, and Ardan,
The Red Branch Knights had a passion for building
great duns or forts, many of which remain to this day, and
excite the wonder and awe of visitors. Besides Emain
itself, there is the majestic fort of Dun-Dalgan, Cuculainn's
residence, a mile west of the present town of Dundalk.
This dun consists of a high mound surrounded by an
earthen rampart and trench, all of immense size, even in
their ruined state ; but it has lost its old name, and is now
called the Moat of Castletown, while the original name
Dundalgan, slightly altered, has been transferred to Dun-
dalk. Another of these Red Branch Knights' residences
stands beside Downpatrick : viz. the great fort anciently
called (among other names) Dun-Keltair, or Rath-Keltair,
86 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
or Aras-Keltair, where lived the hero, Keltar of the Battles.
It consists of a huge embankment of earth, nearly circular,
with the usual deep trench outside it, covering a space of
about ten acres. Still another, which figfures much in the
old romances under its ancient name Dun-da-benn — but
now called Mountsandall — crowns the high bank over the
Cutts waterfall on the Bann, near Coleraine. Four miles
west of this is a similar fortress, now known by the name
of the " Giant's Sconce," which is the ancient Dun-Cethern
[Doon-Kehem], so called from " Cethem of the Brilliant
Deeds," a famous Red Branch Knight* John De Courcy's
original Castle of Dundrum, in Down, was built on the site
of one of the most formidable of all — Dun-Rury, the im-
mense earthworks of which still remain round the present
castle, at the base of the rock, though the original dun-
mound on the top was levelled by the castle-builders.
Contemporary with the Red Branch Knights were the
Degadst of Munster — but of Ulster extraction — whose
chief was Curoi Mac Ddir6, king of South Munster ; and
the Gamanradii {\t, gamhanraide) of Connaught, commanded
by Keth Mac Magach and by the renowned hero Ferdiad.
Curoi Mac Ddir6 lived in a caher or stone fort on a rocky
shelf 2056 feet over the sea, on the mountain of Caherconree,
near Tralee, whose ruins have been lately, and for the
first time, described correctly and in detail by Mr. P. J.
Lynch.J As a still further evidence that those old legends
and romances about Curoi rest on a foundation of fact, not
only is the old stone fortress there to witness, but, like
Emain and Craebh-Ruadk in the north, it retains its ancient
name, which has been extended to the whole mountain,
and which commemorates the mighty hero himself: for
" Caherconree " correctly represents the sound of the Irish
* On the forts of Dun-Cethern and Dun-da-benn, see Reeves, Adamnan,
94, note f.
t Degads : see O' Curry, Man. & Cast., I., pp. 9 and 358.
X In Proc. R. Soc. Antiqq., Irel., 1899, p. 5.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 8/
name Cathair-Chonroi^ the caher or stone fortress of Curoi
(nom. Curoiy gen. Conroi).
The Red Branch Knights, as well as those of Munster
and Connaught, used chariots both in battle and in private
life. Chariot-racing too was one of their favourite amuse-
ments: and the great heroes are constantly described in
the tales as fighting from their chariots.
The Fianna or Fena of Erin * so far as we can trace their
history with any certainty, lasted for about a century, viz.
from the reign of Conn the Hundred-fighter (A.D. 1 77-2 1 2) to
that of Carbery of the Liffey (279-297). They attained their
greatest power in the reign of Cor mac Mac Art (254 to 277)
under their most renowned commander Finn, the son of
Cumal, or Finn Mac Coole as he is commonly called, king
Cormac's son-in-law, who is recorded in the Annals to have
been killed beside the Boyne, when an old man (A.D. 283).
Their ordinary strength in time of peace was three catha
[caha] or battalions, each cath [cah] 3000 : 9000 in all :
but in war they were brought up to seven catka or 21,000.
Before admission to the ranks, candidates were subjected
to certain severe tests, both physical and mental, which
may be seen in Keating, p. 349. One of these tests is
worthy of special mention here. No candidate was allowed
to join the ranks unless he had mastered a certain specified
and large amount of poetry and tales : that is to say, he
had to prove that he was a well-educated man, according
to the standard of the times : a provision that anticipated
by seventeen centuries the condition of admission to the
higher posts of our present military service, designed to
ensure that every commissioned officer of the army shall be
a man of good general education. This — whether history
or legend — shows what was regarded as the general stan-
dard of education in Ireland in those times. The Fena
* This word Fianna [Feena], though commonly restricted to the ** Fianna
of Erin," is a generic term, meaning * champions, soldiers, warriors.' In the
Da Derga (p. 169) it is applied to the Red Branch Knights.
88 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
of Erin, and Finn himself, are frequently mentioned in our
earliest writings, among others Cormac's Glossary.
Of all the heroes of ancient Ireland Finn is most vividly
remembered in popular tradition. Pinkerton, the Scotch
historian, who was anything but favourable to Ireland's
claims to early civilisation or importance, thus speaks of
him : — " He seems to have been a man of great talents for
"the age, and of celebrity in arms. His formation of a regu-
"lar standing army, trained to war, in which all the Irish
"accounts agree, seems to have been a rude imitation of
"the Roman l^ions in Britain. The idea, though simple
"enough, shows prudence, for such a force alone could
"have coped with the Romans, had they invaded Ireland.***
Finn had his chief residence on the top of the Hill of
Allen, a remarkable flat-topped hill, lying about four miles
to the right of the railway as you pass Newbridge and
approach Kildare, rendered more conspicuous of late years
by a tall pillar erected on the top, on the very site of
Finn*s house. Its ancient name was Almu^ gen. Almatiy
dat Almaitty which is pretty correctly represented in
sound by the present name Allen. " Almu ** — says the
old tale of the * Cause of the Battle of Cnucha * in the
Book of the Dun Cow — "was Finn*s principal residence
while he lived."f The house was not, however, built by
Finn, but by his maternal ancestor Nuada, king Cahir-
more*s chief druid. So far as we can judge from the
accounts of its construction given in the above-named
tale, it was built altogether of wood — like the " Red
Branch '* — without any earthen rampart round it : and
accordingly no trace of a rampart or earthen dun remains.
At this day the whole neighbourhood round the hill teems
with living traditions of Finn and the Fena.
When not employed in training or fighting, the Fena
spent the six months of summer — from ist of May to the
♦ Pinkerton : Inquiry, Hist. Scotl., ii. 77.
"^ Rev. Celt., 11. 93. On this name Almu see further on.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 89
31st of October — hunting, and lived on the produce of the
chase, camping out all the time : during the remaining six
months they were billeted on the well-to-do people all
over the country— fed and lodged free. But they were at
all times — summer and winter — liable to be re-embodied
at a central station by the king when he found it neces-
sary to wage war. They were divided into distinct tribes
or clanns, belonging to the several provinces, each under
its own commander. Of these, the Clann Baskin of
Leinster, under the immediate command of Finn, and
the Clann Morna of Connaught, commanded by Goll
Mac Morna, were rival tribes ; and ever since the time
when Goll slew Finn's father Cumal in the battle of
Cnucha, now Castleknock, near Dublin, regarded each
other with hatred and distrust.
Those Fena and their leaders, though supposed to be
in the service of the monarch, were very uncertain in their
allegiance : sometimes they fought on his side : sometimes
against him. After king Cormac*s death they became
openly rebellious, and attempted to impose a military
despotism on the country, claiming in some respects to
rule even the monarch of Ireland. At last the king —
Carbery of the Liffey, Cormac Mac Art's son, who came
to the throne A.D. 279 — marched against them, and anni-
hilated them in the bloody battle of Gavra, near Skreen
in Meath (A.D. 297) : but was himself slain in the battle.
We have seen that the Red Branch Knights, and their
contemporary heroes of Munster and Connaught, fought,
rode, and raced in chariots ; and that they erected immense
duns or forts. In both these respects the Fena of Erin
stand in complete contrast. In none of the tales or other
literature of the Fena is it mentioned that they used
chariots in battle, and they scarcely ever used them in
any way. Their rejection of chariots as a feature of their
organisation must have been by deliberate choice : for, as
will be shown in chapter xxviii., sect. 2, chariots were used
90 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
all over Ireland, both in civil and military life, not only
before and after the time of the Fena, but during the
whole period of their existence. For instance, they figure
in the battle of Crinna, A.D. 254, at the very time when the
Fena were in all their glory. Moreover, there is evidence
to show that the Fena knew the use of chariots, though
they did not adopt them.* Then as to duns : while we
have still remaining the majestic ruins of many of the
forts erected by the Red Branch Knights, as shown at
page 84, there are, so far as I can find out, no correspond-
ing forts in any part of Ireland attributed to the Fena in
the ancient tales. Even on the Hill of Allen, where if any-
where we might expect to find a mighty fortification like
that at Downpatrick, there is no vestige of a rath. Finn
had another residence in Magh Ele, now Moyally or
Moyelly, near Clara in King's County, wlgere there are
vivid traditions about him ; and a cave is still pointed out
which the people say belonged to him. But there is no
dun or rath in the place, and no tradition that such a
fort ever existed there. No forts, large or small, that I
know of, commemorate any others of the great leaders —
Ossian, Oscar, Dermot O'Dyna, Goll Mac Morna, Cailte
Mac Ronain, or Conan Mail, such as we have for Cuculainn,
Keltar of the Battles, Cethem of the Brilliant Deeds,
Curoi MacDdire, and others.
Why the Fena neither used chariots nor built great forts
appears, however, to be sufficiently explained by their
organisation, and by the sort of life they led. They
rejected chariots because they were organised purely as
an infantry force, and an infantry force they remained
to the last For the same reason they made little use
of horses, except in racing, though on long journeys
their leaders sometimes travelled on horseback. One of
the main objects of their lives was to perfect their activity,
strength, and health, by physical training : and accordingly
♦ O'Grady, Silva Gad,, 107, 29.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 9 1
they constantly practised athletic exercises on foot —
running) leaping, wrestling, and hunting. Then they built
no enduring forts, for they did not need them, inasmuch as
they always — when not on campaign — hunted and camped
out during the six months of summer, constantly changing
their residence : while during the winter half-year they
were billeted in the houses of the chiefs and farmers.
Yet we know that during all this time, kings and chiefs
who needed permanent homesteads continued to build
raths, lisses, and duns for their residences all through
Ireland.
Ordinary War Service was of several kinds. Every man
who held land in any sort of tenancy was obliged to bear a
part in the wars of the tribe and in the defence of their
common territory : or, as the law expresses it, every land
occupier owed to the chief " service of attack and defence."*
The number of days in the year that each should serve was
strictly defined by law : and when the time was ended, he
might return to his home — unless some very special need
arose. A chief or king, if required, was bound to send
a certain number of men, fully armed, for a fixed time
periodically, to serve his superior in war. The men of the
superior king's own immediate territory, with the contin-
gents supplied to him from the several subordinate tribes
by their chiefs, went to form his army. The tributary chief
again made up the contingent to be sent to his superior,
partly from his own household troops, and partly by small
contingents from his sub-chiefs.
These were the usual conditions. But sometimes tribes
had certain privileges, commonly conceded as a reward for
special services in the past For example, the Oirghialla
[Ore-yeela] or the people of the kingdom of Oriell, in Ulster,
were one of these favoured tribes. They were bound to
send 700 men to attend the king of Ireland in his hosting
for " three fortnights " every third year : but they were not
• Br. Laws, in. 23.
92 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
to be called upon in spring or autumn, when the men had
to attend to their crops. Moreover the monarch was bound
to pay each man of them who attended him during the
hosting or campaign a s^d or cow, or the equivalent value,,
and had to make compensation to the tribe to the value of
twenty-one cows for every man of them lost during the
war:* whereas in case of other tribes, neither pay for
service nor compensation for death was due.
The king had in his service a champion or chief fighting
man, called Air^-echta — always ^flaith or noble (chapter v.,
sect. 2) — whose duty it was to avenge all insults or offences
offered to the families of the king and tribe, particularly
murder : like the " Avenger of blood " of the Jews and
other ancient nations. In any expected danger from with-
out he had to keep watch at the most dangerous ford or
pass — called berna baoghaill [bama beel] or "gap of dan-
ger"— on that part of the border where invasion was
expected, and prevent the entrance of any enemy.f He
had five men-at-arms to attend on him constantly, and he
enjoyed several valuable privileges ; but a much larger
number was at his command when he needed them for the
discharge of his dangerous duties. It would appear that
each tribe had a special Aire-echta, who was in the imme-
diate service of the chief or king. King Cormac Mac Art's
son once insulted a woman belonging to the D^ise or Desii
of Meath : whereupon Aengus of the Terrible Spear, the
Aire-echta of the tribe, made his way to Tara, and seizing a
spear from a rack, he killed the prince with one thrust of it
in open court in revenge of the insult. In the resulting
scuffle the king's eye was destroyed by the handle of the
* On all these points, see Book of Rights, 135 and 139.
t See Br. Laws, iv. 323 ; O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 365 ; and O'Donovan,
HyF, 211. In some old documents the name aire^echia is derived from echt^
murder : so that Aire-echta means * Chief of [the avenging of] murder.' (See
Windisch, Worterbuch, Ir. Texte, I., *Echt*): elsewhere echt is given as
meaning * a deed ': Aire'echta^ * Chief of the [daring] deed.' (See Br.
Laws, IV. 322, line 6 from bottom.)
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 93
Spear, which ultimately resulted in his abdication, and in
the expulsion of the Desii from their territory (see p. 74,
supra). We find this institution existing in comparatively
late times : for in the fourteenth century " the headship of
every people who revenged the insults of [the O'Kellys of]
Hy Many" belonged by right to the Mac Egans (HyM. 89).
Kings and great chiefs almost always kept bodies of
tnercenary soldiers— commonly small in number and often
as a mere bodyguard — under regular pay, something like
the soldiers of our present standing army, except that the
Irish mercenaries were not bound so strictly to their service,
and might apparently leave at any time for another master.
They hired themselves wherever they could get the best
pay. These characteristics are alluded to in the derivation
given in Cormac's Glossary (p. 2) for amos (pi. amuts),
which is the Irish name for a hired soldier: — '^Amos, i.e.
am-fhos [pron. amas\ non-resting : he moves from place to
place, from one lord to another." The temporary character
of their engagement is also clearly indicated in the Brehon
Law, where, in setting forth the compensation due to a chief
for injuring persons he had taken under protection, it is
laid down that no compensation is due for an amos or
hired soldier, " because it is likely that he will go away
from him [the hirer] without necessity."* These hired
soldiers are constantly mentioned in our ancient records.
Queen Maive in the Tdin boasts that she has 1500 royal
jnercenaries {rtg-amms) of the sons of adventurers.! Bodies
of Scotchmen, and of Welshmen, were very often in the
service of Irish kings : and we also find companies of Irish
under similar conditions serving in Wales and Scotland
(Keating, 364).
The maintenance and pay of such soldiers was called in
Irish buannacht, whence men serving for pay and support
•were often called " bonnaghts " by English writers of the
♦ Br. Laws, iv. 231.
t Miss Hull, Cuchullin Saga, 112 : LL, 53, 21.
94 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
time of Elizabeth. The practice of hiring foreign merce-
naries, which was commenced at a very early period, was
continued down to the sixteenth century: and we have
already seen (p. 62, supra) that Shane O'Neill had a
number of fierce soldiers from Scotland as bodyguard.
The king kept a company of household troops, sup-
ported from his own revenues, who commonly resided in
the neighbourhood of the palace, so as to be always within
reach as a personal guard, and who fought with him in his
wars. Such a body of men was commonly called Lucht-
tighe [lught-tee], ue, * house-company.' * Sometimes a
tract of land was specially set apart for the residence of
themselves and their families, which they tilled when not
on actual service: and a district in the present county
Cavan, once devoted to this purpose, still retains the name
of " Loughtee," now applied to a double barony. The
number, arms, and exact duties of the Iticht-tighe depended
on the circumstances of the particular king ; so that we
find them variously described in different authorities.
They consisted of men of the tribe : whereas those con-
stituting the amuis or hired companies might be, and
commonly were, from a distance, or from another country.
These several bodies constituted a small standing army.
But where large armies had to be brought into the field,
the men of the tribe or tribes owing allegiance and service
were called upon to serve. It was understood, however,
that this was only for the single campaign, or for some
specified time, as already stated (p. 91), at the end of
which they were free to return to their homes. An army
of men on campaign usually consisted of men of all the
different kinds of service.
A Professional Warrior or fighting man, as disting^uished
from a tribesman who served temporarily, was called
feinnid^ a word allied to Fianna (p. 87, supra). A cham-
*0*Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 391-2 : FM, A.D. 1226, note /t, and 1306:
Ware, Antiqq., 70.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 95
pion was also often called a irHn-fher [trainar] * strong
man ' (p. 63, supra). But a more usual word for a cham-
piop or warrior is gaisctdheack [goshkeeagh, from gaisce^
* bravery or valour ' : in Celery's Glossary feindid is ex-
plained by gaisctdheack. Very often a warrior was called
6g or dglach^ which simply means * young/ a young person.
Laech or laoch is another term for a hero or warrior.
In very ancient times there were in Ireland, as in
Germany, Russia, and other countries, professional female
warriors or championesses — a sort of Irish amazons — who
figure much in the Tales. The principal teacher of
Cuculainn in the use of his weapons was the lady Scathach-
Buanand (the daughter of Ard-Geimne in Letha\ who
had a military academy in Scotland, where a great many
of the chief heroes of Ireland received their military educa-
tion.* In the Rennes Dinnsenchus several female warriors
are celebrated : one named Etsine : and another named
Brefne, who gave name to the old district of Brefney.f
Ness, the mother of Concobar Mac Nessa, was a cham-
pioness. All will remember a historic and still more cele-
brated championess belonging to another Celtic nation,
Boadicea, whose Celtic name Buadac has the same mean-
ing as a still better known queenly name — Victoria : buad^
* victory,* Buadac or Buadach^ * victorious.' These warlike
Irish ladies sometimes fought with each other, using the
same weapons as men. Occasionally too they fought
against men, and proved tough antagonists. A successful
rival of Scathagh was Aife [Eefa], who was so strong and
brave that no man save Cuculainn was able to subdue her.
The warlike Medb or Maive, queen of Connaught, was not
only a great commander, but was personally expert in the
use of her weapons. In one of the battles of the Tdin she
was engaged in the fight and wounded the hero Cethem
with a cast of a slegh or light speanj
♦ LL, 107, a, 42. t Rev. Celt., xvi. 56, 163.
} For these and other female warriors, see Rennes Dind., No. i, § 27,
96 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
In the Life of St. Mochua of Balla there is a curious
account of two highwdLy-women {da ban-gaisgedhacky * two
woman-champions ') named Bee and Lithben. They took
up their abode beside a perpendicular cliff near which
travellers were wont to pass, and provided themselves with
a big basket having two long ropes tied to the handles.
When a traveller came up they laid hold of him and
demanded all his valuables : and if he made any demur,
they trundled him into the basket and swung him over the
edge of the cliff, which commonly brought him to reason,
in which case they pulled him up and sent him away
unharmed, but much the poorer. On one occasion they
swung over St Mochua's gillie or servant. Mochua him-
self came up at the moment and demanded that they should
release him : but they, in no way cowed, refused to do any
such thing till the saint had to give them his cowl off
his shoulders : when they drew the man up and set him at
liberty.*
Clergy and Women exempted. — In very early times both
clergy and women accompanied the army on campaign,
and sometimes — though I think not often — took part in the
fighting. But in A.D. 697 a meeting of clergy and laymen
was held at Tara, where, at the instance of Adamnan, a
resolution was adopted forbidding women to take part in
war : this was known as the Cdin Adamnaitiy or Adamnan's
Law.t A little more than a century later— in 803— Aed
Ordnidhe [Ornee], king of Ireland, forced Conmach,
primate of Armagh, and his clergy to attend him on a
hostile expedition against Leinster. On arriving at Dtm-
CuatTy now Rathcore in Meath, the primate expostulated
with him on the impropriety of bringing the clergy on such
expeditions. The king referred the matter to his tutor and
p. 257, in Rev. Celt., xv. : O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 98 : K. Meyer,
Ventry, 76, 77: and Rev. Celt., xi., p. 451 (Courtship of Emer).
♦ Stokes, lives of SS., 287.
t Stokes, Feilire, 147; Hyde, Lit. Hist., 234; Joyce, Short Hist., 186.
4i
4t
4(
4i
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 97
chief adviser, Fothad, who, after due deliberation, pro-
nounced judgment in the form of a short canon or rule in
verse, exempting the clergy for ever from attending armies
in war.*
Instmotioii in Military Science. — OTlaherty, in his
Ogygia, states that Cormac Mac Art founded three col-
leges at Tara, one of which was for teaching military-
science. OTlaherty quotes no authority for this statement:
and the passage is too shadowy to found any conclusion
on it. On the other hand,0'Curry f writes :— " It does not
appear from any original authority that I know of, that
there was [in ancient Ireland] any such institution as a
special military school, with regular professors and a
regular system, as in the schools of literature and law."
But though we cannot say that there were special military
colleges, we know that the youths were carefully trained
in the use of their weapons ; for each was placed under
the instruction of some warrior who acted as his military
tutor ; of which many instances might be quoted from
the tales.J Besides, instruction of this kind formed a
part of the general education of the higher classes : and
when the sons of chiefs were in fosterage, the foster-
fathers were bound by law to teach them, among other
things, the use of their weapons. §
Military Asylums.— According to the " Battle of Ross-
naree," in the Book of Leinster, there was an asylum for
the old warriors of the Red Branch — in some manner
corresponding with the present Chelsea Hospital, and
with the Royal Hospital in Dublin — where those who
were too old to fight were kept in ease and comfort : and
it was under the direction of one governor or commander.
It was probably supported partly at the public expense,
•Hyde, Lit. Hist., 234: K. Meyer, MacCongl., 54: Stokes, Feil., 3 :
O'Cuiry, MS. Mat., 363: Joyce, Short Hist, of Ireland, 190.
t Man. 6c Cust., i. 367. J See O'Curry, Man. 8c Cust., I. 374.
i Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 86,
H
98 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
and partly by payments from the inmates : but on this
point there is no information. This house is^ called a
rigthech or * royal house,' or palace, and also a Bruiden :
and it is described as very large. When Concobar
MacNessa, king of Ulaid, was about to raise an army
to oppose the southern forces under Ailill and Maive, he
went "to the three fifties of elders and old champions
that are in their repose of age under [the command of]
Irgalach son of Macc-Ldch, having laid aside their
exercise of arms and their weapons," and asked them to
accompany the expedition ; not to fight but to give advice
as to the conduct of the campaign. And they replied,
" Let our old steeds be caught, and let our old chariots be
yoked, till we go on this expedition with thee."*
Knighthood. — As far back as our oldest traditions reach
there existed in Ireland an institution of knighthood. The
Red Branch Knights have already been mentioned : and it
appears that admission to their ranks was attended with
much formality. It was usual to knight boys at an early
age, commonly at seven years. This was the age, accord-
ing to the statement of Tigemach — and also of the Tales —
at which the young hero Cuculainn was admitted : and his
example as to age was often followed in subsequent times.
The old Tale in which this episode of Cuculainn occurs,
states that King Concobar had a number of suits of arms
ready to present to boys whom he admitted to knighthood.
He gave them, on this occasion, one after another to
Cuculainn, who broke them all : till at last the king gave
him his own royal shield, sword, and spears, which the boy
kept, as they withstood his efforts to break them.t A con-
firmation of the existence of this custom is found in the
Life of St. Carrthach or Mochuda of Lismore, where we are
told that when he was yet a boy he was brought forward to
receive knighthood from Maeltuile, chief of Corco Luachra,
• Hogan, Rossnarce, 2i, 23, t O'Curry, Man. & Cust., r. 364.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 99
in Kerry. The king began — after the ancient fashion— by
presenting him with a sword and shield, which however
Carrthach rejected, being resolved to follow a religious
life.* The remarkable confirmation of the Irish accounts
by Froissart will be found mentioned in chapter xiv.,
sect 2, infra^ This historian moreover states that the
custom of knighting boys at seven, with ceremonies like
those of the Irish, existed among the Anglo-Saxon
kings.f
The usual Irish words for a knight are curad [curra]
and ridtre [riddera], of which the last is of course the same
as the German titter^ and is probably borrowed, " Assum-
ing knighthood" is commonly expressed in Irish by
"taking valour": thus Tigernach's record about the
knighting of Cuculainn is, "Seven years was his age when he
took valour" {do gab gaisged),% But the rule of the seven
years was not universally, or even generally, followed —
except perhaps in case of the sons of kings or great nobles.
The ceremony was commonly put off till the candidate was
able to fight, as appears from the following entry in the
C6ir Anmann : — " This was a custom of the Ulaid. Every
young son of theirs who first took arms \t.c, took valour]
used to enter the province of Connaught on a foray or to
seek to slay a human being."§
There was an order of chivalry, the distinguishing mark
of which was what was called nasc-niad (* champion's ring
or collar' : nta^ gen. niad^ a tren-fer or * champion ').
Neither the order — nor of course the decoration — was
conferred except it was won on the field of battle : and
the person who won the nasc-ntad was called nia-naisc^
' champion of the collar * (like the English " knight of the
♦ Lynch, Cambr. Ev., ii. 219 : O'Hanlon, Lives of SS., V. 243.
t Johnes's Froissart, li. 580.
X Tigemach, by Stokes, Rev. Celt., xvi. 407 : 0*Curry, MS. Mat., 507.
4 Stokes, C6ir Anin. Irische Texte, 111. 405.
II 2
100 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
garter"), and also ridire gaisge^ or * knight of valour ' :
This collar, according to Keating, was worn round the
neck.*
3. Arms, Offensive and Defensive.
Handfltone. — Among the missive weapons of the ancient
Irish was the handstone, which was kept ready for use in
the hollow of the shield, and flung from the hand when
the occasion came for using it. The handstone is very
often mentioned in the ancient tales, but so mixed up with
pure fable that we can be certain of little more than this : —
Some such stone was in use, which was not a mere pebble
picked up by accident, but was specially made ; some-
times round {cruinn\ and sometimes oblong and shaped
with blunt angles and edges. To stones so prepared and
kept for use on special occasions, some sort of malign
mystical quality was often attributed, which rendered
them very dangerous to the enemy. The handstone was
called by various names : clock, and its diminutive clochen,
which mean * stone ' simply ; lia, lee, lecan, which convey
the idea of a stone somewhat flattened in shape ; Ha
Idimhe, * hand-stone ' {Idnth, gen. Idimhe, the hand : pron.
lauv, lauv6) : lia Idimhe Idich, * handstone of the laech or
champion'; Itacurad,^. * hero's flat stone.' t
The use of ordinary stones in battle— not specially
made — is often noticed in the ancient tales. Giraldus
Cambrensis says that the Irish of his time — the twelfth
century — when other weapons failed them, flung stones
with more force and precision than any other nation, so
as to do great execution on the enemy: a statement
curiously exemplified at the siege of Limerick, five
hundred years after his time, when a band of 400 of the
♦ Book of Rights, 7 : Keating, 391.
tSee O'Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 263 to 287.
CHAP, IV] " " WARFARE lOI
defenders flung stones in the faces of the WilHamite
assailants, having no better weapons.
Sling and Sling-stones. — A much more effective instrur
ment for stone-throwing was the sling, which is constantly
mentioned in the Tales of the Tiin as well as in Cormac'^
Glossary and other authorities, in such a way as to shovy
that it formed an important item m the offensive arms
of a warrior. The accounts, in the old writings, of the
dexterity and fatal precision with which Cuculainn and
other heroes flung their sling-stones, remind us of the
Scriptural record of the 700 chosen warriors of Gibeah
who could fight with left and right hand alike, and who
flung their sling-stones with such aim " that they could
hit even a hair, and not miss by the stone's going on either
side" (Judges xx. 16).
One of the Irish names for a sling was tailm or teilm
[tellim], which is fancifully explained in Cormac's Glossary
(158) as a contraction oi tell-fhuaim [tell-ooim], from tell^
*a stroke,' ^Xidfuatm^ * sound,' ue, *the stroke and the sound
of the tails or thongs * : from which we see that the tetlm
had two thongs. Another name for this sort of sling was
taball\ for we find teilm and taball used in a passage of
the T4in for the same individual sling.*
There was another sort of sling called crann-tabaill^
t\e, * wood-sling * or * staff-sling,* from cranny * a tree, a
staff, a piece of wood of any kind ' ; which indicates that
the sling so designated was formed of a long staff of wood
with one or two thongs — like the slings we read of as used
by many other ancient nations. David killed Goliath with
a staff-sling. As this was called crann-tabhatll on account
of having a crann or staff, perhaps we may infer that the
simple taball or teilm had no staff, and that it consisted
of two thongs attached to a piece of leather at bottom to
hold the stone or other missile : a form of sling which was
common all over the world, and which continues to be
♦ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 293.
102 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
used by boys to this day. There was a kind of staff-sling
called a deit-clis, literally ' feat-rod,' from deil, ' a rod,' and
c/is, genitive of cUs, ' a feat ' ; and this it would appear was
in some way different from the crann-tabaill. Still another
name for a sling is Irochal, whence comes the verb troch-
taim, ' I sling,'
Those who carried a sling kept a supply of round
stones, sometimes artificially formed. In the Battle of
Mucrim^, as we are told, the shields resounded with the
hammering of swords and of stones {buirnibh), the stones
flung from slings. Numerous sling-stones have been
found from time to time — many
perfectly round — in raths and
crannoges, some the size of a
small plum, some as large as an
orange, of which many speci-
mens are preserved in museums.*
A stone for a sling is often
called lie tailme, i.e, the 'stone
F10.J1. ^^ t'le tailm'
HteiTc'' °''i«^«^™nd'™iiL'*The Some sllng - missiIes were
KCGQd ftan iKe ltd hold,, h, th, md «( spccially madc and kept for use
one HuoE. >>iu mppon to Ix ■ UtmU or ^ ■' <^
limvi,^. (From w«>d-M«tiiii ^eu on important occasions : and to
(^ d^ h wIiIliJ.T'*"'*'' "^ ** these were attributed mystic
virtues similar to those of the
specially made handstones. Some were composition balls
made of various materials and hardened. A ball of this
kind was often called caer-dis [kair-clish], ' feat-ball,' from
caer, 'a mass or ball': as if itwas expected to perform some
: special wonderful feats : and it was also called ubaU-clis
or ' feat-apple' (uball, 'an apple': any small globular mass).
If we are to believe the Romantic Tales some of these
sling-balls were made up in an extraordinary and elabo-
rate way, which imparted to them a malign destructive
. quality. One called the tatlUuvi, made by the Dedannans,
•SeeKillc. Atcheeol. Journ., 1885-6, p. 378: »nd Wilde, Bojne, 109.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE I03
was composed of the blood of toads, bears, and vipers,
mixed up with sea-sand and hardened : and it is stated
that with a ball of this kind Luga of the Long Arms slew
Balor of the Mighty Blows, flingfing it from his sling with
such force that it went clean through Balor*s eye and
brain.*
According to the Tales, the Knights of the Red Branch
sometimes made their sling-missiles in a barbarous and
revolting manner. In the historic tale of the death of
King Concobar Mac Nessa in the Book of Leinster we
read : — " It was a custom with the Ultonians at that
time : — every champion they killed in single combat, to
take the brains out of their heads and mix lime with them
until they were formed into hard balls "t ; and these balls
they kept both as trophies and as dangerous weapons, to
be used on special occasions. This custom is noticed in
connexion with the Red Branch Knights : but, so far as
1 am aware, in no other part of Irish history or tradition.
It was a brain-ball of this kind that Keth Mac Magach
flung at King Concobar, so that it sank into his skull,
of which he died seven years afterwards. It would be
hazardous and unphilosophical to brush aside these
legends bodily as pure and simple fable. It seems pretty
certain that hardened composition balls were made for
slings, and kept for important occasions: and we have
such a ball in the National Museum in Dublin, perfectly
globular, and curiously streaked ; not on the surface
merely, but also through its mass.
Bow and Arrow. — One of the Irish names of a bow was
Jidbac (or fidbocc^ Z. 854, 12), a native word signifying
* wood-bend,' from fid, * wood,' and bac, * a bend.' ' Another
name was bogha [bo-a], which however is a Teutonic
loan-word, the same as the English bow. The Irish used
only the long-bow: in a late authority— the picture of
• O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 252.
t O'Curry, MS. Mat., 640 : De JubainvUlc, L'Epopee Celtique en Irl., 368.
104 GOVERNMENT, MILITARV SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Irish soldiers by Albert Durer in 1521* — one of the
soldiers has a long-bow four feet in length : but no cross-
bow appears in the group. The general length of the
Irish bow, as we find it represented on the High Crosses,
was from four to five feet. An arrow was called saigct
[now pron. sy'-et or sy'-ed], probably a loan-word from Latin
sagitta. In the story of the Battle
of Rossnaree (first century) in the
Book of Leinster, the use of the
bow and arrow is noticed more than
once. But it is curious that in the
historical tale of the Battle of
Moyrath (fought A.D. 637), bows
and arrows are not mentioned at
all, though the details of the battle
are given, and other weapons are
named. A quiver was saiget-bolg,
i.e 'arrow-bag.' In the story of
the Tdin in the Book of the Dun
Cow, the saiget-bolg is mentioned
as among Cuculainn's armsf: and
in the second Battle of Moy-
tura one of the noises was " the
rattling and the jingling of the
saicet-bolcs or quivers " {cairchiu
ocus grindegur na saicitbotc). X
O'Curry translates saicitbolc in this
FIG -H,a,„™..i,eij passBgc by " belly-datt" § : and his
editor, Dr. W. K. Sullivan (Introd.,
452), thinks it means 'a bow': but it evidently means 'a
quiver,' and so Dr. Stokes translates it That this is the
meaning appears plain from many passages. For instance,
in the Irish version of part of the Aeneid, it is stated that
• See KJlk. Arclueol. Joum,, 1877, p. 2g6. t LU. 79, *, 7.
t Stokes, Mojrtuni, Rev. Cell., xii. 99.
t Man. & CusL, i, 953 : ■* if it woi equivalent to gat-biitga.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 105
on one occasion Aeneas, seeing a herd of deer, took his
bow and his saigid-bolg and killed a
number of them* In later documents,
especially the Annals, there are plenty of contemporary
notices of bows and arrows, to which it will be sufficient
here to give some references.t
Flint arrow-heads are constantly found
in every part of Ireland, and may be seen
in vast numbers in the National Museum ;
which points to the use of the bow in pre-
historic times. In the same Museum are
numerous arrow-heads of bronze, also very
ancient, but probably less so in general
than those of flint. Those of bronze are
usually made with a hcJlow cro or socket,
into which the wood was Inserted.
One general assertion may be made
with regard to the sling, the bow-and- ,
arrow, and the axe :— a careful study of |£;^wM"."t^*i^
the Tales would lead to the conclusion
that, though these arms were pretty generally used, it was
rather by individuals than by armies : in other words, though
• Zeitschr. Br Celt. Phil., 428, 4J9.
tAiiiulsL.Ce, vol. I.,A.D. iiiifp. 2&S); iM3(p.a67); U30 (P- 303)';
1345 (p. 647) : vol. II., 1401 (p. 97) ; Last quotation under Diubkracndh in
O'Donovan's Supplem. to O'Reilly's Diet.
I06 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
individuals and sometimes small bodies of men used one
or all, probably according to taste or inclination, neither of
the three was used collectively and under general orders
by large bodies of men in battle.' In the first Battle of
Moytura there is no mention of slings, bows-and-arrows, or
battle-axes (Man. & Cust, I. 244). In Irish military litera-
ture swords and spears are the arms mentioned as in most
general use, not only by individuals but by armies.
The Kaoe. — The club or mace — known by two names
iiidtan and lorg—though pretty often mentioned, does not
appear to have been very generally
used. Eachof the thrice fifty atten-
dants of the hospitaller Da Dei^a
held in his hand a great club of
blackthorn with a band of iron.f In
the Tales, a giant, or an unusually
strong and mighty champion, is
sometimes represented as armed
with a mace. The giant encountered
in the meadow by the three great
Red Branch Knights in the story
of the Feast of Bricriu J wielded a
Fig. 37. mdtan like the mol or shaft of a
■>Sr^Nl?teli'Mll^"°D!Iut! inill-wheel. There can be no doubt
taJ^ed"r'ifc^'t^k^'^i"i^(L™ ''^^^ ^^ mace was used : for in the
twii^-e^'in'^Mrnr^" National Museum in Dublin there
J!^"^ w.^^ "" """'"''"^ °" ^"^^ several specimens of bronze
mace-heads with projecting spikes.
One of them is here represented, which, fixed firmly on
*See O'Curry, Man. and Cust., 1. Jl8, 348, 350. A small body using
slings, O'Gradjf, Silva Gad., 521, hot.
t Bruden Da Derga, 57. More than eigliieen centuries later, that is to
say, towards the middle of lasl centur}-, I ofleii saw (lie men of tlie rival
factions— "Three-year-old, "and "Four-year-old" — fiehtiiig at the "big Cur
of KJld orrery," Co. Cork, with precisely the same kind of weapons — lieavy
slicks — blacklhom, or oak, or a)>b — with iron or lead ferrules on tb« end.
J Henderson's Fled Bricrcnn, 46, 7.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 10/
the top of a strong lorg or handle, and wielded by a
powerful arm, must have been a formidable weapon.*
Spear,— The Irish battle-spears were used both for
thrusting and for casting. They were of various shapes
and sizes : but all consisted of a bronze or iron head, fixed
on a wooden handle by means of a hollow
€ro or socket, into which the end of the
handle was thrust and kept in place by
rivets. The manufacture of spear-heads was
carried to great perfection at a very early
age — long before the Christian era — and
many of those preserved in museums are
extremely graceful and beautiful in design
and perfect in finish : evidently
.the work of trained and highly
skilled artists. The iron spears
were hammered into shape :
those of bronze were cast in
moulds, and several specimens
of these moulds may be seen in
the Museum (see chapter xxiv.,
sect. 3, infra).
Both bronze and iron spear-
heads are mentioned in our
oldest literature. In the story
of the Tiin, in the Book of the
Dun Cow, it is related that
Fio.j«. Fio. 39.
Cuculamn came to a certain spKim™ a bron« MMinad. m
ford with his cUtifU or spear, wluilV^ilJ;^"' °"'*°" "'™°
with which he had slain many
of Queen Maive's best champions : whereupon she sent
her poet to ask him for the spear, knowing that he dared
not refuse a poet. Cuculainn gave him the spear, but
being infuriated, instead of handing it to him, he flung it
towards him with such force that it pierced his skull.
* Sm D'Arbois d« Jubainrille, La Civil, des Cekes, p. 369.
I08 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
And with the force of the blow the uma (i.e. the bronze)
of the cletinh broke off and fell into the stream, which from
that was called uman-sruth^ i.e. 'bronze-stream.** In the
same old book Cailte [Keelta] relates how he slew King
Eochaid Airgthech with a cast of a spear which " went
through him and into the earth beyond him, and left its
iron [head] in the earth : and this here is the shaft, and
the iron [iarnd] will be found in the earth."t In Cormac's
Glossary (p. 47, " Carr "), the word diceltair is explained
as the " shaft of a gat or spear without the iron head on it.'*^
In the National Museum in Dublin there is a collection
of several hundred spear-heads of all shapes and sizes, the
greater number of bronze, but some of iron, and some of
copper ; and every other museum in the country has its
own collection. They vary in length from 36 inches down.
Some of the Irish names for spear-heads designated special
shapes, while others were applied to spears of whatever
shape or size. The words gae^ ga, or gat ; faga or foga ;
and sleg (now written sleagh) were sometimes used as
terms for a spear or javelin in general : though more com-
monly they were specialised. The last, in the diminutive
form sleaghdn [pron. sldn^ the a sounded as in star\ is used
at present in Ireland as an English word to denote a sort
of sharp slender spade for cutting peat or turf. 0*Curry
always translates sleg or sleagh^ * a light spear ' ; foga^ * a
short spear ' ; and gae^ * a heavy spear.' The gae was
probably th^jaculum or dart mentioned by Giraldus in the
passage where he says that the Irish had, in his time, three
sorts of weapons : — a battle-axe, a short lance, and twa
darts {jacula),X
Among the spears of the Firbolgs was one called
fiarlann [feerlann], * curved blade * {fiar, * curved ' ; lanuy ' a
• O'Curry, Man. & Cust^ i. 298.
fKuno Meyer, Voyage of Bran, i. 48, 52: LU, 133, ^, 43, and 134, a^
top.
J Top. Hib., IINX. See also O'Donovan, Moyrath, 153, note /.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 109
blade '), of which many specimens are to be seen in the
National Museum. Perhaps the fiarlann was rather a
short sword than a spear, in which case it would answer
to the 'curved sword' {claideamh crom) so often men-
tioned in the Book of Rights.* At any rate, there is only
one type of curved blade preserved in the museum ; of
which two specimens are figured here.
The heads of those spears designated by the terms
manais and laigen (or laighen) were broad, flat, and sharp-
pointed ; for we find them constantly
described in the Tales by the
epithet lelkan-glas, i.e. 'broad
and grey-green.' O'Curry calls
the manais a"trowel-spear"; for
this word manais is one of the
names of a trowel. The duillen
{Corm., 61) must have been
something of a like shape, for
its name means 'like a tree-
leaf — 'leaf-shaped.' There are
numerous spear-heads in the
National Museum answering
these descriptive indications.
Laighen is a diminutive form
of the root laigh [lay or loy] : *'"'■ ••°- ^'°- *'■
and this root-word is still repre-
sented in the modem Anglo-Irish word /ty, which is
applied to a spade in some parts of Ireland.
In the ancient Irish battle-tales a sharp distinction is
made between the spears of the Firbolgs and of the
Dedannans, respectively : to which O'Curry first drew
attention. The Firbolg spears are sometimes called
manais and sometimes craisech [creeshagh]; and the
craisech is described as broad and thick, with the top
• For eiamples Bee Book of Rights, 75, last verse. For Ihe finrlann
see O'Curry, Man. & Cusl., I. 155, 295.
no GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
rounded and sharp-edged, and having a crann-remur, i.e.
a * thick crann or handle' : a description that applies
generally also to the manais. The spear used by the
Dedannans was very different, being long, narrow, and
graceful, with a very sharp point Whether these two
colonies are fictitious or not, a large number of spear-heads
in the Museum answer to those descriptions (figs. 43, 44).
Other terms for a spear less usual than the preceding
are : — astol^ which in Cormac's Glossary (p. 3) is derived
from Lat. hastula^ ' a little spear ' : aige
(Corm. 24, "Braga"): rincne (Keat 322) :
and muirend, derived by Cormac (p. in)
from mi-rind^ i.e. droch-rindy *evil point,* a
* point which causes death.' So also carr,
which is defined as gai^ * a spear,' in Cormac
(p. 47). That celtair^ pi. celtra^ was applied
to a spear may be seen from this Glossary
under the word gaire (p. 87), where celtra
catha (* spears of battle ') is defined gae or
spears: from which again the Glossary
derives diceltaiTy * a shaft or handle of a
spear without the iron thereon or without a
weapon' — rf/', a negative : di-celtair^ without
a celtair (see also Glossary, p. 47, under
" Carr," and see Voyage of Bran, I. 48, 9).
Bir^ which properly means * a spit,' was also
applied to a spear. In a poem on Cuchorb
in LL, it is said that he fed many wolves
with his btr\ and the Dalcassians in the
Battle of Clontarf had great sharp-pointed birs or lances.
Another word for spear was cnatrrsech, which O'Davoren
defines as a " diminutive of cnarr, spear." Cletine has beeu
already quoted as a name for Cuculainn's javelin.
The word gabaloxgabhal\^o\A\ and its derivative ^^^Aar//
were applied to a javelin of some kind : one of the noises
heard in the din of the second Battle of Moytura was " the
Fio. 42.
The duillen or leaf-
shaped brotuee t pear*
l^ead. (From Wilde's
Catalogue.) Now in
Nat Mus. Dublin.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 1 1
sound and winging of the darts and gablac&s or javelins "
{»a foghaid ecus na n-gablucK)* This word is met with in
other forms as applied to a spear, such zs/ogafo-gablaigi ;
which often occurs,t Gabal means 'a fork,' and gabal or
gablach apparently means ' a forked spear ' ; while foga
fo-gablaigi is a foga or spear with a fork — ' a forked foga.'
That the old Irish writers understood the word in this
sense is proved by a fanciful description of a spear in the
AgallamhX in which we are told that the foga fogablaigi
was so called because on either side of it were five forks
or prongs {cute gabla), each
having sharp sickle-shaped
barbs on both its edges.
Spears v/i^ points (rtftn, ' a
point ') are also often men-
tioned in the Tdin and other
old tales, apparently meaning
barbed spears : five being the
usual number of points : the
term for this sort of spear
oftenest used being sUg coic-
rinn, a ^sUg or spear of five
points.'§ An incidental refer-
ence in the story of Fingal
Ronain, in the Book of ^„ ^^^ J^^^.^ b> n.i. m«. mw.
Leinster, would seem to show i^Jl^^^^tTT'^* JdVL,^ '^
that some such spears were
used: — Aedan plunged a spear {gat) into Mael Fothartaig,
" so that he put its points through him " {corruc ar-rindi
iriit).\\ The /oga fo-gablaigi and the sUg c6ic-rinn were
*R«T. Celt., KII. 98, 99i iiS-
tMan. & Cost., n. 98. In iliis place O'Curty \.nxiAAKa faipiMaigt,
' down -headed ' : but at p. 145 he makes gabulgici, ' forked spears.'
I O'Gtady, SUva Gad., ^48 (Irish TmI, 119).
fFor instance, Stokes, Lives of SS., xxxiv. : Silva Gad., 190, wilh
Irish Test, 356.
I Knno Meyer in Rev. Cell., xrci, 384 : LL, 171, », ti.
112 GOVERNMENT, MILITARV SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART
difTerent : for we Rnd them plainly distinguished in a
passage in the Tii'n, where a tall warrior is described as
coming towards Cuculainn, having in his hand two spears,
one a sUg coic-rinn and the other & foga fo-gablatgi*
But though there are hundreds of spear-heads in the
National Museum, not one of them is either five-pointed, ■
forked, or barbed ; whereas if such spears were common
in old times, some specimens would certainly have been
found, as in the case of all the other spears. Sullivan, at
page 447 of his Introduction to O'Curry'a Lectures, gives
figures of two forked spears— one with three points, the
other with eight, which he
considers specimens of the
forked battle-spears of the
tales. But these are two out
of a collection of what are
obviously fishing-spears now
in the National Museum.
They have various numbers
of points up to fifteen, gene-
rally ranged in a straight row
r>oi.pi<ii>i«]iT<ir<«»iii N.i Mui. across. They are all of iron,
1^ ' "iTn'^B i"hs"'riiii'.iLi^"' ''"'^ °'' '■Lide workmanship —
any good blacksmith of the
present day could make one equal to the best of them.
They do not show a trace of artistic taste or finish — such
as we find in perfection in the bronze spear-heads: they
all seem comparatively modern ; and what is more to the
point, they are small, light, flimsy things that would go to
pieces in five minutes' fighting. One of the two given by
Sullivan is represented here, so that the reader can judge
for himself. It is five inches broad at the points, and the
'LL, 76, a, n: see the English in Hull, Cucli. Saga, 170. Ditilinguished
also in another passage of tht: T&in : O'Curry, Man. & Cum., il. 98, note.
Here O'Cuiry translates cuicrind, '■ flfish -seeking," I do nut know on what
grounds.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 1 3
prongs are if inches long. The socket is 2^ inches long,
and just large enough to receive a slight wooden handle
half an inch thick.
Perhaps gahal or gablach in its application to a spear
does not mean * forked ' ; and this seems to be Stokes's
opinion when proposing a derivation of the words.* But
this does not touch the difficulty of Coic-rinn^ whose mean-
ing seems beyond doubt. The whole question is obscure,
and for the present it must be left unsettled — ^at least
by me.
Spearheads had a cro or socket, in which the handle was
generally fastened by rivets. The shaft or handle had
generally a ferrule or ring of horn (adharc^ pron. ey-ark) on
its upper end to keep it from splitting. In the Brehon Law
(iv. 227) we read of a cnairsech or spear measuring twelve
fists " between its iron head and the place where the horn
is put upon its end " : which entry also shows the length of
the handle as between five and six feeL
The Irish casting-spear was usually furnished with a
loop of string called suanem or suaineamh [soonev] attached
to the handle, near the middle, and made of silk or flax.
The Greeks and Romans had a loop of a similar kind on
their spears — called amentum by the Latins : but how
exactly the loop was used by Greeks, Romans, or Irish, or
what its effect was, is a matter of conjecture.! We only
know that, like the Roman soldier, the Irish warrior put
his forefinger (corrmir) in the loop in the act of casting.
Such entries as the following are constantly found in the
Tales: — In the Battle of Moyrath (p. 285), Cuanna, "press-
ing his foot on the solid earth [to balance himself and take
good aim], put his finger in the string of his broad-headed
spear and made a cast at Congal " : Cailte " put his valorous
* In Rev. Celt. xii. 118: see also gahol Urg (*^a^(?/.club*) in LU,
84, a, 23 : and in the Irish Text of Silva Gad., 148, ao. What was this
gaboUUrg^ which is often mentioned as a recognised weapon ?
t Smith, Diet. Gr. & Rom. Antiqq., **Hasta."
I
1 14 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
forefinger into the thong of the spear" {tuc a chorrmir
gaiscid t suainem na slet'ghe),*
The use of poison on spears and arrows was known to
the ancient Irish : for we find individual poisoned weapons,
especially spears, often mentioned in the Tales. But
poisoned weapons formed no part of the Irish military
system, and they were not used in battle.t
Some of the spears of the heroes of the Red Branch
and other mythical champions are described in the legends
as terrible and mysterious weapons. The spear of Keltar
of the Battles, which was called L6n or Luin^ twisted
and writhed in the hand of the warrior who bore it,
striving to make for the victim whose blood was ready
for. spilling. This, according to the legend, was originally
the spear of a Dedannan chief, which he left on the battle-
field of Moytura, where it was picked up, and ultimately
reached Keltar. Some spears were regularly seized with
a rage for massacre ; and then the bronze head grew red-
hot, so that it had to be kept near a caldron of cold
water, or, more commonly, of black poisonous liquid, into
which it was plunged whenever it blazed up with the
murder fitj This reminds us of Homer's description of
the spear of Achilles, which, when the infuriated hero flung
it at Lycaon, missed the intended victim, and, plunging
into the earth, "stood in the ground, hungering for the
flesh of men" (Iliad, xxi).
Sword. — The ancient Irish swords were, in their general
shape, much like those used by most other people of both
ancient and modern times. The Irish were fond of adorn-
ing their swords elaborately. Those who could afford-
it had the hilt ornamented with gold and gems. In the
* Stokes, Acall., Ir. Texte, rv., p. 193.
t In many or most of the passages where poisoned weapons are mentioned,
the expressions are obviously figurative, meaning nothing more than bitter
or deadly in wounding : just as we say a person has a venomous tongue, like
nemthenga^ * poison-tongue,' the term applied to the poet Bricriu (p. S^, supra),
I See Hennessy, Mesca Ulad., Introd., ziv, xv, and xvi : Hogan, Ross-
naree, 79: and Stokes, Da Derga, 301.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 1 5
Book of Rights (p. 147) we are told that the hostages
delivered up to the king of Ireland by the people called
Oirghialla [oar-yeela] were to wear — as a distinction —
swords with studs of gold on the hilts: and swords of
this kind are often mentioned in the old writings.* But
the most common practice was to set the hilts round with
the teeth of large sea-animals, especially those of the sea-
horse— a custom also common among the Welsh. This
practice was noticed by the Roman geographer Solinus
in the third century A.D. : — " Those [of the Irish] who
cultivate elegance adorn the hilts of their swords with the
teeth of great sea-animals" {dentibus marinarum belluarunt
insigniunt enstum capulos),\ The native records, both
lay and ecclesiastical, are equally explicit on this point.
Adamnan (page 158) relates that a certain native of
Connaught, who had been reduced to a state of slavery,
came to St. Columba at lona, who, to enable him to
purchase his freedom, presented him with " a sword
ornamented with the carved teeth of animals " {macheram
belluinis ornatam dolatis dentibus). The native term used
for a sword ornamented in this fashion is claideb d/t,
literally * sword of teeth,* or some such expression, of
which examples are found everywhere in the Tales, as
well as in ecclesiastical literaturcj Warriors sometimes
ornamented the handles of their javelins in the same manner,
as we know from a statement in the Tiin, that on one
occasion during the fight between Cuculainn and Ferdiad
they "took up their eight spears, called gotka n-d^tl* i.e.
' darts [with ornaments] of teeth.' §
That the Irish used swords from the earliest times is
obvious from all the preceding : and it is not a little
- * As in Moyrath, 67 : and in LL, 55, *, first line (swords comuUUih 6ir
ecus con imdumib or git ^ * with knobs of gold and with guards of silver').
t Sec Lynch, Cambr. Ev., ii. 179.
X As in Stokes, Three Homilies, 65 : Moyrath, 67 : 0*Curry, Man. &
Cost., I. 253 (note i«), 297 (note ajo) ; vol. ii. 138.
§ Man. & Cost., I. 303.
I 2
Il6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
curious that Giraldus (Top. Hib,, III, x), in the twelfth
century, makes no mention of the sword as among their
weapons. He says they had three kinds of weapons : —
a short spear, two darts, and a heavy iron battle-
axe. The omission of the sword makes one
suspect that he is inaccurate or had not full
information: or perhaps, as O'Donovan remarks,
that the battle-axe was generally used when
Giraldus visited Ireland (Moyr,,
'93. note j). The sword figured
prominently in the Battle of
Clontarf, a century and a half
before- his time, and
it is constantly men-
tioned in the period
immediately suc-
ceeding his visit.
The two com-
monest Irish terms
for a sword were
cloidem or claideb
[cleev]* and cole (or
colg Qx calc): another,
but much rarer name,
was cbiinn (Corm.
40). The cloidem
was different from
the cole, for they
are evidently distin-
A^ludu, br«« .J^'^^ m, ™ riv«^'!,i '1 g"'shed in the Battle
fduikie rivtu HE a.-: .iiiddlt D« BlU rcmilii. ti„.if^^M of MoVtUra, which
iDchn loDff i fiff. 4f. ihjK inchn ; And A£. 4H. la builm. {TbEy '
I!!.n^''SLM'''^!™°lw>ct^il™^"'^'''" ''"'''"^ speaks of the flash-
ing and clashing of
the eloidems and of the coles. The eolc was a ' small
' De JubamviUe thinks this Cellic word is (he origin of the Latin s^diut :
Civilisation Act Cellcs, 37S.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE "7
Straight sword ' : so O'Curry always translates the word.
It would seem that cloidem was a generic name for a
sword, the cole being a sort of cloidem. A
claided-mdr—' great sword ' — a sword of the
lai^st size, is often mentioned.' The Scotch
have retained this name to the present day
in the form of ' claymore,' which nearly repre-
sents the proper sound. A short sword or
dagger was much in use among the Irish :
called a sclan [skean], literally a ' knife ' : but
the sword and the da^er
merge into each other.f
The blade {lann) was kept
in a sheath or scabbard which
was called by several names :
Fintech or findiuch, truaill,
slyiA faighin.X Sometimes the
sheath was made of bronze :
and several of these are
preserved in museums. The
beautiful specimen figured
here was found in the cran-
noge of Lisnacroghera near
Broughshane, Co. Antrim.§
Tfiat part of the hilt grasped
by the hand was called
dorn or durn (i.e. 'fist'), ^'o-n-
Fir a Fin to i BiM.e rabtarf.
■"" '^' round which was a guard (ouniin.c^mw^.
B found dn(w.ij..iih called imdurn {tvt, 'round': b..i.h,.nphuh„il
Ptrfetl. (From W,l,(f, ' rOUnd the fist ' : see LL, nut AtcK. Joum.
55. «. 4 bot). ' *""
Swords sometimes had special names. Fei^us Mac Leide's
• For instance. Rev. Celt., xiir. 459, and xiv. 405.
t See Wilde's useful srlicle on swords and daggers : Catalogue, 439-467.
* For these lerms see Rev. Celt., XIV. 4J6, par. 47 : LU, 9I, a, iS :
Coim., 77 and 161. j Kilk. Arch. Journ. for 1889, p. 0.
Il8 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PARTI
sword, with which he killed the sea-monster, was called the
Calad-cholg ('hard- blade').* Finn Mac Cumail's sword was
called Mac-an-Luin, ' the son of the Lut'n or Uti' which
was made " the son of Luno " by Macpherson throughout
his " Poems of Ossian."f
The sharper a sword was the more it was prized, A
common expression in the Tales is that a sword was so
sharp that it would cut a hair floating on
water ; or cut hairs blown gainst its edge
by the wind. J Socht's sword would cut a
hair off a man's head without touching the
head ; and would cut a man in two "so
that neither half knew what had befallen
the other."§
The battle-axe (tuag- or tuagk, pron.
tooa) has been in use from prehistoric
times in Ireland, as is evident from the
fact that numerous axe-heads (or ' celts ')
of stone, as well as of bronze, copper, and
iron, have been found from time to time,
siowtlu lu «,iicH ^^^ """^ '■'-' ^ stxn in hundreds in the
toTu pJ^rt'pwfn National Museum and elsewhere. These
M^HUtaMoIa'i^lKi^ ^® "''^^ commonly called cells, of which the
Vn »fJ.1t.'°"wh«s!nii illustrations on pp. 1 18 and 1 19 will give a
ta'^IIZat"^- S^""^ idea. But many of what are now
t^t^e'o'Sj*'^' '^''11^ celts were probably used as cutting-
tools, as noticed in chapter xxiv., section 5.
Battle-axes are often mentioned in ancient Irish litera-
ture Cuculainn, on one occasion, when making ready for
a fight, says to his attendant : " Take out the axes
quickly " — Oslaic go troU luaga.\\ So also the battle-axe is
• O'Grady, Silva Gad., 284.
t About Lain and Mac an Lain, em Htnueuj, Mesca, Introd., iv :
Kilk, Arch. jQUni., 1895, 3l8: O'Curry, Man. & Cusl., I. 314-5.
t AsinO'Carry, Man. 4 Cusl., U. 148: Fled. Brier., 117.
i Irische Teite, in. Ii8.
I Ventry, 86 (note ui) : LL, 101, b, last line; also 103, a, 5rsl two Unci.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 119
mentioned under the curious name cuach-snatdm in a
description of the reception of Concobar and his people
by Conall, the brewy of Dun Colptha in Cuailnge : —
" Conall had apart for each warrior the
hero-war-axe " {Cuack-snat'dm-curad).*
Cuack-snaidm, literally ' cup-knot,' is
sometimes applied to a spiral sort of
knot or wreath on the hair of the head:t
but it is not easy to see how it came to
be applied to a battle-axe. All these
facts and records show that Giraldus
is wrong in his assertion that the Irish
borrowed the use of the axe from the
Norsemen; though it is true that they often used Scandi-
navian axes, as well as those of native make.
Fic. 5(. Fig. 55. FiG. s*.
C»UfcieM. PI>. jBs. *3. ■*'. 5Ji)
In later times the Irish were noted for their fatal
dexterity with the battle-axe. Giraldus (Top, Hib., Ill, x.)
* Slokes, Rev. Celt., XIT. ft', and LL, 109, h, lines 5 and 4 from
bottom : abo Conn., Gloss., 47.
t SUva Gad., 139; Irish version, tiR, g: Slokes, Acallamh, 393 : see also
Rossnaree, 6S, n.
120 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
mentions that among other weapons they had a heavy axe
excellently well wrought and tempered ; and he goes on to
say ; — " They make use of but one hand to the aXe when
" they strike, and extend the thumb along the handle to
" guide the blow : from which neither the crested helmet
"can defend the head, nor the iron folds of the armour the
"rest of the body. From whence it has happened, even in
" our times, that the whole thigh of a soldier, though cased
" in well-tempered armour, hath been lopped, off by a single
"blow of the axe, the whole limb
" falling on one side of the horse, and
" the expiring body on the other,"
In Giraldus's time almost everyone carried an axe in
his hand, as people wore swords at a later period : a custom
which he denounces in the bitter style usual with him when
he had a fault to find : — " From an ancient and evil custom
" they [the Irish] always carry an axe in their hands,
" instead of a walking-stick, that they may be ready to
" execute on the spot whatever villainy comes into their
" minds : wherever they go they carry this weapon." (Top.
Hib., III. xxi.)
There were two kinds of battle-axes : a broad one,
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 121
generally used by galloglasses, and a long, narrow one,
called a sparra or sparih : examples of both are illustrated
in figures 59 and 60, pp. 121 and 123. The narrow axe
seems to have been the earlier form.
Sharpening edged Weapoaa. — There were various means
of sharpening arms. Sometimes the warriors used ordinary-
whetstones. O'Clery, in his Glossary, explains the word
airinemh [artnev] as meaning " a whetstone on which a
hero's or a soldier's arms are sharpened," In several of the
ancient tales we find mention of a smooth block of stone,
usually set up on thefaithcke or
green of a king's fort, on which
the warriors used to sharpen
their weapons. In the story of
the Agallamh, Cailte, St. Patrick,
and others come to a pillar-stone
which was named Cloch-naii-
arm, the ' Stone of the arms
or weapons ' ; and when asked
why it had that name, Cailte
replied that the Fena of Erin
used to come to it every Samain-
tide to sharpen their weapons.* ^''■- "■
Beside the house of Pichan, iZ^fT^^t7^^v^%.^Xt
a Munster chief, "there was a "^^',u,:J,"''"o„'.°';i'ii>e'^«l.ir^
" huge block and warriors' stone T'^t^h^KtrJiTfiK^K't.* """' '"'
" of strength — very smooth — on
" which spears and rivets were wont to be fastened [when
" they got loose], and against which points and edges were
"wont to be ground : and a warrior's pillar -stone [Corlhi
"curad) was that flag {/£cc)."f
It is worthy of remark that, at the Battle of Moytura, a
woman was employed to grind the weapons (/ri hleth arm)
of the Dedannans-I
• O'Giady, Silva Gad., 107, kx». See Wood-Marlin, Pag. Irel., 54.
t K. Meyer, Mac Cong). 4b. ; Kcv. Celt., sil. 95,
122 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Armour. — We know from the best authorities that at the
time of the Invasion — i,e, in the twelfth century — the Irish
used no armour. Giraldus (Top. Hib., III. x.) says: — "They
go to battle without armour, considering it a burden,
and deeming it brave and honourable to fight without it."
The Irish poet Mac Conmee, in his poem on the Battle of
Down, in which the Irish were defeated by the English
in 1 260, has this passage : —
** Unequal they entered the battle,
The Galls [English] and the Gaels of Tara:
Fine satin shirts on the race of Conn ;
The Galls in one mass of iron."*
This is sufficient to prove that the ancient Irish did not
use armour : for, as O'Donovan remarks, it is not to be
supposed that they used it at one time and left it off after-
wards. The Danes wore armour : and it is not unlikely
that the Irish may have begun to imitate them before the
twelfth century : but, if so, it was only in rare cases. They
never took to armour till after the twelfth century, and then
only in imitation of the English.f It is true that in some of
the tales giving accounts of battles fought before the time
of the Danish incursions, we read that the Irish used iron
coats of mail {lutrech iairn) : as for instance in the Battle of
Moyrath (p. 193) ; but the only inference to be drawn from
this is that the versions that have come down to us were
written at a comparatively late time, when the writers were
acquainted with the use of armour and introduced it to
embellish their stories.J But though the Irish did not use
armour before the Danish invasions, they knew well what
it was — as we might expect from their intercourse with the
Continent ; and the borrowed word luirech (LaL loricd) had
become well naturalised : for we find a luirech — corselet or
coat of mail — mentioned in Fiacc's Hymn, sixth or seventh
century (Trip. Life, p. 411, verse 26).
♦ Miscellany of Celt. Soc, 1849 (0*Donovan), p. 153.
t See 0*Donovan, Movt., Introd. \\\\,
X See Zimmer on this point referred to in chapter xv., section i, infra.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 123
The tales describe another kind of armour as worn by
Cuculainn and by others ; namely, a primitive corselet
made of bull-hide leather stitched with thongs, " for repel-
"ling lances and sword-points, and
"spears, so that they used to fly off
" from him as if they struck against a
" stone " ;• and as we know that the
material for this was produced at
home (chap, xxvi., sect. $), the record
is pretty certainly a true one. But the
general body of Irish soldiers fought
in linen tunics dyed saffron, and the
chiefs sometimes in satin or silk, which
lost them many a battle against the
Anglo-Normans.f
Greaves to protect the legs from
the knee down were used, and called
by the name asdn (pi, asdiri), which
is a diminutive of uj or ass, 'a sandal.'
P. O'Connell, in his Dictionary, has
asdin fkrdis ara luirgnibk, ' greaves
of brass on his shins ' : but, no doubt,
the greaves of early times were made •'•"■ *"-
of leather, like Cuculainn's corselet.J n- ™'t™. N«rtM« c^n
Occasionally greaves were called -iieMs orcirikiaiHimmd
assi simply : se dub-assi, ' six black m ctapm lus , ««. ■, bdm.
greaves ' (Da Derea, 288, 280). jarcf* si^n Huur^ofi™-
" ^ ° ^' lind, 1ikI«. Thi. Geur wis
Sometimes, as a safeguard agamst topka mn. ne onriMi ««■
icripl ■•mrj-oliK ran ■"«
assassmation, a kmg wore a slab of Den-oiidr.ih.iRnmnuctd
tough yew on his breast under his p >'«) T>-'vM*ttfi.KiM
silken robes : and we read in the {•aia-rmam-iAahaii
Annals that this precaution once saved
the life of Congal, king of Ireland (A.n. 704 to 7ll).§
■ Crowe, Demon. Chariot, 426, 417.
t See O'Donovan.MojT., tSi, noIes^,if ; 187, lines 510 g; 135, last par.
i See Stokes, Glotsary to Marco Polo, Zeitschr. (ur Celt. Phil., I. 427.
§ O'Grady, Silva Gad., 448.
124 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Helmet. — That the Irish wore a helmet of some kind in
battle IS certain : but it is not an easy matter to determine
the exact shape and material. It was called cathbharr
[caffar], t,e, * battle- top,' or battle-cap, from cath [cah], * a
battle/ and barr, * the top.* In the Battle of Moyrath (141),
the Irish army proceeded to array their forces " and har-
nessed their arch-princes in protecting helmets " : on which
O'Donovan remarks in a note : " Nothing has yet been
" discovered to prove what kind of helmet the ancient Irish
" cathbharr was, whether it were a cap of strong leather,
" checkered with bars of iron, or a helmet wholly of iron
"or brass, such as was used in later ages. One fact is
" established, that no ancient Irish helmet made of the latter
"materials [iron and brass] has been as yet discovered/*
In the Battle of Mucrime (fought A.D. 250) the two Lugaids
each wore a * crested helmet ' — cathbharr ciorach,^ From
the " Book of Rights " (p. 263), we learn that helmets were
sometimes coloured. Part of the stipend of the king of
Gaela was " four helmets of equal colour " {cSmhdhatha :
i,e, all similarly coloured). De Jubainville (vi. 343) says
that the helmet is not mentioned at all in the most ancient
Irish texts, and that wherever it is mentioned it indicates a
relatively recent composition. It occurs, however, as we
have seen, in the " Battle of Mucrime *' in the Book of
Leinster : and the cennbarr or helmet is mentioned in one
of the Prefaces to the Tdin.f
Shield. — From the earliest period of history and tradi-
tion, and doubtless from times beyond the reach of both,
the Irish used shields in battle. The most ancient shields
were made of wicker-work, covered with hides : they were
oval-shaped, often large enough to cover the whole body,
and convex on the outside. It was to this primitive shield
that the Irish first applied the word sciath [skee'-S], which
afterwards came to be the most general name for a shield,
of whatever size or material. It is curious that this word
* 0*Grady, Silva Gad., 356. f O'Curry, ii., 157, note 334.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 125
sciath is still common in Munster, even among speakers of
English, and is applied to a shallow oblong osier basket —
similar in shape and material to the ancient wicker shield :*
and this is probably its original application. This wicker
shield continued in use in Ulster even so late as the six-
teenth century, as Spenser testifies : — " Their long broad
" shields, made but with wicker roddes, which are commonly
** used amongst the said Northern Irish." Elsewhere he says
they were large enough to cover their whole bodies.t But
wicker shields were often made much smaller and lighter.
Such shields continued to be used in the Highlands of
Scotland so late as 200 years ago (Rob Roy, xxxi).
They used smaller shields, commonly round, made
either of yew or of bronze. It was so usual to make them
of yew that the word tubhrach (* made of iubhar or yew '),
came to be applied to them.+ In the National Museum
there is a fine specimen of a yew shield. Specimens of
bronze Celtic shields have' also been found : but they are
rare in Ireland, though common enough in Britain and Scot-
land. A very fine one, figured next page, was found in a
bog in County Limerick. It is of thin bronze 27I inches in
diameter, ornamented with bosses, hammered into shape
on solid moulds or blocks. This shield was first described
by Mr. Maurice Lenihan of Limerick in a Paper in Proc.
R, I. Acad., vol. for 1870-76, p. 155.
Shields were ornamented with devices or figures, the
design on each being a sort of cognisance of the owner to
distinguish him from all others. " There was a law made by
" the Ultonian knights " — says the ancient story quoted by
0'Curry§ — " that they should have silver shields \i,e, shields
"ornamented with silver] made for them, and that the
** carved device of each should be diflferent from those of
♦ O'Cuny, Man. & Cast., i. 330. The word was, and is, quite common
in Monster.
t View, 96, 103, 104. X Trans. Gael. Soc., 33 ; story of Sons of Usna.
} Man. & Cust., i. 329.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 2/
"all the others." These designs would appear to have
generally consisted of concentric circles, often ornamented
with circular rows of projecting studs or bosses, and
variously spaced and coloured for different shields. The
same old tale goes on to describe how the devices on
Cuculainn*s shield were made ; namely, by a luathrinn or
moulding compass, with which the artist struck out a
number of circles on a smooth layer of ashes to serve as
a pattern.* In the Bruden Da Derga (p. 174) we read that
Cormac Condlingas had a shield with five golden circles on
it As generally confirming the truth of these accounts,
the wooden shield in the Museum has a number of beauti-
fully carved concentric circles standing out in relief
There were ornaments or ornamental fittings called tuag-
mila^ the exact nature of which has not been determined :
commonly made of, or ornamented with, gold or silver.
The name, according to some, indicates that they consisted
of animal forms, curved or mixed up with curved designs ;
for tuag means *a curve or loop,' and mil [meel], *an animal,'
plural mila\ * loop-animals.' By O'Curry, Stokes, O'Grady,
Crowe, Henderson, Windisch, the word tuag-mila has been
variously translated, " clasps," " fastenings," "hooks," "loop-
animals," " animal figures chased," " interlaced creatures,"
" buckles," " trappings." Perhaps, after all, Stokes's proposed
explanation of ?nil is the most likely of any — that in this
connexion it does not mean * animal,' but a pin or tongue
of some kind. For we know that mily in one of its applica-
tions, means * a probe or pin,' and that milech means a kind
of dealg or brooch (see "Milech" in Index). If this is so, the
tuaga were most probably little bands, straps, or braces
varied in material and shape according to use, ornament-
ally . chased or embroidered, and fastened with buckles
and hooks. The tuag-mila were, in this case, the little
buckle-pins or tongues, from which the whole buckle-strap
• Sec also chap, xxiv., sect. 3, infra : where this incident, "with the story
referred to by O'Cnrry, will be found.
128 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
took its name. All this is rendered the more likely by the
fact that, though tuag-mila are most commonly mentioned
in connexion with shields, they were also used on ladies*
kirtles, and on the yokes of chariot-horses.*
Shields were often coloured according to the fancy of the
wearer. We read of one warrior having a shield designated
craeb-corcray i.e. having the colour of the quickenberry: the
shield of another was brown [donnW Part of the tuarastal
due from the king of Tara to the king of Offaly was four
coloured shields {ceithre sciith dathd) ; in another part of the
same book a tribute of four red shields is mentioned ;J and in
the story of Mesca Ulad (p. 29) King Concobar is described
as having a purple-brown {dond-chorcrd) shield. Conall Cer-
nach had " a blood-red shield which has been speckled with
rivets {setnmaiinaih) of findruine between plates of gold "
(Da Derga, 199). This fashion of painting shields in various
colours continued in use to the time of Elizabeth, as we see
by Spenser's statement (View, 102) : — "In Ireland they use
**also in many places [round leather targets] coloured after
** their rude fashion." Shields were very often pure white.
Thus Bodb Derg and his cavalcade had all of them white-
faced shields {sceith thulgeald),% The Book of Leinster
describes the Ulstermen as having, on a certain occasion,
** beautiful all-white shields."
We know from many passages that the wicker shields
were covered with hide, either tanned or untanned. Thus
in the story of the deaths of Goll and Garb in the Book of
Leinster, a certain warrior's shield is described as covered
with black leather {dub-lethar),\\ Shields were covered by
a special tradesman called a ticaihait, who fitted the leather
♦ Used on shields — MS. Mat., 506, 14; 507, «: Silva Gad. (Irish text),
128,7 : Fled. Brier., 65, 3 (with note 19 beginning on p. 62). OnLenesox
kirtles — Ir. Texte, I. 119, is: Da Derga, 13, 14: Man. & Cust., ii. 190,
note ; T4in B6 Fr. 136, is. On a chariot yoke — Man. & Cust., 11. 160,
note : Bee Fola, p. 174, 10.
t O'Grady, Silva Gad., 240, 28 ; 324, 29. J Book of Rights, 253, 263.
§ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., n. 157. |j Rev. Celt., xiv, 405.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 29
very accurately, and sewed it at the seams. The ttiathaits^
as the glossator in the Brehon Laws (v., 107, le) explains,
** sew the hides round the shields." But in another part of
the Laws (ll. 118, 25), this word tiiathait or tutthait is used
for a wooden-shield-maker in general, as is seen from the
expression classifying the tuithait with a carpenter as
" using the adze and hatchet"; and accordingly O'Donovan
here translates tutthait by * shield-maker.'
Hide-covered shields were often whitened with lime or
chalk, which was allowed to dry and harden, as soldiers
now pipeclay their belts. This explains such expressions
as the following, which we often meet with in descriptions
of battles: — [During the Battle of Mucrime] " a white cloud
" of chalk and a cloud of lime rose towards the clouds [of
"the sky] from the shields and bucklers when struck by
" swords and spears and darts.'** And in the Fled Bricrenn
the heroes fall to fighting in the palace, so that "there was
'* an atmosphere of fire from [the clashing of] sword and
" spear-edge, and a cloud of white dust from the cailc or
" lime of the shields."!
Another name for a shield was lumatn or Itimvian^
which, in a passage in the Yellow Book of Lecan, is fanci-
fully derived from leomatiy * a lion ' ; from the practice of
painting a lion on the shield, " in order that its hatefulness
and its terror might be the greater."} This passage is
valuable in another way, as pointing to the practice of
painting animals on shields. A small, light shield or
buckler was often called bocoit^ which literally means a
* spot* In the above extract from the Battle of Mucrime,
the shield is called sciath^ and the buckler bocoit.
The shields in most general use were circular, small,
and light — from 13 to 20 inches in diameter — as we see by
numerous figures of armed men on the high crosses and in
manuscripts, all of whom are represented with shields of this
• O'Grady, Silva Gad., 356. t Henderson, p. 15, sect. 15.
X 0*Cuny, Man. k Cust., i. 327.
K
130 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
size and shape.* I do not remember seeing one with the
large oval shield.
Shields were cleaned up and brightened before battle.
Those that required it were newly coloured, or whitened
with a fresh coating of chalk or lime: and the metallic
ones were burnished. This was generally done by gillies
or pages. On a certain occasion when there was an assembly
of kings and chiefs at Kincora, we are told that the gillies
were assembled in one room brightening up the shields of
their masters.f
It was usual to give special descriptive names to the
shields of distinguished chiefs. In the Battle of Moyrath
(p. 153), we read that the javelin of Conall, which was aimed
at King Domnall, passed through three shields interposed
by his followers to shelter him, and struck Derg-drutmnech
(i, e. * red-backed '), the golden shield of the monarch him-
self. The shield of King Concobar Mac Nessa was called
Aciin [ak'kane], that is, * ocean.*
The shield, when in use, was held in the left hand by a
looped handle or crossbar, or by a strong leather strap, in
the centre of the inside, as seen in fig. 62 at page 126.
But as an additional precaution it was secured by a long
strap, called sciathrachy that went loosely round the neck.
In the " Battle of Rossnaree" (p. 25) Queen Maive says : —
" So long as there shall be amongst us one who will be able
" to take the hilt of a sword [in his hand] and the shield-
" strap [sciathrach) of a shield about his neck." Another
word for this sling-strap was iris : Conan Mail on one
occasion escapes from a battle, octis iris a sceith imma
braigit^ " and the sling of his shield round his neck,"J inti-
mating that he had dropped it from his hand in his flight,
but that it remained suspended from his neck by the strap.
In the Brehon Laws (v. 310, line 4 from bot), the strap on
* See for three examples, this book at pp. 102 and 143 ; and the figure of
the king in chap. xziL, sect. 3.
t O'Curry, Man. & Cust., I., 124, 126. % Stokes, Acall., pp. 187, 252.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 3 1
the inside of the shield by which it was held in the hand
is called sctathlach^ which, like sciathrach^ is formed from
scicUh^ only with a different adjectival termination.* The
shield, when not in use, was slung over the shoulder by the
strap from the neck.
It was usual for a champion to hurl a challenge to single
combat by standing in front of the hostile camp or fort and
striking a few resounding blows on his shield,t or on a shield
hung up for this purpose at the gate outside. This old
custom is remembered to this day in the speech of the people
of the South and West of Ireland : for whether speaking
English or Irish, they call a man who is quarrelsome and
given to fighting — a swaggering bully — ^by the name of
Buailtm-scialh [boolim-skee], meaning literally * I strike
the shield,* and equivalent to the English swash-buckler^
which may possibly commemorate a similar custom among
the old English.
In pagan times it was believed that the shield of a king
or of any great commander, when its bearer was dangerously
pressed in battle, uttered a loud, melancholy moan which
was heard all over Ireland, and which the shields of other
heroes took up and continued. In the Battle of Rossnaree
(pp. 43, 51), the king of Tara attacked Concobar furiously
and struck his shield, which moaned ; and the shields of all
the Ulstermen took up the moan, by which the chiefs knew
that their king was in danger and rushed to his aid. When
the lady Crede^ lamenting her dead husband Cael^ praised
him for his valour, she said, among other things, that " his
shield never uttered a moan in time of battle " — a certain
proof of strength and bravery .J The shield-moan was
further prolonged, for as soon as it was heard, the " Three
Waves of Erin" uttered their loud, melancholy roar in
response.!
* See '* Sdathlach " in Atkinson^s Glossary to Br. Laws.
t For a late example of this, see Hyde, Two Irish Tales, 153.
X O'Grady, Silva Gad., 122.
§ For the *' Three Waves of Erin,*' see chapter xxx., section 13, infra,
K2
132 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
4. Strategy^ Tactics^ and Modes of Fighting,
Snbordinatioii of Kankt. — Though the discipline of the
Irish in time of war and on the field of battle was very
inferior to that of the Anglo-Normans, we are not to con-
clude that they were ignorant or careless of the Science and
Art of War. On the contrary, military science was studied
with much care, as the following examination of their
strategic and tactical arrangements will show.
The whole army was divided into catha [caha] or
battalions, each cath consisting of 3000 men ; and these
again were parcelled into smaller companies. Over each
battalion was a cath-mhilidh [cah-veela] or * knight of
a battalion ' ; each band of 100 was headed by a captain
called cenn-feadhna [can-fana] ; and there were leaders
of fifty and leaders of nine (Keat, 348). Any body of
soldiers was called buidhean^ Old Irish buden : an army
on march was sluagh^ 'host'; hence the word sluaghadh^.
sluaigheadhy or slogady a military expedition, * a hosting.*
Enoampment — During marches the leaders were very
particular about their encampments. Even when the halt
was only for a night or two, careful arrangements were
made as to tents, sitting-places, sleeping accommodation,,
bathing, cooking, etc.; and everything was done to make
the encampment comfortable and enjoyable. In all cases
the camp was fortified, so far as the time permitted : and
of course sentinels {dercaidy * a sentinel,' literally * a watch-
man* : from derc, *to see*) were set while the army slept
Where the sojourn was likely to be pretty long, more
elaborate arrangements were made. In the "Battle of
Moylena'* (p. 75), the longphort or encampment of Owen-
More, king of Munster — the opponent of Conn the Hun-
dred Fighter — is described : and this description may be
taken as a type of all, where the army sat down for any
length of time : — A well-ordered, wide-extending encamp-
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 33
ment, a resting-place of many streets in the centre of Magh
Lena. The pupall or pavilion of the king was pitched on
a smooth hill. Men were despatched into the surrounding
woods to bring trunks, and poles, and branches, while
others went to the adjacent marsh, from which they brought
bundles of sedge-grass. With the wattles and branches
they constructed huts and tents with sleeping-places and
beds, with posts and racks on which to hang up their hel-
mets and arms. All were arranged in an orderly fashion,
in streets, with roads and paths in every direction. And
they made special enclosures for markets, where provisions
and other commodities could be bought and sold ; they
made cooking-places, and large halls for feasting, music,
and amusements ; after which they surrounded the whole
encampment with three defensive circumvallations, having
trenches and strong palisades.
The commanders in all cases took good care to bring
their poets, story-tellers, musicians, jugglers, jesters, and so
forth, so that, whether the encampment was for a long or a
short halt, they might amuse and enjoy themselves as if
they were at home.*
Sentinels and Watchmen. — In the early stages of society,
when wars were frequent, look-out points were very im-
portant : sometimes they were on the seashore. In the
ancient tales, Ben-Edair or Howth, near Dublin, a rocky
projecting headland 600 feet over the sea, is celebrated as
the great look-out point of the middle eastern coast ; and
the Fena of Erin constantly kept a sentinel there to sweep
the horizon for invaders. This plan was adopted with good
reason ; for in early days British marauding parties often
landed there, of which several instances are recorded in the
old tales and other documents. We know that Howth was
until lately a usual port for vessels from Britain.
Near every palace there was a look-out point, or more
than one, at which guards always kept watch. The main
* 0*Donovan, Three Fragm., 45 : Hogan, Rossnaree, 5 : LL, 61, a, bot.
134 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
road, called Midluachra, leading from Tara to Emain, ran
by the Fews mountains ; and in a pass on the southern
slope of Slieve Fuaid, their highest summit, by which
invaders from the south would have to pass, was Atk-na-
foraire [furrera], the * ford of watching,' a name which is
explained in the Tdin : — " Because there is an Ultonian
" champion constantly watching and guarding there, in
" order that no warriors or strangers should come unper-
" ceived into Ulster." The very summit of the mountain
was also used as a watch station : it was called Finncharn
na foraire (the Vhite cam of the watching'), where, during
the war of the Tiin, a champion constantly kept watch to
safeguard Ulster*
The practice of signalling at night by beacon-fires in
time of war, invasion, or disturbance of any kind, was
general: and in the story of Bruden Da Derga, a legendary
origin is assigned for it When the army of marauders were
approaching the hostel of Da Derga, in which Conari, king
of Ireland, was staying with his retinue, the sons of Dond
Desa, who were unwilling partners in the expedition, went
aside and made a iendal or beacon-fire to warn the king of
the intended attack on the hostel : " So that is the first
"warning beacon that has been made in Erin" — says the
story (p. 170) — "and from it every warning beacon is
" kindled to this day."
Immediately beside the palace, or the temporary resi-
dence, of every king or great chief a sentinel or watchman
{dercaicT) kept watch and ward day and night. In time of
battle or campaign warriors slept at night with a single
weapon by their side for use in any sudden alarm, their
principal arms hanging on the racks in the proper place.t
♦ See O'Curry, Moylena, 59, note / : Man. & Cost., i. 365 : Stokes,
C6ir Anm., 403 : LL, 65, a, last lines. How far the customs of placing
sentinels on look-out points, and of signalling at night by beacon-fires, have
impressed themselves on the local nomenclature of the country, may be seen
from the sections bearing on the subject in Joyce's Irish Names of Places
(vol. I., p. 214). t Moylena, p. 127.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 3 5
Heralds. — In the course of warfare, heralds or envoys
were often employed, as among all other nations. A herald
was denoted by the words techtaire and eachlach. Heralds^
when on their mission, were regarded as sacred and invio-
lable, and were treated with the utmost respect, even by the
bitterest enemies : exactly as Homer describes the heralds
of the Greeks. When it was proposed to send Fergus
Mac Roy as an envoy from Queen Maive to the hostile
Ulster army, he naturally shrank from the mission ; for he
was himself one of the Ulstermen who had entered Maive's
service, and was one of the chief authors of all the ravages
the Connaught forces had committed in Ulster. But Maive
told him not to fear, "for," said she, "it is not ever a custom
"of the Ulstermen to offer reproach to envoys. For if a man
"should kill the father or brother of every one of them, he
" need not fear them, going to meet them as a herald.'**
At a much later time Cummuscach, son of King Aed
Mac Ainmirech, was slain, A.D. 598, by Branduff, king of
Leinster, who sent envoys north to announce the news to
the father. The envoys when asked for their message
refused to tell till they had first got a guarantee of safety.
King Aed gave them his drinking-horn as pledge : where-
upon they said, " We have killed thy son and slain his
people." Aed answers, " We had heard these tidings already :
" yet ye [being envoys] shall depart unhurt ; but neverthe-
" less we will go after you " [to avenge by open war in
Leinster the death of the princej.f Heralds had a special
dress by which they were at once recognised; and they
commonly carried in one hand a white wand or hand-staff,
and in the other a sword,J symbolical of the alternative to
be accepted — peace or war.
Banners, Flags, and Standards. — From the earliest period
of their history the Irish used banners or standards, which
* Rossnaree, 65.
t Boroma in Rev. Celt., xiii. 65: Silva Gad., 411, top.
X Hogan, Rossnaree, 69: O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., I. 297,
136 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
were borne before the army when going into battle, or on
ordinary marches: a custom, as De Jubainville points out,*
comnion to the Celts and Romans, but unknown to the
Homeric Greeks. In Ireland the office of standard-bearer
to each king or chief was hereditary, like all other important
fungtions.t
A banner is denoted by the word miirge [mairga]. In
the accounts of many of the ancient Irish battles, there are
descriptions of the standards borne by each chief or clan.
The commander-in-chief had his own banner, and so had
each captain under his command : and each banner usually
bore some device or figure, commonly called suaicheantas
[soohantas] or samlach, so that the several captains and
companies could be distinguished from a distance. "Every
captain," says Keating (p. 472), writing from old authori-
ties, " bore upon his standard his peculiar device or ensign,
so that each distinct body of men could be easily dis-
tinguished from all others by those shanachies whose duty
it was to attend on the nobles when about to contend in
battle, and that these shanachies might thus have a full
view of the achievements of the combatants, so as to be
able to give a true account of their particular deeds of
^* valour." The attendant shanachies of those old times
answered in some sort to the war correspondents of our
own day.
In the Battle of Moyrath, A.D. 637, banners of various
patterns and devices are mentioned. That of Congal, prince
of Ulster, the leader of the rebel host, was a yellow lion
on green satin, which, we are told, was the proper royal
standard of Ulster, and had been, since the time of the
Red Branch Knights, six centuries before, and which was
now displayed by the rebel prince. In this battle the
banner of the king of Aileach (one of the Hy Neill) was
• La Civil, des Celtes, 390, 391.
t Hardiman, larC, 369; Minstrelsy, ii. 158.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 37
black and red ; of Sweeny, king of Dalaradia, yellow
satin ; of the king of the Ards, white satin *
Many other banners and devices are described in other
authorities. The suatcheantas of O'Doherty was a sword
and a golden cross, with a lion and blood-red eagle on white
satin : of O'Sullivan, a spear with an adder entwined on it:
of O'Loghlin of Burren (in Clare), an oak with a champion
defending it, together with a blue anchor and a golden
cable.t The mountain ash or rowan-tree in full bloom,
the yew-tree, a piper with his bagpipes, hounds, deer, etc.,
were also adopted as banner devices by various other kings
and chiefs.J
How numerous these banners were in an army prepared
for battle may be judged from the words of Branduff, king
of Leinster, before the Battle of Dunbolg, when, looking
down from a height on the encampment of his adversary
the king of Ireland, he said it seemed like a great
stationary bird-flock of mixed colours, such was the num-
ber of banners floating on tall poles over the booths.§
Cathaoh or 'Battler.' — In Christian times it was usual
for the ruler of a clan, tribe, or sub-kingdom, to have a
relic, commonly consecrated by the patron saint of the
district, which the chief brought to battle with him, in the
hope that it would ensure victory : somewhat is the Jews
used the Ark of the Covenant. Such a relic was called
a cathach [caha], i.e. prceltator or * battler.* The usual
formula for the use of the cathach was to cause it to be
carried desiol or sunwise— commonly by an ecclesiastic —
three times round the army before the battle began. When
the king of Ulster invaded Munster, St Findchua of
Brigown marched at the head of the king of Munster's
* Moyrath, 231. t Ibid., 349 : Keat., 471, etseq,
X Trans. Oss. Soc., v. 160 : see also Stokes, Lives of SS., 239.
§ O'Grady, Siva Gad. 413. In addition to the preceding authorities,
see 0*Donovan's valuable note on the armorial bearings and banners of the
ancient Irish, Moyrath, 343.
138 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
forces against him from Bniree, with the cenncathachy i.e.
his crozier, in his hand : and before the battle began, he
walked thrice deistull with it round the Munster host In
the ensuing battle the Ulster forces were routed *
The most celebrated of these battle-relics was the
cathach or battle-book of the 0*Donnells of Tirconnell,
which may now be seen in the National Museum in
Dublin.t The cathach of the O'Kellys of Hy Many was
the crozier of their patron, St. Grellan. This was for ages
kept by the family of O'Cronelly, and it was in existence
in 1836: but it is now not to be found (HyM, 81).
St. Caillin of Fenagh blessed a cathach for his tribe, the
Conmaicne, namely, a cross made of a hazel rod that had
been cut with one blow, the top of the upright to pierce the
horizontal bar in the middle. It appears from the words
of the old record that no one relic was kept permanently
here, as in other cases, but that on each occasion, when
going to a battle, a new cross was to be made in the
manner pointed out above. J The condition of striking off
the branch or rod with a single blow was evidently a per-
petuation of the corresponding pagan formula described in
chap, ix., sect, i, infra ; now turned to Christian uses.
The permanent cathach or battle relic of each tribe was
placed in the keeping of some particular family. This was
considered a great honour, and the family had usually a
tract of land free of rent, as well as other perquisites, as
payment for the faithful discharge of their duty as cus-
todians. The Mac Robltartaighs or Mac Ravertys were the
official keepers of the cathach of the O'Donnells, and con-
tinued in the office till the seventeenth century ; and to
this day the land they held in virtue of their office is called
Bally magroarty. §
• Stokes, Lives of SS., 240.
t Adamn., 249, 319: Todd, St. Patk., 125: O'Donovan, Moyrath, 147,
note/. See also Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 19; and chap, xiii., infra,
^Hennessy, Bk. of Fenagh, 195-7. § Reeves, Adamn., 38, 284, 401.
GHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 39
Chivalry. — In Ireland, in ancient times, people as a
general rule declined to take advantage of surprises or
stratagems in war. They had a sort of chivalrous feeling
in the matter, and did not seek to conceal — and sometimes
even gave open notice of — intended attacks, or came to
an agreement with their adversaries as to the time and
place to fight the matter out * In later ages, and at the
present day, such plain, unsophisticated dealing would be
looked upon as very bad generalship. Concobar, having
arrived at Dundalk on his march south to overrun the
southern provinces, is met by an envoy to propose terms :
but he rejects the terms and prepares to resume march.
Then the envoy asks him where he proposes to encamp
the first night : — " In Rossnaree above the clear-bright
" Boyne," said Concobar. " For Concobar " — the story goes
on to say — " never concealed from his enemy the place
" in which he was to take station or camp, that they might
" not say that it was fear or dread that caused him not to
" announce it." The result was, when he arrived at Ross-
naree, he found the Leinstermen fully prepared for him.f
Before the first Battle of Moytura, the Dedannans, who
were the invaders, demanded battle each day, with equal
numbers on both sides : to which the Firbolg king had to
agree, though greatly against his will, for he had much
the larger army.J Before the Battle of Moylena (end of
second century A.D.), Owen- More, being closely pressed
by his great opponent Conn the Hundred Fighter, sent
to ask him for a truce of three days to consider his position,
which Conn at once granted. §
The same spirit is found much later on. In the year
1002, when Brian Boru marched with an army to Tara,
and demanded from King Malachi submission or battle,
Malachi asked for a delay of a month to muster his forces
for battle ; which Brian granted, and remained in his camp
* An instance in Man. Sc Cust., 11. 261, top. f Hogan, Rossnaree, 29.
I O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., i. 238. { O'Curry, Moylena, 23.
140 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
till the month was expired. And Malachi employed the
interval — with Brian's full knowledge — in preparing for the
strqggle : but failing to raise sufficient forces, he proceeded
to Brian's camp, with merely a small guard of honour, and
submitted without imposing any conditions, trusting to his
opponent's honour for proper treatment, but telling him
plainly that if he had been strong enough, he would fight.
And his confidence was not misplaced ; for Brian, while
receiving his submission, treated him with the utmost
respectfulness and honour.*
A similar chivalrous sense of fair play is exemplified in
individuals. An episode in the story of the Tdin describes
how Cuculainn and Ferdiad, two old friends and affectionate
comrades, were forced by circumstances to fight to the death
in single combat : and the fight was continued for several
days. Each evening when word was given for the combat to
cease, they laid aside their weapons, and each threw his arms
round the neck of the other, and thrice kissed his cheek.
Cuculainn, on this occasion, had better medical appliances
than Ferdiad, but Ferdiad had a more varied supply of
food and drink : and each evening Cuculainn sent his best
doctor with half of his balms and healing herbs to soothe
Ferdiad's wounds : while Ferdiad on his part sent half of
all his choice food and drink to his friend. At last Ferdiad
is slain, and Cuculainn falls on his body in a paroxysm of
uncontrollable grief, from which he is with difficulty roused
up by his attendant Loeg. This may be fiction : but all the
same it embodies the high chivalric ideals of war and battle
prevalent in the time of the original writer.f
Stratagem : Ambush. — But not unfrequently a general
rose up with unusual military genius and with less scrupulous
notions of chivalry, who did not hesitate to employ ambush
(Ir. etamaid) and other stratagems. In A.D. 598, Aed
• Todd, Wars of GG, 1 19 : Joyce, Short Hist., 208.
t See the full episode of the fight of Cuculainn and Ferdiad in O'Curry,
Man. & Cust., 11. 415. Well retold in Lady Gregory's Cuch., 221-244.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE I4I
Mac Ainmirech, king of Ireland, marched southwards from
his palace of Ailech with a great army to avenge the death
of his son (p. 135, supra), and to exact the Boruma tribute
from Leinster : but he was met at Dunbolg by Branduff^
the astute and powerful king of Leinster, with a much
smaller army. Now Branduff, seeing no hope of success
in open battle, had recourse to stratagem. He collected
3600 oxen carrying great hampers, in each of which was
concealed an armed man covered over with provisions :
and he set out by night with these and with a herd of
150 untamed horses towards the monarch's encampment.
When they approached the camp, the advance guard, hear-
ing the trampling and the din, started to arms, and questioned
the party. They replied that they were a friendly contin-
gent bringing a stock of provisions for the king of Ireland :
and when the guard, on examining the sacks, saw the
provisions, they let them pass. The party passed on till
they entered the royal enclosure, and tying bags filled with
pebbles to the tails of the wild horses, they let them loose
among the tents, which caused terrible confusion. In the
midst of the uproar the men in the sacks, cutting themselves
loose at a signal, and forming in ranks, attacked the camp.
The royal forces were completely surprised ; and after a
dreadful fight in the darkness, they were routed ; and the
king, fleeing from the field, was overtaken and slain.* Twa
thousand years before the time of Branduff, the Egyptian
general Tahutia — as we read in Flinders Petrie's translation
of the ancient papyrus record — took Joppa by smuggling
into the city armed men hidden in great sacks under horse
provender. When Lewy Mac Con invaded Ireland, A.D.
250, he won the Battle of Mucrime and the throne of
Ireland by the stratagem of concealing a large party
of his men in pits and recesses covered over with strong
hurdles and bushes, who remained quietly till the others
* 0*Grady, Silva Grad., 411-13, and 417-18.
142 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [pART I
had passed, and then sprang up and attacked them in
the rear *
Kedioal Attendance in Battle. — A number of physicians
or surgeons always accompanied an army going to battle to
attend to the wounded, who were brought to them at the
rear during the fight. This was quite an established insti-
tution from the most remote times — a fact of which there
can be no doubt, notwithstanding the number of fables and
exaggerations that are mixed up with the accounts of their
cures. We are now familiar with the humane practice in
war of giving medical aid after the battle to the wounded,
without distinction of friend or enemy : and it is interesting
to observe that the same idea was equally familiar to the
writers of the Tdin B6 Quelna. When Cethem, a famous
Ulster warrior, returned from a fight against the Connaught
forces, all covered with wounds, a request was sent to the
Connaught camp — the enemy's — for physicians for him, as
it happened that none of the Ulster physicians were at the
moment available : and physicians were at once despatched
with the messenger.t
Hilitary Formation and Karohing. — In going to battle the
Irish often rushed pell-mell in a crowd without any order.
But they sometimes adopted a more scientific plan, ad-
vancing in regular formation, shoulder to shoulder, forming
a solid front with shields and spears. When the southern
army were about to engage the forces of Ulster, who had
marched south to invade Munster, St. Findchua called out
to the Munstermen : — *^ When you have closed in together
at one place, make ye a strong palisade of battle " (jCippe
Cathd) : and in that fashion, led by Findchua, they ad-
vanced to the attack, and routed the Ulstermen.J In
another battle, the Ulstermen, just as they were about
to engage, " set themselves in battle array, and there was a
• 0*Grady, Silva Gad., 355 and 356.
t O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., II. 97, note.
X Stokes, Lives of SS., 240: Irish Text, line 3101.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE I43
" forest of their weapons, and a bulwark of their shields
"(let'bbeattn da sciatkaibh, literally a platform or floor of
" their shields) around them."* The word cro, which means
' a pen or fold,' is often applied to a formation of this kind.
In the story of the Boroma we read that when the men of
the royal army saw their kir^ in danger in the Battle of
Dunbolg, they formed a cro of spears and shields about
him.f The Leth Conn made a cr6 bodba, ' a warlike
fold,' around Moiling and his company to take them
prisoners. J On one occasion
Queen Maive hid her face under
a dam dabaich, i,e. an ' ox-vat,'
of her guards' shields, for protec-
tion against Cuculainn's terrible
sling. §
There is at least one passage
that mentions stepping in time
while marching, where the men
of one of Queen Maive's three
corps are spoken of as lifting
and bringing down the feet fio.oj.
exactly together {innoenfheckt ^-^'^tZ '7^^ "VJ^^^
dostorbaiiis a cossa\\), showing ^'SL'^JULHTt^^^ "i-hb ^^
careful drill. But this does not ^Si^^^^SiJ^V'^':^."^
seem to have been general : in- "^'^ """ ""^' '^"^'^
deed it is noticed as a speciality
in this one corps. On the morning of the day of battle
each man usually put as much food in a wallet that hung
by his side as was suflicient for the day.lf
Tying in Fairi. — When a commander had reason to
suspect the loyalty or courage of any of his men in a
coming battle, he sometimes adopted a curious plan to
• Stokea, Livei of SS., 144 ; with Irish Text, 3150. For another lAtnn
trMtAteeLL, 79.<>, 15.
t O'Grady, Silva Gad., 418, it.
X R«v. Celt., XIII. 1 15 : O'Gnd)', Silva Gad., 413.
fix, 79,4, 13. |LL,55,6,8. 1 Silva Gad., 41S.
144 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
prevent desertion or flight off the field. He fettered them
securely in pairs, leg to leg, leaving them free in all other
respects.
Just before the Battle of Moyrath (A.D. 637), Congal, the
leader of the rebel army, consisting partly of Irishmen and
partly of foreigners, sends a confidential scout to recon-
noitre the king's army " if they had locks or fetters between
every two of their fighting soldiers." Then follows a state-
ment in verse that the royal commanders had " put a fetter
,^ ' "betweenevery two men, so that neither young nor old, even
"though pressed hard, should flee." Congal, on his part, on
receiving the report of his scout, fettered those of his men
in pairs who appeared to him deficient in courage : in some
cases an Irishman being coupled with a Briton or with an
Albanach. At the close of the battle, when the rebels
were defeated and took to flight, nearly all those who were
fettered, being unable to escape, were slaughtered.* Four
centuries before Moyrath — A.D. 250— Lugaidh Mac Con
invaded Ireland with an army of Britons and other
foreigners, to wrest the throne from Art the Lonely, king
of Ireland : which he succeeded in doing at the Battle
of Mucrime in Galway (see p. i^i^ supra). On landing from
Britain, he was joined by a considerable contingent of
Irishmen. Just before the battle, fearing the Irish soldiers
might not remain faithful to him, inasmuch as they were
about to fight against their lawful king Art, he had most
of them tied, the leg of each man to the leg of a Briton :
and each of those who were not so tied he placed between
two Britons.f In the second Battle of Moytura there is
no direct mention of men being tied together : but a
curious expression occurs in one part of the description
which seems to indicate that some were fettered in pairs.
Among those who fell in the battle we are told there were
some Uth'dSine^ literally * half men.' Now this is the very
idiom used in Irish to denote one of a pair : leth-shiiil
•Moyiath, 87, 177, 179, 282, 319. f SUva Gad., 355.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 45
(literally ' half-eye '), meaning one eye of the pair : and
similarly leth-duine is one man of a pair. The meaning of
this expression is otherwise inexplicable : or rather it has
no meaning at all.
I find one instance of this custom as practised by the
Welsh, in a battle fought by them against the Irish during
the time of the Irish invasions of Wales. It is mentioned
in one of the ancient Welsh Triads : — " The tribe of Cas-
" wallawn Law Hir put the fetters of their horses on their
" feet by two and two in fighting with Serigi Wyddil —
" the Irish commander — at Cerrig y Gwyddel or Holyhead
" [see p. 78, supra\ in Men, i. e. in Anglesey."*
Horse and Foot — Cavalry did not form an important
feature of the ancient Irish military system : we do not find
cavalry mentioned at all in the Battle of Clontarf, either as
used by the Irish or Danes. But kings kept in theirservice
small bodies of horse-soldiers, commonly called marc-skluagh
[morkloo], ' horse-host.' For example, in the Senchus M6r
(Br, Laws, l. 5) it is stated that King Laegaire, in the time
of St Patrick, appointed his nephew, Nuada Dei^, chief of
• Jones, Vestiges of Ihe Gael, p. 14.
146 GOVERNMENT, MIUTARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
his tnarc-shluagh or cavalry; and when King Dermot was
preparing for the Battle of Culdremne, he collected " horse,
foot, and chariots." The chief men too rode in battle, as
at the Battle of Ballaghmoon, where the leaders fought on
horseback,* After the Invasion cavalry came into general
use. Each horseman had at least one footman to attend
him — called a gilla or dalteen (Irish, dailtin, a diminutive of
dalta, q.v.) — armed only with a dart or javelin. In later
times each horseman had
two and sometimes three
attendants (fig. 64).+
Two kinds of foot-
soldiers are often men-
tioned in Irish records,
the kern and gallo-
glasses. The kern were
light - armed soldiers :
they wore headpieces,
and fought with a skean
(a dagger or short sword)
and with a javelin. The
Irish name is ceitkern
[kehern], which prima-
T-»of.i,.,^,i.,,.ii,BL««,Ki„gK.u«oco„o.-, "ly means a body of
Sj;;;^*"b«rjI™*l'^"r'^TFrFrJoc™^ men of any kind, though
^"t^^^1'^°^iiX%^,Z«^'^^ commonly restricted to
a body of soldiers. It
is a collective noun, like the English ' horse,' ' foot,'
' infantry,' &c. The word for a single soldier of the
body is ceithernach [keherna]. The kern are a very
ancient institution, as we find them noticed in the
accounts of the early battles ; for instance, in that of the
Battle of Moyrath, fought .KM. 637, they are mentioned
more than once (pp. 141, 267, 350) ; and they continued in
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 47
use till late times, for they figure very much in the Irish
wars of the Tudors.
The galloglasses, or galloglach^ as they are called in
Irish, appear only in later times— after the Anglo-Norman
Invasion. They are not met with in ancient Irish writings.
They were heavy-armed infantry, wearing a coat of mail
and an iron helmet, with a long sword by the side, and
carrying in the hand a broad, heavy, keen-edged axe.
They are usually described as large-limbed, tall, and fierce-
looking. It is almost certain that the galloglasses, and the
mode of equipping them, were imitated from the English.
So Spenser says — and O'Donovan agrees with him — " For
gall-ogla signifies an English servitour or yeoman," in which
Spenser is quite correct. Irish,^^//, * an Englishman * ; dglach^
* a youth or warrior.'*
Commanders. — In ancient times the commanders com-
monly fought side by side with their men. But sometimes
the wiser plan was adopted, of placing the general aside in
some commanding station to direct the tactics.! It was
customary for the commanders, just before the battle, to go
from battalion to battalion and address their men in a few
inspiring words, of which there are many examples in the
histories and tales.J
Trumpets. — The Irish constantly used bronze war-
trumpets in battle, as will be found mentioned in the chapter
on Music. At the Battle of Ballaghmoon, A.D. 908, in which
Cormac Mac Cullenan was killed, " trumpets were blown,
and signals were given for battle by the men of Munster."§
There is a curious notice of the use of battle-trumpets in
Ireland in a gloss or commentary on St. Paul's First Epistle
♦Spenser's View, 117 to 119. See Ware, Antiqq., 161: and Sent-
legcr's account of kern and galloglasses in Moyrath, 350.
t Of which examples may be seen in Keat., 272, 364: Rev. Celt., xii.
89, 93, 97 : Silva Gad., 541.
J See Stokes, Lives of SS., 238 : Joyce, Short Hist., 217 (Brian Bom at
Clontarf) : Three Fragm., 191.
{ Three Fragm., 207 : see also in same, 191 : and Man. & Cust., i. 344.
L2
148 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
to the Corinthians, xiv. 8 — written on the Continent in the
eighth century by an Irishman in his native language, from
which it appears that the trumpeters had different notes or
musical phrases to direct different movements. The fol-
lowing is Dr. Stokes's translation of this note : — " This is
" another similitude which he has — even a similitude of a
" trumpet ; for it hath many sounds, and different is each
" of them : to wit, it is different for battle, different for
"unyoking, or for marching, or for sleep, or for council.
"Unless the man who sounds it distinguish — that is, if he
" make but one note — what it is sounded for is not under-
" stood."*
War-Cries. — The armies charged with a great shout
called barrdn-glaedy 'warrior-shout,' a custom which con-
tinued until late times. The different tribes and clans
had also special war-cries, which are noticed by Ware
(" Antiqq.," 163), and by Spenser (95). The Anglo-
Normans fell in with this custom, as they did with many
others. The war-cry of the O'Neills was Lamh-derg aboOy.
t,e, * the Red -hand to victory' {lamky pron. lauv, * a hand *),,
from the figure of a bloody hand on their crest or cog-
nisance: that of the O'Briens and Mac Carthys, Lamh-
laidir aboOy * the Strong-hand to victory ' (latdtr^ pron^
lauder, * strong '). The Kildare Fitz Geralds took as their
cry Crom aboOy from the great Geraldine castle of Crom or
Croom in Limerick ; the Earl of Desmond, Shanit abooy.
from the castle of Shanid in Limerick. The Butlers' cry
was Butler aboo. Most of the other chiefs, both, native and
Anglo-Irish, had their several cries. Martin found this
custom among the people of the Hebrides in 1703 (p. 104):
and in Ireland war-cries continued in use to our own day:
I heard them scores of times in the faction fights of
Limerick half a century ago. Though our knowledge of
these cries is derived mostly from late Anglo-Irish
* Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, I. 577. See also Dr. Wm. Stokes*s
Life of Petrie, 330; and Zimmer, Gloss. Hib., 78, ig.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 49
writers, it is highly probable that they were in use in
early times.*
Counting the Slain. — In the story of Bruden Da Derga
(p. 169) we get a curious glimpse of the way of estimating
the number of men that fell in a battle. When the army
of marauders under Ingcel, with the sons of Dond Desa,
were marching to attack the hostel (see chapter xxi.,
section 10, tnfra\ knowing well that they would encounter
formidable resistance, each man brought a large stone ;
and they threw them all in one heap on the plain. On
returning after the fight each brought away a stone from
the earn : and the stones that were left showed the number
killed, and served as a memorial of the destruction of the
mansion with the slaughter of the king and his people.
But though earns were sometimes erected with the object
stated here, they were generally — as shown in chapter
xxxi., section 5 — simple memorials of the dead.t
Sir Samuel Ferguson ("Poems," 1880, p. 61) remarks
that, perhaps, the latest instance of this practice was the
earn erected by the Farquharsons, in 1745, when marching
to the Battle of Culloden. He also points out that a
similar means of estimating the slain was in use by the
ancient Persians, as recorded by Procopius : but here each
man, instead of bringing a stone for a earn, threw an
arrow into a common basket
Decapitation. — After a battle the victors often decapi-
tated the bodies of their dead enemies. Sometimes they
placed the heads in a heap as a sort of triumph — a
barbarous custom common among other ancient nations.
For instance, when the Norsemen fought a battle in
* See an article onWar-Cries of Irish Septs, in Ulster Journal Arch., in.
203, in which will be found a long list of them.
t On the formation of a cam in this manner, and for these objects, see
Rev. Celt., xv. 33 1: LU, 86, ft, and 87, a: Atkinson, Introd. to LL, 50, «,
bot. : Gwynn, Dind., 63. For a similar formation of Carn Mail, see
Rennes Dind. in Rev. Celt., xvi. 48: and Miscellany Celt. Soc., p. 67:
also LL, 170, ^, 17, and 210, a, 31, 30. See also Mac Carthy, Codex-Pal.-Vat.,
198, note; and Sullivan, Introd., 335.
ISO GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Ireland among themselves, A.D. 851, the victors piled up
a great cam of Danish heads on the field* This practice
by the Irish is so often mentioned that it is needless to
give instances. Hence also the carnage in battle is often
designated dr-cenn [awr-cann], * a slaughter of heads/f It
should be remarked that the Irish did not kill the wounded,
but brought them from the field of battle as prisoners. An
instance may be seen in the Four Masters under A.D. 864,
when Aed Finnliath, king of Ireland, having defeated the
Danes, made a heap of the heads of the slain, and had the
wounded conveyed away to a place of safety.
Whenever a king or chief was defeated or slain in battle,
he was usually decapitated : and it was a custom for the
victorious king to sit upon the head or place it under his
thigh by way of triumph. When Archbishop Cormac
Mac Cullenan, king of Munster, was slain in the Battle of
Ballaghmoon, A.D. 908, some persons brought his head, after
the battle, to the victorious King Flann Sinna, thinking it
would be an acceptable presentation : and they said : —
" Life and health, O victorious king : here is the head of
" Cormac for thee : and now, as is customary with kings*
" raise thy thigh and place this head under it and press it
" down." But the king was very angry with them : and
instead of showing disrespect to the head, took it up
tenderly, and kissing it three times, sent it back to be
interred honourably with the body.J This atrocious custom,
as Keating's translator, O'Mahony, calls it, existed in a
still more savage form in early times. Conall Cernach,
the inveterate enemy of Connaught, killed at least one
Connaughtman every day, and never slept without the
head of a Connaught enemy under his knee {^fo aglitn),\
• O'Donovan, Three Fragm., 117. On Decapitation: see D*Arbois
de Jubainville, La Civil, des Celtes, pp. 374-377.
t In Zeitschr. fur Celt. Phil., in.. 207, Stokes interprets dr cettd, as * a
slaughter of chiefs,* which the context here favours. But I think it generally
carries the sense of decapitation. JO'Donov., Three Fragm., 213 : Keat., 530.
§ LL, 107, a, 22 : and Atkinson, Introd.^ 27, a.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 5 1
Treatment of Prisoners. — It was the custom, except under
circumstances that rendered it improper, inconvenient, or
undesirable, to fetter or manacle prisoners or captives taken
in war, slaves, and occasionally hostages. We know that
a person might be taken in bondage in distraint for a
debt;* and such a person was often secured by a gyve
and lock. The law permitted this ; but if the chain was
tightened so as to cause pain, there was a penalty .f In
another part of the Senchus M6r a lock to secure the
gyves of an imported slave is mentioned.^ A captive
taken in battle was almost always secured by a fetter
{cuibhrecK) ; and such a person was commonly given over
to a keeper, whose business it was to guard against escape.
Some fetters were recognised by law, and some not : and
when the Book of Aicill lays down rules as to how far the
keeper was responsible in law for damages, in case the
captive should make his escape, or for crimes committed
by him after escaping, the sort of fetters used was taken
into account.§
When Murkertagh of the Leather Cloaks made his
circuit round Ireland, a.d. 941, he brought away many
kings and chiefs as captives, several of whom were fettered.
Cormacan Ecces, the writer of the poetical account of
the expedition, says : — " We carried off with us Lorcan,
" descendant of Bresal of the Cows : a rough bright fetter
" {geimiul or geimheal) was fastened on that arch-king of
" populous Leinster." || In the case of some kings, fetters
were not considered necessary on this occasion ; and this
is mentioned as a mark of distinction or considera-
tion : — " Concobhar, the arch-king of Connaught," — says
Cormacan — " exceeding brave, came with us without a
" bright fetter."
Of the material and manner of fastening fetters,
♦ Chapter viii., section 2, infra, t Br. Laws, I. iii.
X Br. Laws, I. 143. § Ihid,^ ill. 499.
II O'Donovan, Circuit, 39.
152 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
whether used on prisoners of war or otherwise, we get
various glimpses in the old narratives. When Callaghan,
king of Cashel, was brought away captive by Murkertagh,
there was put "a ring of fifteen ounces on his hand, and
" a chain {idh) of iron on his stout leg."* When Dichlethe
OTriallaigh attempted to go away on a dangerous pilgrim-
age, his brothers "took him and fettered him, placing [a
" chain secured by]^ lock of iron between his head and his
" feet."t
Modes of Submission. — A king who was about to submit
to another usually came to the superior king's residence,
and, after the formalities of reception, indicated his sub-
mission *by placing his hand in the hand of his host.J
But when the submission was brought on directly by defeat
in battle, it was usually of a more humiliating kind. In
the seventh century, Dermot, one of the two joint kings
of Ireland, and Guaire, king of Connaught, quarrelled.
Guaire was defeated and made "submission at the point
of the sword." This was usually done in the following
manner: — The person submitting lay supine, while his
conqueror inserted the point of a sword or spear between
his teeth, and held it there as long as it pleased him —
sometimes for an hour or more — when he released him
from the degrading position.§ It was sometimes called
giallad fri claideb^ * submission by sword,'|| or giallad do
rinn gai^ 'submission at the spear's point' This same
ceremony was sometimes used, nine centuries later, by the
English deputies of the time of Elizabeth, when they forced
Irish chiefs to submit.
Single Combat. — Among the Irish, as well as among the
GaulsIT and other ancient peoples, men often challenged
♦ O'Donovan, Circuit, 45. f O'Donovan, HyF, 39.
X Moylena, 55, bottom.
§ Silva Grad., 424, line 5, bottom, and 434 : Keat., 436. How the Irish
kings submitted to Henry II. may be seen in Ware, Antiqq., 186 : but this
was not a humiliating ceremony.
g LU, 1 16, h, 28. f See De Jubainville, La Civil, des Celtes, p. 6 rf seq.
CHAP. IV] WARFARE 1 5 3
each other to single combat, called in Irish Fir cSmlainn^
the * truth of combat/ and Comrac aen/htr, * combat of one
man/ Sometimes the duel was resorted to, as among the
early English, as a form of ordeal to determine cases,
though it is not included in the list of Irish Ordeals.*
Sometimes the pair fought man to man as the result of
quarrel and challenge, merely as an affair of valour, on
which nothing depended except life.f
If a man who was fully armed and prepared to fight
declined to meet an adversary who came up and offered
battle, he incurred disgrace and some loss of status.* It
appears that in very old times, when a hostile force invaded
a territory, it was a recognised custom that a champion of
the invaded people might offer single combat, which was
always accepted; and the invading army were bound to
halt till they had found someone to subdue the defending
champion. It was by taking advantage of this custom
that Cuculainn barred for some time the advance into
Ulster of the Connaught army under Ailill and Maive: for
he sent challenge after challenge, and killed every man
that came to meet him. These combats were always fought
at fords, and — at least sometimes — the combatants fought
standing in the water. § A deliberate agreement to refer
the settlement of any cause or dispute to the issue of single
combat was called cdirde chlaidiby 'agreement of sword,'
* sword-pact.*||
The Brehon Law took careful cognisance of single com-
bats, and laid down stringent rules regarding them. Some
combats for deciding causes were designated as legal, some
as illegal. If a looker-on reasonably interfered to prevent
the fight and got injured, one or both were liable to him
• Sec chap, ix., sect. 1 1, infra,
\ See Silva Gad., 414, for a historical example of a challenge and combat.
For others, Gwynn, Dind., 19, 59.
J Br. Laws, iv. 353.
§ O'Curry, MS. Mat., 37 ; Man. & Cust., I. 296 : De Jubainville, La
Civil, des Celtes, 31. || LU, 70, *, 33 ; 7«, «» 3 J 72, ^ 16.
1 54 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
for damages: if both were fighting legally or both illegally,
they paid equal shares ; if one was fighting legally and the
other illegally, the ill^al combatant paid the larger share.
So far as I can make sense of this part of the Book of
Aicill, a man fought legally if he had no other mode of
settling the case, and illegally if he had.* The correctness
of this interpretation is rendered pretty certain by a
passage in another Brehon Law tract (v. 477, 31), which
mentions as a proceeding liable to penalty, " to proclaim a
"combat [/. e, to send a challenge] without offering to submit
"to law."
Certain formalities, both before and during a single
combat, had to be complied with. There should be at
least one witness, who, in some respects, corresponded with
the seconds in the duel of later times : and an interval of
five days should elapse between the challenge and the fight:
two wise arrangements. If the combat was to decide a case^
it was necessary that each combatant should give verbal
security, before the witness or witnesses, that he would
abide by the result of the fight in the settlement!
A typical case of single combat is quoted in the
Senchus M6r. Two great Red Branch champions, Conall
Cernach and Laegaire the Victorious, on one occasion met>
quarrelled, and were ready to fight on the spot, in all except
the presence of a witness, for whom they were waiting. A
woman happened to come up, and, seeing them likely to
fall on each other, demanded that the fight should be put
off till a witness (a man) was procured. To this both
agreed ; but as the length of postponement was not fixed,
they had to refer the case to Concobar and his brehon
Sencha, who fixed on five days. It would appear that this
case regulated all other single combats : so that when two
men challenged each other, they had to wait for five days
before fighting.^
♦ Br. Laws, in. 237 to 241. \ Ibid,, IV. 33, text and Gloss.
Xlbid,, 1. 251.
CHAPTER V
STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY
Section i. Five main Classes of People.
HE lay people were divided into classes
from the king down to the slave, and
the Brehon law took cognizance of
II — setting forth their rights, duties,
nd privileges. The leading, though not
,he sole, qualification to confer rank was
property ; the rank being, roughly speaking, in proportion
to the amount.* These classes were not castes i for, under
certain conditions, persons could pass from one to the next
above, always provided his character was unimpeachable.
The social subdivision of the people as given in some
of the law tracts is very minute and artificial : we may
adopt here the broad classification outlined by O'Curry,
which has been followed by Dr. Richey, the editor of the
third and fourth volumes of the Brehon Laws :f namely,
Five main olauei: — r. Kings of several grades, from the king
of the tuatk or cantred up to the king of Ireland : 2. Nobles,
• Aa to lank depending on properly, see the Crith Gabhlach and its
Sequel in Br. Laws, vol. IV. : and in the same vol., p, 377, lines 32, 33 ;
p. 381, 1. 10 ; 383, 1. :8 ; 387, I. ai : vol. 1., 43, h, » : and O'Cuny, Man.
& Cost., I. 34.
t O'CuiTj-, Man. 4 Cust., 11. 25 ; Richey on Br. Laws, IV. cicii.
IS6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
which class indeed included kings : 3. Non-noble Freemen
with property : 4. Non-noble Freemen without property,
or with some, but not sufficient to place them among the
class next above : 5. The non-free classes. The first three
— Kings, Nobles, non-noble Freemen with property — were
the privileged classes ; a person belonging to these was an
aire [arra] or chief. Kings have been treated of in chapter
• • •
111.
2. Flaiths or Nobles,
The Nobles were those who had land as their own
property, for which they did not pay rent : they were the
owners of the soil — the aristocracy. Part of this land they
held in their own hands and tilled by the labour of the
non-free classes : part they let to tenants, as will be
explained in chapter vii. An aire of this class was called
a Flaiih [flah], i,e, a noble, a chief, a prince. The flaiths
or nobles were sharply distinguished from the non-noble
class next under them.
There were several ranks of nobles, the rank depending
chiefly on the amount ©f landed property. The tuath^ as
already explained, was under the government of the head
noble, who was the ri or king ; and to him all the other
nobles of the tuath owed allegiance and tribute. The
highest rank of noble, next to the tanist of the king,
was the Aire-forgaill : he should have at least twenty saer
tenants and twenty daer tenants (chapter vii., section 3);
and he had to answer to the king for the character of
the nobles and others under him. He was a high-class
magistrate, and presided at the making of covenants, and
saw them carried out, in which capacity he was termed
Mac-Nascaire [Mac Naskera], i.e. * Surety-Man*; and he
had 100 armed men to attend on him on all state occa-
sions. One of his functions was to determine the status,
privileges, and duties of the several nobles and functionaries
about the king's court.
CHAP. V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY. IS/
Ranking under the Aire-forgaill was the Aire-tnisi —
* front aire * — and next under him the Aire-&rd — *high aire *
— each so called in relation to the next rank below, each
with a defined amount of property, and with several
privileges.
The lowest of the noble classes was the Aire-desa,
so called from the des or fee-simple land for which he
received rent. He ranked as an aire-desa^ provided he
possessed the necessary land, and that his father and
grandfather had been each an aire (Br. Laws, iv. 321).
Certain houses, horses, and equipments were prescribed
for him as necessary for his rank, and he should have at
least five saer tenants and five daer or giallna tenants.
One order of nobles, the Aire-echta, who held a
military position, has been already treated of (p. 92).*
3. Non-noble Freemen with Property,
A person belonging to the other class of aire — a non-
noble rent-paying freeman with property (No. 3, above) —
had no land of his own, his property consisting of cattle
and other movable goods ; hence he was called a Bo-aire,
i,e, a * cow-chief (do, *a cow'). He should rent a certain
amount of land, and possess a certain amount of property
in cattle and other goods, to entitle him to rank as an aire.
A bo-aire, having no land of his own, rented land from a
Jlaith or noble, thus taking rank as a saer-ciile or free
tenant (see chapter vii., section 3) ; and he grazed his
cattle partly on this and partly on the ** commons " grazing
land. He might sublet his rented land to under-tenants.
* From the above, and from chap, iii., it will be seeu that there were
seven grades of Flaiths or Nobles: — I, the king: 2, tanist of the king:
3, aire-forgaill : 4, aire-tuisi : 5, aire-&rd : 6, aire-echta : and 7, aire-desa.
This is in accordance with what is stated in Br. Laws, iv. 321, lines 11, 12,
and vrith what follows iu same vol. on pp. 321, 323, 325, 327 : but there
appears some discrepancy in one place between it and the statement in
another tract, at p. 347, 23, where the Aire-forgaill is made the same as the
AirC'drd, See also Br. Laws, V. 25.
IS8 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
•
The bo-aires were magistrates, and as such presided in
court or at the aibinn meetings (see "Aiblnn," Index) in the
discharge of some legal functions : and for this they had
certain allowances and privileges according to rank (Br. Law,
iv. 309). Among their perquisites were a share in the
mill and in the kiln of the district, and fees for witnessing
contracts and for other legal functions. There were several
ranks of bo-aires according to the amount of property.
The Aire-coiBiing or * binding-chief ' was the highest of
the bo-atres. He was the leader and representative of all
his ^«^ or kindred, and was expected to be able to give an
account of their conduct and obedience to the laws when
occasion arose. In case of complaint or accusation he
answered for them to the king of the tuath^ having pre-
viously investigated the case (Br. Laws, IV. 317). Hence
he was also called the Aire-fine [arra-finna] or * family-
chief.'* This custom continued down to the sixteenth
century, and came under the notice of Spenser (View, 54),
who calls it kin-cogish : and according to him it was trans-
ferred to the Anglo-Irish statute book in his own time —
during the reign of Elizabeth : —
*' Another statute I remember, which having been an auncient
Irish custome, is now upon advisement made a law, and that is
called the custome of kin-cogish, which is, that every head of every
sept, and every chiefe of every kindred or family, should be answere-
able and bound to bring foorth every one of that sept and kindred
tinder it at all times to be justified, when he should be required or
charged with any treason, felony, or other haynous crime.**
Spenser's anglicised form kin-cogish represents correctly
the sound of the Irish name of this custom, cenn-comhfhoguis^
the * head of kindred,' from cenn^ * head,' and cojnhfhogus
[cogus], consanguinity or relationship, gen. comkfhoguisy
pron. cogish.f
The Fer-fothla was a rich bo-aire who, having more
stock than he was able to graze, hired them out as taurcrec
♦ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 36. f Br. Laws, i. 106, 107.
CHAP. V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY 1 59
to Others {daer-cHles : see chapter vii., section 3), who thus
became his dependents. He held a very high position as
a member of society and as a magistrate, almost equal to
the Aire-coisring. If a Fer-fothla or an Aire-coisring could
prove that he had twice as much property as was required
for the lowest rank of noble (the Aire-desd)^ and complied
with certain other conditions and formalities, and also
provided his father and grandfather had been aires who
had land, he was himself entitled to take rank as an Aire-
desa noble.* The Brugh-fer^ Brugatdy or Briuga was an
interesting official of the bo-aire class : he was a public
hospitaller as well as a magistrate : he and his office will
be treated of in chapter xxi., section 10. The lowest in
rank of the non-noble aires was the 6gaire, i,e, junior-ez/V^,
* from the youngness of his aireship.' Many of these were
men who had belonged to the next lower rank of freemen,
and who had accumulated sufficient property to qualify
them as dg-atres.
The three preceding main classes — kings, nobles, and
bo-aires — were all aires ^ chiefs, or privileged people: the
first two being flaiths or noble aires^ the third, non-noble
aires y i.e. free tenants, with property sufficient to entitle
them to the position of aire. All three had some part
in the government of the country and in the administra-
tion of the law, as kings, tanists, nobles, military chiefs,
magistrates, and persons otherwise in authority ; and they
•commonly wore 2iflesc or bracelet on the arm as a mark of
dignity.t
That the classification of chiefs into these various
grades was a reality, and that the several ranks were
separate and distinct, and universally recognised — as
clearly as " Justices of the Peace," " Resident Magistrates,"
** Deputy Lieutenants," " Lord Lieutenants of counties,"
•&C., are now — is proved by the fact that we often find
them incidentally referred to, both in the laws and in
♦ Br. Laws, IV. 315, 317. t Keating, 162.
l6o GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
general literature, as being well known and understood.
For instance, in the ancient description of Tara and its
i%>, quoted by Petrie (Tara, 199, 205) from the Book of
Leinster, six of the chieftain classes— namely, Aire-forgaill,
Aire-drd, Aire-tdisi, Aire-echta, Aire-desa, and Brugaid —
are included in the list in which are named the numerous
officials in the great banqueting hall.
4. Non-noble Freemen without Property.
The next class — the fourth — the freemen with little
or with no property, were ciiles or free tenants. They
differed from the bo-aires only in not being rich enough to
rank as aires or chiefs ; for the bo-aires were themselves
chiles or rent-payers ; and accordingly, a man of the fourth
class could become a bo-air e if he accumulated property
enough : the amount being laid down in the Brehon Law.
These chiles or tenants, or free rent-payers — corresponding
with the old English ceorls or churls — formed the great
body of the farming class. They were called aitkech, i.e.
* plebeian,* * farmer,' * peasant,' to distinguish them from
the aires or chieftain grades : and the term f^ini or f^e
[faine], which means much the same as aithech^ was also
applied to them. Some few members of the f^ine were
selected by the king to look after the affairs of their im-
mediate district, or what we should now call a townland.
"These fiine^' — says the Gloss on the Law (v. 15,17) —
are brugaid-l^xva^x^, and the stewards of kings." These
are evidently the officers referred to in the record about
Ollamh Fodla, king of Ireland (FM, A.M. 3922 : see p. 69,
supra), that he appointed a chief over every tricha-Md
and a brugaid ov^r every baile or townland. These brugaid-
stewards or yi^^>/^-stewards continued to be appointed and
to exercise their functions down to a late time — the time
of the glossator of the Laws ; but the exact nature of their
functions is not known.
CHAP.V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY l6l
The land held by ihef^tne or free tenants was either
a part of the tribe-land, or was the private property of some
flaitk or noble, from whom they rented it. Everywhere in
the literature, especially in the Laws, thtf^ine are spoken
of as a most important part of the community — as the
foundation of society, and as the ultimate source of law
and authority. The very name of what we now call the
Brehon Law was derived from them — " F^nechas " or
" F^inechas " ; so that the several parts of the Brehon
Code are constantly referred to as Dlighthe Fitne [dleeha-
fainS], the * Laws of the F^ine ' : and the ancient language
in which the F^nechas was written is called Birla-FHtiey
i.e. * the language of the F/ineJ*
The position of the cHleSy the terms on which they held
their farms, their rights, duties, and obligations, will be
explained in some detail in the chapter (vii.) dealing with
land. For the land and the citle tenants were so intimately
mixed up that it would be scarcely possible to treat of
them separately.
Any freebom native was called an urrad [urra], a term
having much the same meaning as the old English word
" yeoman " (see " Urrad " in Atkinson's Glossary to Br.
Laws). Tradesmen formed another very important class
of freemen. The greater number belonged to the fourth
class — freemen without property. Some crafts were
** noble" or privileged, of which the members enjoyed
advantage^ and privileges beyond those of other trades :
and some high-class craftsmen belonged to the class aire
or chief. But the law is not near so detailed in its state-
ment of the position and rights of tradesmen, as of those
of tillers of the soil : showing again the great importance
attached to land.
* Br, Laws, i. 117, 94; 119, last par.; in. 225, tS' See also Atkinson,
Glossary to Br. I^ws, **Feine" and ** Feinechas."
M
l62 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
5. The Non-free Classes.
So far we have treated of freemen, that is, those who
enjoyed all the rights of the tribe, of which the most
important was the right to the use of a portion of the
tribe-land and commons. We now come to treat of the
non-free classes. The term "non-free " does not necessarily
mean servile. The non-free people were those who had
not the full rights of the free people of the tribe. They
had no claim to any part of the tribe-land, though they were
permitted, under strict conditions, to till little plots for mere
subsistence. This was by far the most serious of their dis-
abilities. Except under very exceptional circumstances they
could not enter into contracts. Yet some justice was done
to them ; for if a freeman made a forbidden contract with a
non-free person, the former was punished, while the non-free
man had to be compensated for any loss he incurred by the
transaction.* Their standing varied, some being absolute
slaves, some little removed from slavery, and others far
above it.
The non-free people were of three classes, who are
distinguished in the law and called by different names : —
the Bothach, the Sencleiihe, and the Fndir. The persons
belonging to the first two were herdsmen, labourers,
squatters on waste lands, horse-boys, hangers-on, and
jobbers of various kinds — all poor and dependent But
they enjoyed one great advantage : they were part of the
tribe, though debarred from most of its rights ; and conse-
quently they could claim to live within the territory and to
support themselves by their labour.
The third class — the Fudirs — were the lowest of the
three. They were not members of the tribe, and conse-
quently had no right of residence, though they were
permitted by the chief to live within the territory, from
which, however, they might be expelled at any moment
♦ Br. LawS| ii. 289.
CHAP. V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY 1 63
A fudir was commonly a stranger, a fugitive from some
other territory, who had by some misdeed, or for any other
reason, broken with his tribe — who had become " kin-
wrecked," as they expressed it in Wales — and fled from
his own chief to another who permitted him to settle on
a portion of the unappropriated commons land. But men
hecB,mc /udt'rs in other ways, as we shall see. Any freeman
might give evidence against a fudir : but the fudir could
not give evidence in reply.* When a fudir obtained a
settlement from a flaith or lord, he^or his family after
him — might leave during the life of that lord and of his
two successors, but could take nothing away. But if he
or they remained on voluntarily till they came under a
fourth lord, they were no longer free to leave : they were
bound to the soil — ^'* adscripti glebae."t
The fudirs were of two classes, a higher and a lower,
called saerfudir^ or Ix&t fudir ^ and daer-fudir^ or bondy^rf/>.
The saer-fudirs were so called, not because they were free-
men, which they were not, but to indicate that they were
not under the heavy bondage of the lower class. They
were those who were free from crime, and who, coming
voluntarily into the district, were able to get moderately
favourable terms when taking land from the chief The
lord was responsible for his fudirs. If a fudir or any
member of his family committed a crime, the lord had to
pay the damage ; and, on the other hand, if anyone injured
^ fudir ^ the compensation was paid to the lord.}
Some of the saer-fudir tenants who accumulated wealth
were much better circumstanced than the general body.
If there were five of them under one chief, each possessing
at least 100 head of cattle, they might enter into partner-
ship so as to answer for each other's liabilities. In this case
they enjoyed privileges that put them almost on a level
• Br. Laws, in. 131, 133 note.
t O' Curry, MS. Mat., 655 : Br. Laws, iv. 283 and note s ; v. 513.
X Br. Laws, v. 513.
M 2
l64 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
with the ciiles or free tenants. They had a share in the
tribe-land and in the commons ; they took stock from the
chief, and paid biatad or food-rent (chapter vii., section 3,.
tnfra). They paid their part of any fines that fell on the
sept from the crimes of individuals ; they took their share
of any property left to the Jini or sept like the ordinary
tenants ;* and their chief, or representative man, was
qualified to be of the rank of ba-atre. But these must
have been rare exceptions.
The daer-fudirs — the lowest and most dependent of
all — were escaped criminals, captives taken in battle or
raids from other districts or other countries, convicts
respited from death, persons sentenced to fine and unable
to pay, purchased slaves, &c. Some daer-fudirs were mere
slaves: and those who were not were little better. Yet
their lot Was not hopeless : the law favoured their emanci-
pation : a daer-fudtr could become a saer-fudir in course
of time under certain conditions. The settlement oifudirs
was disliked by the community and discouraged by the
Brehon lawtf for it curtailed the commons land; and while
it tended to lower the status of the tribe, it raised the power
of the chief, who in cases of dispute could bring all his-
fudirs into the field. Any social disturbance, such as
rebellion, invasion, civil war, &c., in which many were
driven from their homes and beggared, tended to increase
the number of theyW/W. The terms on which the fudirs
were permitted to till the soil will be told in chapter vii.,.
section 4.
It has been said that some of the.lowest oftht fudirs^
were downright slaves. That slavery pure and simple
existed in Ireland in early times we know from the law-
books as well as from history ; and that it continued to a
comparatively late period is proved by the testimony of
Giraldus Cambrensis, who relates that it was a common
♦ Br. Laws, IV. 39, 43 ; v. 515 r Sullivan, Introd., 158.
t Maine, Anc. Inst., 175.
CHAP. V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY 165
custom among the English to sell their children and other
relatives to the Irish for slaves — Bristol being the great mart
for the trade. They must have been very numerous in the
twelfth century : for at the Synod held in Armagh in 1171,
the clergy came to the conclusion that the Anglo-Norman
invasion was a curse from heaven as a punishment for
the inhuman traffic in slaves : and they anathematised
the whole system as " contrary to the right of Christian
freedom," and decreed that all English slaves were free to
return to their own country.* Considering the period,
and the ideas then prevalent all over the world, this
resolution reflects much credit on the Irish ecclesiastical
authorities, anticipating by many centuries the action of
the various European and American States in decreeing
the emancipation of slaves. How far the Irish decree took
effect we are not told.
Our own records show that slaves were imported.
Thus the Book of Rights (p. 87) states that the king of
Ireland paid to the king of Bruree, as part of his tuarastal^
ten foreign slaves without Gaelic^ i.e. not able to speak
the Gaelic language : a similar entry is found at p. 181 ;
and in several other parts of the same book we find
mention of dues paid in bondsmen and bondswomen,
" brought over the sea": but whether from other countries
besides Britain is doubtful. Some canons of the ancient
Irish Church — much earlier than the time of the Armagh
Synod — notice the redemption of slaves. f It appears from
a passage in Adamnan (158, 159), as well as from other
authorities, that a man whom another ransomed from the
penalty of death was to be the ransomer's slave : and a
slave thus ransomed had to wear a special girdle. But
persons might become slaves in many other ways. When
a pregnant bondswoman was sold, the unborn child was
commonly exempted : /*^., while the woman became the
♦ Girald., Hib. Exp., r. xviii. + Ware, Antiqq., 156.
l66 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
property of the purchaser, the child, when born, belonged
to the seller.* The usual word for a slave was Mog^ Mogh,
or Mug,
6. Groups of Society,
The people were formed into groups of various sizes,
from the family upwards. The Family was the group con-
sisting of the living parents and all their descendants. The
Sept was a larger group, descended from common parents
long since dead : but this is an imported word, brought into
use in comparatively late times. All the members of a
sept were nearly related, and in later times bore the same
surname. The Clan or bouse was still larger. Clann
means * children,* and the word therefore implied descent
from one ancestor. The Tribe {tuath) was made up of
several septs, clans, or houses, and usually claimed, like
the subordinate groups, to be descended from a common
ancestor. The adoption of strangers into the family or
clan was common ; but it required the consent of the fini
or circle of near relations — formally given at a court
meeting!; ^ind the persons adopted had not the full rights
of ordinary freemen members, especially as regarded land.
An adopted person was called Mac Faosma, literally * son
of protection/ Sometimes not only individuals, but smaller
tribes, who for any reason had migrated from their original
home, were adopted ; who were then known as fini-
taccutTy i.e *a family taken under protection.' J From all
this it will be seen that in every tribe there was much
admixture ; and the theory of common descent became a
fiction, except for the leading families, who preserved their
descent pure and kept a careful record of their genealogy.
* Stokes, Lives of SS., Pref., cxii.
t Br. Laws, rr. 6i, 289: Sull., Introd., 131.
t Br. Laws, IV. 61, 19; 63, top; 285, 25; 287, ic; 289, last par. For
Faosam, see Fo'Cssam in Windisch, Worterbuch: Faosamh in 0*Donovan,
Supplem. to 0*R. : Stokes, Rev. Celt., 111. 97 : see Tacar in O'Donovan,
Supplem. : and Fine-taccuir in Atkinson's Gloss. Br. Laws.
CHAP. V] STRUCTURE OF SOCIETY 167
Thus the tribe became a mere local association of people,
occupying a definite district and bound together by common
customs, by common interests, by living under one ruler,
and in son:ie degjree by the fiction of descent from one
common ancestor. Each member had to bear his part of
the obligations and liabilities of the tribe : for instance, he
had to contribute to the support of old people who had no
children to take care of them, and the whole sept or fine
were liable for the fines or debts of any individuals who
absconded or were unable to pay. No individual was free
to enter into any contracts affecting the tribe ; for example,
he was restricted by certain conditions when he wished to
sell his land.*
The word finS [finna] is loosely applied to almost any
subdivision of society, from the tribe in its largest sense
down to a small group consisting of members of the same
family. In its most usual application it meant a group of
persons, related by blood within certain recognised degrees
of consanguinity, all residing in the same neighbourhood.
The members of difini in this sense had certain rights in
common, and were subject to certain liabilities — ^all accord-
ing to well-established customs.
When the tribal community comprised a large popula-
tion occupying an extensive district, it often got the
designation Cinel [Kinel], still implying — like clan — descent
from a common ancestor. Thus the Kinel-Owen, who
possessed the principality of Tir-Owen, and were supposed
to be descended from Owen, son of Niall of the Nine
Hostages, were ruled by one of the O'Neills, and included
the septs of O'Cahan, Mac Quillan, O'Flynn, and many
others, each governed by 2.flatth or chief who was tributary
to O'Neill. The tribe organisation was not peculiar to
Ireland ; it existed among all the Aryan nations in their
early stages.
« Br. Laws, 11. 283 ; in. 55 ; rv. 129. On the Mutual Obligations of
tribe and individual, see also Br. Laws, i. 69, 4 ; 71, 15, 25.
Fig. 67. — Onuunent on leather case of Book of Armaj^h. From Petrie's Round Towers.
CHAPTER VI
THE BREHON LAWS
Section i. The Brehons.
AW formed a most important factor both in public
and private life in ancient Ireland. The native
legal system, as briefly outlined in this and the
next two chapters, existed in its fulness before
the ninth century. It was somewhat disturbed
by the Danish and Anglo-Norman invasions, and
still more by the English settlement ; but it continued in
use till finally abolished in the beginning of the seventeenth
century. In these three chapters I merely attempt to give
a popular sketch of the Brehon Laws, devoid of technical
legal terms.
In Ireland a judge was called a brehon,* whence the
native Irish law is commonly known as the " Brehon Law " :
but its proper designation is F^neohas, i,e. the law of the
FHfie or Fine^ or free land-tillers (p. 161, supra). According
to Cormac's Glossary (p. 12), aigrere [3-syll.] is another
name for a brehon.
The brehons had absolutely in their hands the interpre-
tation of the laws and the application of them to individual
* Irish brethenij modern hreitheamh [brehev] : this takes an n in the
genitive and dative — hretheman^ hrethemain^ pron. hrehoon^ from which comes
the Anglo-Irish brehon.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS 169
cases. They were therefore a very influential class of men ;
and those attached to chiefs had free lands for their main-
tenance, which, like the profession itself, remained in the
family for generations. Those not so attached lived simply
on the fees of their profession, and many eminent brehons
became wealthy. The legal rules as set forth in the Law
Books, were commonly very complicated and mixed up
with a variety of technical terms ; and many forms had
to be gone through and many circumstances taken into
account, all legally essential : so that no outsider could
hope to master their intricacies. The brehon's fee (.fold)
was one-twelfth, i.e. presumably one-twelfth of the pro-
perty in dispute, or of the fine in case of an action for
damages.* He had to be very careful ; for he was himself
liable for damages, besides forfeiting his fee, if he delivered
a false or an unjust judgment : — " Every judge " — says the
Book of Acaill — " is punishable for his neglect: he is to pay
eric-fine for his false judgment."t There is no record how
the brehons acquired the exclusive right to interpret the
laws and to arbitrate between litigants ; it grew up gradually
and came down as a custom from times beyond the reach
of history. The institution of the brehons, the gradual
increase of their authority, the legal processes in which
they took part, and the forms of trial for deciding cases
between man and man, were in all essential features much
the same as those that grew up in the early stages of
all the Aryan societies, Germanic, Anglo-Saxon, Danish,
Indian, Hellenic, &c., and strongly resembled the procedures
followed in archaic Roman law.J
To become a brehon a person had to go through a
regular, well-defined course of study and training. It
would appear that the same course qualified for any branch
of the l^al profession, and that once a man had mastered
♦ Brehon's fee: Br. Laws, i. 232, 1; 235,11; in. 305, u; 319, 20:
Stokes, Lives of SS., Pref. cxv.
t Br. Laws, in. 305. J See Br. Laws, iv. : Richey, Introd. xiv, xv.
I/O GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
the course, he might set up as a brehon or judge proper, a
consulting lawyer, an advocate, or a law-agent. Besides
this special study in technical law, a brehon should qualify
as a shanachie or historian ; just as in our day professional
students have to qualify in certain literary or scientific sub-
jects not immediately connected with their special lines.
In later ages the legal profession tended to become here-
ditary in certain families, some of whom were attached to
kings or chiefs, though all, or at least the high-class mem-
bers of the profession, had to comply with the conditions
as to time and study : — " No person," says the Senchus
M6r, " is qualified to plead a cause at the high court unless
he is skilled in every department of legal science."*
In very early times the brehon was regarded as a mys-
terious, half-inspired person, and a divine power kept watch
over his pronouncements to punish him for unjust judg-
ments : — " When the brehons deviated from the truth of
nature, there appeared blotches upon their cheeks."f The
great brehon, Moran, son of Carbery Kinncat (king of
Ireland in the first century), wore a sin [sheen] or collar
round his neck, which tightened when he delivered a false
judgment, and expanded again when he delivered the true
one. All this agrees with the whole tenor of Irish Litera-
ture, whether legendary, legal, or historical, which shows
the great respect the Irish entertained for justice pure and
simple according to law, and their horror of unjust deci-
sions.J It was the same at the most ancient period as it
was in the beginning of the seventeenth century, when Sir
John Davies, the Irish attorney-general of James I., testi-
fied : — " For there is no nation of people under the sunne
" that doth love equall and indifferent [i.e, impartial] justice
" better then the Irish ; or will rest better satisfied with the
♦ Br, Laws, ii. 89.
t Br. Laws, i. 25 ; also iv. 9, note 2 ; 15, last par. ; 17.
t In illustration of this see also Br. Laws, iv. 53: and Claenfearta in
0*Grady, Silva Gad., 288 : see also 357, 358.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS l/I
" execution thereof, although it bee against themselves ; so-
" as they may have the protection and benefit of the law^
" when uppon just cause they do desire it."* But later on
the Penal Laws changed all that, and turned the Irish
natural love of justice into hatred and distrust of law, which
in many ways continues to manifest itself to this day.
The brehons evidently took great pleasure in the
study and practice of their profession ; and we frequently
find the law designated as " pleasant and delightful know-
ledge,"t and such like. There are indications everywhere in
the law tracts that they applied themselves diligently to
master details and clear up doubtful points : and taking a
broad view of the whole subject, as it is presented to us in
the books, we cannot avoid concluding that — in the words of
Sullivan (Introd., 273) — " the profession of law appears to
" have been in a singularly advanced stage of organisation
" for so early a period."
In the beginning every y?^ or poet was also a brehon or
judge: "for, from the time that Amergin of the white knee,
the poet, delivered the first judgment in Erin, it was to the
files or poets alone that belonged the right of pronouncing
judgments, until the disputation of the two poets Fercertne
and NeidherX It happened during the reign of Concobar
Mac Nessa that these two sages had to argue a point in
public, while Concobar himself was present listening ; and
their language was so highly technical that neither the king
nor the chiefs could understand them ; whereupon the
privilege of judicature was taken from the poets and com-
mitted to the hands of special judges; and the legal profes-
sion, instead of being confined to the poets, was thrown
open to all who could qualify. This tradition probably
commemorates a reform at some very early time, by which
legal pronouncements came to be expressed in language
* This is the concluding sentence of Davies* thoughtful and valuable essay,
" A discoverie of the True Causes,*' &c. Davies was an Englishman.
f Br. Laws, iv. 21, i», st. t O'Curr}-, MS. Mat., 45 : Br. Laws, I. 19.
172 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AXU LAW [PART I
much less technical than before, so that all intelligent per-
sons might understand them.* Several great lawyers are
commemorated in the traditions, among whom, it is worthy
of remark, some women are included.
The Brehon Law that applied to all Ireland was called
Cdtn Law, to distinguish it from Urradus [urra-us] Law,
which was a special local law or custom applying only to
the province or district where it was in force. It was the
business of the brehon to know when to bring a case under
the one, and when under the other, and to apply the proper
rules in each case.
2. The Senchus M6r and other Books of Law.
The brehons had collections of laws in volumes or
tracts, all in the Irish language, by which they regulated
their judgments, and which those of them who kept law-
schools expounded to their scholars ; each tract treating of
one subject or one group of subjects. Many of these have
been preserved, and of late years the most important have
been published, with translations, forming five printed
volumes (with a sixth volume consisting of a valuable
Glossary to the preceding five, by Dr. Atkinson, the editor
of the fifth volume). Of the tracts contained in these
volumes, the two largest and most important are the
Senohus H6r [Shanahus More] and the Book of Acaill
[Ack'ill]. In a popular sense, it may be said that the
Senchus M6r is chiefly concerned with the Irish civil law,
and the Book of Acaill with what is now known as the
criminal law and the law relating to personal injuries.
In the ancient Introduction to the Senchus M6rt the
following account is given of its original compilation. In
the year 438 A.D. a collection of the pagan laws was made
at the request of St. Patrick, and the whole Ffyiechas Code
* For an example of the legal hard language see Corraac's Glossary, 102,
under «* Lethech." t Br. Laws, i. 3 et seg.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS 173
was expounded to him by Dubthach, the king's chief poet,
a zealous Christian convert. Laegaire [Leary], king of
Ireland, appointed a committee of nine persons to revise
them, viz. three kings — Laegaire himself, Core, king of
Munster, and Ddire [Dara], king of Ulster; three ecclesi-
astics— Patrick, Benen, and Ciimech ; and three poets and
antiquarians — Rossa, Dubthach, and Fergus. These nine
produced at the end of three years a revised code, which
was called Senchus M6r — also called Ciin Patrick or
Patrick's Law. This account, with the names of the
** nine props of the Senchus M6r," as they are desig^nated,
is also given briefly in Cormac's Glossary, as well as in the
Book of the Dun Cow (Trip. Life, 565, 571). The Intro-
duction to the Senchus M6r goes on to say : " What did
" not clash with the word of God in the written Law and
** in the New Testament, and with the consciences of the
" believers, was confirmed in the laws of the Brehons by
" Patrick and by the ecclesiastics and the chieftains of Erin
" [^".^. by the committee of nine]: and this is the Senchus
" M6r."* Though there are historical difficulties in this
account, there seems no good reason to doubt that there
was some such revision.
The code produced by the committee contained no new
laws : it was merely a digest of those already in use, with
the addition of the Scriptural and Canon laws. The state-
ment in the old Introduction is, that before St. Patrick's
time the law of nature prevailed, i,e, the ancient pagan law
as expounded by Dubthach to Patrick : after his time the
law of nature and the law of the letter : this latter (the
*Br. Law, 1. 17. Of all the missionaries that ever preached to the heathen,
I suppose that St. Patrick was about the most broad-minded and tolerant ; as
is evidenced in the whole story of his life-work. He made allowance for all
the prejudices of the native Irish, and never interfered with any of their
customs so long as they did not infringe on the tenets of Christianity. He
himself indeed followed the native customs wherever he could ; yet when he
encountered downright pagan beliefs, idolatrous rites, or wickedness in any
form, he was determined and fearless, as when he destroyed the idol Cromm
Cruach (see this name in Index) .
174 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
"** Law of the Letter ") being " The Patriarchal Law [the
Old Testament] and the New Testament." But the " Law
of the Letter " evidently included the numerous Canonical
rules laid down by Patrick and his successors, which ad-
justed the relations of the Church to the lay community,
all of which were new.* The commentator of the Senchus
M6r adds that " the over-severity of the law was taken
"' from it, namely, the old law of retaliation, * an eye for an
■** eye,* &c.," which existed in the Mosaic Law (Lev. xxiv.
19, 20) and in the Irish Law before Patrick's time : all
which was expunged, and the milder law of compensa-
tion substituted. But it is probable that this last reform
had been gradually coming into use, and was formally
•confirmed in the Senchus M6r.
The very book left by St. Patrick and the others has
been long lost Successive copies were made from time to
time, with commentaries and explanations appended, till
the manuscripts we now possess were produced. The
existing manuscript copies of the Senchus M6r consist
of: — I. The original text, written in a large hand with
wide spaces between the lines : 2. An introduction to the
text : 3. Commentaries on the text, in a smaller hand :
4. Glosses or explanations on words and phrases of the
text, in a hand still smaller ; commentaries and glosses
commonly written in the spaces between the lines of the
text. Of these the text, as might be expected, is the most
ancient. The language is extremely archaic, indicating a
very remote antiquity, though probably not the very lan-
guage left by the revising committee, but a modified version
of a later time.
The Senchus M6r is referred to, as a well-known work,
in Cormac's Glossary, written in the end of the ninth or
the beginning of the tenth century ; and many of its law
terms had then become obsolete, and are explained in the
-Glossary. As showing the substantial identity of the work
* See also Br. Laws, in. 27 bot., and 29 top.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS 175
referred to in this Glossary with the present existing copy
of the Senchus M6r, it may be mentioned that most of
the cases, passages, and terms cited in the Glossary are
found in the lately printed text. Another law tract, the
Bret ha Nented {tho, *Laws of the Privileged Classes': from
breth^ judgment, pi. bretha ; and nemed, a person of the
higher or chieftain classes), is repeatedly referred to and
quoted in the same old Glossary.
The Introduction comes next in point of antiquity ;
and the Commentaries and Glosses are the least ancient of
all. Introduction, Commentaries, and Glosses (such as we
have them) were written or copied by diflTerent learned
lawyers at various times from the beginning of the four-
teenth down to the sixteenth century : the language being
often much older than the writing. The manuscript copies
of the Book of Acaill and of some other law tracts resemble
those of the Senchus M6r, the original texts being accom-
panied by Introduction, Commentaries, and Glosses. In
the printed volumes all these are translated, and the dif-
ferent sizes of the penmanship are marked by different
sizes of type, both in the Irish and in the translation.
It is probable that in very ancient times all laws were
in verse.* This was evidently the case with the original
Senchus M6r, for we are told by the commentators that at
the compilation **Dubthach put a thread of poetry round it
for Patrick " :f and we know that the archaic pagan code
expounded by Dubthach was itself in verse. J The old
form has to some extent survived in the law tracts, for
certain portions of the existing version of the Senchus M6r
are in verse.
The laws were written in the oldest dialect of the Irish
language, called B^rla FHni^ which even at the time was
so difficult that persons about to become brehons had to
be specially instructed in it. Even the authors of the
• Maine, Anc. Inst., 14. f Br. Laws, i, 23, 25.
J Br. Laws, I. 39, 10.
176 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
Commentaries and Glosses who wrote hundreds of years
ago, and were themselves learned brehons, were often quite
at fault in their attempts to explain the archaic text : and
their words show that they were fully conscious of the
difficulty. It will then be readily understood tliat the task
of translating these Laws was a very difficult one, rendered
all the more so by the number of technical terms and
phrases, many of which are to this day obscure, as well as
by the peculiar style, which is very elliptical and abrupt —
often incomplete sentences, or mere catch-words of rules
not written down In full, but held in memory by the experts
of the time.
Another circumstance that greatly adds to the difficulty
of deciphering these MSS. is the confused way in which
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS I77
the Commentaries are written in, mainly with the object of
economising the expensive vellum. The lines and phrases
generally follow each other downwards, but sometimes up-
wards ; and often a part of a line belongs to one sentence^
while the other part has to be picked up after some time
for another sentence lower down : and the whole abounds
in contractions. The explanatory note under fig. 68 will
give some idea of all this.
The two great Irish scholars — 0*Donovan andO'Curry —
who translated the Laws included in the five printed volumes,.
were able to do so only after a life-long study ; and in
numerous instances were, to the last, not quite sure of the
meaning. As they had to retain the legal terms and the
elliptical style, even the translation is hard enough to
understand, and is often unintelligible. This translation
is, moreover, imperfect for another reason : they did not
live to revise it. How the case stands will be understood
from the following extract from the last Report (1902) of
the Brehon Law Commissioners : —
•*The transcripts [made in the first instance by O* Donovan and
O' Curry] occupied seventeen volumes, and employed those engaged
on them for several years. A preliminaryt ranslation of almost all
the MS. tracts which the Commissioners selected for publication was
made either by Dr. O' Donovan or by Professor O'Curry; but un-
happily those scholars did not live to complete and revise their
translations, which were, in fact, in a g^reat degree, provisional only,
imperfections and errors being unavoidable in a first attempt to
accomplish what had been regarded by many previous experts as a
hopeless task."
In criticising the work of these eminent men, therefore,,
scholars will do well to deal with their imperfections and
errors tenderly and reverently.
Why the Laws were so often written in this disjointed
elliptical style admits of a natural explanation, which may
be given in the words of Dr. Atkinson, in his short Preface
to the sixth volume of the Laws : — " The conclusion has
N
4(
4(
178 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
"^been forced upon me by the prolonged study of these
documents, that there was a very definite teaching of an
orai kind (of which the present documents only give us
the notes), based upon old traditions of the time when the
present extant MSS. were committed to writing." So that
the existing texts of the Senchus M6r and other law tracts
are in great part what would now be called headings or
notes of lectures, a description which anyone who examines
them carefully will recognise as correct
3. Absence of Legislation.
In all countries a part at least of the law consists of
customs that have grown up from the immemorial begin-
nings of society, corresponding with what is now called
"** common law," never formally enacted, but submitted to
by the general body of the people from hereditary habit
and under pressure of public opinion. But in countries
where the central government has attained sufficient power
to take the law into its own hands, there are superadded to
these a body of laws specially enacted— statute law as it
is now called.
Ireland never arrived at, or at least never seriously
entered on, the legislative stage : in other words, no distinct
legislative machinery existed : that is to say, a body
convened for the purpose of making laws, with authority
conferred by the state, and with special officers to enforce
obedience — a body like our present parliament. The
resistance of the subordinate kings to their nominal supe-
riors, and the resulting constant internecine wars, rendered
it impossible for any supreme king to command sufficient
power, so that the central government was never strong
enough to have much influence either in the making of
laws or in causing the existing laws to be carried out. All
this prevented the idea of the state from taking root, and
the people could not look to it for supreme authority or for
protection: much the same as matters stood in England
CHAP. Yl] THE BREHON LAWS I79
in the time of the Heptarchy. A central state authority
would have been ultimately developed in Ireland if the
development had not been at first retarded by civil strife,
and finally arrested by the Danish wars and by the Anglo-
Norman invasion.
It has been asserted indeed that one of the objects for
which the Fits of Tara was convened was to enact laws ;
but for this assertion — which is often enough repeated —
there is no ancient authority. We have very full descrip-
tions of this Fits^ and also of the proceedings at some of
the Aenachs or Fair-meetings held elsewhere (chap. xxix.).
But though we find it stated over and over again that at
these assemblies the laws were publicly " proclaimed,"
or " promulgated," or " rehearsed " — to make the people
familiar with them — that they were " revised," or " re-
arranged," or " re-affirmed " — these several functions being
always performed by properly qualified lawyers — there is
nowhere any open or plain statement that laws were made
or enacted and sent forth with authority either at the Fits
or at any of the Aenachs, As a matter of fact, 0*Curry,
though he believed the Fiis of Tara exercised legislative
functions in their widest sense, acknowledges that he was
unable to find any record of the enactment of any pa.rticular
law at these Tara conventions.*
From the earliest times, however, assemblies were con-
vened to deliberate on public questions. Matters of local and
general interest were discussed and arranged, such as taxes,
the making and repairing of roads, bridges, causeways,
boundaries, the rights of classes or tribes, and such like: but
this was not legislation. Yet some of these meetings made
an approach to legislative functions ; as, for instance, the
synod convened at Tara in 697, where, under the influence
of St Adamnan, the law exempting women from taking
part in war was agreed on and promulgated. It is not
necessary to quote other examples here : but those who
♦Man. & Cust., i. 29.
N2
l8o GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
wish to Study the matter further will find in the footnote*
many other references to records of such assemblies. Meet-
ings of this kind at best bore only a faint resemblance to
legislative assemblies ; for there existed no authoritative
machinery to have the laws carried out, and anyone who
chose might refuse to obey them, without subjecting him-
self to any danger of direct punishment by the state.
But these historical considerations do not go to the
bottom of the subject : the real way to determine the
question is to examine the Laws themselves. When we
do this, we find scarce a trace of any result of legislative
action : nothing at all, in fact, resembling statute law. The
entire Book of Acaill, which occupies nearly one large
volume of the Brehon Laws, and which to some extent
corresponds — as has been said — to the present British
criminal law, consists, as the book itself states, of Pre-
cedents— the legal pronouncements of two learned lawyers,
Cormac Mac Art and Cennfaela the learned. As to the
Senchus M6r, the most important part of the whole Brehon
Code, it claims to be merely a revised edition, as already
stated, of the old pagan law in use before the time of St.
Patrick, of which there is no record, and no indication, that
any part was ever enacted by a legislative assembly. To
what an extent the judgments of the brehons were regu-
lated by mere precedent or case law is very clearly expressed
in Cormac's Glossary (p. 76) under the word Fasach : —
" Fasach [a precedent or maxim] ; i.e. the brehon produces
" a precedent {cosmailes : literally a * likeness *) for every
" case in which he adjudicates, t.e, a case similar (cosmatl)
" to another : and he afterwards repeats the sentence which
"wise brehons had passed upon it \t\e, upon a case similar
" to the case in hands]. Or he follows a good old judgment
" for the present case." So also the Commentary on the
• Br. Laws, I. 37 (a judgment) ; 79 & 81 (a judgment) ; 159, 23: iii. 21,
last par. ; 150, note 2 : iv. 227 ; FM, a.d. 1050 (meeting at Killaloe) :
0*Curry, MS. Mat., 45, %z : Man. & Cust., r. 30, mid. ; and 32, top.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS l8l
Senchus M6r says that the brehon delivered judgment in
public from " the precedents and commentaries."*
The Brehon Laws, then, are not a legislative structure,
but merely a collection of customs attaining the force of
law by long usage, by hereditary habit, and by public
opinion : customs which were thrown into shape and com-
mitted to writing by a class of professional lawyers or
brehons. And a similar growth and development of
custom-law took place in the early stages of all the Aryan
nations."!" It is to be observed that after the time of St
Patrick, in the fifth century, Christianity exerted an ever-
increasing influence in law as in other institutions ; and it
is evident from the law-books that, while custom was the
main guide of the Brehon lawyers, moral right and wrong
obtained more and more consideration in the settlement of
cases as time went on.
4. Suitability of the Brehon Law,
The Brehon Code forms a great body of civil, military,
and criminal law. It regulates the various ranks of society,
from the king down to the slave, and enumerates their
several rights and privileges. There are minute rules for
the management of property, for the several industries —
building, brewing, mills, water-courses, fishing-weirs, bees
and honey — for distress or seizure of goods, for tithes,
trespass, and evidence. The relations of landlord and
tenant, the fees of professional men — doctors, judges,
teachers, builders, artificers, — the mutual duties of father
and son, of foster-parents and foster-children, of master
and servant, are all carefully regulated. In that portion
corresponding to what is now known as criminal law, the
various offences are minutely distinguished : — murder,
manslaughter, assaults, wounding, thefts, and all sorts of
wilful damage ; and accidental injuries from flails, sledge-
^ Br. Laws, I. 19, lo.
t Richey, Introd. to vol ni., p. xvii.
1 82 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
hammers, machines, and weapons of all kinds ; and the
amount of compensation is laid down in detail for almost
every possible variety of injury.
Contracts or covenants are regarded as peculiarly
sacred, and are treated in great detail. " There are three
" periods of evil for the world" — says the Senchus M6r —
" the period of a plague, of a general war, and of the dissolu-
" tion of verbal contracts " ; and again : " The world would
" be evilly situated if express contracts were not binding."*
But they should be contracts in which both parties were
perfectly free : a condition always very clearly kept in view.
There were several ways of striking a contract or ratifying
a covenant — all very simple. One was by the two parties
joining their right hands, which should be first ungloved
if gloves were wom.f Sometimes one of the parties put
his drinking-horn into the hand of the other:} a practice
anciently common in England, especially in the transfer of
lands. Certain legal formulae were commonly used : — the
conditions were to be observed "while the sea surrounds
Erin," " so long as the sun and wind remain," &c.§ Impor-
tant contracts were always witnessed ; and it was usual to
give, on each side, persons of standing as securities and
guarantees for the fulfilment of contracts or conditions.
These persons became liable in case of default. A contract
was denoted by the words cor^ cotach, and ernaidm.
The Brehon Law was vehemently condemned by
English writers ; and in several acts of parliament it was
made treason for the English settlers to use it. But these
testimonies are to be received with much reserve as coming
from prejudiced and interested parties. The laws laid
down in the Brehon Code were not, in fact, peculiarly Irish.
They were, as has been remarked (p. 1 8 1), similar to the
ancient laws of all other Ar>'an tribes, a survival — modified
* Br. Laws, i. 51 ; in. 3.
t SUva Gad., 114, 27 ; 116, 13 ; i45» 11 : Stokes's Acallamh, 324.
J Silva Gad., 143, 3. § Stoke?, Lives of SS., cxv.
CHAP. VI] THE BREHON LAWS l8j
by time and circumstance— of what was once universal*
We have good reason to believe that the Brehon Law was
very well suited to the society in which, and from which, it
grew up. This view is confirmed by the well-known fact
that when the English settlers living outside the Pale
adopted the Irish manners and customs, they all, both high
and low, abandoned their own law and adopted the Brehon
Code, to which they became quite as much attached as the
Irish themselves. The Anglo-Irish lords of those times
commonly kept brehons in their service after the manner
of the native Irish chiefs : although it was treason for
them to do so :+ and even the Butlers, who of all the great
Anglo-Irish families were least inclined to imitate the Irish,
adopted the custom. Many authorities might be cited in
proof of all this : but the following passage from an Anglo-
Irish State paper of 1537 sets forth the facts as clearly and
strongly as could be desired : —
" Mem.— The statutes of Kilcas [;.e. the local Brehon Law of
Kilcash in Tipperary, near Clonmel] be commonly used in the Country
by (he lord of Ossory [one of the Butlers], and by his Irish judge
called a brehon, and by all other freeholders of the Countrey, and
they ha.ve none other lawe but the same ; and divers of the bookes-
of the same statutes [I'.f. MS. books of those parts of the Brehoti
Law] are in the safe keeping of the shiref of the shire of Kilkenny
[the principality of the earls of Ormond, chiefs of the Butlers], and
the bishop of Waterford : and one book is in possession of Rory
Mac Loughire, being judge [or brehon] of the country." J
* Maine, Attc. Inst., 19. f War«, Antiqq., 69 bot., 71 hot.
I Quoled by Dr. J. O'Donovan in Ihe Rev. MaUhew Kelly's edition of
CambreDsis Evtnus, 11. 793.
CHAPTER VII
THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND
Section i. The Land originally common Property.
. following account of the ancient land
laws of Ireland, which has been com-
piled chiefly from the Brehon Laws,
corroborated in some of its main
tures by those early English writers
...io described the native Irish customs
from personal observation. It throws much light on the
Irish land question of modern times.
In theory the land belonged not to individuals, but
to the tribe. The king or chief had a portion assigned
to him as mensal land. The rest was occupied by the
tribesmen in the several ways mentioned below. The
chief, though exercising a sort of supervision over the
whole of the territory, had no right of ownership except
over his own property, if he had any, and for the time
being over his mensal land. It would appear that origi-
nally — in prehistoric times — the land was all common
property, and chief and people were liable to be called
on to give up their portions for a new distribution. But
as time went on, this custom was gradually broken in upon ;
and the lands held by some, being never resumed, came
CHAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND 1 85
to be looked upon as private property. As far back as
our records go, there was some private ownership in land;
and it is plainly recognised all through the Brehon Laws.*
^*A11 the Brehon writers seem to have a bias towards
private, as distinguished from collective, property."! Yet
the original idea of collective ownership was never quite
lost : for although men owned land, the ownership was
not so absolute as at present A man, for instance, could
not alienate his land outside the tribe ; and he had to
comply with certain other tribal obligations in the manage-
ment and disposal of it,J all which restrictions were vestiges
of the old tribe ownership. But within these limits, which
were not very stringent, a man might dispose of his land
just as he pleased.
Outside of the Brehon Laws, we do not find much
reference to the former common occupation of land. But
there are at least two passages which have been noticed by
Sir Henry Maine (Anc. Inst, 114) as preserving a dim
memory of the old state of things : interesting passages
supplied to him by Dr. Whitley Stokes. One is an ancient
scholiast's preface in the Book of Hymns (Todd, 132) : —
^* For the people were very numerous in Erin at that time
[namely, during the reign of the sons of Aed Slaine, A.D.
656 to 664] : and so great were their numbers that the
** land could afford but thrice nine ridges [/ri n6i iminaire :
meaning here long narrow plots — not hill-ridges] to each
" man in Erin : viz., nine of bog, nine of field, and nine of
wood." The other passage is in one of the ancient tales —
The Birth of Cuculainn " — in the Book of the Dun Cow
{and copied into that, A.D. iioo, from an earlier MS.).
This story relates how, on one occasion, a party of the
Red Branch Knights set out southwards from Emain in
chariots in pursuit of a flock of enchanted birds : and they
• Br. Laws, in. 53 ; iv. 69 to 159 : these references given as specimens ;
many other passages might be referred to.
t Maine, Anc. Inst., p. 105. { Br. Laws, 11. 283 ; in. 53, 55.
41
4<
<{
4t
l86 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
proceeded across country without difficulty, because, says
the story : — " There was neither trench, nor fence, nor
"stone wall round land in those days, until there came
"the time of the sons of Aed Slaine, but only smooth
" fields. Because of the abundance of households in their
" time, therefore, it came to pass that they made boundaries
"in Ireland."* Maine reroarks it as instructive that, in
both passages, the change is referred to an increase of
population : and he goes on to express his opinion that
this unquestionably represents true history. The common
occupation of land is also alluded to in the early Memoirs
of St. Patrick.t
2. Five ways of holding Land.
Within historic times the following were the rules of
land tenure, as set forth chiefly in the Brehon Laws, and
also in some important points by early English writers.}
The tribe (or aggregate of tribes), under the rule of one
king or chief, held permanently a definite district of the
country. The tribe was divided, as already described
(p. i66), into smaller groups — clans or septs — each of which,
being governed by a sub-chief under the chief of the tribe,
was a sort of miniature of the whole tribe ; and each clan
was permanently settled down on a separate portion of the
land which was considered as their separate property, and
which was not interfered with by any other clans or septs
of the tribe. The land was held by individuals in some
one of five different ways.
First — The chief, whether of the tribe or of the sept,
had a portion as mensal land, for life or for as long as
he remained chief (for which, see p. 50, supra).
Second. — Another portion was held as private property
* Jr. Texte, i. 136, par. 2 ; and LU, 128, «, 14.
t Trip. Life, p. 337, 26 ; and Introd. clxxv.
J For Irish land tenures, see Sull., Introd., 185 et seq, : and for the cor-
respondences between Irish and Teutonic land laws, the same vol., 131 etseq.
CMAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND 1 8/
by persons who had come to own the land in various ways.
Most of these wer^flaUks, or nobles, of the several ranks ;
and some were professional men, such as physicians, judges^
poets, historians, artificers, &c., who had got their lands as
stipends for their professional services to the chief, and
in whose families it often remained for generations. Under
this second heading may be included the plot on which
stood the homestead of every free member of the tribe,
with the homestead itself.
Third, — Persons held, as tenants, portions of the lands
belonging to those who owned it as private property, or
portions of the mensal land of the chief — much like tenants
of the present day : these paid what was equivalent to
rent — always in kind. The term was commonly seven
years, and they might sublet to under-tenants.
Fourth. — The rest of the arable land, which was called
the Tribe-land — equivalent to the folc or folk land of
England — forming by far the largest part of the territory,
belonged to the people in general, the several subdivisions
of it to the several septs, no part being private property.*
This was occupied by the free members of the sept, who
were owners for the time being, each of his own farm.
Every free man had a right to his share, a right never
questioned. Those who occupied the tribe-land did not
hold for any fixed term, for the land of the sept was liable
to gavelkind (sect. 5, below) or redistribution from time to
time — once every two or three years.f Yet they were not
tenants at will, for they could not be disturbed till the time
of gavelling ; even then each man kept his crops and got
compensation for unexhausted improvements ; and though
he gave up one farm, he always got another.
Fifth. — The non-arable or waste land — mountain,
forest, bog, &c. — was Commoiuhlaiid. This was not appro-
priated by individuals ; but every free man had a right
• Br. Laws, in. 17, 53; Ware, Antiqq., 72, top.
t Davies, Disc. : Letter to Lord Salisbury, ed. 1787, p. 279.
1 88 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
to use it for grazing,* for procuring fuel, or for the chase.
There was no need of subdividing the commons by fences,
for the cattle of all grazed over it without distinction.
The portion of territory occupied by each sept commonly
included land held in all the five ways here described.
Between common clan ownership on the one hand, and
private ownership by individuals on the other, there was
an intermediate link ; for in some cases land was owned
by a family, though not by any individual member, and
remained in the same family for generations. This was
often the case with land granted for professional services.
A very remarkable and peculiar development of family
ownership was what was known as the Gelflne system,
under which four groups of persons, all nearly related to
each other, held four adjacent tracts of land as a sort of
common property, subject to regulations, then well recog-
nised, but now hard enough to understand.!
It should be observed that the individuals and families
who owned land as private property were comparatively
few, and their possessions were not extensive : the great
bulk of both people and land fell under the conditions of
tenure described under the fourth and fifth headings.
3. Tenants: their Payments and Subsidies,
Every tribesman had to pay to his chief certain subsi-
dies according to his means. Those who held portion of
the tribe-land, and who used the commons land for grazing
or other purposes, paid these subsidies of course ; but
beyond this they had no rent to pay to any individual for
land held or used under the categoriesy^^^^r 2x\Afive described
above. The usual subsidy for commons pasturage was in
^ How commons-land was used for grazing will be described in chap,
xxiii.
t On the Geltine system : see Br. Laws, iv., Introd. L. ; 41, last par. and
note 2 ; 43 ; 63, 3 ; 249, 20 ; 269, u ; 287, note 4 ; 289, notes i and 2 ; 293, 7 :
and Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 69.
CHAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND 1 89
the proportion of one animal yearly for every seven,* which
was considerably less than a reasonable rent of the present
day. Probably the subsidy for tillage-land was in much
the same proportion. Every person who held land shared
the liabilities of the tribe ; for instance, he was liable to
military service,! and he was bound to contribute to the
support of old people who had no children.^
The tribesman who placed himself under the protection
of a chief, and who held land, whether it was the private
property of the lessor or a part of the general tribe-land,
was, as already explained, a C6ile [caiKeh] or tenant ; also
called //in^ and aithech^ i.e. a plebeian, farmer, or rent-
payer. But a man who takes land must have stock —
cows and sheep for the pasture-land, horses or oxen to
carry on the work of tillage. A small proportion of the
cities had stock of their own, but the great majority had
not Where the tenant needed stock it was the custom for
the chief to give him as much as he wanted at certain
rates of payment. A man might hire stock from the king
or a chief, or from a noble, or from some rich bo-aire. It
often happened that an intermediate chief who gave stock
to tenants took stock himself from the king of the territory.
This custom of giving and taking stock on hire was
universal in Ireland ; and it gave rise to a peculiar set
of social relations which were r^ulated in great detail by
the Brehon Law.
The c/iles or tenants were of two kinds, according to
the manner of taking stock : — Saer-c6ile8, or free tenants,
and Baer-o^iles, or bond tenants — the latter also called
giallna [geelna : g hard] tenants. A saer [sare] tenant was
one who took stock without giving security — nothing but
a mere acknowledgment (Br. Laws; II. 195). Stock given
in this manner was saer stock, and the tenant held by saer
tenure. A doer tenant was one who gave security for his
* Br. LaM-s, ill. 129 ; iv. 305. t Ibid.^ iv. 19, 41.
t Ibid,, n. 283.
190 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
stock : his stock was daer stock ; and he held by daer
tenure. The saer tenants were comparatively independent,
and many of them were rich : as, for instance, the bo-atres^
who were all saer tenants to kings, chiefs, or nobles. The
payments saer tenants had to make were reasonable. Not
so the daer tenants : they had to pay heavily, and were
generally in a state of dependence. Their position was
much the same as that of needy persons of our own day,
who are forced to borrow at usurious interest. More stock
was given to a man in daer tenancy than in saer tenancy.
It was of more advantage to the chief to give daer stock
than saer stock (Br. Laws, XL 2ii, 213).
When a man took daer stock, he had to do so openly,
without any concealment ; and his Finb [finna] — i.e, his
family, including all his sept or kindred within certain
degrees of relationship — might if they pleased veto the
whole transaction (Br. Laws, II. 217). From this it would
appear that daer tenancy was viewed with disfavour by the
community, for the reason, no doubt, that it tended to
lower the status of the tribe.* There was a sharp dis-
tinction between the two orders of tenants, the daer tenants
being very much the lower in public estimation. When
the chief gave evidence in a court of law against his tenants,
the saer tenants were privileged to give evidence in reply,
but the daer tenants were not (Br. Laws, II. 345). A daer
or bond tenant was so called, not that he was a slave or an
unfree person, but because by taking daer stock he forfeited
some of his rights as a freeman, and his heavy payments
always kept him down.
The ordinary subsidy owed by a saer tenant to his
chief was called Bes-tigi [bess-tee] or house tribute, varying
in amount according to his means or the extent of his
land : it consisted of cows, pigs, bacon, malt, corn, &c. He
was also bound to give the chief either a certain number of
days* work, or service in war.f For whatever saer stock
* Maine, Anc. Inst., 163. fBr. Laws, ii. 195 ; ill. 19, 1, s; 495*
CHAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND IQI
he took he had to pay one-third of its value yearly for
seven years, at the end of which time the stock became his
own property without further payment * This was equiva-
lent to thirty-three per cent, per annum for seven years
to repay a loan with its interest — a sufficiently exorbitant
charge. He also had to send a man at stated times to pay
full homage to the chief. The labour and the homage are
designated in the laws as the worst or most irksome of the
saer tenant's obligations (Br. Laws, II. 195).
A daer tenant had to give war-service (ill. 495) and
work. His chief payment, however, was a food-supply
called Biatad [bee'ha] or food-rent — cows, pigs, com, bacon,
butter, honey, &c. — paid twice a year. The amount de-
pended chiefly on the amount of daer stock he took
(II. 229), and probably varied according to local custom.
At the end of his term he had, under ordinary circum-
stances, to return all the stock or its equivalent (ll. 223).
But if the chief died at the end of seven years, the tenant,
provided he had paid his food-rent regularly, kept the
stock (II. 269). The daer tenants were the principal
purveyors of the chief, who could be sure of a supply of
provisions all the year round for his household and
numerous followers, by properly regulating the periods of
payment of his several tenants. This custom is described
by several English writers as existing in their own time,
so late as the time of Elizabeth.
The daer tenants were bound to give coinmed [coiney],
or refection, on visitation — that is to say, the chief was
entitled to go with a company to the daer tenant's house,
and remain there for a time varying from one day to a
month, the tenant supplying food, drink, and sanctuary or
protection from danger.f The number of followers and
the time, with the quantity and quality of food and the
extent of protection, were regulated by law according to
♦ Br. Laws, II. 195, 197, 199, 203.
t Jbid.^ II. 20, note 2 ; 233 ; in. 19.
192 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
the tenant's amount of ^^r stock (in. 21), and also accord-
ing to the rank of the guest : the higher the rank the
longer the time (ll. 20, note 2). The protection might be
relinquished either wholly or partly for an increase of food
and drink or vice versd (ll. 21). Sometimes soldiers, in
lieu of regular pay, were sent among the tenants, from
whom they were entitled to receive buannacht or bonaght,.
i,e, money, food, and entertainment : an eminently evil
custom. The refection and bonaght, which were by far
the most oppressive of the daer tenant's liabilities, seem to
have been imposts peculiar to Ireland. The daer tenants
were subject to several other duties, which came at irregular
intervals ; and in time of war the chief usually imposed
much heavier tributes than at other times upon all the
tenants. Sometimes saer tenants were liable to coiney :
and occasionally a church was under an obligation to
supply a night's coiney to the chief at certain intervals,
such as once a quarter.* But besides this, the superior
chief, when on his visitations, was to be entertained free
by his subordinate chiefs.f Kings, bishops, and certain
classes of chiefs and professional men were also entitled to
free entertainment when passing through territories, with
the proper number of attendants.J And it appears that
when certain officials met to transact public business, the
tenants, both saer and daer^ had to lodge and feed them
(III. 21). If either the chief or the tenant fell into poverty,
provision was made that he should not suffer by unjust
pressure from the other party : " No one," says the law-
book, " should be oppressed in his difficulty " (il. 339).
The daer tenants were by far the most numerous ; and
accordingly this system of the chief stocking the farms was
very general. It has often been compared to the mitayer
system, still found in some parts of France and Italy,
* Misc. Ir. Arch. Soc., 1846, p. 143.
t HyF, 209.
X Br. Laws, I v. 347, 349, 35 »•
CHAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND 1 93
according to which the landlord supplies land, stock, and
utensils, and receives half the produce.
The text of the Laws gives no information regarding
the circumstances that led some to become saer tenants
and others cUzer tenants ; and the whole subject is involved
in considerable obscurity. But a careful study of the text
will enable one to gather that this is probably how matters
stood. All who took land had to pay the chief certain
subsidies — as we have said — independently of what they
had to pay for stock. Those who chose to become saer
tenants did so because they had stock of their own, either
quite or nearly sufficient; and they took stock in small
quantity to make up the amount they needed. The doer
tenants, on the other hand, were poor men who had to take
all their stock — or nearly all— on hire ; and they had to
give security because they were poor, and because they
took such a large quantity. In their case the subsidies for
land and the payments for stock are in the Laws commonly
mixed up so as to be undistinguishable.
The power, wealth, and influence of a chief depended
very much on the amount of stock he possessed for lending
out : for besides enriching him, it gave him all the great
advantage over his tenants which the lender has every-
where over the borrower. This practice was so liable to
abuse that the compilers of the Brehon Code attempted
to protect borrowing tenants by a multitude of precise
detailed rules. Sir Henry Maine considers that the pay-
ments made by the Irish tenants for stock developed in
time into a rent payment in respect of land.
Very careful provisions — penalties in the shape of heavy
compensation payments — are laid down in the Laws to pre-
vent either the chief or the tenant — whether in saer or doer
tenancy — from terminating the agreement in an arbitrary
fashion, as well as to protect each against any neglect or
misconduct on the part of the other.* The tenure of
• Br. Laws, 11. 313 et seq.
O
194 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
all was therefore secure, in whatever way they held their
lands.
Though the custom of visiting tenants' houses for
coiney or refection was carefully safeguarded in the
Brehon Law, it was obviously liable to great abuse. In
imitation of the Irish, the Anglo-Irish lords adopted the
custom of Coyne and Livery,* which they commonly levied
from the English settlers, and committed such excesses —
far beyond any abuses of the native chiefs — that they
almost mined the settlement by itf
4. Fudirs or Serfs on the Land.
The social position of fudirs^ saer and daer^ has been
already explained (p. 162). The saer- fudirs were permitted
to take land from year to year ; and they could not be
disturbed till the end of their term. Allowance had to
be made to them for unexhausted improvements, such as
manure. As they were permitted a settlement by the
grace of the chief, they were reckoned a part of the
chiefs fink or family (Br. Laws, IV. 283), though they
were not members of the tribe. Outside these small privi-
leges, however, they were tenants at will. It would seem
indeed that the chief might demand almost anything he
pleased from difudtr tenant, and if refused might turn him
off (ill. 131). But the daer-fudirs were in a still worse
position. If a daer-fudtr took land, it did not belong to
him during occupation (ill. 131) ; he was merely permitted
to till it : he was a tenant at will, having no right whatever
in his holding. He was completely at the mercy of the
chief, who generally rackrented him so as to leave barely
enough for subsistence. The daer-fudirs^ after a certain
period of residence (p. 163, supra\ belonged to the land
• Coyne and livery — food for man and horse. Coyne is the Irish coinmed
or coiney ; livery is French — * food for a horse.*
t For coyDe and livery and its abuses, see Ware, Antiqq., chap. xii. ; and
Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 78.
CHAP. Vll] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND 1 95
on which they were settled, and could not leave it. The
land kept by ^flaith or noble in his own hands was com-
monly worked by daer-fudirs : and none but a noble could
keep them on his estate.
Spenser, Davies, and other early English writers speak
of the Irish tenants as in a condition worse than that of
bondslaves, and as taking land only from year to year.
No doubt, the tenants they had in view were the fudirs^
who must have been particularly numerous during the
Irish wars of Elizabeth (p. 164, supra). It is evident from
the Brehon Law that the fudirs were a most important
class on account of their numbers ; for as they tended to
increase in the disturbed state of the country from the
ninth century down, they must ultimately have formed
a very large proportion of the population.
Sometimes a whole tribe, for one reason or another,
came to be in such a state of dependence or serfdom as
to approach slavery. They were commonly a tribe who
had been expelled from their homes by stronger settlers
or invaders, and who, seeking a place of settlement from a
strange chief, were received by him under hard conditions.
Such a tribe was usually designated daer-thtiatk [dair-hooa],
z,e. * bond-tribe,' corresponding with ^ daer-ch^iW as applied
to an individual (p. 189, supra): often called in English
* enslaved tribe,' but the people were really not slaves.
They were subject to heavy tributes, and had to execute
certain works, such as building, road-repairing, &c., without
payment, for the chief of the district, and they were looked
upon as inferiors by the people among whom they settled.
The ancient rights of the tenants, ue, of the chiles or
freemen, as may be gathered from the preceding part of
this chapter, were chiefly three : — A right to some portion
of the arable or tribe-land, and to the use of the commons :
a right to pay no more than a- fair rent, which, in the
absence of express agreement, was adjusted by law :* a
•Br. Laws, I. 159; n. 317; 111, 127.
02
196 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
right to own a house and homestead, and (with certain
equitable exceptions) all unexhausted improvements.*
Unless under special contract, in individual cases, the
fudirs had no claim to these — with this exception, how-
ever, that the saer-fudirs had a right to their unexhausted
improvements. Among the freemen who held the tribe-
land there was no such thing as eviction from house or
land, for there was a universal conviction that the landlord
was not the absolute owner, so that all free tenants had
what was equivalent to fixity of tenure. If a man failed to
pay the subsidy to his chief, or the rent of land held in any
way, or the debt due for stock, it was recovered like any
other debt, by the processes described in next chapter
never by process of eviction.f
5. Descent of Land.
In Ireland the land descended in three different ways.
Firsts as private property. — When a man had land under-
stood to be his own, it would naturally pass to his heirsj —
i, e, his heirs in the sense then understood, not necessarily
in our sense of the word ; or he might if he wished divide
it among them during his life — a thing that was sometimes
done. In the Tripartite Life of St. Patrick (109, iii), we
find cases of the sons inheriting the land of their father.
There appears in the Brehon Law a tendency to favour
descent of land by private ownership : " The Brehon Law
" writers seem to me distinctly biassed in favour of the
" descent of property in individual families."§ It should be
remarked that those who inherited the property inherited
also the liabilities. ||
Second, — The land held by the chief as mensal estate
descended, not to his heir, but to the person who succeeded
• Brehon Laws, iv. 133, 135, 137.
t Ibid.y I. 123, 157, 159, 169, 187, 215, 217, 219, 231, 233.
{ Jbid., III. 399 ; IV. 45, 69.
\ Maine, Anc. Inst., 193. 0 Br., Laws, ill. 399-405; iv. 45.
CHAP. VII] THE LAWS RELATING TO LAND I97
him in the chiefship. This is what is known as descent by
Thirds by Gavelkind. — When a tenant who held a
part of the tribe-land died, his farm did not go to his
children : but the whole of the land belonging to the^«^
or sept was redivided or gavelled among all the male adult
members of the sept — including the dead man's adult
sons — those members of the sept who were illegitimate
getting their share like the rest* The domain of the chief,
and all land that was private property, were exempt The
redistribution by gavelkind on each occasion extended
to the sept— not beyond. Davies complains, with justice,
that this custom prevented the tenants from making per-
manent improvements.!
Davies asserts that land went by only two modes —
Tanistry and Gavelkind : but both the Laws and the Annals
show that descent by private ownership was well recog-
nised.
The two customs of Tanistry and Gavelkind formerly
prevailed all over Europe, and continued in Russia till a
very recent period ; and Gavelkind, in a modified form,
still exists in Kent They were abolished and made illegal
in Ireland in the reign of James I. ; after which land
descended to the next heir according to English law.
• Davies, Discoverie, ed. 1747, p. 169; Br. Laws, nr. 7, 9.
t Letter to Lord Salisbury, ed. 1787, p. 280.
Vw.. 70.— Ornannent compose*! from the Book of Kells.
CHAPTER VIII
THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE
Section i. The Law of Compensation.
ANCIENT Ireland, as has been already
explained, the state had not attained
sufficient strength and authority to make
laws and to see them carried out There
was accordingly no offence against the
state, and the state did not prosecute^
Every offence was against the individual
— what lawyers call a " tort," as distinguished from an
offence against the state, which is technically called a
" crime," and on the injured party or his friends devolved
the duty of seeking redress. If a man is assaulted or
murdered nowadays, it is the duty of the magistrates
and police — whether friends intervene or not — to bring
the offender to justice. But in Ireland in those times
there were no police, and a man might waylay or kill
another, or set fire to a house, or steal a horse, and
still go scot-free, unless the injured person or his friends
took the matter in hand. But we must not suppose
from this that a lawless state of things existed, or that
evil-disposed persons could do as they pleased. The
laws suited the times, and aggrieved persons and their
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE I99
friends, as we may well suppose, were always sharp enough
to exact compensation or punishment for injuries, just as
they are at the present day in cases where the state will not,
or cannot, move ; so that injustice and evil deeds of every
kind were in fact kept in check, to all intents and purposes,
as well as they are now. A state of things similar to all
this existed among the Anglo-Saxons, as well as among
all early Aryan communities.*
In very early times, beyond the reach of history, the
law of retaliation prevailed — " an eye for an eye, a tooth for
a tooth " — in other words, every man or every family that
was injured might take direct revenge on the offender.
But this being found inconsistent with the peace and well-
being of the community — especially in cases of homicide^
which were frequent enough in those days-— gradually gave
place to the law of compensation, which applied to every
form of injury. That this general system of compensation
for wrongful acts was at least reasonably effectual is evident
from the fact that it was the custom among all the early
Aryan tribes.f "In most early codes with which we are
" acquainted the idea of compensation predominates over
" that of the duty of revenge.*' J In Ireland the process was
this : — The injured party, having no civil authority to
appeal to, might at once, if he chose, take the law into his
own hands. But though this was sometimes done, public
sentiment was decidedly against it, and the long-established
custom was to refer all such matters to the arbitration of a
brehon. Accordingly, the person injured sued the offender
in proper form, and if the latter responded, the case was
referred to the local brehon, who decided according to
law. The penalty always took the form of a fine to be
paid by the offender to the person or family injured, and
the brehon's fee was usually paid out of this fine (p. 169^
supra).
• Student's Hist, of Engl., by S. R. Gardiner, ed. 1892, p. 32.
t Br. Laws, iii., Richcy, Introd., cxxi. % Richey, Introd., Ixxxii.
200 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
2. Procedure by Distress.
If the offender refused to submit the case to the usual
tribunal, or if he withheld paynient after the case had been
decided against him, or if a man refused to pay a just debt
of any kind — in any one of these cases the plaintiff or the
creditor proceeded by Distress (Irish Athgabdil) ; that is to
say, he distrained or seized the cattle or other effects of the
defendant. Due notice had to be given, but no other legal
preliminary — no permission from, or reference to, any
court or other higher authority — was necessary: the plaintiff
resorted to distress on his own responsibility. We will
suppose the effects to be cattle. There was generally an
anad or stay of one or more days on the distress ; that is,
the plaintiff went through the form of seizing the cattle, but
did not remove them (Br. Laws, III. 327). The defendant
had, however, to give a pledge — usually valuable goods, but
sometimes his son or other family member — to the plaintiff,
who took it away and retained it till the end of the stay,
when he returned it on the distrained cattle being formally
handed over to him. If the defendant refused to give a
pledge, then there was no stay; it was an immediate distress,
and the cattle were taken on the spot. During the stay the
cattle remained in the possession of the defendant or debtor,
no doubt to give him time to make up his mind as to what
course to take, viz. either to pay the debt or to have the
case tried before the brehon : but the plaintiff had all the
time a claim on them.
If at the end of the stay the defendant did not give up
the cattle or pay the debt, the plaintiff kept the pledge,
which he then might dispose of as he would the distress :*
he might keep the goods or sell the person into slavery.
If the debt was not paid at the end of the lawful stay, the
plaintiff, in the presence of certain witnesses, removed the
♦ Br. Laws, i. 209, 211.
€HAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 20I
cattle and put them in a pound * If a chief took cattle in
distress, he n>ight legally keep them during detention time
in the faithche or green of his own homestead, which in
such a case constituted a pound, instead of sending them
to the public pound. Animals might be impounded on
other occasions besides distress, such as for trespass. For
the reception and detention of cattle impounded for any
cause, there were in every tuath or district seven different
pounds, each attached to the residence of a chief or of an
oUave of some class,f who of course received a compensa-
tion fee for sheltering and feeding the animals. To be
permitted to keep a pound was accordingly a valuable
privilege. Some pounds are designated as lawful {dlig-
thigh), and some as unlawful {indligthigh), " Lawful "
pounds were those recognised by law, t,e. having some sort
of registration : an " unlawful " pound meant one that had
no such recognition — probably kept by persons on their
own account J " Unlawful " here does not mean contrary
to law, but simply unrecognised or unregistered. The dis-
tinction was important ; for if an accident occurred, as, for
example, if a cow broke her leg in a pound, the person
taking the distress was liable for the damage if it happened
to be an unlawful pound : but he was free from liability if
the pound was lawful. Some lawful pounds were called
mainner and some/orus (Br. Laws, II. 1 1), which were still
further classified : and gobhang appears to have been a
general name for a cattle-pound. The animals were not
to be mixed : each species should have a separate compart-
ment or pound ; and diseased animals were to be separated
from those that were sound. Proper provision had to be
made for feeding and sheltering impounded cattle.§
In all cases of impending distress the following "three
" things are to be announced at the residence of the defen-
"dant, i,e, the debt for which it [the distress] was taken,
♦ Br. Laws, I. 289, 291. f Ibid.^ i. 293, top : II. 1 1, 13.
X Ihid.y II. 5, last par.; 1 1, top line. § Ibid,, i. 269, 305 ; li. Ii.
202 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
" the pound in which it was put, the law agent by whom it
" was taken " (l. 269). The animals remained in the pound
for a period called a dithim, during which the expense of
feeding and tending was paid out of the value of the cattle*
At the end of the dithim they began to be forfeited to the
plaintiff at a certain rate per day, till such a number became
forfeited as paid both the debt and the expenses.f The
length of the anad and of the dithim wcis regulated by law
according to circumstances. There was no stay — i,e, the
distress was immediate — when it was taken by a chief from
one of a lower grade, and also in certain other obvious cases
(as when the creditor was likely to abscond) : in some Ccises,
also, notice was not necessary. In immediate distress the
cattle were removed at once to the pound. If after the
plaintiff had given due notice the defendant absconded, his
fink [finna] or kindred were liable. J
The defendant or debtor might prevent the removal of
the cattle at the beginning, or might get them back up to
the end of the dithim^ by either paying the debt and ex-
penses, or giving a pledge that he would submit the case
for trial, if it had not been tried already. Goods of any
kind might be taken in distress, or a man himself, if there
were no goods ;§ but the distress was most generally in
cattle. Much formality was observed in all these proceed-
ings ; and the distrainer had to be accompanied by his
law-agent and seven witnesses (Br. Laws, I. 291), who
should be able to testify that there was a distress, and that
it was carried out in exact accordance with legal rules.
We know that fictions form an important part of all
laws both ancient and modern : and many are to be found
in the Brehon Law : all, however, like those in other codes,
being traces or representations of what had once been real
transactions. In the cases of some distresses with stay>
the fictitious observances — without which the distress
♦ Br. Laws, I. 211 ; in. 327. t Ibid,^ I. 103 ; III. 327.
X Ibid.^ I. 265, 287. § Hfid., I. 105, 107, 271, 4: 11. 41.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 203
•would not be legally complete — were very curious. Thus,
when barren cattle were distrained, a stone was thrown
over them thrice before witnesses (like the legal fiction
mentioned by Gibbon* as practised by the ancient
Romans : — '' a work was prohibited by casting a stone ").
If hens were distrained, a little bit of withe was tied on
their feet, and their wings were clipped ; if a dog, a stick
was placed across his trough to prohibit feeding ; if an
anvil, a little withe was tied on it to prohibit its use; if
carpenters' or shield-makers' tools, a little withe-tie was
put on them ; if distress was on religious orders, a withe-
tie was put on their bell-house or at the foot of the altar —
a sign that they were not to be used ; and so forth.t After
these formalities it was understood that, though the defen-
dant was allowed to keep the things, he was not to make
use of them meantime.
The object of a distress was either to recover a debt or
to force a reference to a brehon : it appears to have been
the almost universal way of bringing about the redress of
wrong (Br. Laws, I. 257). Heavy penalties were incurred
by those who distrained unjustly or contrary to law.J
Distress should be taken " between sunrise and sunset " :
except in cases of urgent necessity, it should not be taken
at night (I. 105). The Irish proceedings by distress were
almost identical with the corresponding provisions of the
ancient Roman Law, as well as of those of all the early
Aryan nations.^ The law of distress is given in great
detail, and occupies a large part — 186 pages of Irish
type— of the Senchus M6r.
Suppose now the defendant defied all the proceedings
of the plaintiff — a course, however, which very few ventured
on, partly on account of the danger, and partly for the
reasons stated below (p. 204): but if he did, since there was
* Decline and Fall, c. 44. t Br. Laws, it. 119, 121.
X Br. Laws, n. 71 ; iir. 147.
{ /bid., iiT., Richey, Introd., cxxxvi-vii : Mnine, Anc. Tnst., 282.
204 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
no state intervention to enforce obedience, the injured*
person might take the law into his own hands, and fall
back on the old rule of direct retaliation.* All this, as
already observed, resembled the procedure that grew up
among the early Aryan people of all nationalities.
This brings us to make an observation on an important
point Three principles, which have been already sepa-
rately enunciated, were long and deeply embedded in the
Brehon Law, viz. : — That every free man had a right to
a portion of the land to enable him to subsist, the deprival
of which constituted a grievous injustice : that if a free
tenant failed to pay his rent or subsidy, it was recovered
like any other debt — never by process of eviction (p. 196,
supra) : and that the duty of inflicting punishment for
wrong devolved by right on the injured person where all
means of obtaining redress from the culprit failed. Customs
that have grown up slowly among a people during more
than a thousand years take long to eradicate. They sub-
sist as living forces for generations after their formal aboli-
tion ; and the unconscious instinctive hereditary memory
of these three principles will go far to explain the tendency
to personal acts of vengeance witnessed in Ireland down
to recent times in cases of eviction from houses and lands.
3. Procedure by Fasting,
In some cases before distress was resorted to, a curious
custom came into play : — the plaintiff " fiuted on " the
defendant ; and this process, called troscad^ * fasting,' was
always necessary before distress when the defendant was
of chieftain grade and the plaintiff of an inferior grade
(Br. Laws, L 113). It was done in this way. The plain-
tiff, having served due notice, went to the house of the
* Maine, Anc. Inst., 171. For more information on the subject of
Procedure by Distress, the reader is referred to this last-mentioned work ;
to Sir S. Ferguson's Paper in Trans. R. I. Acad., xxiv. 83 ; and to
M. D'Arbois de Jubainville, Rev. Celt., vii., pp. 20-31.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 20$
defendant, and, sitting before the door, remained there
without food. It may be inferred that the debtor generally
yielded before the fast was ended, ue, either paid the debt
or gave a pledge that he would settle the case. If the
creditor continued to fast after an offer of payment, he
forfeited all the debt due to him.* Fasting, as a mode of
enforcing a right, is mentioned in the " Tripartite " and
other Lives of St. Patrick ; and Patrick himself — as related
in these — fasted against several persons to compel them
to do justice.t From some passages it would appear that
the debtor was bound to remain fasting as long as the
creditor or complainant fasted. This fasting process was
regarded with a sort of superstitious awe ; and it was
considered outrageously disgraceful for a defendant not to
submit to it : — " He that does not give a pledge to fasting
" is an evader of all : he who disregards all things shall not
"be paid by God or man" (Br. Laws, i. 113). Moreover,
if the case went against him, he had to pay double the
original claim.
In this country fasting appears to have been resorted to
for three purposes : —
First : as part of a legal process to obtain redress, as
described above.
Secondly, to bring some evil on a person. Thus, we are
told that, on the eve of a battle, St Caimin of Inishcaltra
fasted against Guaire the Hospitable, one of the two con-
tending kings, who, in consequence, was defeated in the
battle. J It appears that if the fasting was unjust, the
intended victim might fast in opposition ;§ and it was
thought that thereby — having the righteous cause — he
might either mitigate or wholly avert the evil, something
like vaccination against small-pox. Sometimes it happened
« Br. Laws, i. 119 ; il. 65.
fTrip. Life, CLXXVii. 219, 419, 557, and 560 note.
X Silva Gad., 433 : see also Adamn., liv, note w,
\ Silva Gad., 71-2-3 ; \\2.
206 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
that the two kept fasting against each other, till one fell
into the mistaken belief — or was trapped into it — that the
other was eating, and took to eating also, giving an advan-
tage to his opponent, who thus gained his point.
Thirdly : fasting was used as a sort of compulsion — like
a geis (chap, ix., sect. 14, infrcC) — to obtain a request from
another (F^ilire, 75, note 20). The Leinstermen on one occa-
sion fasted on St. Columkille till they obtained from him the
privilege that an extern king should never prevail against
them (Silva, 417) : Amergin Mac Aulay fasted on the old
sage Fintan till he forced him to relate the ancient history
of Ireland :* and Conall Derg O'Corra and his wife, having
failed to obtain children from God, turned to the devil and
fasted on him to give them children, and obtained their
request! Nay, a legend relates that a certain man think-
ing himself hardly used by Providence, grumbled, and
fasted against God for relief: and the tale goes on to say,
that God was angry, but nevertheless dealt mercifully with
him. J For the last two applications of fasting — to injure
an enemy and to obtain a request — I can find no better
authority than the romantic tales and religious legends :
but the twofold custom is mentioned too often to permit
us to doubt its existence.
This institution of fasting on a debtor is still widely
diffused in the east, and is called by the Hindoos " sitting
dharna." They believe that if the plaintiff dies of starvation,
the defendant is sure to be visited by fearful supernatural
penalties. Our books do not give us much information
about the Irish institution, and it is not easy to understand
it in all its forms : but it is evidently identical with the
• Kilk. Arch. J., 1872-3, p. 141.
t Kev. Celt., xiv. 29.
X Stokes* Lives of SS., ix. See for another mstance of this, Saltair na
Rann, Preface in., last line : and for still another, Mac Cougl., 60. Other
examples of fasting for the several purposes may be seen in Rev. Celt., xv.
480 : Trip. Life, 219, bottom, 221, 419, top, 557 : Hyde, Lit. Hist., 233, 417 :
F6ilire, 171, 19.
CHAP. VIIl] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 20/
eastern custom, and no doubt it was believed in pagan
times to be attended by similar supernatural effects *
As there was no state authority to enforce legal de-
cisions, it will occur to anyone to ask why should
defendants submit to distress and fasting when the pro-
ceedings went against them : why, for instance, should not
a man resist the removal of his goods in distress ? The
reply to this is that hereditary custom, backed by public
opinion, was so overwhelmingly strong that resistance was
hardly ever resorted to. It is pretty evident that the man
who refused to abide by the custom, not only incurred
personal danger, but lost all character, and was subject to
something like what we now call a universal boycott, which
in those days no man could bear. He had in fact to fly
and become a sort of outlaw. So Caesar tells us (Gall.
War, vi. 13) that those who refused to abide by the
decisions of the Gaulish druids (corresponding in this
procedure with our brehons) were excommunicated : and in
Ireland he who disregards fasting "shall not be paid by
God or man " (p. 205, supra). So also Martin records, in
1703, that in the western islands of Scotland, the man who
violated the blood-covenant (for which see chapter xxx.,
section 7, infra) utterly lost character, so that all people
avoided him : in other words, he was boycotted.
4. Eric or Compensation Fine,
Homicide or bodily injury of any kind was atoned for
by a fine called Eric [errick], corresponding with the
Teutonic weregild. But though this was the usual sense
of eric^ the word was often applied to a fine for injury of
any sort.
For homicide, and for most injuries to person, property,
or dignity, the eric or fine consisted of two parts — first, the
payment for the mere injury, which was determined by the
severity of the injury and by other circumstances ; second,
* Maine, Anc. Inst., 40, 297.
208 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
a sum called Log-enech or Eneolann, * honour-price,' which
varied according to the rank of the parties : the higher the
rank the greater the honour-price. The honour-price of
an og-aire (see p. 1 59, supra) was 3 cows : of a fer-fothluy
7i cows. A n>an's honour-price was diminished — which
of course was a punishment — if he was guilty of any
misconduct. Dire, which is a term constantly used in the
Brehon Laws, seems to mean much the same as eneclantiy
a fine for personal injury of any kind — bodily harm, a
slight on character, an insult, &c. — the amount depending
on the nature of the offence and on the position and
dignity of the persons. Indeed, in some parts of the
Brehon Laws (as in v. 56, le) dire is made equivalent to
eneclann. The law of compensation would tend to favour
the rich, as they could afford to pay better than the poor :
and it was evidently with a view to remedy this that the
arrangement of honour-price was introduced. The con-
sideration of honour-price entered into a great number of
the provisions of the Brehon Law ; and this principle also
existed in the early Teutonic Codes.*
The principles on which these awards should be made
are laid down in great detail in the Book of Acaill. The
eric for murder was double that for simple manslaughter
(or homicide without intent), " for fines are doubled by
malice aforethought"! The exact amount of the eric was
adjudged by a brehon. Many modifying circumstances
had to be taken into account — the actual injury, the rank
of the parties (for the honour-price), the intention of the
wrong-doer, the provocation, the amount of set-off claims,
&c. — so that the settlement called for much legal know-
ledge, tact, and technical skill on the part of the brehon —
quite as much as we expect in a lawyer of the present
day.
♦ The honour-prices of the several grades (which were equal in amounts to
their gifts to a church) may be seen in Br. Laws, III. 43 : see also for several
points connected with honour-price, vol. iv. 48, 49, 53, 59, and 307.
t Br. Laws, ill. 99.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 209
The man who killed a native freeman paid the amount
of his own honour-price, and 21 cows (or double if of
malice) : so that, suppose an Og-aire killed a freeman by
misadventure, he had to pay altogether 24 cows (3 + 21),.
or if of malice, 45 cows (3 + 42), to the family of the victim.
This will give some idea of the general standard adopted,
it being understood that the total fine was higher or lower
according to the rank of the parties. Eric for homicide
continued to be exacted in Ireland by the Anglo-Irish as
well as by the old native Irish, till the middle of the seven-
teenth century, that is, long after the Brehon Law had been
legally abolished in the reign of James I.
In case of homicide the family of the victim were
entitled to the eric. If the culprit did not pay, or ab-
sconded, leaving no property, his finh or family were
liable ; the guiding principle here, as in other parts of the
Brehon Law, being, that those who would be entitled to
inherit the property of the offender should, next after
himself — in their several proportions — be liable for the
fine for homicide incurred by him.* If they wished ta
avoid this, they were required to give up the offender to
the family of the victim,t who might then, if they pleased,,
kill him, or use him or sell him as a slave. Failing this,,
his family had to expel him, and to lodge a sum to free
themselves from the consequences of his subsequent mis-
conduct.J The expelled person had to leave the tribe ; he
was then a sort of outlaw, and would likely become a doer-
fudir (p. 163, supra) in some other tribe. If neither the
slayer nor his friends paid the murder-eric, then he might
be lawfully killed by the friends of the victim. In the Book
of Acaill (III. 349-355), there is a minute enumeration of
bodily injuries, whether by design or accident, with the
compensation for each, taking into account the position of
♦ Br. Laws, in. 69 ; iv. 245.
t /&«/., III. 69 : see also Conn. Gloss., 98 ("Imbleogan'*).
t Ihid,^ J II. 382 note; 383.
P
-2IO GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
the parties, and the other numerous circumstances that
modified the amount*
In Cormac's Glossary (p. 124, " Nes "), we are told that
the eric for bodily injury depended on the " dignity" of the
part injured : if it was the forehead, or chin, or any other
part of the face, the eric was greater than if the injured
part was covered by raiment Half the eric for homicide
was due for the loss of a 1^, a hand, an eye, or an ear ;
but in no case was the collective eric for such injuries
to exceed the body-fine — ue. the eric for homicide
(Br. Laws, III. 349).
Spenser, Davies, and other early English writers bitterly
denounce the law of eric-fine for homicide, as " contrary to
God's law and man's." It was indeed a rude and inade-
quate sort of justice, and favoured the rich, as they could
afford to pay fines better than the poor, notwithstanding
the precautionary introduction of honour-price. But it
was, no doubt, very useful in its day, and was a great
advance on the barbarous law of retaliation, which was
nothing more than private vengeance.t The principle of
•compensation for murder was, moreover, not peculiar to
Ireland — a fact that these writers appear to have been
ignorant of. It existed among the Anglo-Saxons, as well
as among the ancient Greeks, Franks, and Germans ; and,
as a German institution, it is mentioned with approval by
Tacitus. In the laws of King Athelstan, there is laid down
a detailed scale of prices to be paid in compensation for
killing persons of various ranks of society, from an arch-
bishop or duke down to a churl or farmer ; and traces of
the custom remained in English law till the early part
■of the last century. J
♦ In another part, Br. I.aws, in. 357 to 381, is a detailed enumeration of
Injories to living animals, with the compensations for them.
t Maine, Anc. Inst., 23.
X Ogyg., Part III., chapter Ivii. ; Ware, ii. 71 : Richey, Br. Laws, in.
€ii. et seq.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 211
*S. Modes of Punishment
Homicide, whether by intent or by misadventure, was
atoned for like other injuries, by a money-fine. That men
who killed others were themselves often killed in revenge
by the friends of the victim — as in all other countries — we
know from our annals. But the idea of awarding death as a
judicial punishment for homicide, even when it amounted to
murder, does not seem to have ever taken hold of the public
mind in Ireland: "At this day \i,e. in the time of the
" writer of the Commentary on the Senchus M6r] no one is
" put to death [by judicial sentence] for his intentional crimes,
" as long as eric-fine is obtained."* Capital punishment was
known well enough, however, and practised outside the
courts of law. The above passage is immediately followed
by the statement that if, for any cause, the crime is not
atoned for by eric, then the criminal's life is forfeit : and
kings claimed the right to put persons to death for certain
crimes. Thus we are told, in the Tripartite Life of St
Patrick (p. 43), that neither gold nor silver would be
accepted from him who lighted a fire before the lighting of
the festival fire of Tara, but he should be put to death ;
and the death-penalty was inflicted on anyone who, at a
fair-meeting, killed another or raised a serious quarrel.t It
would seem, both from the ancient Introduction to the
Senchus M6r and from the Lives of St. Patrick, that the
early Christian missionaries attempted to introduce capital
punishment —as the result of a judicial process — for murder,
but without success. J
Various modes of putting criminals to death were in
use in ancient Ireland. Sometimes the culprit was drowned
by being flung into water, either tied up in a sack or with a
heavy stone round his neck. In this manner the Danish
• Br. Laws, I. 15. t Chap, xxix., sect. 3, infra.
X Br. Laws, i. 13.
P2
212 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
tyrant Turgesius was put to death by King Malachi, A.D.
84s : and the reader may be reminded of Scott's striking
description in Rob Roy (chap, xxxi.) of the drowning of
Morris in the Highland river by the chiefs wife.
Sometimes hanging was adopted — a mode of execution
generally called riagad [ree-a], from riag [reea], * a gibbet,'
which glosses patibultim in Zeuss. Hanging was also called
crochad^ from crock, * a cross ' or * gallows ' : crochad, * cruci-
fixio ' (Zeuss, 74, 7) : but in Ireland it meant, and still
means, * hanging by the neck till dead.* In 0!Clery*s
Glossary riaghadh is explained by crochadh.
It was a very ancient Irish custom to burn women for
adultery. That such a custom existed is rendered certain
by its frequent mention in old writings. Perhaps the most
authoritative of these is Cormac's Glossary (p. 59), which
gives the derivation of druth, *a harlot,' from the two words
diTy * right,' and aod, * fire ' (the idea being that drulh was
contracted from dtr-aod, 'right-fire'), "As much as saying" —
the Glossary continues — " to burn her were right." When
Mumi of the Fair Neck married Cumal, after eloping with
him ; and when, soon afterwards, Cumal was killed in the
Battle of Cnucha (Castleknock), and Murni was found to be
pregnant ; her father, not acknowledging lawful marriage,,
urged his people to bum her : " but he dared not compass
it for fear of Conn the Hundred-fighter," with whom the
lady had taken refuge.* The son that was bom to her was
the celebrated hero Finn Mac Cumail. On this story Hen-
nessy, the editor, quotes a statement from the story of Core
Mac Lugdach in the Book of Leinster — "It was the custom
" at first to burn any woman who committed lust {dognt'd
" bats) in violation of her compact" In the story of the
Greek princess (in the Book of Leinster), she says — " My
" crime [of unchastity] will now be found out, and I shall
" be burned immediately."f Many other such records might
* Cause of the Battle of Cnucha, Rev. Celt., II. 91.
t Silva Gad., Irish text, 414 : LL. 279, *, 25, 26.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 213
be instanced, both from the lay literature and the Lives of
the Saints * In nearly all the cases I have found, however,
something intervened to prevent the actual burning ; which
would indicate that, at the time the records were written,
the custom was dying out. Indeed, this is also implied in
one of the above quotations — " It was the custom at firsts
Where the death penalty was not inflicted for a crime,
various other modes of punishment were resorted to, though
never as the result of a judicial process before a brehon :
for the brehon^s business was to award compensation — never
a penalty of any other kind. Blinding as a punishment
was exceedingly common : we meet with records of it
everywhere in the annals ; so that there is no need to quote
individual instances here. Whenever we find such a record,
it is commonly the sequel of a battle ; for it often happened
that the victorious king or chief, if he captured his defeated
opponent, blinded him. It was usually done by thrusting a
needle into the eye. Sometimes blinding was an act of
vengeance merely ; sometimes it was in punishment of
rebellion ; and not unfrequently when two opponents fought
for the chiefship or kingship, the defeated leader was blinded
to prevent the possibility of his election at any time : for a
disfigured person could not be elected as king or chief
(p. 43, supra). Occasionally a hostage was blinded when
the treaty was broken by his party. The custom of blind-
ing as a punishment prevailed among other nations as well
as among the Irish.
A very singular punishment was to send the culprit
adrift on the open sea in a boat, without sail, oar, or rudder.
In the Commentary on the Senchus M6r (Br. Laws, 1. 15, w),
it is stated that in case eric was not obtained for homicide, the
guilty person was put to death if the crime was intentional ;
but he was placed on the sea if it was unintentional. The
men of Ross (in the north of Tirconnell) killed their tyran-
* As in Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1868, p. 333, top : SuU., Introd., 322 and
note, 334, top : Dr. Healy, Ireland's Anc. Schools, 227, ic, and 476: Failure,
63, <?, 7 hot.
214 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
nical chief Fiacha ; whereupon Fiacha's brother Donnchad,
king of Tirconnell, punished them by putting sixty in small
boats and sending them adrift on the sea, "that God might
deal with them.*** Macc-Cuill or Maccaldus, a powerful
Ulster chief, was an abandoned reprobate: but he was con-
verted by St. Patrick, became very repentant, and submitted
himself to the saint's penance, who directed him to put off
to sea in a curragh of one hide. After much weary drifting
about, the curragh was thrown on the Isle of Man, where
Mac Cuill safely landed. He preached the Gospel there,
and converted the Manxmen : so that he is to this day vene-
rated as the patron saint, with the name Maughold {Trip.
Life, 223). The great Anglo-Norman baron, Hugh de Lacy,
followed the old native custom when he sent the betrayers
of John de Courcy adrift in a ship, " with victuals and fur-
niture, but without mariners or seamen."f A person of this
kind cast on shore belonged to the owner of the shore until
a cumal was paid for his release.J
6. Courts of Justice,
A court held for the trial of legal cases was commonly
called ddl [dawl], but sometimes oirecht or atrecht, which
was also the name of a meeting of representative people to
settle local affairs. § Courts were often held in the open
air, and sometimes in buildings. There was a gradation of
courts from the lowest — something like our petty sessions
— to the highest, the great national assembly — whether at
Tara or elsewhere — representing all Ireland.|| Over each
court a member of the chieftain or privileged classes pre-
sided : the rank of the president corresponded to the rank
* Rev. Celt, ix., 17, 19.
t Other references to sending adrift:— Br. Laws, i. 205, bot. : O'Curry,
Man. & Cust., i. 29: MS. Mat., 333 : SuU., Introd., 120, 334: Todd, Book
of Fermoy, 38. { Br. Laws, I. 205, bot.
{ For various meetings and courts for the transaction of legal business, see
Sullivan, Introd., 252 : and for further information on the administration of
justice, p. 262 of the same vol.
II For which, see chap, xxix., sect, i, infra.
CHAP. VIII] THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE 2 1 5
of the court : and his legal status, duties, powers, and pri-
vileges were very strictly defined. The over-king presided
over the National FHs or assembly. If a man whose duty
it was to attend a court for any function, and who was duly
summoned, failed to appear, he was heavily fined ; and in
such a case an ecclesiastic was fined twice as much as
a layman.*
In each court — besides the brehon who sat in judgment —
there were one or more professional lawyers, advocates, or
pleaders, called, in Cormac's Glossary ,t ddlaighe [dawlee]
and dai^ who conducted the cases for their clients ; and
the brehon-judge had to hear the pleadings for both sides
before coming to a decision (Br. Laws. v. 355). A non-
professional man who conducted a case — which he might,
as at the present day, if he wished to take the risk — was
called a " tong^eless person " (Br. Laws, iv. 303, le).
Whether the court was held in a building or in the open
air, there was a platform of some kind on which the pleader
stood while addressing the court. This appears from the
explanation of Cuisnit (* legal disputation ') in Cormac's
Glossary (p. 41) : — " Cuisnit, derived from cos-na-ddlay the
" foot, or bar, or tribune on which the pleader stands : and
" it is at it or from it he pleads, and it is on it he stands."^
According to a Preface to the Antra, one of the causes
for the meeting at Drumketta was " to make rules as to
pleaders and suitors in Erin."$
With regard to evidence, various rules were in force,
which may be gathered from detached passages in the
laws and general literature. In order to prove home a
matter of fact in a court of justice, at least two witnesses
were required : a usage that is mentioned more than once
by Adamnan. If a man gave evidence against his wife,
the wife was entitled to give evidence in reply ; but a man's
daughter would not be heard against him in like circum-
stances. A chief could give evidence against a daer tenant,
♦ Br. Laws, in. 331, and note i. tCorm., p. 41, *• Cuisnit."
J Rev. Celt., XX. 35, note x.
2l6 GOVERNMENT, MILITARY SYSTEM, AND LAW [PART I
or any freeman against ^fudir ; but neither the doer tenant
nor Xh^fudir could give rebutting evidence : ^nd a king's
evidence was good against all other people, with three ex-
ceptions (for which, see p. 55, supra). The period at which
a young man could give legal evidence was when he was
seventeen years of age, or when he began to grow a beard.
The Irish delighted in judgments delivered in the form
of a sententious maxim, or an apt illustration — some illus-
tration bearing a striking resemblance to the case in ques-
tion. The jurist who decided a case by the aid of such a
parallel was recognised as gifted with great judicial wisdom,
and his judgment often passed into a proverb. Several
judgments of this kind are recorded. When Cormac Mac
Art, the rightful heir to the throne of Ireland, was a boy,
he lived at Tara in disguise ; for the throne was held by
the usurper Mac Con, so that Cormac dared not reveal his
identity. There was at this time living near Tara a female
brewy^ named Bennaid, whose sheep trespassed on the
royal domain, and ate up the queen's crop of glatdn or
woad for dyeing. The queen instituted proceedings for
damages ; and the question came up for decision before the
king, who, after hearing the evidence, decided that the
sheep should be forfeit in payment for th^glaisln, "Not
so," exclaimed the boy Cormac, who was present, and who
could not restrain his judicial instincts : " the cropping of
the sheep should be sufficient for the cropping of the
glaisln — the wool for the woad — for both will grow again."
^* That is a true judgment," exclaimed all : " and he who
has pronounced it is surely the son of a king " — for kings
were supposed to possess a kind of inspiration in giving
their decisions. And so they discovered who Cormac was,
and in a short time placed him on the throne, after depos-
ing the usurper.* Another example of this sort of judg-
ment will be seen in the notice of the Cathack^ at the
beginning of chapter xiii., infra,
* Silva Gad., 288, 357 : Petrie, Tara, 219.
PART II
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART
Fig. 7a — MS. ornamentation. (FromlMiss Stokes's Early Christian Architecture, ;6.)
CHAPTER IX
PAGANISM
Section I. Druids: their Functions and Powers,
rnidism. — No trustworthy information regarding
the religion of the pagan Irish comes to
us from outside : whatever knowledge of
it we possess is derived exclusively from the
native literature. Moreover, all of this litera-
ture that has come down to us was written —
mostly copied from older documents — in
Christian times by Christians, chiefly monks : no books
penned in pre-Christian ages have been preserved. The
Christian copyists, too, modified their originals in many
ways, especially by introducing Christian allusions, and,
no doubt, by softening down many pagan features that
were particularly repellent to them. Yet many passages,
and some complete tales, remain thoroughly pagan in
character*
So far as we can judge from the materials at our
command, which are sufficiently abundant, though scattered
and somewhat vague, the pagan Irish appear to have had
no well-defined connected system of religion. There were
many gods, but no supreme god, like Zeus or Jupiter
* On this point see the remarks in chap, xv., sect, i, infra.
220 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
among the Greeks and Romans. There was little or no
prayer, and no settled general form of worship. There
were no temples : but it appears from a passage in Cormac's
Glossary (as quoted below) that there were altars of some
kind erected to idols or to elemental gods, which must
have been in the open air. We find mention of things
offered to gods or idols. Thus, for instance, in the oldest
version of " The Wooing of Emir," we are informed that, at
Bron-Trogin (the beginning of autumn), the young of every
kind of animal used to be " assigned to the possession of
the idol, BeV ;* and other such examples might be cited.
But in all these cases it appears to have been a mere
nominal offer or dedication — a matter of words only —
and it is doubtful if there was any sacrifice properly so
called. We have a few examples where breaches of wh^t
were laid down as moral rules were punished. When
King Laegaire broke his solemn oath sworn by the sun
and wind, which were regarded as gods, he was, as we are
told, killed by these two elements (section 8, infra) : from
which we can see that there were some rules of conduct
which it was dangerous to violate. But, on the whole, the
pagan Irish religion seems to have had very little influence
in regulating moral conduct. At the same time, it must
be borne in mind, that all our very early books have been
lost, so that, in great probability, the whole of the evidence
IS not before us : had we complete information, it might
modify our judgment on Irish paganism.
The religion of the pagan Irish is commonly designated
as Druidism : and as the druids were a numerous and
important class, and as they were mixed up with most
of the religious or superstitious rights and observances,
it will be best to begin by giving a sketch of their position
and functions, which will bring under review a large part
of the religious beliefs of the pagan Irish. In the oldest
Irish traditions the druids figure conspicuously. AH the
• Rev. Celt., xi. 443.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 221
early colonists had their druids, who are mentioned as
holding high rank among kings and chiefs.
Gaulish and Irish Druids. — Of the Gaulish druids, their
doctrines and worship, detailed accounts have been given
by Caesar* and other classical writers : and these descrip-
tions are generally supposed to apply to the druids of
Britain — a supposition, however, open to doubt. But
these writers knew nothing of the druids of Ireland, and
of course give no information regarding them. It is pretty
certain, indeed, that the druidic systems of Gaul, Britain,
and Ireland were originally one and the same. But the
Gaels of Ireland and Scotland were separated and isolated
for many centuries from the Celtic races of Gaul ; and
thus, their religious system, like their language, naturally
diverged, so that the druidism of Ireland, as pictured forth
in the native records, differed in many respects from that
of Gaul. Yet, with one exception, all those writers who
have hitherto treated of Irish druids have unhesitatingly
applied to them Caesar's and other classical writers' de-
scriptions of those of GauLt O'Curry was the first, so far
as I know, to describe in detail (in Lectures ix. and x. of his
Manners and Customs of the Ancient Irish) the Irish druids
from the native authorities. Certain speculative writers of
the last two or three generations, backing up Caesar's
description with baseless speculations of their own, have
built up a great pagan religious system for Ireland, with
druidic temples, druid's altars, the worship of Baal, human
sacrifices, divination from the manner in which the blood
of victims flowed down the sloping altars, and such like :
all quite visionary as being based on insufficient evidence,
or rather on no evidence at all. The following account of
• Gallic War, vi. xiii-xviii.
fin Harris* s Ware (Antiqq., p. 117) is an excellent essay on Druids^
setting forth the testimonies of the principal classical authorities regarding
them. It professes to treat of druids in connexion with Ireland : but it is
nearly all about Gaulish druids, with merely a few sentences about those of
Britain and Ireland.
222 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the Irish druids is derived from the native literature, the
only authentic source of information. It will be shown in
the next section that, while there are many differences
between the Irish and the Gaulish druids, there are also
many resemblances and correspondences, and these in
some of their most important functions.
Name. — The old form of the Irish name for a druid
is drut^ modern drai or draoi [all pron. dree] ; but in the
oblique cases it takes a d : gen. druad, dative druid, corre-
sponding with the modern word druid. Drui is uniformly
translated * wizard ' by some of the best modern authorities :
and wizards the druids unquestionably were, and are so
presented by our earliest traditions, though always called
drui. The druids of Gaul and Ireland were undoubtedly
identical as a class, though differing in many particulars,
and they were all wizards ; but those of Gaul are always
called * druids * : and to apply the term * druid * to the one
class and * wizard ' to the other, might lead to a misconcep-
tion, as if they were essentially different. That the ancient
Irish considered their own druids in a general way identical
with those of the Continent appears from this — that they
apply the word drui to both : and while Latin writers
commonly translate druid by * magus,* this same word
* magus * IS retranslated drut by Irish writers. Thus,
Simon Magus is called in Irish writings " Simon Drui.'*
For these reasons it will be more convenient to retain here
the familiar word * druid.'
Druids, the Sole Hen of Learning. — In pagan times the
druids were the exclusive possessors of whatever learning
was then known. They combined in themselves all the
learned professions : they were not only druids, but judges,
prophets, historians, poets, and even physicians.* But as
time went on there was a gradual tendency towards speciali-
sation, as we see in some of the learned professions of our
* Physicians : see Sick Bed, Atlantis, I. 391, verses 3 and 4.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 223
own day. " Until Patrick came," — says the Brehon Law
(l. 19) — " only three classes of persons were permitted to
" speak in public in Erin [t\e, their pronouncements received
*' some sort of official recogfnition], viz. a chronicler to relate
"events and tell stories; a. poet to eulogise and satirise;
" a brehon or judge to pass sentence from the precedents
"and commentaries." Here there is a clear intimation
that there were three separate persons concerned. Never-
theless, down to the latest period of the prevalence of
the Irish customs, two or more professions were often
centred in one man, especially those of Poetry, History,
and Literature in general.
There were druids in every part of Ireland, but, as we
might expect, Tara, the residence of the over-kings of
Ireland, was — as the Tripartite Life (p. 41) expresses it —
" the chief [seat] of the idolatry and druidism of Erin."
The druids had the reputation of being great magicians :
and in this character they figure more frequently and
conspicuously than in any other, both in ecclesiastical and
lay literature. So true is this, that the most general Irish
word for sorcery, magic, or necromancy, is druidecht^ which
simply means * druidism ' — a word still in use. In some of
the old historical romances we find the issues of battles
sometimes determined, not so much by the valour of the
combatants, as by the magical powers of the druids attached
to the armies. They could — as the legends tell — raise
druidical clouds and mists, and bring down showers of fire
and blood ; they could drive a man insane or into idiocy
hy flinging a magic wisp of straw in his face. In the hymn
that St Patrick chanted on his way to Tara on Easter
Sunday morning, he asks God to protect him against the
spells of women, of smiths, and of druids. Broichan the
druid threatens St Columba : — " Thou wilt not be able
" [to voyage on Loch Ness], for I will make the wind con-
" trary to thee, and I will bring a great darkness over thee."
And he did so, as Adamnan's narrative (150) tells us : but
224 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Columba removed the storm and darkness by prayer, and
made his voyage.
Insanity. — Perhaps the most dreaded of all the necro-
mantic powers attributed to the druids was that of pro-
ducing madness. In the pagan ages, and down far into
Christian times, madness — Irish ddsacht — was believed to
be often brought on by malignant magical agency, usually
the work of some druid. For this purpose the druid pre-
pared a * madman's wisp * or * fluttering wisp ' {dluifulla :
dlui or dluighy * a wisp '), that is, a little wisp of straw or
grass, into which he pronounced some horrible incantations,
and, watching his opportunity, flung it into the face of his
victim, who at once became insane or idiotic. So generally
was insanity attributed to this, that in the Glosses to the
Senchus M6r, a madman (Irish ddsachtach or fulld) is
repeatedly described as one "upon whom the dlui fulla
or magic wisp has been thrown."*
The legend of Comgan illustrates this fell necromantic
power. Maelochtair, king of the Decies in Munster, early
in the seventh century, had a son named Comgan, remark-
able for his manly beauty and accomplishments, who was
half-brother by the same mother to St. Cummain Fota.
One day, at a great fair held in Tipperary, Comgan carried
off all the prizes in the athletic sports : and the spectators
were delighted with him, especially the king's druid. But
a certain woman, who had before that vainly sought Com-
gan's love, now revenged herself on him by whispering a
false accusation into the druid's ear : whereupon his admira-
tion for the youth was instantly changed to furious jealousy ;
and when Comgan and his friends retired to a neighbouring
river to wash themselves and their horses after the sports,
he followed them, and watching his opportunity, flung a
magic wisp over him, at the same time pronouncing some
fiendish words. When the young man came forth from
♦ Br. Laws, i. 84, line 29 ; 85, 90 (and note) ; 124 and 126 ; and Gloss, 143 ;
11.47: in. 13, J.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 22$
the water, his whole body burst out into boils and ulcers^
so that his attendants had to bring him to his father's
house, all diseased and helpless as he was. There he
wasted away in body, his mind decayed, his hair fell off :
and ever afterwards he wandered about the palace, a bald^
drivelling idiot. But he had lucid intervals, and then he
became an inspired poet, and uttered prophecies ; so that
he is known in the legendary literature as Mac-da-cerda^
the 'youth of the two arts,' that is to say, poetry and
foolishness.*
The invention of the madman's wisp is assigned, by a
l^end in the C6ir Anmann (p. 367), to a celebrated Leinster
druid named Fullon, who lived centuries before the Christian
era: — "Fullon was the first druid who cast a spell {bTichf)on
" a wisp, so as to send [by means of it] a human being a-flying
" {Jot foluamhain). Hence, dluifulla^ or * madman's wisp,^
** is a saying among the Scots from that day to this."
As I am on the subject of madness, it will be better to
finish here what is to be said about it A fit of insanity
was often called baile or buile [ballS, bulle] : and there was
a most curious belief that during the paroxysm a madman's
body became as light as air, so that, as he ran distractedly^
he scarcely touched the ground, or he rose into the air^
still speeding on with a sort of fluttering motion. This
was especially the case when madness was produced by the
rage of battle. For, during a bloody battle, it sometimes
happened that an excitable combatant ran mad with fury
and horror : and occurrences of this kind are recorded in
the romantic accounts of nearly all the great battles fought
m Ireland. We are told, in the historic story of the Battle
of Moyrath (i/S, notez/; and 235), fought A.D. 637, that
towards the close of the day, a brave young warrior, Suibne
or Sweeny, became distracted with the horrors he witnessed ;
and imagining he saw battle-demons hovering and shrieking
overhead, he suddenly bounded off the earth, and alighted
♦ Todd, Book of Hymns, 90,
Q
226 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
on the boss of another warrior's shield, from which, after a
moment, he leaped up again ; and so he continued flitting
and bounding on the shields and helmet-crests of the com-
batants and on the tops of the neighbouring trees, till he
finally fled from the field ; after which he wandered round
Ireland, a gelt \g hard] or madman. His adventures from
the day of battle till his death are told in a romantic tale,
still extant in MS., called Buile Shuibne^ * Sweeny's frenzy
or madness.'
The belief that men were driven mad in battle, and ran
and fluttered away in this manner, found its way into the
sober records of the Annalists, who relate that at the
Battle of Allen in Kildare, fought A.D. 722, nine persons
went crazy with terror, or, as Tigemach expresses it, " Et
ix volatiles, i,e. geltaV^ \ "and nine persons [went] flying,
Le, madmen."*
Even the Norse visitors to this country took up the
legend : and we find it recorded as one of the " Wonders
of Ireland," in an old Norse Book called "Kongs Skuggsjo"
or "Speculum Regale," written about a.d. 1250 : — ^** There
is also one thing which will seem very wonderful, about
men who are called geW ; and the writer goes on to tell
about men running mad out of battle, and living in woods
for twenty years, so that feathers grew on their bodies :
and that though they were not quite able to fly, they were
incredibly swift, and "run along the [tops of the] trees
almost as swiftly as monkeys or • squirrels."t Of this
superstition — that frenzied madmen were as light as air, and
could climb up precipices — there are many other examples
in the ancient tales : we see by the above quotation that
it retained its hold till the thirteenth century ; and it still
lingers among the peasantry in some remote districts.}
• Rev. Celt., xvii. 229 : see also FM, vol. i., p. 319, top.
t Folklore, V. 311.
\ Moyrath, 231, 233: see also Sir Samael Ferguson's Congal, 227, 233,
^34, 235-
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 22/
There is a valley in Kerry called Glannagalt, * the glen
of the lunatics ' (Irish, gleann-na-ngealt) : and it is believed
that all lunatics, if left to themselves, would find their way
to it, no matter from what part of Ireland. When they
have lived in its solitude for a time, drinking of the water
of Tobemagalt (*the lunatics' well'), and eating of the
cresses that grow along the little stream, the poor
wanderers get restored to sanity. It appears by the story
of the Battle of Ventry that this glen was first discovered
by a youth named Goll, who fled frenzied from that battle,
as Sweeny from Moyrath, and plunged into the seclusion
of Glannagalt* There is a well in Donegal which was
believed to possess the same virtue as Tobemagalt, and
to which all the deranged people in the surrounding
district were wont to resort. It is situated on the strand,
near high-water mark, a third of a mile south of Inishowen
Head, near the entrance to Lough Foyle. It still retains
its old name Srubh Brain^ * Bran's sruv or stream,' which
is represented in the name of the adjacent hamlet of
Stroove.f
YariooB Powers. — In the Lives of the Saints, the druids
and their magical arts figure conspicuously ; as, for instance,
in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick, and in the earlier
memoir of the saint, by Muirchu, as well as in Adamnan's
Life of Saint Columba : and not less so in the historical
tales. Before the Battle of Cul-Dremne, fought in 561
between the Northern and the Southern Hy Neill, Dermot,
king of Ireland, who headed the southern Hy Neill — a
Christian king — called in the aid of the druid Fraechan
{Freehan], who, just as the armies were about to engage,
made an airbe druad [arva drooa] round the southern
army to protect it.J It is not easy to say what this airbe
•Joyce, Irish Names of Places, i. 172, 173.
t MS, Mat., 477 : O'Donovan, Suppl. to O'Reilly, ^' Sraobk:'*
X For the aiHte druad see Stokes, Lives of SS., xxviii. : FM, a.d. 555 :
Todd, St. Patk., 1 19-122 : Silva Gad., 85, and 516, 9.
Q2
228 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
druad was. Stokes translates it * druid's fence ' ; and, no
doubt, it was a magic fence of some kind : for this is the
usual sense of airbe in old Irish writings. One man of the
northern army, named Mag Laim, sprang across the atrbey
by which he broke the charm, but sacrificed his own life,
for he was at once slain : after which the battle was fought,
and Dermot was defeated with a loss of 3000, while Mag^
Laim alone fell on the other side. All this is related by
Tigemach and the other Annalists. In the Agallamh na
Sen6rach, a chiefs dun is mentioned as sometimes sur-
rounded by a snaidm druad [snime drooa], a * druid\s
knot * : is this the same as the airbe druady or have the
two any connexion ?
The druid could pronounce a malign incantation — na
doubt, a sort of gldm dichenn (see p. 240, infra) — not only
on an individual, but on a whole army, so as to produce
a withering or enervating effect on the men. Before the
Battle of Mucrimk (A.D. 250), Ailill Olum's son Eoghan,
one of the contending princes, came to Dil, the blind old
druid of Ossory, to ask him to maledict the hostile army,,
as Balak employed Balaam ; but on their way towards the
place, Dil came somehow to know by Eoghan's voice that
he was doomed to defeat and death, and refused to proceed
farther (Silva Gad., 354).
The druids could give a drink of forgetfulness {deog
dertnaid), so as to efface the memory of any particular
transaction. Cuculainn had fallen in love with the fairy
lady Fand, so that his wife Emer was jealous : but Conco-
bar's druids gave each of them — Cuculainn and Emer —
a drink of forgetfulness, so that he quite forgot Fand and
she her jealousy ; and they were reconciled (Sick Bed :
AtL, II. 124). The druids were the intermediaries with the
fairies, and with the invisible world in general, which they
could influence for good or evil ; and they could protect
people from the malice of evil-disposed spirits of every kind ;
which explains much of their influence with the people.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 229
DiyinatioiL — An important function of a druid was
divination — forecasting future events — which was prac-
tised by the pagan Irish in connexion with almost all
important affairs, such as military expeditions. Laegaire's
druids foretold the coming of St. Patrick (Trip. Life, 33) ;
and the druid Dubdiad foretells the defeat and death of
Congal in the Battle of Moyrath (p. 171). Queen Maive,
before setting out on the T^in expedition, confers with her
druid' to get from him knowledge and prophecy : so he
prophesies : — " Whosoever they be that will not return,
thou thyself shalt certainly return." The druids forecasted,
partly by observation of natural objects or occurrences, and
partly by certain artificial rites : and in the exercise of this
function the druid was zfdith [faw] or prophet
They drew auguries from observation of the clouds.
On the eve of a certain Samain (first of November), Dathi,
king of Ireland (A.D. 405 to 428), who happened at the
time to be at Cnoc-nan-druad (* the druids' hill ' : now Mul-
laroe, and often incorrectly called Red Hill), in the parish
of Skreen, Sligo, west of Ballysadare Bay, where there was
then a royal residence, ordered his druid to forecast for
him the events of his reign from that till next Samain.
The druid went to the summit of the hill, where he re-
mained all night, and, returning at sunrise, addressed the
king somewhat as the witches addressed Macbeth : — ^** Art
** thou asleep, O King of Erin and Alban (Scotland) ? "
** Why the addition to my title ? " asked the king : " I am
not king of Alban." And the druid answered that he had
consulted " the clouds of the men of Erin," by which he
found out that the king would make a conquering expedi-
tion to Alban, Britain, and Gaul : which accordingly he
did soon afterwards.*
This account of cloud divination is corroborated by
the existence in Irish of the word ndaddir [nailadore]
for an astrologer or diviner: and ndaddracht glosses
♦MS. Mat., 285 : HyF, 99.
230 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
" pyromantia" ('divination by fire'), in an old Irish treatise
on Latin declension * But the primary meaning olniladdir
IS * cloud-diviner ' ; and of niladdrachty * divination by
clouds ' ; for «//, niul, nill, means * a cloud,' even to this
day, and not star or fire.
Astrology, in the proper sense of the word — divination
from the stars — appears, nevertheless, to have been practised
by the Irish. Forecasting the proper time for beginning
to build a house is alluded to in a short Irish poem con-
tained in an eighth-century manuscript, now in a monastery
in Carinthia, having been brought thither by some early
Irish missionary : — " There is no house more auspicious,
with its stars last night, with its sun, with its moon."t This
reference to astrology is in a purely Christian connexion,
as it appears from the poem that the house in question
was built by the great Christian architect the Gobban
Saer. In the legends of the saints we find divination by
the heavenly bodies. When St. Columkille was a child, his
foster-father went to a certain prophet {fdith) to ask him
when the child was to begin to learn his letters ; and the
prophet, having first scanned the heavens, decided that the
lessons were to begin at once.J
For purposes of divination they often used a rod of
yew with Ogham words cut on it When Etain, King
Ochy Airem's queen, was carried off by the fairy King
Midir, the druid Dalian was commissioned by King Ochy
to find out where she was. After much searching he at
last " made four rods of yew, and writes an Ogham on them;
" and by his keys of knowledge and by his Ogham, it [the
" fairy palace where the queen was] is revealed to him."§
Dr. Stokes points out that similarly at Praeneste the oracles
were derived from lots consisting of oak with ancient char-
acters engraved on them.
* Stokes, Irish Glosses, in Treatise on Latin Declension, 63, 271.
t O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 46, and note t.
X Stokes, Three Homilies, 103.
§ Rev. Celt. xii. 440: O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 193.
CHAP. DC] PAGANISM 23 1
In several of the tales we find mention of a druidic
* wheel divination/ i,e. made by means of a wheel. The
celebrated druid Mogh Ruith [Mow-rih] of Dairbre, now
Valentia Island, in Kerry, was so called on account of his
skill in this sort of divination ; for, in the C6ir Anmann
(409), we read of him : — " Mogh Ruith sig^nifies Magus
" rolarum, the wizard [or rather the devotee] of the wheels,
" for it is by wheels he used to make his taisciladh druidh^
" echta or 'magical observation.' *' In another place* we read
that his daughter, who went with him to the East to learn
mag^c, made a roth ramhach or * rowing wheel,' probably
for the purpose of divination. But the roth ramhach figured
in other functions, as may be seen in O'Curry's MS.
Materials (Index). I have not the least notion of how the
druidical divination-wheel was made or how it was used :
but it may be of interest to observe here that — as Rhys
remarks — the old Gaulish sun-god is represented with a
wheel in his hand.f
Finn Mac Cumail, besides his other accomplishments^
had the gift of divination, for which he used a rite peculiar
to himself A basin of clear water was brought to him, in
which, having washed his hands, and having complied with
some other formalities, he put his thumb in his mouth
under his " tooth of knowledge," on which the future event
he looked for was revealed to him. This is repeatedly
mentioned in the Tales of the Fena ; and the legend is
prevalent everywhere in Ireland at the present day. In the
story of " The Praise of Cormac and the Death of Finn "
(Silva Gad., 98), this rite is said to be a sort of Teinm
Laegda or part of it (see Teinm Laegda in Index, below).
In the Irish Nennius (p. 145) we are told that certain
druids taught druidism, idolatry, sorcery, [the composition
of] bright poems, divination from sneezing, from the voices
of birds, and from other omens ; and how to find out by
these means suitable weather and lucky days for any
* O'Grady, Silva Gad., 511, m- t Rhys, Hibbert Lectures, 55.
232 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART U
enterprise. Before the Battle of Moyrath (p. 9) the druid
interprets King Domnairs dream, and advises precautionary
measures. Divination by the voices of birds was very
generally practised, especially from the croaking of the
raven and the chirping of the wren : and the very syllables
they utter and their interpretation are given in the old
books * The wren in particular was considered so great a
prophet, that in an old Life of St Moling one of its Irish
names, drean, is fancifully derived from druuiity meaning
the * druid of birds.' When St Kellach, Bishop of Killala,
was about to be murdered, the raven croaked, and the
grey-coated scallcrow called, the wise little wren twittered
ominously, and the kite of Cloon-O sat on his yew-tree
waiting patiently to carry off his talons-full of the victim's
flesh. But when, after the deed had been perpetrated, the
birds of prey came scrambling for their shares, every one
that ate the least morsel of the saint's flesh dropped down
dead.t The Welsh birds of prey knew better when they
saw the bodies of the slaughtered druids : —
** Far, far aloof the affrighted ravens sail,
The famished eagle screams and passes by.**
The Bard I by Gray.
Just before the attack by Ingcel and his band of pirates on
Da Derga's Hostel, the howl of Ossar, King Conari's messan
or lapdog, portended the coming of battle and slaughter
(Da Derga, 208). The clapping of hands was used in some
way as an omen ; and also an examination of the shape
of a crooked knotted tree-root$
Sometimes animals were sacrificed as part of the cere-
mony of divination. When King Conari and his retinue
were in Da Derga's Hostel, several unusual and ominous
circumstances occurred which foreboded disaster to the
hostel : whereupon the king's chief juggler (who had just
* O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., i. 224. tSilva Gad., 58, 59, 60.
X Todd, St. Patk., 122.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 233
failed, for the first time in his life, to perform his juggling
feat — one of the omens) said to the druid Fer-Caille,
■** Sacrifice thy pig now, and find out who is about to attack
the hostel." Fer-Caille did so, and foretold the impending
<lestruction of the hostel by pirates (Da Derga, 287).
Lneky and unlucky Days. — There were certain cross days
in every month of the year which were unlucky for under-
taking any enterprise, of which a list is given by O'Curry
{Moylena, 73, /) from an Irish medical MS. But on indi-
vidual occasions the druids determined the days to be
avoided, often by calculations of the moon's age. A druid
predicted that his daughter's baby, if bom on a certain day,
would turn out just an ordinary person : but if born on the
next day, he was to be a king and the ancestor of kings.
Accordingly, the poor mother so managed that the birth
was delayed till next day, but sacrificed her own life by
doing so : and her baby was subsequently Fiacha Muille-
than, an illustrious king of Munster.* Many examples
might be cited where disaster attended an undertaking on
account of beginning it on an unlucky day. It is hardly
necessary to remark that the superstition of lucky and
unlucky days was common amongst most ancient nations,
and that it still lives vigorously among ourselves in all
grades of society.
Tonsure. — The druids had a tonsure. The two druids
Mael and Caplait, brothers, the tutors of King Laegaire's
daughters Ethnea and Fedelma, had their hair cut in
a magical figure — "Norma Magica" — called in Irish
Airbacc Giunnae ; about the meaning of which there has
been some doubt Dr. Toddf asserts that it means 'as
the bond of Gehenna or hell'; but the Rev. Dr. HoganJ
•questions this, and thinks it may mean simply * cut of the
hair,* making airbacc equal caesura^ from bacc^ *tonsio' or
*ligo,' with the prep, air. That he is right in making
• Rev. Celt., xi. 43 : Silva Gad., 354. t St. Patk., 455.
X Documenta, 73, a.
234 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
giunnae, * of the hair,' is plain from a passage in the C6ir
Anmann (395) which explains giunnach as meaning/^//,
i,e. *hair.' But it seems to me that airbacc is merely airbe
(as in Airbe-druad : p. 227, supra) with the common ter-
mination -ach ; as we write smdlach (thrush) for svtSl^ and
as giunnach from giunnae^ above. For airbacc is the way of
writing airbeach or airbach used by Latin writers, as they
wrote Fiacc for Fiach. If this is so, airbacc giunnae means
merely the * fence-cut of the hair,' implying that in this
tonsure the hair was cut in such a way as to leave a sort
of eave or fence along some part of the head. St. Patrick
considered the Norma Magica a diabolical mark : for when
these two druids were converted, he had their hair cut so as
to obliterate it. The very name of one of these brothers,
McLcl^ signifying bald, conveys the sense of tonsured : for
we see from the narrative that he was not naturally bald.
Moreover one of Laegaire's druids at Tara was i called
Lucet Mael, which name is made by the old Latin writers
Lucet calvus^ i.e. the bald or tonsured.
In connexion with this it will be interesting to mention
that in Muirchu's Memoir of St Patrick we r^ad of a
certain Ulster chief named Maccuill (for whom see. p. 214,
supra\ very tyrannical and wicked, a notorious robber and
murderer. This man openly proclaimed his own character
by adopting, as an indication of his villanous career,
certain marks, usually exhibited by persons of his sort,
which are elsewhere explained as signa diabolica super
capita^ ^diabolical marks on the head': no doubt, some
special cut of the hair.* The adoption of this mark was
an indication that the persons devoted themselves to the
service of the devil, and became diberga^ i.e. people who
practised violence, robbery, and murder, as a sort of
profession.
Heathen Baptism. — The druids had a "heathen baptism"
{baisteadk geinntUdhe], The three sons of Conall Derg
* Trip. Life, 286, note 6 : Hogan, Docum., 41, 167 ("Diberca ").
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 235
O'Corra were baptised according to this rite, with the direct
intention of devoting them to the service of the devil,
though they afterwards became three very holy men.* So
also the celebrated Red Branch hero Conall Kemach.
When he was bom, " druids came to baptise the child into
" heathenism : and they sang the heathen baptism {baithts
^^ geintUdhi) over the little child ; and they said : — *' Never
"will be born a boy who will be more impious than this
"boy towards the Connacians.*"f When Ailill Olum, king
of Munster in the beginning of the third century, was a
child, " he was baptised [pagan fashion] in druidic streams"
(Moylena, 165). In the Gaelic version of the Travels of
Sir John Mandeville, where the Scripture account of Isaac
and Ishmael is given, the term * heathen baptism ' {baistedh
Genntlidhi) is applied to circumcision ;+ but this is an
exceptional application : and the Irish ceremony was
altogether different- The ancient Welsh people had also a
heathen baptism : the Welsh hero Gwri of the Golden
Hair, when an infant, was " baptised with the baptism that
was usual at that time."§ Possibly the heathen baptism
of the Irish and Welsh was adopted by the druids of
both nations in imitation of the Christian rite, by way of
opposition to the new doctrines, devoting the child to the
service of their own gods, which in the eyes of the Christian
redactors of the tales, was equivalent to devoting him to
the devil.
Bnddfl' Bobes. — The druids wore a white robe. We read
in Tirechan's Notes that Amalgaid's druid, Rechrad, and
his eight companions, on the occasion when they attempted
to kill St. Patrick, were clad in white tunics :|| like the
Gaulish druid, who, as Pliny states, wore a white robe when
cutting the mistletoe from the oak with a knife of gold.lT
* Rev. Celt., xrv. 28, 29 : Joyce, Old Celt. Romances, 402.
t Stokes, C6ir Anmann, 393 : see p. 150, supra,
X Zeitschr. fur Celt. PhD., ii. 52. § Rhys, Hibbert Lect., 499.
y Trip. Life, 325, 326: Hogan, Docum., 83.
Y See De Jubainville, vi. 112.
236 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Trees reverenced. — We know that the Gaulish druids
regarded the oak, especially when mistletoe grew on it,
with much religious veneration ; but I cannot find that
the Irish druids had any special veneration for the oak :
although, like other trees, it occasionally figures in curious
pagan rites. The mistletoe is not a native Irish plant : it
was introduced some time in the last century. The state-
ment we so often see put forward that the Irish druids
held their religious meetings, and performed their solemn
rites, under the sacred shade of the oak, is pure invention.
But they attributed certain druidical or fairy virtues to the
yew, the hazel, and the quicken or rowan-tree — especially
the last — and employed them in many of their supersti-
tious ceremonials. We have already seen (p. 230) that
yew-rods were used in divination.
In the historic Tale of the Forbais Droma Damhghaire,
or Siege of Knocklong, in the County Limerick, we read
that when the northern and southern armies confronted
each other, the druids on both sides made immense fires of
quicken boughs. These were all cut by the soldiers with
mysterious formalities, and the fires were lighted with
great incantations. Each fire was intended to exercise a
sinister influence on the opposing army ; and from the
movements of the smoke and flames the druids drew
forecasts of the issue of the war.* On some occasions,
as we read, witches or druids, or malig^nant phantoms,
cooked flesh — sometimes the flesh of dogs or horses — on
quicken-tree spits, as part of a diabolical rite for the
destruction of some person obnoxious to them.t Many
of these superstitions have survived to our own day.
The quicken is a terror to fairies, and counteracts their
evil devices. Bring a quicken-tree walking-stick out at
night, and the fairies will take care to give you a wide
berth.J When a housewife is churning, if she puts a ring
♦O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., i. 213-216.
t See Rev. Celt., vii. 301 : and Miss Hull, Cuch. Saga, 254.
X Sec Kilk. Arch. Joum., i. (1849-51) 353, 375.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 237
made of a twig from this tree on the handle of the churn-
dash, no evil-minded neighbour can rob her of her butter
through ds\y piskoges or other malign fairy influence.
Bnddfl as Teachers and Counsellors. — A most important
function of the druids was that of teaching: they were
employed to educate the children of kings and chiefs —
they were indeed the only educators ; which greatly added
to their influence. King Laegaire's two daughters were
sent to live at Cruachan in Connaught in the house of the
two druids who had charge of their education : and even
St Columba, when a child, began his education under a
druid.
The chief druid of a king held a very influential posi-
tion : he was the king's confidential adviser on important
affairs. When King Concobar Mac Nessa contemplated
avenging the foray of Queen Maive, he sought and followed
the advice of his " right illustrious '* druid Cathbad as to
the time and manner of the projected expedition (Ross-
naree, p. 9). And on St Patrick's visit to Tara, King
Laegaire's proceedings were entirely regulated by the ad-
vice of his two chief druids Lucetmail and Lochru.* The
great respect in which druids were held is illustrated by
a passage in the Mesca Ulad in the Book of the Dun Cow,
which tells us that at an assembly it was geis (i.e. it was
forbidden) to the Ultonians to speak till their King Con-
cobar had spoken first, and it was in like manner one of
Concobar's geasa to speak before his druids. Accordingly,
on a certain occasion at a feast, Concobar stood up from
where he sat on his * hero-seat ' or throne, and there was
instant silence, so that a needle falling from roof to floor
would be heard : yet he too remained silent till his druid
Cathbad asked : — " What is this, O illustrious king ? " —
after which the king, taking this question as an invita-
tion to speak, said what he had to say to the assembly
(Mesca, 13).
* Hogan, Docum., 34> 35 : Trip. Life, 43.
238 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Bnddesses. — The ancient Irish had druidesses also, like
their relatives the Gauls. In the Rennes Dinnsenchus* a
druidess is called a bati'drui^ i.e. a * woman-druid ' : and
many individual druidesses figure in the ancient writings.
According to the same Dinnsenchus,f Brigit was a ban-filt
(poetess) and ban-drui. These druidesses are also noticed
in the ecclesiastical writings : as, for instance, in one of
St. Patrick's canons, where kings are warned to give no
countenance to magi (i. e. * druids *), or pythonesses^ or
augurers, in which it is obvious from the connexion that
the pythonesses were druidesses.+ Amongst the dangers
that St. Patrick (in his Hymn) asks God to protect him
from are "the spells of women," evidently druidesses. Many
potent witches, called ban-tuatha and also ban-sithe^ * fairy-
women,' figure in the tales, who were probably regarded as
druidesses. Before the second Battle of Moytura the two
Ban-tuathaig of the Dedannans promise to enchant {Dolb-
famid^ * we will enchant ') " the trees and stones and sods
" of the earth, so that they shall become a host [of men]
** against them [the Fomorian enemies], and rout them."§
2. Points of Agreement and Difference between Irish and
Gaulish Druids,
Chief Points of Agreement — i. They had the same
Celtic name in both countries : " Druid." 2. They were all
wizards — magicians and diviners. 3. They were the only
learned men of the time : they were judges, poets, professors
of learning in general. 4. They were teachers, especially of
the children of kings and chiefs. 5. Their disciples under-
went a long course of training, during which they got by
heart great numbers of verses. 6. They were the king's
chief advisers : they were very influential, and held in
great respect, often taking precedence even of the kings.
• Rev. Celt., xvi. 34. f Ibid.^ 277. % Trip. life, 507.
{ Rev. Celt., xii. 93. On druidesses see also O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i.
187 : and De Jubainville, vi. 92.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 239
7. Among both the Irish and Gauls there were druidesses.
8. They had a number of gods. Caesar gives the Gaulish
gods the Roman names, Mercury, Jupiter, &c. : but these
Roman names do not fit ; for the Gaulish gods were quite
different from those of Rome and Greece, and had different
names, and different functions. Many of the Irish gods,
as will be shown farther on, were identical with those of
Gaul.
Chief Points of Difference. — i. The Gaulish druids were
under one head druid, with supreme authority : and they
held periodical councils or synods. There was no such
institution in Ireland : though there were eminent druids
in various districts, with the influence usually accorded to
eminence. 2. The Gaulish druids held the doctrine of the
immortality of the soul, as applying to all mankind : the
soul of every human being passing, after death, into other
bodies, i,e. of men, not of the lower animals. There is no
evidence, as will be shown in sect 9, that the Irish druids
held the souls of all men to be immortal. But in case of
a few individuals — palpably exceptional — it is related that
they lived on after death, some reappearing as other men,
some as animals of various kinds, and a few lived on in
Fairyland, without the intervention of death. 3. Human
sacrifice was part of the rite of the Gaulish druids, some-
times an individual being sacrificed and slain : sometimes
great numbers together. There is no record of any human
sacrifice in connexion with the Irish druids : and there are
good grounds for believing that direct human sacrifice was
not practised at all in Ireland, as will be shown farther on in
this chapter (sect. 5). 4. The Gaulish druids prohibited
their disciples from committing to writing any part of
their lore, regarding this as an unhallowed practice.
There is no mention of any such prohibition among Irish
druids. 5. The Gaulish druids revered the oak, and the
mistletoe when growing on it: the Irish druids revered
the yew, the hazel, and the quicken-tree or rowan-tree:
240 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
but not the oak. 6. The Gaulish druids, as we are
informed, were priests : the Irish druids were not : they
were merely wizards and learned men. 7. A point of
difference regarding druidic literature that ought to be
noticed is this : — That while all our knowledge regarding
the Gaulish and British druids is derived from Latin and
Greek writers, there being no native accounts — or next ta
none — our information about Irish druids comes from
native Irish sources, and none from foreign writers.*
3. Sorcerers and Sorcery,
'* One foot) one hand, one eye." — Spells of several kinds
are often mentioned in our ancient writings, as practised by
various people, not specially or solely by druids. But all
such rites and incantations, by whomsoever performed —
magical practices of every kind — are known by the general
name of druidecht^ i.e. * druidisml indicating that all pro-
ceeded from the druids. Some of the most important of
them will be described here.
A common name for a sorcerer of any kind, whether
druid or not, was corrguinech^ and the art he practised —
the art of sorcery — was corrguinecht The explanation of
these corrguinechs as * folks of might,* given in the story of
the Battle of Moytura (Rev. Celt, Xii., p. yy^ shows the
popular estimation in which they were held. Usually
while practising his spell, the corrguinech was " on one foot,,
one hand, and one eye," which, I suppose, means standing
on one foot, with one arm outstretched, and with one eye
shut. While in this posture, he uttered a kind of incanta-
tion or curse, called gldm dichenn^ commonly extempore,,
which was intended to inflict injury on the maledicted
person or persons. It was chanted in a loud voice, as the
word gldm indicates, meaning, according to Cormac*s
• On the question of the Celtic druids see Dc Jubainville, La Civilis. des.
Celtes, p. 147 : and for Irish druids read O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., Lects. ix.
and X. See also Harris's Ware, Antiqq., chapter xvi.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 24I
Glossary (p. 87), * clamour ' or * outcry.' O'Davoren, in his
Glossary, defiiles corrguinecht as " to be on one foot, on one
hand, and on one eye, making the gldm dichenn^* The term
^ gldm dichenn* was often applied to the aer or satire of
a poet ; and in this application it will be again mentioned in
chapter xi.
There are many notices of the exercise, by druids or
others, of this necromantic function. Just before the
second Battle of Moytura, Lug of the long arms — the
Ildana or * master of many arts,' as he was called — the
commander of the Dedannans, having made an encouraging
speech to his men, went round the army, using one foot
and one eye, chanting, at the same time, some sort of
incantation {Rocan Lug an ceiul so sios for leth cois ocus
leth sill ttmchellfer n-Erenn : " Lug sang this chant [given]
below on one foot and one eye [while going] round the
men of Erin "). Observe, the one hand is not mentioned
here.f The " Bruden Da Derga," in the Book of the Dun
Cow, relates how, just before the tragedy in which King
Conari was slain, a horrible spectral-looking woman came
to the king and his retinue, and, standing at the door of the
house, she croaked out some sort of incantation " on one
foot, one hand, and one breath."J When the Fomorian
chief Cicul and his mother arrived in Ireland with three
hundred men to contend with the Parthalonians, they came
" on one of the legs, on one of the hands, and one of the
eyes " {/or oencosaib ocus for oenlamaib oais oensiiilib\ in
pursuance of some malign magical intentions.§
This posture was often adopted in other ceremonies
besides the gldm dtchenn, Cuculainn, on one occasion,
wishing to send a mystic message to Maive's opposing^
army, cut an oak sapling while using one foot, one hand,
* Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, 63. t Rev. Celt., xii. 99.
X Da Derga, 59.
{ Rev. Celt., xv. 432. For an instance in a late lis., see Oss. Soc. Trans.,
II. 140, 9: where, however, the editor misunderstands and mistranslates the
passage.
R
242 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
and one eye ; and bending the sapling into a ring, he cut an
ogham on it, and left it tightly fitted on the top of a pillar-
stone. It was a necessary part of this rite that the sapling
should be severed and its top sheared off with a single
sweep of the sword. One of Maive's people found it and
read the ogham, which placed an injunction on them not to
move the army from camp, till one of them, going through
the same process, placed a twig-ring with a reply in ogham
on the same pillar-stone.*
Some obscure allusions in old writings show that
sorcerers threw themselves into other strange attitudes
in the practice of their diabolical art. When the druids
came against St Caillin, they advanced on all fours, and
cuirid a tona suas^ " they turn up their backsides " (ponent
podices eorum sursum); and their jaws " move angrily, and
they unjustly revile the clerics" (probably with a gldm
dichenn): and the legend goes on to say that for this
profanity the saint turned them into standing stones.t
Perhaps a circumstance related in the " Wars of the Gaels
with the Galls " has some connexion with this rite. When
King Mahon, after the Battle of Sulcoit (A.D. 968), took
the Danes of Limerick captive, the victorious Irish cele-
brated some sort of races or games by placing " a great line
*^ of the women of the foreigners on the little hills of Singland
^* in a circle, and they were stooped with their hands on
" the ground ; and the gillies of the army, standing behind
"** them, marshalled them, for the good of the souls of the
" foreigners who were killed in the battle."J But the whole
entry, which seems an odd mixture of paganism and
Christianity, is quite obscure, so that Todd professes
himself unable to explain it
Imbas Forosnai; Teinin Laegda; and Diohetal do ohen-
naib. — In Cormac*s Glossary and other authorities, the
three rites with these names are mentioned as rendering
* Miss Hull, Ctich. Saga, 128, 129: LL, 58, a, 40.
t Book of Fenagh, 129. J Wars of GG, 83 ; and Introd., cxiiL
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 243
a poet {Jilt) prophetical. Intbas Forosnai^ illumination
between the hands/ or * palm-knowledge of enlightening/
was so called, says the Glossary (p. 94), because "it
■** discovers everything which the poet wishes and which
'** he desires to manifest" The Glossary goes on to describe
the manner of performing the rite: — "The poet chewed
" a piece of the flesh of a red pig, or of a dog, or of a cat,
" and then placing it on a flagstone, pronounced ah incan-
*' tation over it, and offered it to idol-gods : then he calls
" his idol-gods to him, but finds them not on the morrow
" \i.e, he takes them to himself, and they disappear during
" his sleep] ; and he pronounces incantations on his
" two palms, and calls again unto him his idol-gods, that
" his sleep may not be disturbed ; and he lays his two
" palms on his two cheeks and [in this- position] falls
" asleep : and he is watched in order that no one may
"disturb him." During his sleep the future events were
revealed to him ; and he wakened up with a full knowledge
of them. According to the Glossary, the rite was called
imbas, from ^<w, *the palm of the hand.' The Teinm
Laegda was used for a like purpose ; " but the two rites
were performed after a different manner: ue, a different
kind of offering was made at each " (Br. Laws, I. 45).
De Jubainville (vi. 89-91) shows that a similar, though
somewhat less complicated, rite was practised by the
Greeks and Romans, and by some eastern people.
Cormac's Glossary and other old authorities state that
St Patrick abolished the Imbas Forosnai and the Teimn
Laegda^ because they required offerings to be made to
idols or demons ; but he permitted the Dichetal do chennaib^
" because it is not necessary in it to make any off'erings
to demons." This Dichetal do chennaib was simply the
utterance of an extempore prophecy or poem without
any previous rite. It seems to have been accomplished
with the aid of a harmless mnemonic contrivance of some
kind, in which the fingers played a principal part, and
R2
244 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
by which the poet was enabled to pour forth his verses
extemporaneously. That this was the case appears both
from its name and from the descriptions given in the old
authorities. Dichetaldo chennaib signifies * recital from the
ends,' ue, the ends of the fingers, as is evident from Cormac's
Glossary (p. 95) : — " There is a revelation at once from the
ends of the bones " — do chennaib cndime. So also, in the
Small Primer, it is said that the poet repeats his verses
"without having meditated, or even thought of them
before " (Br. Laws, V. 59, 4). Again, in the Senchus M6r, we
read that the poet "composes from the enlightening
[finger-] ends " {forcan di cendaib forosnd) : on which the
Commentator says : — " At this day \i,e. in the time of the
" Commentator] it is by the ends of his [finger-] bones he
" effects it ; . . . and the way in which it is done is this : —
" When the poet sees the person or thing before him, he
" makes a verse at once with the ends of his fingers, or in
" his mind without studying, and he composes and repeats
" at the same time."* All this agrees with the statement
in Cormac's Glossary : — ^** Dichetal do chennaib was left [by
" Patrick], for it is science [i.e. mere intellectual effort — not
" necromancy] that effects it"f
Notwithstanding St. Patrick's prohibition, the whole
three rites continued to be practised down to a compara-
tively late period, as the forms of many other pagan rites
lived on in spite of the efforts of the Christian clergy.
The Book of Ollaves lays down as one of the requirements
of an Anruth poet in his eighth year that he must master
the Imbas Forosnai, the Teinm Lcugda^ and the Dichetal
do chennaib (see chap, xi.. Tables, farther on). In confir-
mation of this, we find it stated in a late historical record
• Br. Laws, i. 40, 45.
t Stokes, Trip. life, 571. Mrs. Hall, who knew nothing of the Dichetal
do chennaib f describes (in the year 1841) how the illiterate old market-woman
Moll Mbkellagh, when sent to town to purchase and bring home numerous
articles, fixed them all in her memory by means of her fingers (Irish Penny
Journal, p» 410, 2nd column).
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 245
that a council was called by Donall O'Neill, king of Ulster,
in the eleventh century, to make reparation for an injury
inflicted on the poet Erard Mac Cosse by some Ulster
chiefs : and another great scholar, Flann of Monasterboice,
as the mouthpiece of the council, assessed certain damages
to be paid to Mac Cosse, and, in future, to all other poets
for similar injury, provided they were able to compose the
Imbas Forosnaiy the Teinnt Laegda^ and the Dichetal do
chennaib* Here, however, these functions seem to have
been mere literary performances, without any invocation
to idols or demons, or any touch of necromancy ; so that,
like many other heathen practices continued into Christian
times, they lost their pagan taint, and became harmless.
Boll Feast. — The ancient Irish practised a rite called
the " Bull feast " to discover who their future king was to
be, not much unlike the Imbas Forosnai. This is described
more than once in the Book of the Dun Cow : — ^** A white
" bull was killed, and one man ate enough of its flesh, and
** drank of the broth : and he slept under that meal ; and
" a spell of truth was chanted over him [as he slept in his
" bed] by four druids : and he saw in a dream the shape
" and description of the man who should be made king,
" and the sort of work he was [at the moment] engaged
'* in."t Another version says " the sleeper would perish if
he uttered a falsehood.''^ Dr. Stokes points out that, in
Achaia, the priestess of the earth drank the fresh blood of
a bull before descending into the cave to prophesy.
Dioheltair : Fe-fiada. — The druids and other " men of
might" could make a magic mantle that rendered its
wearer invisible : called a celtar [keltar] or dicheltair (some-
thing that covers or conceals, from eel or cetl^ * conceal '),
and often celtar comga^ 'mantle of concealment' Cuculainn
once, going into battle, put on his celtar comga^ which was
♦ O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., i. 135.
t Sick Bed, AUantis, i. 385 : Ir. Texte, i. 213.
X Stokes, Da Derga, 33.
246 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
part of the raiment of Tit Tairngire or Fairyland, and
which had been given him by his tutor of druidism {aiti
drutdechta)* An Irish version of the Aeneid tells us that
when Venus was guiding Aeneas and his companions ta
Dido's city, she put a dtchealtair round them, so that
they went unseen by the hosts till they arrived within
the city:t just as Athene threw a mist of invisibility
round Ulysses as he entered the city of the Phaeacians
(Odyss. vii.).
Druids and others could raise or produce a Fe-fiada
or Feth-fiadaX which rendered people invisible. The
accounts that have reached us of this Fe-Jiada are very
confused and obscure. Sometimes it appears to be a
poetical incantation, or even a Christian hymn, which
rendered the person that repeated it invisible. Often it
is a mantle : occasionally a sort of fog or spell that hid
natural objects — such an object as a well — and that might
be removed by Christian influences. Every shee or fairy
palace had a Fe-Jiada round it, which shut it out from
mortal vision.§ The Fe-Jiada and the dicheltair held their
ground far into Christian times, and even found their way
into the legends of the saints. St Patrick's well-known hymn
was a Fe-fiada^ and it is openly called so in old authorities:
for it made Patrick and his company, as they went towards
Tara, appear as a herd of deer to those who lay in wait
to slay them. At the Battle of Clontarf (1014), the ban-
shee Eevin — according to a modern manuscript account
— gave the Dalcassian hero Dunlang O'Hartigan a mantle,^
called difeadh Fia^ which, so long as he wore it, made him
invisible, and protected him from harm during the battle ;
• Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1870-71, 425, u; 427, t: LL, 77, 5, 20.
t Zeitschr. fir Celt. Phil., 11. 431.
X This charm, with its name Feth'fiada—9i% will be mentioned farther on —
is still prevalent in Scotland, though the name has been long forgotten ia
Ireland.
\ See Todd, Book of Fermoy, 46, 48 : 0'Curry% Sons of Usna — ^Atlantis,.
HI. 386 : Trip. Life, 47 : Silva Gad., 228.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 247
but when he threw it off, he was slain* When the king of
Fermoy pursued St. Finnchua's mother to kill her — as
we read in the Life of this saint — a " cloak of darkness '^
[celtchatr dhichlethi) was put round her by miraculous
Christian intervention, so that she escaped.t It would
appear from many passages that anything producing
invisibility, whether mantle, fog, incantation, or hymn, was
called by the general name Fe^fiada.
When the Fe-fiada was a fog, it was more commonly
called ced drutdechta [dreeghta: ced^ pron. kyo, one syll.],.
the * druidical or magic fog ' ; which very often figures in
Irish romances and songs, both ancient and modem. In
the Fled Brtcrenn we read that a ced drutdechta once
overtook Laegaire the Victorious, and on the same occa-
sion another came upon Conall Cemach, " so that he was
unable to see heaven or earth."} When the Dedannans
invaded Ireland, they marched inland till they reached
Slieve an lerin, covering themselves with a magic fog^
so that the Firbolgs never perceived them till they had
taken up a strong position. This concealing fog is also
found in Christian legends. In the story of the Boroma
in the Book of Leinster, it is related that on one occasion,,
when St. Moiling and his companions were pursued by a
hostile party, his' friend Mothair^n, who was far away from
him at the time, having, in some preternatural way, been
made aware of his danger, prayed that a fog {ced simply :
not called a ced drutdechta) might be sent round them :
and straightway the fog came and enveloped them, though
they themselves did not perceive it, so that they were
quite hidden from the view of their enemies, and succeeded
in escaping. §
Yarious Spells. — Spells and charms of various other
kinds were practised. A general name for a charm was
* Oss. Soc. Trans., 11. loi : see Joyce, Short Hist, of Ireland, p. 219,
note, for the story of Dunlang. f Stokes, lives of SS., 232.
X Fled Bricrenn, 45, 49. { Silva Gad., 423.
248 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
sin [shain] : sinaire [three syllables], a * charmer.' Among
the offences mentioned in the Senchus M6r for which a
penalty was due is "carrying love-charms": which are
there called auptha : other forms of the word are upthay
eptha^ and iptha^ In the Gloss on this passage are
given two other names for a charm— ;^/»me5 and pis6c.
This last is still in use, even among English-speaking
people, in the modem form pisedg (pron. pishoge), and
familiarly applied to witchcraft or spells. Fidlantiy which
occurs in the " Second Vision of Adamnan," denoted some
kind of necromantic divination, which was, perhaps, done
by lot-casting, as the first syllable, fid^ means * wood,' or
^anything made of wood*: or, as Stokes suggests,* by
cutting ogham on a yew-rod, as described at p. 230, supra.
In Cuimmins's poem on the Irish saints Hie [aila] is given
to denote a spell-chant or charm. The Dedannan god
Lug, already mentioned (p. 241) as singing an incantation
before the Battle of Moytura, is brought forward in the
Tdin as in conversation with Cuculainn, and utters another
incantation, which is called, on the margin of the page
(78, a) of the Book of the Dun Cow, Hi Loga, * Lug's 6lt
or chant'f
4. Mythology: Gods^ Goblins^ and Phantoms.
Names for God. — In the Irish language there are several
names for God in general, without reference to any parti-
cular god : and it will be convenient to bring them all
together here, whether in Christian or pagan connexion.
The most general is dia (gen. df)^ which, with some
variations in spelling, is common to many of the Aryan
languages. It was used in pagan as well as in Christian
times, and is the Irish word in universal use at the present
♦ Rev. Celt., xii. 440.
t For other examples of///, see Stokes in Zeitschr. fur Celt. Phil., i. 72 :
and for a horrible pagan rite with dead men's marrow, practised even in
Christian times, apparently with the sanction of the Brehon Law, see Br.
Laws, I. 203.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 249
day for God. The word fiadu (gen. fiadat) is sometimes
used for *Lord' or *God/ for which see Windisch,
Worterbach, and Stokes's Lives, cv. Art is explained
in Cormac's Glossary (p. 3) as meaning *God.' Another
name was Dess\ the lady Emer, as we read in "The
Courtship of Emer," in the Book of the Dun Cow, on
seeing Cuculainn, saluted him with the words, " May Dess
make smooth the path before thee"; and in the old text
(LU, 122, 3, 83), Dess is explained by Dia^ *God,* written
in between the lines. This word Dess^ as a name for Grod,
must have been old and obscure when the book was
copied (A.D. 1 100), inasmuch as the writer thought it
necessary to explain it: and it was obscure even at the
supposed time of the meeting, for Cuculainn and Emer
carried on their conversation in intentionally obscure
words— of which Dess was one — that the hearers might
not understand them. In an old Glossary (the Duil
Latthne) in the handwriting of Duald Mac Firbis, as
quoted by Stokes,* three other ancient Irish names for God
are given, and all explained by Dta : — Teo^ Tiamud^ and
Daur, The word Cotndiu^ or Coimdiu (gen. Cotnded) is
often used in old writings for * Master,* * God,' the ' God-
head,* the *Lord,' and I think always in connexion with
Christianity: but it has long fallen into disuse. Lastly,
Tigema [teema] means * Lord.' It was originally, and is
still, applied to an earthly lord ; but, like the English word
*lord,* was often used to designate God, as it is to this
day. There was a Gaulish god, Esus^ whose worship,
though at one time pretty widely spread, appears never
to have reached Ireland, as his name does not appear in
Irish writings.
Oods in Oeneral. — In Irish literature, both lay and
ecclesiastical, we sometimes find vague references to the
pagan gods in general terms, without any hint as to their
identity or functions. The "gods" are often referred to
• In Rev. Celt., i. 259.
2SQ RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
in oaths and asseverations : and such expressions as the
following are constantly put into the mouths of the heroes
of the Red Branch : — " I swear by the gods that my people
swear by" {Tonga na dea thungus mo thuath) : ** I swear
to god what my tribe swears" {Tofigu do dia tonges mo
thuath) : " I swear by my gods whom I adore " {Do thung
mo deo dan adraim). Muirchu, in his short Latin Life of
St Patrick, written near the end of the seventh century,
informs us that when King Laegaire [Leary] was setting
out for Slane, on Easter Eve, a.d. 433, to arrest St Patrick,
he ordered nine chariots to be joined together, " according
to the tradition of the gods."* All this would seem to^
imply that — as already remarked (p. 220) — ^we are not in
possession of full information regarding pagan Irish wor-
ship: that there is something behind those observances
which we know nothing of.
Individual Oods. — But we have a number of individual
gods of very distinct personality, who figure in the
romantic literature, some beneficent and some evil. The
names of many of them have been identified with those of
ancient Gaulish gods,t a thing that might be anticipated,
inasmuch as the Gaelic people of Ireland and Scotland
are a branch of the Celts or Gauls of the Continent, and
brought with them, at their separation from the main stock,
the language, the traditions, and the mythology of their
original home,
Shee or Fairies. — The pagan Irish worshipped the side
[shee], t.e, the earth-gods, or fairies, or elves. In proof of
this, many passages might be cited from both the lay and
the ecclesiastical literature : but perhaps the most precise
statement, as well as the oldest, occurs in Fiacc's Hymn
to St Patrick :—" Till the apostle [Patrick] came to them,
darkness lay on Ireland's folk : the tribes worshipped the
* Hogao, Docum., 234.
fFor examples, see Kilk. Arch. Joura., 1868, p. 319: Stokes, Three
Irish Glossaries, xxxiii: and Rhys, Hibb. Lectures (Lects. i. and it.).
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 251
side'** A part of this worship was intended for the fairies
collectively, and a part was often meant for individuals^
who will be named as we go along. These side are closely-
mixed up with the mythical race called Tuatha [Tooha]
dea Dafiann^ or, more shortly, Dedannans, to whom the
great majority of the fairy gods belonged : and it will be
proper to give here some information regarding both
combined.t
The name Tuatha Dea Danann signifies the tuathay
or people of the goddess Danu or Danann, who was the
" mother of the gods," and who will be found mentioned
farther on. According to our bardic chroniclers the
Dedannans were the fourth of the prehistoric colonies
that arrived in Ireland many centuries before the Christian
era.J They were great magicians, and were highly skilled
in science and metal-working. After inhabiting Ireland
for about two hundred years, they were conquered by the
people of the fifth and last colony — the Milesians. When
they had been finally defeated in two decisive battles, they
held secret council, and arranged that the several chiefs,
with their followers, were to take up their residence in the
pleasant hills all over the country — the side [shee] or elf-
mounds — where they could live free from observation or
molestation. A detailed account of their final dispersion
is given in the Book of Fermoy, a manuscript copied from
older books in 1463, where it is related that the Dedannans,
after two disastrous battles, held a meeting at Brugh, on
the Boyne, under the presidency of Mannanan MacLir
(p. 258, infra) ; and by his advice they distributed and
quartered themselves on the pleasant hills and plains
of Erin. Bodb Derg [Bove Derg], son of the Dagda
♦ Trip. Life, 409.
t For further information, see Keat., 135: Hyde, Lit. Hist., 51 : Joyce,
Old Celtic Romances, 427: Ogyg., ni. xxii: and Joyce, Short Hist, of
Irel., 125.
X For the legend of their arrival and rule in Lvland, see Joyce's Keating,
109 to end.
252 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
(p. 260, infrd)y was chosen king ; and Mannanan arranged
the different dwelling-places among the hills for the
nobles. Deep under ground in these abodes they built
themselves glorious palaces, all ablaze with light, and
glittering with gems and gold. Sometimes their palaces
were situated under wells or lakes, or under the sea.*
A different account is given in a much more ancient
authority, the eighth or ninth century tale called Mesca
Ulad (p. 3), in the Book of Leinster, which recounts that
after the battles, Amergin, the Milesian brehon, was called
on to divide Erin between the conquering and the con-
quered races; **and he gave the part of Erin that was
" underground to the [spiritual] Dedannans, and the other
" part to his own corporeal people, the sons of Miled ; after
" which the Dedannans went into hills and fairy-palaces,"
and became gods. But it is to be observed that indivi-
duals belonging to other races — as, for instance, some of
the Milesian chiefs — became fairy-gods, and dwelt in the
side (for which see p. 261, infra). In a passage in one
tale even the Fomorians are said to be dwellers in the side.\
The side seem, indeed, to have been looked upon as the
home of many classes of supernatural beings, as in the
case of the Morrigu mentioned below, who is stated to
have come out of the elf-mounds {a sidaib).
In one of the stories of the Tdin, as well as in other
tales, we meet with a statement in connexion with the
Dedannans which is somewhat obscure. On one occasion
Cuculainn, being tired and thirsty after a fight, comes to
an old woman (who was the morrigu in disguise, and had
come out of the side), milking a cow, and asked her for
a drink. And when she had given it to him, he said : —
" The blessing of the dee and of the an-dee be upon thee "
{dee, 'gods'; an-dee, * non-gods'): and this explanatory
note is added in the LL text: — "The dee were the
♦ Under a well : sec Lr. Texte, in. 209.
t Rev. Celt., XII. 73 : Hyde, Lit. Hist., aS;^
CHAP. IX] PAGAN ISM 253
" magficians \aeS'Cumachta, * folk of power *], and the
" an-dee were the husbandmen [aes-irebatrey * folk of
** ploughing']."* The same incident is related in the C6ir
Anmann :t and here the dee or gods are in one place said
to be the magicians, and a little farther on they are given
as the poets (aes-ddnd) : thus identifying the poets with
the magicians. Probably dee in this and other like passages
meant simply the dniids or magicians, who were also poets,
and the an-dee^ the ordinary people or laity.
Many passages from old Irish authorities might be
cited to show that the Dedannans were identified with
the side or fairies. In the Story of the Children of Lir,
the two sons of the Dedannan King Bodb [Bove] Derg
are represented as riding forward at the head of a party
of their own people, who are called Marcra Side^ the
* cavalcade of the side or fairies.' And in an ancient
manuscript copy of Senchus na Relec, or " History of the
Cemeteries," the following statement occurs relating to the
death of King Cormac Mac Art : — " Or it was the siabra
" [sheevra, * a kind of fairies '] that killed him, ue. the
" Tuatha De Dannans, for they were called sidbra.^^X In
a poem in the Book of the Dun Cow, Midir, a noted fairy
chief, who had his side or palace under the hill now called
Slieve Goliy, near Ardagh, in Longford, is called " Midir
of the Tuatha De Dannan race."§
But an older race of side or earth-gods, the local gods
of the aboriginal inhabitants, whoever they may have
been, existed in the country before the deification of the
Dedannans : and with these the Dedannans became mixed
up and confounded. This fact did not escape the notice
of O^Curry, who puts it very clearly in an Appendix to
one of his Lectures :|| and there is a plain recognition of
♦ LL, 75, h «i ; Hun, Cuch. Saga, 169 : Hyde, lit. Hist., 286.
t Ir. Texte, ni. 355. { P^trie, Round Towers, 98, note d^
\ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 71, last line.
I MS. Mat., Appendix xxi., p. 504.
254 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the existence of older gods in many passages of the
ancient authorities. One of the oldest, the Mesca Ulad,*
after describing the arrangement already noticed, by which
the Dedannans were assigned the underground dwellings,
goes on to say : — " The Tuatha De Danann [then] went
** into hills and fairy-palaces {stdbrugath\ so that they
^* spoke with side under ground " : implying the previous
existence of the side. And in another very old authority,
the Story of the Sick-bed of Cuculainn, the Dedannans
are represented as on several occasions visiting the palaces
of the previously existing fairies. But in course of time
the distinction between the Dedannans and their prede-
cessors became lost, so that it will not be necessary to
refer to it again, and the side or fairies will be treated as
if all of one race.
Dwellings of Fairies. — In accordance with all these
ancient accounts it was universally believed that the fairies
dwelt in habitations in the interior of pleasant hills, which
were called by the name of side [shee]. Colgan's explana-
tion of this term gives an admirable epitome of the
superstition respecting the side and its inhabitants: —
** Fantastical spirits are by the Irish called men of the
" side^ because they are seen, as it were, to come out of
"beautiful hills to infest people; and hence the vulgar
" belief that they reside in certain subterraneous habita-
" tions within these hills ; and these habitations, and
** sometimes the hills themselves, are called by the Irish
*' side''\ Here it will be observed that the word side is
applied to the fairies themselves as well as to their abodes.
And shee, as meaning a fairy, is perfectly understood still.
When you see a little whirl of dust moving along the
road on a fine calm day, that is called a shee-geeha
(Jr. side gaeithe), *wind fairies,' travelling from one lis
* Mesca, p. 3: LL, 261, h, 83«
t This superstition about fairy hills also prevails in Scotland : Rob Roy,
chap, xxviii. and note H.
CHAP. IX]
PAGANISM
255
or elf-mound to another : and it will be better to get out
of the way.
In Colgan's time the fairy superstition had descended
to the common people — the vulgus ; for the spread of the
faith, and the influence of education, had disenthralled the
minds of the higher classes. But in the fifth century,
the existence of the Daoine side [deena-shee, * people of
the fairy mansions '] was an article of belief with the high
as well as with the low ; as may be inferred from the
following curious passage in the Book of Armagh (eighth
century), where we find the two daughters of La^^aire
Fig. 73.
A Ctiry hin : an evthen mound at Highwood, near Lough Arrow, in Co. Sliga
iJLeary], king of Ireland, participating in this supersti-
tion :— " Then St. Patrick came to the well which is called
^* Clebachy on the side of Cruachan^ towards the east ; and
before sunrise they [Patrick and his companions] sat
down near the well. And lo, the two daughters of
King Laegaire, Ethnea the fair and Fedelma the ruddy,
came early to the well to wash their hands, as was their
custom : and they found near the well a synod of holy
bishops with Patrick. And they knew not whence they
came, or from what people, or from what country : but
supposed them to be fir side^ or gods of the earth, or a
phantasm."*
♦ Trip. Life, 99, 314: Todd, St. Patrick, 452.
4i
•«
•(i
4i
4<
4{
4i
4i
•Ci
256 REUGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
The ideas prevalent in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh
centuries as to what the people's beliefs were regarding
the fairies before the time of St Patrick, are well set
forth in the concluding paragraph of the tale of " The
Sick Bed of Cuculainn " in the Book of the Dun Cow : —
" For the demoniac power was great before the faith : and
" such was its greatness that the demons used to corpo-
" really tempt the people, and they used to shew them
" de%ht5 and secrets, such as how they might become
" immortal. And it was to these phantoms the ignorant
" used to apply the name side."*
Numbers of fairy hills and sepulchral cairns, not only
those enumerated in the Book of Fermoy, but many others,
are scattered over the
country, each with a
bright palace deep
underneath, ruled by
its own chief, the tute-
lary deity. They eire
still r^arded as fairy
Fi<>-74- haunts, and are held
''*^'™'("™"j<>"".st;=-™ti«. [«L."i»^' in much superstitious
awe by the peasantry.
Hatnre and Fowen of On Fairiea. — Fairies, as they are
depicted for us in the old writings, occupied an intermediate
position between spiritual and corporeal beings. In some
passages of the tales, especially those relating to the pagan
heaven which they inhabited, they are spoken of as
immortal : and they drank of Manannan Mac Lir's ale.
and ate of the flesh of his swine, which preserved them
from old age, decay, and death. But in other passages
they are made subject to death, after living an immensely
long time. They are often presented to us like men
and women, and they are sometimes married to mortals.
Men fought battles against fairies, and hacked and killed
■Sick Bed: AtkDtii, u. 124.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 25/
them, and occasionally attacked their palaces : the shee or
fairy-palace of Croghan was on one occasion attacked and
plundered by Ailill and Maive* Sometimes the fairies
fought among themselves. In the Rennes Dinnsenchus it
is related that two opposing parties oi fir-side [fir-shee :
' fairy-men '] quarrelled, and fought it out in the shapes of
deer on the plain of Moenmagh, in Connaught, where
several on each side were slain : and mounds were made
of the hoofs and antlers that had been knocked off.f
Occasionally one party of fairies engaged mortal chiefs
to aid them in their wars against fairy adversaries.
The fairies possessed great preternatural powers. They
could make themselves invisible to some persons standing
by, while visible to others : as Pallas showed herself to
Achilles, while remaining invisible to the other Greeks
(Iliad, l). But their powers were exercised much oftener
for evil than for good. They were consequently dreaded
rather than loved ; and whatever worship or respect was
paid to them was mainly intended to avert mischief.
They could wither up the crops over a whole district, or
strike cattle with disease.^: The belief that the illness of
cattle was sometimes due to fairy malignity found its way
even into the Senchus M6r, in which is mentioned cattle
as killed by fairy plague, which the gloss explains as a
broken or diseased kidney.§ The women from the fairy
hills struck Cuculainn with little rods which brought on an
illness that nearly killed him ;|| and many other examples
of similar infliction occur in the tales. To this day the
* For Yarioiis mortal qualities attributed to fairies, see Todd, Book of
Fermoy, 46, 47 : O'Cuny, Usna, 388, note 16 : Voyage of Bran, 11. 189,
I95> 19^: Ventry, xrv. : Stokes, Lives of SS., xxxiy. : O'Grady, Silva
(^., 280, 290.
tRev. Celt., XVI. 274. The fights of fairies among themselves have
given names to places : as Lisnascragh, ' the fairy-fort of the shrieking ' :
for which, and for the prevalence of the superstition at the present day, see
Joyce's Names of Places, i. 192.
\ Voyage of Bran, 11. 188. { Br. Laws, 11. 239..
D Sick Bed : Atlantis, r* 389.
S
258 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
peasantry have a lurking belief that cattle and human
beings who interfere with the haunted old Itsses or forts,
are often fairy-struck, which brings on paralysis or other
dangerous illness, or death.
A brief account of a few of the leading Dedannan and
other fairy gods will now be given. Sometimes they are
spoken of as gods : sometimes they are regarded as great
men, who ultimately came to be looked upon as gods.
But this same uncertainty — whether pantheon deities are
gods or men, or the tendency to regard them as great men
who became deified — is found in the mythology of Greece,
and, indeed, in that of all other ancient nations.*
Manannan Hao Lir, whose epithet Mac Lir signifies
*Son of the Sea' (ler^ *sea'; gen. ltr\ was the Irish sea-
god. He is usually represented in the old tales as riding
on the sea, in a chariot, at the head of his followers.
When Bran the son o£ Febal had been at sea two days
and two nights, "he saw a man in a chariot coming
towards him over the sea," who turns out to be Manan-
nan Mac Lir, and who, as he passed, spoke in verse, and
said that the sea to him was a beautiful flowery plain : —
" What is a clear sea
For the prowed skiff in which Bran is,
That is to me a happy plain with profusion of flowers,
[Looking] from the chariot of two wheels." t
This latter part of the old account has been adopted in
the legends of the Saints. St Scuithin, or Scotinus, used
to walk over the sea to Rome in a day, and return the
next day. Once, when he was thus skimming along like
the wind, he met St. Finnbarr, of Cork, who was in a ship :
and Finnbarr asked him why he was travelling over the
sea in that manner. Scuithin promptly replied that it was
*For a full account of the Dedannan gods, and a comparison of their
correspondence with the deified heroes of the Greeks and other ancient
nations, see Le Cycle Mythologique : De Jubainville, Coors, Litt. Celt., Ii.
t Voyage of Bran, i., 16, 18 ; 39, note 32.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 259
not the sea at all, " but a flowery shamrock-bearing plain :
and here is a proof of it," said he — extending his hand
into the sea — "and he took up therefrom a bunch of
purple flowers and cast it to Finnbarr into the ship."
But " Finnbarr [to disprove Scuithin's statement] also
" stretched his hand into the water, from which he took
" up a salmon, and cast it to Scuithin."* And so the
dispute between the two good saints remained undecided.
Manannan is still vividly remembered in some parts of
Ireland. He is in his glory on a stormy night: and on
such a night, when you look over the sea, there before
your eyeSy in the dim gloom, are thousands of Manannan's
white-maned steeds, careering along after the great chiefs
chariot One of the islands of the pagan heaven is de-
scribed in the Voyage of Bran (l. 4) as '* an isle round
which sea-horses glisten." According to an oral tradition,
prevalent in the Isle of Man and in the eastern counties
of Leinster (brought from Leinster to Man by the early
emigrants (p. 79, supra)\ Manannan had three legs, on
which he rolled along on land, wheel-like, always sur-
rounded by a cechdraotdheachlay or * magic mist ' (p. 247,
supra) : and this is the origin of the three-l^ged figure on
the Manx halfpenny. In Cormac's Glossary (p. 114) he
is brought down to the level of a mere man — a successful
merchant — who afterwards became deified: — ^** Manannan
"MacLir, a celebrated merchant, who was [i.e. took up
" his abode] in the Isle of Mann, He was the best pilot
" that was in the west of Europe. He used to know, by
" studying the sky, the period which would be the fine
" weather and the bad weather, and when each of these
" two times would change. Hence the Irish and the
" Britons call him the * God of the Sea,* and also MacLir^
''i.e. the *Son of the Sea,' And from the name of
" Manannan the Isle of Mann is so called." But the C6ir
Anmann (p. 357), which, however, is scarcely so old an
• O'Clays Cal., 5.
S2
260 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
authority, says the reverse : — " He was called Manannan
from [the Isle of] Mann."
The Dagda was a powerful and beneficent god, who
ruled as king over Ireland for eighty years. He was
sometimes called Ruad-Ro/hessa [Roo-ro-essa], the Mord
(rtuid) of great knowledge ' {ro^ * great ' ; ^ss^ gen. fessa,
'knowledge'), for "'tis he that had the perfection of
the heathen science " ; and also Mac na n-ule n-ddna^
*the Son of all the Sciences' [ule or uile, 'all'; ddn,
' science ').* He seems to have made an ill-assorted
marriage; for, according to Cormac's Glossary (p. 90),
his wife was known by three names — Breg^ Meng^ and
Meabaly i.e. *Lie,' * Guile,' and 'Disgrace.*
Bodb Derg [Bove-Derg], son of the Dagda, had his
residence — called Side Buidh [Shee Boov] — on the shore
of Lough Derg, somewhere near Portumna. Several hills
in Ireland, noted as fairy-haunts, took their names from
him, and others from his daughter Bugh [Boo].
Aengus Hao-in-Og [Oge], another son of the Dagda, was
a mighty magician — in the Wooing of Emer he is called a
god — ^whose splendid palace at " Brugh of the Boyne " was
within the great sepulchral mound of Newgrange, near
Drogheda,t
Brigit, daughter of the Dagda, was the goddess of
Poetry and Wisdom. " This," says Cormac, in his Glossary
(p. 23), " is Brigit the female sage, or woman of wisdom —
" that is, Brigit the goddess, whom poets adored, because
" her protecting care [over them] was very great and very
" famous." Cormac fancifully interprets her name as
meaning "fiery arrow" (Irish, Breo-Shaigef), She had
two sisters, also called Bright: one was the goddess of
Medicine and medical doctors ; the other the goddess of
♦Corm. Gloss., 144: Ir. Texte, ni. 357: LL, 188, a, 3. Pronounce this
long epithet Mac-nan-uUa'nauna.
tFor the splendours of this palace, see Joyce, Old Celtic Romances,
p. 186.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 26 1
smiths and smithwork. The first recorded Christian
who bore this old pagan name was the great St Brigit of
Kildare; and through veneration for her, it has been
perpetuated in Christian Ireland for 1400 years as a
favourite name for women.
Dianceoht, the mighty physician and god of Medicine,
and his three brothers, Ooibniu, or Goibnenn, the smith
(whose wife is interred under the great mound beside
Drogheda, now called the Millmount), Credne the caird
or * brazier,' and LEchtinS the saer or * carpenter,' will be
found noticed elsewhere in this book.
Buanann and Ana, two beneficent Dedannan goddesses,
are mentioned in Cormac's Glossary as resembling each
other: i,e, in their functions. Buan-ann means *good
mother ' : so called because she was the ann^ or * mother,'
of the heroes, reared them, and taught them feats of arms.*
Anay also called Danu or Danann^ gave name to the
Tuatha Dea Dafiann (* tribes of the goddess Danu '). She
was the mother of the gods of the Irish,t that is to say,
of the "three gods of Danu" {Trt deo Danonti)^ Brian,
lucharba, and luchar — whose father was Bres MacElathan,
and who were killed by Lugh in Mana :J and she suckled
and nursed these three so well that her name "Ana"
came to signify * plenty ' (ana^ * wealth, treasure,' Mart of
O'Gorman). The C6ir Anmann (p. 289) adds that she
was worshipped in Munster as the goddess of plenty:
and the name and nutritive function of this goddess are
prominently commemorated in Da Chich Danainne^ * the
Two Paps of Dariann,' a name given to two beautiful
adjacent conical mountains near Killarney, which to this
day are well known by the name of "The Paps."§
But there were other fairy chiefs besides those of
the Dedannans: and some renowned shees belonged to
Milesian princes, who became deified in imitation of their
* Coim. Gloss., 17. X LL, p. 11,^,3; and p. 30, if, last par.
t Ibid,^ 4. § Conn. Gloss., 4*
262 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
fairy predecessors. For instance, the Shee of Aed-Buad
[Ai-Roo] at Ballyshannon, in Donegal. Our ancient books
relate that this Aed-Ruad, or Red Hugh, a Milesian chief,
the father of Macha, founder of Emain, was drowned in
the cataract at Ballyshannon, which was thence called
after him Eas^Aeda-Ruaid [Ass-ai-roo], * Aed-Ruad's
Waterfall,' now shortened to *Assaroe.' He was buried
over the cataract, in the mound which was called from
him Sid-Aeda^-z, name partly preserved in Mullaghshee,
often called MulHnashee, both names meaning * the hill of
the sid or fairy-palace/
This hill has recently been found to contain subter-
ranean chambers, which confirms our ancient legendary
accounts, and shows that it is a great sepulchral mound
like those on the Boyne. How few of the people of
Ballyshannon know that the familiar name Mullaghshee
is a living memorial of those dim ages when Aed Ruad
held sway, and that the great king himself has slept here
in his dome-roofed dwelling for two thousand years !
Another Milesian chief, Bonn, son of Milesius, was
drowned in the magic storm raised by the spells of the
Dedannans when the eight brothers came to invade
Ireland * But for him it was only changing an earthly
mode of existence for a much pleasanter one in his airy
palace on the top of Knockfiema, as the renowned king of
the fairies : and here he ruled over all the great Limerick
plain around the mountain, where many legends of him
still linger among the peasantry.
A male fairy was a fer-side {/er^ * a man ') : a female
fairy, a beU'^side or banshee y i.e. *a woman from the fairy-
hills.' Several fairy-hills were ruled by banshees as fairy
queens. The banshee who presided as queen of the
palace on the summit of Knockainy hill, in county Limerick,
was Aine [Aun6 (2-syll.)], daughter of the Dedannan
chief Eogabail, who gave her name to the hill, and to the
♦For which see Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 127.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 263
existing village of Knockainy. This was the fairy lady
who, in a personal struggle with Olioll, or Ailill, king of
Munster in the second century, cut his ear clean off,
whence he was, and is, known as Ailill Olom^ i.e. * Ailill
Bare-ear ' (^, * an ear ' ; loniy * bare *)*
Two other banshees, still more renowned, were Clidna
[Cleena] of Carrigcleena, and Aebiim or Aibell of Craglea.
Cleena is the potent banshee that rules as queen over the
fairies of South Munster. In the Dinnsenchus there is
an ancient and pathetic story about her, wherein it is
related that she was a foreigner from Fairy-land, who,
coming to Ireland, was drowned while sleeping on the
strand at the harbour of Glandore in South Cork, in the
absence of her husband. In this harbour the sea, at
certain times, utters a very peculiar, deep, hollow, and
melancholy roar, among the caverns of the cliffs, which
was formerly believed to foretell the death of a king of the
south of Ireland, and which Dean Swift has described in his
Latin poem " Carberiae Rupes " : Carbery being the name
of the districtf This surge has been from time immemo-
rial called Tonn-Cleenay * Cleena's wave.* Cleena lived on,
however, as a fairy. She had her palace in the heart of a
pile of rocks, five miles from Mallow, which is still well
known by the name of Carrig-Cleena : and numerous
legends about her are still told among the Munster
peasantry. Aebinn or Aibell [Eevin, Eevil], whose name
signifies * beautiful,' presided over North Munster, and
was in an especial manner the guardian spirit of the
Dalcassians or O'Briens. She had her palace two miles
north of Killaloe, in a rock called Crageevil, but better
known by the name of Craglea, * grey rock.' The rock is
situated in a silent glen, under the face of a mountain ;
and the people affirm that she forsook her retreat when
the woods which once covered the place were cut down.
* See Voyage of Bran, 11. 218, 219.
t See Kdk. Arch. Journ., 1856, p. 127.
254 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
There is a spring in the face of the mountain, still called
Tobereevil, 'Aibell's well.' The part she played in the
Battle of Clontarf is briefly referred to at p. 246, supra ;
but it is related in full in my Short History of Ireland,
pp. 219, and 223-4.
The old fort under which the banshee Grian of the
Bright Cheeks had her dwelling still remains on the top
of Pallas Grean hill in the county Limerick.* One of
the most noted of the fairy-palaces is on the top of
Slievenamon in Tipperary. But to enumerate all the
fairy-hills of Ireland, and relate fully the history of their
presiding gods and goddesses, and the superstitious beliefs
among the people regarding them, would occupy a good-
sized volume.
In modem times the word 'banshee' has become
narrowed in its meaning, and signifies a female spirit that
attends certain families, and is heard keening or crying at
night round the house when some member is about to die.t
At the present day almost all raths, cashels, and mounds
— the dwellings, forts, and sepulchres of the Firbolgs and
Milesians, as well as those of the Dedannans — are con-
sidered as fairy haunts.
Shees open at Samain. — On Samain Eve, the night
before the ist of November, or, as it is now called. All
•Hallows Night, or Hallowe'en, all the fairy hills were
thrown wide open; for the Fe-fiada was taken off: — ^**The
shees of Erin were always open at Samain," says the
ancient tale of " The Boyish Exploits of Finn " ; " for on
[the eve of] that day it was impossible to keep them in
concealment " : and we read in the story of " Echtra
Nerai": — "They [the fairy host] will come on Samain next;
-for the shees of Erin are always open at Samain."+ While
* An account of her will be found in Joyce* s Irish Names of Places,
II. 242.
fFor the Banshee, see Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1856, pp. 122 et seq,: and
Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends. J Rev. Celt., x. 225.
CHAP, IX] PAGANISM 265
the shees remained open that night, any mortals who were
bold enough to venture near might get a peep into them :
— "On one Samain Night [Le. Samain Eve] Finn was
*' near two shees : and he saw both of them open, after the
** Fe-fiada had been taken off them : and he saw a great
** fire in each of the duns, and heard persons talking in
y them."*
No sooner was the Fe-fiada taken off, and the doors
thrown open, than the inmates issued forth, and roamed
where they pleased all over the country : so that, as we
are told in the story of Echtra Nerai, people usually kept
within doors, naturally enough afraid to go forth ; for
^* demons would always appear on that night."t From
the cave of Cruachan or Croghan in Connaught, issued
probably the most terrific of all those spectre hosts ; for
immediately that darkness had closed in on Samain Eve,
a crowd of horrible goblins rushed out, and amon^ them
a flock of copper-red birds, led by one monstrous three-
headed vulture: and their poisonous breath withered up
everything it touched : so that this cave came to be called
the " Hell-gate of Ireland "J That same hell-gate cave is
there still, but the demons are all gone — scared away, no
doubt, by the voices of the Christian bells. The supersti-
tion that the fairies are abroad on Samain Night exists at
the present day, both in Ireland and in Scotland.
Fairies — sometimes banshees or females, sometimes
fershees or males — often kept company with mortals, and
became greatly attached to them. Every Samain a
banshee used to visit Fingin Mac Luchta, king of South
Munster in the second century, and bring him on a
round of visits to the shees^ to see all the precious things
therein. § A banshee follower of a mortal was ustually
* Boyish Exploits, Rev. Celt., Y. 202, par. 24.
fKuno Meyer: Adventures of Nera, Rev. Celt., X. 215.
J Rev. Celt., xin., 449 : SQva Gad., 353.
§ Stokes, Lives of SS., xxx.
266 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
called a lennan-shee Q fairy-lover *), and instances of such
attachments are innumerable. Fiachna, king of Ulster,
had a fdimiliar /er-side, or * fairy-man,' who used to tell him
future events.*
Anann or Ana (not the beneficent Ana, p. 261), Bodb or
Badb [Bove, Bauv], and Hacha, three weird sisters,! were
war-goddesses or battle-furies — all malignant beings.
They delighted in battle and slaughter. In an ancient
Glossary quoted by Stokes,J Macha's mast-food is said
to be the heads of men slain in battle. The old accounts
of them are somewhat confused ; but it appears that the
terms Mdrrigan and Badb were applied to all. Mdrrtgan
(or MdrrigUy as it is often written), means * great queen,*
from mity * great,' and rtgan [reean], * a queen * : but Badb
is the name oftenest applied to a war-fury. The Badb
often showed herself in battle in the form of a fenndg^
ue, a scallcrow, or royston crow, or carrion crow, fluttering
over the heads of the combatants. The word, which is
now pronounced bibe^ is still in use as applied to the bird ;
and sometimes it is used as a reproachful name for a
scolding woman — a good illustration of the commemora-
tion of ancient beliefs in modern everyday speech. This
bird is regarded by the peasantry all through Ireland —
and to some extent in Scotland and Wales — with feelings
of dread and dislike, a dim, popular memory of the terrible
part it played in the battles of the olden time.
The Badb or Mdrrigan^ sometimes as a bird, and
sometimes as a loathsome-looking hag, figures in all the
ancient battles, down even to the Battle of Clontarf (A. D.
1014). In the midst of the din and horror she was often
seen busily flitting about through the battle-cloud over-
head : and sometimes she appeared before battle in antici-
pation of slaughter. § Aed, king of Oriell in the sixth
century, had a shield called dub-gilla ('black-fellow'):
* Silva Grad., 428: Irish, 393, bottom. % ^ree Irish Glossaries, xxxv.
tRev. Celt., xii. 128. { Three Fragm., 191, last line.
CHAP. rX] PAGANISM 267
" It was the feeder of ravens, and the Badh perched on
" its rim [during battle] and shrieked."* Just before the
Battle of Moyrath (AD. 637), the grey-haired Mdrrigan,
in the form of a lean, nimble hag, was seen hovering and
hopping about on the points of the spears and shields of
the royal army who were victorious in the great battle
that followed.f In the account of the slaughter of the
nobles by the Plebeian races in the second century ad,,
given in the Book of Fermoy, we read that, after the
massacre, " gory Badb was joyful
" and women were sorrowful for
" that evenfj Just before the
Destruction of Bruiden Oa Choca,
the Badb showed herself as "a big-
" mouthed, swarthy, swift, sooty
" woman, lame, and squinting
" with her left eye." §
The Bodh was a war-goddess
among the ancient Gaulish nations
of the Continent, from whom, of
course, as in many other cases, her
I^end was brought to Ireland by
the Celtic emigrants. Some years
ago a small pillar-stone, about ^i. ci>t.ui»d..t b»<i: ««
thirty inches high, was found in 2^;.lU'c«.=X'i.f'dZ!X'i'.
France, with an interesting votive ^I^; a "ti^^^l ^^
inscription to this goddess under ^ p^j t^Tn™^
the name of Cathubodvae (of which ^,i^ -^^.^k^^ ^^^
only athubodvae now remains, the '™"
C having disappeared with a comer of the stone that was
broken off), compounded of Cathu, Irish, catk^ 'battle,*
*TToiiidamh, in 0*s. Soc, Trans., v., pp. 16, 17, verse. But the editor
nustnulatCB the eipTMsioii. f Moyralli, 199.
{Heonessy, " War Goddess," in Rev. Celt., i. 39.
f Stokes, in Rer. Cell., XXi. 315. For more examples see O'Cnny,
Man. &Cnst., 1.301: and Moyiatb, 131. See also De Jnbainville, La Civil.
dc3 Celtes, 197, 198, 111.
268 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
and Bodvae^ the Irish Bodb. Though this goddess figures
in the ancient literature of the Celtic nations in general,
including the Welsh, there are fuller and more frequent
accounts of her in Irish writings than in all the others
put together.
"Heit," says Cormac's Glossary (p. 122), "was the god
** of battle with the pagans of the Gael : Vernon was his
** wife." In another part of the Glossary it is stated that
Nemon was otherwise called Be-Neit^ and that she was a
Badb\ and in 0*Clery's Glossary she is called ^^Badb of
battle, or a fennSg*' : but as being Neit's wife she was
probably the chief Badb or war-goddess of all. Neit
and Nemon were malignant beings : — " Both are bad " :
" a venomous couple, truly, were they," says Cormac ;
and " hence is said [as a maledictive wish among the
« Irish] Be-Neit [attend] on thee ! "♦
The Badbs were not the only war-goblins. There was a
class of phantoms that sometimes appeared before battles,
bent on mischief Before the Battle of Moylena (second
century), three repulsive-looking witch-hags with blue beards
appeared before the armies, hoarsely shrieking victory for
Conn the Hundred Fighter, and defeat and death for the
rival King Eoghan.t We read of malignant beings of this
kind in connexion with Christianity also. At the Battle of
Mucrime (A.D. 250) the airoverthe heads of the combatants
was black with demons waiting to snap up and carry off
the souls of sinners : while only two angels attended to
bear away in the other direction the few souls they could
claim.+ Just before the Banquet oi Dun-nan-ged (Moyrath,
23), two horrible black spectral beings, a man and a woman,
both belonging to hell, came to the assembly, and having
devoured an enormous quantity of food, cursed the banquet,
after which they rushed out and vanished. But they left
♦Corm. Gloss., 25, 26. t Moylena, 119, 121.
} Silva Gad., 356: see also Ventry, 85, note 734.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 269
their baleful trail : for at that feast there arose a deadly
quarrel which led to the Battle of Moyrath (a.d. 637).
Even so late as the fourteenth century, some of the
historical tales record apparitions of this kind : but this
may possibly be nothing more than an imitation of the
older tales. In Mac Craith's account of the Wars of
Thomond we read that when the Clan Brian Roe were
marching to their destruction at the impending Battle of
Doolin in Clare (A.D. 13 17), they saw in the middle of a
ford a hideous-looking gigantic hag
** With grey dishevelled hair
Blood-draggledy and with sharp-boned arms, and Angers crook'd and spare.
Dabbling and washing in the ford, where mid-leg deep she stood
Beside a heap of heads and limbs that swam in oozing blood.'*
And when they asked who she was, she told them in a loud,
croaking voice that she was the Washer of the Ford, and
that the bloody human remains she was washing were their
own heads and limbs which should be lopped off and
mangled in the coming battle : on which she vanished
before the terrified eyes of the soldiers.*
In many remote, lonely glens there dwelt certain fierce
apparitions — females— called Gentti-gltnniy 'genii or sprites
of the valley ' (sing, genit : pi. gentti)^^ and others called
Bocanachs (male goblins), and Bananachs (females) : often
in company with Demna aeir or demons of the air. At
any terrible battle-crisis, many or all of these, with the
other war-furies described above, were heard shrieking and
howling with delight, some in the midst of the carnage,
some far off in their lonely haunts. Just before one of
Cuculainn's fierce onslaughts, the ^^ Bocanachs and the
" Bananachs^ and the Geniii-glinni^ and the demons of the
" air, responded to his shout of defiance : and the nemon^
* Sir Samuel Ferguson's Congal, pp. 57, 206 : quoting from The Wars
of Thomond. t Moylena, 121, note a
270 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
" i.e, the hadb^ confounded the army [of Maive, Cuculainn's
" enemy], so that the men dashed themselves against the
^* points of each other's spears and weapons, and one
^* hundred warriors dropped dead with terror." *
In the story of the Feast of Bricriu (p. 85), we are told
how the three great Red Branch Champions, Laegaire the
Victorious, Conall Cemach, and Cuculainn, contended one
time for the CurathmtTy or * champion's bit* (chap. xxi.
sect I, infra)y which was always awarded to the bravest
and mightiest hero ; and in order to determine this matter,
they were subjected to various severe tests. On one of
these occasions the stern-minded old chief, Samera, who
acted as judge for the occasion, decided that the three
heroes separately should attack a colony of GeniH-glinni
that had their abode in a neighbouring valley. La^aire
went first ; but they instantly fell on him with such
demoniac ferocity that he was glad to escape, half-naked,
leaving them his arms and battle-dress. Conall Cernach
went next, and he, too, had soon to run for it ; but he
Tared somewhat better, for, though leaving his spear, he
bore away his sword. Lastly, Cuculainn : and they filled
his ears with their hoarse shrieks, and falling on him tooth
and nail, they broke his shield and spear, and tore his
clothes to tatters. At last he could bear it no longer, and
showed plain signs of yielding. His faithful charioteer,
Lo^, was looking on. Now, one of Lo^s duties was,
whenever he saw his master about yielding in a fight, to
shower reproaches on him, so as to enrage him the more.
On this occasion he reviled him so vehemently and bitterly
for his weakness, and poured out such contemptuous nick-
names on him, that the hero became infuriated ; and,
turning on the goblins once more, sword in hand, he
crushed and hacked them to pieces, so that the valley ran
all red with their blood.
«Hennessy, in Rev. Cdt., i. 43: see also Wars of GG, 174, 175: and
Yenlry, xi.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 27I
The class of fairies called siabra [sheevra], who were
also Dedannans — a sort of disreputable poor relations of
Manannan and the Dagda — were powerful, demoniac, and
dangerous elves. They are mentioned in our earliest
literature. In the eighth- or tenth-century story of the
^^ Stabar-Chdinot (i.e. 'sheevra or demon chariot') of
Cuculainn," in the Book of the Dun Cow, St. Patrick tells
King Laegaire that the apparition he sees is not a siabrae^
but Cuculainn himself. To this day the name is quite
familiar among the people, even those who speak only
English : and they often call a crabbed little boy — ^small
for his age — a " little sheevra " : exactly as Concobar
Mac Nessa, nineteen centuries ago, when he was dis-
pleased with the boy Cuculainn, calls him a strite
siabairthi^ a "little imp of a sheevra^* The sheevras
were often incited by druids and others to do mischief to
mortals. In revenge for King Cormac Mac Art's leaning
towards Christianity, the druids let loose sheevras against
him, who choked him with the bone of a salmon, while he
was eating his dinner : and certain persons, being jealous
of a beautiful girl named Atge^ set sheevras on her, who
transformed her into a fawn.t
The Leprechdn, as we now have him, is a little fellow
whose occupation is making shoes for the fairies ; % and
on moonlight nights you may sometimes hear the tap-
tap of his little hammer from where he sits, working in
some lonely nook among bushes. If you can catch him,
and keep your gaze fixed on him, he will tell you, after
some threatening, where to find a crock of gold : but if you
take your ^yts off him for an instant, he is gone. The
Leprechauns are an ancient race in Ireland, for we find
them mentioned in some of our oldest tales. The original
name was Luchorpdn^ from lu^ 'little,' and corpdn^ a
* LL, 64, &, last line : Miss Hull, Cuch. Saga, 143, where the English
word " brat " does not well carry the sense of the originaU
t Dinnsenchos of Fafaind, Rev. Celt*, xy« 307.
X See Silva Gad., 199, 270.
2/2 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
diminutive of corpy a ' body ' (Lat corpus) : * a wee little
body.' A passage in the Book of the Dun Cow — inserted,
of course by the Christian redactor — informs us that they
were descended from Ham, the son of Noah : — " It is from
"him [Ham] descend Luchrupans^ and Fomorians, and
" goat-heads, and every other ill-shaped sort of men."*
They could do mischief to mortals, such as withering the
com, setting fire to houses, snipping the hair of women's
heads clean off, and so forth ;t but were not prone to
inflict evil except under provocation. From the beginnings
as their name implies, they were of diminutive size ; for
example, as they are presented to us in the ancient tale
of the Death of Fergus Mac Leide, their stature might
be about six inches. In the same tale the king of the
Leprechauns was taken captive by Fergus, and ransomed
himself by giving him a pair of magic shoes, which enabled
him to go under the water whenever, and for as long as, he
pleased rj just as at the present day a leprechaun, when
you catch him — which is the difficulty — will give you
heaps of money for letting him go. No doubt, the episode
of the ransom by the magic shoes in the old story is the
original version of the present superstition that the
leprechaun is the fairies' shoemaker. The leprechauns
of this particular story live in a beautiful country under
Loch Rury, now Dundrum Bay, off the coast of county
Down.
In modern times the Pooka has come to the front as a
leading Irish goblin : but I fear he is not native Irish, as
I do not find him mentioned in any ancient Irish docu-
ments. He appears to have been an immigrant fairy,
brought hither by the Danish settlers : for we find in the
old Norse language the word piiki^ meaning an *imp,*
which is, no doubt, the ^origin of our piica or pooka, and
* Kilk. iVrch. Joum., 1872-3, p. 182 : LU, p. 2, at, bottom.
t Silva Gad., 279, 280^
{ Silva Gad., 282, 283 : Br. Laws, i. 71, 73.
CHAP. DC] PAGANISM 273
of the English Puck.* But, like the Anglo-Norman settlers,
he had not long lived in this country till he became " more
Irish than the Irish themselves." For an account of his
shape, character, and exploits, I must refer the reader to
Crofton Croker's "Fairy Legends," and to the first volume of
my " Origin and History of Irish Names of Places " (p. 188).
When the Milesians landed in Ireland, they were
encountered by mysterious sights and sounds wherever
they went, through the subtle spells of the Dedannans.
As they climbed over the mountains of Kerry, half-formed
spectres flitted dimly before their eyes: for Banba, the
queen of one of the three Dedannan princes who ruled the
land, sent a swarm of meisi [misha], or * phantoms,' which
froze the blood of the invaders with terror: and the
mountain range of Slieve Mish, near Tralee, still retains
the name of those apparitions.f 0*Clery*s Glossary ex-
plains meisi as meaning ^^sheevra^ or phantom forms,
"such as might be [spectral] bodies that rise from the
"ground." The Dedannans could also command the
services of whole clouds of urtrochta (* malignant sprites *),
and guidemain^ which last name, according to Cormac's
Glossary (p. 87), was applied to spectres and fairy
queens.
The early biographers of the Irish saints fully believed
that in the pagan times Ireland was infested by number-
less demons and evil spirits, just as they believed in the
necromantic powers of the druids : which we can hardly
wonder at, seeing that the belief in witches and witchcraft
was universal all over Europe down to a late period- Of
those evil beings, and of the early Christian notions
regarding them, Jocelin, a monk of Furness in Lancashire,
who wrote a Life of St Patrick in the twelfth century,
gives a very vivid and highly-coloured picture. He tells
us that before the time of St Patrick Ireland was troubled
• Kuno Meyer, in Rev. Celt., xii. 461.
tCorm. Gloss., 119, 120.
T
274 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
with a three-fold plague of reptiles, demons, and magicians.
As for reptiles —
" These venomous and monstrous creatures used to rise out of
the earth and sea, and so prevailed over the whole island, that they
wounded both men and animals with their deadly stings, often slew
them with their cruel bitings, and not seldom rent and devoured
their members." ** The demons used to show themselves unto their
worshippers in visible forms : they often attacked the people,
inflicting much hurt; and only ceased from their baleful doings
when they were appeased by foul, heathenish prayers and offerings.
After this they were seen flying in the air and walking on the earth,
loathsome and horrible to behold, in such multitudes that it seemed
as if the whole island were too small to give them standing and
flying room. Whence Ireland was deemed the special home of
demons. And lastly, the magicians, evil-doers, and soothsayers
abounded beyond what history records of any other country on the
face of the earth."
What with Dedannan gods, with war-gods and goddesses,
apparitions, demons, sprites of the valley, ordinary ghosts,
spectres, and goblins, fairies of various kinds — sheevras,
leprechauns, banshees, and so forth — ^there appears to have
been quite as numerous a population belonging to the
spiritual world as of human beings. In those old pagan
days, Ireland was an eerie place to live in : and it was high
time for St Patrick to come.
5. Worship of Idols.
Idols were very generally worshipped. The earliest
authentic document that mention? idols is St. Patrick's
" Confession," in which the great apostle himself speaks
of some of the Scots (/>. Irish) who, up to that time, "had
worshipped only idols and abominations":* and elsewhere
in the same document he speaks of the practice of idol-
-worship as a thing well known among the Irish. The
Tripartite Life (p. 41) informs us that Tara was, in the
*Trip. Life, 369, 10.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 275
time of the saint, the chief abode of " idolatry and
druidism" [idlacht ecus druidecht). In the same work
the destruction of many idols is mentioned as part of
Patrick's life-work : and a story is told (at p. 225) of two
maidens— Christian converts — who were persecuted, and
finally drowned, by a tyrannical petty king, for refusing
to worship idols.
There was a great idol called Cromm Craach, covered
all over with gold and silver, in Magh Slecht (the * Plain
of Prostrations'), near the present village of Bally mag^uran,
in the County Cavan, surrounded by twelve lesser idols,
covered with brass or bronze. In our most ancient books
there are descriptions of this idol. Cromm Crtuich is the
name given to it (with some slight variations in different
passages) in the Book of Leinster. It is called Cenn
Cruaich in the Tripartite Life : Jocelin (chap. Ivi.) calls it
Cean Croithi: and in Colgan's Third Life of St Patrick
it is CennerhhCy which, however, Todd thinks is likely an
error of transcription. In a very old legend, found in the
Dinnsenchus in the Book of Leinster, it is related that,
many centuries before the Christian era. King Tigemmas
and crowds of his people were destroyed in some
mysterious way, as they were worshipping it on Samain
eve — the 6ve of the ist November.* Cromm Cruach is
in this book (LL, 16, i, 30) called the chief idol of Ireland
[rig'idal h^Erenn^ ' king idol of Erin ') : and in the Rennes
Dinnsenchus (p. 35) we are told that, " until Patrick's
" advent, he was the god of every folk that colonised
" Ireland." In the main facts regarding Cromm Crtiach^
the secular literature is corroborated by the Lives of
St Patrick. In the Tripartite Life (pp. 91 and 93) it is
stated that this idol was adored by King Laegaire, and by
many others ; and that Patrick, setting out from Granard,
went straight to Magh Slecht, and overthrew the whole
thirteen.
* See also FM, a.m. 3656.
T 2
276 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
In the same authority (p. 217) we read that a chief named
Foilge Berraide had adopted Cenn Cruaich as his special
god, and that he attempted to kill Patrick in revenge for
destroying it. Cromnt Cruach and its twelve attendant
idols were pillar-stones, covered with gold and bronze:
and the Dinnsenchus in the Book of Leinster,* after
speaking of them, remarks that from the time of Heremon
to the coming of the good Patrick of Armagh, there was
adoration of stones in Ireland. The remains of these
thirteen idols were in Magh Slecht at the time of the
compilation of the Tripartite Life (eighth to tenth century) :
for it states (pp. 91, 93) : — **The mark of the staff [/.^. the
** * staff of Jesus,' St Patrick's crosier] still remains on its
" left side " : and it goes on to say that the other twelve
were also to be seen, buried up to their heads in the earth,
as Patrick had left them.
In the western parts of Connaught there was another
remarkable idol called Cromnt Dubh: and the first Sunday
in August, as the anniversary of its destruction, is still called,
in Munster and Connaught, Domnach Cruimm Dutbh,
* Cromm Dubh's Sunday.' O'Flahertyf identifies Cromm
Dubh with Cromm Cruach, Todd asserts that Domnach
Cruimm Duibh was the Sunday next before Samain, or
the 1st November.* But this cannot be; for to this
day the first Sunday in August is, in Clare and Munster,
generally called Domtmch Cruimm Duibh, and also
" Garland Sunday," which the people, down to our own
time, celebrated there as a sort of festival.§
As Cromm Cruach was the " king-idol " of all Ireland,
there was a special idol-god, named Kermand Kelstach,
that presided over Ulster. This stone-idol was still pre-
*LL, 214, a, first two lines: Hyde, Lit. Hist., 86: Voyage of Bran,
II. 305, verse 13.
t Ogyg., Part, in., chap. xxii. Probably O'Flaherty is wrong in this.
J Todd, St. Patrick, 128.
jO'Curry, MS. Mat., 632: O'Looney, in Proc. R. L Acad., 1870-76,
p. 268. O'Curry and O'Looncy were both natives of Clare.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 277
served in the porch of the cathedral of Clogher down to
the time of the annalist Cathal Maguire (died 1498), as he
himself tells us.*
Pillar-ttonei were worshipped in other parts of Ireland
as well as at Moy-Slecht and Clogher. In the Brehon
Laws (IV. 143) one of the objects used for marking the
boundaries of land is stated to be "a stone of worship"
{lia adrada [pron. lee-ira], from Itc^ a * stone,' and adrad^
* worship '). This interesting record at once connects the
Irish custom with the Roman worship of the god Terminus,
which god — as in Ireland — was merely a pillar-stone
placed standing in the gfround to mark the boundary of
two adjacent properties. Even to this day some of these
old idol or oracle-stones are known ; and the memory of
the rites performed at them is preserved in popular l^end.
Two miles from Stradbally in Waterford, just beside a
bridge over a little stream falling into the river Tay,
is a remarkable rock, still called Clogh-Umrish (Ir. dock-
labhrats^ the ' speaking-stone '), which has given its name
to the bridge. There is a very vivid tradition in the
County Waterford, and indeed all over Munster — I heard
it in Limerick— that in pagan times it gave responses, and
decided causes. But on one occasion a wicked woman
perjured herself in its presence, appealing to it to witness
her truthfulness when she was really lying, whereupon it
split in two, and never spoke again.t There were speaking-
stones in other parts of Ireland : and one of them has
given name to the present townland of Clolourish, near
Enniscorthy, in Wexford.
The Welsh, too, had their speaking-stone, and called
it by the same Celtic name, only using lec^ or lech, a
' stone,' instead of cloch. This is mentioned by Giraldus
Cambrensis, who calls it by its Welsh name Lech-lawar,
correctly rendered by him the * speaking-stone.' In his
♦ Todd, St. Patrick, 129 : Ogyg., Iii. xxii.
t See Tribes of Ireland, p. 17, note i.
278 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
time it formed a bridge across a small stream: and he
relates a legend how it once spoke, and also how, on a
certain occasion, it cracked in the middle, like our Clogh-
lowrish — " which crack " — he says — " is still to be seen."*
The word lech (Irish, lee) is used here, as it is the proper
word, both in Irish and Welsh, for a flat flagstone. The
fact that the speaking-stone superstition is common to
both Irish and Welsh, shows that they must have had it
from a period before the separation of these two Celtic
branches, centuries before the Christian era.
Stones that uttered musical and other sounds are
sometimes mentioned in Irish tales.t The most remark-
able of these was the Lia Fail, or inauguration stone, at
Tara, which roared when a king of the true Scotic or
Milesian race stood on it : like the Egyptian Vocal
Memnon, which uttered musical sounds when it received
the rays of the rising sun. We are not told that any of
these Irish vocal stones were worshipped : but they were
probably connected — by a sort of distant cousinship —
with the acknowledged stone idols. Stones, as well as
fountains and trees, were worshipped on the Continent, as
well as in Britain, even so late as the tenth or eleventh
century : and the three are often mentioned in the
ecclesiastical canons as objects of worship.} In Ireland,
as we see in this section and section 8, stones and wells
were worshipped : but though certain kinds of trees were
in some degree venerated, I cannot find that any trees
were actually worshipped.
The Irish had an idol, called in Cormac's Glossary
(p. 23) Bial, and named Bfl in an ancient manuscript
quoted by Petrie in his Tara (p. 84), which also states
that, on a certain festival day, " two of the young of every
kind of cattle were exhibited as in the possession of B^l "
* Hib. Expngn., i. xzzvii.
t See Voyage of Bran, i., p. 10, verse 17 ; and note 17 at p. 39.
X Ferguson, Rude Stone Monuments, 24, 25.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 279
{i.e. presented or offered to him). Stokes (Corm. GL, 23)
quotes a statement from another ancient manuscript, that
" a fire was always kindled in Biel's or Bial's name at the
"beginning of summer [Le. on May Day), and cattle were
"driven between the two fires." Keating also (p. 300),
who had authority for all his statements, tells us that
during the yearly May meeting at Ushnagh, they offered
sacrifice to the chief god whom they adored, whose name
was B^l, and repeats the statement about offering the
young of the cattle. A similar statement is made in an
another ancient authority :* but here the offering is made
at a different season: we are informed that at Bron-Trogin^
t.e, the beginning of autumn, the young of every kind of
animal used to be " assigned to the possession of the idol
B^I." In none of these cases does there appear to have
been a sacrifice : it was a mere nominal offer. Down to
two hundred years ago the memory of this Irish god was
preserved in the western islands of Scotland ; for Martin
(p. ids) tells us that the people there had a god whom
they called Bel.
So much nonsense has been written about the con-
nexion of the Phoenicians with Ireland that one almost
hesitates to touch on the subject at all. Yet when we
bear in mind the well-known historical facts that the
Phoenicians introduced the worship of their sun-god Baal
into the neighbouring countries, and into all their colonies^
including Spain, with which last-named country Ireland
had early close communication : that the Phoenicians
themselves were well acquainted with Ireland : that this
worship was widely spread, each country having its own
god Baal or Bel : that the Irish Bd [pron. Bail], or Biel,
or Bialy was worshipped with fire ceremonies, as we
know Baal himself was : and, lastly, the identity of the
Phoenician and Irish names for their respective gods : it
seems impossible to resist the belief that the name and
♦ Tlic Wooing ofEmer, in Rev. Celt., xi. 443.
280 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
worship of the Irish B^l was derived — directly or indirectly
— from the Phoenicians.
One of the Irish words for an idol was idal^ which, of
course, was borrowed into the Irish language from Greek
through Latin. But there are native terms also. Arracht
is a shape, a likeness, a spectre, an idol : when St. Patrick
went to Cashel, all the arrachts in King Aengus's palace
fell on their faces, like Dagon before the Ark.* A more
common word is Idtn-dia^ * hand-god,' a small portable
idol, a household god, like the teraphim of the Hebrews,
and the penates of the Romans. When Rachel departed
from her father's house, as the Saltair na Rann (line 3016)
tells the story, she brought away with her her father's
Idm-deo^ which is the Irish rendering of the teraphim.
In like manner, in the Irish version of a portion of the
yEneid, in the Book of Ballymote, we are told that when
yEneas was about to fly from Troy, he said : — " Let
** Anchises take the Idim-deo {penates^ * household gods ')
" with him."f Just as the Deluge was about to come on,
Bith and his daughter Ceasar asked Noah for a place in
the Ark : and being refused, they consulted a Idimh-dhia^
who advised them to make a ship for themselves and go
to sea, which they did, and set sail for Ireland. J It was,
no doubt, hand-gods of this kind that the poet brought
into his bed when he was about to go to sleep for revela-
tions under the influence of Imbas Forosnai (p. 243, supra).
Such handy little gods, corresponding with the Roman
penates and lares, are probably the household gods
referred to under the name Tromdhe in the following
short article, quoted in a note by O'Donovan in Cormac's
Glossary (p. 163), from some old Irish Glossary: —
" Tromdhe, i.e. tutelary gods, t,e. floor-gods, or gods of
protection."
• Trip. Life, 194, 23 ; 258, ».
t Zeitschr. fur Celt. Phil., n. 448.
X Joyce, Keating, p. 49.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 281
6. Human Sacrifice.
In connexion with idol-worship it will be convenient
to examine the question whether human beings were
sacrificed in ancient Ireland, There is only a single
document in old Irish literature stating that human
sacrifice was practised as part of a religious rite, namely,
the Dinnsenchus. In this it is mentioned twice ; once in
the account of Tailltenn ; the other in that of Magh Slecht
The first, as we know, was penned by a Christian scribe,
for it mentions the preaching of St. Patrick ; and the
other was obviously produced by the same hand, or under
the same influence. Indeed, throughout the whole of
the Dinnsenchus there are many Christian allusions and
remarks indicating that the writer was a monk. In
accounting for the name of Tailltenn (now Teltown, in
Meath), he takes occasion to state that St Patrick, when
addressing the multitudes at the great fair there, "preached
** against [the slaying of] yoke oxen and the slaying of
*** milch cows, and [against] the burning of the first-bom
"** progeny."* In the second passage, in giving the origin
of the name of Magh Slecht (* Plain of Prostrations'),
where the idol Cromm Cruach stood, the writer tells us
that the worshipi>ers sacrificed their children to this idol
in order to obtain plenty of corn, honey, and milk. The
account of the idol, and of the destruction of King
Tigernmas and his people while worshipping it, is given
in the form of a short poem, of which a shorter prose
version is found in other copies of the Dinnsenchus, The
following is the translation, by Professor Kuno Meyer,t of
that part of the poem that concerns us : —
**To him [Cromm Cruach] without glory they would kill their
piteous wretched ofifspring with much wailing and peril, to pour
* Sullivan, Introd., 641 : LL, 201, a, 15.
t In the Voyage of Bran, ii. 304. The original Irish poem is in
LL, 213, ^: and a transcript, in Roman t3rpe, will he found in the Voyage
of Bran, 11. 301 •
282 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
their blood around Cromm Cruach. Milk and honey they would
ask from him speedily, in return for one-third of their healthy issue.
Great was the horror and the scare of him. To him noble Gaels
would prostrate themselves. From the worship of him with many
manslaughters, the plain is called Magh Slecht."
The abridged prose version in the Rennes copy of the
Dinnsenchus merely varies the expression: — "To him
" [Cromm Cruach] they used to offer the firstlings of every
" issue, and the chief scions of every clan."*
These two passages are the only direct statements
known to me in all our old native literature that the
ancient Irish practised human sacrifice : and being in the
same document, they amount to a single statement — so
far as concerns the value of their testimony. Though
Keating, O'Flaherty, the Four Masters, and other native
writers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, who all
wrote from old authorities, tell us about the worship of
Cromm Cruach and the death of Tigemmas, they make
no mention of human sacrifice: a plain indication that
they did not consider the unsupported Dinnsenchus a
sufficient authority on so important a point Still more
significant is the circumstance that in a preceding part
of the same Book of Leinster (p. i6, b) there is a prose
account of this idol, and of the death of Tigemmas with
a multitude of his people while worshipping it, in which
there is not a word about sacrificing human beings.
But there is still stronger evidence, though of a n^ative
character. Scattered everywhere through our ancient
literature, both secular and ecclesiastical — as this chapter
shows — ^we find abundant descriptions and details of the
rites and superstitions of the pagan Irish : and in no place
•^with this single exception — do we find a word or hint
pointing to human sacrifice to pagan gods or idols.
According to the accounts in the Dinnsenchus, the
♦ Rev. Celt., xvi. 35.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 283
worship and ritual of this idol, and the practice of sacrific-
ing the first-bom progeny, continued till the time of St
Patrick. But neither in the Confession of St Patrick —
written by himself — in which he mentions and inveighs
against several of the worst pagan practices, nor in the
seventh-century Life of him by Muirchu, nor in the anno-
tations of Tirechan — also of the seventh century — nor in the
Tripartite Life, nor in Colgan's Seventh Life — which two
last narratives give details of the worship of Cromm Cruach
— in none of these — all of them older than the Dinn-
senchus (which is comparatively modem) — is there any
mention of human sacrifice. Patrick, in his progress
through the country, heard all about this famous idol, and
turned his steps from Granard to Magh Slecht for the
express purpose of destroying it. If human beings had
been sacrificed, he would have known of it, and his
biographers would have recorded it The writers of the
Lives of the Saint were very naturally on the look-out for
occasions to glorify his memory. They were ready enough,
as we see by many examples, to show up the evil practices
of the pagan Irish, and to point out the change for the
better after their conversion ; and it seems wholly in-
credible that they should withhold from St Patrick the
credit of putting a stop to this, the greatest abomination
of all, which — if the Dinnsenchus is telling truth — must
have been notorious at that time, since — according to
this authority — the saint himself preached against it at
Tailltenn.
There is still another most important consideration
affecting the credit of the record in question : that nearly
all the stories of the Dinnsenchus accounting for names —
of which this is one — are mere fables, invented to suit the
several occasions. The Dinnsenchus is, from many points
of view, a highly instructive and interesting document :
but its importance fortunately does not depend on the
credibility of the stories. As a typical example of these
284 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
etymological narratives, take the story accounting for the
origin and name of the river Boyne. There was a sacred well
at the foot of Side Nechtain (now Carbury Hill in County
Kildare) on which none were to look save four privil^ed
persons, on pain of some dreadful personal injury. But
the lady Boand ridiculed the prohibition, and, going to the
well, walked contemptuously thrice round it left-hand-wise
(see p. 302, infra) : whereupon the well burst up round
her, and broke her thigh-bone, one hand, and one eye.
She fled in terror eastward : but the water pursued her till
she arrived at the seashore, where she was drowned. Even
after that the water continued to flow so as to form the
river Boand or Boyne, which took its name from her * It
is in company of such stories as this — for nearly all the
Dinnsenchus stories are of a similar kind — we find the
account of the sacrifice of human beings to Cromm
Cruach.
Giving due weight to all these considerations, we need
have no hesitation in pronouncing this Dinnsenchus
record an invention pure and simple: and I venture to
express my belief that no human beings were ever
sacrificed in Ireland to Cromm Cruach or to any other
idol. Where and by whom the story was originated, it is
now impossible to tell : but it seems probable that the poem
was inserted — as Dr. Hyde remarks (Lit. Hist, 92) — ^** by a
Christian chronicler familiar with the accounts of Moloch
and Ashtaroth." It is just such a statement as we might
expect would be invented in order to add human sacrifice
as a heightening touch to the abominations of Magh
Slecht
Stability of Building secured by Blood. — But it is not
unlikely that at some very remote period, long before the
time of St Patrick, human beings were immolated in
another way. There was an ancient superstition that
when an important building was about to be erected, its
* Rennes Dinn., Rev. Celt., xv. 315.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 28$
safety and stability were ensured by sprinkling the founda-
tions with the blood of some human victim, who was to be
slain for the purpose. The memory of this archaic belief
is preserved in the fanciful etymology of " Emain " (the
name of the gfreat Ulster palace) given in Cormac's
Glossary (p. 63), from em or emay ' blood,' and ain or uin^
* one,* " because " — says the Glossary — " the blood of one
man was shed at the time of its erection." In a note on
this passage Dr. Stokes, the editor, says : — " The supersti-
" tion here referred to, as to the need of immolating a
" human being to ensure the stability of a building, is still
"current in India," It appears that a similar superstition
existed among the Danes, Greeks, and Servians. Nennius
has preserved the old British tradition that when Dinas
Emris in Wales was founded by Gortigern, his druids told
him that, in order that the structure should last for ever, it
was necessary to sacrifice a child who had no father, ^md
to sprinkle his blood on the foundation. Such a child was
found — a little boy — who was gifted with preternatural
wisdom, and who, when he was brought forth to be killed,
argued the matter with the druids so successfully that the
king let him off.* This boy was subsequently the Welsh
bard and prophet Merlin.
In some of the Irish Lives of St Columkille there is a
legend that after the settlement of the saint in lona, one
of his disciples, a Briton, named Odran, offered to die, so
that his burial, with the usual Christian rites, might scare
away the demons that infested the island. So he died
and was buried, and the demons fled. According to later
oral versions of this legend, Odran was sacrificed by his
own consent, and buried under the foundations, to
counteract the malign influences of evil spirits, who were
breaking down Columkille's churches as fast as he erected
* Nennius, {{ 40-42: Irish Nennius, 93, and Additional Notes, p. xzivs
Stokes, Three Irish Glossaries, xli., note: Stokes, Lives of SS., 3091
Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland^ 212 : and O'Curry, Man. and Cust. i. 222.
286 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
them. The tradition that persons were formerly buried
alive — or first killed and then buried — under the founda-
tions of newly erected buildings, to ensure their stability,
is prevalent to-day all over the Hebrides, according to
Mr. Carmichael, who gives several traditional instances.*
Although this evidence is all legendary, yet, seeing that
the legend is so widely spread, it is to be feared that, in
^ome prehistoric time, the horrible rite was really practised,
in Ireland as elsewhere.
There is a trace — though purely legendary — of the
immolation of human beings in Ireland, for a different
purpose, in an ancient tale referred to by Dr. W. K.
5ullivan (Introd., 333), " The Courtship of Becuma," copied
into the Book of Fermoy from some older book. Here a
blight comes on the com and milk all over the country
on account of a great crime committed by a woman ; on
which the druids declared that in order to remove the
blight it was necessary to slay the son of a couple charac-
terised by certain marks and tokens, and to sprinkle the
blood on the doorposts of Tara. The boy was found :
but just as he was about to be killed, a wonderfully
formed cow appeared, which was slain instead of him :
and the doorposts were sprinkled with her blood, which
removed the blight This story, it will be observed,
>curiously corresponds with the Greek legend of Iphigenia :
and in some respects with the narrative of the intended
sacrifice of Isaac.
7. Worship of Weapons.
According to an ancient tradition given in the story
of the second Battle of Moytura, some of the pagan Irish
worshipped their weapons. This story relates that after
the battle, Ogma the Dedannan, whose party had gained
the victory, found on the field Oma^ the sword of Tethra^
a Fomorian king: and he unsheathed and cleaned it.
* Carmina Gadelica, u. 316.
U
U
4(
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 287
" Then the sword " — the story goes on to say — " related
whatsoever had been done by it : for it was the custom
of swords at that time, when unsheathed, to set forth the
deeds that had been done by them. Hence also charms
" are preserved in swords. Now the reason why demons
*' used to speak from weapons at that time was, because
" weapons were then worshipped by human beings."*
A remnant of this superstition survived to the sixteenth
century : — ^** The Irish at this day " — ^says Spenser (View,
gy) — "when they go to battaile, say certain prayers or
charms to their swords, making a crosse therewith upon
the earth, and j^thrusting the points of their blades into
the ground, thinking thereby to have the better successe
« in fighL"t
The veneration for arms, amounting sometimes to
downright worship, accounts for the custom of swearing
by them. This oath, which was very usual, was quite as
binding as that by the elements. The reason is given in
the Sick Bed of Cuculainn:J — "Because demons were
" accustomed to speak to them from their arms ; and
** hence it was that an oath by their arms was inviolable."
Once on a time Cormac Gaileng wanted some badgers
for a feast : and going to a warren, where lived certain
badgers with human reason, he called on them to come
forth, promising that no evil should be done to them.
But they, distrusting him, refused : whereupon he swore
upon his own father's spear, which he held in his hand,
not to harm them. So they — believing that he would not
dare to violate the spear — foolishly came forth: and
Cormac fell on them instantly and killed them all. For
this crime— violating the spear — his father banished him ;
and this son was ever after called Cormac Gaileng^ that is
♦ Stokes in Rev. Cdt., xii. 107.
t For the reverence paid to swords by Continental nations in the middle
ages, see Sir Frederick PoUok's Oiford Lectures, p. 269.
^Atlantis, i. 371.
288 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
to say, ** Of the dishonoured spear." We have a witness
of his infamy to this day in the barony of Gallen in Mayo,
which takes its name from him.* The custom of swearing
by weapons took long to die out — like the worship of
them — for Spenser (View, 98) informs that in his day the
Irish commonly swore by their swords.
8. Worship of the Elements.
Elemental Worship in OeneraL — In the Lives of the Saints
and other ecclesiastical writings, as well as in the lay
literature, we have ample evidence that various natural
objects were worshipped by the ancient Irish. A very
clear example of a direct appeal to the powers of nature
occurs in the story of the Tdin in the Book of the Dun Cow.
Cuculainn — who was a demigod — ^fighting alone against
Maive's forces, and finding himself hard pressed, invokes
the heavens and the earth, the sea and the river Cronn>
to help him : and his prayer was answered, for the river
surged up and overwhelmed numbers of his enemies.t
That there existed in the ninth and tenth centuries a vivid
tradition of elemental worship is shown by the words of
Cormac's Glossary quoted below (p. 290). But this worship
was only partial, confined to individuals or to the people
of certain districts, each individual, or family, or group,
having some special favourite object We have no record
of the universal worship of any element. There is reason
to believe that it was not the mere material object they
worshipped, but a spirit or genius that was supposed to
dwell in it : for the Celts of Ireland peopled almost all
remarkable natural objects with preternatural beings.
Weill. — The worship of water, as represented in wells,
is often mentioned. The Tripartite Life, and Tirechan, in
the Book of Armagh, relate that St. Patrick, in his journey
through Connaught, came to a well called Sldn [slaun:
* Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 11. 244*
t Kilk. Archseol. Journ., 1868, p. 308.
CHAP, IX] PAGANISM 289
i^. * healing *] which the heathens worshipped as a god ;
believing that a certain 'prophet' (Jdith in the Irish
Tripartite : prof eta in Tirechan's Latin) had caused him-
self to be buried under it in a stone coffin, to keep his
bones cool from fire that he dreaded : for "he adored water
as a god, but hated fire as an evil.being."* This prophet
was of course a druid. More than a century later, in the
time of St. Columba, as will be found mentioned farther on,,
there was a well in Scotland which the people "worshipped
as a divinity." In the account of St Patrick's contest with
the druids at Tara, given in Muirchu^s Life, and also in
the Tripartite, we are told that the king's druid Lucet
Mael declined Patrick's challenge to put the Christian and
the pagan books in water to ascertain which would come
out unharmed ; for, having heard of baptism, he declared
that Patrick worshipped water as a god. And when the
ordeal by fire was proposed, he also objected, on the ground
that the saint worshipped water and fire alternately :
all which shows that the worship of these two elements
was quite familiar at the time. It is to be observed that
well-worship was not peculiar to Ireland : at one time it
prevailed all over Europe.
The Sun. — ^That the sun was worshipped in Ireland —
at least partially, like some other natural objects — is
made certain by several passages in our ancient literature.
St Patrick plainly intimates this when he says in his
Confession — speaking of the Irish — that all who adore the
sun shall perish eternally. This is a contemporary state-
ment: for the saint is evidently denouncing a practice
existing in his own time.f We have a more specific account
in Cormac's Glossary (p. 54) ; but this entry is four centuries
later, and records, not contemporary custom, but one
existing long before the time of the compilation of the
Glossary. It states that Indelba (* Images ') was the name
* Trip. life, 123 and note 2 ; 323. f See also Ware, Antiqq., 11. 122.
U
290 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
applied to the altars of certain idols : and that these altars
were so called because " they [the pagans] were wont to
"carve on them the forms (Irish, delbd) of the elements
** they adored : for example, the figure of the sun." As
curiously corroborative of this, Keating (p. 462) has a
legend, from some old authority not now known, that in
the time of St Columkille there was in Tirconnell a
certain Christian priest {sacart) — ^but he must have been
half a pagan — ^who had built a church, in which he placed
an altar of glass with an image {delb) of the sun, and another
of the moon, carved on it : for which — as the legend has it
— he was being carried off by demons, but was rescued by
St Columkille. In another part of his work, Keating
quotes an ancient poem which states that the three last
Dedannan kings of Ireland derived their cognomens from
the objects of their worship, one of whom was Mac Griine
(* son or devotee of the sun '), because his god was the sun
(jgrian, gen. griine).
Fire. — That fire was worshipped by some of the Irish
appears from the statement in the Tripartite Life that
Laegaire's druid accused St Patrick of having fire for a
god. We know that certain pagan festivals were celebrated
in Ireland, in which fire played a prominent part Thus
in A.D. 433 a great fire was kindled at Tara, as part of
some festival, and while it was burning no other should be
kindled in the country all round, on pain of death.*
Cormac's Glossary (p. 19) tells us that fires were lighted
by the druids on May Day, with great incantations, and
that cattle used to be driven through or between them as a
preservative against disease for the coming year. He says
also that from this ceremony, Belltaine or May Day took
its name, i. e., bel-tene^ lucky fire.f A very ancient poem,
printed by Kuno Meyer in " Hibemia Minora" (p. 49),
-enumerating the May Day celebrations, mentions among
*Hogan, Docum., 33.
t See also D'Arbois de Jubainville, vi., pp. 244-246.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 29 1
them a bonfire on a hill {tended ar cnuc). Another authority
states that these fires were kindled in the name of the
idol-god Bdl (Glossary 23). Keating (p. 300) tells us that
it was at Ushnagh, during the great May Day meeting
there, that this fire was lighted in honour of B^l : and he
goes on to say that at this same time it was the custom to
light two fires to B61 in every district in Ireland, and to
drive the cattle between them to protect them from the
diseases of the year. He states also that during the
meeting held on Samain or ist November at Tlachtga, a
fire was kindled in which we are told that the druids
burned sacrifices : and while it lasted, all other fires in
Ireland were to be extinguished or covered.
These fire-ceremonies have descended to our time.
From an interesting communication in the Kilkenny
Archaeological Journal, 1 883-4, p. 64, we learn that, about
the beginning of the last century, people used a fire
ceremonial for the cure of diseased cattle. When the
disease broke out in one of the farms, all the fires in the
townland were at a given time put out ; and a number of
men, having assembled at the farm, produced fire — called
in Irish teine-tigin^ L e., * forced fire * — ^by the friction of two
dry pieces of wood, the men taking their turn at the work.
With this they kindled a great smoky fire of scraws (grassy
sods from the surface of a bog) mixed with soot, and held
the cattle over the smoke. This they said stamped out the
disease. Martin (p. 113) found a similar custom in the
Scottish Western Isles in 1703 : but here water was boiled
over the tin-egin^ as he calls it, and sprinkled over the
infected cattle. The custom of driving cattle through fires
against disease on the eve of the ist of May, and on the eve
of the 24th June (St. John's Day), continued in Ireland, as
well as in the Scottish Highlands, to a period within living
memory.* Many curious fire-customs are still, or were until
* Cannichael, Carmina Gadelica, 11. 340, for Scotland. I saw it done in
Ireland.
U2
292 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
very lately, prevalent in some parts of the country on May
Day, and the evening before : and on the eve of the 24th
June — St John's Day — they light open air fires when dusk
comes on, so that the whole country is illuminated. This
custom is of great antiquity in Ireland ; for the teinef^ile
Eoin, the * fire of John's festival,* is mentioned in the Book
of Hymns (a MS. of the ninth or tenth century) as well
known at the time of the writer.* The information given
here regarding the worship of the elements has been drawn
from authentic sources. But the detailed descriptions of
sun and fire worship in Ireland, given by some writers of
the last century, and their speculations about "bovine
cultus," " porcine cultus," " Crom the god of fire or of the
winds," and such like, as well as the pictures of divination
by Irish druids from the blood of victims, are all the dreams
of peiisons who never undertook the labour of investigating
the matter by reference to the ancient authentic literature
of the country.
Elemental Oath. — No doubt this ancient elemental worship
was the origin of the very general pagan Irish custom of
swearing by the elements, or, in other words, giving the
elements as guarantee : an oath which it was very dangerous
to violate, as is shown by the fate of Laegaire, king of Ire-
land in the time of St. Patrick. In an attempt to exact the
Boruma tribute from Leinster, he was defeated and taken
prisoner by the Leinstermen : but was released on taking
the usual oath, giving as guarantee — t,e,y swearing by — the
" sun and moon, water and air, day and night, sea and land,"
that he would never again demand it But in open viola-
tion of his oath he invaded Leinster for this same Tribute in
less than two years: whereupon "the elements passed a
"doom of death on Laegaire, to wit, the earth to swallow him
"up, the sun to burn him, and the wind to depart from
* The custom of lighting fires on the 23rd June, St. John's Eve, was at
one time general over Europe, and has been kept up in Paris. De Jubainville,
La Civil, des Celtes, p. 243.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 293
" him," " SO that " — as the Four Masters (A.D. 458) express
it — " the sun and wind killed him because he had violated
them": " for " — says an older authority, the Book of the Dun
Cow — " no one durst violate them at that time."*
How long the worship of idols and of the elements
remained in the country it is now impossible to say. But
it is probable that the practices lurked in remote places far
into Christian times. We need not be surprised at this when
we know that — according to the testimony of the Venerable
Bede (Eccl. Hist, ill., xxx.) — idolatry was openly practised
in England, even by some of the kings of the Heptarchy,
in spite of the exertions of the clergy, in the latter part of
the seventh century. And it has been already more than
once remarked in this book, that traces of pagan worship
have remained in Ireland to the present day.
9. The Pagan Heaven^ and a Future State.
Vames and Sitnatioiis. — There was a belief in a land
of everlasting youth and peace, beautiful beyond concep-
tion, always inhabited by fairies, and called by various
names: — Tir-nanSg [Teemanogue], ue.^ the 'Land of the
[ever-] youthful people ' : I-Bresail, or I-Braztl, the 'Land
of Bresal ' : Ttr-nam-beS [Teer-nam-yo], the * Land of the
[ever-] living': Mag Mell [Moy-Mell], the 'Plain of
pleasures ' (for which Ten-mhagk TrSgaighi, pron. Tenvah-
tr6gee, was another namet) : Mag-Mon, 'Plain of Sports':
Tir-Tairngiri^ihQ 'Land of Promise': and Tir-na'Sorcha^
the ' Land of Light' Sometimes it is described as situated
far out in the Western Ocean : sometimes it was deep
down under the sea or under a lake or well ; sometimes it
was in a hollow shee or fairy-hill. Perhaps it would be
more correct to say that there were many such happy
♦ See Rev. Celt., xin. 53 : Silva Gad., 407 : Trip. Life, 567 : LL, 299, ^,
last twelve lines; LU, 118, ^, last eleven lines,
tlr. Texte, i. 214, note 24.
294 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
lands, situated in those various places. The inhabitants
were the side [shee] or fairies, who were immortal, and
who lived in perfect peace and in a perpetual round of
sensuous, but harmless and sinless pleasures.
In nearly all the old accounts of this happy land, the
absence of wickedness is expressly mentioned. The man
from Tfr Taimgiri tells Cormac that it was "a land
" wherein there is nought save truth, and there is neither
" age, hor decay, nor gloom, nor sadness, nor envy, nor
"jealousy, nor hatred, nor haughtiness."* The absence of
sin,^ and such like characteristics, are of course additions
by Christian scribes.
In ancient Irish romantic tales we find many descrip-
tions of this pagan heaven, bearing a general resemblance
to each other. One which pictures Mag Mon (* Plain of
Sports ') situated far out in the Western Ocean — the land
that is called elsewhere Moy Mell, or I-Brazil — may be
read, translated by Prof Kuno Meyer, in Mr. Alfred Nutt's
work, "The Voyage of Bran," L 4. This composition,
which is in poetry, is ascribed by scholars to the seventh
century. The following poetical description of the Fairy
King Midir's heavenly country, under the shee of Bri
Leith, the hill now called Slieve Golry near Ardagh in
the county Longford, will give the reader an excellent
idea of these happy abodes : it has been translated by
O'Curry from the Book of the Dun Cow : —
O Befind, wilt thou come with me
To a wonderful land that is mine,
Where the hair is like the blossom of the golden sobarche^
Where the tender body is as fair as snow.
There shall be neither grief nor care ;
White are the teeth, black the eyebrows.
Pleasant to the eye the number of our host ;
On every cheek is the hue of the foxglove.
*Ir. Texte, iir. 212.
CHAP. DC] PAGANISM 295
Crimson of the plain is each brake.
Delightful to the eye the blackbird's eggs ;
Thoug^h pleasant to behold are the plains of Inisfail [Ireland],
Rarely wouldst thou think of them after frequenting the
Great Plain.
Though intoxicating thou deemest the ales of Inisfail,
Uore intoxicating are the ales of the great land —
The wonderful land— the land I speak of,
Where youth never grows to old age.
Warm sweet streams traverse the land,
The choicest of mead and of wine ;
Handsome people without blemish,
Conception without sin, without stain.
We see everyone on every side.
And no one seeth us ;
The cloud of Adam's trangression
Has caused this concealment of us from them.
O lady, if thou comest to my valiant people,
A diadem of gold shall be on thy head ;
Flesh of swine, all Iresh, banquets of oew milk and ale,
Shalt thou have with me there, O Befind."
The name T{r Taimgiri is often found, not only in
tt)e Tales, but in the Christian legends of the saints. St.
Brendan had been praying for some secure, delightful land,
remote from the haunts of men. And an angel said to
him : — " Arise, O Brendan, for God hath given to thee
what thou hast sought — Tir-Taimgire"^ After this the
angel directs him how to find it : and it was in search
of this promised happy land that Brendan went on his
celebrated voyage out on the Western Ocean. The name
Tir-Tairngire is a translation of the Scriptural name of
'The oiigwal, with rigidly literal translalion, maybe seen in O'Cuny,
Man. & Cntl., tl. p. 191 : and Dr. Donglas Hyde has given a metrical tranala-
tioD in his Literary Histoiy oflreland, p. 103. For the Irish Pagan Elysium,
see Mr. Alfred Nutt, Voyage of Bran, vol. i. : Hyde, Lit. Hist., p. 94 : and
for a short composite poetical description, Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, tio.
t Stokei, Lives of SS., 153.
296 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the * Land of Promise ' ; it is of great antiquity, for it is
found in the eighth- and ninth-century glosses of Zeuss ;
but the idea of the land itself is derived from the pagan
legend of the happy fairyland.
This pagan heaven legend did not escape the notice
of Giraldus Cambrensis. He tells the story of the
Phantom Island, as he calls it, off the western coast,
and how, on one occasion when it appeared, some men
rowed out towards it, and shot a fiery arrow against it,
which fixed it.* To this day the legend remains as vivid
as ever : and the people believe that if they could succeed
in throwing fire on it from their boat, it would fix it, as it
did before the time of Giraldus.t
The happy land then was the abode of the spiritual
and immortal fairy people; but it was not for human
beings, except a few individuals who were brought thither
by the fairies, as will be told below.
Immortality of the SouL — We know from Caesar, Diodorus
Siculus, and other classical writers, that the ancient Gauls
or Celts taught, as one of their tenets, that the soul was
immortal ; and that after death it passed from one human
body to another : and this it appears, applied to all human
beings. But in Irish literature I cannot find anything to
warrant the conclusion that the pagan Irish believed that
the souls of all men were immortal, or that the spirits of
those who died were rewarded or punished in the other
world for their conduct in this, or in fact that their spirits
existed at all after death.J A few individuals became
* Top. Hib., II. xii.
t For the present ideas regarding the western phantom land, see Hardi-
man, Ir. Minstr., i. 367.
J This statement is, I believe, a correct inference from the evidence in
those ancient native documents that have come down to us, and have been
made available. But it is made with this reservation, that, in consequence of
the wholesale destruction of our books, the full evidence may not be before
us. In this connexion it is necessary to notice one Christian record, a
remarkable expression of Tirechan*s Annotations on the Life of St. Patrick,
written in the seventh century. The pagan King Laegaire, rejecting the
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 297
immortal in Fairyland, and some other few lived on after
death, appearing as other men, or in the shapes of animals,
as will be presently related. But these are all palpable
exceptions, and are put forward as such in the legends.*
A few individuals were brought by fairies to the happy
other world, and became immortal : and the time passed
there so obscurely and pleasantly that a whole century
appeared only the length of a year or so. Prince Connla,
son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter (king of Ireland in the
second century) was carried off in a crystal boat by a fairy
maiden before the eyes of his father and friends, and was
never seen on earth again.t Once a person got to Fairy-
land he could never return, except, indeed, on a short visit,
always in a boat or on horseback, merely to take a look at
his native land : but if once he touched his mother earth,
the spell of youth and immortality was broken, and he
immediately felt the consequences. Bran, the son of
Febal, had been sailing with his crew among the happy
islands for hundreds of years, though they thought it
was only the length of an ordinary voyage. When they
returned to the coast of Kerry, one man jumped ashore,
against solemn warning, but fell down instantly, and
became a heap of ashes. J Ossian, the son of Finn, did
not fare quite so badly when he returned to Ireland riding
an enchanted steed, after his 300 years sojourn in Tir-
nanoge, which he thought only three years. Traversing
teaching of St. Patrick, and expressing a determination to be buried, pagan
fashion, standing up, armed, in his grave, is made to say to the saint : —
** For the pagans are accustomed to be buried, armed, with their weapons
ready, face to face to the day oi Erdathe among the magi (druids), i.e,, the
day of judgment of the I-ord" (Petrie, Tara, 170). This would seem to
imply that the druids had a day of judgment, called by them Erdathe^
corresponding with the Christian day of judgment: which, again, would
indirecUy imply that they held the doctrine of the immortality of the soul.
But this, besides being an isolated statement, has so decided a Christian
complexion, that it would be unsafe to draw any conclusion from it.
* See all this question discussed in M. De JubainviUe*s Cycle Mytholo-
gique, p. 344.
t Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 106. J Voyage of Bran, i. 32.
298 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
his old haunts, the wonder of all the strange people he
met, for his size and beauty, he on one occasion, in trying
to lift a great stone, overbalanced himself, and had to leap
to the ground, when he instantly became a withered, bony,
feeble old man, while his fairy steed galloped off and never
returned.* Laegaire^ son of Crimthann, king of Connaught,
went with fifty followers to Moy Mell to aid the fairy king
Fiachna Mac Retach against a rival fairy king who had
made war on him. Fiachna led them to the shore of a
lake called Enloch, and all dived down, and soon came
to Moy Mell. After defeating the enemy, Laegaire and
his fifty men were permitted to visit their native place on
horseback : but Fiachna warned them not to dismount
On their arrival their friends were qverjoyed and besought
them to stay : but Laegaire cried out : — ^^ Do not approach
or touch us : we have come only to bid you all farewell ! '*
So saying they returned to the shee^ where Laegaire now
rules as fairy king jointly with Fiachna.t
In some tales, however, mortals who are detained in
the shee are represented as thoroughly miserable. Dian,
who had been a young noble on earth among the Fena,
comes to see Cailte out of the fairy mound of Mullaghshee
at Assaroe, beside Ballyshannon. Cailte asks how it
fares with him : on which Dian replies that though of
food and raiment there was abundance, yet he would
rather be the lowest and most despised drudge among
the servants of the Fena, than be the prince that he was
in Fairyland. (Silva Gad., 139 bottom.) This is almost
exactly what the shade of the mighty hero Achilles says
to Ulysses : — " Talk not to me of being a leader here in
" Hades : I had rather be on earth the servant of some
" poor landless man than bear sway as a prince here among
"the ghosts of the dead." (Odyssey, XI.) In modern
♦ Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 385.
fO'Grady, Silva Gad., 290: LL Contents, 63, a, middle. See also
Mr. Nntt, in the Voyage of Bran, vol. i., chap. iii. (pp. 144-160).
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 299
Irish fairy legends, those that have been carried off by
fairies are always pining in misery in Fairyland.
Metempsychosis. — The foregoing observations regarding
the pagan Irish notions of immortality after death apply
in a great measure to their ideas of metempsychosis. In
our romantic literature there are l^ends of the re-birth
of human beings : t,e, certain persons, commonly heroes or
demigods, were re-bom, and figured in the world, with
new personality, name, and character. Thus Cuculainn
was a re-incarnation of the Dedannan hero-god. Lug of
the Long Arms. In other cases human beings, after
death, took the shapes of various animals in succession,
and re-appeared as human beings. Mongan of Rath-
more Moylinny, king of Dalriada, in Ulster, in the seventh
century — a historical personage — was fabled to be a re-
incarnation of the great Finn Mac Cumail of the third
century.* This same Mongan went, after death, into
various shapes, a wolf, a stag, a salmon, a seal, a swan;
like the Welsh Taliessin. Fintan, the nephew of Parthalon,
survived the deluge, and lived in the shapes of various
animals successively for many agesj after which he was
re-incarnated in the sixth century as a man named Tuan
Mac CairilLf This Tuan was a celebrated sage, and no
wonder, for he witnessed all the remarkable things that
happened in Ireland from the time of Parthalon, a lapse
of some thousands of years, and related everything to
St t'innen of Magh Bile.
The Irish, too, had their were-wolf legends. It seems
that there were certain persons among the inhabitants of
OssoryJ who, whenever they pleased, took the shape of
wolves, and then ravaged and devoured cattle like real
wolves, returning to their human shape when they thought
they had enough of their pastime. Giraldus Cambrensis
(Top. Hib., li., xix.) relates this g^eat wonder in detail, as
in operation in his own time, and believed every word of
* Voyage of Bran, i. 49-52. f Ogyg., Part I. J Irish Nennius, 205.
300 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
it: and the legend is mentioned in the Norse Speculum
Regale (p. 226, supra), as applying to all the Ossorians in
turn (Folk Lore, v. 310). The wolf-transformation is
mentioned in a sermon on the Resurrection in LU
(p. 36, b), the oldest reference to it that we know.
Stokes quotes from an old glossary the word conoel^ as
meaning " a woman that goes into wolf-shape " {conrecki),
and another old word, pointing to a different transforma-
tion : — " conel, a woman that goes into the form of a little
hound {cidnrecht)"^ In the eighth- or ninth-century story
of the " Feast of Bricriu " figures a character named "Uath
of the Lake," who was a sort of Irish Proteus : " A man of
** great power indeed was that same Uath Mac Immomuin
" (* horror son of terror '). He used to transform himself
'* into any shape pleasing to him, and he used to practise
" enchantment {druidecht^ * druidism '),... and he was
"called the striti (* elf-man') from the g^eat number of
" his transformations/ 't Numerous stories of this kind are
found in Irish romance; but I think the examples given
here represent all the types of transformation believed in
by the ancient Irish. These stories are scattered, and
have no thread of connexion : they do not coalesce into
a system : they are told of individuals, in palpable excep-
tion to the general run of people, and many of them are
stated to be the result of magical skill. There is no
statement anywhere that all persons were re-bom as
human beings, or underwent transformations after d'es^th.
Stories of a similar kind are current among most
early nations. There are accordingly no grounds what-
ever for asserting that the ancient Irish believed in the
doctrine of general metempsychosis ; and this is also
O'Curry's conclusion.?
• Rev. Celt., 11. 203.
t Ir. Texte, I. 293, and Fled Brier., 97. For more information on these
and such like transformations, see Voyage of Bran, I. 24 & 330 ; ii. whole
vol. : Rev. Celt., XV. 466 : Ir. Texte, in. 373 ; iv. 228.
X Man. & Cust., 11. 60.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 3OI
10. Turning * Deistol* or Sunwise,
The Celtic people were, and still are, accustomed to
turn sunwise—/.^, from left to right— in performing certain
rites ; and the word deisiol [deshil] was used to designate
this way of turning: from dess^ now deas^ *the right
hand': dessel^ or deisiol^ * right-hand-wise.* This custom
is very ancient, and, like many others, has descended
from pagan to Christian times. It was, indeed, quite as
common among the Christian people as among the pagans :
but all that is necessary to say about it I will say here.
It was not confined to the Celts ; for, in classical writers,
we find numerous allusions to it as it was carried out by
the Latins and the Greeks. Martin (p. 117, &c.) describes
it as practised in his day by the Scotic people of the
Hebrides: and readers of Waverley will remember how
the old leech made the deasil by walking three times in
the direction of the sun round the wounded Edward,
before beginning his examination of the wound. Even at
this day, the Irish people, when burying their dead, walk
at least once, sometimes three times, round the graveyard,
sunwise, with the coffin.
No wonder that the custom was generally adopted by
our Christian ancestors ; for their great apostle Patrick
showed them the example. After he had been presented
with the site of his future cathedral at Armagh by Dariy
on which then stood that chiefs residence, the saint
solemnly consecrated the whole place to the service of
God by walking dessil round the rath, holding in his hand
his crozier — the staff of Jesus — and followed in proces-
sion by all his attendant ecclesiastics.* A century later
St. Senan consecrated Scattery Island, in like manner, by
walking right-hand-wise round it.f Another half century
later still, St Findchua, the warlike patron saint of
♦ Stokes, Lives of SS*, 348. t Ibid., 214.
302 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Brigown, happened once to be in Tara, when a powerful
force of British pirates landed on the coast, and marched
towards the palace, plundering all before them. Findchua
rapidly organised a defence party, and, directing, them to
march dessil to meet the invaders, i, e, to make a round-
about right-hand-wise circuit, probably with the double
object of complying with the old custom and of skilfully
coming down on the enemy's flank — for Findchua was a
born soldier — he accompanied them with martial ardour
in his face— or as the old Life vividly puts it, "so that
sparkles of fire flew forth from his teeth" — and falling
unexpectedly on the marauders, made short work of
them* The celebrated Cathach, the "Battle-book," or
Prceliator of the O'Donnells (p. 137, supra\ was always
borne three times right-hand-wise round their army before
battle, to assure victory : it was so employed as late as the
fifteenth century.
These are a few illustrations of the exercise of this
dessil custom by the ancient Irish : but they might be
multiplied indefinitely.
Sometimes persons went left-hand-wise (tuathbet) with
a sinister intention, as the lady Boand went round Trinity
well (p. 284, supra). In Scotland this left-hand turn is now
called witkerskinSy which is a Teutonic word.f
II. The Ordeal.
The use of the ordeal for determining truth or false-
Tiood, guilt or innocence, was developed from prehistoric
times in Ireland : but the germs were, no doubt, brought
hither by the earliest colonists. The Irish had their own
ordeals, in which were some peculiarities not found among
other nations of Europe. Most originated in pagan times,
* Stokes, Lives of SS., 236.
t For more about the Deisiul Turn, see Ferguson, in Proc. R. I. A.,
1870-76, p. 355 : and Joyce, Irish Names of Places, 11. 455.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 303
but, as in other countries, the ordeal continued in use for
many centuries after the general adoption of Christianity.*
In the Book of Ballymote there is a list and description
of twelve different kinds of ordeal used by the ancient Irish,
which has been referred to by Mr. William Hennessy in
an interesting paper on Irish Ordeals :t and more lately
published and translated in full with the Irish text by
Dr. Whitley Stokes.J In this it is stated that the twelve
ordeals were arranged and proclaimed by King Cormac
Mac Art in the third century at the Fits or Convention of
Tara. All through this tract an ordeal is called Fir-flatha
[feer-flaha], ue.^ * Truth of sovereignty or kingdom/ The
following is the Ballymote list : — i, 2, 3. " Morann's three
Collars " : 4. « Mochta's Adze " : 5. The " Lot-casting of
Sencha " : 6. The " Vessel of Badum " : 7. The " Three
Dark Stones" : 8. The "Caldron of Truth": 9. The "Old Lot
of Sen, son of Aige": 10. "Luchta's Iron": 11. "Waiting
at an Altar": 12. "Cormac's Cup.*' Some of these are
obviously l^endary and fanciful : but that the greater
number were in actual use is plain from the numerous
references to them in the Brehon Laws, and other ancient
Irish writings. Morann's three collars were not much
different from each other in their functions : and if they
be regarded as one, which it is pretty certain they originally
were, and if the two lot-castings (Nos. 5 and 9 above) are
looked upon as modifications of a single one, this brings
down the twelve Irish ordeals to nine, which was the usual
number that prevailed all over Europe in the middle ages.
It is curious that single combat or the duel is not included
in the Irish technical list, though it prevailed as much in
Ireland as elsewhere, as is shown at page 152, supra.
Numbers i, 2, and 3. The common version of the
l^end of Morann's collar is this : — that the great brehon
* See Ware, Antiqq., chap. xix. t In Proc. R. I. Acad., x. 34.
X In Ir. Texte, in. Another list, somewhat di£ferent, with descriptions,
is given in Br. Laws, v. 471, 473.
304 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
or judge, Morann, had a collar, which, if placed round the
neck of a judge, contracted on his throat if he delivered
a false or unjust judgment, and continued to press more
tightly, ever till he delivered a righteous one. Placed on
the neck of a witness, if he bore false testimony, it acted
similarly, until it forced him to acknowledge the truth.
In the Ballymote List it is stated that Morann had three
collars : but as all were used for purposes similar to those
just stated, they need not be described here.*
4. The Tdl [tawl] or adze of Mochta (a legendary
carpenter) " was wont to be put into a fire made of black-
" thorn, or of quicken-tree [till it was red-hot], and the
" [tongue of the accused] was passed over it : it would burn
" the person who had falsehood : but would not bum the
"person who was innocent" A case of the application
of this ordeal is mentioned by 0'Curry,t taken from an
ancient manuscript, where it is called a " druidical " or
pagan test.
7. The Tre-lia Mothair^ * Three Dark Stones ' : a bucket
was filled with bog-dust, charcoal, and other kinds of
black stuff*, and three little stones, white, black, and
speckled, were put into it, buried deep in the black mass,
into which the accused thrust down his hand : if he drew
the white stone, he was innocent ; if the black one, he was
guilty : and if he drew the speckled one, he was " half
guilty."
8. The Coire-fir [curra-feer], * caldron of truth,' was a
vessel of silver and gold. " Water was heated in it till it
" was boiling, into which the accused plunged his hand :
" if he was guilty, the hand was burned : if not, it was
" uninjured." This ordeal seems to have been often used :
it is noticed in the Senchus M6r: and elsewhere in the
Brehon Laws it is mentioned as a means of determining
certain cases of doubtful family relationship.J
• They will be found described in Ir. Texte, ni. 208.
t Man. & Gust., i. 216. % S*". Laws, i., 195, 199; IV. 285, 295.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 305
9. Cran7ichur^ or lot-casting {crann, * wood ' : cury
'casting'), of which two kinds (5 and 9) are mentioned:
but it will be sufficient to describe the last one here.
Three lots : one for the flaiih or local lord, one for the
ollave (who conducted the trial), and the third for the
accused, were thrown into water. If the accused was
guilty, his lot went to the bottom ; if innocent, it floated.
Ordeal by lot appears to have been oftenest used of any ;
but other forms, differing from the one described here,
were more usual. It is very often mentioned in the
Brehon Laws. If a man was accused of wrong by another,
and if either demanded trial by lot, then lot was resorted
to : and the plan adopted, as described in the Book of
Acaill,* shows that here the ordeal was under the auspices
of Christianity. Three lots were put into a vessel or bag,
one for guilt, one for innocence, and one for the Trinity.
If the accused first draws forth the lot for the Trinity, it
is to be put back ; and he is to draw again, till he brings
forth either of the others, which determines the case. The
lot for the Trinity must have been used as a sort of invo-
cation to God for justice, and to add solemnity to the
proceeding : otherwise it was useless.
If an animal out of some one of several herds did
mischief, lots were first cast, as described in another part
of the Book of Acaill, to find out the particular herd ; after
which the process was repeated, if necessary, till the lot
fell on a particular animal, the owner of which had then to
pay damages, assessed by a Brehon, who had to take into
account several circumstances : — the actual amount of the
damage; whether it was a first offence; whether the animal
was known to be mischievous, implying carelessness in the
owner, &c.f Similar proceedings were taken to discover
the owners of bees that did damage. Lot-casting as an
ordeal was quite as common among the ancient Irish as it
was among the Homeric Greeks.
♦ Br. Laws, ni. 337. f TWi., 439, 441.
X
41
306 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
10. larn LucAta^ " Luchta's iron, [the use of] which the
** druid Luchta learned in LetAa (either Brittany or Italy)
^*when he went there to improve his knowledge." The
druids having first uttered an incantation over a piece of
iron, put it in a fire till it was red-hoL It was then placed
in the hand of the accused : and " it would burn him if he
had guilt : but would not injure him if innocent"
11. Airisem ic altSir^ * waiting at an altar.' The person
was to go nine times round the altar, and afterwards to
drink water over which a druid's incantations had been
uttered. " If the man was guilty, the sign of his transgres-
sion was made manifest in him [by some bodily disfigure-
ment]: if innocent, he remained unharmed." Notwith-
standing the mention of the word * altar,* this ordeal had
nothing to do with Christianity: the legend states that
it was borrowed from the Israelites by Cai Cainbrethach
(* Cai of the fair judgments '), the original brehon who
introduced it into Ireland : and Mr. Hennessy thinks it
probable that this pagan circuit was made round a cam,
to which the borrowed word altdir was applied : as Cormac
uses the same word altSir for a pagan altar. This is rendered
all the more likely from the fact that, before the battle
of Ciil Dremne, St Columkille denounces the half-pagan
forces arrayed against his people as " the host that march
round cams " — alluding, no doubt, to the practice of this
pagan ordeal, or to some form of pagan worship. Probably
the altar of the ordeal was one of those mentioned by
Cormac (p. 289, supra), and was usually erected on a
cam : this would fully reconcile all the statements. As
corroborating the tradition that this rite was borrowed
from the Jews, remark its striking similarity to the Jewish
ordeal for a woman suspected of adultery (Numb, v.) : that
she was to drink bitter water over which the priest had
heaped curses : if she was guilty, her flesh rotted : if
innocent, she remained unharmed.
Trial by ordeal existed in Ireland before the arrival of
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 307
St Patrick. But the saint himself, according to the seventh-
century narrative of Muirchu, made use of the ordeal in his
contest with King Laegaire's druid.* Here, however, so
far as Patrick was concerned, the proceeding was purely
Christian : he called God to his aid ; and there was no
taint of paganism. The king proposed that the books
belonging to each should be thrown into water : " Put
" your books into water, and we will worship him whose
" book escapes unharmed." Patrick agreed, but the druid
declined on the grounds stated at page 289, supra. The
king then proposed fire, but the druid again refused. At
last Patrick himself challenged the druid to another test, to
which he agreed — in an evil hour for himself. The druid
and young Benen, one of Patrick's followers, exchanged
mantles ; and a house was hastily built up, one half of dry
wood, and the other half of green. Into this house both
were put, Benen at the dry side, the druid at the other,
according to arrangement, and locked securely in. It was
set on fire in presence of all, and while it was burning,
Patrick remained praying. When the house had been
burned down, and the fire had ceased, the spectators made
a search, and found at the green side the druid reduced to
ashes, with Benen's mantle untouched ; and at the other
side, Benen all joyful and quite safe, with the druid's
mantle entirely consumed.
12. Preference for Certain Numbers.
The Irish, like most other ancient nations, had a
decided preference for certain numbers and their combi-
nations, which were mixed up with many of their religious
and superstitious ceremonies, as well as with the affairs
of ordinary life. We may see from the incident related
by the seventh-century writer Muirchu, already noticed,
that the number nine was r^arded by the Irish pagans
* Hogan, Docam., pp. 38, 39 : Trip. life, 284.
X 2
308 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
with a sort of religious veneration, as bringing good
luck : — That when King Laegaire, with his druids and
pagan followers, was setting out from Tara for Slane to
arrest St. Patrick, " he had nine chariots joined together
according to the tradition of the gods" (p. 250, supra\ in
which he and the others rode. This is a corroboration — so
far as that circumstance is concerned — by an unquestion-
able authority, of the accuracy of the tales, in which we
find the combination of nine chariots often mentioned.
In the story of the birth of Cuculainn, the Red Branch
Knights yoke nine chariots to pursue a flock of enchanted
birds.* Lug the Ildana had nine chariots in the Battle
of Moytura ;t and when Queen Maive rode at the head
of her army to invade Ulster, she had a personal equipage
of nine chariots— two in front of her, two behind, and two
on each side, with her own in the middle.
Still more frequently and prominently we find nine
waves mentioned, and with similar mysterious virtues
attributed to them. Morann, the celebrated judge, son
of Carbery Cat-head, was bom with a blemish so dis-
figuring that his father ordered him to be taken away and
put to death. By the advice of an inhabitant of the
fairy-hills he was taken to the sea and held on the surface
till nine waves rolled over him : the moment the ninth
wave had passed, the blemish disappeared.? When the
Milesians invaded Ireland, the cunning Dedannans induced
them to re-embark and go out nine waves from the shore :
as soon as the ninth wave had been crossed, the magical
power of the Dedannans was set free to act, so that they
raised a tempest that destroyed nearly all the Milesian
fleet. The belief about nine waves descended to Christian
times. During the prevalence of the terrible yellow plague
in Ireland, Colman O'Cluasaige [O'Cloosy], Ferleginn or
head professor of St. Finnbarr's School in Cork, fled over-
•Miss Hull, Cuch. Saga, 15. fRev. Celt., xir. 103.
{ Ir. Texte, in. 207.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 309
sea, A.D. 664, with fifty of his pupils, to a certain island,
so as to place nine waves between him and the mainland :
" for the learned say " — the old document goes on — " that
pestilence does not make its way farther than nine waves."*
Just before embarking he composed, as an invocation for
protection against the terrible mortality, a hymn which is
still extant and has been published by the Rev. Dr. Todd
in the " Book of Hymns." The numbers three and seven
are also much in evidence in Irish writings : but the full
discussion of this subject would demand more space than
I can afford.f
1 3. The Evil Eye.
From various passages in some very old documents, it
maybe inferred that the belief in the evil eye was pre-
valent in Ireland in old times. Thus Cormac's Glossary
(p. 107) gives a fanciful derivation of the common verb
milled ('injuring*), making it a shortened form of mi-
shilled [mee-hilleh], which is the same as a * malign glance '
of the eye. And in the Vision of Mac Conglinne (p. 92X
the fdithliaig or wizard-doctor says to his patient, who
was looking very ill, ^^ Rottdraill siiLndt-atbendackl^ ^ dca
eye that sains not has regarded thee * {i.e, * an unwhole-
some or evil eye has looked on thee ').
The great Fomorian champion, Balor of the Mighty
Blows, had a tremendous evil eye called Birach-derc
(* speary-eye * : bir^ *a spear ').$ It was never opened
except on the field of battle ; and it always took four men
with hooks to raise the lid. One baleful glance was enough
to enfeeble a whole army of his enemies, so as that a few
brave men could put them to flight. The Tale of the
second Battle of Moytura (p. loi) relates how he came by
♦Rev. Celt., ix. 118.
t See on this whole subject, De Jubainville, La Civil, des Celtes,
pp. 256-284: and for a full discussion on the Celtic preference for the
number nine, see Rhys, Hibb. Lect., Lecture iv.
J Rev. Celt., xii. loi, 113.
3IO RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
his evil eye. When he was a boy, his father's druids used
to concoct their spells in a room carefully closed, oc-fulacht
draidechtUy i.e., *cooking sorcery' over a fire in a caldron,
from some horrible ingredients, like Shakespeare's witches.
The boy, curious to know what the druids were at,
climbed up and peeped through an opening, when a whifF
of foul steam from the caldron blew into his eye, and
communicated to it all the baleful influence of the hellish
mixture. But this eye, powerful as it was, was not proof
against the iathlum or sling-ball of his grandson Lug of the
Long Arms. At the second Battle of Moytura, Balor was
present, prepared to use his eye on the Dedannan army.
But Lug, who was on the side of the Dedannans, kept on
the watch ; and the moment the lid of the Cyclopean eye was
raised, and before the glare had time to work bale, he let fly
the hard ball from his sling, which struck the open eye with
such force as to go clean through eye, brain, and skull.
These observations may be brought to a close by the
remark that the superstition of the evil eye has remained
among our people — as among others — down to this day.
I4« Geasa or Prohibitions,
There were certain acts which people were prohibited
from doing under penalty of misfortune or ill luck of some
kind. Such a prohibition was called geis or geas [gesh,
gass : g hard as va get^ gap\ : plural geasa [gassa], A geis
was something forbidden : somewhat resembling a taboo.
Another term for a geis was urgarady pi. urgarta. It was
very dangerous to disregard these prohibitions. Because
Conari the Great, king of Ireland in the first century of the
Christian era, violated some of his geasa — most of them
unwittingly — the peace of his reign was broken by plunder
and rapine ; and he himself was finally slain in the sack of
Da Derga.* Some geasa were binding on people in general.
*See Stokes's Introd. to the Bruden Da Derga, and the story itself, in
Rev. Celt., xxn. See also the note on Geasa, in Tromdamhy p. 107.
CHAP. IX] PAGANISM 3 1 1
Thus, on the day of King Laegaire*s festival, it was gets for
the people to light a fire anywhere round Tara till the
king's festival fire had first been lighted.* It was geis for
anyone to bring arms into the palace of Tara after sunset.
(Br. Laws, III. 83.)
The most interesting of the geasa were those imposed
on kings : of which the object of some was obviously to
avoid unnecessary personal danger or loss of dignity. For
example, it was a geis to the king of Emain to attack
alone a wild boar in his den (Bk. of Rights, 249) : a sensible
restriction. According to the Book of Acaill and many
other authorities, it was geis for a king with a personal
blemish to reign at Tara (p. 43, supra) : so that when the
great King Cormac Mac Art lost one eye by an accident, he
at once abdicated. The reason of these two geasa is plain
enough. But there were others which it is not so easy to
explain. They appear to be mere superstitions — obviously
from pagan times — meant to avoid unlucky days, evil
omens, &c. Some kings were subject to geasa from which
others were free. The king of Emaitiy i. e. of Ulaid or
Ulster, was forbidden to listen to the singing of the birds
of Lough Swilly, or to bathe in Lough Foyle on a May
Day (Bk. of Rights, 249): and the law tract continues, that
if he breaks through these, he shall not become king of
Tara (/.^., over-king) even though it should come to his
turn to be ard-ri.
The king of Ireland and the provincial kings had each
a series of geasa or urgarta. To the king of Ireland it
was forbidden that the sun should rise on him while lying
in bed in Tara, Le.^ he should be up before sunrise ; he was
not to alight from his chariot or horse on Moy Breagh on
a Wednesday ; he should not traverse Moy-Callainn after
sunset, or incite his horse at Fdn-Comair ; he was not to
enter North Teffia on a Tuesday, or go on board ship on
the Monday after May Day, or lead his army across Ath
* Three Irish Homilies, 21.
312 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Maighne (a ford on the river Inny) on the Tuesday after
the 1st November, or go round North Leinster left-hand-
wise under any circumstances * We cannot assign a reason
for any one of these strange geasa.
Some of them — perhaps most — arose from the horror of
some former catastrophe ; the memory of which has been
lost For example, when Maive's champion, Loch, elects
to meet Cuculainn in single combat, he refuses to fight at a
certain ford, because his brother had been killed there :
and the combat goes on at the next ford above.t Indi-
viduals were often under geasa to follow or refrain from
certain lines of conduct, the prohibitions being either taken
on themselves voluntarily, or imposed on them, with their
consent, by others. Fergus Mac Roy, ex-king of Ulster,
was under geasa not to accept an invitation to a banquet —
i.e.y he was obliged to accept it : it was a gets of Finn Mac
Cumail to sleep more than nine nights running at Allen.
There were many geasa on Cuculainn, one of which forbade
him to pass by a cooking fire without turning aside to visit
it and tasting the food : and another to refuse any man's
challenge to combat.
Sometimes persons used^-^^^ to obtain a request : and
when the request was reasonable, just, and necessary, the
abjured person could not refuse without loss of honour and
reputation. Hence, the demand was often put in some
such form as " I place you under heavy geasa^ which no
true champion will break through, to do so and so." In
this manner, the witch-lady — in the Story of the Chase of
Slieve Culainn — forces Finn to search for the ring she had
dropped into the lake \\ and Marbhan put the arch-poet,
Senchdn Torpest, under geasa to obtain a copy of the lost
story the Tdin bo Quelna.g
It is well known that geasa or prohibitions were, and
* For all these and others, see Book of Rights, pp. 3-15.
tHull, Cuch; Saga, 166. t Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 354.
§ Oss. Soc. Trans., v. 103.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 313
are still, common among ail people, whether savage or
civilised. They flourish at this day among ourselves.
People will not dine in a company of thirteen, or remove
to a new house on a Saturday, or get married in May:
what are these but geasa^ and quite as irrational as any
of those enumerated above?
CHAPTER X
CHRISTIANITY
Section i. Christianity before St. Patrick's Arrival.
T will not be expected that this short chapter
should contain anything like a comprehensive
essay on the ancient Irish Church. I will
merely touch on some religious points charac-
teristic of Ireland, and on some others which,
though not peculiar to our country, are not
very generally known.
That there were Christians in Ireland long
before the time of St. Patrick we know from the words
of St. Prosper of Aquitaine, who lived at the time of the
event he records. He tells us that, in the year 431, Pope
Celestine sent Palladius " to the Scots believing in Christ,
to be their first bishop": and Bede repeats the same state-
ment Palladius landed on the coast of the present County
Wicklow, and after a short and troubled sojourn he con-
verted a few people, and founded three little churches in
that part of the country, namely, Cill Fine, Tech-na-Roman
(* House of the Romans '), and Domnach Arte. The Rev.
John Francis Shearman has undertaken to identify these,
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 3 1 $
and his identifications are probably correct.* It may be
considered certain that Cill Fine, or, as it was also called^
Cill-Fine-Cormaic [pron. Killeena-Cormac], is the vener-
able little cemetery, now called Killeen Cormac, in the
townland of Colbinstown in Wicklow, three miles south-
west from Dunlavin, and nearly midway between that
village and Ballitore. It is believed that this was the
burial-place of the poet Dubthach, converted by St.
Patrick, and of his three sons; and here stands the bi-
lingual ogham stone mentioned in next chapter, which
was their monumentf
Besides these direct records, the existence in Ireland
of pre-Patrician Christianity is alluded to in some verj'-
old native traditions, preserved in the Lives of St. Patrick.^
There must have been Christians in considerable numbers
when the Pope thought a bishop necessary ; and such
numbers could not have grown up in a short time. It is
highly probable that the knowledge of Christianity that
existed in Ireland before the arrival of Palladius and
Patrick (in 431 and 432, respectively) came from Britain^
where it is pretty certain there was a well-established
Christian Church in the third or fourth century ,§ or at any
rate where there were large numbers of Christians from a
very early time. When we consider the constant inter-
communication that existed in those ages between Ireland
and Britain (p. 75, supra\ it would be strange indeed if
the faith did not find its way to Ireland. However, the
great body of the Irish were pagans when St. Patrick
arrived in 432 ; and to him belongs the glory of con-
verting them.
♦ See Father Shearman's Essays in Kilk. Arch. Journ., vol. for 1872-3
(especially p. 359), and succeeding volumes. Also his Loca Patriciana
(especially from p. i to p. 1 10).
t See Loca Patriciana, p. 46 ; and the references in Macalister's Studies
in Irish Epigraphy, Part I., p. 78.
t See Trip. Life, 3'3»»;32S» 11; 329*?; 493f first extract: and Todd,
St. Patk., 270. There is also the legend that King Cormac Mac Art was a
Christian. \ See Todd, St. Patk., 265.
3l6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
As St. Patrick and his companion missionaries found
few terms in the Irish language to designate the offices,
rites, and ceremonies of Christianity, they had to borrow
numerous words for the purpose from Latin, or from Greek
through Latin, which became changed in form to suit the
Irish laws of pronunciation. Hence, Irish sacarty or sagart^
* a priest,' from sacerdos (originally pronounced sakerdos) ;
epscopy or espoc^ or easpogy * a bishop,' from episcopus ; all
[kill], or celly or ceall, *a church,' from cella [originally
pron. kella] ; eclas^ or eaglas [agglas], * a church,* from
ecclesia ; regies ^ * a church,' a compound of the same word ;
tempuUy *a church,' from templum\ domnachy 'Sunday,' and
also * a church,' from \Dies\ dominica ; baisleaCy * a church/
from basilica ; clerech^ * a clergyman,' * a scholar,' from
clericus ; ab^ or abb^ * an abbot,' from abbas ; monach^ * a
monk,' from monachus : affrend^ oiffrend^ or atffrionn^
* the Mass,' from offerenda. Another Irish word for a
priest, far less common than sacarty is crutmther [criffer].
According to Cormac's Glossary (p. 30), the Irish bor-
rowed cruimther from the Welsh premter^ for ''prem^ in
the Welsh " — as he says — "is cruim in the Gaelic" (by the
usual change of p to c)i while the Welsh borrowed their
premier from presbyter. Also NotlaCy or Notlaic (modern
Nodlog, or Nodlaig\ * Christmas,' from Lat Natalicia^ * a
birthday feast ' : and Cdisc, Easter, from Pascha. In
Ireland the same person was usually door-keeper and bell-
ringer* : hence the word aistreSir^ or atsttre [ashtrore,
ashtir^], derived from Lat. ostiarius, * a janitor,' was the
usual Irish term for a bell-ringer.t Caillech^ * a nun,* is
one of the few Irish ecclesiastical terms not derived from
Latin : in an old Life of St. Brigit, it is stated to be
derived from caille^ * a veil ' : — caillechy the * veiled one.'
CailUchy * a nun,' is to be distingjuished from caillechy * an
old woman,' *a hag.*
* See the passage quoted farther on about aistredir,
t See Petrie, Round Towers, p. 382.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 317
2. The three Orders of Irish Saints.
In an old Catalogue, written in Latin by some unknown
author, not later than A.D. 750,* published by Ussher, and
recently by the Marquis of Bute, from an independent
authority, the ancient Irish saints are distinguished into
three "Orders"; and much information is given regarding
them. The following are the main points of this valuable
old document ; the very words being given (in translation
with quotation marks) as far as may be found convenient.
** The First Order of Catholic Saints " were all bishops^
beginning with Saint Patrick : they were " most holy "
{Sanctissimus Ordo\ ** shining like the sun." They were
350 in number, all founders of churches ; and they freely
employed both laymen and women in the service of the
houses of residence ; because, as they themselves were
" founded on the rock of Christ, they feared not the
blast of temptation." "All these bishops " — the Catalogjue
goes on to say — "were sprung from the Romans, and
Franks, and Britons, and Scots " ; that is, they consisted
of St Patrick, with the numerous foreign missionaries who
accompanied or followed him, and of the Britons and
native Scots, or Irish, ordained by him and his successors.
This order continued for " four reigjns," namely, " during
" the time of Laegaire, and Olioll Molt, and Lugaid, son
" of Laegaire, and Tuathal Maelgarbh " : />., for some-
thing more than a century.
" The Second Order was of Catholic Priests," number-
ing 300, of whom a few were bishops. They did not allow
women to serve in the monasteries. These were " very
holy" {sanctior\ and "they shone like the moon." They
lasted for " four reigns ; that is, from the latter years of
* Stokes, Mart, of O'Gorman, xlvi. The whole document is given in
English translation, from Ussher's copy, in Todd's St. Patrick, p. %%, Todd
fixes the approximate date as 750. Prof. J. B. Bury, in his scholarly article on
Tirechan's Memoir, expresses the opinion that it may possibly belong to the
end of the seventh century (Eng. Hist. Review, 1902, p. 253, note 65).
3l8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
" Tuathal Maelgarbh, and during the whole, of King
" Dermot's reign, that of [Domnall and Fei^s] the two
•'grandsons of Muredach, and of Aed, son of Ainmire": a
little more than half a century.
The Third Order consisted of priests and a few bishops:
these were " holy " {sancius), and " shone like the stars."
They numbered lOO, all of whom lived in desert-places,
refusing to possess private property, and subsisting on
herbs and water, and on the alms of the faithful. " These
" lived during four reigns ; • that is, the reigns of Aed
* There are discrepaacies between the statement of kings and reigns in
thia List and the lists of kings given in the oldest and best- established
CHAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 319
" Allain (who, in consequence of his evil devices, reigned
" but three years), and of Domnall, and during the joint
" reigns of [Kellach and Conall] the sons of Maelcoba, and
" of Aed Slaine : and they continued to the great mortality"
(A.D. 664) : i.e,y for a little less than three-quarters of a
century.
This old catalogue, though a little highly coloured, after
the fashion of the times, and too precise to be accepted
literally in all particulars, describes, with general correctness,
three phases in the development of the early Church in
Ireland. Put into matter-of-fact language, the historical
statement is briefly this : —
1. For a little more than a century after St Patrick's
arrival, the work of conversion was carried on by the
Patrician clergy and their successors, who were nearly all
active missionary priests. Many belonging to this order
were foreigners.
2. During the latter half of the sixth century, monasteries
spread rapidly oyer the country, and monastic clergy then
and for long afterwards greatly predominated. Nearly all
belonging to this order and the third were natives.
3. From the end of the sixth century, for seventy or
eighty years, eremitical communities, settled in remote and
lonely places, became very general. It will be worth while
to describe these three religious developments in some
detail.
3. The First Order : Patrician Secular Clergy.
During the century and a quarter following St Patrick's
arrival, i.e,^ from A.D. 432 to about 559, the clergy who
laboured to spread the faith among the people appear to
have been for the most part unconnected with monasteries :
in other words, they corresponded to the present secular
aaUiorities. On this point see Lanigan's observations, Eccl. Hist., il. 331,
note III. A correct list of Irish kings is given at the end of chapter iii..
320 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
or parochial clei^y. But though they commonly remained
in the several districts where they settled and built their
churches, and though there was a sort of understanding
that each had charge of the people who inhabited a district
extending some distance round his church, which the others
took care not to encroach on, nevertheless the district over
which each exercised jurisdiction was not well defined.
Bishops, as we shall see, were appointed, not to districts,
but to tribes and monasteries;
Still, as a tribe occupied a
portion of the country mode-
rately well defined, the juris-
diction of the bishop of the
tribe extended over that dis-
trict, so that this tribal
arrangement contained the
germs of diocesan distribu-
tion. The exact topogra-
phical limits of the several
dioceses were laid down for
the first time at the synod of
Rathbrassil about the year
o(s.. p.tiicks.t«>"'".<°'iEmi,iihoi> of The Patrician clei^iy, as
Matbt. relit o(u,«p«riiLuiti™,. Th, tHcy may be called, were the
ttMorsl.trc. iFiMo wudei Boyie miui First Ordcr of saints. Among
them were many distinguished
bishops, some of whom are named in the catalogue. There
were monasteries and schoolsf also during the whole of
this period, and many of the abbots were bishops : but
monasteries did not constitute the main feature of the
ecclesiastical system : for the life of St Patrick, and, it may
be added, the life of the First Order of saints in general,
was, as Dr. Healy (p. 146) remarks, " too full of missionary
* See Lanigan, rv. 42: Todd, SI, Patk., 38: Reeves, Eccl. Ant., 116,
117 ; and Adamn., 65, notes a and 6. f See Dr. Healy, 66, 91, 98, 122.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITV 32 1
labours to be given to the government or foundation of
monasteries," During this (wriod, therefore, the clergy
devoted themselves entirely to the home mission — the
conversion of the Irish people — which gave them quite
enough to do. For more than thirty years they were led
by their great master, with all his fiery and tireless
energy. After his death, his disciples and their successors
continued the work. But the struggle became a hard one :
for the druids seem to have somewhat recovered the
influence they had lost during St. Patrick's life, and
exerted themselves to the utmost to retard and limit the
spread of the faith ; and besides this, many .unconverted
pagans still remained in most parts of the country.*
•Dr. Healy, 61, top.
322 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
4. Second Order: Monastic Clergy.
Rise of Konaitdoiim. — About the middle of the sixth
century a great monastic religious movement took its
rise, mainly from the monastery and college of Clonard,
founded by St Finnen about the year 527* He had
spent many years in Wales ; and soon after his settlement
at Clonard, great numbers of disciples, attracted by his
learning and holiness, gathered round him. Under him
were educated and
trained for monastic
and missionary work
many of the most
illustrious fathers of
the Irish Church, in-
cluding the " Twelve
Apostles of Erin " :t
so that SL Finnen,
who was a bishop, is
called " a doctor of
wisdom, and the
tutor of the saints of
Fio. 80. Ireland in his time"
Anci=.tb.p.[H=a]f»t^ao«idMh«;(«i<.[ir.,«u (O'Clcry, Gal., 333).
BUek-utr.l Hcrt.vHUiitofuyoUbujalnii rtmjlnion MoSt of hlS disciplCS
Spent some time also
under the spiritual instruction of the holy and venerable
St Enda in his monastery in Aranmore, who had also
studied for a time in Wales, These men, going forth
from Clonard in all directions, founded, in imitation of
■ For a toll account of the foundation and work of this great college see
Dr. Healy, Ird. Anc. Schools, 199.
tTbe ■'TTK'elve Apostles of Eiin" were:— Kieran of Saighir or Seir-
kieran; Kieran of Claiunaciioise ; Columba or Columkille of lona ; Brendan
of Clanfert \ Brendan of Biir ; Columba of Terryglass in Tippenuy ;
Molaiue or Laserian ofDevenish; Canice of Aghaboe; Ruadan or Rodan
ofLorrha inTipperary; Mobj ofGlasnevin; Sinnell ofCteenish in Lough
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 325
their master Finnen, numerous monasteries, schools, and
colleges, which subsequently became famous throughout
all Europe. And now new life and vigour were infused
into the Irish missionary Church ; and the work of Patrick
and his companions was carried on with renewed zeal and
wonderful success. The influence of the druids was finally
broken down, though they still lingered on, but obscurely
and feebly, for many generations. Then also arose the
zeal for preaching the Gospel in foreign lands, that gave
rise to that vast emigration of Irish missionaries and
scholars spoken of farther on. By far the greatest part
of the ecclesiastical literature of Ireland relating to those
ages is concerned with monastic clergy, both priests and
bishops, and with their labours as missionaries, scholars,
and teachers.
Honastic Life. — The religious houses of this second
class of Irish saints constituted the vast majority of the
monasteries that flourished in Ireland down to the time
of their suppression by Henry VIII. These are the
monasteries that figure so prominently in the ecclesiastical
history of Ireland : and it will be interesting to look into
them somewhat closely and see how they were managed,
and how the monks spent their time.
The organisation of the Irish Church, and especially of
monasteries, was modelled on that of society in general :
it was tribal ; and the tribal customs pervaded all the
arrangements of the monastery. Bishops and priests were
attached to tribes and monasteries, having, as already
remarked, no well defined territorial jurisdiction. In a
passage in the Lebar Brecc it is stated: — " In Patrick's
Erne ; and Nenni or Nennius of Inishmacsaint in Lough Erne. This List
is given by Todd (St. Patk., 99, note i), from the Latin Life of St. Finnen.
But the List of the Twelve Irish Apostles given in the notes on the Feilire
of Oengus in LB (Stokes, Feilire, 118), is somewhat different. The Feilire
List has Finnen of Clonard, Finnen of Magh Bhile (Movilla), and Comgall
of Bangor, instead of Kieran of Seirkieran, Molaisse of Devenish, and Sinnell
of Cleenish, who are in Todd's List. In the remaining nine the two Lists agree.
Y2
J24 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
"Testament [it is decreed] that there be a chief bishop
"for every tribe in Ireland, to ordain ecclesiastics, to
••consecrate churches, and for the spiritual direction of
"princes, superiors, and ordained persons."* The head
of a monastery was both abbot and chief over the com-
munity. For spiritual direction, and for the higher
spiritual functions, such as that of ordination, confirma-
tion, consecration of churches, &c., a bishop was commonly
attached to every lai^e monastery and nunnery. In all
matters concerned with discipline and with the general
arrangements of tHe monastery, the abbot, in his temporal
capacity of chief, had jurisdiction over the bishop, as over
all the others : but in the spiritual capacity he was under
the authority of the bishop, who also commanded the
personal respect due to his high office. We have one
instance related by Adamnan, where St Columkille, in
Zona, humbled himself reverentially in presence of a
bishop — a visitor — whom he treats as his spiritual supe-
riont Bede, speaking of lona in his time, says : — ^^ That
" island is governed by an abbot, who is a priest, to whose
"authority [in disciplinal matters] all the province, and
" even the bishops, are subject, after the example of their
" first teacher [Columba], who was not a bishop, but a
" priest and monk."{ But the abbot of a monastery might
be, and often was, a bishop ; in which case no other bishop
was necessary. §
The mode of electing a, successor to an abbot strongly
resembled that for the election of chief. He should be
chosen from the ^n^ or family of the patron saint ; if for
any reason this was impossible, then from the tribe in
general; and if none were found fit in these two, one of
♦ Trip. Life, clxzxii.
tSee Innes, Hist, of Scotl., Book u., zxxiii. : Adamn., i. 44: and
Keat., 450, 45>-
I Ecd. Hist., III. iv.
} The custom of having a bishop in a monastery under the authority of
the abbot was not peculiar to Ireland : see Todd, St. Patk., pp. 54 €t seq.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 325
the- monks was to be elected." One consequence of the
tribal or^nisation was a tendency to family succession
in ecclesiastical or semi-ecclesiastical offices, as in the
lay professions. The office of erenach, for instance, was
hereditary in a family ; and in times of confusion — during
the Danish disturbances — when many disciplinal abuses
crept in — the offices of bishop and abbot were kept in
the same family for generations. Nay, even laymen often
succeeded to both ; but this was in the capacity of chief;
and they sometimes had the tonsure of the minor orders,
so that they got the name of clerics, which they really
were notf But such men had properly ordained persons
to dischai^ the spiritual functions,
• Sloltes, Trip. Life, 339 (Feth Fio) : Br. Lawa, iii. 73, 75.
tCambrensis, Top. Hib., III. iKvi.
326 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The monastic discipline* was very strict, turning on
the one cardinal principle of instant and unquestioning
obedience. Each of the most distinguished founders drew
up a " Rule " for his own monastery and for all those
founded by him, or under his authority as head : — a set
of regjulations as to devotions, food, time for retiring and
rising, occupations, and so forth, which were strictly
followed in daily life. Every monastery followed some
Rule, whether drawn up by its own head or adopted.
Several of these Rules have come down to us, and give
an excellent idea of the austere conditions under which
those old monks lived. In some monasteries the Rule
prohibited them from going beyond the outer Itss or
enclosing wall without special leave.t
There was to be no idleness: everyone was to be
engaged, at all available times, in some useful work ; a
regulation which appears everywhere in our ecclesiastical
history; and concerning which numerous references might
be given. This love of work is well illustrated in the legend
that St. Mailruan of Tallaght never heard the confession
of any man who did not support himself by labour. J The
great anxiety of the communities was to support them-
selves by the work of their hands, so as to depend as little
as possible on the charity of others :§ and this laudable
custom was followed not only at home, but also on the
Continent by those emigrant Irish monks who founded
monasteries there. We read in the Bollandists|| about
seven brothers who went from Ireland to Gaul in the sixth
century " on a pilgrimage for the love of Christ." They
settled near the river Marne : and the old biographer goes
on to state : — " They did not live merely on the charity of
• On discipline see Adamn., 343 : Dr. Healy, 150: and Lanigan, nr. 348,
349 54, 357, 360.
t For Monastic Rules see O'Curry, MS. Mat., 373 : and for a particular
one. Reeves, Culdees.
X Silva Gad., 40. { Lanigan, IV. 355, 356.
g A. SS., Feb. 27 and Oct. 3 : Miss Stokes, Three Months in France, xxii.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 327
"those whom the pious president [St Remi] had com-
" mended them to, but also on their own industry and the
"labour of their hands, in accordance with the customs
" of the religious bodies of Ireland."
Let us now glance at the various employments of those
busy Irish communities." The monasteries of the second
order were what . „ . .
are commonly
known as ceno-
bitical establish-
ments: i.e. the
inmates lived,
studied, and
worked in soci-
ety and com-
panionship, and
had all things in
common : and
they attended
Mass and other
devotions as a
congregation in
the church of the
monasteiy. In
sleeping accom-
modation there fio. tt.
was much i
variety; in some
monasteries each monk having a sleeping-cell for himself;
in others three or four in one cell. In some they slept on
the bare earth ; in others they used a skin, laid perhaps
on a little straw or rushes. Their food was prepared in
one large kitchen by some of their own members specially
skilled in cookery; and they took their meals in one
■On this see also Dr. Healy, 155: Reeves, Eccl. Ant., 130-195: and
Adaoin., 365, top.
328 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
common refectory. • The fare, both eating and drinking,
was always simple and generally scanty, poor, and unin-
viting ; and the fasts were frequent and severe : but on
Sundays and festival days, and on occasions when dis-
tinguished persons visited, whom the abbot wished to
honour, more generous food and drink were allowed.
When the founder of a monastery had determined on
the neighbourhood in which to settle, and had fixed on the
site for his establishment, he brought together those who
had agreed to become his disciples and companions, and
they set about preparing the place for residence. They
did all the work with their own hands, seeking no help
from outside. While some levelled and fenced-in the
ground, others cut down, in the surrounding woods, timber
for the houses or for the church, dragging the great logs
along, or bringing home on their backs bundles of wattles
and twigs for the wickerwork walls. Even the leader^
claimed no exemption, but often worked manfully^ with axe
and spade like the rest When St Patrick was journeying
through Connaught, one of his disciples, Bishop Olcan,
wishing to found a church for himself, and having obtained
his master's sanction, "went forth with his axe on his
shoulder," ready to begin his work with his own hands*
Every important function of the monastery was in
charge of some particular monk, who superintended if
several persons were required for the duty, or did the
work himself if only one was needed. These persons
were nominated by the abbot, and held their positions
permanently for the time. In an ancient MS., quoted by
Stokes, we read : — *^ For Enda's honourable school [in the
" island of Aran] Mochuda did the fishing, Ciaran had the
"drying of com, and Ailbe the bell-ringing and door-
" keeping."! Over the general daily arrangements pre-
sided an officer, called in Irish fer-ttghis (* man of the
house '), and in Latin commonly known as the oeconomus.
♦ Trip. Life, 137. t Reference to this passage lost.
CHAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 329
He was a sort of house-steward, " whose duty was to look
" after the domestic or internal affairs of the monastery, to
"see that the house was supplied with fuel and all other
" necessaries."* This arrangement, it will be observed,
was nearly identical with the institution of rechtaire in
great lay houses (p. 64, supra).
There was a tract of land attached to almost every
monastery, granted to the original founder by the king
or local lord : sa that agriculture formed one of the
chief employments. This industry was introduced with
Christianity, even by St Patrick himself. We read in
the Tripartite Life (p. 237) that on one qpcasion, Patrick's
Munter^ or household, were reaping com on a farm they
hsid puide, i.e. fenced in and reclaimed, at a place called
Trian Conchobair^ near Armagh ; and that they became very
thirsty ; whereupon the saint sent them a vat {drolmach) of
whey-water. We gather too, from the same passage, that
they worked on this farm from tierce to vespers, i,e, from
about 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and taking this along with the
suffering from thirst, and the various other duties they had
to perform, we see that they were at real work — not mere
recreation.
When returning from work in the evening, the monks
brought home on their backs whatever things were needed
in the household for that night and next day. Milk was
often brought in this manner in a vessel specially made for
the purpose: and it was the custom — a very pleasing one —
to bring the vessel straight to the abbot, that he might
bless the milk before use.f In this field-work the abbot
bore a part in several monasteries : and we sometimes read
of men, now famous in Irish Church history — abbots and
bishops in their time — putting in a hard day's work at
the plough. The younger monks worked more than the
others: and hence the word scoldg [skulloge], which literally
* Todd, St. Patk., 166: see also Reeves, Adamn., 365.
t Adamnan, p. 125.
330 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
signifies a 'scholar/ or learner (from scol^ *a school'), has
come down to our time to denote a small farmer who
works his own land * The effects of the monks* superior
tillage are seen in many places to this day, where round
the monastic ruins there is an extent of rich land, much
superior to that lying beyond.f Those who had been
tradesmen before entering were put to their own special
work for the use of community and guests. Some ground
the corn with a quern or in the mill ; some made and
mended clothes ; some worked in the smith's forge or in
the carpenter's workshop ; while others baked the bread or
cooked the meals.J
Attached to every cenobitical monastery was a tech-
Siged^ * guest-house,' or hospice {tech^ *a house': 6tgi^ or
6iged^ *a gjuest': modern aoidheadh (pron. ee-a), for the
reception of travellers, generally placed a little apart from
the monks* cells : an institution as old as the time of St.
Patrick. Some of the inmates were told off for this duty,
whose business it was to receive the stranger, take off his
shoes, wash his feet in warm water,§ and prepare supper
and bed for him. Hospitality was enjoined, not only as
a social virtue, but as a religious obligation. " Reception
of strangers" — says the Brehon Law (v. 121, 27) — "is
incumbent on every servant of the church"; and in an
ancient Irish sermon on Doomsday, we read : — "The Lord
" will say to the just, * I was in need of a guest-house {tech-
" aiged) and ye gave me hospitality.' "|| Adamnan (p. 27)
records that once, when St. Columba expected a guest at
lona, he told the brethren to prepare the hospttium (the
Latin equivalent of tech'6tged)y and to have water ready
to wash the stranger's feet. St Ciaran of Clonmacnoise
visits Saigir (now Seirkieran, in King's County), on
whose arrival the other Ciaran, abbot of Saigir, says to
* See Mac Conglinne, 13, 21. % See, for example, Adamnan, 209.
t See Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1899, p. 229. § Stokes, Lives of SS., 150, par. 52.
Stokes, in Rev. Celt., iv. 247.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 331
him apol(^etically (the fire having been unexpectedly-
put out): — "The first thing ye [i.e. the guest and his
" companions] need is water to wash your feet, but just
** now we have no means of heating water for you.'**
Mac Conglinne (p. lo), grumbling at the inhospitable
.treatment he received in Cork monastery, complains, as
a great grievance, that on his arrival no one came to the
guest-house to wash his feet, so that he had to wash them
himself.
Three days and three nights seem to have been the
regular time for which guests were to be entertained free,
•Slokes, Lives of SS., 277.
332 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
beyond which there was no further obligation, and the
hosts were free to entertain or not : just as we find among
the Jews : — ^ Now in those places were possessions of the
chief man of the island [Melita], named Publius, who
receiving us, for three days entertained us courteously"
(Acts xxviii. 7). This custom obtained in lay as well as
in monastic life : and both in the Irish Tales and in the
Lives of the Saints, entertainment for three days and
three nights is so constantly mentioned as to render
reference to instances unnecessary.
There was a guest-house also attached to the principal
nunneries, with a man-servant to attend. A chief named
Coirpre, or Carbery, arriving at St. Brigit's Convent in
Kildare, was brought to the guest-house {tech-SigetT),
Brigid asked the timthirtg (* man-servant ') who it was
that had arrived. " Just one young man," said the servant
^* Look again," said Brigit. Then he went and looked
more closely : and he now saw that the stranger had a
little babe clasped in his bosom. Brigit baptised the
child, who afterwards became the illustrious St. Tigernach
of Clones.* In the houses of chiefs and other lay persons
who could afford it there was also a tech-Siged^ generally
one large apartment, kept specially for the reception of
travellers, as we find mentioned in many passages of our
old writings: and here also the custom was followed of
washing the stranger's feet ; which was often done by a
handmaidt
In those early times there were in every part of the
country monasteries, convents, and hostels or houses of
public hospitality (for which last see chap, xxi., sect. 10) :
so that travellers were very well off in the matter of shelter
and entertainment : much better off indeed in one respect
than we are now : for we have to pay pretty smartly for
the hospitality shown us, while they had everything free.
After the time of the Anglo-Norman Invasion, however,
• Feilire, 72, 73. flbid.^ 48, 4.
CHAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 33 J
the hostels became fewer and gradually disappeared : and
then the monasteries were the only houses of hospitality^
with the exception of the dwellings of those chiefs who
kept up the old custom. That the monasteries continued
to dischai^e this most excellent function, as well as that of
education, as zealously as ever, down to the time of their
suppression, we have many evidences both in native
writing and in the government state papers : of which one
will be sufficient When Henry VIII.'s order for suppres-
sion was issued, the Irish lord deputy (Lord Leonard Gray)
and the Dublin council petitioned the king in 1539 to
exempt six from the order : — St Mary's Abbey and Christ
Church, both in Dublin ; the Nunnery of Grdce Dieu near
Swords ; Great Connell in Kildare (near KilcuUen) ; and
Kells and Jerpoint, both in the County Kilkenny^ And
they gfive their reasons, which show the almost incredible
sacrifices made by the monasteries and nunneries to-
entertain their guests : —
" For in those houses commenly, and other such like, in defaute
of comen innes, which are not in this land, the Kinge*s Deputie, and
all other his Grace's Counsaell and Officers, also Irishmen, and
others resorting to the Kinge's Deputie in ther quarters, is and hath
bene most comenlie loged at the costes of the said houses. Also in
them yonge men and childer, both gentlemen childer and others,
both man kynd and women kynd, be brought up in vertue, lemyng,
and in the English tongue and behavior, to the great charges of
said houses : that is to say, the women kynd of the hole Englishrie
of this land, for the more part in the said Nunrie [Grice Dieu], and
the man k3rnd in the other said houses. Also at every hostin^f, rode,
and jomey, the said houses in ther [own] propre costes fyndethe
[entertainment for] as many men of warr, as they are apoynted
by the Kinge's Deputie and Counsaell for the same."
The petition was unavailing, however; and these six
went with the rest*
• State Paper, Hen. VIII., Irel., iii. 130. See also Register of AU
Hallows, XXV.
334 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
In the educational establishments, teaching aflforded
abundant employment to the scholarly members of the
community. Others again worked at copying and multi-
plying books for the library, or for presentation outside;
and to the industry of these scribes we owe the chief part
of the ancient Irish lore, and other learning, that has been
preserved to us. St Columkille devoted every moment
of his spare time to this work, writing in a little wooden
hut that he had erected for his use at lona, of which
there are many incidental notices by Adamnan and other
biographers. It is recorded that he wrote with his own
hand three hundred copies of the New Testament, which
he presented to the various churches he had founded.
Some spent their time in ornamenting and illuminating
books-^generally of a religious character, such as copies
of portions of Scripture : and these men produced the
wonderful pen work of the Book of Kells and other such
manuscripts.* Others were skilled metal-workers, and
made crosiers, crosses, bells, brooches, and other articles,
of which many are preserved to this day, that show the
surpassing taste and skill of the artists. But this was
not peculiar to Irish monks, for those of other countries
worked similarly. The great St Dunstan, we know, was
an excellent artist in metal-work. Some of the Irish
monks too were skilled in simple herb remedies, and the
poor people around often came to them for advice and
medicine in sickness. When a monastery was situated
on the bank of a large river where there was no bridge,
the monks kept a curragh ready to ferry travellers across,
free of charge.t
Giraldus Cambrensis, in his Topography of Ireland
(II. xxxiv.), gives us an account of St Brigit's perpetual
fire at Kildare : — " Among those [wonderful things], the
• For an interesting account by Dr. Reeves of the work of one Irish scribe,
Muiredach Mac Robliartaigh, who died 1088, see Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.,
VII. 293. t Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc- Schools, 427,
CHAP. X] CHUISTIANITV 335
" first to be noticed is the fire of St Briglt, which is
" called the inextinguishable fire. Not that it cannot be
"extinguished, but the nuns and holy women watch it
" and supply fuel so carefully that from the time of that
" vii^n it has continued to bum through a long course of
■d (dnp^l. 'C1iujc]it>fUie Fire.' inurtor vfew, whe:
"years" [more than six centuries and a half]. After the
time of Giraldus it was kept up till Henry de Londres,
the English Archbishop of Dublin, disregarding the local
devotional feeling, put it out in 1220; but it was soon
after relighted, and continued to bum till the final sup-
pression of the monasteries by Henry VHL* This custom
" Ware, Antiqq., 237.
336 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
was not peculiar to Kildare, but was pretty general in
Ireland : for we find in the native records accounts of
perpetual fires kept up in several monasteries, in each of
which a small church or oratory was set apart for the
purpose : as, for instance, at Seirkieran, Kilmainham, and
Inishmurray*
Besides the various employments noticed in the pre-
ceding pages, the inmates had their devotions to attend
to, which were frequent, and often long: and in most
monasteries they had to rise at the sound of the bell in
the middle of the night, and go to the adjacent church to
prayers. Going to bed and rising were, however, very
simple matters : the monks merely lay down in their day
clothes — except the outer coat — on their hard and com-
fortless sleeping-places, so as to be prepared to rise the
moment the bell struck, as some orders of the regfular
clergy do at the present day.
Convenion of England and Northern Scotland. — Towards
the end of the sixth century the great body of the Irish
were Christians, so that the holy men of Ireland turned
their attention to the conversion of other people. Then
arose — almost suddenly — an extraordinary zeal for spread-
ing the Gospel in foreign lands : and hundreds of devoted
and determined missionaries left our shores. By a curious
custom, not found elsewhere, each chief missionary going
abroad brought with him twelve companions, probably
in imitation of the twelve apostles, of which the reader
may see many examples in Lynch's Cambrensis Eversus,
chap. XXV., and in Reeves's Adamnan, 299. But some-
times they went in much larger bodies.
On every side we meet with evidences of the activity
of the Irish in Great Britain. Northern and western Scot-
land was evangelised by St. Columba and his monks from
lona, and the whole western coasts of England and Wales
• See Stokes's Lives of SS., 277, 358 : Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1879, p. S^t
and 1885, pp. 225-229: O'Grady, Silva Gad., 15, 16, 41.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 337
s
abound in memorials of Irish missionaries * Numbers of
the most illustrious of the Irish saints studied and taught
in the monastery of St. David in Wales ; St Dunstan was
educated by Irish monks in Glastonbury, as his biographer,
William of Malmesbury, testifies ; and there is good reason
to believe that Cuthbert of Lindisfarne, one of the most
illustrious of the saints of Britain, was a native of Ireland.
Lanigan, in his Ecclesiastical History (II. 174), writes : —
"Those [early Saxon] converts were not indebted for their faith
to Augustine, or the other Roman missionaries, who had not yet
[/.^. at the time mentioned] arrived in Great Britain, nor to British
preachers ; whereas the Britons, as Gildas and Bede have com-
plained, added to their other crimes the horrid sin of neglecting
to announce the Gospel to the Anglo-Saxon. t On the contrary,
the Irish clergy and monks undertook the duty as soon as a fit
opportunity occurred, and have been on that account praised by
Bede. It can scarcely be doubted that they were the instruments
used by the Almighty for the conversion of those early Anglo-Saxon
Christians in Columba's time ; and that, with regard to a part of
that nation, they got the start of the Roman missionaries in the
blessed work of bringing them over to the Christian faith."
It is now admitted that England owes its conversion
to Irish missionaries — partly from lona and partly from
the mother country — more than to Augustine and the
Roman monks. "St. Augustine arrived in England in
597" — writes Bishop Reeves J — "and Paulinus was ordained
"archbishop of the Northumbrians in 625: but Christi-
" anity made little way in the province till Aidan began
" his labours in Lindisfarne in 634." St. Aidan was an
Irishman, descended from the same kingly race as St.
Brigit ;§ he was educated at home, and, like so many of
his countrymen, entered the monastery of lona. After
some time, he was commissioned by the abbot and monks
* See Lynch, Cambr. Ev., ii. 289 to 301.
t See Bede, £ccl. Hist., I. xxii (where Gildas is referred to).
J Id Ulster Joum. of Archseol., Vll. 231.
i O'Clery's Cal., 3i8t Aug.
Z
338 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
to preach to the Northumbrian Saxons, at the request of
their good king Oswald that a missionary might be sent,
this king being himself a zealous Christian who had
spent some years in exile in Ireland, where he had been
converted and received his education. Aidan, who had
been consecrated a bishop, chose as his place of residence
CHAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 339
the little island of Lindisfarne, where he founded the
monastery that became so illustrious in after-ages. For
thirty years — 634 to 664 — this monastery was governed
by him and by two other Irish bishops, Finan and Colman,
in succession. Aidan, assisted by a number of his fellow-
countrymen, laboured zealously, and with wonderful suc-
cess, among the rugged Northumbrian pagans. " Many
• • •
of the Scots " — writes Bede* — " came daily into Britain,
** and with great devotion preached the Word to those
"provinces of the English over which King Oswald
" reigned." These earnest men had the hearty co-
operation and support of the king, of which Bede has
given an interesting illustration in a passage where he
tells us that as Aidan, on his arrival in Northumbria, was
only imperfectly acquainted with the language, King
Oswald, who had learned the Irish tongue while in Ire-
land, often acted as his interpreter to the people.t
Montalembert, in his account of this mission, writes : —
** Forty-eight years after Augustine and his Roman monks
landed on the shores of pagan England, an Anglo-Saxon prince
[Oswald] invoked the aid of the monks of lona in the conversion of
the Saxons of the north. • • • The spiritual conquest of the island
[Britain], abandoned for a time by the Roman missionaries, was
now about to be taken up by the Celtic monks. The Italians
[under Augustine] had made the first step,J and the Irish now
appeared to resume the uncompleted work. What the sons of
St. Benedict could only begin, was to be completed by the sons of
St. Columba." §
A recent distinguished writer belonging to the Anglican
Church, Dr. Lightfoot, bishop of Durham, is even more
explicit on this point. Having remarked that lona was
the cradle of English Christianity, he quotes Montalembert
. *Bede, Eccl. Hist., Book in., chap. vii.
t Ibid, J Book lu., chaps, iii. and xxv.
X But see Lanigaa's observations, p. 337, supra : the monks from Ireland
were beforehand with St. Augustine. { Montalembert, Bookxi., chap.i.
Z 2
340 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
as saying : — " Of the eight kingdoms of the Anglo-Saxon
" Confederation, that of Kent alone was exclusively won
" and retained by the Roman monks." The following are
the words of Dr. Lightfoot himself, speaking of Aidan: —
** Though nearly forty years had elapsed since Augustine's first
landing in England, Christianity was still confined to its first con-
quest, the south-east comer of the island, the kingdom of Kent. . • .
Then commenced those thirty years of earnest energetic labour,
carried on by those Celtic missionaries and their disciples, from
Lindisfame as their spiritual citadel, which ended in the submission
of England to the gentle yoke of Christ" (Lightfoot, p. 9). Again
(p. 11], he claims ** for Aidan the first place in the evangelisation of
our race. Augustine was the apostle of Kent, but Aidan was the
apostle of England.'**
In the early Christian ages, communication with Rome
from Ireland was always difficult and tedious : for genera-
tions indeed it was almost impossible, on account of the
disturbed state of the intervening countries, caused by the
irruptions of the northern hordes, who formed an im-
passable barrier between the western islands and Italy.
Accordingly, information regarding alterations in dis-
ciplinal matters made from time to time by the autho-
rities in Rome took long to reach these islands.: and
when tidings of them did come, their genuineness, or the
duty of complying with them, was often open to question.
Yet during all this time, it is interesting to observe with
what unfailing, and, as it were, instinctive reverence, the
Irish — as well indeed as the British — Christians looked
to Rome as the centre of authority. During the sixth,
seventh, and succeeding centuries, Irish pilgrims — ^both
lay and clerical — were constantly going to Rome, as we
know by the testimony, not only of native records, but
* Bede (Eccl. Hist., Book ill., chap, v.) gives an interesting and sympa-
thetic sketch of Aidan : and in several parts of his History mentions him in
terms of the utmost admiration and reverence. See Cardinal Moran*s sketch
of Aidan in Trans. Ossory Arch. Soc., i. 455 : and Lanigan, 11. 416, 424.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 34I
also of many foreign writers. Ricemarsh, bishop of St.
David's in the tenth century, in his Life of St David,
speaks of " the inextinguishable desire of the Irish [of the
"early centuries] to visit the relics of the apostles St Peter
** and St Paul" [at Rome].* In one of the canonical decrees
attributed to St Patrick, or, if not by him, issued by the
Irish bishops soon after his time, a direction is gfiven that
when any difficult religious question arose in Ireland,
which could not be settled at home, it should be referred
to the chair of St Peter.f There is at least one in-
teresting instance where this was actually done : namely,
during the time of the dispute about celebrating Easter,
when the Irish method differed from that of Rome (see
" Easter," /Vf/ra). About the year 630 some wise and learned
men were sent by the Irish ecclesiastical authorities to
Rome ''as children to their mother" — says the old
record — to ascertain for a certainty what the practice
was there. After an absence of three years they returned
and declared that the Roman custom was followed by
the whole world, and that the Irish custom was wronjg.
On this the people of the southern half of Ireland adopted
the Roman method : but those of lona and the north of
Ireland clung for some time longer to their old custom,
having received no authoritative decree in the matter.
HiflsionB to Foreign Lands. — ^Whole crowds of ardent
and learned Irishmen travelled to the Continent, in the
sixth, seventh, and succeeding centuries, spreading
Christianity and secular knowledge everywhere among
the people. "What,^' says Eric of Auxerre (ninth
century), in a letter to Charles the Bald, "what shall I
•
• On Irish pilgrimages to Rome, seeWattenbach in Ulst. Jonrn. Archsool.,
VII., 238 and 242. Thb stream of pilgrims to Rome continued nninterraptedly
for many centuries. In the year 1064, Brian Boru*s son Donogh, king of
Munster, and ** king of Ireland with opposition,*' was deposed ; and, taking
a pilgrim's staff, he fared to Rome, where he laid his croMm at the feet of the
pope. Here he died very penitently in the monastery of St. Stephen the
Martyr (FM, a.d. io64)« t Stokes, Trip. Life, 356, 506.
342 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
"say of Ireland, who, despising the dangers of the deep,
"is migrating with almost her whole train of philosophers
"to our coasts?"* "A characteristic still more distinctive
"of the Irish monks "—writes Montalembertf— " as of all
" their nation, was the imperious necessity of spreading
" themselves without, of seeking or carrying knowledge
" and faith afar, and of penetrating into the more distant
" regions to watch or combat paganism " : and a' little
further on he speaks of their " passion for pilgrimage and
preaching." " Not England or Scotland only "—writes
Dr. Lightfoot (p. 7) — " but large parts of the Continent
"also were Christianised by those Irish missionaries,
"either from their adopted home in lona, or from their
" mother country."
' Moore, Hi(t. of Ireland, I. 299.
,t Montalembert, Monks of llie West, Boxk Vir. .
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 343
For our knowledge of those noble and devoted
missionaries, we are indebted almost wholly to foreigfrt
sources : for once they left their own country, the native
Irish annalists made no record of them, except in a very
few cases* These men, on their first appearance on the
Continent, caused much surprise, they were so startlingly
different from those preachers the people had been
accustomed to. They generally — as we have said — went
in companies. They wore a coarse outer woollen gar-
ment, in colour as it came from the fleece, and under
this a white tunic of finer stuff. They were tonsured
bare on the front of the head, while the long hair behind
flowed down on the back : and the eyelids were painted
or stained black. Each had a long, stout cambuttay or
walking-stick : and slung from the shoulder a leathern
bottle for water, and a wallet containing his greatest
treasure — a book or two and some relics. They spoke a
strange language among themselves, used Latin to those
who understood it, and made use of an interpreter when
preaching. But when they settled down for any length
of time, they learned and used the native dialect : as,
for instance, St Gallus, the patron saint of St. Gall in
Switzerland. For writing purposes, they used pugHlares^
or waxed tablets (Irish /<^A?/>r, which see in Index).
Few people have any idea of the trials and dangers
they encountered. Most of them were persons in good
position, who might have lived in plenty and comfort at
home. They knew well, when setting out, that they were
leaving country and friends probably for ever ; for of those
that went, very few returned. Once on the Continent,
they had to make their way, poor and friendless, through
people whose language they did not understand, and who
were in many places ten times more rude and dangerous
*The reasons for this will be found fully set forth by Dr. Reeves in
Proc. Roy. Jr. Acad., vii., p. 290.
344 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
in those ages than the inhabitants of these islands : and
we know, as a matter of history, that many were killed
on the way. Yet these stout-hearted pilgrims, looking
only to the service of their Master, never flinched ; they
were confident, cheerful, and self-helpful, faced privation
with indifference, caring nothing for luxuries ; and when
other provisions failed them, they gathered wild fruit,
trapped animals, and fished, with great dexterity and
with any sort of next-to-hand rude appliances. They
were rough and somewhat uncouth in outward appear-
ance : but beneath all that they had solid sense and
much learning. Their simple ways, their unmistakable
piety, and their intense earnestness in the cause of religion
caught the people everywhere, so that they made converts
in crowds.*
Irish professors and teachers were in those times held
in such estimation that they were employed in most of
the schools and colleges of Great Britain, France,
Germany, and Italy. The revival of learning on the
Continent was indeed due in no small degree to those
Irish missionaries ; and the investigations of scholars
among the continental libraries are every year bringing
to light new proofs of their industry and zeal for the
advancement of religion and learning. To this day, in
many towns of France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy,
Irishmen are venerated as patron saints. Nay, they
found their way even to Iceland ; for we have the best
authority for the statement that when the Norwegians first
arrived at that island, they found there Irish books, bells,
crosiers, and other traces of Irish missionaries, whom the
Norwegians called Papas.\ But the most interesting and
decisive notice of the connexion of the Irish with Iceland
* Much of this is condensed from the Essays of two learaed Germans,
Dr. Wattenbach and Dr. Ferdinand Keller, translated and annotated by
Dr. Reeves, in Ulst. Joum. Arch., vir. and viir. See also Miss Stokes,
Early Christian Art, 34, 35. f Moot«, Hist, of Ireland, lU pp. 3, 4.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 345
is by the Irish geographer Dicuil, in his work De mensura
provinciarum orbis terrcB^ where — ^writing in 825 — ^he states
that about thirty years previously {i,e, in 795) he was told
by some Irish ecclesiastics who had sojourned in Iceland
from February to August, that in midsummer the sun
hardly sets there, so that people have sufficient light to
transact their ordinary business all night through * Europe
was too small for their missionary enterprise. We find a
distinguished Irish monk named Augustin in Carthage in
Africa, in the seventh century : and a learned treatise by
him, written in very elegant Latin, on the " Wonderful
things of the Sacred Scripture," is still extant, and has
been published. During his time, also, two other Irish
monks named Baetan and Mainchine laboured in Carthage.
There were settlements of Irish monks also in the Faroe
and Shetland Islands.!
All over the Continent we find evidence of the zeal and
activity of Irish missionaries. Twelve centuries after this
host of good men had received the reward they earned so
well, an Irish pilgrim of our own day — Miss Margaret
Stokes — traversed a large part of the scene of their labours
in Southern Europe, in a loving and reverential search
for relics and memorials of them : and how well she
succeeded, how numerous were the vestiges she found —
abbeys, churches, oratories, hermitages, caves, crosses,
altars, tombs, holy wells, baptismal fonts, bells, shrines,
and crosiers, beautiful illuminated manuscripts in their very
handwriting, place-names, passages in the literatures of
many languages — all with their living memories, legends
and traditions still clustering round them — she has
recorded in her two charming books, " Six Months in
the Apennines," and "Three Months in the Forests of
•For Dicuil see- Reeves, Ulst. Journ. Arch, vii., 231, note^: Lanigan,
III. 225 to 228 : Ware, Irish Writers at Dicuil : Hyde, Lit. Hist., 222 :
Johnston, Landnama Boc, cited by Lanigan, in. 226.
t Reeves, on Aagustin, Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., vn. 514.
346 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
France." May she be welcomed by those she revered
and honoured ! *
"The Irish passion for pilgrimage and preaching"
never died"out : it is characteristic of the race. This great
missionary emigration to foreign lands has continued in a
measure down to our own day ; for it may be safely
asserted that no other missionaries are playing so general
and successful a part in the conversion of the pagan people
all over the world, and in keeping alight the lamp of
religion among Christians, as those of Ireland. Take up
any foreign ecclesiastical directory, or glance through any
newspaper account of religious meetings or ceremonies, or
{See also Pap« by Mi» Stokes in Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1S70-71, p. 351,
for spedmeiu or Iijah art dow in Bavaiia, takea fioin a Paper by Wattenbach.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 347
bold missionary enterprises in foreign lands ; or look
through the names of the governing bodies of Uni-
versities, Collies, and Monasteries, in America, Asia,
Australia, New Zealand — all over the world — and your
eye is sure to light on cardinals, archbishops, bishops,
priests, principals, professors, teachers, with such names as
Moran, O'Reilly, O'Donnell, MacCarthy, Murphy, Walsh,
Fleming, Fitzgerald, Corrigan, O'Gorraan, Byrne, and
scores of such-like, telling unmistakably of their Irish
origin, and proving that the Irish race of the present day
may compare not unfavourably in missionary zeal with
those of the times of old. As the sons of Patrick, Finnen,
and Columkille took a leading part in converting the
people of Britain and the Continent, so it would seem to
be destined that the ultimate universal adoption of
Christianity should be mainly due to the agency of
Irish missionaries.
348 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
S. The Third Order : Anchorites or Hermits^ and Hermit
Communities.
Although the monasteries of the second order were, as
we have seen, cenobitical (p. 327, supra), nevertheless, during
the whole of this period, and indeed from the time of St.
Patrick, individuals often chose a solitary life, withdrawing
themselves from all companionship with their fellows, and
passing their time, as hermits, in prayer and contemplation.
For it was considered that a life of solitude afforded an
opportunity of more perfect union with God. A character-
istic example was St Domangart or Donard, one of St.
Patrick's disciples, who built his little hermitage of stone
on the very summit of Slieve Donard, the highest peak of
the Moume Mountains : and in this awful solitude he lived
and communed with God for many years. And the name
of the mountain keeps his memory fresh to this day.
Sometimes an individual took up his abode near the
monastery, still retaining his connexion with it: others
left it for good, and went to some out-of-the-way place at a
distance. Each had a little cell, commonly put up by his
own hands, in which he spent his life, reflecting and
praying, sleeping on the bare earthen floor, and living on
herbs and water, or on an occasional alms from some
visitor. These cells were sometimes of stone— what we
now call a clochany a beehive-shaped hut, of which many
examples still remain. We have numerous notices of
individual hermits during the period of the Second Order
of Saints. Adamnan tells us that, in the time of St
Columba, who was himself one of the Second Order, a
certain monk named Finan " led the life of an anchorite
blamelessly for many years near the monastery of Durrow."*
The spot where an anchorite lived was often called by
the Irish name Disert, meaning an unfrequented place,
♦ Adamn., p. 95 : see .also p, 366, same work.
CHAP. X] CHKISTIANITY 349
a hermitage, a word borrowed from Latin desertum. So
general was this custom that there are more than a score
places in Ireland still called, either wholly or partly, by this
name Disert or Desert. And these represent only a small
proportion of the hermitages of those times. It often
happened that a disert was kept up near a monastery,
either for the use of those of the community who wished
to retire for a time into solitude, or for any devotee who
chose to take up his temporary abode in it Sometimes
the abbot himself, when he could be spared from the
monastery, retired to the disert to commune more closely
with God."
Not unfrequently those bent on hermit life emt>arked
in a currach to find some desert island where they might
stay for ever unknown. Adamnan (11. xlii) tells us that,
in the time of Columba, Cormac Ua Liathain sailed out
on the western ocean three several times to find a desert
island on which to settle, but failed each time : and on
one of these occasions he reached the Orkneys. Adamnan
• Adamn., 366 : Dt. Heoly, 470,
3 so RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
(I. xx) mentions another voyage for a similar purpose,
undertaken by a monk named Baithen. As an example
of the all but inaccessible places these men ventured on
and lived in, may be mentioned Bishop's Island near
Kilkee, a sea-rock, surrounded by sheer cliffs 200 feet
high, where, to this day, can be plainly seen from the
adjacent mainland the remains of two primitive clochans,
in which one or more of those hermits lived in the olden
time. But the history of the settlement on this island is
totally lost .•
While, as we have seen, there were individual hermits
from the very beginning, the desire for eremitical life
became very general about the end of the sixth century.
Then not only individuals, but whole communities of
monks, sought a solitary life. The leader of a colony of
intended recluses went with his followers to some remote
place, in a deep valley surrounded by mountains, forests,
and bogs, or on some almost inaccessible little island,
where they took up their abode. Each man built a cell
for himself: and these cells, with a little church in the
midst, all surrounded by a low casket, rath, or wall, formed
an eremitical monastery: a monastic group like those
known in the east by the name of " Laura." Each monk
passed the greater part of his life in his own cell, holding
little or no communication with his fellows, except only
at stated times in the day or night, when all assembled in
the church for common worship, or in the refectory for
meals. They cultivated a vegetable garden for food : and
it must often have gone hard with them to support life.
The remains of these little monasteries are still to be seen
in several parts of Ireland, both on' the mainland and on
islands: as, for instance, at Gougane Barra lake, the source
of the Lee in Cork ; on Inishmurray, off the Sligo coast ; on
Ardoilen, a little ocean-rock off the coast of Galway, where
a taura was founded by St Fechin in the seventh century ;
* See 0*Curry, Man. & Oust., II. 67.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 351
and on the Great Skellig off the Kerry coast, where there
still remains an interesting group of clochans that may
be seen figured in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal,
■1890-91, p. 662.
There is a graphic description of one of these hermit
monasteries in the " Voyage of St. Brendan." Barinthus,
giving St. Brendan an account of a visit to Mernoc's
island monastery, says : — " As we sailed to the island, the
" brethren came forth from their cells towards us like a
" swarm of bees, for they dwelt apart from each other,
" having one refectory, one church for all, wherein to dis-
" charge the divine offices. No food was served- out but
" fruits and nuts, roots, and other vegetables. After
"complin [the last prayer at night] they slept in their
352 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
" respective cells till the cock crew or the bell sounded for
" morning prayer."*
These hermit-communities were the Third Order of
Saints, who are very correctly described in the old Cata-
logue. It is stated that they lasted till the time of the
Yellow Plague in 664 : from which we may infer that the
plague made such havoc among them as to break up the
system of eremitical monasteries. During this time the
cenobitical or ordinary monasteries must have been con-
siderably disturbed and repressed by the departure of
whole bodies of their inmates : but after 664 they resumed
their sway. Long after this however we find numerous
records of individual hermits.t
Culdees. — There is good reason to believe that the Third
Order of Irish Saints includes the class of monks designated
by the Irish term Ciile-Di [Caile-D6], or, as it is usually
Anglicised, Culdee. Who were the Culdees? On this
question there has been much uncertainty and much spe-
culation. It has been investigated by Dr. Reeves in an
exhaustive essay ; and Mr. Skene, in his "Celtic Scotland,"
has thrown much additional light on it Many other
writers on Irish ecclesiastical history have more or less
dwelt on the subject.
The term CHle-Di has been variously translated
** servant " or " spouse," or " companion " of God : for Ciile
has all these meanings. As applied to monks it does not
appear in the Irish records till towards the close of the
seventh century ; and it seems to have been generally
applied to a cleric or monk who either actually was, or had
been, a recluse or anchorite. It was not applied to all
anchorites, but only to those ascetics, whether individuals
or communities, who were distinguished for unusual
*Card. Moran, Acta S. Brend., 86, 87: O'Donohue, Brendaniana, 112.
For more about these island monasteries, see the Rev. George Stokes's Paper
in Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1890-91, p. 658.
t For examples, see Reeves, Adamn., 366.
CHAP. X] CHKISTtAKITV 353
austerity and holiness of life. Ciile-Di appears to be the
equivalent of the Latin Deicola (God-worshipper), in the
sense of a person having a very close companionship with
God, rather than of Servus-Dei, which was applied to
monks in general. It will be seen then that at best the
term " Culdee " is somewhat vague, and in course of time
it came to be used with much latitude. Besides individual
Culdees, there were many Culdee communities, both in
Ireland and Scotland : Dr. Reeves, in his essay, describes
eighteen altogether, nine in each of the two countries.
From all that has been said, it will be obvious that
the three orders overlapped as regards time ; so that no
hard and fast line can be drawn between them ; though
this is done in the Catalogue.
There were nuns and convents in Ireland from the time
of St. Patrick, as we know from his " Confession," and
from his "Epistle to Coroticus": nevertheless it may
354 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
almost be said that St Brigit of Kildare was the founder
of the Irish conventual system. With the space at disposal
here, however, it would be impossible to enter on a history
and description of convent life in Ireland : and I must
content myself with referring to Lanigan's " Ecclesiastical
History," passim^ or indeed to any good Ecclesiastical
History of Ireland ; and to the Most Rev. Dr. Healy's
" Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars," pp. 106-121.
6. Buildings and other Material Requisites.
Chnrohes and Monastic Buildings. — ^The custom of build-
ing in wood, which was characteristic of the ancient Irish
people, will be noticed in the first section of chapter xx.
Nearly all the churches in the time of St Patrick, and for
several centuries afterwards, were of wood, as we know from
numerous passages in the ancient ecclesiastical literature.
St Finan, an Irish monk from lona, on becoming bishop of
Lindisfarne, A.D. 652, built a church there, which, in the
words of the Venerable Bede, " was not, however, of stone,
** but altogether of sawn oak, and covered with reeds after
** the manner of the Scots^* The custom continued long,
not only among the native Irish, but among the English
settlers. St Malachy O'Morgair, archbishop of Armagh,
who died in 1148, began to build a large church of stone
at Bangor, like those he had seen on the Continent, which
was even at that period considered so unusual a thing that
the natives were all astonished ; and one, bolder than the
rest, said to him : — ^** What has come over you, good man,
** to introduce such a building? We are Scots, not Gauls,
** and want no such novelties. How do you think you
"can find the means, or live long enough, to finish it?"t
But the ancient churches were not universally of wood ;
for little stone churches were erected from the earliest
Christian times.
* Eccl. Hist., III. XXV. t Petrie, R. Towers, 123 : Ware, Antiqq. 181.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 35S
The early churches, built on the model of thdse intro-
duced by St Patrick, were small and plain, seldom more
than sixty feet long, sometimes not more than fifteen,
always a simple oblong in shape, never cruciform. Some
of the very small ones were oratories for private or family
devotions. Oratories were common, both in monasteries
and elsewhere. At first they were nearly always of wood,
as their Irish name, dertheck, or duirtkech (' oak-house '),
denotea But at an early period they began to be built of
St, Hu tJum'i primitive cliurcli QD St WKDvt'f Iikmlofftlwcout of GdwAV.
iHlerior mcuuKiDeDt ijfeAbr i( f«t, (Pnm Petrle'i Reusd towen.!
stone : and the ruins of these little structures still remain
in many places. As Christianity spread, the churches
became gradually Iai|;er and more ornamental, and a
chancel was often added at the east end, which was
another oblong, merely a continuation of the larger
building, with an arch between (see fig. 85, p. 338, supra\
The jambs of both doors and windows inclined, so that the
bottom of the opening was wider than the top : this shape
of door or window is a sure mark of antiquity (see for
examples, figs, jy, 82, 93). The doorways were commonLy
2 A2
356 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
constructed of very large stones, with almost always a
horizontal lintel : the windows were often semicircularly
arched at top, but sometimes triangular-headed. The
remains of little stone churches, of these antique patterns,
of ages from the fifth century to the tenth or eleventh,
are still to be found all over Ireland.* The small early
churches, without chancels, were often or generally roofed
DcwrwArDf^cmpvUCallBjwtii^ AniL (Fiwd MIh SliAs^ [DKriiriioiu. Il..p. >3.t
with flat stones, of which Cormac's chapel at Cashel (vol.
11., Title-page), St Doulogh's Church near Dublin (p. 331,
suprti), St. Columb's house at Kclls (p. 325, supra), and
St Mac Data's Church (p. 355, supra), are examples
(Petrie, "Round Towers," 186). In early ages'; churches
were often in groups of seven — or intended , to be so— a
■ Some even of the early charches were highly omamenled, such u the
peat chuich ai Kildaie, u deKiibed by Cogitosus, lor which see Lanigu,
IT. 34a : Dr. Healy, 1 14 : Peltie, Round Towers, 197, 198, 199.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 357
custom still commemorated in popular phraseology, as in
" The Seven Churches of Glendalough " (Trip. Life, clvii).
In the beginning of the eleventh century, what is called
the Romanesque style of architecture, distinguished by a
profusion of ornamentation — a style that had previously
been spreading over Europe — ^was introduced into Ire-
land. Then the churches, though still small and simple
in plan, b^^an to be richly decorated. We have remaining
numerous churches in this style: a beautiful example is
Cormac's chapel on the Rock of Cashel, erected in 1134
by Cormac Mac Carthy, king of Munster (figured on Title-
page of second volume).
The general — almost universal — practice was to build
the churches east and west, with the entrance at the west
end, and the altar at the east This is mentioned in many
passages of our ecclesiastical literature, of which the oldest
is the prophecy of King La^aire's druids regarding the
coming of the Taillkenn, i,e, St Patrick, which is quoted
and translated into Latin by Muirchu in his seventh-
century memoir of St Patrick : —
'*The Taillcenn will cpme over a furious sea»
His mantle \i,e, the chasuble] head -holed, his staff crook -headed,
His dish \i,e, the paten] in the east of his house.
All his household shall answer Amen, Amen ! "*
Very likely this was a real prophecy, though having
nothing supernatural about it: for as there was much
communication in the fifth century between Ireland and
foreign countries — Britain as well as the Continent — ^the
druids had probably heard of the advance of Christianity
and of its main ceremonials. But be this as it may, the
passage proves that Patrick adopted the east and west
position for his churches. A few were placed north and
south ; in fact the very first building that St Patrick
* Stokes, Trip. Life, 35. See also Petrie, Tara, 77 '- Todd, St. Patk., 4111
O'Curry, MS. Mat., 397: Reeves, Eccl. Antiqq., 221.
358 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
celebrated Mass in, viz. the saball [saul] or bam given him
by Dicho at Saul, happened to be in this direction : but
here there was no choice* After this time a few churches
were deliberately placed north and south, though not by
Patrick : apparently in veneration for the little barn-church
at Saul : and sometimes even long afterwards a chapel or
small church was called sabalL
The word daimhliag [dav-leeg, * stone-house *] was at
first applied to any church built of stone : but its use was
subsequently confined to an important church. The term
airecol^ or in modern Irish aireagcU^ which meant primarily
*a house of prayer, an oratory,' is a loan-word from the
Latin oraculutn : and we know that in the Latin Lives of
those Irish saints who flourished on the Continent, the
oratories they founded are often called oraculum.i But
this term came to signify any small detached house ; and
in Irish writings it is often used in this sense. The
residential buildings of a monastery, such as the dormi-
tories, small cells for various purposes, the abbot's house,
the guest-house, the library, &c., were mostly of wood, after
the manner of the houses of the people of the country.
Nemed or Sanctuary. — The land belonging to and around
a church — the glebe-land — was a sanctuary, and as such was
known by the names of Nemed^ now neimheadh [neveh],
and Termann, Nemed, meaning literally 'heavenly' or
* sacred,* is a native word: Termann^ or as it is usually
anglicised, Termofty is a loan-word from the Latin 7Vr-
minus: for the sanctuary was generally marked off at
the comers by crosses or pillar-stones. Miss Stokes has
shown that, in Ireland, the " high crosses " (which will be
noticed in chap, xvi., sect. 4) were used for this purpose : —
"That the ancient sanctuaries were marked by high
crosses outside the ramparts [of the church or monastery ]»
and that they were under the invocation of certain saints,
I ♦ Sec Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., 145.
t Petrie, Round Towers, 352 : Voyage of Bfan, u, Glossary, 91.
CHAP; Xj CHRISTIANITV 359
and offered protection to the fugitive who sought shelt^
under their arms."* ■ Dr. Petrie ("Round Towers," 59) refers
to an ancient canon of the church directing crosses to be
erected to mark the limits of the neimkedh or sanctuary.
It was usual for the founders of churches to plant
trees — oftenest yew, but sometimes oak or ash-r— for orna-
ment and shelter, round the church and cemetery, and
generally within the sanctuary. These little plantations
were subsequently held in great veneration, and were
* HiEh Cnsiei of CasCledennot and Durrow, Inliod., p. ix.
360 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
called Fidnemed [finneveh], * sacred grove,* or grove of
the nemed or sanctuary : from fid (fih), * a wood or grove.**
They are often mentioned in the Annals and in the
ecclesiastical writings; and Giraldus Cambrensis notices
them in several passages. He relates how a party of
Anglo-Norman soldiers, who were stationed at Finglas
near Dublin, during the time of Henry H.^s visit to Ireland
(in 1 171), sacril^iously cut down the grove of the church,
which, as well as the grove itself, was dedicated to St.
Canice : for which — as he goes on to say — they all
perished in a few days by plague and shipwreck.f The
ruins of St. Canice's Church, w|iere this desecration was
perpetrated, are still to be seen'; but this structure was
erected at a period long after the time of St. Canice, on
the site of his primitive church.
The most general term for a church was, and is still,
dll^ celly or cealL Other terms were eclats ; regies ; tempull ;
baisleac\ domnach ; for all of which see p. 316, supra.
Later Churches. — Until about the period of the Anglo-
Norman Invasion all the churches, including those in the
Romanesque style, were small, because the congregations
were small: this, again, chiefly resulted from the tribal
organisation, which had a tendency to split up all society,
whether lay or ecclesiastical, into small sections. But the
territorial system of Church organisation, which tended to
large congregations, was introduced about the time of the
Invasion. The Anglo-Normans were, as we know, great
builders; and about the middle of the twelfth century the
old Irish style of church architecture began, through their
influence, to be abandoned. Towards the close of the
century, when many of the great English lords had settled
in Ireland, they began to indulge their taste for archi-
tectural magnificence, and the native Irish chiefs imitated
*Tliis word Fidnemed is very fully discussed by Dr. Petrie, Round
Towers, 49-64 : see also FM, a.d. 995.
tTop. Hib., II. liv; in. x: and Hib. Expugn., I. xxxii.
^ 362 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
and emulated them ; large cruciform churches in the
pointed style began to prevail ; and all over the country
splendid buildings of every kind sprang up. Then were
erected — some by the English, some by the Irish — those
stately abbeys and churches of which the ruins are still
to be seen ; such as those of Kilmallock (of which see
illustration, p. 364, farther on) and Monasteranenagh in
Limerick; Jerpoint in Kilkenny; Grey Abbey in Down;
Bective and Newtown in Meath ; Sligo ; Quin, Corcomroe,
and Ennis (fig. 95) in Clare ; Ballintober in Mayo ;
Knockmoy in Galway; Dunbrody in Wexford ; Buttevant;
Cashel ; and many others.
Boimd Towers. — In connexion with many of the ancient
churches there were round towers of stone from 60 to 150
feet high, and from 13 to 20 feet in external diameter at
the base : the top was conical. The interior was divided
into six or seven stories reached by ladders from one to
another, and each story was lighted by one window : the
top story had usually four windows. The door was placed
10 or more feet from the ground outside, and was reached
by a ladder : both doors and windows had sloping jambs
like those of the churches. About eighty round towers
still remain, of which about twenty are perfect : the rest
are more or less imperfect
Formerly there was much speculation as to the uses
of these round towers ; but Dr. George Petrie, after
examining the towers themselves, and — ^with the help of
O'Donovan and O'Curry — searching through all the Irish
literature within his reach for allusions to them, set the
question at rest in his Essay on " The Origin and Uses of
the Round Towers." It is now known that they are of
Christian origfin, and that they were always built in con-
nexion with ecclesiastical establishments. They were
erected at various times from about the beginning of the
ninth to the thirteenth century. They had at least a two-
fold use : as belfries, and as keeps to which the inmates of
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 363
the monastery retired with their valuables — such as books,
shrines, crosiers, relics, and vestments — in case of sudden
attack. They were probably used also — when occasion
required — as beacons and watch-towers. These are Dr.
Petrie's conclusions, except only that he fixed the date of
some few in the fifth century, which recent investigations
have shown to be too early. It would appear that it was
the frequency of the Danish incursions that gave rise to
the erection of the round towers, which b^an to be built
early in the ninth century simultaneously all over the
country. They were admirably suited to the purpose of
affording refuge from the sudden murderous raids of the
Norsemen : for the inmates could retire with their valu-
ables on a few minutes' warning, with a. good supply of
large stones to drop on the robbers from the windows ;
and once they had drawn up the outside ladder and
barred the door, the tower was, for a short attack, practi-
cally impregnable. Round towers are not quite peculiar to
364 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Ireland : about twenty-two are found elsewhere — in Bavaria,
Italy, Switzerland, Belgium, Scotland, and other countries.
The Irish round towers are called in the native language
cloicthtack, modem form cloigtkeach, meaning ' bell-house ' ;
cloc, or clog, ' a bell,' and teach, * a house.""
Motuutie Lii or Bampart — An Irish monastery, includ*
ing the whole group of monastic buildings, was generally
enclosed by a strong rampart, commonly circular or oval,
according to the fashion of the country in the lay home-
steads. The rampart was designated by one of the usual
Irish names, rath, or lios [liss], or if of stone, caiseal
[cashel], and sometimes cathair [caher]. We are told in
the Tripartite Life that St. Patrick marked out the
enclosure of his group of buildings at Armagh with his
crosier, " the Staff of Jesus." That this very rampart, or
one like it, was retained for many centuries is proved
** Some persons have thought that the first syllable in this name might
mean a (tone {cloeh) : so that eloicthtaeh might be ' slone-boaie,* not ' bell-
house.* Bnl this is impossible ; for the middle c of chicthtach is nerer
aspirated — it is c, not ch — as it would be if the word were intended to mean
' stone-honse.'
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 365
by the fact that the Four Masters notice the "rath of
Ardmacha" at the years 1020, 1091, and 1092.
The vallum monasterii^ ^ lios^ or rathy or enclosure of
the monastery," is mentioned by Adamnan (pp. 24, 143).
Within the circumference of the vallum were one or more
smaller lisses^ enclosing individual houses — such as the
abbot's residence, the library, the guest-house, &c — just
as we find in the large lay homesteads. For instance, the
Four Masters record, at a.d. 918, that there was a great
flood in the Shannon, " so that the water reached the liss
of the abbot of Clonmacnoise."
The actual erection of a monastic lios surrounding the
whole settlement is recorded in an interesting passage in
the Life of St Carthach, of Lismore, published by the
Bollandists at the 14th May. In this we are told that
when the saint and his followers, after his expulsion from
Rahan, arrived at this place, which had previously been
called Maghsciath (Ma-skee), the * plain of the shields,* they
began to erect a circular entrenchment Then a certain
virgin, who had a cell in the same field, came up and
inquired what they were doing ; and St Carthach answered
her that they were preparing to construct a little enclosure
or lios around their houses and goods for the service of
God. And the holy virgin said : " It will not be little,
but great" "The holy father, Mochuda \i,e. Carthach]
" answered : * Truly it will be as thou sayest, thou hand-
" maid of Christ ; for from this name the place will be
" always called in Scotic, Liass-mdr^ or in Latin Air turn-
^ magnumy* i.e., 'great lios or enclosure.* It is highly
probable that the large fort still called " Lismore," beside
the Blackwater, a mile below the present town of Lismore,
is the very one erected by Carthach. There are many
other records of the erection of these monastic lisses
and cashels ; and the enclosures of several ancient
monasteries, some of earth, some of stone, may still be
seen in different parts of the country. The whole group
366 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of buildings constituting a monastery, including the sur-
rounding /r>, was sometimes called congbhail [congwill]
and cathair^ which are native Irish words, and sometimes
matnisttr^ which is borrowed from monasiertum. It often
happened that a chief presented his dun^ or Itos, to the
missionary who converted him, and then the church and
other buildings were usually erected within the enclosure :
of which Petrie gives many instances *
WeUf. — Wells have at all times been held in veneration
in Ireland by both pagans and Christians ; and we have
seen that many of the pagan Irish worshipped wells as
gods. Some of these were blessed and consecrated to
Christian uses by the early saints, of which a very
interesting instance is related in Adamnan's Life of St.
Columba (p. 119): — "Another time, remaining for some
" days in the country of the Picts, the holy man [Columba]
" heard of a fountain famous amongst this heathen people,
" which foolish men, blinded by the devil, worshipped as a
" divinity. . . . The pagans, seduced by these things, paid
"divine honour to the fountain." Adamnan goes on to
say that after Columba had rescued it from heathenism,
he blessed it, so that it was ever after revered as a holy
well that healed many diseases. In this manner hundreds
of the heathen wells were taken over to Christianity and
sanctified by the early saints, so that they came to be even
more venerated by the Christians than they had been by
the pagans. Yet the heathen practices never quite died
out, but have continued to be mixed up with Christian
devotions even down to our own day, though now devoid
of their original heathen spirit, and quite harmless. The
most conspicuous of the non-Christian practices are
offerings of various kinds, rags, pins, cups, &c., which
may now be seen, as the devotees left them, at almost
* Round Towers, 445 to 452: see also Miss Stokes, Three Months in
France, ixxii. : and \Vilde, Boyne, 155.
CHAP. X] CIIRISTIANITV 367
«vety holy well. This practice prevails still in many parts
of Europe, and even in Persia (see fig. 8, p. 9, supra).
Those early Irish missionaries did not confine their
line of action in this direction to wells : they took over in
like manner forts, buildings, festivals, and observances of
various kinds, and consecrated them to Christian uses :
so that those pagans who became converted had the way
made smooth for them, and suffered no violent wrench,
so far as external custom was concerned. It is interesting
to remark that in adopting this judicious line of action,
the Irish missionaries only anticipated the instructions
given A.D. 601 by Pope Gregory to the British abbot
Mellitus for his guidance under similar circumstances.
The Pope's words are : " The temples of the idols in that
" nation [Britain] ought not to be destroyed ; but let the
" idols that are in them be destroyed ; let holy water be
363 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
" made and sprinkled in the said temples ; let altars be
" erected, and relics placed. For if those temples are well
" built, it is requisite that they be converted from the
" worship of devils to the service of the true God ; that
" the nation, seeing that their temples are not destroyed,
" may remove error from their hearts, and knowing and
" adoring the true God, may the more familiarly resort to
" places to which they have been accustomed."*
Most of the early preachers of the Gospel established
their humble foundations — many of them destined to
grow in after-years into great religious and educational
institutions — beside fountains, whose waters at the same
time supplied the daily wants of the little communities,
and served for the baptism of converts. When St Mochua
of Balla went to found a monastery at Tech Telle, now
Tehelly near Durrow in King's County, he was obliged
to give it up, as there was no well in the place. After-
wards when he was about to settle in his final place, Balla
in Mayo, his people, in the first instance, by Mochua's.
directions, looked out for a well, but could find none :
till at last a farmer of the place showed them one, in which
■Bede, Eccl. Hist., r. xii.: Bohn's Transl.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 369
Mochua decided to remain there.* In this manner most
of our early saints became associated with wells, hundreds
of which still retain the names of these holy men, who
converted and baptised the pagan multitudes on their
margins. The practice began with St, Patrick, as we
see by a circumstance related in the Tripartite Life
•Stokes, LisesofSS., 185.
370 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
fp. 93) : — that the saint founded a church at Magh Slecht,
in the present County Cavan : " and there [to this day is
reverenced] Patrick's Well, in which he baptised many."
A well is sometimes met with containing one lone
inhabitant — a single trout or salmon, which is always to
be seen swimming about in its tiny dominion : and some-
times there are two. They are usually tame ; and the
people hold them in great respect, and tell many wonderful
legends about them. This pretty custom is of old standing,
for it originated with the early Irish saints — even with
SL Patrick himself. In the Tripartite Life (p. 113) we
are told, regarding the well of Achadh-fobhair^ now
Aghagower in Mayo, that " Patrick left two salmon alive
in the well." The same custom prevailed in the Scottish
western islands when Martin visited them in 1703 (p. 141
of his book).
To kill or injure these little fish was considered an
outrage bordering on sacrilege : and if they were destroyed
by an enemy of the tribe, it was looked upon as an
intolerable insult. Even the annalists think it worth
while to record an occurrence of this kind. We read in
Tigernach: — [A.D. 1061 : ue, during this annalist's lifetime]
" The O'Conors invaded Munster and demolished the weir
** of Kincora, and they ate up the salmons that lived in the
" well of Kincora."* Many holy wells have the reputation
of curing diseases: one for blindness, another for headache,
another for jaundice, and so on through a great number of
ailments.t
*Rev. Celt., xvii. 402: see also FM, a.d. 1061.
t As to Holy Wells : see Miss Stokes, Three Months in France, ** Holy
Wells" in Index: WUde, Boyne, "Holy Wells," Index: Stokes, Lives of
SS., 360, and "Wells" in Index of Matters: Kilk. Archfeol. Journ., the
several Indexes : HyF, 239, note » : Petrie's article in The Irish Penny
Journal, p. 401 : Joyce, Iridi Names of Places, i. 449: Dr. William Stokes,
Life of Petrie, 17 : Wood-Martin, Pagan Ireland, chap. v. An interesting
book could be written on the Holy Wells of Ireland, provided the writer
united an attractive style with sufficient knowledge, and approached his
subject in a reverential spirit.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITV 371
In Cormac's Glossary (p. 7), under the explanation of
the word dna, ' cups,' sing, an, there is an interesting state-
ment about wells, but not in connexion with religion. We
are told that in former times it was customary for kings
to have small cups, generally of silver, beside wells, for
two purposes : — To enable wayfarers to drink, and to test
if the laws were observed — the inference being that they
were if the cups were not stolen. It mentions Cnoc-
Rafann, now KnockgrafTon near Caher, the palace of
Fiacha Muillethan, king of Munster in the third century,
as one of the places where this custom was kept up.
Altar-Stone. — From a very early period it was a general
rule of the church that the altar on which Mass was offered
2 B 2
372 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
should be of stone. But in case of missionary priests, it
was decided that it would be sufficient to have a small
altar-flag — duly consecrated — laid upon the altar, of suffix
ctent size to hold a chalice and one or more crosses, while
the altar itself might be of wood, or might consist merely
of a table or such like.* St. Patrick himself, as well as
every missionary priest after his time, had one of these
portable altar - flags, which
was brought about by a gillie
or servant with the other
things necessary for the
celebration of the Divine
mysteries.t The Irish word
for an altar-flag was lecc,
which was, and is, the name
for any flat stone. Many of
these ancient little a]Xds-Uas
are still to be seen in
museums, of which one is
represented on previous page.
Along with the altar-stone
there Is also given here the
figure of a stone chalice of
""*"" '^' a very antique type.
Bells. — The Irish for a bell is cloc, clocc, or clog,
akin to the English clock. The diminutive form cluccene
[clucken£] is used to denote a small bell, called also
Idm-chiog [lauv-clug], ' hand-bell ' (see p. 376, infra). St
Patrick and his disciples constantly used consecrated
bells in their ministrations. J How numerous they were
in Patrick's time we may understand from the fact, that
whenever he left one of his disciples in charge of a church,
he gave him a bell: and it is recorded that on the churches
of one province alone — Connaught — he bestowed fifty.§
t Petrie, Round Towerx, 382, 383.
\ Trip. Life, 147.
nl fUnc CtiallHi ^% Incbn Ugh :
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY J73
To supply these he had in his household three Smiths,
whose chief occupation was to make bells. The most
ancient Irish bells were quadrangular in shape, with
rounded comers, and made of iron : facts which we know
both from the ecclesiastical literature, and from the speci-
mens that are still preserved. In the Tripartite Life we
are told that a certain bell called Bethechan, beloi^ing'
to St Patrick, was " a little bell of iron " {cluceene becc
iairnd)* An Irish saint
named Lugaid, or
Moluog, founded the
church of Lismore in
Scotland, in the middle
of the sixth century.
His bell is described in
the Breviary of Aber-
deen (written in 1509,
from some .much more
ancient authority), as
ferream campanam et
quadratam, 'a quadran-
gular iron bell ' :t and
this very bell, dating ^^^
from about A.D. 560, sl piokv. Btn :
is still preserved and
exactly answers the description, attesting the truthfulness
of the old record. The little quadrangular bell that
belonged to St. Gall, the Irishman who founded the church
of St. Gall in Switzerland, about the year 613, remains to
this day in the monastery of that city .J
The bell of St. Patrick, which is more than fourteen
hundred years old, is now in the National Museum in
Dublin : it is the oldest of all ; and it may be taken as a
* Trip. Life, 149. t Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad., XXVII., p. 7.
J Mis» Stokes, Early Cbristian Art, 39.
374 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
type of the hammered-iron bells. Its height is 6^ inches :'
but projecting from the top is a little handle i^ inch high,,
which gives it a total height of 7|- inches. At the mouth
the two dimensions are 4^ by s-J- inches. It is made of
two iron plates, bent into shape by hammering, and
slightly overlapped at the edges for riveting. After the
joints had been riveted, the bell was consolidated by the
fusion of bronze into the joints and over the surface —
probably by dipping into melted bronze — which also
increased its resonance. This is the bell known as Clog-
an-udhachta, or the * Bell of the Will ' (so called because
it was willed by the saint to one of his disciples), which is
much celebrated in the Lives of St Patrick. A beautiful
and costly shrine was made to cover and protect this
venerable relic, by order of Donall O'Loghlin, king of
Ireland (died 11 21): and this gorgeous piece of ancient
Irish art, with O'Loghlin's name and three others inscribed
on it, is also preserved in the National Museum. A beauti-
ful drawing of it by Miss Stokes forms the frontispiece of
the second volume of this book. Many others of these
venerable iron bronzed bells, belonging to the primitive
Irish saints, are preserved in the National and other
Museums, several covered with ornamental shrines. Some
are called cedldUy * little musical ' [bell], from ciol^ music :
and some bemdn^ ' little gapped ' [bell], from bertty or
beamy *a gap,' on account of a splinter knocked out of
the edge : like Bemdn Eimhin^ * St. Evin's little gapped
bell/
About the ninth century the Irish artificers began to
make bells wholly of cast bronze. A beautiful quad-
rangular bell of this class, made some short time before
A.D. 900, is to be seen in the National Museum, which tells
its own history in an Irish inscription, of which this is a
translation : — " A prayer for Cummascach Mac Ailello.**
This Cummascach, the son of Ailill, for whom the bell
CHAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 375
was made, was house-steward of the monastery of Armagh,
and died AJ>. 908.*
The very ancient Irish bells, whether of iron or of
bronze, were small, and were sounded by a clapper or
tongue. All those in the National Museum are furnished
in the inside, at top, with a ring, from which the clapper
was hung, and in some the clapper still remains. The
interior ring of St, Patrick's bell seems to be modem, no
doubt replacing the original one which had worn away.f
Occasionally we read
of little bells being
sounded by striking
on the outside : and
these probably had no
tongues. Concobar's
royal jester, R6imid,
had, hanging at his
side, a melodious
little bell, which he
often struck with a
bronze wand he held
in his hand, to pro-
cure attention.^ It
appears, too, that the fio. 105.
ancient Irish saints MKAitatoiB^ 1^ hiu si^EuD>cbiaaw
sometimes cursed
offending chieftains while sounding their bells with the tops
of their crosiers,§ but these were obviously the ordinary
tongued hand-bells.
When bells began to be hung on the tops of buildings —
• Se« Miss Siokes, Art, p. 65 ; Inscriptions, 11. 108 ; and Early Cbiutian
Architecture, S3.
tTliat the ancient bells had tongues, tee Froc. Roy. Ir. Acad., vm.
44S: Mac CoDglinne, ijz: Killc. Aich. Jooni., 1853, p. 60; 1S61, p. 345 ;
i86e,p. J84.546: 1872, i>. 73-
X Mesci Ulad, 35, 37 : see also " R6iinid " In Index, m/hi.
} O'Donovan, in Moyratb, p. 39, note #.
«
376 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
round towers or other structures — those intended for this
use were made large, and the distinction appears in the
literature. An ancient Brehon Law Commentary (v. 23)
says: — **Aistre<fir [door-keeper], changeable his work in
"ringing the bell and opening the church [two offices
usually combined in one person : see p. 316, supra] : high
his work when it is the bell of a cloictheach [* bell-house '];
^* low his work when it is a Idmchlog or handbell." This
entry shows moreover that the large bell was not rung by
pulling at a rope or chain as at present : but the bell-
ringer went up and rang it by striking it directly with a
hammer or mallet of some kind.
Bells were sometimes put — like that, of R6imed — to
other uses besides ecclesiastical. It was the custom in
very early times in Ireland, as it is everywhere at the
present day, to suspend little tongued bells from the
necks of horses and lapdog^, which kept up a perpetual
tinkle. In the story of the TdinBo Fraeich (p. 137) we
read that the horses of the young prince Fraech had each
a band of silver round his neck, with a cluccene 6ir or * little
bell of gold ' hanging from it In the "Courtship of Ferb,"
the horses of the young chief Mani had little bells sus-
pended from their necks, which, as they chimed with the
horses* tread, made music as sweet as the strings of a
harp struck by a master-hand.* And in the Vision of
MacConglinne (p. 88) a little bell {clucin) with a metal
tongue is suspended from the munci or neckband of a
certain horse. So also with lapdogs. In the tale of Compert
Mongain in LU, we read of a young lady who had a
diminutive white lapdog {mesdn) with a silver chain round
its neck, from which hung a little bell of gold {cluigin dtr),^
Bells were also often hung round the necks of cattle, as
we shall see in chap, xxiii., sect. 4.
The bells used in the church service were generally
•LL, 153, fl, 15 : Wmdisch in Ir. Texte, p. 463 : Leahy, p. 5.
t Voyage of Bran, i. 81, m.
CHAP X]
CHRISTIANITY
377
open. But crotals or small closed bells, spherical or pear-
shaped, were also much in use ; they were sounded by a
loose little metal ball or pea, and had a small aperture in
the side to let out the sound. These were probably some-
times used for horses, d(^, and
cattle, as well as on the " Musical
Branch" noticed farther on: but on
those points there is no certainty.
Many very small bronze bells — both open and closed— have
been found from time to time — one, for instance, in a rath,
and another in the bed of a river :* and a number are to
be seen in the National Museum, among which are two
■Kilk. Arch. Joom., vol. i., p. 160; vo). n. laj.
378 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
diminutive open bells, each about one inch in height.
These are in all probability specimens of horse- and dog-
bells.* Several of the passages and facts given here, as
well as others that might be. quoted or referred to, go to
show that little bells were used in Ireland in pagan times.
On this point, see Stokes's Life of Petrie, p. 277.
7. Revenues and Means of Support
Fees and Dues. — The clergy derived their support from
several sources. One of the chief of these consisted of
dues paid for the performance of various religious func-
tions, in regard to which the Brehon Law lays down the
reciprocal obligations of clergy and laity in this manner : —
The right of a church from the people is : i. Tithes ;
2. First Fruits, i.e. the first of the gathering of every new
produce, and every first calf and every first lamb that is
brought forth in the year; 3. Firstlings, i.e. the first son
bom after marriage [who, accordingly, was to enter
religion], and the first-born male of all milk-giving
animals. On the other hand, the rights of the people
from the clergy were " baptism, and Communion, and
requiem of soul " : that is to say, spiritual ministration in
general.t Fees are not mentioned here : but they were
always paid for the performance of religious rites by those
who were able to pay ; of which many examples might
be cited from ecclesiastical literature.
Certain fixed payments were expected from every
householder of the tribe to thq abbot of the local monas-
tery, or to the bishop of the tribe. This payment was
♦ For further information about bells, see Reeves on Bell of St. Patrick,
Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad., vol. xxvii. ; Cooke on Ancient Irish Bells, in Kflk'.
Arch. Joum., 1852-3, p. 47: 1883-4, p. 126: Reeves on Eccl. Bells in
Ecd. Antiqq., p. 369: Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art ("Bell" in
Index): Petrie, Round Towers ("Bell" and "Bells" in Index): Joyce, Irish
Names of Places, ii. 183 : and Mr. S. F. Milligan's Paper on Anc. Eccl.
Bells in Ulster, in Joum. Roy. Soc. Antiqq., Ireland, 1903.
t See Br. Laws, lU. 33, 39.
CPAP.X] CHRISTIANITY 379
called ds or cdin [keece, cawn], i.e, rent or tribute; and
the bishop or abbot often collected it by making a cuairt
[coprt], i.e^ a 'circuit' or visitation through the tribe or
district over which he had spiritual jurisdiction. These
cuairts were the forerunners of the ecclesiastical visitations
of the archbishops and bishops of later times.* They
were practised from very early times; for the eighth-
century Irish commentator on the Epistle of St Paul
to the Ephesians (l. 20) speaks of a cuairt parche^ a
* diocesan visitation/ an illustration which, under the cir-
cumstancesy the writer must have taken from his home in
Ireland, for there is no mention of it in the Epistle.t
In the " Tribes and Customs of Hy Many," edited by
O'Donovan, is a very interesting statement of the arrange-
ments for church fees and tributes in the ancient territory
of Hy Many — the O'Kellys' country — in Galway, as they
existed in the fourteenth century ; which we itiay conclude
were handed down with little change from much older
times. To the church of Camma, west of the Shannon,
near Athlone, which was dedicated to St. Brigit, belonged
the baptismal fees of the whole of the O'Kellys ; so that
whether the child was brought to that church or to any
other to be baptized, or whoever performed the actual
baptism, the comarba or successor of St Brigit, /.^. the
abbess of Camma nunnery and church, " has the power
** of collecting the baptismal penny [pinpnn bdtsdt\ from
"these tribes" [the O'Kellys]: of which she kept one-
third for her own establishment, and gave the other
two-thirds to two churches in the neighbourhood, also
dedicated to St Brigit
Another church of the district got, in like manner,
the sgreaball ongiha^ the * screpall of anointing,' t. e.
administering Extreme Unction. The burial fees belonged
to the gfreat monastery of Clonmacnoise, where the chiefs
• See Reeves, Colt. Visit., Introd., ni.
t Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, i.» p. 632.
380 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of the O'Kellys were buried : and so of other fees. In the
same document certain tributes are assigned to churches,
irrespective of the performance of aAy religious rites. For
example, the church of St Grellan received the firstling
pig, lamb, and foal, all over Hy Many : a very important
addition to the resources of the monastery arid church.
Many cases of such tributes to other churches, both here
and elsewhere through Ireland, might be cited. Some-
times exceptional dues were granted to a church or
monastery under special circumstances, or for special
spiritual services. In the Life of St. Maignenn, the
founder of Kilmainham near Dublin, it is told how that
saint once preached a sermon on the Day of Judgment
before Dermot, king of Ireland (reigned A.D. 544 to 565),
which so powerfully impressed the king that he granted
to Maignenn and his successors in the abbotship, for the
support of the monastery, "a screpall on every nose*
" [t\e. from each head of a household] ; an ounce of gold
" for every chieftain's daughter that took a husband, or in
"place of that the bride's wedding dress, if the chiefs
** steward so chose ; and the materials for [the ornamental
" parts of] a crosier from the tribute received by the king
" from over sea " (Silva Gad., 36).
The mention of the offering of the bride's wedding
dress in this record points to another occasional, though
important, source of income : — The state dress worn for
the first and last time by a king at great ceremonials was,
in some cases, handed over to the bishop or abbot who
officiated. Thus the horse and robes used by O'Conor,
on the occasion of his inauguration as king of Connaught,
" became the property of the coarb or successor of St
Dachonna," t\e. the abbot for the time being of the
monastery of Eas-mac-nEirc, now Assylin near Boyle
in Roscommon, who officiated at the ceremony (larC,
•The ancient Irish commonly said "per nose** where we say "per
head."
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 38 1
139 : but see p. 48, supra). Many other examples of the
presentation by Irish kings and chiefs of ornamental
dresses to ecclesiastics might be cited: and the same
practice prevailed in England and other countries. It is
to be presumed that these robes were taken to pieces
and converted into vestments or altar decorations.
Land. — The land attached to monasteries, which, as we
have seen, was tilled by the monks, formed the staple
support of the establishment. The iponastic lands were
sometimes increased by special grants from kings or
chiefs, in addition to that given at the foundation. In
the year 645 Dermot (son of Aed Slaine), subsequently
king of Ireland, having won a victory which he attributed
to the prayers of the monks of Clonmacnoise, made a
grant, to the monastery, of the land of Tuatm nEtrc, now
called Lemanaghan, King's County, as /dd-for-altdir^ or
* altar sod ' (FM, A.D. 645), Sometimes part of the land
belonging to a monastery was let to tenants : and
accordingly we find, from the Brehon Law,* that it
was quite usual for monasteries to have both saer-stock
and daer- stock tenants, like the lay chiefs (see p. 189,.
supra).
Tithes. — In the memorable council held at Kells, under
the presidency of Cardinal Paparo, in 11 52, it was decreed
that tithes should be paid : and again, in the Council of
Cashel, held twenty years later, one of the canons was
" that all good Christians do pay the tithes of beasts,
** com, and other produce to the church of the parish in
"which they live." . But the custom had existed in Ireland,
at least nominally, long before this time: for, in several
parts of the Senchus M6r^ we find it prescribed as a duty
to pay tithes, as well as alms and first-fruits to the church.
But notwithstanding these decrees, it is certain that tithes
* Br. Laws, in. 43 : and in several other places in same vol.
fBr. Laws, iii. 13, 25, 39: see also Mac Congl., Pref., x.: and Hy
Many, 13.
382 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
were not paid very generally or very regularly till after the
Anglo-Norman invasion in 1172.
Voluntary Offerings. — Besides all the preceding sources
of income there were voluntary offerings. Almost all per-
sons who could afford it, when they visited a monastery,
left something of value. In early times the offerings, like
all other payments, were in ounces of gold and silver, or in
kind : and we find a great variety of articles mentioned in
the Tripartite Life, and other Lives of the Saints : — a
caldron, ladies' ornaments, chariot-horses, the grazing of
so many cows, rich ornamental dresses, &c.* The offerings
were often large and generous. When King Brian Bom
visited Armagh, as he made his royal circuit through Ire-
land in 1004, he laid an offering of twenty ounces of gold
on the great altar, equivalent to ;f 1000 or ;^i50o of our
money.
8. Various Features of the Ancient Irish Church.
Belies and Lorieas. — It was the custom for the most
distinguished of the Irish saints and heads of the great
universities to present to their disciples tokens of friend-
ship and esteem, which the disciples reverently preserved
by depositing them in churches founded by themselves.
This custom is well set forth in a passage in the Irish Life
of St Finnen of Clonard : — " The saints of Ireland came
'*from every point to learn wisdom with him, so that
** there were three thousand saints along with him : and of
"them, as the learned know, he chose the twelve high
** bishops of Ireland (see p. 322, supra). And ... no one
" of these three thousand went from him without a crosier,
" or a gospel, or some] other well-known token : and round
"these reliquaries they built their churches and their
"monasteries afterwards" In the Tripartite Life we are
told that St Patrick spent seven years preaching in
*
• For example see Book of Fenagh, 79, and note 7. See also p. 380,
iupra.
CHAP. X] CftRISTIANlTY 383
Connaught, " and he left in the land of Connaught, fifty
** bells and fifty chalices, and fifty altar-cloths, each of
*' them in his church." Many individual examples of this
custom might be cited in connexion with St Patrick and
other saints.* In like manner the stone beds on which
the saints slept, and on which they died, were preserved
with the utmost veneration : and sometimes churches were
built over them. One of the churches in Clonmacnoise
enshrining St Ciaran's stone bed was long known by the
name of Intdaigh Chtarain^ St Ciaran's bed.
In the Tripartite Life and elsewhere, we often find it
stated that St Patrick wrote an Aipgitiry or 'Alphabet' for
those disciples whom he left in charge of churches. The
Irish phrase is ro scrib aipgitir^ and the Latin equivalent
(often found in the Latin memoirs) scripstt elementa. This
aipgitir was a simple compendium — the * Elements,' as the
Latin g^ves it — of the . Christian Doctrine, to be used in
teaching the people. A good example of the application
of the word appears in the name of a little devotional book
attributed to Coeman, or Kevan, the son oiBeogna Airide,
which is called Athgitir in Crabaid, the * Alphabet of
Piety.' The eighth-century Irish Glossator on Paul to
the Hebrews, v. 12, explains Abgitir Crabaith as "ruda
documenta fidei," i,e, simple or rough-and-ready lessons of
the faith.f These little books were preserved with the
utmost reverence: but not one of them has survived to
our time.
Giraldus Cambrensis notices the reverence paid in
Ireland, as well as in Scotland and Wales, to articles that
had belonged to saints of the times of old, instancing
specially bells and crosiers. He mentions also the custom
of swearing on them, and says that the people had much
* See Stokes's Lives of SS., 226 ; Trip. Life, 147 : Kilk. Archaeol. Journ.,
1872-3, pp. 104-106 : and Dr. Healy, 64.
t Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, I. 711. See also Trip. Life, xvii.
113, 639: Dr. Healy, 64: and Hyde, Lit. Hist., 135 etuq^
384 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
more regard for oaths sworn on these than on the Gospels.
He says also that those who had sworn falsely on them
were often chastised severely by some great calamity.
His statement about the custom of swearing on relics is
fully corroborated by the native records ; a custom which
we know prevailed in other countries, and continued to
prevail in Ireland to a period within living memory.*
Articles or relics of any kind that had belonged to the
Irish saints were often used as loricas, • protectors * or
preservatives against danger of every kind. St. Columkille
once presented his cowl {cochaU) to Aed Mac Ainmirech,
king of Ireland, with a promise that as long as he wore it
he would not be slain ; and accordingly the king con-
stantly brought it with him on his warlike expeditions.
In the year 598, when St. Columkille was dead, Aed
marched southwards and encountered Branduff, king of
Leinster, at Dunbolg, in Wicklow, Just as the battle
was beginning, he ordered his gilla or attendant to bring
him the cowl. " That cowl," replied the gilla, " we have
left behind us in the palace of Ailech in the north."
" Alas," said the king, " then it is all the more likely I shall
be slain by the Leinstermen": and he was slain, and his
army routed by Branduff, in the battle that ensued.t
In like manner the hymns composed by, or in honour
of, the ancient saints were used as loricas in times of
danger : chief among which may be mentioned the Faed
Fiada, or " deer's cry," which was the hymn St Patrick
and his companions chanted on their way to Tara, Easter
Eve, A.D. 433 ; and the Antra Cholutmcille^ the Panegyric
composed in praise of Columkille during his lifetime by
the poet Dalian Forgaill or Eochaid Egeas. Both of these
hymns, which are in Irish, are still extant, and have been
*Giraldus, Top. Hib., ii. lii, liii, liv; and Jii. xxxiii, zxxiv: see also
Silva Gad., 3 : and Hardiman, Ir. Minstr., i. 338. The reader will here be
reminded of the oath on the relics extorted by William of Normandy from
Harold of England, by a trick, t O'Grady, Silva Grad., 415, 4 16.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 385
published. The Latin hymn composed by St Sechnall or
Secundinus in honour of Patrick is preserved in the Book
of Hymns. The legend is that Patrick promised Sechnall
that anyone singing the last three stanzas of it at lyti^ and
rising would go to heaven. Fiach's Hymn, in Irish, in
honour of Patrick is also a lorica.*
Several others of those Christian hymns used as
*' road-safeguards " are preserved in our ancient books.
St. Columkille's Irish protecting hyron, which it is said
he composed while travelling alone northwards over the
hills, after escaping from Tara, where he had been insulted,
may be seen in the Irish Miscellany, I. (1846), p. i. The
ancient Irish introductory notice to this (p. 6) says : — " It
" will be a protection to any person who will repeat it
" going on a journey." Sometimes persons setting out on
a journey wore a " Gospel," i.e. a copy of the whole or part
of one of the Four Gospels, folded up tightly in a little case
of leather or cloth. When Mac Conglinne was going
away from Armagh, his tutor hung a Gospel round his
'For all these hymni and their me w loricu or protecton, lee Trip.
Life, 47 to S3 ; 381 ; 382 to 401 ; 401 (□ 417 ; and 41 1, lines 5 and 6 : Todd,
St Patrick, 13S, 139, 416, 430 : Petrie'a Tara, 55 to 6g : Books of Hymns
by Todd, and by Bernard and Atldnson: and Adamnan, 17, note/. See
also the names of the sevenJ hymns and persons in the Index to this book.
2C
386 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
neck (p. lo). This pious and pleasing practice has come
down to our time. Thomas Moore, in aflfectionate words,
recalls how his mother once, on occasion of his leaving
home, hung a Gospel round his neck ; and many Roman
Catholics now wear a Gospel or scapular round the neck,
not only when on a journey but constantly. A "path-
protector" — Irish coimdhe condire, * protection of the condir
or road* — often called s^n-uaire^ the * blessing of an hour' —
was also used in Ireland in pagan times, of which examples
will be found in some of the works referred to at bottom*
Sunday. — The Yellow Book of Lecan and the Lebar
Brecc contain copies of a tract called Cain Domnaigy or
the 'Law of Sunday,' which it is said was originally
brought from Rome in the sixth century by St Conall
of Inishkeel off the coast of Donegal. In this are laid
down rules for the observance of the Sunday, which are
very strict It sets forth a long list of works not to be
done on Sunday, among which are games of all kinds,
buying and selling and compacts in general, the use of
the bath, sewing, fishing, boating, grinding corn, cooking,
splitting firewood, clearing up the house. Travellings
especially horse-riding, was prohibited, with some neces-
sary exceptions, such as going for a physician for a sick
person, going to save a house from fire, or the journey of
a priest to attend a sick person who was in danger of
* Charms or ordinary prayers of all these various kinds are, according to
Mr. Carmichael, still practised in the Highlands and Western Islands of
Scotland. Specimens of Christian << road- safeguards," in Gaelic verse, may
be seen in his '* Carmina Gadelica/' i. 320, and pp. 326 to 339. Nay, they
have preserved the very name fded fiada in the forms fath-JUh and fith-
ftUhy \«rhich they apply to a charm for rendering a person invisible, or making
him appear in the shape of some other animal ; just as the original fded^
fiada^ according to the legend, made St. Patrick and his disciples api>ear as
deer, on their way to Tara, fifteen hundred years ago. A description of the
Highland fdtk'fith, with a specimen, is given in vol. 11., pp. 22 to 25 of the
same work. All memory of the fded^fiada has been lost in Ireland for
centuries. On all this subject, see also Moylena, 37 : Rev. Celt., ix. 459 :
Trip. Life, xiv. : Moyrath, 75: Cambr. Evcrs., i. 135, note «p: O'Curry,.
MS. Mat., 469.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 387
dying before Monday morning. According to the same
tract, Sunday was regarded as extending from vespers on
Saturday to sunrise on Monday morning : and in this
particular it is corroborated by several other authorities,*
Eaiter. — St. Patrick began the celebration of Easter,
A.D. 433, by lighting a great fire on the hill of Slane, on
the eve of the festival, which was seen for miles all round :
from which we may infer that this custom of lighting a iire in
the open was followed generally during and after his time.
From very early times there was a difference between the
East and the West as to' the mode of calculating the
time for Easter, so that it often happened that it was
celebrated at different times at Rome and at Alexandria,
The Roman method of computation, which was subse-
quently found not to be quite correct, was brought to
Ireland by St. Patrick in 432, and was carried to Britain
and Scotland by the Irish missionaries. Many years after
St Patrick's arrival in Ireland, Pope Hilary caused a
more correct method to be adopted at Rome, which it
was intended should be followed by all other Christian
•O'Cnrry, Man. & Cu%U, I. jl: O'Loonej', in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad.,
MSS. SeiieE, p. 19s : I.B, 204, », u-
2 0 2
388 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
countries. But from the difficulty of communicating with
Rome in those disturbed times — or as Bede (Eccl. Hist,
III. iv) expresses it, " on account of their being so remote
from the rest of the world " — ^the Christians of Great
Britain and Ireland knew nothing of this reformation,
and continued to follow their own old custom as handed
down to them from the great and venerated apostles St
Patrick, St Columba, and others, which they steadfastly
refused to change notwithstanding the exhortations of St.
Augustine and his successors in Canterbury. Irish monks,
including the great missionary St Columbanus — then in
France — maintained their side with learning and spirit :
but the adherents of the old custom grew fewer year
by year. The monks of lona were the last to yield,
which they did about the year 716, and thus terminated
a disjpute that had lasted more than a century and a
half, and which, though the question was comparatively
unimportant, had given rise to more earnest controversy
than any other during the early ages of the church in
these countries.*
Bishops. — As the episcopate was not limited, and more
especially as the dioceses were not territorially defined,
bishops were much more numerous in those early times
than subsequently. This was the case from the very first
introduction of Christianity into Ireland. Nennius tells
us that St Patrick consecrated 365 bishops : and the First
Order of Saints, including St. Patrick himself, was said to
have consisted of 350 bishops. Both statements are
probably exaggerated : but even so, they suflSciently in-
dicate the general tendency. But it appears that this
practice of consecrating a bishop without a diocese also
existed in early ages on the continent, though it prevailed
* For fuller accounts of this celebrated dispute, see Dr. Healy, pp. 527-
531 : Reeves, Adamn., Index, "Easter" : and Joyce, Short Hist, of Ireland,
169. The time of celebrating Easter is learnedly discussed by the Rev. Dr. B.
Mac Carthy in his '* Introduction " in vol. iv. of the Ajinals of Ulster.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 389
to a greater extent and for a longer time in Ireland than
elsewhere.*
Comorba or Coarb. — The Irish word comoria, commonly
Englished coari, means an heir or successor in general :
from the Irish prefix com (equal to the English co or con\
and oriaf land or any inheritance. In connexion with a
church, this word comorba or coarb was usually applied to
the inheritor of a bishopric, abbacy, or other ecclesiastical
dignity. Thus the archbishop of Armagh is the coarb of
St. Patrick ; the archbishop of Dublin the coarb of St.
Laurence OToole; the abbot of Glendalough was the
coarb of St Kevin ; and the pope is often called the coarb
of SL Peter.
Erenach. — The lands belonging to a chiu'ch or monastery
were usually managed by an officer called an erenach or
herenach (Irish atrchinnech\ who, after deducting his own
stipend, gave up the residue for the purpoises intended —
the support of the church or the relief of the poor. It was
generally understood to be the duty of the erenach to keep
the church clean and in proper repair, and the grounds in
order. There were erenachs in connexion with nearly all
the monasteries and churches ; mostiy laymen. The lay
erenachs were usually tonsured.t This word airchtnnech^
liko^coniorba^ was originally a lay term, applied to a chief
or leader: in Zeuss, 868, 84, it glosses princepsx and in
Cormac's Glossary it is correctly derived from air^ * over,*
or * noble,* and centty a * head.*}
Tonsiure. — The tonsure introduced by St Patrick, and
used by the First Order of Saints, was ab aure ad aurem^ i.e.
the hair was cut off the whole front of the head from ear
to ear, while the back part was left untouched, and flowed
down long : which fashion was also adopted by St
* Lanigan, rv. 35 : Reeves, Eccl. Antiqq., p. 123, note A.
tBr. Lavrs, y. 123, \%.
J See Ussher's Essay on ''Corbes, Herenaches, and Tennon Lands*':
Works by Elrington, XI. 421. It will be seen from the above that those are
wrong who say that airch€nnach is a coimption of archidiaconus.
390 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Columkille and by the Second Order of Saints in general.
This we learn from several authorities, among them the
Catalogue mentioned at page 317, J«/^^, which says that
the First and Second Orders of Irish Saints had "one
tonsure from ear to ear": but that those of the Third
Order had a variety of tonsures. Many attempts were
made to induce the early Irish ecclesiastics to change
their custom for the tonsura corona^ or 'coronal tonsure,'
also called " Saint Peter's," in which the hair was cut only
from a circular space on the crown of the head It was
alleged as a reproach against the Irish that they had the
tonsure of Simon Magus ; but they held on to the custom
taught them by their venerated apostles, as they retained
their own time of celebrating Easter : and although
Adamnan wished to introduce the coronal tonsure to lona,
the monks refused to make a change.* At length, in 718,
according to Tigemach's Annals — two years after the
adoption of the Roman time of celebrating Easter — and
fifteen after the death of Adamnan — the Roman tonsure
was adopted in lona : by which time, it is to be pre-
sumed, the tonsure from ear to ear had been abandoned
everywhere in Ireland. (For druidic tonsure, see p. 233,
supra^
Cros-FigiU. — Sometimes people prayed while holding
the arms extended in front, so as to form a cross. This
was so well recognised a practice that it had a special
name, Cros-figill. The word figilly which is the Latin
vigily is commonly used in Irish in the sense of prayer:
so that cros'figill means 'cross-prayer.' O'Clery, in his
Glossary, defines it as "a prayer or vigil which one makes
on his knees with his hands stretched out in [the form of]
a cross." In the Irish Life of St Fechin, it is stated that
Moses routed the Amalekites by praying with his hands
extended in cros-figilL This practice is mentioned every-
where in the old ecclesiastical literature ; and how early it
* See Bede, Eccl. Hist., v. xxi.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 39I
began we may see from an Irish writer's remark on one of
the Psalms in the Milan Glosses— eighth century — that in
prayer, the eyes speak to God by being raised up to Him,
the knees and l^s by kneeling, the body by prostration,
and the hands by cros-figill*
Aentaid or Union. — The ancient Irish saints were in the
habit of making a Union (Irish aentatd^ pron. aintee) with
each other as a mark of close friendship and affection.
This union is very often mentioned in the Lives of the
Saints, but what it consisted in is not clear. No doubt it
was a spiritual union of some kind : probably a solemn
engagement that each should pray or celebrate Mass for
the other or others at certain appointed times. When a
saint had great reputation for holiness, many others of less
eminence sought to bring about a " union " with him.
Kings retiring to Honasterief. — No circumstance is
more indicative of the wide-spread, deep religious feeling
among the ancient Irish people than the number of kings
who late in life abdicated, and either retired to monasteries,
or went on pilgrimage, generally to Rome (see p. 341,
supra). The practice b^an early, and became very
general : of which there are so many records all over
our literature, especially the annals, that it is unnecessary
to refer to individual instances.
9. Popular Religious Ideas.
HelL — The popular notions on various religious points
as reflected in the tales and in the legends of the saints,
are many of them very curious ; but they are not of
course given here as the settled doctrines emanating from
any ecclesiastical authority.
Hell was deep under the earth, and is represented in
some passages as flery hot : in others as intolerably cold :
and often both, i.e. hot in one part and cold in another :
^ Stokes and Strachan, Thesauras, i., p. 468.
392 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
reminding one of Milton's description of the damned as
passing " o'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp." In the
" Demon Chariot of Cuculainn " (p. 375), a tale in the book
of the Dun Cow, the gate of hell is opened to let out Cucu-
lainn, and there was instantly a furious wind-rush outwards ;
when, says La^aire, ** I saw the cold, piercing wind like a
" double-edged spear : little that it swept not our hair from
" our heads, and that it went not through us to the earth."
But another part was of a different temperature ; for
Cuculainn, relating (p. 391) how he was brought to hell,
says : — ^" My body was scarred, and demons carried off my
soul into the red-hot charcoal" In an Irish poem of equal
antiquity, quoted by Stokes,* a person prays to be saved
from " frozen hell " {iffemn sectha) : and another ancient
poem quoted by one of the scholiasts on the Amra, has
the expression "the chilly abode of hell." t A much later
document, a fourteenth-century poem in the Book of
Fenagh (p. 103), says of certain bad persons, "Their dark
" fast abode shall be the cold flagged floor of lowermost
"hell ": but a few lines farther on in the same poem, it is
said that other persons, " for the evils they have done,
shall be put into hell fire." In a still later poem Oisin asks
St Patrick how is it possible that Finn, the ever generous,
should now have cold hell for his house. J A poem in the
Irish Life of St. Brendan states that anyone buried in
Tuam-da-ghualann shall not "suffer the torments of cold
hell " (Jthfem uar).%
There are many detailed descriptions of hell in old
Irish writings, of which the following items from a sermon
on the Day of Judgment in the Book of the Dun Cow|| may
be taken as a sample : — ^**A merciless seat of dark fires,
"ever burning, of glowing coals, of smothering fogs, in
*• presence of the king of evil in the valley of tortures ;
♦ Rev. Celt., viii. 355. t Jhid., xx. 179. } Hyde, Lit. Hist., 504.
{ Stokes, Lives of SS., 1. 3504 : Brendaniana, 2X, n.
I Translated by Stokes, Rev. Celt., iv. 247.
CHAP. Xj CHRISTIANITY 393.
" life all woeful, sad, foul, unclean ; numerous gluttonous
" long-clawed dogs [worrying the damned] ; cats tearing
" and furrowing the flesh ; fiends torturing ; fierce rending
" lions ; toads and- poisonous adders ; hideous iron birds
" with long talons; stinking stormy loughs, cold and hellish;
" red-hot flags under the feet ; strangling of throats and
"torturing of heads ; existence in hunger and thirst, in
"great heat, in great cold, in company of the fiends and
" of the household of hell ; wailing, groaning, screaming.**
Another description, at least equally dismal, has been left
us by St. Brendan, who got a peep into hell, through
the gate, by the civility of the best possible guide — the
devil.*
The punishment in hell had oflen some relation to the
crime, and sometimes the very instruments followed the
wretch to hell, and were now turned to his own punish-
ment The sons of 0*Corra saw a man digging in a
garden on one of the islands of hell, while both spade and
handle were red-hot: which punishment he was doomed
to because while on earth he worked every Sunday digging
in his garden.f
In some cases the damned were freed from their
tortures every Sunday, or their punishment was miti-
gated : a notion found also in ancient Welsh and other
ecclesiastical legends. The sons of O'Corra hear a number
of birds singing on a Sunday ; and are informed that
"these are the souls that are permitted to come out of
hell every Sunday."} The same idea is found in the
Vision of Adamnan. Even in the case of Judas, he was
permitted to come to a place on Sundays where his
suflferings were lightened. On one of these days St.
Brendan saw him sitting on a rugged and slimy rock,
* Stokes, Lives of SS., 354. The reader may compare these with Milton's
descriptions of heU in the opening and towards the end of the second book of
Paradise Lost.
t Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 418. % Ibid.^ 416.
394 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
over which the waves dashed alternately from east and
west and drenched him : the waves from the east were of
fire, and those from the west were icy cold.* We may
imagine his condition on week-days.
The devil could take a variety of shapes as it suited
his purpose : but when in his own natural form and
character, the legends represent him much as he appears
in the popular notions of the present day. He once paid
a visit in disguise to St Moiling, who soon discovered who
he was, and recommended him to go on his knees and
pray : — "Ah," said he, " I am not able to kneel down, for
my knees are at the back of my legs."f A legend in the
Irish Life of St Brigit relates that the devil once ventured
into the refectory where the saint and her nuns were at
dinner. But Brigit miraculously rendered him visible ;
when he appeared beside the table " with his head down
" and his feet up, while smoke and flames issued from his
"gullet and nostrils" — to the great terror of those nuns
who saw him (Stokes, Lives, 190).
Pour Visits after Death. — We are told in a legend in the
Second Vision of Adamnan, that the soul, on parting from
the body, visits four places before setting out for its final
destination — ^the place of its birth, the place of its death,
the place of its baptism, and the place of its burial.^
According to this, the pathetic wish of the poor old Irish-
woman who recently lay dying in Liverpool was granted.
Just with her last breath she begged to know from the
Irish priest who shrived her whether God would permit
her to pass through Ireland on her way to heaven.
Spirits in the Shape of Birds. — Human souls, as well
as angels and demons, often took the shape of birds :
* Brendaniana, 163, 243.
t Feilire, 105. Notwithstanding this ludicrous expression, there is some-
thing pathetic in Satan's replies during this interview, betra3dng in the heart
of the good old monk who wrote the account a lurking feeling of com-
miseration like that exhibited in the last verse of Bums's " Address to the
Deil." X Stokes, Rev. Celt., xii. 425.
CHAP. X] CHRISTIANITY 395
those of the good were white and beautiful ; while wicked
souls and demons often appeared as ravens or other sooty-
looking birds of ill omen.*
Ceutnriea appear at honri. — A very common ecclesi-
astical legend is this : — A man, generally a monk, walks
out into the woods. Suddenly he hears a bird singing
with heavenly sweetness over his head in a tree. He sits
or lies down and listens entranced, forgetful of everything
for the time. At last when he has remained for perhaps
Hdnrool Abbey nor Dto^IiHa. u LL Appeucd fn 1791. Pouodvd tai 114* br
T>DBO|CliO'CvTon.1(tivafOrlcA Tlie fim Cblvnlas BoiuMery f«mded bi Inliwl.
three hours, as he deems it, the bird ceases and flies away,
and he returns to the monastery. But there he is amazed
to find strangers everywhere, and all things changed.
Finally, it is discovered that he has been away listening to
the music for 300 years. Then seeing the real state of
things, he receives the last sacraments, dies, and goes to
heaven. Similar legends, as we have seen (p. 297, supra),
existed among the Irish pagans, and indeed are found in
the ancient popular literature of other countries.t
* For instances, see Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, 144, 405, 416, 419.
t For an instance, see FetUre, 107, and O'Cnny, Man. Be Cnit., II. 386.
CHAPTER XI
LEARNING AND EDUCATION
TION I, Learning tn Pagan Times.
I our old native literature, both
cred and profane, state that the pagan Irish
id books before the introduction of Christi-
lity. In the memoir of St Patrick, written
^/ Muirchu Maccu Machteni in the seventh
century, now contained in the Book of Armagh, he
relates how, during the contest of the saint with the
druids at Tara, King Laegaire proposed that one of
Patrick's books and one belonging to the druids should
be thrown into water as a sort of ordeal (p. 307, supra).
'Here it will be observed that Muirchu's statement that the
druids had books embodies a tradition that was ancient in
the seventh century, when he wrote : and it derives addi-
tional force from the fact that it is brought in incidentally
(see p. 10, supra). The same story is told in the Tripartite
Life.
The lay traditions, many of them as old as Muirchu's
Life, which are found everywhere in the Historical and
Romantic Tales, and in other documents, state that the
pagan Irish used Ogham writing : and we find Ogham
inscriptions constantly referred to as engraved on the
tombs of pagan kings and chiefs, each usually containing
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 397
merely the name of the person buried, but often also his
father's name, and occasionally one or two other circum-
stances very briefly stated * A typical example occurs in
the Book of the Dun Cow, where CcLilte [Keelta] gives
an account of the death and burial of Ochy Airgthech
{a temporary usurping king of Ireland — third century),
ending with this expression : — ^** And by his tomb there
" is a pillar-stone : and on the end of the pillar that is in
" the earth there is an ogont : this is what it says : —
*' * Eochaid Airgthech here : Celilte slew me in an encounter
"** against Finn.' "t Whenever the death and burial of a
person is recorded in the old tales, whether relating to
pagan or Christian times, there is almost always a state-
ment like the above : — that a stone was placed over the
grave, on which the name was inscribed in Ogham.
. >| III |,n niH / // /// //// /////
(i) I II III III! Illll (iii) / // /// //// /////
B, I«, ▼, 8| If
M, O, Kg, F,
(ii) I 11 III nil Illll (i^x i n in !iii MI!!
^^ H, 1>, T, C, QU ^^' A» O, U, B, I
I, *#,
Fig. Z14.
Ogham Alphabet. (From Joura. Roy. Soc Antiqq. IreL for 1909, p. 3.) There were
a few other characters which were occaakmally used.
Ogham was a species of writing, the letters of which
were formed by combinations of short lines and points, on
and at both sides of a middle or stem line called a flesc.
Scraps of Ogham are sometimes found in manuscripts.
Sir James Ware (Antiqq. 19) says he had an old vellum
book filled with Ogham characters. But so far as we can
judge from the specimens remaining to us, its use was
mostly confined to stone inscriptions, the groups of lines and
points generally running along two adjacent sides of the
stone, with the angle for a flesc. In the ancient tales we
find it often stated that Oghams were also cut on rods of
* O'Donovan, Gram., Ptef. zliv, xlv.
t Voyage of Bran, i. 48, 52 : O'Donovan, Gram., xliv : LU, 134, a «.
398 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
yew or oak.* According to the Brehon Law Books, pillar-
stones with Ogham inscriptions were sometimes set up to
mark the boundaries between two adjacent properties ;
and these were often covered up with mounds of earth.
But nearly all the Oghams hitherto found are sepulchral
inscriptions; which answer exactly to the descriptions
given in the old records ; as they contain little more
than the names of the persons interred and of their
fathers. The Ogham alphabet is called the Beth-lnis-nion,
from the names of the three first letters, representing
B, L, N. The letters are nearly all named from trees :
hence they are called collectively feada [faa], or ' woods ' :
and what is very remarkable, the order of the letters is
totally different from that of the Latin or any other
alphabett
Between two and three hundred Ogham monuments
have been found in various parts of the four provinces of
Ireland ; but they are far more numerous in the south and
south-west than elsewhere. Most of them stand in their
original situations ; but many have been brought to Dublin^
where they may be seen in the National Museum ; and a
few have been sent to the British Museum. About fifty
have been found in Wales, England, Scotland, and the
Isle of Man; but more in South Wales and Scotland
than elsewherej : all probably inscribed by or under the
influence of Irishmen.
In the Book of Ballymote is an ancient treatise on
Ogham, which there is reason to believe was originally
written in the beginning of the ninth century, and copied
into this book from some older volume; and there is a
second and less important treatise in another Irish manu-
script. These tracts give a key to the reading of Ogham.
*LL, 58, a, 41 ; 59, 34; Miss Hull, Cach. Saga, 128: Sull., Introd., 343,.
note 59fi.
t Ogygia, III. XXX.
% See Rhys, Paper in Journ. Roy. Soc. Antiqq. Irel.» 1902, p. i.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 399
Independently of them, the key has been got from bilingual
stone-inscriptions — one at least in Ireland and several in
Wales — in which the same words and names are given in
both Ogham and Latin letters — something like the Rosetta
stone.* The key thus found corresponds with that given
in the manuscripts. Where inscriptions have not been
injured or defaced, they can in general be deciphered, sa
that many have been made out beyond all question. But
as the greatest number of Ogham stones are more or less
worn or chipped or broken, there is in the interpretation
of the majority of the inscriptions some conjecture and
uncertainty.
^^^^' mill
Fio. 1x5.
The bUingual stone in KiUeen Coratac. See p. 314. supra, and the references giren in note f ,
p. 315. (From Loca Patridana, p. 4i>) Mr. MacaKtter doubts that this is a bilingual, and interprets
both inscriptions differently Arom Father Shearman. Studies in Irish Epigraphy, Part i., p. 78.
As to the antiquity of Ogham writing, some contend
that all Oghams are purely pagan, dating from a time
before the introduction of Christianity ; and they will
not admit the correctness of any reading that brings
an inscription within Christian times. The late Bishop
Graves of Limerick, a most eminent scholar, endeavoured
to prove, on the other hand, that they are all purely
Christian. Others again, while admitting the use of
Ogham in Christian times, maintain that this writing is
• Sull., Introd., 67 : Kilk. Arch. Jounu, 1860-2, pp. 229, 303 ; 1862-3,
p« 206.
400 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [FART II
a. survival from the far distant ages of p^anism, and that
it was developed before Christianity was heard of in Ire-
land. There are the best reasons for believing that this
opinion is correct ; and to support it we have the uni-
versal agreement of the old MS. traditions, with still
stronger linguistic evidence. Ogham inscriptions cont^n
numerous forms of the Irish language which are identical
with those in Gaulish inscriptions older than the fifth
century — forms which had fallen out
of use in the Irish branch of Celtic
ages before the earliest of the Irish
Glosses were written, though many
of these date from the seventh or
eighth century. These considerations
— linguistic and historical — have led
Dr. Whitley Stokes to the conclusion
" that some of the Celts of these
" islands wrote their language before
" the fifth century, the time at which
" Christianity is supposed to have
" been introduced into Ireland. With
" this conclusion Cormac Mac Cul-
" lenan's statements agree,"* {For
Cormac see below.) On this point
also the Rev. Dr. B. MacCarthy
p,,,. 1,6. truly remarks: — "In substance the
OfiuMi Bosc (From Kiik. " samc as the present language, the
"""^^ta^ihriT "' "Ogham script belongs to a stage
" centuries older than that to which,
" according to the progress of linguistic development,
" the most archaic of our other literary remains can be
" assigned." This fact alone, according to Dr. Mac Carthy,
is sufficient to prove "that the Irish possessed letters
before the introduction of Christianity,"t
• StokM, Three Itub CHouuie*, Iv, IviJ: lee also Hyde, Lit,HU(., llo,
and nole i. t Codei Pa].>Vat., 144.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 4OI
The necessary conclusion from all this is that Ogham
stones, containing such archaic forms of the language, were
engraved and erected by the pagan Irish long before the
advent of St. Patrick. Zeuss, who saw Ogham only in
books, even with his imperfect sources of information,
came to the same conclusion. He found fragments of
Ogham among the glosses of the St Gall copy of Priscian
(glosses written in the seventh or eighth century), and was
profoundly impressed with their great antiquity; so that
elsewhere he states his opinion that the Celtic people
wrote in Ogham before they received the Latin letters from
the Romans. On this, Stokes (having stated his con-
clusion that some of the Celts of these islands wrote their
language before the fifth century) says : — " It is with
"sincere pleasure that I put these notes together [in
"* Three Irish Glossaries,' pp. Iv and Ivi], as justifying
"the idea thrown out by Zeuss in his preface."
Let us now see what the written records have to say.
In Cormac's Glossary (p. 75) — compiled in the ninth or
tenth century, but embodying records and traditions
centuries older — it is stated that the heathen Irish kept in
their cemeteries a rod called yi^, for measuring bodies and
graves, on which Ogham was inscribed: and that they were
accustomed to mark with Ogham everything that was
odious to them [like the//]. Elsewhere (p. 130) he states
that a person named Lomna cut an Ogham on a four
square rod for Finn to give him certain information.
Besides this we find everywhere in the Tales — many of
them so old as to be quite pagan in character— statements
that Ogham was used from the most remote times as a
mode of communication between individuals, and, as
already remarked, that the names of persons interred
were often engraved on their tombstones.
There are many other considerations all tending to
show that there was some form of written literature before
the advent of Christianity. Our oldest records testify ta
2D
40Z RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the existence of a long succession of poets and historians
from the earliest times : and several circumstances in-
dicate a state of literary activity at the time of the arrival
of St Patrick. Both the native bardic literature and the
ancient Lives of Patrick himself and of his contemporary
saints concur in stating that he found in the country
literary and professional men — all pagans — druids, poets,
and antiquarians, and an elaborate code of laws. And it
IS certain that immediately after the general establishment,
of Christianity, in the fifth century, tlie Irish committed
to writing in their native language " not only the laws,
^* bardic historical poems, &c., of their own time, but those
** which had been preserved from times preceding, whether
** traditionally or otherwise.'** The use of writing could
hardly have come into general use so suddenly without
4 pretty widespread previous knowledge of letters. To
take another view of the case. The earliest of the glosses
published by Zeuss, which he states were written in the
eighth century, but, according to other scholars, in
the seventh, show that at that period Irish as a
written lainguage was fully developed and cultivated,
with a polished phraseology and an elaborate syste-
matic grammar, and having fixed and well-established
written forms for its words, and for all their rich inflec-
tions. It is hardly conceivable how such a regular and
complete system of written language could have been
developed in the period that elapsed from the general
spread of Christian learning— -a period which will appear
much too short when we recollect that early Irish secular
literature had its roots, not in Christianity, but in native
learning, which was the main, and almost the sole, in-
fluence in developing it
Again : Irish poetry was developed altogether in the
lay :schools. ' It had, as will be mentioned (chap, xxx.,
sect 4, infra), a very complicated prosody, with numerous
• Petrie's Tara, 38.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 403
technical terms — fifty or more — all native Irish, some of
which may be seen in the article on Prosody in O'Donovan's
grammar. It exhibits no trace of Latin or ecclesiastical
influence, though the Christian Irish writers continued to
use it when writing in the native language. All this shows
that Irish prosodial rules and technical terms, and of course
Irish poetry in general, were brought to their state of
completeness before the introduction of Christianity. If
the prosodial system had grown up under the influence
or during the prevalence of Christian learning, it would
certainly have a mixture of Latin terms, like Christianity,
So also with the lay scholastic nomenclature (p. 430, infra).
The last witness to be brought forward is a foreigner,
whose testimony is direct and decisive, and quite suflicient
of itself to set. at rest the question of the existence of
writing among the pagan Irish, though it has hitherto
been scarcely noticed by writers on ancient Ireland. A
Christian philosopher of the fourth century of our era*
named "Aethicus or Ethicus of Istria," well known in
ancient literature, wrote a Cosmography of the World
(" Cosmographia Aethici Istrii **), of which many editions
have been published. One part of it has been inserted
by Orosius (about A.D. 420) in his " History," of which
it forms the second chapter of the first book. Ethicus
travelled through the three Continents and described what
he saw, in an Itinerary, of which a sort of descriptive
summary was made soon after his time by a priest named
Hieronymus or Jerome. This abridgment, which was
published at Leipsic by Wuttke in 1854, is a well-known
work : and it is the edition referred to and quoted here.
From Spain Ethicus came direct to Ireland, whence
he crossed over to Britain, and thence to the Orkney
Islands. He was something of a pedant, with a high
opinion of his own learning, eccentric, fond of philosophic
* Some place liim as early as the second or third century ; but he could
not have been later than the fonrth.
2 D 2
404 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
puzzles, hard to please, and very censorious : and he
deliberately adopted an obscure and often a corrupt Latin
phraseology, merely to puzzle his readers. While in
Spain he propounded some knotty questions to the
philosophers there, who, he says, were not able to
answer them. In a few very obscure sentences he seems
to commend the Britons for their natural abilities and for
their skill in mining and metallic arts : but, almost in the
same breath, he says they were so unlearned [in book
knowledge?] as to be quite a horror {tmperiiissimam
gentem^ horrorem nimium). All the rest of what he has
to say about Britain is devoted to minerals, wbich were-
found there in great abundance.
The words about Ireland, in the passage bearing on
our present subject, are however perfectly plain (p. 14^
Leipsic Ed.): — Leaving Spain
*' Hibemiam properavit et in ea aliquandiu commoratus est
eonim volumina volvens. Appellavitque eos ideomochos, vel ideo-
histas, id est, imperitos laboratores vel incultos doctores."
** He hastened to Ireland and remained there some time examin-
ing their volumes: and he called them [t,e. the Irish sages]
ideomochos or ideo^histas, that is to say, ^unskilled toilers or
uncultivated teachers."*
The rest of the short passage about Ireland is corrupt
and obscure, consisting of a general grumble about the
labour he underwent in coming hither and the small
reward he had for his trouble ; and it does not concern,
us here. It will be observed that he hits off what he
obviously considered the main characteristics of the two
countries — Ireland for books, Britain for minerals. But
* The writer of the article on Etbicus in the Noavelle Biographie G<6n6'ale
renders the first sentence : — '* II part pour I'Hibemie, oil il* reste quelque
temps A examiner ies livres des sages irlandab." This writer thinks —
erroneously, as I believe — that the Jerome above mentioned, who made an.,
abstract of the Cosmography, was the great Christian father St. Jerome.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 405
the fact that he does not mention books in connexion
with the people of Britain does not imply that there- were
none. The Britons had books, but of the ordinary type
common among Christians at that time all over the
Roman empire, consisting chiefly of ecclesiastical literature
in the Latin language : so that there was nothing in them
specially requiring notice from him, or more probably
those people he happened to come across had no books.
But in Ireland the case was different Here he found
native Irish books, of which both the language and the
literature were quite new and strange to him. If there
were any Christians in the country at the time — ^and it is
pretty certain there were — their books were few and of
the same general character as those in Britain — ^totally
different from the native books. Ethicus speaks of the '
volumina of the Irish as a noteworthy feature of the
country : and as to his depreciatory tone, we need not be
surprised at that; for besides his natural fault-finding
bent of mind, we know that all learning outside that of
Rome and Greece was in those times looked upon as
barbarous and almost beneath notice. In a similar strain
he speaks slightingly of the Spanish sages. Moreover he
could not understand the Irish language, and never got to
the bottom of the native learning, such as it was. But his
opening statement proves that when he visited — which
was at least a century before the time of St Patrick— he
found books among the Irish ; and it implies that he found
them in abundance, for he remained some time examining
them. The fact that there were numerous books in Ire-
land in the fourth century implies a knowledge of writing
for a long time previously. Mr. James Fergfusson, a cool-
headed English investigator, thinks that the Irish had
books in the time of Cormac Mac Art (A.D. 254-277)* :
and he came to this conclusion on the strength of Irish
records alone, knowing nothing of Ethicus.
• Fergosson, Rude Stone Monuments, p. 196.
406 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
From all that precedes, we may take it as certain : —
1. That native learning was actively cultivated and
systematically developed in Ireland before the introduc-
tion of Christianity : and
2. That the pagan Irish had a knowledge of letters, and
that they wrote their lore, or part of it, in books, and cut
Ogham inscriptions on stone and wood. But when or
how they obtained their knowledge of writing, we have as
yet no means of determining with certainty,
EXOcbeT^hlLTOpOfq
* K
Fig. X17.
Two Irish dphabets i the upper one of the serenth century : the lower of the
elerenth. The three last characters of the first alphabet are Y, Z, and &c. (Two
toma of / in each.) (From Miss Stokes's Christian Inscriptiont, IL 135.)
It is true indeed that no :books or writings of any kind,
either pagan or Christian, of the time before St Patrick,
remain — with the exception of Ogham infcriptions. But
this proves nothing ; for in this respect Ireland is circum-
stanced like most other countries. A similar state of
things exists, for instance, in Britain, where, notwith-
standing that writing was generally known and practised
from the Roman occupation down, no manuscript has
been preserved of an earlier date than the eighth
century.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 407
On this question the authority of Edmund Spenser
the poet cannot be considered of much value: but it is
worth while to quote his words as representing the
convictions of thoughtful men of his time— the sixteenth
century — regarding the ancient civilisation of Ireland. *
"It is certaine that Ireland hath had the use of letters very
anciently, and long before England* Whence they had those letters
it is hard to say : for whether they at their first comining into the land>
or afterwards by trading with other nations which had letters, learned
them of then), or devised them among themselves, is very doubtful;
but that they had letters auilciently, is nothing doubtful], for the
Saxons of England are said to have their letters, and learning, and
learned them from the Irish, and that also appeareth by. the likenesse
of the character, for the Saxon character is the same with the Irish. '^
He goes on to say : —
"It seemeth that they [the Jrlsh] had them [the letters] from
the nation that came out of Spaine." (View, 65.)
Spenser here mixes up the original letters of the
pagan Irish with those brought over by St Patrick and
his fellow-missionaries: but the passage is none the less
instructive for that
There is nothing, either in the memoirs of St Patrick,
or in Irish secular literature, or in Jerome's abridgment
of Ethicus, giving the least hint as to the characters or
the sort of writing used in the books of the pagan Irish.
But whatever characters they may have used in times of
paganism, they adopted the Roman letters in writing their
own language after the time of St Patrick : which are still
retained in modern Irish. These same letters, moreover,
were brought to Great Britain by the early Irish missionaries
already spoken of (p. 336, supra\ from whom the Anglo-
Saxons learned them (as Spenser says above): so that
England received her first knowledge of letters — as she
received most of her Christianity — from Ireland. Formerly
it wa3 the fashion among the learned all over Europe to call
those letters Anglo-Saxon : but now people know better.
408 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
2. Monastic Schools,
Two Clasfes of Sohooli. — The schools and colleges of
ancient Ireland were of two classes, Ecclesiastical and Lay.
The ecclesiastical or monastic schools were introduced
with Christianity, and were conducted by monks. The
lay or secular schools existed from a period of unknown
antiquity, and in pag^n times they were taught by druids.
The Irish monastic schools were celebrated all over
Europe in the middle ages : the lay schools, though
playing an important part in spreading learning at home,
were not so well known. These two classes of schools
are well distinguished all through the literary history of
Ireland, and, without interfering with each other, worked
contemporaneously from the fifth- to the nineteenth
century,*
General Features of Konastio Schools. — Even from the
time of St Patrick there were schools in connexion "with
several of the monasteries he founded, chiefly for the
education of young men intended for the church. But
when the great monastic movement • already spoken of
(p. 322) began, in the sixth century, then there was a rapid
* A full and most interesting account of the ancient Irish monastic schools
and colleges has been given by the Most Rev. Dr. Healy, Bishop of Clonfert,
in his book '* Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars." A mere list of the
schools treated of in this book, and in Lanigan*s Ecclesiastical History, will
give some idea of the spread of education in Ireland in those early times,
especially when it is remembered that this list includes none of the lay
schools : — ^Armagh ; Kildare ; Nendrum (in Strangford Lough, County
Down) ; Louth ; £mly (in Tipperary) ; Begerin (an island in Wexford
Harbour) ; Cluain<foLs (near Tuam in -Gal way) ; Elphin (in Roscommon) ;
Aran Island (in Cralway Bay) ; Clonard (on the Boyne in Meath) ; Clonfert (in
Galway); Movilla (near the present Newtownards); Clonmacnoise ; Glasnevin
(near Dublin) ; Derry ; Durrow (in King's County) ; Kelts (in Meath) ;
Bangor (in County Down) ; Clonenagh (in Queen's County) ; Glendalough :
Lismore ; Cork ; Ross Ailither (now Rosscarbery in Cork) : Innisfallen (in
the Lower Lake of Killamey) ; Mungret (near Limerick city) ; Inishcaltra
{now Holy Island in Lough Derg on the Shannon) ; Birr ; Roscrea ; Mayo ;
Downpatrick ; Tuam ; Slane (on the Boyne above Drogheda). Most of these
were carried on simultaneously from the siith century downwards.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 409
growth of schools and collies all over the country : for
almost every large monastery had a school attached : and
it often happened that a school rose up round some scholar
of exceptional eminence where it was not intended. Many
of these contained great numbers of students. Under
each of the three fathers of the Irish Church, St Finnen in
Clonard, St Comgall in Bangor, and St Brendan in Clon-
fert, there were 3000, including no doubt monks as well as
students; St Molaise had 1500; St Gobban 1000; and
so on down to the school of Glasnevin, where St Mobi had
5a This last — fifty — was a very usual number in the
smaller monastic schools. How such large numbers as
those in Clonard, Bangor, and Clonfert obtained living
and sleeping accommodation will be found described
farther on. That there is not necessarily any or much
exaggeration in these statements as to numbers appears
from the record of the Venerable Bede, that the monastery
of Bangor in Wales was divided into seven parts, each
with a leader, and that none of these divisions contained
less than 300 men, all supporting themselves by the labour
of their hands : which would bring up the whole popula-
tion of this Bangor school near or altogether to 3000.*
In these schools secular as well as ecclesiastical learn-
ing was carefully attended to; for besides divinity, the
study of the Scriptures, and classics, for those intended
for the church, the students- were instructed — as we shall
see — in general literature and science. Accordingly^ a
large proportion of the students in these monastic schools
were young men — amongst them sons of kings and chiefs
— ^intended, not for the church, but for ordinary civil or
military life, who attended to get a good general educa-
tion. To quote one example where such students are
mentioned incidentally : —We read in the Four Masters,
under A.D. 645 {recte^ ^48), that Ragallach, king of Con-
naught, was assassinated. At this time his second son
• Bede, Eccl. Hist., 11. ii. See Lynch, Cambr. Ev. 277.
4IQ RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Cathal was a student in the College of Clonard; and
when he heard of his father's murder, he and a party of
twenty-seven of {his fellow-students, all young laymen from
Connaughty sallied forth from the collie, and coming to
the house of the assassin, beheaded him.* In case of
kings of high rank, however, the young princes were
generally educated at home, the teachers residing at court
and taking rank with the highest In those great semi-
naries, every branch of knowledge then known was taught :
they were in fact the prototypes of our modem universities.
"We must" — writes Dn Richey — "neither overestimate
" nor depreciate these establishments. They undoubtedly
" were in advance of any schools existing on the Con-
" tinent ; and the lists of books possessed by some of
"the teachers prove that their institutions embraced a
" considerable course of classical leaming."t
Learning was not confined to men. In the sixth
century King BrandiifFs mother had a writing style
{delg graiph\ so that she must have practised writing
on waxed tablets ; and this is spoken of in the old record
as a matter of common occurrence among ladies.} The
daughter of the king of Cualann was sent to Clonard to
St Finnen to learn to read her Psalms [in Latin].§ One
of the First Orddr of Irish saints named Mugint founded a
school in Scotland, to which girls as well as boys were
admitted to study ;|| stnd St Ita enjoins her foster-son
St Brendan, when a young man, not to study with women
lest some evil-disposed person might revile him.ir
Extent of Learning in Konaitic Sohooli. — We have ample
evidence that both the Latin and Greek languages and
literatures were studied with success in Ireland from the
♦ 0*Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 83.
t Richey, Short Hist, of the Irish People, 1887, p. 83.
X Zeitschr. fOr Celt. Phil., 11. 137, n.
{ Stokes, Lives of SS., line 4128.
n De Jubainville, La Civil, des Celtes, 109, 1 10.
T Stokes, Lives of SS., p. 251.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 4II
sixth to the tenth .century ; and that the learned mfen from
the Irish schools were quite on a par with the most
eminent of the Continental scholars of the time, and not a
few of them at the head of all. Columbanus, Aileran the
Wise, Cummian, Sedulius, Fergil the Geometer, and many-
others, all Irishmen and
educated in Irish schools,
were celebrated through-
out Europe for their
learning. The most dis-
tinguished scholar of his
day in Europe was John
Scotus Erigena (' John the
Irish Scot'), celebrated for
his knowledge of Greek,
and for bis theological
speculations. He taught
Philosophy in Paris, and
died about the year S/o.*
When the dispute about
the time of celebrating '
Easter (p. 388, supra) was ^'°- "*"
at its height, St Cummian
wrote a Latin letter to
Segienus, abbot of lona,
in defence of the Irish
custom, which is published
in Ussher's works, and
occupies twelve pages of
vol. IV. (Elrington's Ed.).
"Cummian's letter regarding the Easter festival," writes
Mr. Skene in his Celtic Scotland (11. 422), "shows a
" perfect mastery of his subject, and may compare with
" any ecclesiastical document of the time." " This long
* For John ScDtd> ErigEtla, see Lanigan, [
« the works named in note, next p>Ee.
. 28S-319; and for the othen
412 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
** letter," observes Professor Geoi^ T. Stokes, " proves
"to demonstration that in the first half of the seventh
•• century there was a wide range of Greek learning, not
'* ecclesiastical merely, but chronological, . astronomical,
"and philosophical, away in Durrow in the very centre
" of the Bog of Allen."* The Irish monks were equally
famed for their theological learning. It is worthy of
remark that, so far as theology and sacred learning in
general were concerned, the University of Armagh seems
to have been r^^rded as the head of all the other schools
and colleges ; for in the synod held at Clane (County
Kildare) in the year 1 162, where twenty-five bishops and
many other ecclesiastics of high rank attended, it Was
decreed that no person should thenceforward be per-
mitted to g^ve public lectures in the sacred Scriptures or
in theology in any part of Ireland unless he had studied
for some time at Armagh-f It seems probable that this
was merely rendering compulsory what had long been the
custom.
Foreign Students. — In all the more important schools
there were students from foreign lands, from the Continent
as well as from Great Britain, attracted by the eminence of
the masters and by the facilities for quiet, uninterrupted
study. In the Lives of distinguished Englishmen we
constantly find such statements as " he was sent to Ireland
to finish his education."} The illustrious scholar Alcuin,
who was a native of York, was educated at Clonmacnoise.
Among the foreigjn visitors were many princes : Oswald
and Aldfrid, kings of Northumbria, and Dagobert II.,
* See the Most Rev. Dr. Healy*8 Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars,
pcusim : Dr. Hyde's Literary History of Ireland, chap. xvii. : the Rev^ Dr.
George T. Stokes's article on The Knowledge of Greek in Ireland between
A.D. 500 and A.D. 900, in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad, for 1891-1892, p. 187:
Skene's Celtic Scotland, 11. 419 : and Lanigan, Ecd. Hist., i. 58. In these
works will be found an account of all those eminent men named in last page.
t Lanigan, iv. 178 : Lynch, Cambr. £v., 11. 383, 427 : and FM, a.d. i 162.
J O'Flaherty, Ogyg., in. xxx.
CHAP.XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 413
king of France, were all educated in Ireland." It appears
that Aldfrid while in Ireland was called Flann Fina (from
his mother Fina, an Irish princess) ; and there is still extant
a very ancient Irish poem in praise of Ireland, said to
have been composed by him : it has been translated by
O'Donovan in the ' Dublin Penny Journal,' vol. i., p. 94,
and metrically by J. Clarence Mangan. We get some idea
of the numbers of foreigners from the ancient Litany of
Aengus the Culdee, in which
wefind invoked many Romans,
Gauls, Germans, and Britons,
all of whom died in Ireland.
To this day there is to be
seen, on Great Aran island, a
tomb-stone, with the inscrip-
tion "VII Romani," Seven
Romans. It is known that in
times of persecution Egyptian
monks fled to Ireland; and
they have left in the country
many traces of their influence.
In the same Litany of Aengus
mention is made of seven
Egyptian monks buried in
one placet
Scattered over the Lives
of the Irish Saints are innu-
merable passages — many of Tomi»M«ofiiw9t.™H=iMM.u.Ai...
them legendary, or mixed up
with legend, but none the less presenting a true picture
of what really took place — recording the arrival in Ireland
of foreign pilgrims and students, or notifying their re-
sidence or death. Here is one characteristic legend from
*LuiigaD, Bed. Hilt., in. 90, 100: Me tlao Reevei, Adanm., 185,
note /.
1 Pctrie, Round Towen, 137, 138 : see also Lynch, Cambr. E»., II. 671.
414 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the Irish Life of St. Senan :— "Then came a ship's crew
from the lands of Latium on a pilgrimage into Ireland :
five decades were their number." The old document goes
on to say that each decade took one of the Irish saints as
patron and protector during the voyage, namely, Saints
Finnen, Senan, Brendan, Ciaran, Finnbarr ; and they
arranged that each saint was to be asked by his votaries
to protect the ship for a night and a day in turn. All
went well till it came to the turn of Senan's ten, when
there arose a dangerous storm, and the pilot called out to
them for help : whereupon one of them, a bishop, rose up
from his dinner with a thigh-bone in his hand, and blessing
the air with the bone, he called on Senan for help, on
which the storm was instantly lulled, and they soon after
landed safely in Cork.*
The greatest number of foreign students came from
Great Britain — they came in fleet-loads as Aldhelm,
Bishop of Sherborne (a.d. 705 to 709), expresses it in his
letter to his friend Eadfrid, Bishop of Lindisfarne, who
had himself been educated in Ireland.t Many also were
from the Continent There is a remarkable passage in
Venerable Bede's " Ecclesiastical History " which corrobo-
rates Aldhelm's statement, as well as what is said in the
native records, and indeed in some particulars goes rather
beyond them. Describing the ravages of the yellow
plague in 664 he says : — "This pestilence did no less harm
" in the island of Ireland. Many of the nobility and of
*' the lower ranks of the English nation were there at that
" time, who, in the days of Bishops Finan and Colman
^' [Irish abbots of Lindisfarne, p. 339, suprd\ forsaking their
native island, retired thither, either for the sake of divine
studies, or of a more continent life : and some of them
4<
4(
* Stokes, Lives of SS., 209.
t Aldhelm was an unwilling witness, for he shows himself jealous of the
literary attractions of Ireland. See Reeves in Ulst. Joum. of Archsed.,
VII. 231, note V.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 415
" presently devoted themselves to a monastic life : others
" chose rather to apply themselves to study, going about
" from one master's cell to another. The Scots willingly
" received them all, and took care to supply them with
" food, as also to furnish them with books to read, and
"their teaching, alt gratis."* We know that one of the
three divisions of the city of Armagh was called Trtan-
Saxon, the Saxon's third, from • the great number of Saxon
students inhabiting it , and we learn incidentally also that
in the eighth century seven streets of a town called
Kilbally, near Rahan in King's County, were wholly
■occupied by Calls or foreigners.f
The genuine respect entertained all over Europe for
the scholars of Ireland at this period is exemplified in a
correspondence of the end of the eighth century between
the illustrious scholar Alcuin and Colcu the Fer-leginn, or
•chief professor of Clonmacnoise, commonly known as
* Ecd. Hist., ni. chap, xivii : Bohn's translation.
t Petrie, Round Tmrers, 355, top ; O'Curry, Man. k Cuit., il. 38.
4l6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Colcu the Wise. He was r^arded as the most learned
man of his time in Ireland, and we have extant a beautiful
Irish prayer composed by him. Alcuin was educated by
him at Clonmacnoise, and in his letters he expresses
extraordinary respect for him, styles him "Most holy
father," calls himself his son, and sends him presents for
charitable purposes, some from himself and some from his
great master Charlemagne.* In the course of three or
four centuries from the time of St Patrick, Ireland was
the most learned country in Europe : and it came to be
known by the name now so familiar to us — Insula sane-
torum et dociorum, the Island of Saints and Scholars.^
Fer-leginn. — In early times, when a school or collie
was attached to a monastery, it would appear that the
abbot had the charge of both monastery and schools,
deputing his authority in special directions, so as to
divide the labour, as he found it necessary. But this was
found at last to be an inconvenient arrangement ; so that
towards the end of the eighth century, it became the
custom to appoint a special head professor to preside over,
and be responsible for, the educational functions of the
college, while the abbot had the care of the whole in-
stitution. None but a Druimcli — a man who had
mastered the entire course of learning (see this in Index) —
could be appointed to this important post, and as head of
the college — under the abbot — he was called Fer-leginn^
*man of learning' — i,e. Chief Lector, ScholasticuSy or
' Principal,' having all the other professors and teachers —
with their several subjects— under his authority. The first
of these officers, of whom we have any record, was Colcu,
Fer-leginn of Clonmacnoise, already noticed, who died in
794. The Fer-leginn was generally an ecclesiastic, but
* Lanigin,^ in. 229 : O'Curry, MS. Mat., 379.
t This name was applied to Ireland by the chronicler Marianus Scotu8»
who lived in the eleventh century : but whether it had been previously used
or not is not knovm. See Reeves, Ulst. Joum. of Archaeol., Yir. 228.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 417
occasionally a layman. In Monasterboice, Flann the
Annalist, a layman, the most distinguished scholar in
Ireland of his time, was appointed Fer-legfinn. This
man, who died A.D. 1056, has left behind him some
learned works in the Irish language; and he has ever
since been known as Flann Matnistrechy or * Flann of
the Monastery.' About a century earlier the lay oUave
or doctor-poet MacCoss6 held a sihiilar position in the
great school of Ros-Ailithir, now Ross Carbery, in Cork.
It is worthy of remark that many of the learned men
commemorated in our annals were teachers in colleges
for life or for some time, either as Fer-leginn^, or in some
other capacity.
3. Lay Schools.
It has been sometimes asserted that, in early times in
Ireland, learning was confined within the walls of the
monasteries ; but this view is quite erroneous. Though
the majority of the men of learning were ecclesiastics,,
secular learning was by no means confined to the clergy.
We have seen that the monastic schoob had many lay
pupils, and that there were numerous lay schools ; so that
a considerable body of the lay community must have biecn
more or less educated — able to read and write.' Neariy all
the professional physicians, lawyers (or brehons\ poets»
builders, and historians, were laymen ; a large proportion
of the men chronicled in our annals, during the whole
period of Ireland's literary pre-eminence, as distinguished
in art and general literature, were also laymen ; lay tutors
were often employed to teach princes; and, in fact, lay-
men played a very important part in the diffusion of
knowledge and in building up that character for learning
that rendered Ireland so famous in former times. One
has only to glance through Ware's or O'Reilly's ** Irish
Writers," or Dr. Hyde's " Literary History of Ireland," to
see the truth of this.
2 E
41 8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
It is right to remark, too, that the ecclesiastical
authorities were by no means jealous or intolerant of
literary distinction among the lay community. On the
contrary, they encouraged learning wherever they found
it, making no distinction between monk and layman. We
have seen that in Monasterboice and Ros-Ailithir, where,
as in all other monastic colleges, the entire authority was
in the hands of ecclesiastics, they appointed laymen to the
position of Fer4eginn^ or Principal ; and they did this,
knowing well that, as far as secular scholarship was con-
cerned, these two distinguished laymen were sure to
throw them all into the shade. In various other monastic
colleges also the minor positions were often held by lay
teachers.
But the education for the lay community — in the sense
in which the word "education" is used in the preceding
observations^-was mainly for the higher classes, and for
those of the lower who had an irrepressible passion for
book-learning. The great body of the people could
neither read nor write. Yet they were not uneducated :
they had an education of another kind — reciting poetry,
historic tales, and legends — or listening to recitation — in
which all people, high and low, took delight, as mentioned
elsewhere. This was true education, a real exercise for
the intellect, and a real and refined enjoyment* In every
hamlet there were one or more amateur reciters : and this
amusement was then more general than newspaper- and
story-reading is now. So that, taking education, as we
ought, in this broad sense, and not restricting it to the
narrow domain of reading and writing, we see that the
great body of the Irish people of these times were really
educated.
There seems no reason to doubt that there were
schools of some kind in Ireland before the introduction
* On the educational function of the Tales, see p. 426, infra : also the end
of the first section of chap, xv., farther on.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 419
of Christianity, which were carried on by druids. After
the general spread of Christianity, while monastic schools
were growing up everywhere through the country, the old
schools still held their ground, taught now by Christian
oUaves or doctors — laymen — who were the representatives
of the druid teachers of old times *
There were several classes of these schools. Some
were known as " Bardic schools," in which were taught
poetry, history, and general Irish literature. Some were
for law, and some for other special professions. In the
year 1571, hundreds of years subsequent to the period we
are here treating of. Campion found schools for law and
medicine in operation : — ^** They speake Latine like a
" vulgar tongue, learned in their common schools of
" leach-craft and law, whereat they begin [as] children,
" and hold on sixteene or twenty yeares, conning by
" roate the Aphorismes oi Hypocrates and the Civill Insti-
" tutions, and a few other parings of these two faculties."t
The " sixteene or twenty yeares " is certainly an exaggera-
tion. The Bardic schools were the least technical of any :
and young laymen not intended for professions attended
them — as many others in greater numbers attended the
monastic schools — to get a good general education. Some
of these lay schools — ^perhaps most — ^were self-supporting,
and the teachers made their living by them ; while some
were aided with grants of land by the chiefs of the
districts.
At the convention of Drum-Ketta, A.D, 574, the system
of public secular education, so far as it was represented in
the Bardic schools or those for general education, was
reorganised. The scheme, which is described in some
detail by Keating (p. 455) from old authorities no longer
in existence, was devised by the ard'oUave or chief poet of
all Ir^and, Dalian Forgaill, the author of the Amra or
* See Hyde, Lit. Hist., 241. f Campion, Hist, of Ireland, 25, 26.
2 E 2
420 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Elegy on St Columkille. There was to be a chief school
or college for each of the five provinces ; and under these
a number of minor collies, one in each tuath or cantred.
They were all endowed with lands ; and those persons who
needed it should get free education in them. The heads
of these schools were the ollaves of poetry and literature,
all laymen * Many of them, as time went on, became
noted for the excellence of their teaching in subjects more
or less special, according to the individual tastes or bent
of mind of the teachers or the traditions of the several
schools. These subjects, whether Law, History, Anti-
quities, Poetry, etc., were commonly taught by members of
the same family for generations.! In later times — towards
the sixteenth century — many such schools flourished under
the families of O'Mulconry, O'Cofiey, O'Clery, and others.
A lay college generally comprised three distinct schools,
held in three different houses near each other: a custom
that came down from pagan times. We are told that
Cormac Mac Art, king of Ireland from A.D. 254 to 277^
founded three schools at Tara, one for the study of military
science, one for law, and one for general literature. St
Bricin's College at Tomregan near Ballyconnell in Cavan»
founded in the seventh century, which, though conducted
by an ecclesiastic, was of the type of the lay schools^
comprised one school for law, one for classics, and one for
poetry and general Gaelic learning, each school under a
special druimcli or head professor. J And coming down to
a much later period, we know that in the fifteenth century
the O'Clerys of Donegal kept three schools — ^namely, for
literature, for history, and for poetry.
Towards the end of the sixteenth century the public
schools of all classes b^an to feel the effects of penal
legislation. In the time of James I., among many other
* See also O'Curry, Man. &;Cast., i. 78.
t See, for examples, Hy Fiachrac)i, 79, and 167, bottom.
X O'Cuny, MS. Mat., 50: Man. & Cust., i. 92.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 42 1
schools, there was in Galway a flourishing academy for
classics and general education, kept by the celebrated
John Lynch, afterwards bishop of Killala, author of
"Cambrensis Eversus." In 161 5 the Commissioners
appointed by King James to inquire into the state of
education in Ireland, visited this school, which they found
full of scholars, who came not only from Connaught, but
from all parts of Ireland, attracted by the fame of school
and teacher. The Commissioners in their report praise
the school as highly efficient ; but they gave orders that
it should be closed, as Dr. Lynch refused to become a
Protestant It is humiliating to have to record that
a leading member of the commission that issued this
barbarous order was the great scholar James Ussher,
afterwards archbishop of Armagh,*
Through the dark time of the Penal Laws, which for-
bade all education to Catholics, the schools struggled on
despite of Acts of Parliament In some places the secular
seminaries became narrowed to schools for poetry alone —
'or rather what then went by the name of poetry. In
the Preliminary Dissertation to the " Memoirs of the
Marquis of Clanrickarde " (Ed. 1744, p. cxiii) is a curious
description of the manner in which these d^jenerate
schools were carried on, which it is not necessary to
quote here : the reader will find the substance of it in a
more accessible book. Dr. Hyde's "Literary History of
Ireland " (p. 528). A grotesque survival of the old method
of study, to some extent confirming this writer's account,
was found by Martin in one of the western islands of
Scotland in 1703 (Martin, p. ii6).
But through all this time there were schools with a
broader culture — seminaries for general education. During
the eighteenth century and the first half of the nineteenth,
when the Penal Laws against Catholic education were
in great part or altogether removed, schools conducted
• Petrie, in Dub. Pen. Joum., i. 326,
422 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
by private individuals were found all over the southern
half of Ireland, especially in Munster. Some were for
classics, some for science, and not a few for both ;
nearly all conducted by men of learning and ability ; and
they were everywhere eagerly attended. Many of the
students had professions in view, some intended for the
priesthood, for which the classical schools afforded an
admirable preparation ; some seeking to become medical
doctors, teachers, surveyors, &c But a large proportion
were the sons of farmers, tradesmen, shopkeepers, or
others, who had no particular end in view, but, with the
instincts of the days of old, studied classics or mathematics
for the pure love of learning. These schools continued to
exist down to our own time, till they were finally broken up
by the famine of 1847. . In my own immediate neighbour-
hood were some of them, in which I received a part of
my early education ; and I remember with pleasure several
of my old teachers : rough and unpolished men most of
them, but excellent solid scholars and full of enthusiasm
for learning. All the students were adults or grown boys ;
and there was no instruction in the elementary subjects —
reading, writing, and arithmetic — as no scholar attended who
had not sufficiently mastered these.* Among the students
were always a dozen or more " poor scholars " from distant
parts of Ireland, who lived free in the hospitable farmers'
houses all round : just as the scholars from Britain and
elsewhere were supported in the time of Bede— twelve
centuries before.f
4. Some General Features of both classes 0/ Schools.
The "Seven Degrees of Wisdom." — To return to the
ancient schools. The Brehon Law took cognisance of
the schools, both lay and clerical, in many important
* But there were also special private schools for elementary subjects.
tFor "Poor Scholars," see 0*Curry,Man. &Cust., i. 79,80: Dr. Healy^
Ireland's Anc. Sch., 475 : and, for a modem instance, Carleton's stor)v
*« The Poor Scholar."
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 423
particulars. So much was this the case that it is in fact
in the Brehon Law tracts we get the fullest information
about the school arrangements. The law sets forth the
studies for the several degrees. It lays down what seems
a very necessary provision for the protection of the masters,
that they should not be answerable for the misdeeds of
their scholars except in one case only, namely, when the
scholar was a foreigner and paid for his food and educa-
tion.* The masters had a claim on their literary foster-
children for support in old age, if poverty rendered it
necessaryt ; and in accordance with this provision, we find
it recorded that St. Mailman of Tallaght was tenderly
nursed in his old age by his pupil Aengus the Culdee.J
In both the ecclesiastical and the secular schools there
were seven degrees for the students or graduates, like the
modem University stages of freshmen, sophisters, bachelors^
&C. The degrees in the lay schools corresponded with
those in the ecclesiastical schools ; but except in the two
last grades the names differed. Both schemes are set
forth — in a scattered sort of way — in a law tract known
as the " Sequel to the Crith Gabhlach " (Br. Laws, iv.) ;
and the grades in the lay schools are also named and
briefly described in another law tract, the " Small Primer **
(Br. Laws, v. 27). The writer of the " Sequel " gives first
the seven-fold arrangement for the ecclesiastical schools —
the " Seven Degrees of Wisdom " § {secM n-graidh icnd).
He then makes the following remark to point out the
correspondence in substance between these and the seven
stages of the lay schools : — " The d^rees of wisdom and
" of the church [/>. in the monastic or ecclesiastical schools]
" correspond with the degrees of the poets and of the fHni
"or story-tellers \i,e. of the lay or bardic schools]: but
" wisdom is the mother of each profession of them [whether
• Man. & Cust., I. 79. t Chap, xix, sect. 3, infram
JO'Cuny, Man. & Cost., i. 174, 175.
{Learning in general was in Uiose times often designated by the word
t<
wisdom."
424 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
** clerical or lay], and it is from her hand they all drink."
He next proceeds to enumerate the seven degrees of the
poets, ue. of the bardic schools, and to describe them,* as
set forth in this book, p. 430, farther on.
But regarding some of the lay schools, we obtain much
additional information from a curious tract called the
'* Book of the Ollaves " (or " Doctors "), in the Book of
Ballymote, first noticed by O'Curry ;t where the arrange-
ments for one particular class of schools are described in
some detail. The schools in view here were the bardic
schools,, f>. those for general learning: but in those for
special professions, such as Law, there were probably
similar arrangements. This tract gives the length of the
whole course for the seven lay degrees as twelve years,
which includes one year for preliminary, or elementary, or
preparatory work, and sets forth the study for each year.
A careful comparison and combination of the statements
in the four law authorities — ^the Book of the Ollaves, the
Sequel to the Crith Gabhlach, the Small Primer, and the
Commentaries on the Senchus M6r — ^will enable us to knit
together the. information scattered through them, and to
set forth in tabulated form (p. 430, infra) the schemes of
both classes of schools. I have not found any statement
giving the length of the course and the subjects of. the
several stages, or of the several years, for students of
.the ecclesiastical schools, such as is given in the Book
of the Ollaves for the Lay schools, though it may be
taken for granted that systematic and carefully-planned
arrangements existed. On the other hand, we have, in
still another law authority, a statement of the qualifi-
cations of the professors in the ecclesiastical schools,
rwhich is given at page 435 farther on.
Before setting forth the two tabulated schemes, it
.will be useful to make a few remarks on certain points
in connexion with them. In the bardic schools — so far
* Br. Laws, iv. 357, last seven lines, and 359. t Man. & Cust., i. 171.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 425
as they are reflected in the authorities from which our
tabulated scheme was constructed — no foreign langus^es
were taught : and the instruction was confined to native
learning — the learning that had grown up in the country
from immemorial ages. Under the influence of ecclesi-
astics, however, schools for classics were sometimes joined
with these, as we see in the case of the collie of
Tomregan (p. 420, supra). In later times many of the
lay schools admitted classics among their subjects.*
In the ecclesiastical schools the case was quite diflerent
We have not, as has been already remarked, a detailed and
systematic statement of the subjects in the several stages
of the course in these schools. But from many scattered
independent authorities we know that Latin was taught
from the very beginning of the course, and was continued
to the end, with all the Latin classics then available.
Latin was indeed written and spoken quite familiarly in
the scliools — at least among the students of the higher
stages : and as a matter of fact much of the Irish historical
literature that remains to us is a mixture of Gaelic
and Latin, both languages being used with equal facility.
At a more advanced stage of the course Greek was intro-
duced, and, as we have seen, was studied and taught with
success. Along with the classics, philosophy, divinity,
the Holy Scriptures, and science — ^so far as it was then
known — were taught: so that the education in these
schools was of a. much higher order, wider, and more
cultured than in the lay schools.
One part of the teaching, in both lay and ecclesiastical
schools, consisted in explaining ancient Gaelic writings.
For the Gaelic used by very early writers became in a
great measure obsolete as centuries rolled on, as happens
with all living languages. Accordingly, successive
scholars wrote commentaries explaining most of the
* Within the last century or so, special schools for classics were numerous,
especially in Mnnster.
426 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
obscure old texts ; and after long lapse of time, when
even the commentaries themselves became old and hard
to understand, it was customary with many teachers to
lecture on both texts and commentaries, and to expound
the general meaning. For instance, the Senchus M6r was
lectured and commented on in this manner in the law
schools ; and the Tripartite Life of St Patrick, Dalian
Forgaill's Amra, and Aengus's F^ilire, were expounded by
the divinity and literary lecturers in the monastic colleges.*
This custom prevailed down to the time of Campion, and
doubtless later. He says in his History (p. 17) — written
towards the end of the sixteenth century : — ^** But the true
" Irish [t\e, the ancient classical Irish] indeede differeth
"so much from that they commonly speake, that scarce
"one among five score can either write, read, or under-
"stand it Therefore it is prescribed among certaine.their
" Poets, and other Students of Antiquitie."
The successful study of the Tales — shown in the
tabulated scheme— meant that the student should know
them perfectly by heart, so as to be able to recite any one
or more of them at a moment's notice, for the instruction
and amusement of a company. The knowledge of historic
and romantic tales, and of poetry, was looked upon as an
important branch of education : and with good reason ;
for they inculcated truthfulness, manliness, and— accord-
ing to the standard of the times — all that was noble and
dignified in thought, word, and action. Along with this,
the greater part of the history, tradition, biography, and
topography of the country, as well as history and
geography in general, was thrown into the form of verse
and tales. Stories and poetry therefore formed a leading
item, not only among professional men, but in general
education : and every intelligent layman was expected to
know some tales and poems, so as to be able to take
his part in amusing and instructing in mixed companies
♦ See O'Curry, MS. Mat., 348: and Hyde, Lit. Hist., 154, 406.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 427
when the occasion arose.* This fashion continued down
to recent times : and some ot the brightest and most
intelligent Irish peasants I ever met were men who where
illiterate, so far as book-learning was concerned, but who
were full of the living traditions and poetry of the past,
and recited them with intense feeling and enthusiastic
admiration. But the race is now well-nigh extinct. We
have already seen (p. 87) that in old times candidates for
admission to certain ranks of milrtary service had to prove
that they had mastered a specified and very considerable
amount of poetry and tales : a provision which exhibits
clearly what was considered the standard of education
in those times, and shows also the universal love for
intellectual enjoyments.
The learning and teaching functions were combined
in some of the middle grades, as they were in the
professor's programme at p. 435. Students who had
attained to certain degrees in both cases were entrusted
with the duty of teaching the beginners, if their taste or
inclination lay in that way ; which was one of the means
of getting through the heavy school-work : a plan, as we
all know, often adopted in modem schools.
In the tables at p. 430, the first word (which is printed
in heavy type) in the description of each part of the course
is the designation of the graduate of that particular stage :
and these quaint designations are followed by the equally
quaint descriptions. If at first sight they look fanciful, let
us remember that most of our modem university terms —
sizar, sophister, respondent, bachelor, wrangler, &c., when
we look into their meanings, will appear equally so till
we know their history. The three steps, OUaire^ Tantan^
Drisac^ at the head of the Lay School scheme, are given
by the commentator on the Senchus M6r, though not by
the other authorities named above : but they were merely
preparatory, and not recognised as "degrees of wisdom."
* As an instance : Donnbo in Three Fragm. of Ir. Annals, p. 35.
428 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
I do not know what the " Oghams " were, in the first
three years' course of the lay schools. O'Curry translate!;
the word "Alphabets," which is as obscure as the original.
Perhaps the " Ogham " of the lay schools corresponded
with the atbgitir or " alphabet " of the ecclesiastical
schools (p. 383, supra) : if this is so, the " Oghams " here
were brief literary or scientific maxims conveying useful
and important information. That there were collections
of such terse maxims we know from Cormac's and
O'Clery's Glossaries, in which they are designated
Minarbay or Mionairbhe^ a term which O'Clery explains:
*^Mionairbhe ceard^ that is to say, short scientific rules
which are in poetry." On account of their concentration
and shortness, Cormac derives the word from Lat. minus :
but it comes rather from the cognate Irish word min or
fntofty * small.'
Dr. Richey, the legal editor of the Brehon Law volume
containing the "Crith Gabhlach"and the "Sequel," judging
from the single text before him, in which moreover there
is nothing to warrant his conclusion, undertakes to
pronounce the: seven-fold classification of the d^rees in
the lay schools. — Fochluc, Mac Fuirmid, Dos, Cana, Cli,
Anruth, Ollave — as given in the table— to be " plainly
merely an exercise of the imagination" (Br. Laws, iV,
ccvii). But when he delivered this judgment, it was very
lucky for him that he had not Moran's Collar round his
neck.* These poetical grades are enumerated in the
"Small Primer" (Br. Laws, v. 27), a law tract totally
independent of the " Sequel to the Critk Gabhlach^' and
they are referred to elsewhere in the Laws (vol. I. 45 ;
V. 57 to 71 : O'Curry, MS. Mat 220) ; as well as in
many independent authorities outside the law-books,
always as matters quite familiar and generally under-
stood. Cormac's Glossary mentions and explains the
'whole seven, using the very names given by the
*Moran*s Collar, p. 170, supra.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 429
authorities already referred to ; not all in one place, but
in a disconnected way in various parts of the Glossary *
as an actually existing and well-recognised arrange-
ment in his own time, and evidently coming under his
immediate observation. In the Book of Leinster, where
is given the mode of pronouncing a zl^m-dichenn (see
p. 240, supra\ the whole seven are named — with the
same designations, and in the same order, as given
above — as taking part in the ceremony.f Keating
(pp. 446, 454), in his account of the convention of Drum-
Ketta, mentions two of them (OUave and Anruth) in
two different places — having no occasion to notice the
others ; and several of them are named as among the
guests at the banquets of TanuJ As showing not only
the reality of this classification, but how long it held
its ground, it is referred to in another document more
than four centuries later than Cormac's Glossary, a poem
written in 1351 in praise of William O'Kelly, who gave
the banquet to the poets mentioned in sect 6 below, of
which this is a translation of one verse : —
*' Here [to the bauqaet] will come the seven orders {seacht n»gradha)
Who put good poetry into shape :
A charm for misfortune is their coming —
The Seven Orders of Poetry/'}
There is, then, no reason whatever to doubt that this
old gradation was a real one, and was actually carried
out for hundreds of years in the schools : and that the
graduate-poets were universally recognised, with their
several special privileges, just as sizars, freshmen^
sophisters, bachelors, moderators, masters, and doctors
are now.
* They will be found mentioned and discussed in the Glossary : Anmth,
pp. 5 and 6 : Cana, 34 : Cli, 34 : Doss, 53, 58 : Fochlocon, 72 : Mac Fuirmid
or Mucairbe, 107: 011am, 127. See also under **Anair," p. 6, same
Glossary. t O'Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 217.
X Petrie, Tata, joo, 205. \ Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., vi. 51.
430
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
TABLE OF DEGREES AND SUBJECTS OF STUDY.
Compiled in strict accordance with the following authorities : — For Lay
Schools only : Br. Laws, l. 45 : V, 27, 29 : Book of OUaves, quoted in
O'Curry's Man. & Cust., I. 171: Mac Firbis, quoted by O'Curry in
MS. Mat., 220, 576. For both Ecclesiastical and Lay Schools, Br. Laws,
IV., 355 to 361.
Monastic or Ecclesiastical
Schools.
Bardic Schools.
[There must have been Elemen-
tary Stages in the Ecclesiastic
as well as in the Lay Schools,
but so far they have not been
found expressly mentioned
anywhere.]
7 '"no/
1. — Felmac (i.e. a pupil : lit. * Son
of learning ') : a boy who has
read his [specified] Psalms
[in Latin].
First j^ear of the twelve :■
a. Ollaire,
b. Taman,
c. Drisao,
y
The Students with these
designations were en-
gaged in elementary
work, corresponding
to what we find in our
Elementary Schools,
or in the junior
classes of Intermediate
Schools.
Course of Study : — 50 Oghams or
Alphabets : Elementary Araicecht
or Grammar: 20 Tales, of which
the Ollaire had 7 ; the Taman 3
more, s 10; the Drisac 10 addi-
tional s= 20.
^Second Year: —
I.— >7oohliio. "His art is slender
because of his youth": like a
sprig of focMocdn or brook-
lime: hence the name.
Course of Study : — 50 Oghams
along with the 50 of the Drisac:
6 easy lessons in Philosophy;
certain specified poems : 30 Tales,
ue. 10 in addition to the 20 of the
Drisac. [N.B. — It is the same
all through : t. e, the number of
Tales required for each grade in-
cludes those of the preceding
grade.]
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION
431
Table of Degrees and Subjects of Stuuy— continued.
Monastic or Ecclesiastical
Schools.
Bardic Schools.
II. — ^Freifneidhed [Fresh-nay-a], or
* Interrogator ' : so called be-
cause ** he interrogates his
tator with the sense of an
ollave : and his tutor gives
the meaning of everything;
that is difficult to him.*'
IIL— Fnnaindtidh [Fursantee], or
* Illuminator ' : so called be-
cause **he answers his tutor
with the sense of an ollave,
and gives the sense of every
■difficulty on account of the-
clearness of his judgment.'*
[Observe the educational dis-
tinction : while the pupil is
weak — as a Freisnadhed^h.^
\% permitted to question his
tutor on all points he finds
difficult : but now that he is
more advanced — as a Fur*
saindtidh — the tutor cross-
questions him to draw him
out and to make sure that he
understands all difficulties and
obscurities: to raise difficulties
and make him explain them.]
Third Year ;—
II.—Mae Pnirmid : **so called be-
cause he *is set* {fuirmithir)
to learn an art from his boy-
hood."
Cou&ss OF Study:— 50 Oghams
more than the Fochluc (t.^. 150
altogether): six minor lessons of
Philosophy : Diphthongal Combi-
nations (as part of Grammar) :
certain specified Poems : 40 Tales.
Fourth Year: —
III. — ^Dos, so called ^' from his simi-
larity to a dos^ i.e. a bush or
young tree."
Course of Study:— The Bretha
Nemed or the Law of Privileges
(see p. I75» supra) : 20 Poems of
the species called i?//fan : 50 Tales.
432
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
Table of Degrees and Subjects of ^Tv>i>\'-continued,
Monastic or Ecclesiastical
Schools.
Bardic Schools.
IV.— Smth do Aill, or ' Stream from
a cliff' : for the sruth or
stream ** drowns every little,
light, weak thing, and carries
off loose rocks : so he drowns
bad scholars whom he con-
founds [in disputation] with
rocks of intellect and evidence
[apt quotations], and he b
able [when employed in
teaching] to modify his in-
struction to the complexion of
simple information, in mercy
to the people of little learn-
ing who ebb in the presence
of an anruth or teacher of a
higher degree" \i,e. he is
able to make hard things
easy by explanation to weak
students who might get fright-
ened in presence of the for*
midable scholar the anruth —
grade vi].
V. — Bai, or «* Professor who [has
mastered and] professes some
one of the four parts of the
scientific course : a comely
professor of the Canon \i.e,
of Scripture] with his noble
good wealth [of knowledge].'*
Fifth Year:^
IV. — Cana [accidentally omitted
from the description in the
Crilh Gabhlach at p. 359,
vol. IV., but inserted in the
preliminary list of same tract
at p. 357, last three lines ; and
in the other authorities].
Course of Study : — Learning
critically Gaelic articles, adverbs^
and other grammatical niceties:
60 Tales.
Sixth Year: —
V. — CU, "which means a cleith or
pillar" [of a house] : and as
the pillar "is strong and
straight, elevates and is ele-
vated, protects and is pro-
tected, and is powerful from
floor to ridge " : so with the
man of this grade : " his art
is powerful, his judgment is
straight : he devates his
dignity above these below
him."
Course of Study:— The secret
language of the poets (an abstruse
kind of composition): 48 Poems
of the species called Nath : 70 (or
80) Tales.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION
433
Table of Degrees and Subjects of SiviyY— continued.
Monastic or Ecclksiastical
Schools.
Bardic Schools.
VI. — ^Annith, which means * noble
stream ' : " so called for four
reasons : for the nobleness of
his teaching ; for the number
of his intellectual qualities;
for the eloquence of his
language; and because he
composes in every depart-
ment of poetry, literature,
and sjmchronism \ue» he has
mastered them all so that he
can speak and write with
authority on them] : but only
he does not reach to the top
of knowledge " [as the Rosai
or Ollave does].
Seventh^ eighth^ and ninth years : —
VI. — ^Anmth, which means "noble
stream (from on, noble, and
sruthf a stream), that is to
say, a stream of pleasing praise
issuing from him, and a stream
of wealth to him" [in pay-
ments and presents for his
poetry and learning].
Course of Study: — Seventh Year:
the Brosnacha, i.e. Miscellanies
or Collections assigned to the Sat
or Professor: the laws of Bardism,
ue, the special style of ** Bardic *^
poetry.
, Eighth Year: Prosody (a very com-
plicated study) : Glosses, i^e, the
meaning of obsolete and obscure
Gaelic words: Teinm Laeghdha,
Imbas Forosnai, and Dichetal do-
Chennibh (see p. 242, supra) \
Dinnsenchns or Historical Topo-
graphy [of Ireland].
Ninth Year : A certain specified
number of each of those composi-
tions called Sennatf Luasca, Nena^
Eochraid, Sruith, and Duili Feda^
To master 175 Tales during the
three years; i.e, 105, or 95, in
addition to those of the Cli.
2 F
434
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Table of Degrees and Subjects of Stvoy— continued.
Monastic or Ecclesiastical
Schools.
Bardic Schools.
VII. — Bosai, which means *Grreat
Professor' (from fv, great,
and sai^ a professor). He
has three designations : —
Itosai ; Ollamh or doctor; and
8ai Litre or Professor (doctor)
of Literature. When he visits
a palace, he sits in the ban-
queting-house with the king.
As he is a great professor, he
does not fail in any question
in the four departments of
knowledge.
Tenth, eleventh, and twelfth years :
VII.— Ollamh [ollav]. He has three
designations :~XcM [aikas]
or man of learning; file
[fiUa], a poet : and Ollamli,
or doctor. The Ollamh of
wisdom or learning teaches
the four departments of
Filidecht or knowledge,
without ignorance in them.
Course OF Study: — Tenth Year:
a further number of these com-
positions studied in the ninth year.
Eleventh Year: lOO of the kind of
composition called Anamuin,
which was composed only by an
Ollave.
Twelfth Year : 120 Cetals or Ora-
tions : the Four Arts of Poetry.
N.B. — During the three years, he
had to master 1 75 Tales along with
the 175 of the Anruth ^=350 Tales
altogether.
At the end of the twelfth year,
if the candidate acquitted himself
satisfactorily, he became an Ollamh
or Ollave.
In the ecclesiastical schools there was another classifi-
cation of seven grades, or " Seven Orders of wisdom," as
they are here also called, which is so different from that
already given — corresponding in no particular except in
the number of grades — that the two were obviously quite
independent of each other. The scheme already given
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 435
had chiefly the students in view. But this one is evidently
a classification having reference mainly to professors or
teachers, of whom three of the lower grades were them-
selves learners. So that here, as in the preceding scheme,
the functions of teaching and learning were mixed ; and
it often happened that the same person was at one time
under instruction from the professors of the grades above
him, and at another time employed in teaching the junior
scholars. This document — quoted by O'Curry — occurs
under the word caogdach in a Law Glossary compiled by
Duald Mac Firbis, from old authorities, explaining the
"** Seven Orders of wisdom."*
THE SEVEN GRADES OR ORDERS OF WISDOM
(Monastic or Ecclesiastical Schools).
I.— The Caogdach or 'Fifty-Man* (from caogad, 'fifty'), so
called because he is able to chant [in Latin] three times
fifty Psalms from memory.
II.— The FOGHLAlNTiDHfi [Fowlantee], i,e. a * student ' or
' learner ' : who has a knowledge of ten books of the
Fochair or Native Education.
•
III. — The Desgihal or • Disciple,' who knows the whole twelve
books of the Fochair,
IV. — ^The Staruidhe [starree] or 'Historian,' who [besides
History] is master of thirty Lessons of Divinity {aiceacfita
naomhthaf lit. ' Sacred Lessons '), as part of his course.
v.— The FoiRCEADLAiDHE [Forkailee], i.e. * Lecturer' of Profane
Literature, who knows Grammar, Crosan or Criticism,
Syllabification or Orthography, Enumeration or Arithmetic,
and the courses of the Sun and Moon, i»e. Astronomy.
VI.— The Saoi Canoine [see Connona] or *' Professor of Canon,
i,e. Divinity Professor, who has full knowledge of the
Canon," and of the History of Jesus in the sacred place
in which it is to be found [namely, the Bible], that is to
say, the man learned in " Catholic Canonical Wisdom."
♦ O'Curry, MS. Mat., 31, 494 : Man. & CusU, i. 84.
2 F 2
436 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
VII. — The Druimcli*[Dnimclee], a man who has a perfect knowledge
of wisdom ** from the greatest book, which is called the
Cuilmen, to the smallest book, which is called the 'Ten
WordSy't which are well arranged in the good Testament
which God made unto Moses.''
O'Curry (MS, Mat, 495) quotes a curious note —
characteristically Irish — from another old authority (about
A.D. 1450), which corroborates the above in the form of
a quaint pedigree of learning : — " Schoolboy [i.e. a mere
" banner] the son of Lesson [t.e, a learner beginning to
" read], the son of Ccu>gdachy the son of Foghlaintidhe^ the
" son of DescibcU^ [the son of Staruidhe\ the son of Saoi
" Litre^ the son of Saoi Candine^ the son of Druimcli^ the
" son of the Living God."
The two preceding classifications had special reference
to collegiate life and collegiate arrangements. There was
a third classification — seven ecclesiastical grades — having
reference solely to the church. In each of the two former,
as we have seen, there were " seven grades of wisdom or
learning"; these last are called simply "seven grades of
the church" {seacht ngraid eacalsd): namely. Lector or
Reader {Liachtreotr)\ Janitor [and bell-ringer] {Aistreoir)i
Exorcist {Exarctstid)\ Suh-d^Kcon {Suibdeochatn)\ Deacon
{Deochairi) ; Priest (JSacart) ; and Bishop {Eascob). These
are all named, and their functions briefly set forth, in the
law tract called the " Small Primer " (Br. Laws, v. 23).
The " Seven Ordfers of the church " and the " Seven Orders
of wisdom " are expressly distinguished in the " Heptads "^
(Br. Laws, V. 237, 6).
School Life and School Methods. — Reading through the
ecclesiastical and other literature, we often light on
^Druimcli, lit. 'ridge-pole,' i.e. of a house: from druim, 'ridge/ and
f/i, a short fonn of cUith, a * pole.'
t The Cuilmen seems to have been a great book or collection of profane
literature. The '* Ten Words," or Ten Commandments, O'Cuny says, was
the usual designation of the Pentateuch.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 437
incidental passages that give us many an occasional
glimpse into the Irish colleges, so as to enable us to judge
how professors and students lived, and, as it were, to see
them at their work. Some students lived in the houses
of the people of the neighbourhood : " poor scholars " —
the precursors of those mentioned at page 422, supra,
A few resided in the college itself — ^those, for instance,
who were literary foster-children of the masters.* But
the body of the scholars lived in little houses built
mostly by themselves around and near the school. Of
this custom, we have many notices in our old writings.
In the Irish Life of St. Columkille we are told that when
he went as a student to the college of St Finnen at
Clonard, his first step was to ask Finnen : — '^ In what
place shall I build my hut?" (Irish A7/A, *ahut': pron.
boh). " Build it just beside the church," replied Finnen. t
In the same Life (p. 174), we read that St Mobi had fifty
students in his school at Glasnevin, near Dublin, who had
their huts {pothd) ranged along one bank of the river (the
Tolka), while their little church was on the opposite bank.
Sometimes several lived together in one large house.
In the leading colleges, whole streets of these houses
surrounded the monastery, forming a collegiate town.
The poorer scholars sometimes lived in the same
houses with the rich ones, whom they waited on and
served, receiving in return food, clothing, and other
necessaries ; like the American custom of the present
day. Bjut some chose to live in this humble capacity,
not through poverty, but as a self-imposed discipline and
mortification, like Adamnan, mentioned here. As illus-
trating this phase of school life, an interesting story is
told in the Life of King Finaghta the Festive. A little
before his accession, he was riding one day towards
Clonard with his retinue, when they overtook a boy with
a jar of milk on his back. The youth, attempting to get
*Chap. xix., sect. 3, tVt/m. - fStdces, Lives of SS., 173.
438 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
out of the way, stumbled and fell, and the jar was broken
and the milk spilled. The cavalcade passed on without
noticing him ; but he ran after them in great trouble with
a piece of the jar on his back, till at last he attracted the
notice of the prince, who halted and questioned him in a
good-humoured way. The boy, not knowing whom he
was addressing, told his story with amusing plainness : —
** Indeed, good man, I have much cause to be troubled.
"There are living in one house near the college three
"noble students, and three others that wait on them, of
" whom I am one ; and we three attendants have to collect
"provisions in the neighbourhood in turn for the whole
" six. It was my turn to-day ; and lo, what I have
" obtained has been lost ; and this vessel which I borrowed
" has been broken, and I have not the means to pay for it/*
The prince soothed him, told him his loss should be
made good, and promised to look after him in the future.
This boy was Adamnan, a descendant and relative of
princes, subsequently a most distinguished man, ninth
abbot of lona, and the writer of the Life of St Columba.
The prince was as good as his word, and after he became
king invited Adamnan to his court, where the rising young
ecclesiastic became his trusted friend and spiritual adviser *
There were no spacious lecture halls such as we have :
the masters taught and lectured, and the scholars studied,
very much in the open air, when the weather permitted.!
There were no prizes and no cramming for competitive
examinations, for learning was pursued for its own sake.
In all the schools, whether public or private, a large pro-
portion of the students got both books and education free ;
but those who could afford it paid for everything. In
those days there were no detailed Latin Grammars, no
" First Latin Books " : and the learners had to face the
language in a rough-and-ready way, by beginning right
♦O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., i. 79 : Three Fr&gm., 75 : Reeves, Adamn., xlii.
t Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc. Sch., 435 : O'Curry, Man. & Cost., 1. 149 (twice).
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 439
off at the author. While the students held their manu-
script copies in their hands, the teacher read, translated,
and explained the text ; and in this rugged and difficult
way these young people acquired a knowledge of the
language. In order to aid the learners, the professors and
teachers often wrote between the lines or on the margin of
the copies of the Latin classical texts, literal translations
of the most difficult words, or free renderings of the sense
into Gaelic phrases : and in this manner were produced
the glosses described in chap, xii., sect 3, infra.
In teaching a child book-learning, the first thing was,
of course, the alphabet St Columkille's first alphabet
was written or impressed on a cake, which he afterwards
ate,* This points to a practice, which we sometimes see
at the present day, of writing the alphabet, or shaping it
in some way, on sweetmeats, as an encouragement and
help to what has been, and always will be, a difficult task
for a child. Sometimes they engraved the alphabet for
beginners on a large stone, of which an example is shown
in fig. 121.
It was the practice of many eminent teachers to com-
pose educational poems embodying the leading facts of
history or of other branches of instruction ; and a con-
siderable proportion of.the metrical compositions preserved
^stokes. Lives of SS.. 171.
440 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
in our ancient books belong to this class. These poems
having been committed to memory by the scholars, were
commented on and explained by their authors. Flann of
Monasterboice followed this plan ; and we have still copies
of several of his educational poems, chiefly historical. He
also used his Synchronisms for the same purpose. In the
Book of Leinster there is a curious geographical poem
forming a sort of class-book of general geography, which
was used in the great school of Ros-Ailithir in Cork,
written in the tenth century by Mac Cosse the ferleginn,
containing all that was then known of the principal
countries of the world.* The reader need scarcely be
reminded that teachers of the present day sometimes
adopt the same plan, especially in teaching history.
Sometimes boys were sent to be taught at the colleges
at a very early age — mere children. When St Findchua
of Brigown was only seven years of age, he was brought
by St Comgall to his college at Bangor, "and studies
there with him like every other pupil."t St Mochua of
Balla, when he was only ** a little lame child,*' employed
by his parents to herd sheep, was brought also to Bangor
by Comgall, where he b^an his studies. There were
probably many other cases of this kind, so that some
special provision must have been made by the college
authorities for the accommodation of such young children.
There was a very early appreciation of good methods in
teaching. For instance, the maxim which all experienced
teachers follow, that pupils are encouraged to exert them-
selves by getting moderate praise for their work, is noticed
in one of the eighth-century glosses referred to by Zeuss : —
It is the custom of good teachers {dagforcitlidib) to praise
the understanding of the hearers [i.e. of their pupils].
4(
* Published, with translation, by the Rev. Thomas Olden, in Proc. Roy.
Ir. Acad, for 1879-1886, p. 219. For many other poems of this class see
O* Curry, Man. & Cust., Lectures, vii. and viii.
t Stokes, Lives of SS., 232.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 44 1
" that they may love what they hear."* There is a similar
reminder in another eighth-century Irish gloss.f
So far the education given in schools and colleges, that
is to say, literary education, has been dealt with. But
there was a home education also, a simple sort of technical
instruction in certain handicrafts and accomplishments
that all must master to a greater or less extent in order to
discharge the ordinary duties of everyday life. It would
appear that fathers and mothers were left to their own
discretion as to the training of their children in this
direction. But in case of fosterage the law stepped in
and laid down stringent rules for the home education
of foster-children : from which we may infer that such
instruction was supposed to be — and generally was — given
by parents to their own children. The home education
prescribed was very sensible, aiming directly at preparing
for the future life of the child. The sons of the humbler
ranks were to be taught how to herd kids, calves, lambs,
and young pigs ; how to kiln-dry com, to prepare malt,
to comb wool, and to cut and split wood : the girls how to
use the needle according to their station in life, to grind
com with a quern, to knead dough, and to use a sieve.
The sons of chiefs were to be instructed in archery,
swimming, and chess-playing, in the use of the sword
and spear, and horsemanship : the horse to be supplied
by the father. But the law expressly states that no
horses were to be given with boys of the F^ine or farmer
grade, for they were not taught horsemanship. The
daughters of the chieftain grades given in fosterage were
to be instructed in sewing, cutting-out, and embroidery.
For the neglect of any of these branches of instruction
there was a fine of two-thirds of the fosterage fee. J
* Given in fall in Zimmer's Gloss. Hib., 69, 7 : and in Stokes and Strachan,
Thesanrus, i., p. 567.
t Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, p. 516. % ^^- Laws, 11. 153, 161.
442 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
5. The Men of Learning,
FrofessioiLi Hereditary* — In ancient Ireland, the
professions almost invariably ran in families, so that
members of the same household devoted themselves to
one particular science or art — Poetry, History, Medicine^
Building, Law, as the case might be — for generations.
This is well expressed by Camden \ — "And of these
** professions there be in each territory several professors ;
" and those within some certain families ; that is to say,
"the Brehons [Judges] be of one flock and name; the
" historians of another ; and so of the rest, who instruct
" their own children, and kinsmen, and have some of them
"always to be their successors.*'*
OUams or Doctors and their Beqairements. — OUam or
ollamh [ollav] was the title of the highest degree in any
art or profession : thus we read of an ollave poet, an
oUave builder, an ollave goldsmith, an ollave physician,
an ollave lawyer, and so forth, just as we have in modern
times doctors of music, of literature, of philosophy, of
medicine, &c.t In order to attain the degree of ollave,
a candidate had to graduate through all the lower steps :
and for this final degree he had to submit his work —
whether literary compositions or any other performance —
to some eminent ollave who was selected as judge. This
ollave made a report to the " king of territories " {i.e. of
a mdr-tuath^ see p. 43, supra\ not only on the candidate's
work, but also on his general character, whether he was
upright, free from unjust dealings, and pure in conduct
and word, i.e. free from immorality, bloodshed, and abuse
of others. If the report was favourable, the king formally
conferred the degree : a ceremony which the commentator
on the Senchus M6r calls uirdned ag rig tuath^ literally
* ordination by the king of territories.'?
* See Keating, Preface, Ivi, Ivii.
t See MS. Mat., 480: Man. & Cust., Ii. 53 : and Stokes, Lives of SS.,
]ine 2931 (ollave smiths). % MS. Mat., 462 : Br. Laws, i. 43, last line.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 443
Almost every ollave, of whatever profession, kept
apprentices, who lived in his house, and who learned their
business by the teaching and lectures of the master, by
reading, and by actual practice, or iseeing the master
practise; for they accompanied him on his professional
visits. The number under some ollaves was so large as
to constitute a little school. There was, of course, a fee ;
in return for which, as the Brehon Law (v. 97) expresses
it : — " Instruction without reservation, and correction
"without harshness, are due from the master to the
"pupil, and to feed and clothe him during the time he
"is at his learning." Moreover, as in the case of the
literary teacher (p. 423, supra\ the pupil was bound to
help the master in old age if poverty came on him. The
same passage in the Brehon Law continues: — ^**To help
"him against poverty, and to support him in old age [if
" necessary], these are due from the pupil to the tutor."
Although there were ollaves of the various professions
and crafts, this word "ollave" was commonly understood
to mean a doctor of Poetry, or of History, or of both
combined. These two professions — poetry and history-
overlap a good deal, and the same individual generally
professed both ; as is put very clearly by Duald
Mac Firbis in the following words : — " The historians of
" Erin in the ancient times will scarcely be distinguished
" from the feinidh [or story-tellers : pron. fainee], and
"from those who are now called aes-ddna [* poets'], for
" it was often at one school they were all educated."*
A literary ollave, as ^filt or poet, was expected to be
able to compose a quatrain, or some very short poem,
extemporaneously, on any subject proposed on the
moment : and he was always called upon to do so when
the degree was conferred on him, this being an
essential part of the ceremony: — ^**The ollave" — says
the gloss on the Senchus M6r — "did this [i.e. composed
* Quoted in MS. Mat., 32a
444 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
"an extempore quatrain] after "his ordination [i,e. after
*'the degree was conferred on him] by the king of the
" territories."*
As a Shanachie or Historian, the ollave was under-
stood to be specially learned in the History, Chronological
Synchronisms, Antiquities, and Genealogies of Ireland.
We have already seen (p. 434) that he should know by
heart 350 Historical and Romantic Stories (namely 250
of what were called prime or principal stories and 100
secondary: see chap, xv., sect, i, tn/ra\ so as to be able
to recite any one or more of them when called upon at
a moment's notice.
He was also supposed to know the prerogatives, rights,
duties, restrictions, tributes, &c., of the king of Ireland,
and of the provincial kings. " The poet or the learned
" historian " — says the Book of Rights — ^** who does not
"know the prerogatives and the prohibitions of these
"kings is not entitled to visitation or to sale" [of his
compositions]. Farther on in the same authority a
similar statement is made in a more amplified and
emphatic form : and here it is added that the ollave
was expected, if asked, to repeat the whole statement
from memory, "so that he can recite them all at each
noble meeting."t As a learned man he was expected to
answer reasonable questions, and explain difficulties:—
" He is great to expound, and he expounds and solves
questions" — says Cormac's Glossary (127, "Ollamh").
These were large requirements : but then he spent
many years of preparation : and once admitted to the
coveted rank, the guerdon was splendid ; for he was
highly honoured, had many privileges, and received
princely rewards and presents. Elsewhere it is shown
that a king kept in his household an ollave of each
profession, who was well paid for his services. The
• Br. Law, i. 43, bottom. f Book of Rights, 7, 237, 239.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 445
literary oUave never condescended to exercise his pro-
fession— indeed he was forbidden to do so — for any but
the most distingjuished company-r— kings and chiefs and
such like, wjth their guests. He left the poets of the
lower grades to attend a lower class of people. The
prices for the compositions of the several grades of
poets may be seen in the " Small Primer," Br. Laws, v.>
pp. 57-71.
The poets sang their poems when reciting ; and com-
monly accompanied themselves with the music of a small
harp. This we know from many passages in old literature.
Adamnan relates how on one occasion a poet came up to
St. Columba beside Lough Key near Boyle in Roscommon.
And when, after some conversation, he had gone away,
the saint's companions said to him : — ^** Why did you not
" ask Cronan the poet for a song to be sung musically
" after manner of his art ? "* And again in another
authority : — " On a certain day in the season of autumn,
" as Felim Mac Criffan, monarch of Erin, was in Cashel of
" the kings, there came to him the abbot of a church . • .
** who took his little eight-stringed harp from his girdle,.
" and played sweet music, and sang a poem to it"f
The Irish Helicon. — If we are to believe the legends,^
there was a royal road to the ollave's great learning : for
the ancient Irish had their Helicon as well as the Greeks.
King Cormac Mac Art was on one occasion wandering
through Tir Tairngire or Fairyland (see p. 293, suprd)^
when he saw beside the rampart of a royal ddn or palace
a shining fountain with five streams issuing from it»
* Adamnan, 8a
t O'Cnrry, Man. & Cust., ii. 262, quoting from the Book of Lecan.
Fdim was king of Munster in the ninth century, and claimed to be king of
Ireland : see Joyce, Short Hist, of Ireland, 192. On this subject of musical
accompaniment to singing, see Dejubainville, La Civil, des Celtes, 134: he
remarks that the Homeric Greeks had the same custom. In all cases,
whether Greek or Irish, the music was probably nothing more than a very
simple chant.
446 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
making a murmur more melodious than any mortal music.
There were five salmon swimming about in the well : and
on the margin grew nine hazels which often dropped
purple nuts into the water. The moment a nut fell, one
of the salmon caught it, and rejecting the husk, ate the
kernel. As Cormac looked on, he saw many people
coming to the well in turn, and drinking. And when
he inquired the meaning of these strange sights, he was
told that this was the " Fountain of Knowledge " ; that
the five streams were the five senses, through which
knowledge is obtained ; and that those who drank were
at once endowed with great knowledge, so that they were
thenceforward called " People of many arts and sciences "
'{Lucht na n-ildan)!^
The five salmon in this fountain were the same as the
** Salmon of Knowledge" of another and better form of
this legend. In the north of the present County Tipperary
there was a beautiful fountain called Connla's Well, in
which there were a number of salmon swimming about,
and from which flowed a stream to the Shannon. Over
this well there grew nine beautiful hazel trees, which
produced blossoms and crimson nuts simultaneously.
Whenever a nut dropped into the well, a salmon darted
up and ate it ; and whatever number of nuts any one of
them swallowed, so many bright red spots appeared on its
belly. All the knowledge of the arts and sciences was in
some mysterious way concentrated into these nuts; and
the salmon that ate of them became " a salmon of know-
ledge " {E6fessa\ and swam down the stream to the
Shannon. Whoever could succeed in catching and eating
one of these salmon, his student drudgery was ended ; for
he became at once a great poet, and was, besides, endued
with knowledge of all the arts and sciences. Hence poets
and story-tellers, speaking of any subject difficult to deal
with, often say : — ^** Unless I had eaten the salmon of
*Ir. Texte, III. 213-216.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 447
knowledge I could not describe it"* In Cormac's Glossary
(p. 35) these hazels are mentioned, showing the antiquity
of the l^end : here they are called by the name of
Caill Crinmofty i.e. "hazels of scientific composition" [of
poetry] : from colly * hazel ' : pL coill or caill \ and they are
defined as "hazels from which come a new composition."
According to other accounts there was a fountain of this
kind at the source of every chief river of Ireland.
Chief Poet's Mantle. — On state occasions the chief poet
of all Ireland wore a precious mantle elaborately orna-
mented, called tugen or taidetiy and sometimes. j/2^i^^;i. In
the Book of Rights (p. 33), it is stated that a knowledge
of the privileges of the king of Cashel will always be
found " with the chief poet of the Gael," together with the
iaiden, Cormac's Glossary (p, 160) derives tugen from
toga : but it gives an alternative derivation which explains
how this mantle was made : — " Otherwise tuigen is derived
** from tuige-en^ the * tuige or covering [of the feathers] of
birds ' \in\ : for it is of skins of birds white and many-
coloured that the poets* mantle from their girdle down-
" wards is made, and of the necks of drakes and of their
"** crests [it is made] from their girdle upwards to their
•" neck."
Poet's Musical Branch. — All classes of poets were
accustomed to carry a little musical branchf over their
head which tinkled as they went along. That carried by
an oUave was of gold ; that by an anruth of silver ; while
all lower classes had a branch of bronze.^
Poet on Horseback. — An ollave or ices rode on horseback
on his journeys, so that a horsewhip {echlaisc) was looked
upon as an essential for him, just as a gipne or cupping-
horn was for a doctor. A man who had an action against
a poet might distrain his horsewhip, leaving it with him
* O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., I. 143.
t For the musical branch see chap, xvii., sect. 2, infra,
X O'Curry, Man. ic Cust., ir. 316 : LL, 186, a, 39.
4<
448 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Still, but with an injunction that he was not to use it
(see p, 203, supra\ which was understood to reduce him
to helplessness, inasmuch as he could not ride without
a whip *
PUi and Bard. — The word fili or file was applied
to the highest orders of poets : also often called ^ces
[aikas]. Both words signify *a poet': but are generally
understood to mean much more : not only a poet but a
learned man in general — a philosopher. In Ireland there
was in ancient times a marked distinction between a file
and a bard. The word bard does not occur as the
designation of any one of the ancient leading poetical
degrees : but it was in common use to denote an inferior
sort of poet. A bard was considered a mere rhymer,
having neither the training nor the knowledge of a file.
The distinction is noticed by the writer of the Book of
Rights: — [The rights and privileges of the kings] "are
"not known to every prattling bard {bdrd b^lghach): it is.
" not the right of a bard, but the right of a file^ to know
"each king and his right"f The position of a bard is
clearly stated in the Sequel to the Crith Gabhlach : —
" A bard is one without lawful learning but his own
intellect ":J that is to say, one who had no r^fular
training — such as was recognized by law — but became a
rhymer by his native talent, like Robert Bums or Owen
Roe O'Sullivan, who, if they had lived in Ireland a
thousand years ago, would no doubt have been looked
down upon as mere bards by the highly- trained files or
ollave poets. In the statement of the twelve years'
course in the Book of OUaves, the bard is recognized
officially; for it is laid down that in the seventh year
was taught the "bardism of the bards "(see p- 433), so
that a man who had mastered the seventh year's course:
*Br. Laws, 11. 121, top.
tBook of Rights, 183: see also Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1868, pp. 287, 288.
J Br. Laws, iv. 361, 14.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 449
was a bard. The distinction between a file-^poet and a
bard was kept up so late as 1351, when Wilh'am O'Kelly
gave the banquet to men of leat-ning in general (see
sect. 6 below), and among those invited were ^^ poettSy
brehons, bardeSy harpers, &c."* Ultimately, however, the
distinction was lost : and the word lard came to be
applied to a poet of any kind. The poets who form
the main subject of this chapter were the fiUs. Among
the continental Celts, all of whom had their poets like
those of Ireland, and held them in equal veneration, they
were all without distinction called bards.f
Poets' Yifiitatioiis and Sale of Poems. — In Ireland the
position of the poets constituted perhaps the most singular
feature of society. It had its origin in the intense
and universal veneration for learning, which, however, as
we shall see, sometimes gave rise to unhealthful develop-
ments that affected the daily life of all classes, but
particularly of the higher. Every ollave fili was entitled
to expect and accept presents from those people of the
upper classes to whom he presented his poetical com*
positions: a transaction which the records openly call
"selling his poetry." But unless he had the proper
qualifications of the fiU of some grade — namely those
set forth in the table (p. 430), as well as some others —
he had no claim to anything. In the Book of Rights
(p. 237), we are told that the fili who does not know
certain specified things is not entitled to "visitation" or
to "sale for his compositions."
The ollave poet was entitled to go on cuairt [coort] —
'circuit' or visitation: i.e, he went through the country
at certain intervals with a retinue of twenty-four of his
disciples or pupils^ and visited the kings and chiefs one
after another, who were expected to lodge and entertain
* Hy Many, 104.
t Aa to the Celtic fiU and hard^ see De JubainvUle, La Civil, des Celtes,.
74 it seq, X Conn. Gloss., 127 («« Ollamh ") : Br. Laws, iv. 355, bottom.
2 G
450 REXIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
them all for some time with lavish hospitality, and on
their departure to present the ollave with some valuable
present for his poetry ; especially one particular prepared
poem eulogising the chief himself, which was to be recited
and presented immediately on the poet's arrival.*
The. poet had also a right to entertainment in the
houses of public hospitality.t Sometimes an ollave poet,
instead of going in person, sent round one of his principal
pupils as deputy, with his poetry, who brought home to
him the rewards; as in the case of Dubthach and Fiacc
mentioned below. When a poet of inferior grade went on
visitation, he was allowed a retinue according to his rank,
who were to be entertained with him. For example, an
anruth, being next to the ollave, had a company of
twelve : a doss had four : and a fochluc, the lowest
qualified poet, had two. J This remarkable custom, which
is constantly mentioned in Irish writings of all kinds,
existed from the most remote pagan times.
The right of poets to be entertained and paid for their
poems on these occasions was universally acknowledged ;
and few persons had the courage to break through the
custom ; for it was considered disgraceful to refuse a poet
his guerdon. Even the early Christian missionaries, and
the Danes, and still later the Anglo-Normans, fell in with
the custom. A well-marked example, occurring in the
first half of the fifth century, is recorded incidentally in
the ancient Lives of St Patrick. The saint having con-
verted the chief poet, Dubthach, asked him to recommend
a man whom he might consecrate to religion. Dubthach
replied that the only man he knew that was likely to
answer was one of his own disciples named Fiacc : but
that he was just then absent in Connaught, whither he
*For instances of cuairis, or 'circuits/ and payments, see 0*Cunry,
Man. & Gust., i. 99, 100, 103, 129: Pctrie, Round Towers, 354: Trom-
damh, in Trans. Oss. Soc., v. 11, 15, 113 : Silva Gad., 420, 421.
t For these houses see chap, xxi., sect. 10, in/fu,
X Br. Laws, iv. 357, 359, 361.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 45 %
had been sent by Dubthach with poetry for the kings of
that province. Fiacc, having returned soon after, was
baptised by St Patrick; and he became a distinguished
Irish saint, well known in ecclesiastical history as St.
Fiacc, bishop of Sleaty. The same Lives record another
example of payment for poetry — legendary, but of equal
antiquity — as occurring among the saints themselves. St
Secbnall of Dunshaughlin in Meath made a hymn in
honour of his uncle St. Patrick, and on presenting it to
him, demanded payment for it according to custom.
There was a little huckstering between the two saints :
but in the end Sechnall accepted as payment this favour : —
that whoever recited the last three verses of the hymn with
proper dispositions, morning and evening each day, would
gain heaven in the end.* And numerous examples might
be cited where Irish poets went on visitation among the
Galls or Danes, and got well paid for their poetry .f
From the fifth century — and indeed from a much
earlier time — down through all periods of our history,
instances could be quoted. The last poetical cuat'r/ that
I can find any record of, occurred in the year 1808, when
a poet named O'Kelly— " The Bard O'Kelly,'' as he styled
himself — made a circuit of Connaught, visiting the houses
of the leading gentlemen to extort subscriptions, and, at
the end of it, wrote a doggrel poem in English — not with-
out vigour — of which I have a printed copy. All the
families he visited are mentioned, most with praise as they
gave him money, but some with scurrilous abuse because
they had the spirit to refuse him.J
The Satire. — The grand weapon of the poets, by which
they enforced their demands, was the aer or satire —
sometimes called groma (Corm. 86). A satire or lampoon
is unpleasant enough under any circumstances. But an
♦Trip. Life, 385.
t For instances, see Petrie, Round Towers, 353 : Atkinson, Introduction
to LL, 40, ^, verse at top. •
\ Scott met him in Limerick in 1825 (Lockhart's Life).
2 G 2
452 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
Irish satirical verse was, I suppose, the most venomous
ever invented ; for it had — as the people believed — some
baleful preternatural influence for inflicting mischief,
physical or mental : so that it was very much dreaded.
A poet could compose an aer that would blight crops,
dry up milch-cows, raise a ferb or bolg^ i.e. an ulcerous
blister, on the face,* and what was perhaps worst of all,
ruin character and bring disgrace. The dread of these
poetical lampoons was as intense in the time of Spenser
as it was eight centuries before, as is shown by his words
(View, 120): — **None dare displease them [the poets] foi*
" feare to runne into reproach thorough their offence, and
" to be made infamous in the mouthes of all men."
We have already seen (p. 240) the use of the male-
dictory incantation called a gldm-dichenn by sorcerers :
this term was also applied to some at least of the extem-*
pore satires pronounced by poets — as poets and not as
sorcerers. Before the second Battle of Moytura, when
the various leading professional Dedannans were asked
what help they could give in the battle, the fiU or poet
(as distinguished from the sorcerer, who is also named)
X promised, on behalf of his class, to make a gldm-dichenn
on the Fomorian enemies, which would satirise and
shame them, and take away their power of resistance.f
This application also appears from the following in-
stances, in which the terms aer and gldm-dichenn are
used to denote the self-same satire. The two sons of
Aithime, the venomous Ulster poet, who were themselves
poets, made improper proposals to Luan, Concobar
Mac Nessa's young queen, and threatened if she did not
yield to make a gldm-dichenn on her : and the legend
goes on to say that on her refusal they made three aersX
• Corm. 71 ("Ferb"). t Rev. Celt, xii. 91.
Jin YBL, 178, by line 19, their compositions are called gldm-dichenn \
and, in line 23, tri haera, *■ three aers^ See also Atkinson's Contents tcf
same vol., p. ii.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 453
which raised three bolga^ or * blisters/ on her face ; a black
blister which was called 6n^ or 'stain*; a red one called
ainim^ or 'blemish'; and a white one called aithis^ or
'defect*: on which the poor young queen died of grief
for the disgrace. This was the crowning and last iniquity
of Aithime and his family ; for the Ulstermen, urged on
by Concobar, rose up in a rage and slew the whole
three, and destroyed their dun. So also the satire
made by Mac Adnai on his uncle Caeir is called in one
place aer^ in another gldm-dichenn^ and in a different copy
gldm simply.*
Sometimes the pronouncement by a poet of a gldm--
dichenn against a king or chief who refused to pay him
the just reward of his poetry was attended with curious
and elaborate formalities : different indeed from those
used by professed sorcerers, but hardly less pagan. It
was a solemn excommunication, or rather curse, pro-
nounced from the top of a hill by a company of seven,
namely, one of each of the seven orders of poets (as
named at p. 428, suprd)^ of whom the aggrieved poet
was one. The whole wicked process, as described in
the Book of Ballymote, may be seen in O'Curry's
Lectures, and a literal translation by Stokes in Revue
Celtique.f According to a statement in an ancient MS.
quoted by Stokes, J " the blisters would grow on the
" poet {fili) himself, and he would straightway perish if
" he satirised the gfuiltless.*' The poets who pronounced
the two .Villanous and undeserved satires on Luan and
Caeir escaped-, the blisters ; but they perished imme-
diately after. A poetical gldm-diclunn was always an
extempore composition ; .and its name shows that the
fingers were used as a mnemonic aid as in the pagan
* Three Jr. Glossaries, Preface, zzzvi to xl: also Corm. Glossary, 57
<«* Doiduine ") ; and 87 (♦• Gaire ").
tO'Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 216, 217: Rev. Celt., xii. 119.
X In Rev. Celt., XX. 422.
454 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART »
dichetal do chennib (p. 243, supra) : for the word
dichenn is the same in sense as do-chennib, meaning
*from the [finger-] ends.*
A poet could kill the lower animals by an .aer, A
story is told of Senchan Torpest, chief poet of Ireland,
who lived in the seventh century, that once when his
dinner was eaten in his absence by rats he uttered an aer
on them in his ill-humour, beginning, " Rats, though sharp
their snouts, are not powerful in battle," which killed ten
of them on the spot* Hence it was believed, even down
to late times, that the Irish bards could rhyme rats to
death : which is often alluded to by Shakspeare and other
English writers of the time of Elizabeth.t
A poet praised or satirised as the occasion required :
and all poets could do both. • This double function was
universally understood from the earliest to the latest time,
and is clearly set forth by the commentator on the Senchus
M6r,t when he states that one of the persons permitted to
speak in public before Patrick's time was "a poet to
eulogise and to satirise." And Cormac's Glossary (p. 74)
Is quite as clear when it derives Jilt^ * a poet,' from "^,
poison in satire, and /i, splendour in praise." But
some poets devoted themselves almost exclusively to the
composition of the aer, and these came to be recognised
as professional satirists. A satirist was commonly called
cdinU ; but sometimes dul and rinntaidh, % ' We occasion-
ally meet with female satirists, who were called ban-cdinie
(ban, as an adjective prefix, meaning * female*).
The Brehon Law laid down a penalty for an unjust
satire.: the Crith Gabhlach repeatedly speaks of fines of
so many s^ds for this offence || : but apparently these pro-
visions had not much effect in restraining the violence of
* Tromdamb, 75 ; and see the long and useful note beginning at 76.
t See a Paper on Rhyming Rats to Death, by Dr. Todd : Proc. Roy. Ir.
Acad., V. 355. X S"*' Laws, i. 19.
{ Conn. Gloss., pp. 31, 58, ui. fl Br. Laws, i. 59 ; iv. 307, 345, 347.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 455
the satirical poets. Cormac, in severaCl passages of his
Glossary, gives vivid expression to the hateful character
the satirist bore in his time (ninth or tenth century). In
one place (p. 58), the satirist is " unendurable for his harsh*^
ness": in another (p. 141), "he wounds each face^' [by
raising blisters] : and in yet another (p. 31), cdtnte is
derived from cants^ *a dog/ "because the satirist has a
" dogfs head in barking, and alike is the profession they
"follow" [snarling, barking, biting]. In a passage of the
Brehon Laws (ill. 25, s), the cdtnte or satirist is classed
among people of disreputable character. In the time of
Elizabeth, an Irish satirical poet named Aengus O'Daly —
commonly known as Aengus-nan-aer^ * Aengus of th6
Satires,' lampooned the Irish chiefs with the intention
of turning them into ridicule — hired for his vile function,
as was universally believed, by Lord Mountjoy and Sif
George Carew. He traversed the four provinces, and had
a scurrilous verse for every chief he visited. All went
well with him till he came to North Tipperary. Here,
at a banquet, he uttered some scurvy remarks about
O' Meagher, the chief of Ikerrin, on which one of the clan
became so infuriated that he drew a skian or dagger and
brought Aengus and his scurrility to a sudden end. Then
there was a deathbed repentance ; for when dying, the poet
uttered one more stanza, revoking all his villanous sayings
about the Irish chiefs. This poem has been translated and
edited by O'Donovan,* whose introduction gives a vast
amount of information regarding Irish satires and satirists.
General Charaeter of Poets. — Many authorities, among
them Colgan, believe that the poets of the Christian times
were the direct representatives of the druids of the old
pagan ages. As bearing out this opinion, it is certain
that — notwithstanding Columkille's action as related next
page — the poets and the Christian ecclesiastics are often
represented in our records as hostile to one another : and
* In The Tribes of Ireland.
456 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART Q^-* [PART II
the ceremonies at the pronouncement — in Christian times —
of a gldm-dichenn by a poet were very pagan in character.
All people, high and low, had a sincere admiration
and respect for these poets, and, so far as their means
permitted, willingly entertained them and gave them
presents, of which we find instances everywhere in the
literature : and the law made careful provision for duly
rewarding them and protecting them from injuries. But,
as might be expected, they often abused their position
and privileges by unreasonable demands, so that many of
them, while admired for their learning, came to be feared
and hated for their arrogance. Their rajpacity gave rise
to a well-known legend — if legend it is— recorded in
Cormac's Glossary (p. 21) and elsewhere,* that they had
a "caldron of greed," called a b6g^^ made of gold or
silver, weighing twelve ounces, which they carried about
suspended by little chains ol findruine from the tops of
their spears. Into this every person who gave them any-
thing put the donation.
Their oppression became so intolerable that on three
several occasions in ancient times— at long intervals — the
people of all classes rose up against them and insisted on
their suppression. But they were saved each time by the
intervention of the men of Ulster. The last occasion of
these was at the convention of Drum-Ketta in the year
574, during the reign of Aed Mac Ainmirecli,f when the
king himself and the greater part of the kings and chiefs
of Ireland determined to have the whole order suppressed,
and the worst among them banished the country. But
St Columkille interposed with a more moderate and a
better proposal, which was agreed to through his great
influence. The poets and their followers were greatly
reduced in number : strict rules were laid down for the
* See Three Ir. Gloss., Pref. Iviii : and Rev. Celt., xx. 423.
t One of the circumstances that brought on this crisis was their insolent
demand of the royal wheel brooch, for which see p. 59, supra.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING ANt) EDUCATION 457
r^fulation of their conduct In the future ; and those who
were fit for it, especially the ollaves, were set to work to
teach schools, with land for their maintenance, so as to
relieve the people from their exactions. It should be
remarked that at this Drum-Ketta Council, as on the two
previous occasions, it was the ^/^-poets alone who were in
question, not the bards.
Much has been said here about the poets that abused
their privileges. These were chiefly the satirists, who
were mostly men of sinister tendencies. But we should
glance at the other side. At all periods of our history
poets are found, of noble and dignified character, highly
learned, and ever ready to exert their great influence in
favour of manliness, truthfulness, and justice. To these
we owe a great number of poems containing invaluable
information on the history and antiquities of the country :
and such men were at all times respected, loved, and
honoured, as will be shown in the next section. The
poets played a noble part during the Elizabethan and
Williamite wars, as well as during the time of the Penal
Laws. They threw themselves passionately on the side
of their country ; and many of their fine patriotic poems
are still extant — fiery or sad as the occasions called them
forth. They exerted considerable influence in stirring up
resistance : and hence they were pursued with unrelenting
hostility by the Anglo-Irish Government authorities.
It should be remarked that there were poetesses also,
of whom many are noticed in the literature. A historical
instance occurs in the Annals of the Four Masters, who, under
the date A.D. 932, record the death of " Uallach (daughter of
Muimhnechan), chief poetess (Jbainicces) of Ireland."
Contests of Wit. — The Irish poets were much given to
contests of wit, usually carried on in the following way.
When two of them met, one repeated the first half of a
verse or very short poem, which was a challenge to the
other to complete it. Sometimes it was a quotation from
458 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
some obscure, half-forgotten old poem, sometimes an
effusion composed on the spot, in which case the. second
poet was expected to give^ extemporaneously, a second
half of the samic length, prosody, and rhyme, and making
continuous sense. This practice was common among
other ancient nations as well as among the Irish f and
according to Stokes (Acallamh, p. .304) it still prevails in
Portugal and India. In Ireland it was believed that a
true poet never failed to respond correctly, so that . this
was a test often applied to expose a poetical pretender.
On one occasion St. Cummian repeated two lines of
poetry to his half-brother Comgan (see p. 224, supra) ;
oh which Comgan, without a moment's hesitation, com-
posed and. repeated two lines which completed the
quatrain and carried on the sense in perfect rhythm
and rhyme. This is a translation of the complete
quatrain, which is on the subject of smith-work.t .
**CUMMIAN.
** The pincers grasps the glowing iron-bar ;
Down comes the ponderous sledge with thundering sound ;
"Comgan. ,
',* Sparkles in showers are flying near and far ;
The bellows plays a murmuring tune all round.'*t.
So generally cultivated, and so universally admired,
was this talent for impromptu reply, that in the
ecclesiastical legends some of the Irish saints are
* See Corm. Glossary, 138, Stokes's note : and Mac Conglinne, 136.
t Todd's Book of Hyrans, 90. For other instances, see Tromdamh^
117, 119: and Rev. Celt., xir. 460.
X In the original Irish, the second two lines correspond with the first two
in rhyme and rhythm, something like the English rendering above, so that in
view of the contest, a literal translation appears pointless : —
*< The pincers grasps the black- red bar ;
Upon which falls the ponderous sledge ;
" Sparkles fly upon every side ;
The bellows plays [a tune] all round."
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 459
credited with as much proficiency as th6 best of the
poets. According to a legend in an ancient MS.
referred to by O'Donovan, St Columkille, walking once
with some companions, met the devil disguised as
a respectable-looking gentleman ; and not knowing at
first who he was, fell into conversation with him. After
an agreeable chat, the gentleman challenged the saint
to a trial of poetical skill, and propounded the first
lines of several hard old rannsy or verses, which
Columkille correctly completed in every case. It was
now the saint's turn, and he recited som6 devotional
half verses which puzzled and silenced Satan— who was
not well versed in that sort of literature — and what was
worse, showed up who he was plainly in sight of all ;
so that he became quite ashamed of himself, and sneaked
off with his tail between his legs.*
This practice held its ground among the Irish-speaking
poets till recent times. Two poets hardly ever met without
a playful contest of wit — always in Irish: and these
encounters were listened to with the utmost delight by
the peasantry, who to this day, in the southern counties,
retain in memory many of the brilliant repartees of Owen
Roe O'Sullivan, Andrew Magrath, and other witty poets
of the eighteenth century.
6. Honours and Rewards for Learning.
In many other ways besides those indicated in the
preceding part of this chapter the people, both high and
low, manifested their admiration for learning, and their
readiness to reward its professors. From the period of
myth and romance down to recent timesj we trace a
succession of learned men in all the professions, to whom
the Irish annals accord as honoured places as they do
to kings and warriors. An ollave sat next the king at
♦ O'Donovan in Corm. Gloss., 138, note at top. '
460 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
table : he was privileged to wear the same number of
colours in his clothes as the king and queen, namely, six,
while all other ranks had fewer. The same dire^ or
dignity-fine (p. 208, supra\ was allowed for a king, a
bishop, and an ollave poet : and they had the same joint
at dinner, namely, the larac or haunch.* The several
grades of learned and professional men were on a level,
in body-fine and social rank, with the chieftain grades.
TYiQ fer-Uginn (or druimcli^ p. 416, sufira), or, as he was
often called, the sat4itre^ 'doctor of literature,' ranked with
the chief or king of a tuath : his tanist or intended
successor with an aire-drdi the forcetlaid^ * professor,' or
'teacher,' with the lowest rank of aire-fargaillx and the
staraidh or * historian,' with the aire-dessa.^ We have seen
that a king kept at his court an ollave of each profession,
who held a very high position, and had ample stipends: J
and once a family was selected to supply ollaves to the
king they were freed from the customary tribute. §
The general tendency to honour learning is shown also
by the recogfnised practice of kings to promote to positions
of honour and trust those who had been their tutors in
early life. For example, when Aed Ordnidhe [Ordnee]
became king of Ireland, A.D. 797, he made his tutor —
Fothad of the Canon — not only his chief poet out his
trusted adviser in state affairs. And when Brian Boru
came to the throne of Munster, A.D. 976, he appointed
as his secretary and confidential adviser, Maelsuthain
O'Carroll, a distinguished lay scholar, " chief sage of
Ireland," who had been his tutor at the College of Innis-
fallen.ll This veneration for poets and other learned men
*Br. Laws, I. 41, 49, u, le.
t Petrie, Tara, 208, note 3 ; Br. Laws, V. 103. For the above chieflaiD
designations see pp. 156-159, supra.
X For a particular example of the emoluments of a court ollave, see
chap. xxiv. sect. 2, infra,
§ Hy Many, 63, in case of the Clann Aedhagain.
II O'Curry, Man. & Cust., I. 177. See this Maelsuthain mentioned in
chap. xiii. farther on.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 461
remained down to a late period, unaffected by wars and
troubles^ We read of great banquets got up on several
occasions to honour the whole body of men of learning,
to which all the professional men within reach were
invited. Several such banquets are commemorated in
our records, and some were on a vast scale, and lasted
for many days. In 1351 William Boy O'Kelly, king of
Hy Many in Connaught, invited the learned men of every
profession to his castle of Gallagh near Castleblayney in
Galway, They came in vast numbers and were lodged
in long streets of tents round the castle. Each street
was set apart for one particular profession — one for poets,
one for bards, one for brehons or lawyers, &c. This
banquet was celebrated, and O'Kelly himself was glorified,
in a poem, by his ollave jiU Geoffrey Finn 0*Daly, in
which the rows of tents are aptly compared to the lines
of letters in a manuscript, and the castle to a large
illuminated capital.*
The Four Masters and other annalists relate another
banquet of this kind — or rather two successive banquets —
g^ven a short time before 1451 by Margaret, wife of
O'Conor of Offaly and daughter of O^CarroU of Ely, a
lady who is greatly praised by the Irish for her unbounded
benevolence and love of learning. " The learned men of
" Ireland and Scotlandf were invited — poets, musicians,
" brehons, antiquaries, &c. The first meeting was held in
** Killeigh near TuUamore, when 2700 were present : and
"the second at Rathangan in Kildare, to which were
" invited all who were absent from the first. Lady
" Margaret herself was present : and she sat high up in
" the gallery of the church in view of the assembly, clad
" in robes of gold, surrounded by her friends and by the
"clergy and brehons. All were feasted in royal style,
* See Hy Many, 104 : «nd Annals ef Clonmacn., a.d. I35i« The poem
is published, with translation, in Proc. Roy. Jr. Acad., VI. 51.
t Mark the implication here of the close connexion between Ireland and
Scotland. See pp. 7, 81, supra.
462 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
" seated according to rank : after which each learned man
*' was presented with a valuable gift : and the names
** of all present were entered in a roll by Gilla-na-Neeve
*' Mac Egan, chief brehon to O'Conor, the lady's husband."*
Perhaps the most signal instance in the Irish records
of the respect for learned men of high character, and of
the confidence reposed in them, is the fact that on the
death of the high king Malachi in 1022, as there happened
to be then no claimant for the throne of Ireland, the
government of the country, pending the election oi a king,
was placed in the hands of two eminent men, who acted
as joint regents, Cuan O'Lochain, a layman, the most
distinguished poet and scholar of his day, and " Corcran
the cleric " of Lismore, " the head of the west of Europe
for piety and wisdom," as the Four Masters style him.
This event is recorded in the Book of Leinster, which was
transcribed a little more than a century after the death of
Corcran, in the annals of Clonmacnoise, as well as in many
later authorities.f This, however, is the only recorded
instance of such a devolution. But among the minor
kingdoms the appointment of a regent during an inter-
regnum must have been a usual occurrence, as we learn
from the words of Cormac's Glossary (p. 22) : — ** Every
*' time there is no king in the tuaths [or smaller kingdoms:
" p. 42, supra\ it is a brdthchaei [braukee] that serves on
" them for administering local law." From this we learn
that a regent was called a brdthchaei ; and the words seem
to imply that a brehon or judge was usually appointed to
the post
But all this respect for the poet was conditional on
his observance of the rules of his order, one of which
was to maintain a high personal character for dignity and
integrity. The Senchus M6r lays down that a fraudulent
•From Joyce's l^hprt Hist, of Ireland, p. 338 : see Ir. Archseol. Misc.,
vol. I., p. 227 : and FM, A.D.. 1451. .
t LL, 26, a, 20 : Trip. Life, 525 : O'Curry, Man. & Gust., 1. 137 : Ogyg.,
III. xciv. , .
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 463
poet may be degraded, i.e. a poet who mixes up false-'
hood with his compositions, or who composes an unlawful
satire, or who demands more than his due reward .• A
poet, i.e. one belonging to the recognised grades, was
obliged, according to an ancient remn or verse quoted by
Duald Mac Firbis, to have
" Purity of hand, bright without wounding.
Purity of mouth, without poisonous satire,
Purity of learning, without reproach,
Purity of husbandship " (/'.(!. fidelity to his marriage vow5).t
"TbeCDnc(]jtc.''V«urtHl, u4nwnltjr Dliwly. lUncof Ctiulci tL Founded Bod
ctoXuij^ Aa enikplc at Eha AoglD-NojiDtAt' tucauugAiDiriiE at iGunlBg, <S<e
Jojct. Sdon HIB. o( iMtond. jli.Mi. Fion KUL Arts. Jmira. for iB6a-j, p. jai i
The Anglo-Norman lords, after they had settled down
in Ireland, became as zealous encouragers of Gaelic learn-
ing as the native nobility, " so that the Geraldines, the
" Butlers, the Burkes, the Keatings, and others, spoke,
" thought, and wrote in the Gaedhlic, and stored their
"libraries with choice and expensive volumes in that
"language."! They kept moreover in their service ollaves
of every profession, brehons, physicians, &c., and remune-
rated them in princely style like the native chiefs ; and
they often founded or endowed colleges.
• Br. Laws, I. 55, 59. t O'Curry, MS, Mat., »«>.
lO-Cum-, MS. M.it.,«.
464 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
7. The Knowledge of Science,
The pure and physical sciences, so far as they were
known in the middle ages, were taught in the schools
and colleges of Ireland. We have seen (p. 435) that the
professors of the fifth grade had to master arithmetic and
astronomy, which in fact meant the whole circle of science.
These, of course, they taught to their pupils ; and more
advanced scientific studies were followed up by the two
grades above them. The success of the home teaching
appears plain from the distinction gained by several
Irishmen on the Continent for their knowledge of
astronomy, as will be pointed out farther on : knowledge
not acquired abroad, but brought from their native
schools.
The Irish scholars understood astronomy according
to the Ptolemaic system, which they universally adopted.
Of this knowledge many indications appear in the ancient
literature ; and we have still several ancient treatises in
the Irish language, well illustrated with astronomical
diagrams ; though they appear to have been in con-
siderable measure copied or translated from foreign
treatises. In the first poem of the Saltair-na-Rann,
written probably about A.D. 1000, is an account of the
creation of the world, with a short description of the
universe, showing a knowledge of the theories — some
right, some wrong — then prevalent The earth is stated
to be " like an apple, goodly, truly round." The names
of the seven planets are given (" Saturn^ Joiby Mercuir^
MarSy Soly Uenir^ Luna"); the distances of the moon^
the sun, and the firmament, from the earth: the firma-
ment is round the earth as the shell is round the egg :
the signs of the zodiac with their names in order, and
the correct month and day when the sun enters each :
the sun is 30 days 10 J hours in each sign : the five
zones — north and south frigid, and two temperate, with
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 465
the torrid zone between. Then follows a statement of
five things which every intelligent person should know —
the day of the solar month, the age of the moon, the
[time of the] flow of the tide, the day of the week, and
the chief saints' festival days. In the commentary on
the Senchus Miir is a similar description of the universe."
Sf^rtarr^iu. 'ibe iphHC of Itie niD.' Sf/lr ia rr/ini.
The various astronomical cycles were perfectly under-
stood and were familiarly applied to calculations in
connexion with chronology and the calendar. -Among
many ancient Irish • writers who have dealt with these
matters may be mentioned Augustin, already referred to
"Br. Laws, I. 11.
2 H
466 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
(p. 345), who wrote his Essay on the wonders of the
Bible, while residing at Carthage. Treating of Joshua's
miracle of the sun and moon, he brings in the lunar cycle,
19, the solar cycle, 28, and the great cycle combining
both, 28 X 19 = 532. He says that the tenth great
cycle ended AJ). 120, and the eleventh in his own time:
120 + 532 e 652. He remarks incidentally that in this
year, 652, Manichaeus the Wise — a well-known and
distinguished Irish ecclesiastic — died in Ireland: a state-
ment that agrees exactly with the Irish home records, one
of the remarkable testimonies to their truthfulness (see
chap, xiv., sect 2, infra). He adds that the year in which
he was writing was the third year of the twelfth great cycle;
which enables us to fix the correct date, A.D. 655.*
The Irish writers were well acquainted with the
solstices, which they called by the descriptive native Irish
name grten-tairisem — so given in the eighth or ninth
century gloss in Zeuss (10, 16) — meaning * sun-standing.'
In the annotations to the Feilire of Aengus (p. 106, 11),
it is correctly stated that one grian-tairisetn occurs
on the 2 1 St June. They had a native name for the
autumnal equinox (21st September) which was descriptive
and scientifically correct : Deiseabhair na grene [Deshoor-
na-gfrena], literally the 'southing or going south by the
sun * [i,e. going south of the equinoctial), from deis^
* south.* In the Life of St Senan in the Book of Lismore,
we read that at the time of his birth, his mother happened
to be alone in the garden frta deiseabhair na grene f
(* about the autumnal equinox '), or, as Colgan translates
it, "tempore authumnali": and as making the meaning
still clearer, it is said, a few lines farther on in the Life,
that Senan was bom t tus fhoghamhairy * in the b^inning
ol Foghamhar^\ Foghamhar here meaning, not * autumn,'
its usual signification, but 'the last month of autumn,' ue.
♦ Reeves in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., vii. 516.
t Stokes, Lives of SS., line 1885, and Pref. ciii.
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 467
October (Corm. 74) : so that the two entries agree. I do
not know if there was a corresponding term for the vernal
equinox. All this shows that they understood the apparent
annual motion of the sun along the ecliptic, half the year
north, and the other half south of the equinoctial, and that
at the autumnal equinox it enters on the south part of its
course. So also, the real movement of the moon, and
the apparent motion of the sun, round the earth — ^both
from west to east — ^were well understood, as appears from
a remark of one of the scholiasts on Dalian's " Amra on
Columkille," that "the moon is before the sun from the
"first to the fifteenth [of the moon's age], and after the
" sun from the fifteenth to the first,"* a perfectly correct
statement, t
A small collection of Irish glosses, first published by
M. D'Arbois de Jubainville — found by him on a single
leaf inside the cover of a manuscript in the library of
Nancy — and interpreted by M. Henri Gaidoz,:^ shows how
carefully the ancient Irish studied chronology and the
astronomical phenomena that determined the several
cycles and dates. This collection has been assigned by
De Jubainville to the ninth century. The following are
the interpretations of M, Gaidoz, from which it appears
that the entries formed a sort of Table of Contents to a
Treatise on the Calendar: —
'* To ascertain what is the day of the week on which are the
calends of January."
** Tq ascertain what is the age of the moon on the calends of
January."
"To ascertain the epact on the calends of [each of] the twelve
months."
*' To ascertain the age of the moon on the nth day of the calends
of April, through the year of the Incarnation."
There are two others, which are imperfect, and need
not be quoted.
* Rev. Celt., XX. 259. t Old Irish, re, esca, and luaUf the moon :
modem, getUachy meaning ' whitish.' % In Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., X. 70.
2 II 2
468 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Irish scholars understood the use and construction of
the sundial, for which two words were used, solanty which
is a native term, and sailer, which is borrowed and
shortened from the Latin solarium, *a sundial.'. . Sailer
explains salarium in the Glosses on Latin Declension,
edited by Stokes (p. 91, No. 740) : while in Zeuss (77r;i6)
the same word salarium is glossed by sol(^m. Besides this
there is a small Irish MS. book in the monastery of St,
Gall in Switzerland, written by some scholarly Irish monk
residing there in the eighth century, containing remarks
on various scientific subjects, such as the Oriental Cycle»
the age of the worid ; and among others on the sundial*
All this shows that with these old Irish writer3 the sun-
dial was a familiar object.
Virgil or Virgilius, abbot of Aghaboe in the present
Queen's County, who went to the Continent A.D. 745, and
became bishop of Salzburg, was one of the most advanced
scholars of his day. Pepin, Mayor of the Palace, subse-
quently king of France, became gfreatly attached to him,
and kept him in the palace for two years. Virgil taught
ipublicly — and was probably the first to teach — ^that the
earth was round, and that people lived at the opposite
side — at the Antipodes. His Iri^ name was Fergil, which,,
in a modified form, is common in Ireland to thi^ day
(O'Farrell) : and he is commonly known in history as
Fergil the Geometer.f
We have a remarkable testimony to the reputation of
Irishmen on the Continent for secular and other learning
in those early ages, in the well-known letter written, ta
Charlemagne by the Irish monk Dungal, which came
about in this way. It having been stated that two solar
eclipses had occurred in one year, A.D. 810, the emperof
selected Dungal, who happened to be then. in,. France^
♦ Keller, in Ulst. Joum. ArchaeoL, viii. 294.
t For an account, of this great scholar, see Lanigan, Eccl. Hist.,.
•'Virgilius," in Index. »
CHAP. XI] LEARNING AND EDUCATION 469
living a recluse* life,' as the scholar considered best able
to explain such an unusual occurrence; and requested hiin
to do so. Dungal's reply ("The Epistle of Dungal.the
" recluse to Charlemagne, regarding two solar eclipses,
" A.D. 810") is still extant, about which we may qubtethe
appropriate wofds^ of Thomas Moore* : — " Howevejr super-
" ficial the astronomical knowledge displayed in this short
" tract, the writer has proved himself to have been well
" acquainted with all that the ancients had said on the
" subject ; while both in his admission that two ^dlar
" eclipses might take place within the year, and his doubt
"that such a rare incidetit hiad occurred in 810, he is
"equally correct" The letter also shows that he knew
of the indihation of the plane of the moon's orbit to that
of the ecliptic ; and he sets forth the astronomical prindiple
that for an eclipse— ^whether of sun or moon---to occur, it
is necessary that the moon should be in the plane of the
ediptic.' This Dungal sul>sequently resided: in Italy, where
he became a celebrated teacher, drawing pupils from all
the suiToUnding cities'; and he also wrote learnedly on
ecclesiastical subjects.^ :
The reniarkable work on geography, " De Mensura
Orbis Terrarum," written by the Irish scholar and traveller
Dicuil, of which several editions were published in the
eighteenth century by German and French editors, has
been already mentioned (p. 345, supra).
When learning had declined in England in the ninth
and tenth centuries,} owing to the devastations of the
Danes, it was chiefly by Irish teachers it was kept alive
and restored. In Glastonbury especially, they taught with
great success ; and we are told by many English writers —
♦ Moore, Hist, of Irel., I. 295.
t See Lanigan, ill. 256 to 262 : and Dr. Healy, Irel. Anc. Schools, 383.
X We are told by several English authorities that at this time (tenth
century) a priest could not be found there who could translate or write
letter in Latin (Lanigan, ill. 395).
470 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
among them Osbem, the author of a Life of St. Dunstah —
that "they were skilled in every department of learning,
sacred and profane"; and that under them were educated
many young English nobles, sent to Glastonbury with
that object Among these students the most distinguished
was St Dunstan, who, according to all his biogfraphers,
received his education, both scriptural and secular, from
Irish masters there. One writer of his Life, William
of Malmesbury, states that Dunstan studied diligently
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music under Irish
teachers, and adds that these sciences were held in great
esteem and were much cultivated by them.*
The age of the moon {aes escd) is mentioned in
Cormac's Glossary, as well as in many other ancient
authorities, as a matter quite familiar : so much so that —
as already remarked (p. 465) — every well-informed person
was supposed to know the moon's age for each day, and
of course the method of calculating it Even the general
mass of intelligent people made use of simple astronomical
observations in daily life. Cuculainn, sitting at a feast,
says to his attendant : — ** Go out, my master Lo^, observe
the stars of the air, and ascertain when midnight comes "
[when Cuculainn would have to leave]. And Lo^ did
so, and came back at the proper moment to announce that
it was midnight.t This record shows that all intelligent
people of those times could roughly estimate the hour of
night throughout the year by the position of the stars — as
indeed I have known intelligent peasants of my own time
able to do : a sort of observation not at all simple, inas-
much as the positions of the stars at given hours change
from month to month.
These are a few illustrations— scattered and frag-
mentary indeed— of the eminence of ancient Irish scholars
in science. But the materials for final judgment are not
* Keller, in Ulst. Journ. Archseol. , viii. 2 1 8. See also, on all this, Lanigan,
£ccl. Hist., III. 395. t Mesca Ulad., 13.
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 4/1
yet available: they are still hidden away in manuscripts
among libraries all over Europe. When they are fully
brought to light, then, and not till then, we shall be able
to accord something approaching the full meed of justice
to the learned men of ancient Ireland
CHAPTER XII
IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE
Section i. Divisions and Dialects of Celtic.
ix Dialects. — There are two main branches of
the ancient Celtic language: — The Ooidelio,
or Gaelic, or Irish ; and the British ; corre-
sponding with the two main divisions of the
Celtic people of the British Islands. Each
of these has branched into three dialects.
Those of Gaelic are: — The Irish proper,
spoken in Ireland ; the Gaelic of Scotland, differing only
slightly from Irish ; and the Manx, which may be said
to be Irish written phonetically with some dialectical
variations. The dialects of British are : — Welsh, spoken
in Wales ; Cornish, spoken till lately in Cornwall ; and
Breton or Armoric, spoken in Brittany. The dialects of
British differ among themselves much more than do
those of Goidelic : they should indeed be reckoned
rather distinct languages than dialects, though Zeuss
includes all three under the designation " Britannic."
Their wide divergence as compared with the dialects of
Goidelic is explained by the fact that Welsh, Cornish,
and Armoric flowed independently from the common
source very far back in time, while both the Manx and
472 , . RELIGION, I^EARNING, AND ART [PART II
; thfe: S:COtcb Gaelic branched ' off from If isb Gaelic aX a
• comparatively! late: period. Of the tvhole six dialects,
five ^e: still epojcen ; the Cornish .bedame extinct in the
eighteenth century ; and Manx is nearly extinct. Four
have an ancient written literature: — ^Irisht Welsh, Cornish,
and Armorio. Neither the Gaelic of Scotland nor the
Manx has an ancient literature distinct from that of
Ireland :* but Scotland has a living modern literature.f
All these are derived from the Gaulish or Continental
Celtic, which in the course of ages, since the separation
of the original Gaulish emigrant tribes, has diverged into
the two branches and the six dialects named here.
Three Divisions of Irish. — Irish, like all other living
languages, has undergone great changes in lapse of time:
so that in fact the written language of eleven or twelve
hundred years ago, of which many specimens have been
preserved, is now all but unintelligible to those who can
read only modern Irish. The changes are : — In vocabu-
lary ; in spelling ; and in inflections. Numberless words
have dropped out of use, while others have been intro-
duced, chiefly from other languages : many of the words
^have changed their spelling: and some of the old inflec-
tions have been dropped and their places supplied, either
by other inflectional forms or more commonly by pre-
positions and auxiliaries, so as to render the language
more analytic, as in the case of English.
It is usual to divide Irish, as we find it written, into
three stages. I. Old Irish, from the seventh or eighth to
* As illustrating this statement : — The counUess Gaelic passages and
words quoted by Zeuss throughout his Grammatica Celtica from manuscripts
written in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, are all, without exception,
marked by him — what they really are—** Hibernian."
t For modem Scottish Gaelic literature, see Maclean*s Literature of the
Celts, chap. xiv. et seq. Modem Irish Gaelic literature is very fully treated
of in Dr. Hyde's Literary History of Ireland. In Irebind a vigorous attempt
is just now being made to re-create a living written Gaelic literature, and to
extend the use of the spoken Irish language. There is a movement also —
following the example of Ireland — to revive Manx and Cornish.
CHAP, XII] JRISH, LANGUAGE :ANp LITERATURE 473
the eleventh . or twelfth centifryw. This is the language of
the GIos56?, .pf the Irish found in the Bdok of Armagh,
and; pf some, pass^es in the Book of the Dun Cow; but
we have very little Old Irish preserved in Ireland. The
classical age of the language was while the Old Irish
prevailed. According to Zeuss the written language
gradually changed from the : eleventh ceotury onwards.
The oldest, purest, and most cultivated form, as found in
the St Gall and other seventh' or eighth: century glosses,
was called the Birlafine [bairla faSna], %t. th^ larigu^e
of the Feint or main body of the free, original inh^itiants
(for whom see p. 160, suprd)* . ^ After Ithfe Anglo-
Norman invasion, the native language, like the native
arts, d^enerated ; and it gradually lost .its pure gfram-
matical forms and its classical precision and simplicity.
II. Middle Iriih, from the twelfth to the. fifteenth century,
marked by many departures from the Old Irish forms.
This is the language of most of our. present important
manuscripts — described farther on (p. 492) — such as the
Book of the Dun Cow, the Book of Leinster, the Lebar
Brecc, and the Book of Ballymote. III. Hodem Irish,
from the fifteenth century to the present day. This is
the language of most of the Ossianic tales. The purest
specimens are the writings of Keating, both historical
and religious. There is a vast amount of manuscript
literature in Modem Irish*
Glosses. — When transcribing or using the classics, or
the Latin version of the Scriptures, Irish professors and
teachers of the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, in
order to aid the Irish learners, . or for their own con*-
venience, often wrote between the lines or on the margin,
literal Irish translations of the unusual or most difficult
words of the text, or general renderings of the sense
into Gaelic phrases. These are what are called Glosses.
♦Gram. Celt., Pref. xxhr, bottom; xxv, 31 ; xxvi, 4. .
474 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ARt [PART II
Numbers of these interesting manuscripts, their pages
all crowded with glosses, are preserved to this day in
many Continental libraries, mostly written in Ireland,
and brought away to save them from destruction (see
p. 489, infra) — but some written on the Continent : and
in them are found older forms of Irish than any we have
in Ireland. Many have been recently published, with
the Latin words and passages, and the corresponding
Gaelic Similar glosses in Welsh, Breton, and Cornish
are also found ; but 1 am concerned here with Irish only.
It is chiefly by means of these glosses that the ancient
grammatical forms of the language have been recovered ;
and the meanings of numbers of Irish words, long obsolete,
have been ascertained from their Latin equivalents.
It is interesting to observe that here the original
intention is reversed. The scribe wrote the Gaelic, which
was the language of his everyday life, to explain the
Latin text But while the Latin, being then, as now, a
dead language, has remained unchanged, the Gaelic has
suffered all those changes spoken of in page 472, so that
the Gaelic of the glosses is now in many cases difficult
and obscure. Accordingly, instead of the Gaelic ex-
plaining the Latin, we now use the Latin to explain the
Gaelic.
ZeoBS. — The first to make extensive use of the glosses for
these purposes was Johann Kaspar Zeuss, a Bavarian ; born
1806 ; died 1856. He had a great talent for languages, and
began the study of the Celtic dialects about 1840. Thence-
forward he laboured incessantly, visiting the libraries
of St Gall, Wurzburg, Milan, Carlsruhe, Cambrai, and
several other cities, in all of which there are manuscript
books with glosses in the Celtic dialects ; and he copied
everything that suited his purpose. He found the Irish
glosses by far the most ancient, extensive, and important
of all. Most of them belonged to the seventh or eighth
century ; some few to the beginning of the ninth. At the
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 475
end of thirteen years he produced the gfreat work* of
his life, "Grammatica Celtica," a complete Grammar of the
four ancient Celtic dialects — Irish or Gaelic, and the three
British dialects, Welsh, Cornish, and Armoric : published
1853. It is a closely printed book of over 1000 pages;
and it is all written in Latin, except of course the Celtic
examples and quotations. Each of the four dialects is
treated of separately. In this work he proves that the
Celtic people of the British Islands are the same with the
Celtae of the Continent ; and that Celtic is one of the
branches of the Aryan or Indo-European languages,
abreast with Latin, Greek, the Teutonic languages, San-
scrit, &c. After his death a second edition, with much
valuable additional matter, was brought out by another
eminent German Celtic scholar, H. Ebel.
Zeuss was the founder of Celtic philology. The
" Grammatica Celtica " was a revelation to scholars,
wholly unexpected; and it gave an impetus to the study,
which has been rather increasing than diminishing since
his time. He made it plain thai a knowledge of the
Celtic langfuages is necessary in order to unravel the early
history of the peoples of Western Europe. Since the time
of Zeuss, many scholarly works have been written on Celtic
philology : but the " Grammatica Celtica " still stands at
the head of all.
Ancient Glossaries and Grammars. — In consequence of
the gradual change of the Irish language it became
customary for native scholars of past times, skilled in
the ancient language, to write glossaries of obsolete words
to aid students in reading very ancient manuscripts.
Many of these are preserved in our old books. The
most noted is " Cormac's Glossary," ascribed to Arch-
bishop Cormac Mac Cullenan, king of Cashel, who died
AJ>. 908. It was translated and annotated by John
OTDonovan ; and this translation and the Irish text, with
most valuable additional notes, have been published by
476 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Dr. -Whitley Stokes.* Michael O'Clery, the chief of the
Four Masters, printed and published at Louvain, in 1643,
a Glossary of ancient and difficult Irish words, which
has been edited and re-published by Mr. W. K. Miller
in vols. iv. and v. of the Revue Celtique. "Three. Irish
Glossaries," edited by Dr. Stokes, with learned land
instructive introduction, contains those of Cormac and
0*Davoren, and a third, namely, a Qlossary to the Feilire
of Oengus, all without translation (but Cormac's Glossary,
as stated above, has been translated in a separate volume).
Mac Firbts and his master O'Davorertcompil^jd Glossaries
.of the Brehon laws, which are still extent ; arid there are,
in Trinity College, copies made by M«tcFij:bis pf several
other glossaries. There is a very ancient treatise 6rt Ifisb
Grammar, divided into four books, ascribed severally to
four learned Irishmen. Of these the latest wi^s Kennfaela
the Learned, who lived in the seventh century, and who is
set down as the author of the fourth book (see "Kennfaela"
in Index). Copies of this tract are found in the Books of
Ballymote and Lecan ; but it has never been translated.
But with all the aids at our command — glossaries,
glosses, translations, and commentaries — there are many
Irish poems in the books named below (p. 492) that have
up to the present defied the attempts of the best Irish
*NOTE ON CoKMAC's GLOSSARY. — In the Book of Leinster, and by universal
tradition, this Glossary is attributed to Archbishop Cormac Mac CuUenan,
king of Munster, who died A.D. 908. Dr. Whitley Stokes considers the
evidence insufficient to prove him the author: but says: — *'The proofs
adduced . «: . sufficiently show that the greater part of what is commonly
called Cormac's Glossary was written, if not in the time of Cormac, at least
wifhin a century or so after his death" (Three Irish Glossaries, Pref. xviii).
.On this point we must -bear in mind that the entry in the Book of Leinster
transmits a tradition that was old in 1160, when the book was written: and,
coupling this with the universal belief expressed in our oldest writings —
independently of the Book of Leinster — it seems to me that we may accept
the testimony in favour of Cormac's authorship. It will, I think, be found
that many ancient classical and other texts are attributed to certain authors
on evidence not more satisfactory. I give these observations for what they
are worth. I naturally feel that one ought to be cautious in questioning the
opinion of Dr. Stokes in such a matter as this.
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 477
scholars to translate them satisfactorily, so many old
words, phrases, and allusions do they contain whose
meanings have been lost This state of things has been
caused chiefly by the wholesale destruction of mss.
mentioned at page 489, in/ra, which left great gaps, and
broke the continuity, of the Irish' language and literature.
The poetry is much more intractable than the prose, for
reasons that will be explained farther on. But the subject
is attracting more and more attention as years go by ; so
that now it may be said that the language, literature,
and antiquities of Ireland — and of the Celtic -nations in
general — excite almost as keen an interest throughout
Europe as those of Egypt and Assyria. Great numbers
of Continei\tal scholars as well as those of the British Isles
are eagerly engaged in .studying ancient Irislv tenets ; year
by year the .difficulties are being overcome ; and there i$
every hope that before long we shall have translations of
most or all of these obscure old pieces.*
2. Writingand Writing Materials.
Soribet. — After the time of St Patrick, as everything
seems to- have been written down that was considered
worth preserving, manuscripts accumulated in the course
of time, which were kept in monasteries and in the hoiiseS
of hereditary professors of le^iming : many also in the
libraries of private persons. As there were no printed
books, readers had to depend for a supply entirely on
manuscript copies. To copy a book was justly considered
a very meritorious work, and in the highest degree so if it
Was a part of the Holy Scriptures, or of any other book on
♦A Very useful epitome* of the present state- of knowledge • regarding
ancienit.lijsh literature. is given byM. Dottin in his aiiUde VX«a Litt^rature
Ga€lique de I'Irlande,** in the Revue de Synthase Historique for 1901, p. 6o.
Dr. Maclean has given, in' the last chapter of his Literature 'of 'die Celts, a
good account of the most distinguished modem workers in Celtic lore— '* the
Master Scholars of Celtic Literature," as he calls them — German; French,
Italian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, American, English, Welsh, Manx,
Scotch, Irish ; and of the various periodicals devoted to Celtic studies.
478 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
sacred or devotional subjects. Scribes or copyists were
therefore much honoured ; and the annalists, after men-
tioning a man otherwise learned and eminent — whether
bishop, priest, or lay professor — considered it an enhance-
ment to his dignity if they were able to add that he was a
scribe. In the decrees of some of the Irish synods the
same punishments are ordained for those who kill or injure
a bishop, an abbot, or a scribe.* One of the merits of
St. Columkille was his diligence in writing. The Four
Masters mention sixty-one eminent scribes before the year
900, forty of whom lived between the years 700 and 8oof —
one of the indications that show the importance attached
to their office and how highly they were esteemed.
There was at least one special scribe in every important
monastery, who was selected partly for his scholarship and
partly for his skill in penmanship. These men, outside
their necessary religious duties and functions, devoted their
whole time to copying and multiplying books. But besides
those specially appointed to this work, the other monks
often employed themselves — like Columkille — in copying,
when they could withdraw from their own duties. Scribes
were very careful to test the correctness of their transcript,
especially if it was Scripture. Adamnan (p. 53) relates
that Baithen, one of the monks of lona, when he had
finished copying a psaltery, asked Columba to let one of
the brethren look over it with him, to discover errors if
any : and accordingly the whole copy was read through ;
but only one single letter was found to be wrong.
Vellum, — Two chief materials were used in Ireland for
writing on : — Long, thin, smooth rectangular boards or
tablets ; and vellum or parchment, made from the skins of
sheep, goats or calves,J which was the most usual and the
most important material. Inscriptions were also carved
♦MacCarthy, Textual Studies, 205, note § : Stokes, Trip. Life, clxxiv.
t Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art, 10.
J See Corra. Gloss., p. 40 (" Cairt ").
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 479
on Stone, both in ordinary Irish letters and in Ogham.
The scribes had to make all their own materials — tablets,
vellum, ink, and pens : or rather perhaps certain indi-
viduals devoted themselves to this special work, who
thereby became skilful and expert
Ink (Irish dub or dubh, i.e. * black * : pron. dhuv\ The
ink was made from carbon, without iron or any other
mineral, as is shown by delicate chemical analysis. In
the more ancient MSS., a thick kind of ink was used
remarkable for its intense blackness and durability: and
its excellence is proved by the fact that in most of the
very old books the writing is almost or altogether as black
as it was when written, more than a thousand years ago.
" The writing in the Book of Armagh " — says Reeves
(Adamn. 359, note /) — ^' after 1050 years, is as black as if
executed but yesterday."
The ink was kept in a little vessel commonly made
of part of a cow's horn, and therefore called adardn
or adirdn [ey-arkeen], meaning * little horn,' from adarc
[ey-ark], * a horn/ Once, as we read in an Irish Life of
St Columkille,* an awkward fellow came into the saint's
little hut, and knocked over the adirdn and spilled the
ink. The same incident is told in Adamnan's Latin Life,
in which the ink-vessel is called corfiiaUum^ * little horn/
the exact equivalent oi adirdn,^
Pen. — The beauty, neatness, and perfect uniformity of
the handwriting in old Irish MSS., have led some English
antiquaries to express an opinion that the scribes used
metallic pens : but this opinion is quite untenable. Keller
holds, and indeed shows, that their pens were made from
the quills of geese, swans, crows, and other birds : and in
this he is followed by Miss Stokes. J The correctness
* Stokes, Three Ir. Homilies, 121.
t For ink and inkhom, see Keller, in Ulst. Jouni. of Archicol., Vili. 221 :
Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art, p. 8 : and Adamn., 359, note /.
X Ulst. Joum. of ArchseoL, viii. 222,: Miss Stokes, Early .Christian Art, 9.
480 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of this contention is proved by some pictures in Irish
manuscripts, as, for instance, in the representation of St.
John in the Book of Kells,* where the evangelist engaged
in writing his Gospel holds in his hand a pen, the feather
of which can be clearly perceived. The inkstand is also
represented - as a simple slender conical cup [adarcln]
fastened either to the arm of the chair, or upon a small
stick on. the ground. There is a legend in the Irish Life
of St Molaise orDevenish which goes. to confirm all this :
it is in a late manuscript (sixteenth century), which was
no doubt 4Zom|)iled> fi^om much earlier authorities. Here
we read tiiat on one occasion the saint was desirous of
copying something out of ^ book, but at the moment had
no pen: just then a flock • of birds flew over /his head,
and one of them dropped a quill («ife, pron; etta), which
Molaise made into a pen and wrote out his copy.t The
knife with which they, cut the quill pens is shown in one
of the eighth-century gldssied MSS. from which Zeuss drew
the materials for his " Grammatica Celtica," where is seen
a figure of St Matthew the Evangelist writing in a book
which lies in front of him, and holding in his left hand a
sort of penknife.} '
Support for HS. — The old scribes sometimes wrote with
the book resting on the knees, having a smooth board
for support. Duald Mac Firbis, writing in the year
1650, says of the history written, by the ancient Irish
scribes that it "was written on their knees in books,"
which were preserved in his time in libraries.§ But when
the writing was to be elaborate or ornamental^ a desk
was used, and if necessary a maulstick to support the
wrist, as shown in fig, 124.
Wooden Tablets. — The other materials for writing on
are called by various names : — Taibhlifilidh [t4vlla-filla],
* tablets of the poets '; iabhall lorga^ * tablet staves ' {Jorg^
• Abbott, Reproductions, PI. xxxiv. f Silva Gad., 23.
J Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art, 38. § O'Cunry, MS. Mat., 217.
CHAP. XIl] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 481
'a Staff); tamlorga filidk, 'staves of this poets'; and
flese filidk, the ' poets' rod.' Of the first two names, the
first part in each case is derived from the Latin tabula or
/a^«//a, a ' table,' or 'tablet': but the other two, tamlorga
filidh djnd flesc filidk, are pure Irish. These tablets were
generally made of beech or birch : but sometimes other
timber was used.* In the tale of Bailfe and AilUnn, it
is related that when the two trees, a yew and an appletree,
that grew over the lovers' graves were cut down, they
were made into taibklifilidh, on which the poets wrote
*See O'FlalieTt;, Ogye-, Part nt., chap, xa.: and Adanm., 358, 441
(" Cenculum "), and 454 (" Tabnk ").
482 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the sad history of the youth and maiden. In the story
of the Colloquy of the Ancients, King Dermot directs
that the lore told by the old man Cailte should be
" written on tdbhlorga filidh in the language of the oUave":
which was done. Several of these were commonly bound
up together : and O'Curry conjectures they were kept in
the form of a fan, held together by a pivot at one end,
so that they could be opened out or closed up con-
veniently* The characters were either written in ink or
cut in with a knife. Ogham, which consists of lines or
notches, was often cut in. The use of tablets for writing
on was not peculiar to the Irish: for it is well known that,
before parchment came into general use, the Romans, the
Jews, and other ancient nations inscribed their laws, poems,
&C., on wooden tablets.f
The writing-tablets used by ecclesiastics, which must
have been similar to the taiblUi filidh^ were commonly
known by the name of pSlatre (3-syll.), a term used
collectively to denote a number of single staves. This
word is derived from the Latin pugillaris (the g being
aspirated), which means much the same thing — a writing-
tabletj These tablets, when not in use, were kept in a
bundle tied up with leather straps. During Palladius's
brief visit to the east coast of Ireland, he founded three
churches, in one of which, Cell-Fine (now Killeen Cormac,
for which see p. 3 IS, supra\ he left several relics, among
them his pallere or '* tablets on which he used to write."
Several of the old writers derive this word — no doubt
wrongly — from his name; for they say it means "Pal-
ladius's burden" (Irish ere^ *a burden'): as if shortened
from Pallad'ere.%
Sometimes this tablet-writing was in ink ; but more
♦O'Curry, MS. Mat., 464, 465, 471, 473,
fWare, Antiqq., 19: O' Flaherty, Ogyg., ni» xxx.
I Trip. Life, 46, 33 ; 344f «2«
i Todd, St. Palk., 294, 297, 509: Trip, Life, p, 31,
CflAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 483
commonly the surface was covered with wax, which was
written in with a metallic style : hence these tablets are
called ceraculum (from ceray * wax ') in the Latin Lives of
the Irish saints. This custom of writing on waxed tablets
with a style is often mentioned in the Lives of the Saints,
both Latin and Irish, as well as in the lay literature. In
the copy of the Uraicept in the Book of Lecan, the
following derivation of the Irish word littera (* letters ') is
given : — " Littera^ from litura^ i.e. from the smoothing or
"rubbing the ancients used to put on old waxed tablets [to
"make them again smooth and fit for writing on] : for it is
"on these they first wrote."* In a story about St Ciaran
in his Irish Life, he is represented as writing on his waxed
tablets, which are called in one place pSlaire-Chiarain
(Ciaran's tablets), while in two other places the whole
collection of tablets is called leabhar^ i.e. a book.f
We may conclude that waxed tablets were used for
temporary purposes, such as taking notes of a sermon, or
other such memorandums. They were employed also by
schoolmasters in old times for teaching their scholars the
elements of reading. Adamnan, in the seventh century,
mentions that he inscribed certain writings at first (tem-
porarily) on waxed tablets, and afterwards on vellum.J
This temporary use is also implied in the full story
referred to above about St Ciaran's p6laire. For s hort
temporary notes, a slate and pencil were also used, as
they are at the present day, of which we have an example
in the story of Cinnfaela the Learned. When he was at
the College of Tuaim Drecain (now Tomregan in Cavan),
what he heard by day he wrote down roughly on slates
and tablets (a leacaib ocus i taiblib) ; but at night he
transcribed the entries into a vellum book.§ All literary
matter intended to be permanent was written on vellum
or parchment
♦ Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1868, 303. :% Adamn,, Pref. Iviii.
t Stokes, Lives of SS., 266. § Br. Laws, iii. 89.
2X2
484 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
I am not aware that any of the poets' staves— the
taihhle filidh — have been preserved ; though Duald Mac
Firbis had a number of them in the seventeenth century *
But a "book" of waxed tablets, with the writing still
quite plain, was found under the surface near Maghera
and presented to the Royal Irish Academy in 1845.
Dr. Todd, who wrote a paper on this book, proves that
the use of waxed tablets continued till the seventeenth
century.t
The records show that the tablet-staves, of whatever
kind, were long and narrow : hence they are called in the
" Fair of Carman " by the appropriate name of slisfiige
[slishnee], the plural form of slistuch^ a long narrow slit or
board:^ (derived from the simple word slisy a narrow slit
or thin board, cognate with Eng. slice). This is further
borne out by a circumstance related in Muirchu's Memoir
of St Patrick.§ Once the saint and his companions,
with their writing-tablets in their hands {cum Uibulis in
manibus scriptis\ approached a group of the pagans of
Connaught, who mistook, or pretended to mistake, the
tablets for swords, so that they cried out that the visitors
should be killed, as they came with swords in their hands
to shed people's blood. This circumstance proves that
they were of considerable length ; which is also shown,
for the poets* staves, by a regfulation laid down in the
Brehon Law, that a poet might use his tabhcUl-lorg to
defend himself against wicked dogs.||
Petrie (" R. Towers," 336, 337) has shown that the word
pdlaire — ^to use his own words — " was applied, at least in
later times, to a satchel (Jiag) for books " : and he quotes
a passage from an old Trinity College manuscript, in
which pdlaire is explained tiag liubcUr^ a 'satchel for
books.' But the general meaning of the word was
* Ogyg., III. XXX. J O'Curry, Man. & Cust., ii. 542, v. 58.
t Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., in. 99. \ Trip. Life, 300.
II O'Cuny, MS. Mat., 471.
CHAP, XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 485
unquestionably 'tablets': and that ^^ p6laire snd tiag
were ordinarily different things is clearly shoWn .by the
following passage from the Irish Life of St Columkille,
in which they are distinguished : " For it was his
"[Columba's] wont to make crosses and tablets and
^^ satchels {pdlaire ocus tiaga) for books, and all church
" gear " : and again it is stated in the same place that he
blessed "a hundred pdlaire with a hundred croziers and
a hundred tiaga or satchels:'!* For more about book-
satchels, see next page.
Style. — When writing on. a waxed tablet, they used a
graib ox graify \.^ graphium^ a sharp-pointed style of metal,
which, when not in use, was commonly kept fastened in
the cloak, much as people novr.kjsep pins in the sleeve.
One day, while^ St Columkille was writing in his hUt, he
heard the noise of battle in the air : it was St Maidoc
fighting with some demons to rescue the soul of King
BrandufT which they were carrying off. Sticking the
graib into his cloak, he rushed out to help Maidoc : and
it is pleasant to record that the two saints overcame the
demons, and sent the poor soul straight up to heaven,t
When St Patrick was in the act of destroying the idol,
Cromm Cruach, his graif fell out of his mantle into the
heather, where he had some difficulty in finding it
afterwards.^
3. Ancient Libraries,
" House of Mannacriptf." — Considering the fame of the
Irish universities for learning, and the need of books for
students, it is plain that in all the important Irish
monasteries there must have been good general libraries,
including not only copies of native Irish books, but also
works in Irish and Latin on the various branches of
♦ Stokes, Three Jr. Homilies, 115 2 Pctrie, Round Towers, 339.
t.Adamn., 205, note a. ^ % Trip. Life, 92, ^, 10.
486 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
learning then known, and copies of the Latin and Greek
classics. The Annals of Tigemach, who was abbot of
Clonmacnoise, and died in 1088, show that there was a
well-furnished library in that great monastery: for — to
use the words of Dr. Charles O'Conor : — ^** The quotations
"from Latin and Greek authors in Tigernach are very
"numerous: and his balancing their authorities against
" each other shows a degree of criticism uncommon in
"the age in which he lived." We often find mention of
the Tech'Screpira (* house of manuscripts*), which was
the Irish name of the library. The Four Masters record
at A.D. 1020 the burning of Armagh, "with all the fort,
" without the saving of any house in it except the library
^^{te(uh screptrd) only, . . . and [also were burned] their
" books in the houses of the students." The school
libraries are noticed in a passage in the Book of Leinster,
which represents Dalian Forgaill (sixth century) as
saying, " Among the schools with libraries {etir scoluib
screptrd) thou hast read the mysteries of the Ro-sualf**
(a monstrous sea-fish, for which see chap, xxx., infra).
Where the library was extensive there was a leabhar
coimedachy * book-keeper ' or * librarian' (Adamn., 359,
note m),
Book-Satchels. — The books in a library were usually
kept, not on shelves, but in satchels, hung on pegs or
racks round the walls : each satchel containing one or
more manuscript volumes and labelled on the outside.
When Longarad of Slieve Margy, a most eminent scholar
of the sixth century, died, " the book-satchels of Ireland
^^{tiaga Itbar Erenn) fell down [from their racks] on that
"night Or [according to another account] it is the
" satchels wherein were books of every ddn or science in
" the cell where Columkille was that fell then : and
" Columkille and everyone in that house marvelled, and
" all are silent at the noisy shaking of the books."f The
♦ Silva Gad., 480, n ; 527, 2u t Feilire, 141.
CHAP* Xll] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 487
falling of the books typified the loss learning sustained
by the death of Longarad,
Satchels were very generally employed to carry books
about from place to place. It was necessary for a
missionary priest to have always at hand books con-
taining copies of the Gospels, offices, special prayers, &c.,
which he brought with him on his journeys : and students
generally brought the few books necessary for their
studies. Such books were almost always carried in a
satchel, which is everywhere called tiagy or tiag liubhair
('satchel for books'). It was made of leather, and was
commonly slung from the shoulder, by one or more straps.
Adamnan, who notices this way of carrying books, calls
the bag pelliceus sacculus, a * little leather satchel.**
Persons sometimes brought their books about in a
lai^e pocket in the outer mantle above the waist-girdle.
In the Tripartite Life (p. 75), we read that St Patrick, one
time, met six young clerics and six gillies with them, with
" their books in their girdles " (a llibair in a criss). But
he offered them the cushion-hide that he had sat and slept
on for twenty years to make a tiag or satchel for their
books : which they gladly accepted.
Manuscripts that were greatly valued were usually kept
in elaborately wrought and beautifully ornamented leather
covers : of which two are still preserved in Ireland, namely,
the cover of the Book of Armagh, described and figured in
Petrie's " Round Towers" (p. 332) — from which it has been
copied here — and that of the shrine of St Maidoc figured
in the same book (p. 335), and fully described by Miss
Stokes in "ArchaBologia."t According to Mr* Warren
("Corpus Missal," p. 20), this custom of keeping books
in leather cases was peculiar to Ireland among western
^ For Books carried in satchels see Stokes, Lives of SS., 230 :
Mac Congl., 10: Adamn., 115, 116: and Miss Stokes, Ancient Art,
50 to 52.
t The design of this has been reproduced on the covers of the published
Annals of the Four Masters.
48$ RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [FART II
countries: but was common in the East For instance,
at the present day in the Abyssinian monastery of Souriani
in Egypt, the books of the library are enclosed in sacks
furnished with straps, and . hung on pegs, exactly as
described above for Ireland*
Sometimes books were kept in a small case called
Ubor-chomet (' book-holder '), which appears to have been
a box made partly or wholly of metals: for in the
'Reeves, Adamn., 115, 'tl6.
GHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 489
Tripartite Life it is stated that Bishop Assicus, who
was Patrick's coppersmith {faher-ereus] a Latin term
is used here, though the narrative is in Irish), made
quadrangular book-covers {leborchometa chethrochori) and
other things in honour of Patrick,*
Beftmotion and Exportation of Books. — Books abounded
in Ireland when the Danes first made their appearance,
about the beginning of the ninth century : so that the old
Irish writers often speak with pride of " the hosts of the
books of Erin." But with the first Danish arrivals began
the woful destruction of manuscripts, the records of ancient
learning. The animosity of the barbarians was specially
directed against books, monasteries, and monuments of
religion : and all the manuscripts they could lay hold on
they either burned or "drowned " — i,e, flung them into the
nearest lake or river.
For two centuries the destruction of manuscripts went
on : and it ceased only when the Danes were finally
crushed at Clontarf in 1014. During all this time the
Irish missionaries and scholars who went abroad brought
away great numbers of manuscripts merely to save them
from destruction. In many of them are found to this day
casual remarks, which^ though trifling in themselves, bring
vividly before us the solitary scribe as he sat working
industriously in his cell twelve hundred years ago : and not
unfrequently they name the home monasteries of the writers
or indicate the dates. For example, in one of the eighth-
century MSS. of Zeuss, now in St Gall, these remarks
are written on the margin : — Do Inis Maiddoc Mn^ edon^
meisse ocus Choirbbre : " We belong to Inis Maiddoc,
namely, myself and Carbery " : Is gann membrum^ is
tdna an dub : " the vellum is scarce, the ink is thin."t
♦ Trip. Life, 96, 97.
t Zeuss, Preface xii., xiii, Inis Maiddoc, now St. Mogue*s Island in
Templeport Lake, near Ballyconnell in Cavan ; so called from St. Maidoc
or Mogue of Ferns, who was born near that lake.
490 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
Three or four hundred years later (A.D. iioo), Mailmuri,
the compiler and writer of the Book of the Dun Cow,
wrote on the top margin (LU, p. 55) this remark, partly
in Latin, as was usual with the old scribes : — Probatio
pennae Mailmuri mic mic Cuind na mBocht : * A trial of
the pen of Mailmuri, son of the son of Conn na mBocht * :
and still later (fourteenth century), the scribe of the Lebar
Brecc wrote this marginal remark (on p. 60) : — Promha
pind 0 Fergal Mac Uillidm for in cutlmend oil: * A testing
of a pen by Fergal Mac William on the large volume.'
Scores of these venerable volumes are now found in
Continental libraries : some no doubt written by Irishmen
on the spot, but most brought from Ireland. Michael
O'Clery, the chief of the Four Masters, writes, in 1631, in
the Preface to his Book of Invasions : — " Alas, short was
" the time until dispersion and decay overtook the churches
" of the saints, their relics, and their books : for there is not
" to be found of them [the books] now but a small remnant
" that has not been carried away into foreign countries —
"carried away so that their fate is unknown from that
" time to this."* Books were also often sent as pre-
sentations from the monasteries at home to Continental
monasteries founded by Irishment : but of such volumes
it is pretty certain that there were always duplicates at
home. The consequence of this long-continued exporta-
tion of Irish books is that there is now a vastly greater
quantity of Irish of the ninth and earlier centuries on the
Continent than we have in Ireland.
After the Battle of Clontarf there was a breathing
time ; and scholars like Mac Kelleher, Mac Gorman, and
Mac CriffanJ (pp. 493, 495, infra) set to work to rescue what
♦ Hyde, Lit. Hist., 266, 267. t See Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art, 37.
X We may, I suppose, count these three men the first gleaners of scattered
Gaelic lore whose work has come down to us. From their day to the present
there has been a succession of zealous scholars who have made it their
business to collect and write down the fugitive and decaying fragments of
Celtic literature. An interesting sketch of those of Scotland will be found
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 491
was left of the old literature, collecting the scattered frag-
ments and copying into new volumes everything that they,
could find worth preserving. Numbers of such books were
compiled, and much of the learning and romance of old
days was reproduced in the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
Notwithstanding the Danish devastations, many of the
original volumes also — ^written long before the time of
Mac Kelleher — still remained. But next came the Anglo-
Norman invasion, which was quite as destructive of native
learning and art as the Danish inroads, or more so ; and
most of the new transcripts, as well as of the old volumes
that survived, were scattered and lost The destruction
of manuscripts continued during the perpetual wars that
distracted the country, down to comparatively recent
times : and many which existed even so late as 200 years
ago are now gone. O'Curry, in the first Lecture of his
" Manuscript Materials," gives a long list of the " Lost
Books of Erin." The great gaps in Irish literature are
painfully indicated everywhere in the fragments that
remain. Prof. Kuno Meyer, in the Preface to his " King
and Hermit," mentions, among "the great mass of material
that has been irretrievably lost," " whole legendary cycles
" revealed by casual references only, tales of which nothing
** but the titles, poems of which the initial lines only, have
*• been preserved."
Books continued to be brought away to the Continent
long after the time of Michael O'Clery ; for those Catholic
in Maclean's Literature of the Celts (chap, xviii.). Dr. Maclean winds up his
chapter with a sketch and a well-deserved appreciation of the latest Scottish
collector, Mr. Alexander Carmichael. May I add my tribute of admiration
for Mr. Carmichaers work ? By the publication of his Carmina Gadelica, he
has placed, not only Scotland, but Ireland, under an everlasting debt of
gratitude, for the book reflects Lreland as well as Scotland.
Our latest and most successful collector of Irish popular lore is Dr. Douglas
Hyde, who has, during many years, taken down from the lips of the Irish-
speaking Connaught peasantry a great collection of stories, songs, and
rhymes, of which he has already published several volumes, very valuable to
students of modern Irish language and folklore.
492 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
priests and others who fled from Ireland during the penal
times commonly brought their precious manuscripts with
them ; and many other volumes were hidden away in
remote places: for in those evil days, the mere fact of
finding an Irish book in a man's possession put the owner
in danger of his life.* Even in our own day Irish manu-
scripts have been brought to America by emigrants who
loved them too well to part with them.
4. Existing Books,
Volumes of Mitcellaiieoiu Matter. — Of the eleventh- and
twelfth-century transcript volumes, portions, and only
portions, of just two remain — Lebar-na-hUidhre [Lowr-
na-Heera] or the Book of the Dun Cow, and Lebar
Laigen [Lowr-Lyen] or the Book of Leinster. That
these two books are copies from older manuscripts, and
not themselves original compositions of the time, there
is ample and unquestionable internal evidence. For
example, on page 37 of the Book of the Dun Cow
(copied A.D. 1 100) is a remark in Irish, of which this is
a translation : — " Pray for Moelmhuiri Mac Ceileachair
"who wrote and collected this book from a variety of
" books." And as fully bearing this out, the same
Moelmhuiri, when transcribing the story of the Destruc-
tion of Da Derga's Hostel, says in one place towards
the end of the Tale (Stokes's Da Derga, p. 325) : — ^** This
" is what some books relate, viz., that but a few fell around
" Conari, namely, nine only " : and a little farther on he
goes on to say : — " This however is the account given in
" other books — which is probably truer — that of the people
" of the hostel forty or fifty fell ; and of the assailants
" three-fourths of them."f But it must be borne in mind
♦ See O'Curry, MS. Mat., 356.
t See for more illustrations, Rev. Celt., xi. 453 (where the copyist of
the oldest version of the Wooing of Emer breaks off with this remark : —
•*And the remainder which is in the Book"): and Null's remarks in the
Voyage of Bran, I. 125 and 126.
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 493
that we have many other books like the two above men-
tioned, copied after 1 100 from very ancient volumes since
lost The Yellow Book of Lecan, for example, contains
pieces as old as those in the Book of the Dun Cow — or
older — though copied at a much later period.
Most of the books alluded to here and named
below consist of miscellaneous matter : — tales, poems,
biographies, genealogies, histories, annals, and so forth —
all mixed up, with scarcely any attempt at orderly arrange-
ment, and almost always copied from older books. This
practice of copying miscellaneous pieces into one great
volume was very common. Some of these books were
large and important literary monuments, which were kept
with affectionate care by their owners, and were celebrated
among scholars as great depositories of Celtic learning,
and commonly known by special names, such as the
Cuilmen^ the Saltair of Cashely the Book of Cuancu No
one was permitted to make entries in such precious books
except practised and scholarly scribes ; and the value set
on them may be estimated from the fact that one of them
was sometimes given as ransom for a captive chief.* I
will here notice a few of the most important of those we
possess — all vellum ; but there are also many important
paper manuscripts.
The oldest of all these books of miscellaneous literature
is the Lebar-xia-Heera, or the Book of the Dun Cowf now in
the Royal Irish Academy. By "the oldest" is meant
that it was transcribed at an earlier time than any other
remaining : but some books of later transcription contain
pieces quite as old, or older. This book was written by
Mailmuri Mac Kelleher, a learned scribe who died in
Clonmacnoise in the year 1106. The entry in his own
* For instances see next page, and Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel., p. 341.
t Irish name Lehar-na^hUidhre ; so called because the original manuscript
of that name (which no longer exists) was written on vellum made from the
skin of St. Ciaran's pet cow at Clonmacnoise. Irish, odhar [o-ar], * a
bro¥ai'[cowJ; gtw, uidhre or h'Uidhn,
n
494 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
handwriting quoted on page 492 shows that the book was
copied from older books. It is all through heavily glossed
between the lines, proving the great antiquity of the
pieces; as Mac Kelleher, even in 1 100, found it necessary
to explain in this manner numerous old words and phrases.
About the year 1340 it was given by the O'Donnells of
oot opM^iiD -me onto cb£mKpi[
T fete 4tt ft^UIP tl4t>^C*<Ji^ ot^* c5^
A-^itlD b w ^Mc |tiul>f bur iia^f>tcc4Xf 11^1^
Fio. 126.
Facsinitle of part of the Book of the Dun Cow, p. zao, coL i. (SUghtly smaUer
than the orig^inal.) The beftinnln^r of the story of Connla the Comely, or Connla
of the Golden Hair. (This story will be found fully translated in Joyce's Old Celtic
Romances.)
Translation of the above passage: — " The adventures of Connla the Comely, son
of Conn the Hundred-Fighter, here. Whence the name of Art the Lone one? (Art
the son of Conn, who was called * Art the Lone One ' after his brother Connla had
been taken away by the fairy.] Not difficult to answer. On a certain day as Connla
of the Golden Hair, son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter, stood beside his fother on
the Hill of Ushnagh, he saw a lady in strange attire coming towards him. Connla
spoke : * Whence hast thou come, O lady T ' he says. ' I have come.' replied the lady,
* from the land of the ever-living, a place where there is neither death, nor sin, nor
transgression. We have continual feasts : we practise every benevolent work without
contention. We dwell in a large She* ; and hence we are called the People of the
Fairy-Mound.' 'To whom art thou speaking, my boy t' says Conn to his son : for
no one saw the lady save Connla only."
Tirconnell to O'Conor of Connaught as a ransom for their
vllave of history who had been taken captive by the
O'Conors some time before ; but in 1470 the O'Donnells
recovered it by force and brought it back to Tirconnell.
As it now stands it consists of only 1 34 folio pages —
a mere fragment of the original work. It contains sixty-
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 495
five pieces of various kinds, several of which are imperfect
on account of missing leaves. There are a number of
romantic tales in prose ; a copy of the celebrated .Atnra
or el^y on St Columkille composed by Dalian Forgaill
about the year 592 ; an imperfect copy of the Voyage of
Maildune ; and an imperfect copy of the Tdin-bo-Quelna^
with several of the minor tales connected with it. Among
the historical and romantic tales are the Courtship of
Emer ; the Feast of Bricriu ; the Abduction of Prince
Connla the Comely by the shee or fairies ; part of the
Destruction of the palace of Da Derga and the Death of
Conari king of Ireland.* The language of this book is
nearer to the pure language of the Zeussian glosses than
that of any other old book of general literature we
possess.
The Book of Leinster, the next in order of age, now
in Trinity College, Dublin, was written not later than
the year 11 60. There is good reason to believe that it
was compiled wholly, or partly, by Finn Mac Gorman,
who was bishop of Kildare from 1148 to 1160, and by
Aed Mac Criffan, tutor of Dermot Mac Murrogh king
of Leinster, and that it belonged to this king or to some
person of rank among his followers. The part of the
original book remaining — for it is only a part — consists
of 410 folio pages, and contains nearly 1000 pieces of
various kinds, prose and poetry — historical sketches,
romantic tales, topographical tracts, genealogies, &c. —
a vast collection of ancient Irish lore. The following
entry occurs at the foot of page 313 : — " Aed [or Hugh]
Mac Mic Criffan wrote this book and collected it from
many books." Among its contents are a very fine perfect
copy of the Tdin-bo-Quelna, a History of the origin of
the Boru Tribute, a description of Tara, a full copy of
the Dinnsenchus or description of the celebrated places
* Most of the pieces mentioned through this chapter will be described in
the next three chapters.
496 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of Erin. The Book of Leinstei" is an immense volume,
containing about as much matter as six of Scott's prose
novels.
The Lobar Breoo, or Speckled Book of Mac Egan, also
called the Great Book of Bnniry, is in the Royal Irish
Academy. It is a large foh'o volume, now consisting of
280 pages, but originally containing' many more, written
in a small, uniform, beautiful hand. The text contains
226 pieces, with numbers of marginal and interlined
entries, generally explanatory or illustrative of the text
The book was copied from various older books, most of
them now lost. All, both text and notes, with a few
exceptions, are on religious subjects : there is a good deal
of Latin mixed with the Irish. Among the pieces are
the Feilire of Aengus the Culdee, Lives of SS. Patrick,
Brigit, and Columkille, and a Life of Alexander the Gteat.
From the traditional titles of the book it is probable that
it was written towards the end of the fourteenth century
by one or more of the Mac Egans, a literary family who
for many generations kept schools of Law, Poetry, and
Literature at Duniry, near Portumna, in the county Galway,
and also at Bally-mac-Egan, in the north of Tipperary.
The Book of Ballymote, in the Royal Irish Academy,
is a large folio volume of 501 pages. It was written by
several scribes about the year 1 391, at Ballymote in Sligo,
from older books, and contains a great number of pieces in
prose and verse. Among them is a copy of the ancient
Book of Invasions, Le. a history of the Conquests of
Ireland by the several ancient colonists. There are
genealogies of almost all the principal Irish families;
several historical and romantic tales of the early Irish
kings ; a history of the most remarkable women of Ireland
down to the English invasion ; an Irish translation of
Nennius's History of the Britons ; a copy of the Dinn-
senchus ; a translation of the Argonautic Expedition, and
of the War of Troy.
CHAP. XII] IRISH liANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 497
The Yellow Book of Lecan [LeckanJ in Trinity College!
is a large quarto volume pf about 500 pages. It wad
written at Lecan in the county Sligo in or about the
year 1399 by two of the scholarly family of MacFirbis—
Donogh and Gilla Isa. It contains a gpreat number of
pieces in prose and verse, historical, biographical, topo-
graphical, &c.; among them the Battle of Moyrath, the
Destruction of Bruden Da Derga, an imperfect copy of the
Tdin-bo-Quelna, and the Voyage of Maildune,
The five books above described have been published in
facsimile without translations by the Royal Irish Academy,
page for page, line foi* line, letter for letter. The fac-
simile of the Book of the Dun Cow was edited by Sir
John T. Gilbert, LL.D., F.S.A., the others by Dr. Robert
Atkinson ; and all five have valuable Introductions and
full descriptions of contents. Next to the publication of
the Grammatica Celtica, the issue of these facsimiles was
the greatest stimulus in modem times to the elucidation of
ancient Gaelic lore : for scholars in all parts of the world
can now study those five old books without coming to
Dublin.
The Book of Lecan in the Royal Irish Academy, about
600 vellum pages, was written in 1416, chiefly by Gilla Isa
M6r Mac Firbis. The contents resemble in a general
way those of the Book of Ballymote,
There are many other books of miscellaneous Gaelic
literature in the Royal Irish Academy and in Trinity
College, such as the Book of Lismore, the Book of
Fermoy, the Book of Hy Many ; besides numbers of
books without special names. There are also numerous
MS. volumes devoted to special subjects, such as Law,
Medicine, Astronomy, and so forth, as will be found
mentioned elsewhere in this book.
The vast mass of Irish literature sketched in this
chapter is to be found in manuscripts, not in any one
library, but scattered over almost all the libraries of
2 K
498 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Europe. The two most important collections are those
in Trinity College and in the Royal Irish Academy,
Dublin, where there are manuscripts of various ages, from
the sixth or seventh down to the present century. In the
Franciscan monastery of Adam and Eve in Dublin are a
number of valuable manuscripts which were sent from
the Franciscan monastery of St Isidore's in Rome a few
years ago — a portion of the great collection made by the
Franciscans at Louvain in the seventeenth century ; and
another fine collection is preserved in Maynooth College.
There are also many important manuscripts in the British
Museum in London ; in the Bodleian Library at Oxford ;
and in the Advocates' Library* in Edinburgh ; besides the
numerous MSS. in Continental libraries.
Classifloatioii of Subjeot-Matter. — Irish literature, so far
as it has been preserved, may be classed as follows : —
I. Ecclesiastical and Religious writings.
II. Annals, History, and Genealogy.
III. Tales — historical and romantic.
IV. Law, Medicine, and Science.
V. Translations or versions from other languages,
Latin, Greek, French, &c.
TransIationB. — As to this last class : I will dismiss the
subject of translations here with a few brief observations.
Among the translations — remarks O'Curry — " We find an
" extensive range of subjects in ancient Mythology, Poetry,
" History, [Romance], and the Classical Literature of the
** Greeks and Romans, as well as many copious illustra-
" tions of the most remarkable events of the middle ages."t
We have Irish versions of the Argonautic Expedition ;
* A good and interesting account of the collection of Gaelic manuscripts
in the Advocates' Library — some native Scotch, some Irish — may be read in
the seventh chapter of Dr. Magnus Maclean's lately published work, The
Literature of the Celts (1902). t MS. Mat., 24.
CHAP. XII] IRISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE 499
the Destruction of Troy ; portions of the Aeneid ; the
Destruction of Jerusalem ; the Wars of Charlemagne,
including the History of Roland the Brave ; the History
of the Lombards ; the almost contemporaneous trans-
lation of the Travels of Marco Polo ; the Adventures of
Hercules ; Guy Earl of Warwick ; Bevis of Southampton ;
the Quest of the Holy Grail ; the Theban War ; Mande-
ville's Travels ; and many other pieces. That such a mass
of translation exists in Irish manuscripts shows — if there
was need to show — the lively literary curiosity and the
intense love of knowledge of every kind of the ancient
Irish scholars. Apart from their literary aspect, these
translations are of the highest value to students of the Irish
language, as enabling them to determine the meaning of
many obsolete Gaelic words and phrases.
Though many of the Irish tales are highly dramatic,
the Irish never developed Drama in the proper sense of the
word. There was no Irish theatre, and no open-air acting.
But on this point it will be sufficient to refer the reader to
Dr. Hyde's " Literary History of Ireland," p. 276 ; and to
Sir Samuel Ferguson's " Poems " (1880), p. 62.
"Prologue." — The ancient Irish writers commonly began
their books or treatises with a statement of the " Place,
Time, Person [or author], and Cause." For example,
Duald Mac Firbis, in the beginning of his great MS. work
on Genealogies, writes : — " The place, time, author, and
" cause of writing this book are : — Its place is the College
of St. Nicholas in Galway ; its time is the year of the
age of Christ 1650 ; the author of it is Dubhaltach the
son of Gilla Isa M6r Mac Firbisigh, historian, &c., of
" Lecain Mic Firbisigh in Tireragh of the Moy ; and the
*' cause of writing the same book is to magnify the glory
** of God, and to give knowledge to all men in general."*
For Irish Poetry and Prosody, see chap. xxx. infra.
♦ O'Curry, MS. Mat., 216. For other examples, see Stokes, F^illre,
p. 3: and Hyde, Lit. Hist., 245.
2 K 2
u
4i
CHAPTER XIII
CLESIASTICAL AND RELIGIOUS WRITINeS
OPIES of the Gospels or of other portions of
Scripture, that were either written or owned
by eminent saints of the early Irish Church,
were treasured with great veneration by
succeeding generations ; and it became a
mon practice to enclose them, for better pre-
servation, in ornamental boxes or shrines. Many
shrines with their precious contents are still preserved :
they are generally of exquisite workmanship in gold,
silver, or other metals, precious stones, and enamel.
Books of this kind are the oldest we possess.
The Donuuuth Airgfid, or ' Silver Shrine,' which is in the
National Museum, Dublin, is a box containing a Latin
copy of the Gospels written on vellum, " This box," says
Dr. Petrie, " is composed of three distinct covers, of which
" the first or inner one is of wood — apparently yew ; the
"second or middle one of copper plated with silver; and
" the third or outer one of silver plated with gold. In
" the comparative ages of these several covers there is
" obviously a great difference The first may probably be
" coeval with the manuscript which it was intended to
" preserve ; the second, in the style of its scroll or inter-
" laced ornament, indicates a period between the sixth
CHAP. XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 50I
" and the twelfth centuries ; while the figures in relief, the
" ornaments, and the letters, in the third, leave no doubt
" of its being the work of the fourteenth century."* The
Domnach Airgid was until lately preserved near Clones
in Monaghan. It was once thought that the enclosed
book was the identical copy of the Gospels presented by
St Patrick to his disciple St Mac Carthenn, the founder of
•the see of Clogher; but recent investigations go to show
. that it is not so old as the time of the great apostle.t
The Book of Kells is the most remarkable book of this
class, though not the oldest At the present day this is
the best known of all the old Irish books, on account of
its elaborate and beautiful ornamentation. A descrip-
tion of it will be found farther on, in the chapter on Irish
Art
The Cathach [Caha] or Battle-Book of the O'Donnells.
The following is the legend of the origin of this book. On
one occasion St Columkille was on a visit with St Finnen
of Movilla at a place called Drumfinn in Ulster, and while
there, borrowed from him a copy of the Psalms. Wishing
to have a copy of his own, and fearing refusal if he asked
permission to make one, he secretly transcribed the book
day by day in the church. St Finnen found out what he
was doing, but took no notice of the matter till the copy
was finished, when he sent to Columkille for it, claiming
that it belonged to him, as it was made from his book
without permission. St Columba refused to give it up, but
offered to refer the dispute to the king of Ireland, Dermot
the son of Fergfus Kervall ; to which Finnen agreed. They
both proceeded to Tara, obtained an audience, and laid
the case before the king, who pronounced a judgment
that long continued to be remembered as a proverb in
♦ Trans. Roy. Ir. Acad., 1838.
t See the Rev. Dr. Bernard on the Domnach Airgid : Trans. Roy. Ir.
Acad., XXX. 303, where he giv^ the result of his investigation to the above
effect.
502 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Ireland : — " To every- cow belongeth her little offspring-
cow : so to every book belongeth its little offspring-book :
the book thou hast copied without permission, O Columba,
I award to Finnen " : a decision which may be said to
contain the germ of the law of copyright" The book
was afterwards however given up to St Columkille ;
and it remained thenceforward — a precious heirloom — in
possession of his kindred the O'Donnells. The beautifully
wrought case of gilt silver, enamel, and precious stones,
subsequently made to cover this venerable relic, may be
seen in the National Museum, Dublin, where it has been
deposited by tlie head of the O'Donnell family. Only
fifty-eight of the vellum leaves of the enclosed book
remain ; and the writing is a small uniform hand : but
* Tbis judgment, which is clear and tene in the original {f,t gach boin a
htinin, U gach Uabfiar a Itabhairin), will appear eqaally clear in English —
thongh losing much in force— in the following paraphrase ; — "The calf, being
tbeoHspringof the cow, belongs to the cow: so the copy, being the offsprine
of the book, belongs lo the book."
CHAP. XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 503
there is reason to doubt that this is the very manuscript
written by St Columkille.*
In Trinity College, Dublin, are two beautiful shrines
enclosing two illuminated Gospel manuscripts, the Book
of Simma, and the Book of St. Moling, both written in the
seventh or eighth century.
The Book of Armagh, now in Trinity College, for beauty
of execution stands only second to the Book of Kells, and
occasionally exceeds it in fineness and richness of orna-
mentation. The learned and accomplished scribe was
Ferdotnnach of Armagh, who finished the book in 8o7,f
and died in 845. In several different places — at the
end of certain portions— he wrote in Latin : " Pray for
Ferdomnach " ; and two of these entries are still perfectly
legible. He no doubt wrote many other books — for writing
was the business of his life — but they are all lost.
The book originally consisted of 442 pages, of which
ten are lost : with this exception it is as perfect as when
it was written. It is chiefly in Latin, with a good deal of
old Irish interspersed. It opens with a Life of St Patrick.
Following this are a number of Notes of the Life and
acts of the saint, compiled by Bishop Tirechan, who
himself received them from his master Bishop Ultan, of
the seventh century. These notes are not in the form of
a connected narrative. The book contains a complete
copy of the New Testament, and a Life of St Martin of
Tours. Perhaps the most interesting part of the whole
manuscript is what is now commonly known as St
Patrick's Confession, in which the saint gives a brief
♦ See Reeves in Adaron., 319. For a fuller account of the whole transac-
tion— the trial before King Dermot and its consequences — see Joyce, Short
Hist, of Ireland, pp. 19, 20. For the use of the Cathach in battle by the
O'Donnells, see p. 302, supra,
tXhe date has been determined by the late Dr. Graves, bbhop of
Limerick, after a very ingenious investigation: Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., iii«
316-324, and 358. See also Dr. Reeves's Paper in Proc. for 1891-2,
p. 77.
S04 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
laccount, in simple unaffected Latin, of his captivity, his
escape from slavery, his return to Ireland, the hardships
and dangers he encountered, and the final success of his
mission. At the end of the Confession, Ferdomnach
writes this colophon in Latin: — "Thus far the volume
which Patrick wrote with his own hand. The seventeenth
day of March Patrick was translated to heaven." This
entry was written about 300 years after the death of
St Patrick : and it appears from it that Ferdomnach had
before him a book in the very handwriting of the great
apostle, from which he copied the Confession. The old
volume had become in many places illegible, or nearly
so, from age: for in one part of his copy Ferdomnach
makes this remark :—" Incertus liber hie": *the book is
uncertain here': and in several other places he inserts a
note of interrogation to show that he was in doubt about
the reading. This "Confession" may be said to be the
oldest piece of Irish literature we possess.
In 1004 ^^ entry was made in a blank space of this
•book which almost transcends in interest the entries of
Ferdomnach himself. In that year the great king Brian
Boru made a triumphal circuit round Ireland, and arriving
at Armagh, he made an offering of twenty ounces of gold
on the altar of St Patrick. He confirmed the ancient
ecclesiastical supremacy of Armagh, and caused his
secretary Mailsuthain to enter the decree in the Book
of Armagh. The entry, which is as plain now as the
•day it was written, is in Latin, and stands in English : —
"St Patrick, when going to heaven, decreed that the
" entire fruit of his labour, as well of baptism and causes
"as of alms, should be rendered to the apostolic city,
"which in the Scotic tongue is called Arddmacha. Thus
" I found it in the records of the Scots \i. e, the Irish].
" This I have written, namely, Mailsuthain, in the presence
"of Brian, supreme ruler of the Scots, and what I have
"written he decreed for all the kings of Cashel."
CHAP. XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS SOS
Of all the old books of Ireland this was for many ages
the most celebrated and the most deeply venerated. The
popular belief was that it was written by St. Patrick
himself, from which it got the name of Canoin Patrick^
Patrick's Testament It was entrusted to the safe keeping
of the members of a particular family, the Mac Moyres,
who for generations enjoyed a liberal land-endowment in
consideration of the importance of their trust. From this
circumstance they got the name of Mac Moyre — i.e. the
descendants of the maer or keeper.
This venerable book was about being published ; and
the task of editing it was entrusted to the man who knew
most about it, the Right Rev. Dr. William Reeves, late
bishop of Down and Connor : but death intervened before
he had time to finish the crowning literary work of his life.
The book is in competent hands, however, and it will be
published. Meantime every expression in Irish that occurs
in the book has been edited and published, with great
learning and skill, by the Rev. Dr. Edmund Hogan, S.J.,
in his " Documenta de S. Patricio."
Other Latin-Irish books of this class still preserved
■are the Book of Durrow, written by a scribe named
Columba, not the great St. Columba, but a subsequent
namesake: the Book of Mac Durnan: the Stowe Missal,
now in the Royal Irish Academy: and the Garland of
Howth, now in Trinity College, Dublin : all belonging to
the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, and all elaborately
ornamented ; some little inferior indeed to the Book of
Kells.
We have a vast body of origfinal ecclesiastical and
religious writings. Among them are the Lives of a great
many of the most distinguished Irish saints, mostly in Irish,
some few in Latin, some on vellum, some on paper, of
various ages, from the seventh century down to the
eighteenth. Of these manuscripts the great majority are
in Dublin ; but there are many also in the British Museum,
S06 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
as well as in Brussels and elsewhere on the Continent.
The Lives of the three patrons of Ireland— Patrick,
Brigit, and Columkille — are, as might be expected, more
numerous than those of the others. Of these the best-
known is the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," so called
because it is divided into three parts. There is a manu-
script copy of this in the British Museum, and another
in the library of the University of Oxford. It is in Irish,
mixed here and there with words and sentences in Latin.
Colgan and others after him have given their opinion that
it was originally written in the sixth century by St Evin
of Monasterevin : but it certainly is not so early. Dr.
Petrie (Tara, 55), and Dr. Todd (St Patk. 124, note 3),
both assign it to the " ninth or tenth century " ; while
Dr. Stokes (Trip. Life, Ixii) gives the tenth century as
the superior limit. The compiler, whoever he was, had
older books lying before him.* This has been lately
printed in two volumes, with translations and elaborate
and valuable introduction and notes by Dr. Stokes.
Besides the Irish Lives of St Columkille, there is one
in Latin, written by Adamnan, who died in the year 703.
He was a native of Donegal, and ninth abbot of lona ;
and his memoir has been pronounced by the learned
Scotch writer Pinkerton — who is not given to praise Irish
things — to be " one of the most curious monuments of the
" literature of that age. It is certainly the most complete
• " piece of such biography that all Europe can boast of, not
" only at so early a period, but even through the whole
" middle ages."t It has been published for the Archaeo-
logical and Celtic Society by the Rev. Dr. William Reeves,
who, in his Introduction and Notes, supplies historical, local,
and biographical information drawn from every conceivable
source.^
♦ Trip. Life, 127, last paragraph, and 139, 4.
t Pinkerton, Inquiry, Ed, 1814, xlviii. See also p. 6, supra.
X A full account of this work, with the various manuscripts in which it is
CHAP. XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 507
In the year 1643 the Rev. John Colgan, a Franciscan
friar, a native of Donegal, published at Louvain, where he
then resided in the Irish monastery of that city, a large
volume entitled " Acta Sanctorum Hibemiae," the ' Lives
of the Saints of Ireland,' all in Latin, translated by him-
self from ancient Irish manuscripts. They are arranged
according to the festival days of the saints ; and the volume
contains the Lives of those whose days fall in the three
first months of the year. His intention was no doubt to
finish the work to the 31st December; but he stopped at
the 31st March, and never published any more of that
work. In 1647 he published another volume, also in Latin,
which he calls " Acta Triadis Thaumaturgae," the * Lives
of the Wonder-working Triad.' It is devoted to Saints
Patrick, Brigit, and Columkille, and consists almost entirely
of translations of all the old Lives of these three saints
that he could find : there are seven Lives of St. Patrick,
including the Tripartite. Both volumes are elaborately
annotated by the learned editor; and text and notes — all
in Latin — contain a vast amount of biographical, historical,
topographical, and legendary information. (For the Lives
of the Saints, see also p. 6, supra.)
Another class of Irish ecclesiastical writings are the
Calendars, or Martyrologies, or Festilogies — Irish, F£ilire
[fail'ira], a festival list. The FHlire is a catalogue of saints,
arranged according to their festival days, with usually a
few facts about each, briefly stated, but with no detailed*
memoirs. There are several of these Martyrologies. I
mention one in the next chapter, the Calendar of Michael
O'Clery ; and the only other one I will notice is the F£ilire
of Aengus fhe Cnldee, which is in verse. The circumstance
that gave rise to this metrical catalogue is related in an
ancient legend. One time while Aengus (who died about
the year 820) was at the church of Coolbanagher, in the
preserved, is given in Dr. Reeves's Preface, of which an abstract will be
found in Mr. Maclean's Literature of the Celts, chap. iv.
508 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [I'ART II
present Queen's County, he saw a host of angels alighting
one after another on a grave and immediately reascending.
He asked the priest of the church who it was that was
buried there, and what he had done to merit such honour.
The priest replied that it was a poor old man who lived in
the place, and who did not seem to be distinguished for
any unusual piety : but that he had made it a practice to
invoke a number of the saints of the world — as many as
he could remember —going to bed at night and getting up
in the morning. " Ah, my God I " exclaimed Aengus
" when this poor old man is so honoured for what he
" did, how great should be the reward of him who should
" make a poetical composition in praise of all the saints
" of the year." Whereupon he began his poem. He
continued to work at it during his subsequent residence
at Clonenagh in Queen's County, and finished it while
living in St Mailruan's Monastery at Tallaght near
Dublin.
CHAP. XIII] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 509:
The body of the poem consists of 365 quatrain stanzas,
one for each day in the year, each stanza commemorating
one or more saints — chiefly but not exclusively Irish —
whose festivals occur on the particular day. But there are
also poetical prologues and epilogfues and prose prefaces,
besides a great collection of glosses and explanatory com-
mentaries, all in Irish, interspersed with the text ; and all
written by various persons who lived after the time of
Aengus. There are several manuscript copies, one being
in the Lebar Brecc. The whole FHltrey with Prefaces,
Glosses, and Commentaries, has been translated and edited,
with learned notes, by Dr. Whitley Stokes for the Royal
Irish Academy.*
To Aengus is also commonly attributed — but it seems
erroneously — Saltair na Bann, t,e, the * Psalter of the
Quatrains,' of which the only complete copy lies in the
Bodleian Library at Oxford. It consists of 162 short
Irish poems on sacred subjects. The whole collection
has been published by Dr. Whitley Stokes, with glossary
of words, but without translation. How ancient and
difficult is the language of these pieces may be judged
from the fact that Dr. Stokes was obliged to leave a large
number of words in the glossary unexplained.
There is a class of ecclesiastical writings devoted
exclusively to the pedigrees or genealogies of the Irish
saints, all of which, besides the direct knowledge they
convey, contain a large amount of Irish topographical and
antiquarian information. Of these there are several, the
oldest being that ascribed to Aengus the Culdee. Copies
of this tract are found in the Books of Leinster and Bally-
mote, and in Mac Firbis's Book of Genealogies. Not one
of these genealogies has been published.
* From an examination of the grammatical forms, the well-known Celtic
grammarian, Dr. J. Strachan, and an equally well-known Continental
scholar, R. Thumeysen, believes the F^ilire was composed about A.D. 800.
Rev. Celt., XX. 191. This, for so far, goes to confirm the universal tradition
ascribing it to Aengus, who was living in that year.
5 lO RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The Book of Hynms is one of the manuscripts in
Trinity College, Dublin, copied at some time not later
than the ninth or tenth century. It consists of a number
of hymns — some in Latin, some in Irish — composed by
the primitive saints of Ireland — St Sechnall, St. Ultan,
St Cummain Fada, St Columba, and others — with Pre-
faces, Glosses, and Commentaries, mostly in Irish, by
ancient copyists and editors. It has been published by
the Irish Archaeological and Celtic Society, edited, with
annotations and with translations of the Irish hymns and
Irish Commentaries, by the Rev. Dr. James Henthom
Todd. Another edition — "The Irish Lebar Hymnorum
or Book of Hymns" — with some additional hymns, has
been lately edited by the Rev. Dr. Bernard, f.t.C.d., and
Robert Atkinson, LL.D.
There are manuscripts on various other ecclesiastical
subjects scattered through libraries — canons and rules of
monastic life, prayers and litanies, hymns, sermons, expla-
nations of the Christian mysteries, commentaries on the
Scriptures, &c. — many very ancient Of the numerous
modern writings of this class, I will specify only two,
written in classical modem Irish about the year 1630 by
the Rev. Geoffrey Keating : the " Key-shield of the Mass "
and the "Three Shafts of Death." This last has been
published for the Royal Irish Academy without translation,
but with an excellent Glossary, by Dr. Robert Atkinson.
There was an Irish treatise on the Psalter, of which
the fragment that remains has been translated by Professor
Kuno Meyer in " Hibernia Minora," and which, according
to him, was originally written about A.D. 750, showing
a most careful study of the subject, and an intimate
acquaintance with the ancient ecclesicistical writers of the
world.
Another ecclesiastical relic belonging to Ireland should
be mentioned — the Antiphonary, or Hymn Book, of St.
Comgairs Monastery of Bangor. This was brought away
CHAP. XIIl] ECCLESIASTICAL WRITINGS 5 1 1
at a very early time by some good monk to save it from
certain destruction by tlie Danes ; and after lying hidden
and n^lected for a thousand years among heaps of old
MSS., was fpund at last tn Bobbie by Muratori, who
published it early in the eighteenth century.
Bookof BoUyiiMKe. (Coptcd dli«I fnHDIhc KiUc Aicta. JouiHl (or
Writers of sacred history sometimes illustrated their
narratives with rude pen-and-ink sketches of Biblical
subjects, of which an example is given above — a quaint
figure of Noah's Ark drawn on a blank fly-lea of the
Book of Ballymote in the fourteenth century.
FlC z3t.->Scu]ptiaie on a Capital : Priest's House, Glendalough : Bennger, 1779.
(From Petrie's Round Towers.)
CHAPTER XIV
ANNALS, raSTORIES, AND GENEALOGIES
Section l How the Annals were compiled,
^MONG the various classes of persons who
devoted themselves to Literature in
ancient Ireland, there were special Anna-
lists, who made it their business to record,
with the utmost accuracy, all remarkable events
simply and briefly, without any ornament of
language, without exaggeration, and without ficti-
tious embellishment. The extreme care they took
that their statements should be truthful is shown by the
manner in which they compiled their books. As a general
rule they admitted nothing into their records except either
what occurred during their lifetime, and which may be
said to have come under their own personal knowledge, or
what they found recorded in the compilations of previous
annalists, who had themselves followed the same plan.
These men took nothing on hearsay : and in this manner
successive Annalists carried on a continued chronicle from
age to age, thus giving the whole series the force of con-
temporary testimony.* We have still preserved to us
many books of native Annals, the most important of which
will be briefly described in this chapter.
* Of course it is not claimed for the Irish Annals that they are absolutely
free from error. In the early parts there is much legendary matter ; and some
errors have crept in among the records belonging to the historical period.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 513
Most of the ancient manuscripts whose entries are
copied into the books of Annals we now possess have
been lost ; but that the entries were so copied is rendered
quite certain by various expressions found in the present
existing Annals, as well as by the known history of several
of the compilations. The compiler of the Annals of
Ulster, for instance, Cathal Maguire, an eminent divine,
philosopher, and historian, who died of smallpox, A.D.
1498, often refers to the authorities that lay before him in
such terms as these : — " So I have found it in the Book of
Cuana"; "I state this according to the Book of Mochod";
"This is given as it is related in the Book of Dubhdaleith,"
and such like ; and we know that the Four Masters com-
piled their Annals from the collection of old MSS. they
had brought together in Donegal. But nearly all the
authorities referred to, or used, in both books of Annals
have disappeared.
As an example of what manner of men the Annalists
were I will instance one of the earliest of those whose
books are still extant : — Tigemach O'Breen, who died in
1088. He was abbot of the monasteries of Clonmacnoise
and Roscommon, and was one of the greatest scholars of
his age. He was acquainted with the chief historical
writers of the world known in his day; and it is clear that
he had — as already remarked — the use of an excellent
library in Clonmacnoise. He quotes the Venerable Bede,
Josephus, St. Jerome, Orosius, and many other ancient
authorities, and with great judgment compares and
balances their authorities one against another. Of course
he made use of the works of all previous Irish historians
and annalists. See also p. 486, supra,
2. Tests of Accuracy.
Phyiioal Phenomena. — There are many tests of the
accuracy of our records, of which I will here notice three
classes : — Physical phenomena, such as eclipses and
2 L
5 14 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
comets : the testimony of foreign writers : and the con-
sistency of the records among themselves. Whenever
it happens that we are enabled to apply tests belonging
to any one of these three classes — and it happens very
frequently — ^the result is almost invariably a vindication
of the accuracy of the records * A few instances will be
given : but the subject is too extensive, and the proofs
too numerous to be fully dealt with here. The examples
are not selected with a view to a foregone conclusion :
that is to say, the favourable cases are not brought
forward, and those that tell unfavourably held back : they
are taken as they come ; and those given may be
considered types of all.
Let us first instance the records of physical phenomena:
and of these I will set out with one very instructive and
impressive example — the solar eclipse of A.D. 664, a year
rendered memorable by the ravages of the terrible yellow
plague, which swept over all Europe. The Venerable
Bede, writing fifty or sixty years after this eclipse,
records it as he found it mentioned — vaguely mentioned
as to time— in some record, or perhaps from the reports
of some old persons who had seen it At any rate, not
knowing the exact day and hour, he calculated back-
wards, using the only means then known for such
calculations — the Dionysian Cycle — which was a little
incorrect. This led him to the 3rd May, 664, as the date
of the eclipse — two days wrong. The Annals of Ulster,
in its brief and simple record, give the correct date,
1st May, and even the very hour : a striking proof that
the event had been originally recorded by some Irish
chronicler who actually saw it, from whose record — or
perhaps from a copy — or a copy of a copy — the writer
of the Annals of Ulster transcribed it
The Irish annals record about twenty-five eclipses and
* Another class, the evidence of ancient monuments, is noticed in various
parts of this book, especially chap. i.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 5 1 5
496 to 1066, which
Cathal Maguire in
I be found set forth
ductory Remarks to
le dates of all these
are found, according
the records of other
conclusively that the
witnesses, and not by
any such calculation
result, as in the case
account of the Battle
es under the tests of
)f Cogadh Gaedhel re
ith the Galls,' writing
after the battle, states,
ought on Good Friday,
menced in the morning
I in; and that it con-
was again at flood in
were routed : — " They
n battle array, fighting
is the same length of
to go and to fall and to
full tide the foreigners
le morning, and the tide
jain at the close of the
defeated." So the Irish
o be observed, is noticed
nt for the great slaughter
of the Danes in the evening o.««*ing the rout ; for as the
tide was at height at the time, they were not able to reach
their ships or boats, which were anchored in the bay,
and which they might wade to at low water. Their only
2 L 2
5l6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
other means of escape — the single bridge that led to their
fortress in Dubh'n at the other side of the Liffey — was cut
off, partly by the tide and partly by a detachment of Irish :
so that the chronicler goes on to say : — ^^ An awful rout was
" made of the foreigners, so that they fled simultaneously,
" and they shouted their cries for mercy ; but they could
" only fly to the sea, as they had no other place to retreat
" to, seeing they were cut off from the head of Dubgall's
« Bridge."*
As soon as Dr. Todd, the translator and editor of the
"War of the Gaels with the Galls," came across this
passage, in the year 1867, it struck him at once that here
was an obvious means of testing — so far — the truth of the
old narrative ; and he asked the Rev. Dr. Haughton, a well-
known eminent scientific man, a Fellow of Trinity College,
Dublin, to calculate for him the time of high water in
Dublin Bay on the 23rd April, 1014. After a laborious
calculation. Dr. Haughton found that the tide was at its
height that morning at half-past five o'clock, just as the
sun was coming over the horizon, and that the evening
tide was at fifty-five minutes past five : a striking con-
firmation of the truth of this part of the narrative. It
shows, too, that the account was written by, or taken
down from, an eye-witness of the battle.t
Testimony of Foreign Writers. — Events occurring in
Ireland in the middle ages are not often mentioned by
British or Continental writers : they knew little of the
country, which was in those times — as regarded the Conti-
nent— a very remote place. But in the few cases where
they do notice Irish affairs, they are always — or nearly
always — in agreement with the native records. A few of
these corroborations, moreover, may serve as a warning
to us not to be too ready to reject ancient narratives as
* Dr. Todd's translation in his edition of the War of the Gaels vrith the
Galls, p. 191.
t Dr. Haughton's calculation will be found in War of GG, Introd. xxvi.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 517
unworthy of notice because they happen to have about
them an air of romance or fiction. The great body of the
early history of all countries is compiled from narratives
much mixed up with romance and fiction, from which
modern historical writers have to select the truth as best
they can.
Irish bardic history relates in much detail how the
Picts, coming from Thrace, landed on the coast of Leinster
in the reign of Eremon, the first Milesian king of Ireland,
many centuries before the Christian era : that they aided
the king of Leinster to defeat certain British tribes who
had given great trouble ; that when, after some time, they
proposed to settle in the province, Eremon refused to
permit them, advising them to cross the sea once more,
and make conquests for themselves in a country lying to
the north-east, i.e, in Alban or Scotland, and promising
them aid in case they needed it To this they agreed ;
and they requested Eremon to give them some marriage-
able women for wives, which he did, but only on this
condition, that the right of succession to the kingship
should be vested in the female progeny rather than in the
male. And so the Picts settled in Scotland with their
wives.* Now all this is confirmed by the Venerable Bede,
but with some differences in detail. His account is that
the Picts, coming from Scythia, were driven by wind on
the northern coast of Ireland. The Irish refused them
land on which to settle, but advised them to sail to a
country lying eastward, which could be seen from Ireland,
and offered them help to conquer it. The Picts obtained
wives from the Scots {t.e, the Irish), on condition that
when any difficulty arose they should choose a king from
the female royal line rather than from the male ; " which
custom," continues Bede, " has been observed among them
to this day."t
* See Irish version of Nennius (Irish Arch. Soc.), pp. \2\ et seq, \ and
0*Mahony*s Keating, pp. 213 et seq,, and p. 382. t Bede, Eccl. Hist., i. i.
5l8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Coming down to more historic times. We have already
seen (p. 82, supra) that the Irish accounts of the colony
led by Carbery Riada to Scotland in the third century of
the Christian era have been confirmed by the Venerable
Bede.
All the Irish annals, as well as the " War of the Gaels
with the Galls" (pp. 5, 222), record a great defeat of the
Danes near Killamey in the year 812, which so deterred
them that many years elapsed before they attempted to
renew their attacks. This account is fully borne out by
an authority totally unconnected with Ireland, the well-
known book of Annals, written by Eginhard (the tutor of
Charlemagne), who was living at this very time. Under
A.D. 812 he writes: — ^''The fleet of the Northmen, having
" invaded Hibemia, the island of the Scots, after a battle
"had been fought with the Scots, and after no small
"number of the Norsemen had been slain, they basely
"took to flight and returned home."*
Sometimes confirmation comes from the most unex-
pected quarters. In one of the historical Tales of the
Tditiy or Cattle-spoil of Quelna, which took place in the
first century of the Christian era, we are told that King
Concobar Mac Nessa conferred knighthood on the great
hero Cuculainn at seven years of age, who, during the
ceremony, broke many weapons by sheer strength. We
find this event also mentioned in the Annals of Tigemach,
in the simple record that Cuculainn "took valour" at
seven years of age. This appears to have established a
precedent, so that the fashion became pretty common of
knighting the sons of kings and great chiefs at the age
of seven years (see p. 98, stipra).
Now all this looks shadowy, romantic, and mythical ;
yet we find it recorded in the pages of Froissart that the
♦ Lynch, Cambr. Ev., i. 165, 167; in. 273: Joyce, Short Hist, of Irel.,
190 : Miss Stokes, Early Jr. Architecture, 149.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 519
custom of knighting kings' sons at seven years of age
existed in Ireland in the end of the fourteenth century,
having held its place, like many ancient Irish customs,
for at least fourteen hundred years. When Richard II.
visited Ireland in 1494, he entertained the Irish kings and
chiefs in a magnificent manner, and proposed to confer
knighthood on the four provincial kings, O'Neill, O'Conor,
Mac Murrogh, and O'Brien. But they told him they did
not need it, as they had been knighted already ; for they
said it was the custom for every Irish king to knight his
son at seven years of age. The account of all these
proceedings was given to Froissart by a French gentle-
man named Castide, who had lived seven years among
the Irish. The narrative goes on to describe the Irish
manner of conferring knighthood at the time : — that a
shield was set up on a stake in a level field ; that a
number of little spears were given to the youthful
aspirant ; that he thereupon hurled them against the
shield ; and that the more spears he broke the more
honour he received : all corresponding with the ancient
Irish romantic narrative. (Johnes's " Froissart," IL 577.)
To return to the Battle of Clontarf : we must not omit
a corroboration of the truthfulness of the Irish account
coming from an unimpeachable source. All the Irish
chronicles state that a general rout of the Danes took
place in the evening : which is fully corroborated in the
Norse records. There is a brief description of " Brian's
Battle," as the Danes called it, in the Danish saga, "Burnt
Nial," in which this final rout is recorded by the Norse
writer — the best possible authority on the point under
the circumstances — in language much more simple and
terse than that of the Irish chronicler : it is merely this
short sentence: — ^**Then flight broke out throughout all
the [Danish] host."*
* See for a full account of the Battle of Clontarf, Joyce, Short Hist, of
Ireland, p. 210.
520 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Consistency of the Becords among themselves. — Testi-
monies under this heading might be almost indefinitely
multiplied, but I will here instance only a few. The
names of fifteen abbots of Bangor, who died before 691,
are given in the Irish Annals, not all together, but at the
respective years of their death. In the ancient Service
Book, known as the " Antiphonary of Bangor " (for which
see p. 510, supra\ there is a hymn in which, as Dr. Reeves
says,* " these fifteen abbots are recited [in one list] in the
** same order as in the Annals ; and this undesigned
" coincidence is the more interesting because the testi-
" monies are perfectly independent, the one being afforded
" by Irish records which never left the kingdom, and the
" other by a Latin composition which has been a thousand
" years absent from the country where it was written."
References by Irishmen to Irish affairs are found in
numerous volumes scattered over all Europe: — Annalistic
entries, direct statements in tales and biographies, marginal
notes, incidental references to persons, places, and customs,
and so forth, written by various men at various times;
which, when compared one with another, hardly ever
exhibit a disagreement. Perhaps the best illustration of this
is Adamnan's " Life of Columba." Adamnan's main object
was simply to set forth the spiritual life of St. Columba,
who lived about a century before him, to describe, as he
expressly tells us, the Miracles, the Prophecies, and the
Angelic Visions of the saint But in carrying out this
ideal, he has everywhere in his narrative to refer to persons
living in Ireland and Scotland, mostly contemporaries of
Columba, as well as to the events and customs of the
time — references which are mostly incidental, brought in
merely to fix the surroundings of the saint and his pro-
ceedings. Beyond this Adamnan was not at all concerned
with Irish history, genealogy, or social life. But when we
come to test and compare these incidental references with
♦Eccl. Antiqq., 153.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 52I
the direct and deliberate statements in Irish annals, bio-
graphies, tales, and genealogies, which is, perhaps, the
severest of all tests in the circumstances, we find an
amazing consensus of agreement, and never, so far as I
can call to mind, a contradiction.
The more the ancient historical records of Ireland are
examined and tested, the more their truthfulness is made
manifest. Their uniform agreement among themselves,
and their accuracy, as tried by the ordeals of astronomical
calculation and of foreign writers* testimony, have drawn
forth the acknowledgments of the greatest Irish scholars
and archaeologists that ever lived, from Ussher and Ware
to those of our own day, and especially of Dr. Reeves, the
learned editor of Adamnan's " Life of Columba." These
men knew what they were writing about ; and it is
instructive, and indeed something of a warning to us,
to mark the sober and respectful tone in which they
speak of Irish records, occasionally varied by an outburst
of admiration as some unexpected proof turns up of the
faithfulness of the old Irish writers and the triumphant
manner in which they come through all ordeals of
criticism.
3. Principal Books of Annals,
The following are the principal books of Irish Annals
remaining.* The Synchronisms of Flann. This Flann was
a layman, Ferleginn or Principal of the school of Mon-
asterboice: died in 1056 (see p. 417, supra). He compares
the chronology of Ireland with that of other countries, and
gives the names of the monarchs that reigned in Assyria,
Persia, Greece, and Rome, from the most remote period,
together with most careful lists of the Irish kings who
reigned contemporaneously with them. Copies of this
tract, but imperfect, are preserved in the Books of Lecan
and Ballymote.
♦For further information, see O'Curry, MS. Mat., and Dr. Hyde's
I-iterary History, under the proper headings.
522 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The Annals of Tigemaoh [Teema]. Tigernach O'Breen,
the compiler of these Annals, has been already mentioned
(p. 513). Like most of the other books of annals, his work
is written in Irish, mixed with a good deal of Latin. In
the beginning he treats of the general history of the world,
with some brief notices of Ireland — the usual practice of
Irish annalists ; but the history of Ireland is the chief
subject of the body of the work. One most important
pronouncement he makes, which has been the subject of
much discussion, that all the Irish accounts before the
time of Cimbaeth [Kimbay], B.C. 370, are uncertain.
Several copies of his Annals are in existence in London,
Oxford, and Dublin, but all imperfect. The fragments
that remain have been edited and the Irish portions
translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in the Revue Celtique,
vols. xvi. and xvii.
The Annals of Innisfallen were compiled by some
scholars of the monastery of Innisfallen, the ruins of
which still stand on the well-known island of that name
in the Lower Lake of Killamey. They are written in
Irish mixed with Latin. In the beginning they give a
short history of the world to the time of St. Patrick, after
which they treat chiefly of Ireland. Their composition is
generally ascribed to the year 121 5 ; but there is good
reason to believe that they were commenced two centuries
earlier. They were subsequently continued to 13 18.
The Annals of ITlster, also called the Annals of Senait
Mac Manus, were written in the little island of Senait
Mac Manus, now called Belle Isle, in Upper Lough Erne.
They treat almost exclusively of Ireland from A.D. 444.
The original compiler was Cathal [Cahal] Maguire, already
mentioned (p. 513), who died in 1498 ; and they were con-
tinued to the year 1541 by Rory 0*Cassidy, and by a
nameless third writer to 1604. There are several copies
of these annals, one in a beautiful hand in a vellum
manuscript of Trinity College, Dublin. One volume has
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 523
been issued, translated and annotated by the late William
M. Hennessy ; the rest by the Rev. B. McCarthy, D.D.
The Annals of Loch Ce [Key] were copied in 1588 for
Brian Mac Dermot, who had his residence in an island in
Lough Key, near Boyle in Roscommon. They are in the
Irish language, and treat chiefly of Ireland from 1014 to
1636, but have many entries of English, Scottish, and
Continental events. The only copy of these annals known
to exist is a small-sized vellum manuscript in Trinity
College, Dublin. They have been translated and edited
in two volumes by Mr. William M. Hennessy.
The Annals of Connanght from 1224 to 1562. There
is a copy in Trinity College, Dublin, and another in the
Royal Irish Academy.
The Chronicon Scotonun (Chronicle of the Scots or
Irish) down to A.D. 1135. This was compiled about 1650
by the great Irish antiquary Duald Mac Firbis. His
autograph copy is in Trinity College, and two other
copies are in the Royal Irish Academy. These annals
have been printed, edited with translation and notes by
William M. Hennessy.
The Annals of Boyle, from the earliest time to 1253,
are contained in a vellum manuscript in the library
of the British Museum. They are written in Irish
mixed with Latin ; and the entries throughout are very
meagre.
The Annals of Clonmaonoise, from the earliest period
to 1408. The original Irish of these is lost ; but we
have an English translation by Connell Mac Geoghegan
of Lismoyny in Westmeath, which he completed in 1627.
Of this translation several copies are preserved, of which
one is in Trinity College and another in the British
Museum. O'Donovan printed many extracts from this
compilation in his Notes to the Annals of the Four
Masters : and the whole collection has been lately edited
by the Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J.
524 KELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The Aimalfl of tile Four Karters, also called the Annalx
of Donegal, are the most important of all. They were
compiled in the Franciscan monastery of Donegal, by
three of the O'Clerys, Michael, Conary, and Cuct^ry, and
by Ferfesa O'Mulconry ; who are now commonly known
as the Four Masters. The O'Clerys were, for many
generations, hereditary ollaves or professors of history to
the O'Donnells, princes of Tirconnell, and held free lands,
and lived in the castle of Kilbarron, on the sea-coast north-
west of Ballyshannon. Here Michael O'Clery, who had
the chief hand in compiling the Annals, was born in 1575.
He was a lay brother of the order of St. Francis, and
devoted himself during his whole life to the history of
Ireland. Besides his share in the Annals of the Four
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 525
Masters, he wrote a book containing (i) a Catalogfue of
the kings of Ireland ; (2) the Genealogies of the Irish
saints ; and (3) an Account of the saints of Ireland, with
their festival days, now known as the Martyrology of
Don^al. This last has been printed by the Irish Archaeo-
logical and Celtic Society, with translation by John
O'Donovan, edited by the Rev. James Henthom Todd>
D.D., and the Rev. William Reeves, D.D. Brother Michael
also wrote the Book of Invasions, of which there is a
beautiful copy in the Royal Irish Academy. It is a sort of
chronological history, giving an account of the conquests
of Ireland by the several colonists, down to the English
Invasion, with many valuable quotations from ancient Irish
poems. There is an older Book of Invasions of which the
Book of Ballymote contains a copy.
Conary O'Clery, a layman, acted as scribe and general
assistant to his brother Michael. His descendants were
for long afterwards scholars and historians, and preserved
his manuscripts. Cucogry or Peregrine O'Clery was a
cousin of the two former, and was chief of the Tirconnell
sept of the O'Clerys. He was a layman, and devoted
himself to history and literature. He wrote in Irish a
Life of Red Hugh O'Donnell, of which his autograph
copy is in the Royal Irish Academy. This has been
translated, annotated, and published — text and transla-
tion— by the Rev. Denis Murphy, S.J. The fourth Master,
Ferfesa 0*Mulconry, was a historian from Kilronan in
Roscommon.
The materials for this great work were collected after
many years' labour by Brother Michael O'Clery, who
brought every important historical Irish manuscript he
could find in Ireland to the monastery of Donegal ; for
he expressed his fears that if the work were not then
done the materials might never be brought together again.
His fears seemed prophetic ; for the great rebellion of
1 64 1 soon followed ; all the manuscripts he had used
526 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
were scattered, and only one or two of them now survive.
Even the Four Masters' great compilation was lost for
many generations, and was recovered in a manner almost
miraculous, and placed in the Royal Irish Academy by
Dr. George Petrie. The work was undertaken under the
encouragement and patronage of Fergall O'Gara, prince
of Coolavin, who paid all the necessary expenses ; and
the community of Donegal supplied the historians with
food and lodging. They began their labours in 1632, and
completed the work in 1636.* The Annals of the Four
Masters was translated with most elaborate and learned
annotations by Dr. John 0*Donovan ; and it was published
— Irish text, translation, and notes — in seven large
volumes, by Hodges and Smith of Dublin (now Hodges,
Figgis, and Company) — the greatest and most important
work on Ireland ever issued by any Irish publisher.
A book of annals called the Psalter of Cashel was
compiled by Cormac Mac Cullenan ; but this has been
lost Besides annals in the Irish language, there are
also Annals of Ireland in Latin, such as those of Clyn,
Dowling, Pembridge, of Multifarnham, &c., most of which
have been published by the Archaeological and Celtic
Society.
4. Histories : Genealogies : Dinnsenchtis,
Histories. — None of the writers of old times conceived
the plan of writing a general History of Ireland : it was
only in the seventeenth century that anything like this
was attempted. But the old Irish writers left many very
good Histories of particular transactions, districts, persons,
or periods, all in the form of Historic Tales and mixed
up with fabulous relations. Of these the following may
be mentioned as examples — others will be noticed in
next chapter. The History of tlie War of the Gaels with
* See Petrie's account of all this in O'Donovan's Introduction to the Four
Masters, vol. i.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 52/
the Oalls or Danes ; the History of the Bommean Tribnte ;
the Wan of Tbomond, written in 1459 by Rory McGrath,
a historian of Tbomond or Clare. Of these the first has
been published, with translation, introduction, and anno-
tations, by Dr. James Henthorn Todd. Tlie " Tribute "
has been translated and edited by Dr. Stokes in the
Revue Celtique (vol. xiii.), and by Dr. Standish Hayes
O'Grady In his "Silva Gadeltca."
The first History of the whole country was the Fonu
Feasa ar Erinn, or History of Ireland — from the most
ancient times to the Anglo-Norman invasion, written by
Dr. Geoffrey Keating, a learned Roman Catholic priest of
Tubbrid in Tipperary, who died in 1644, Keating was
deeply versed in the ancient language and literature of
Ireland i and his History, though uncritical and containing
much that is fabulous and legendary, is very interesting
528 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
and valuable for its quaint descriptions of ancient Irish
life and manners, and because it contains many quotations
and condensations from authorities now lost The work
was translated in 1726 by Dermod O'Connor ; but he
wilfully departed from his text, and his translation is
utterly wrong and misleading : " Keating's History ** —
writes Dr. Todd — "is a work which has been greatly
" underrated in consequence of the very ignorant and
" absurd translation by Mr. Dermot O'Connor."* A com-
plete and faithful translation by John O'Mahony was
published, without the Irish text, in New York in 1866.
Complete text and translation, with notes, are now being
issued by the Irish Texts Society of London, under the
editorship of Mr. David Comyn, M.R.I.A., of Dublin, of
which one volume has already appeared.
OenealogieB. — The genealogies of the principal families
were most faithfully preserved in ancient Ireland. There
were several reasons for their anxiety to preserve their
pedigrees, one very important motive being that in the
case of dispute about property or about election to a
chiefship, the decision often hinged on the descent of the
disputants ; and the written records, certified by a properly
qualified historian, were accepted as evidence in the Brehon
Law courts. Each king and chief had in his household
a Shanachie or historian, an officer held in high esteem,
whose duty it was to keep a written record of all the
ancestors and of the several branches of the family. The
king's Shanachie should be an ollave (p. 65, suprd),^
Sometimes in writing down these genealogies the direction
was downward from some distinguished progenitor, of
whom all the most important descendants are given, with
intermarriages and other incidents of the family. Some-
times again the pedigree is given upwards, the person's
•Todd, St. Patrick, p. 133, note.
t O' Curry, MS. Mat., 204. A list of the shanachies of several noble
families may be seen in the same work, p. 219.
CHAP. XIV] ANNALS, HISTORIES, GENEALOGIES 529
father, grandfather, &c., being named, till the chief from
whom the family derived their surname is arrived at, or
some ancestor whose position in the genealogical tree i^
well known, when it becomes unnecessary to procee4
farther. In the time of the Plantations and during the
operation of the penal laws, the vast majority of the Irish
chiefs and of the higher classes in general were driven from
their lands and homes ; and they and their descendants
falling into poverty, lost their pedigrees, so that now
only very few families in Ireland are able to trace their
descent
Many of the ancient genealogies are preserved in the
Books of Leinster, Lecan, Ballymote, &c. But the most
important collection of all is the Book of Genealogi«*
compiled in the years 1650 to 1666 in the College 01
St Nicholas in Galway, by Duald Mac Firbis, the last and
most accomplished native master of the history, laws, an
language of Ireland. ^
The confidence of the learned public in the ancient Ir^^
genealogies is somewhat weakened by the fact that they
like those of the Britons and some other nations — proiess
to trace the descent of the several noble families from
Adam— joining the Irish pedigrees on to the Scriptural
genealogy of Magog the son of Japhet, from whom Irish
historians claim that all the ancient colonists of Ireland
were descended. But passing this by as of little con-
sequence, and coming down to historic times, the several
genealogies, as well as those scattered portions of them
found incidentally in various authors, exhibit marvellous
consistency and have all tbe marks of truthfulness. More-
over they receive striking con&KHiation fronv incidental
references in Englisli writers — as for instance the Venerable
Bede. Whenever Bede mentions a Scot or ItisVvtnan and
says he was the son of so-and-so, it is invariably found
that he agrees witli tlie Irish genealogies v^ vbey mention
the man's name at all.
2 M
11
^30 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The following three tracts (already mentioned, p. 17),
from the manuscript genealogical books, have been printed,
with translations and most copious and valuable notes
ind illustrations by Dr. John O'Donovan, for the Irish
Archaeological and Celtic Society : — An account of " The
Tribes and Ciutoms of HyFiachraoh" in Connaught, from
Duald Mac Firbis's Book of Genealogies; a similar account
of '^ The Tribes and Castoms of Hy Maine *' [Mainy], from the
Book of Lecan ; and from the same book the Genealogy of
ia Munster tribe named Coroalee. And the genealogies of
numerous Irish and Scottish families have been printed in
various Irish publications, all from the Irish manuscript
books. A large number of them will be found in the
Rev. John Shearman's " Loca Patriciana,"
Dinnsenohns. — In this place may be mentioned the
DinnsenchuSy a topographical tract in Middle Irish,
prose and verse, giving the legendary history and the
etymology of the names of remarkable hills, mounds,
caves, earns, cromlechs, raths, duns, plains, lakes, rivers,
fords, estuaries, islands, and so forth. It takes its name
from dind ox dinn^ *a fortified hill,' and senchus^ *a history.'
The stories are mostly fictitious — invented to suit the
several really existing names: nevertheless this tract is
of the utmost value for elucidating the topography and
antiquities of the country. Copies of it are found in
several of the old Irish books of miscellaneous literature,
of which the Book of Leinster contains the oldest version.
Various portions of it have been published by Petrie in his
Essay on Tara, by Crowe in the Kilk. Arch. Journ., 1872-3 ;
by Stokes in Rev, Celt, xv. and xvi., and in Folklore, iiL
and iv. ; and by Gwynn, in the Todd Lecture Series,
Royal Irish Academy. Another very important tract about
the names of remarkable Irish persons, called Cdir Anmann
(* Fitness of Names'), corresponding with the Dinnsenchus
for place-names, has been published with translation by
Dr. Stokes in Irische Texte, iii.
(Fna Fctik't Kamd Ti
CHAPTER XV
HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES
Section i. Classes, Lists, and Numbers.
VEN from the most remote times, beyond the
ken of history, the Irish people, like those
of other countries, had stories, which, before
the introduction of the art of writing, were
transmitted orally, and modified, improved,
and enlai^ed as time went on, by successive
seanchuide [shanachie], or 'storytellers.' They began to
be written down when writing became general : and a
careful examination* of their structure, and of the lan-
guage in which they are written, has led to the conclusion
that the main tales assumed their present forms in the
seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries; while the originals
from which they sprang are much older. " It is probable "
— writes M, Dottinf — "that the most ancient pieces of the
"epic literatureof Ireland were written before the middle of
" the seventh century : but how long previously they bad
" been preserved by oral tradition — this is a point that it is
*By Zimmer and De JubainviUe: ««e Natt, CuchuUinn, the Irish
Achilles, pp. 3, 19, 31: De Jubunville, La Civil, des Ccltes, IJ7. See
also Voyage or Bran, i., Introd. xvi: and Rev. Celt., viii. 47.
t La Litt. Gael, de I'lrlande, p. &3.
532 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART It
" difficult to determine." Once they began to be written
down, a great body of romantic and historical written
literature rapidly accumulated, consisting chiefly of prose
tales.
But of these original transcripts not a line remains r
the manuscript books that contained them were all'
destroyed by the Danes, or in the disturbed times of the
Anglo-Norman invasion, as already stated (p. 489). Of
many of the tales, however, we have, in the Book of the
Dun Cow, and the Book of Leinster, copies made in the
eleventh and twelfth centuries : and there are numerous
others in manuscripts copied by various scribes from that
period to the present century, many of them from original
volumes older than the Book of the Dun Cow, and existing
when the several scribes wrote, but since lost.
Another point bearing on the antiquity of our Irish-
tales is this : — that many of them correspond with tales
in the ancient Romantic Literature of Greece and the
East. Thus, to mention one out of many : our legend of
Dermot O'Dyna* corresponds with the Greek story of
Adonis, both heroes being distinguished for beauty, and
both being killed by a boar. Even their names O'Dyna.
(Irish O'Duibne) and Adonis seem to have come from the
same original. Those of the tales that correspond in this
manner must have had their origin prior to the separation
of the races centuries before the Christian era.f
In the Book of Leinster there is a very interesting List
of the classes to which the ancient historical tales belong,
with a number of individual tales named under each class,
as examples, numbering altogether 187, which has been
printed by O'Curry in his Lectures on the Manuscript
Materials of Irish History, p. 584. Another similar Class-
* For which see Old Celtic Romances (p. 274) : The Pursuit of Dermot
and Grainne.
t See the paper on Remarkable Correspondence of Irish, Greek, and
Oriental Legends, by the Rev. James O'Laverty, in Ulst. Jouin. of Archaeol.,.
vji. 334, See also Dr. "Whitley Stokes : Rev. Celt., V. 232.
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 533
List has been published in the Proc. R. I. Academy (for
1870-76), p. 215, by Mr. Bryan O'Looney, from a Trinity
•College MS. : and a third short one appears in the first
volume of the Brehon Laws, p. 47.* Many classes and
tales are common to the whole of these Lists ; but each
contains some not found in the others. The following
•Class-List is made up from a comparison and combination
of all.
The stories belonging to some of the classes were
<:alled Prime or Chief Stories [Prtm-scdil), and those of the
rest Minor Stories {Fo-scdH), It is stated in all the Lists
that only the four highest grades of poets (OUave, Anruth,
Cli, Cana : pp. 430-4, supra) were permitted to tell both
the prime and the minor stories : the lower grades were
confined to the chief stories.
Classes of Prime Stories : — i. Battles : 2. Imrama^ Navigations,
•or Voyagest : 3« Tragedies : 4. Adventures : 5. Cattle -raids (or
Preyings) : 6. Hostings or Military Expeditions : 7. Courtships :
^. Elopements: 9. Caves or Hidings {i,e. adventures of persons
hiding for some reason in caves or other remote places) :
10. Destructions (of palaces, &c.) : 11. Sieges or Encampments:
12. Feasts: 13. Slaughters.
Classes of Minor Stories : 14. Pursuits : 15. Visions : 16. Exiles^
or Banishments: 17. Lake Eruptions.
We have in our old books stories belonging to every
one of these classes : but of the individual tales named in
the detailed Lists, at least one-half have been lost The
• Still another will be found in M. De Jubainville's Catalogue de la Litt.
£pique de Tlrlande, pp. 259-264.
t Of all the various classes the Imrama or Voyages were the most cele-
brated, and bad most influence on European literature: and next to these
the Visions. Latin versions of the Voyage of St. Brendan, as well as versions
in several European living languages, .were common in every country in
Europe all through the ^liddle Ages: and there is scarcely a Continental
bbrary that does not now contain one or more of these versions. The reader
may consult Father 0*Donohue*s Brendaniana for a full account of thii
** Voyage " and its literature. The Imrama have been examined with great
learning and research by Zimmer and De JubainviUe : of whose labours a
good account will be found in Mr. Nult's Voyage of Bran, I. 161, with full
^iocumentary references. See also p. 230, same vol.
534 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
original List from which all our present Lists were drawn,
was, in the opinion of M. D'Arbois de Jubainville,* written
in the seventh century. In the same author's " Catalogue
de la Litt^rature Epique de Tlrlande" (mentioned farther
on), he has published the titles of about 550 separate tales
in prose or poetry or both, of which, according to the
estimate of Professor Kuno Meyer, in the Preface to his
" Liadain and Curithir," about 400 are still preserved in MSS.
These might be supplemented — Mr. Meyer continues in
the same Preface — by at least 100 others that have come
to light since the publication of the Catalogue, and by a
further number in MSS. still unexplored, thus bringing up
the number still existing to between 500 and 6oo.t
As to the language of the Tales. The old scribes,
when copying a tale, often modernised the phraseology
of the antique prose to that of their own time : but the
poetry, being constructed in accordance with complicated
prosodial rules (for which see chap, xxx., infra) could
not be altered without disarranging the delicate structure.*
Accordingly the scribes generally let it alone, copying it
as they found it ; and for this reason the verse passages
.are generally more archaic and difficult to understand
than the prose. Most of the tales, as already remarked,
have fallen under Christian influences, and contain allusions
to Christian doctrines and practices, inserted by the Chris-
tian copyists, mostly monks : but some have escaped this
and are thoroughly pagan in character, without the least
trace of Christianity. For those monks were liberal and
broadminded, and whenever they could — consistently with
what they considered their duty — they retained the old
pagan allusions untouched.
♦ Cours de Litt. Celt., VI. 35: see also Voyage of Bran, i. 130: and
Hyde, Lit. Hist., chapters xxii.-xxxi.
t As to the total number of individual Tales, see also Miss Hull, Saga^
Introd., xxxviii-ix.
X On this see Zimmer in Rev. Celt., xiii. 179.
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 535
The copyists modernised in other ways. They often
altered the descriptions of antique customs and equip-
ments so as to bring them into conformity with their owp.
times. A notable example of this is the influence of the
Danish wars of the ninth and tenth centuries. It is now
generally admitted that before the arrival of the Danes,
the Irish did not use coats of mail or metallic helmets^
despising such things as unmanly. But they were forced
to adopt them — at least partially — when they found themr
selves pitted against the Danes ; and to some small extent
they kept to the usage afterwards, so that, though they
never took heartily to armour and helmets, they were
quite familiar with their use (see p. 122^ supra). Accord-
ingly in many or most of the copies of the Red Branch
Knights Tales made in the ninth and succeeding centuries
(i.e. after the arrival of the Danes), Cuculainn and other
heroes are represented as wearing metallic helmets and
mail, though in a few versions we find no mention of
these defensive arms. A distinguished Continental scholar^
Prof. Zimmer,* has made use of this as a means to distin-
guish between pre-Danish and post-Danish versions of the
same story : assuming that those recensions that make no
mention of armour are unaltered copies of versions written
before the ninth century.
2. Chronological Cycles of the Tales.
Most of tlie Irish Tales fall under four main cycles of
History and Legend, which, in all the Irish poetical and
romantic literature, were kept quite distinct : —
I. The Mythological Cycle, the stories of which are
concerned with the mythical colonies preceding the
Milesians, especially the Dedannans. The heroes of the
Tales belonging to this cycle, who are assigned to periods
long before the Christian era, are gods, namely the gods
* In Zeitsclirirt (ur Deutsches AUerthum, xxxii.
536 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
that chiefly constitute the mythology of the pagan Irish.
These tales are much less numerous and less consecutive
than those of the next two cycles.
2. The Cycle of Concobar Mac Nessa and his Red
Branch Knights, who flourished in the first century.
3. The Cycle of the Fena of Erin, belonging to a period
two centuries later than those of the Red Branch. The
Red Branch Knights and the Fena of Erin have been
already fully described.
4. Stories founded on events that happened after the
dispersal of the Fena (in the end of the third century,
p. 89, supra), such as the Battle of Moyrath (A.D. 637),
most of the Visions, &c. There are some tales however
that do not come under any of these categories.
The stories of the Red Branch Knights form the finest
•part of our ancient Romantic Literature. The most
celebrated of all these is the Tiin-bo-Cuailnge [Quelnfe],
the epic of Ireland. Medb [Maive] queen of Connaught,
who resided in her palace of Croghan — still remaining in
•ruins near the village of Rathcroghan in the north of
Roscommon — having cause of quarrel with an Ulster chief,
set out with her army for Ulster on a plundering expedi-
tion, attended by all the great heroes of Connaught, and
by an Ulster contingent who had enlisted in her service.
She was accompanied by her husband King Ailill, who
however plays a very subordinate part : the strong-minded
queen is the leading character all through. The invading
army entered that part of Ulster called Cuailnge or
Queln^, the principality of the hero Cuculainn, the north
part of the present county Louth. At this time the
Ulstermen were under a spell of feebleness, all but
Cuculainn, who had to defend single-handed the several
fords and passes, in a series of single combats, against
Maive's best champions, in all of which he was victorious.
She succeeded in this first raid, and brought away a great
brown bull — which was the chief motive of the expedi-
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 537
tion — with flocks and herds beyond number. At length
the Ulstermen, having been freed from the spell, attacked
and routed the Connaught army. The battles, single
combats, and other incidents of this war, which lasted for
several years, form the subject of the Tdin, which consists
of one main epic story with about thirty shorter tales
grouped round it.
Mr. Alfred Nutt (in his "Cuchulainn, the Irish Achilles,'*
p. 2) estimates that the whole of the literature of the Red
Branch Knights that we possess— never counting one
piece twice — would occupy about 2000 8vo printed pages.
Some of the chief Red Branch Knights that figure in these
tales have been already named (p. 84, supra).
Of the Cycle of Finn and the Fena of Erin we have a
vast collection of stories. The chief heroes under Finn,
who figured in the tales, were : — Oisin or Ossian, his son,
the renowned hero-poet to whom the bards attribute — but
we know erroneously — many poems . still extant ; Oscar
the brave and gentle, the son of Ossian ; Dermot O'Dyna,
unconquerably brave, of untarnished honour, generous and
self-denying, the finest character in all Irish literature,
perhaps the finest in any literature ; Goll Mac Morna, the
mighty leader of the Connaught Fena ; Cailte Mac Ronan
the swift-footed ; Conan Mail or Conan the Bald, large-
bodied, foul-tongued, boastful, cowardly, and gluttonous.
The characters of all these are maintained with great
spirit and consistency throughout the stories.
The Tales of the Fena, though not so old as those of
the Red Branch Knights, are still of great antiquity : for
some of them are found in the Book of the Dun Cow and
in the Book of Leinster, copied from older volumes ; and
they are often mentioned in Cormac's Glossary — ninth or
tenth century. The quantity of this literature contained
in these old books is however small. According to Mr.
Nutt, in his "Ossian and the Ossianic Literature" (p. 8),
it might fill a hundred pages such as this now under the
538 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART It
reader's eye — for the stories are scrappy and very briefly
told. Mr. Nutt believes, however, that before the eleventh
century there must have existed a large body of complete
tales, all of which have perished. But a vast amount of
Ossianic stories, both in prose and verse, is contained in
later MSS., composed and transcribed from time to time
down to the beginning of the last century. The brief
tales contained in the older MSS. form the germs of the
later and more elaborate stories.
M. H. D'Arbois de Jubainville has published, in his
"Litterature Epique de Tlrlande" (the Epic Literature of
Ireland), a most useful catalogue of ancient Irish romantic
tales, with the several libraries and manuscripts in which
they are to be found : a work which is quite indispensable
to every student of Irish romantic literature. For a good
and most useful survey of this ancient literature the reader
is referred to Mr. Alfred Nutt's " The Voyage of Bran,'*
vol. i., pp. \\^ et seq,
3. General Character of the Tales.
" Some of the tales are historical, t,e, founded on his-
" torical events — history embellished with some fiction ;
"while others are altogether fictitious — pure creations of
" the imagination. But it is to be observed that even in
" the fictitious tales, the main characters are nearly always
** historical, or such as were considered so. The old Shana-
** chies wove their fictions round Concobar Mac Nessa and
" his Red Branch Knights, or Finn and his Fena, or Luga
"of the long arms and his Dedannans, or Conn the
" Hundred fighter, or Cormac Mac Art ; like the Welsh
" legends of Arthur and his Round Table, or the Arabian
" romances of Haroun al Raschid. The greater number
" of the tales are in prose, but some are in verse ; and in
" many of the prose tales the leading characters are often
" made to express themselves in verse, or some striking
" incident of the story is related in a poetical form. These
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 539
** verse fragments are mostly quotations from an older
" poetical version of the same tale.***
From this great body of stories it would be easy
to select a large number, powerful in conception and
execution, high and digfnified in tone and feeling, all
inculcating truthfulness and manliness, many of them
worthy to rank with the best literature of their kind in
any language. The Stories of the Sons of Usna, the?
Children of Lir, the Fingal Ronain, the Voyage of Maeldune,
Da Derga's Hostel, the Boroma, and the Fairy Palace of the
Quicken Trees, are only a few instances in point.
As to the general moral tone of the ancient Irish tales :
it is to be observed that in all early literatures, Irish
among the rest, sacred as well as profane, there is much
plain speaking of a character that would now be con-
sidered coarse, and would not be tolerated in our present
social and domestic life. But on the score of morality
and purity the Irish tales can compare favourably with
the corresponding literature of other countries ; and they
are much freer from objectionable matter than the works
of many of those early English and Continental authors
which are now regarded as classics. Taken as a body
they are at least as pure as Shakespeare's Plays ; and the
worst of them contain very much less grossness than some
of the Canterbury Tales. Dr. Whitley Stokes, in his
Preface to the " Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel," speaks
with good reason; of the "pathos and beauty** of that fine
story ; and his remarks on the series of short stories in
the Acallamh na Seanorach^ or "Colloquy with the Ancient
Men,** deserve to be quoted in full : — " The tales are
** generally told with sobriety and directness : they evince
"genuine feeling for natural beauty, a passion for music,
"a moral purity, singular in a mediaeval collection of
"stories, a noble love for manliness and honour. Some
♦Joyce, Old Celtic Romances, Pref.. p. iv.
540 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
^*of them seem to me admirable for their unstudied
"pathos."* On the same point Professor Kuno Meyerf
justly remarks :— The "literature of no nation is free from
" occasional grossness ; and considering the great antiquity
" of Irish literature, and the primitive life which it reflects,
"what will strike an impartial observer most is not its
*^ license or coarseness, but rather the purity, loftiness, and
** tenderness which pervade it."
Irish Romantic Literature is intimately interwoven
with native Topography, as much so at least as that of
Greece or Rome, and much more so than the German
or Norse Tales. Some particular spots, residences, or
monuments are assigned as the scenes of almost all the
battles, feasts, burials, or other memorable events ; and the
chief places through which armies on the march passed are
laid down with great precision. J Most of those places, as
well as the residences of the kings and great heroes of the
olden time, are known to this day, and not only retain
their old names, but are marked by such monumental
remains as might be expected : of which many examples
will be found in various parts of tliis book.
4. Story 'telling and Recitation,
The tales were brought into direct touch with the
people, not by reading — for there were few books outside
libraries, and few people were able to read them — but
by recitation : and the Irish of all classes, like the
Homeric Greeks, were excessively fond of hearing tales
and poetry recited. There were, as we have seen, pro-
fessional shanachies and poets whose duty it was to know
by heart a number of old tales, poems, and historical
pieces, and to recite them, at festive gatherings, for the
entertainment of the chiefs and their guests : and it has
•Irische Texte, iv., Pref. xii.
t In the Preface to his ** Liadain and Cuirithir."
X On this special point, see Miss Hull*s ** Cuchullin Saga,** Appendix II.,
p. 301, and the map prefixed to the work.
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMANTIC TALES 54^
been already observed that every intelligent person was
supposed to know a reasonable number of them, so as ta
be always ready to take a part in amusing and instructing^
his company. The tales of those times correspond with
the novels and historical romances of our own day, and
served a purpose somewhat similar. Indeed they served
a much higher purpose than the generality of our novels ;
for in conjunction with poetry they were the chief agency
in education — education in the best sense of the word — a
real healthful informing exercise for the intellect. As
remarked elsewhere they conveyed a knowledge of history
and geography, and they inculcated truthful and honour-
able conduct Moreover this education was universal ; for
though few could read, the knowledge and recitation of
poetry and stories reached the whole body of the people.*
The recaire [rackera] or reciter generally sang the poetical
parts of the tale to the music of a harp, when a harp was
at hand and when he was able to play, as stated at p. 445,
supra,
" This ancient institution of story- telling held its ground
" both in Ireland and in Scotland down to a very recent
"period; and it is questionable if it is even yet quite
" extinct. Within my own memory, this sort of entertain-i
" ment was quite usual among the farming classes of the
"south of Ireland. The family and workmen, and any
" neighbours that chose to drop in, would sit round the
" kitchen fire after the day's work — or perhaps gather in a
" bam on a summer or autumn evening — to listen to some
"local shanachie reciting one of his innumerable Gaelic
" tales." t In old times people were often put to sleep by
a shanachie reciting a tale in a drowsy monotonous sort
of recitative.^
* For the educational fimction of the tales, see also pp. 418, 426, supra,
tSee Prcf. to Old Celtic Romances, from which the above extract is
taken : and Preface to Carmichael's Carmina Gadelica.
J See O'Grady, Silva Gad. : Pref. xxi, par. v.
S42 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
5. Translations and Versions in Modern Languages.
Much of this ancient Romantic Literature has been
recently translated. The Battle of Moylena and the Battle
of Moyrath are the subjects of two historic tales, both of
which have been published, the former edited by O'Cuny
and the latter by O'Donovan, both with valuable notes.
What are called the " Three Tragic Stories of Erin," viz.,
the Fate of the Children of Lir, the Fate of the Sons of
Usna, and the Fate of the Sons of Turenn, have been
published in the Atlantis, translated and edited by 0*Curry ;
who also translated the Sick-bed of Cuchulainn in the
same periodical. Some few others have been published
with translations in the Kilkenny Archaeological Journal,
and in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy.
In the Revue Celtique, Irische Texte, Zeitschrift fiir
Celt. Phil, Folklore, and other periodicals, both British
and Continental, a great number have been translated by
Dr. Whitley Stokes and by Prof Kuno Meyer. Several
have also been translated into French and German by
Windisch, D*Arbois de Jubainville, Zimmer, and others.
The Irish Texts Society of London have published the
Feast of Bricriu, with English translation ; which how-
ever had been previously translated into French by
M. De Jubainville in his " UEpopde Celtique en Irlande,*'
and into German by Dr. Windisch in Ir. Texte, vol. ii. In
Dr. Hayes O'Grady's " Silva Gadelica '* are text and trans-
lation of twenty-seven. Six volumes of tales, chiefly of the
Cycle of. Finn, have been published with translations by
the Ossianic. Society. The best of them is "The Pursuit
of jpefn>ot-^nd.Grania," which has been literally translated
by Stand^sh -Hayes 0*Grady. Miss Eleanor Hull has
givea a. gpQ^ abstract of the Red Branch Knights tales
in her book, " The Cuchullinn Saga." I have myself
published in my*01d Celtic Romances" free translations—
without texts —of twelve ancient tales (including Dermot
CHAP. XV] HISTORICAL AND ROMAKTIC TALES 543
and Grania above-mentioned). A translation, on similar
lines, of " The Fate of the Sons of Usna " is included in
my " Reading Book in Irish History." Lady Gregory has
told the principal stories of the Red Branch Knights in
simple, quaint English — following pretty closely on the
originals — in her " Cuchulain of Muirthemne." All these
will be found mentioned in the List of Authorities at the
end of this book. Translations and versions still continue
to appear, showing no signs of falling off, but rather a
tendency to increase,*
Already a good beginning has been made in the creation
of a modern literature founded on these ancient sagas.
Five English poetical epics have been published, founded
on five of them : — " Congal," on the Battle of Moyrath,
and " Conary," on the Destruction of Da Derga's Hostel,
both by Sir Samuel Ferguson ; " The Foray of Queen
Meave," on the Tiin-bo-Quelnfe, by Mr. Aubrey de Vere;
and " Deirdre," on the Fate of the Sons of Usna, and
" Blanid," on the Death of Curoi Mac Dara, both by my
brother. Dr. Robert Dwyer Joyce. When Tennyson read
for the first time the Adventures of Maeldune, in " Old
Celtic Romances," he made it the subject of a beautiful
poem, which he called " The Voyage of Maeldune." And
there exist still, in this fine old literature, ample materials
untouched. The harvest is abundant, but the labourers
are wanted.
* Of the whole of Ihe five or six hundred andent Irish Tales, Prof. Kaao
Meyer, in the Preface to hit "Liadain and Cnrilhir," estjinates th4[ abont
153 have be«D, so lar, published with translations.
Fig. 136.— Sculpture on Chancel Arch, Monastery Church, dendalough.
(From Petrie s Round Towers. i845>)
CHAPTER XVI
ART
Section I. Penwork and Illumination,
RT, in some of its branches, was cultivated, as
we shall see, in Pagan Ireland ; but it
attained its highest perfection in Chris-
tian times. In its Christian connexion it
<^ began to flourish early. We know that St
Patrick, in the fifth century, kept, as part of
his household, smiths, braziers, and other artists*
St. Daig or Dagoeus (d. A.D. 587), who is mentioned
farther on, was a scriptor librorum peritissimus^ * a most
skilful writer of books,* and was equally celebrated as a
metal-work artist; and St Ultan (d. 655) was renowned
as a scriptor et pictor librorum peritissimus^ *a most
accomplished writer and illuminator of books.' * In Ire-
land art was practised chiefly in four different branches :—
Ornamentation and Illumination of Manuscript-books ;
Metal-work ; Stone-carving ; and Building. In leather-
work also the Irish artists attained to great skill, as we
may see in several exquisite specimens of book-binding
still preserved, of which two are figured at pp. 32 and 488,
supra. Art in general reached its highest perfection in
the period between the end of the ninth and the beginning
• Keller in Ulst. Journ* Archseol., vin. 223, 224.
CHAP. XVI] ART 545
of the twelfth century* Penwork seems to have some-
what outstripped its sister arts ; for some of the finest
examples of ornamental penmanship and illumination
still preserved belong to the seventh, eighth, and ninth
centuries.
The special style of pen ornamentation which, in its
most advanced stage, is quite characteristic of the Celtic
people of Ireland, was developed in the course of centuries
by successive generations of artists who brought it to
marvellous perfection. It was mainly, though not exclu-
sively, the work of ecclesiastics, and it was executed for
the most part in monasteries. Its most marked character-
istic is interlaced work formed by bands, ribbons, and cords,
which are curved and twisted and interwoven in the most
intricate way, something like basketwork infinitely varied
in pattern. These are intermingled and alternated with
zigzags, waves, spirals, and lozenges ; while here and there
among the curves are seen the faces or forms of dragons,
serpents, or other strange-looking animals, their tails or
ears or tongues not unfrequently elongated and woven till
they become merged and lost in the general design ; and
sometimes human faces, or full figures of men or of angels.
But vegetable forms are very rare. This ornamentation
was commonly used in the capital letters, which are
generally very large: one capital of the Book of Kells
covers a whole page. The pattern is often so minute and
complicated as to require the aid of a magnifying glass to
examine it The penwork is throughout illuminated in
brilliant colours, in preparing the materials of which the
scribes were as skilful as in making their ink (p. 479,
supra): for in some of the old books the colours, especially
the red, are even now very little faded after the lapse of
so many centuries. The several colours were differently
prepared. The yellow was laid on thin and transparent
The red was mixed with a gummy substance that pre-
* See Dr. William Stokes's Life of Petrie, chap. viii.
2 N
546 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
vented it from sinking in, and in gfreat measure from
fading : while others have a thick body of some skilfully
prepared material.*
The Book of Kells, a vellum manuscript of the Four
Gospels in Latin, is the most beautifully written book in
existence. The first notice of it occurs in the Annals, at
1006, where it is recorded that "the great Gospel of
Columkille " — " the principal relic of the western world, on
account of its unequalled cover," was stolen out of the
sacristy at Kells (in Meath). It was recovered soon after;
but the thief had removed the gold cover. Its exact age
is unknown; but judging from the style of the penmanship
and from other internal evidence, we may conclude that
it was probably written in the seventh century. Each
verse of the text begins with an ornamental capital ;.
and upon these capitals, which are nearly all differ-
ently designed, the artist put forth his utmost efforts.
Miss Stokes, who has examined the Book of Kells with
great care, thus speaks of it : — " No effort hitherto made to^
" transcribe any one page of this book has the perfection
" of execution and rich harmony of colour which belongs
"to this wonderful book. It is no exaggeration to say
" that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger
" the magnifying power brought to bear upon it, the more
" is this perfection seen. No single false interlacement or
** uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a trembling
" hand or wandering thought can be detected. This is the
"very passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the
" Irish scribe work to glorify his book/'f
Professor J. O. Westwood of Oxford, who examined
the best specimens of ancient penwork all over Europe,
speaks even more strongly. In his little work on the
Book of Kells, he writes : — " It is the most astonishing
* From the German scholar, Dr. Keller, in Ulst. Joom. of Arch., viii. 221 :
see also Miss Stokes, Early Christian Art, 11, 12.
t Miss Stokes, Early Christian Architecture, 127.
* l"
' 'hem [the t'^
Knowledge in -
■ u"-n.n for 111 * .
1 I
. "ses and to..- t \«
1. with all the >k i- .
- iu'ch I have bee t- ^ - ,
;' •;>t conceive'* (p. i
. i Kurope whcu- m. *
'■vC. iht"
' ' :■! K'l-
.t in those
. • ** »; ol K'-IK, as
'■• tij reprodured by
'i •• i! Manuscripts of
■ • ' .H . f j'l. ithj-aries. Subse-
^. ^'r'-. ■ . r pn ('t:*.li jis of the Book
% t».t i-licU f;y Hodges 6l iig^^^' of
, s.K.r.c.iJ.
N 2
CHAP. XVI] ART 547
book of the Four Gospels which exists in the world "
(p. S) : " How men could have had eyes and tools to work
** them [the designs] out, I am sure I, with all the skill and
" knowledge in such kind of work which I have been exer-
"cising for the last fifty years, cannot conceive" (p. lo).
** I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe where such
** books as this occur, but there is no such book in any of
" them ; . . . there is nothing like it in all the books which
** were written for Charlemagne and his immediate sue-
"cessors" (p. ii).
Speaking of the minute intricacy and faultless execu-
tion of another Irish book, Mr. Westwood says : — " I have
" counted [with a magnifying glass] in a small space
" scarcely three quarters of an inch in length by less than
" half an inch in width, in the Book of Armagh, no less than
" I $8 interlacements of a slender ribbon pattern formed of
** white lines edged with black ones." The Book of Durrow
and the Book of Armagh, both in Trinity College, Dublin ;
the Book of Mac Durnan, now in the Archbishop's Library,
Lambeth ; the Stowe Missal in the Royal Irish Academy ;
and the Garland of Howth in Trinity College, are all
splendidly ornamented and illuminated ; and of the Book
of Armagh, some portions of the penwork surpass even the
finest parts of the Book of Kells.*
Giraldus Cambrensis, when in Ireland in 1185, saw a
copy of the Four Gospels in St Brigit's nunnery in Kil-
dare which so astonished him that he has recorded — in a
separate chapter of his book — a legend that it was written
under the direction of an angel. His description would
exactly apply now to the Book of Kells. But in those
• Many of the most beautifhl pages and letters of the Book of Kells, as
well as of numerous other ancient Irish manuscripts, have been reproduced by
Sir John T. Gilbert, LL.D., in the Facsimiles of National Manuscripts of
Ireland (in five volumes), which may be seen in the public libraries. Subse-
quently appeared a much more extensive series of reproductions of the Book
of Kells in fifty photographic plates, published by Hodges & Figgis, of
Dublin, edited by the Rev. Dr, Abbott, s.r.T.C.D.
2 N 2
JT doU Krip ? in mil ^
CHAP. XVI] ART 549
times there were many such books, as indeed is indicated
— among other entries — by the record of the Four Masters
above. Here the book is singled out for special commen-
dationfnot on account of its penwork, but for " its unequalled
cover," implying that the beautiful penmanship was so
usual in books at the time as not to need special notice in
this particular volume. Giraldus's words are : — " Almost
" every page is illustrated by drawings illuminated with a
"variety of brilliant colours. In one page you see the
" countenance of the Divine Majesty supematurally pic-
" tured ; in another the mystic forms of the evangelists :
"here is depicted the eagle, there the calf: here the face
" of a man, there of a lion ; with other figures in almost
" endless variety. . . . You will find them [the pictures] so
" delicate and exquisite, so finely drawn, and the work of
" interlacing so elaborate, while the colours with which they
" are illuminated are so blended, that you will be ready to
" assert that all this is the work of angelic and not of
" human skill.'** One can hardly be surprised at Giraldus's
legend ; for whoever looks closely into some of the elaborate
pages of the Book of Kells — even in the photographic
reproductions — ^will be inclined to wonder how any human
head could have designed, or how any human hand could
have drawn them. This exquisite art was also practised
successfully by the Gaels of Scotland ; but the discussion
of this does not fall within my province.
The men who produced these books must have worked
without the least hesitation or uncertainty, and with un-
wavering decision, the result of long practice. So far as
we know there were then no magnifying glasses: and
perhaps it may not be out of place to remark that it was
in general only persons with short sight— such people as
have now to use concave spectacles — that could follow
up for a lifetime this art of minute ornamentation and
illumination.
•Top. Hib., II. xxxviii (Bohn's ed.).
550 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [FART II
But this peculiar ,work did not originate in Ireland.
In pagan times indeed the Irish practised a sort of orna-
mentation consisting of zigzags, lozenges, circles both
single and in concentric
groups, spirals of both single
and double lines, and other
such patterns, which are
found among most primitive
peoples, and which in Ireland
may be seen on bronze and
gold ornaments preserved in
museums, and on sepulchral
stone monuments, such as
those at New Grange and
Loughcrew." Even in those
primitive ages, however, they
showed much artistic taste
and skill. Many small objects,
such as horn combs, found
under earns in Loughcrew,
are — in the words of Mr.
Fergussont — " engraved by
" compass with circles and
" curves of a high order of
"art": and "on one, in cross-
" hatch lines, is the represen-
"tation of an antlered stag":
all executed in pagan times.
Fi«. 139. Specimens of tasteful pagan
jMV^,"^.''A=''Hqq"'^J'i^ designs, some of them beau-
ihe^L^^f'^^r*™' '"' """^" tifully executed, may be seen
on some of the stone monu-
ments figured in chap, xxxi., sect. $ ; and on the gold
ornaments shown in chap, xxii., sect. 3.
*0n thisseeMr. Coffey on the Ori);>nE of Preliistoric Ornament in Ireland :
Jonrn. Roy. Soc. Antiqq., Ire)., I8(|2- 1 Rg4. t Rude Stone Monuments, iiS.
4(
■(C
41
•4C
41
CHAP. XVI] ART 551
But in all this pre-Christian ornamentation there is
not the least trace of interlaced work. This beautiful art
originated in the East — in Byzantium after the fall of the
first empire — and was brought to Ireland — no doubt by
Irish monks — in the early ages of Christianity. In Ireland
it continued to be cultivated for centuries, while meantime
it died out on the Continent But remains of the primitive
art are to this day preserved in its original home, and in
the surrounding countries. "Interlaced patterns and knot-
work " — observes Miss Stokes in her " Early Christian Art
in Ireland" (p. 33) — "strongly resembling Irish designs,
are commonly met with at Ravenna, in the older churches
" of Lombardy, and at Sant' Abbondio, at Como, and not
unfrequently appear in Byzantine MSS., while in the
carvings on the Syrian churches of the second and third
centuries, as well as the early churches of Georgfia, such
interlaced ornament is constantly used."*
But if the Irish did not originate this art, they made it,
as it were, their own, after adopting it, and cultivated it to
greater perfection than was ever dreamed of in Byzantium
or Italy. Combining the Byzantine interfacings with the
familiar pagan designs, they produced a variety of patterns,
and developed new and intricate forms of marvellous
beauty and symmetry. " Besides all this" — again to quote
Miss Stokes — "the interfacings, taken by themselves,
^* gradually undergo a change in character under the
^*hand of the Irish artist They become more inex-
■''tricable, more involved, more infinitely varied in their
twistings and knottings, and more exquisitely precise
and delicate in execution than they are ever seen to be
on Continental works, so far as my experience goes."
Dr. Ferdinand Keller,f who has made a most careful
* The reader will find this branch of the subject well and instructively
discussed in "Rambles and Studies in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Dalmatia "
— pages 280 to 295 — with many illustrations, by the well-known Scotch
antiquarian, Dr. Robert Munro.
t In his Paper already referred to in note, p. 546, supra.
41
41
4(
552 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
examination of the Continental specimens of Irish cah"-
graphy and illumination, is quite as strongly enthusiastic
in his expressions of admiration as Mr. Westwood and
Miss Stokes.
It is curious that long after this style of writing and
ornamentation had died out on the Continent, it was
revived and brought into fashion there again through
the influence of the Irish Missionaries. For they carried
their beautiful art — improved and almost re-created by
their own inventive genius — wherever they went, and
taught it to the Anglo-Saxons and Britons in England,
and to the people of all those Continental countries they
frequented. Mr. Westwood and Dr. Keller both express
the opinion that the Irish style of penmanship was
generally adopted on the Continent, and continued to
prevail there until the revival of art in the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries. To this day numerous exquisite
specimens of the skill and taste of those Irish artists are
preserved in the libraries of England, France, Germany,
and Italy : of which one lovely example — now in Bavaria
— may be seen described and figured by Dr. W. Wattenbach
in a Paper written by him in German, and translated into
French, in the first volume of Revue Celtique.* One of
Dr. Wattenbach's illustrations is copied here by permission
of the editor of Revue Celtique. Several others, with the
full colours restored, will be found in Dr. Keller's Paper
above referred to. Through ignorance of the real origin
of this beautiful style of writing, ornamenting, and illumi-
nating manuscripts, it was at one time often designated
" Celtic " (which is too wide a term), and not unfrequently
"Anglo-Saxon" (because it was sometimes found in Anglo-
Saxon MSS. written by scribes who had learned from the
* The French Title of the Paper is :— ** Sur un Evang^liare k Miniatures
d'Origine Irlandaise, dans la Biblioth^ue Prind^ d*Oettingen-Wallerstein **
(Rev. Celt., i. 27). This Paper is translated into English, with two illustra-
tions copied, by Miss Stokes, in Kilk. Archaeol. Journal for 1870-71, p. 352.
CHAP. XVI] ART SSJ
Irish): but now it is universally recognized as Irish, so
that it is commonly known as opus Hibernicum.
While the Irish artists evolved from within this unex-
ampled excellence of ornamentation, their attempts at
miniature drawing, as well as at sculpturing the human
figure, are conventional and imperfect : a circumstance
554 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
which will hardly surprise us when we remember that
conventionality in figure-drawing and sculpture held the
ancient Egyption artists in slavery for thousands of years,
and that their attempts at depicting natural figures and
scenes remained artificial and imperfect to the end. But
the Irish artists, though their figures were rude, were highly
successful in imparting expression to the human face, as
may be seen by Petrie's remarks at p. 570, infra,
2. Goldy Silver^ and Enamel^ as Working Materials.
Before entering on the subject of artistic metal-work, it
may be well to say a few words on the two metals chiefly
employed — gold and silver — and on the glassy metallic
combination — enamel.
Gold. — It is certain that gold and silver mines were
worked in this country from the most remote antiquity ;
and that gold was found anciently in much greater
abundance than it has been in recent times. Our oldest
traditions record not only the existence of the mines, but
also the names of the kings who had them worked, and
even those of the artificers. According to the bardic
annals, the monarch Tigernmas [Tiernmas] was the first
that smelted gold in Ireland, and with it covered drinking-
goblets and brooches ; the mines were situated in the
Foithre [fira], or woody districts, east of the Liffey ; and
the artificer was Uchadan^ who lived in that part of the
country.
Whatever amount of truth there may be in this old
legend, it proves that the Wicklow gold mines were as well
known in the far distant ages of antiquity as they were in
the end of the eighteenth century, when the accidental dis-
covery of a few pieces of gold in the bed of a stream revived
the long-lost knowledge, and caused such an exciting search
for several years. This stream, which is now called the
Gold Mine river, flows from the mountain of Croghan
Kinshella, and joins the Ovoca near the Wooden Bridge
CHAP. XVI] ART 55 S
hotel. On account of the abundance of gold in Wicklow in
old times, the people of Leinster sometimes got the name
of Laignig-an-dir (Lynee-an-ore), the * Lagenians of the
gold.** But other parts of the country produced gold also,
as, for instance, the district of O'Gonneloe near Killaloe,
and the neighbourhood of the Moyola river in Derry.t
There were gold districts also in Antrim, Tyrone, Dublin,
Wexford, and Kildare.^ In accordance with all this, we
have, in the annals, records which show that gold was
everywhere within reach of the wealthy, and was used
by them in personal decoration and in works of art. Even
till late times Ireland produced gold, as well as silver, and
exported them. The " Libel of English Policie " (about
1430), p. 199, gives a list of exports, among which "of
silver and golde there is the oore " : and it goes on to say
that the ore was raised from Irish mines, and that it was
rich and excellent.
But though the home produce was abundant, it hardly
kept pace with the demand ; for the higher classes had
quite a passion for gold ornaments ; and some of our
oldest traditions record the importation of gold, and
articles of gold ; just as horses, cloaks, and bronze articles
were imported. For example, we are told in a legend in
the Book of Leinster, that Credne, the great Dedannan
caird or artificer, was drowned while bringing golden ore
from Spain.§ A poem in the same old book speaks of
''torques of gold from foreign lands ";|| and another legend
describes a lady's chair as all ablaze with " Alpine gold."ir
These old records are corroborated by Giraldus in a
passage implying that there were native gold mines, but
the people were too idle to work them effectively — one of
* O'Cunry, Man. & Cost., i., p. 5. f Boate, Nat. Hist., 69.
{ Wilde, Catal. Gold, page 4, and note ; and pp.. 97-100 : Kinahan,
GeoL of IreL, chap. zzi.
\ O'Curry, Man. & Cust., 11. 210: LL, 11, a, 37.
H O'Cnrry, Man. & Cust., 11. 182 : LL, 49, b, 40^
H Silva Gad., 120: Man. & Cust., 11. 13.
SS6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
his usual sour indictments : and he then goes on to say —
with undoubted truth : — " Even gold, of which they require
" large quantities, and which they desire so eagerly, as to
"indicate their Spanish origin, is brought hither [from
"Spain] by merchants" (Top. Hib. III. x.). In another
place he remarks that gold abounds in Ireland.
The general truthfulness of these traditions and records
is fully borne out by the great quantities of golden orna-
ments found in every part of the country, which will be
spoken of in chapter xxii. Near the village of Cullen, on
the borders of Limerick and Tipperary, there is a bog
which has been long celebrated for the quantities of
manufactured gold found in it. During the last two
centuries innumerable golden articles of various kinds
have been dug up from the bottom of this bog, as well
as many of the implements used by the old goldsmiths in
their work, such as crucibles, bronze ladles, &c ; from
which it is probable, as O'Curry remarks, that this place
was anciently — long before the bog was formed, and when
the land was clothed with wood — inhabited by a race of
goldsmiths, who carried on the manufacture there for
generations.* It may be added that the bog of Cullen
is still proverbial all over Munster for its riches: —
" And her wealth it far outshines
Cullen's bog or Silvermines." +
How much Ireland was richer than Britain in gold is
well illustrated by the fact that, while the total weight of
the gold ornaments in the British Museum, collected from
England, Wales, and Scotland (excluding those from
Ireland), is not more than 50 oz., those in the collection
in the National Museum in Dublin weigh about 570 oz. J
* Man. & Cost., n. 205 et seq. For more about ancient workshops, see
chap, xxiv., sect. 5, infra,
t The Enchanted Lake, in Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends.
{ See Mr. (jeorge Coffey's Paper, Joum. Soc. Antiqq. Irel., 1895, p. 23.
In this Article the weight of the British Museum gold is given as 20 oz. ; but
CHAP. XVI] ART 557
Dr. Frazer's Paper in Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad, for 1893-6,
P* 779> suggesting that the gold for Irish ornaments was
imported from Eastern Russia, and a subsequent paper in
the Joum. of the Soc. Antiqq., Ireland (1897, p. 59),
assigning Roman gold coins plundered from the Britons
as the source of the Irish supply, do not need any serious
notice.
Silver. — As in case of gold, we have also very ancient
legends about silver. Our old legendary histories tell us
that King Enna Airgthech^ who reigned about a century
and a half after Tigemmas^ was the first that made silver
shields in Ireland, which he distributed among his chieftain
friends. The legend goes on to say that they were made
at a place called Argetros or Silverwood, situated at Rath-
beagh on the Nore, in Kilkenny, which was said to derive
its name from those silver shields. In several parts of the
country there are mines of lead mixed with a considerable
.percentage of silver ; one, for instance, at Silvermines in
Tipperary. Like gold, silver also appears to have been
occasionally imported from Spain. In the house of Gerg
there were drinking -bowls with rims ornamented with
silver brought from Spain (Leahy, 28).
The Irish word for silver is airget [arrigit]: it is a
•Celtic word cognate with the Lat argentum. Two other
native terms for silver, cimb and cerb^ are given in Cormac's
•Glossary (39, 47) : but both had fallen out of use in the
tenth century. On account of the abundance of gold, its
market value in Ireland compared with that of silver —
which was difficult to obtain — ^was very much less than it
is now.*
Mr. Co£fey informs me that a corselet weighing 30 oz. was accidentaUy
omitted. See also Ridgeway, Origin of Currency, Appendix C.
*For more information about gold and silver, see Brash's article in
Kilk. Arch. Joum., 1870-71, p. 509: Hyde, Lit. Hist., chap, xii.: Prof.
O'Reilly's Paper on The Milesian Colonisation of Ireland in relation to Gold
Mining, in Proc. Roy. In Acad, for 1900: and M. Henri Graidoz, De
^'Exploitation des M6taux en Gaule, in the Revue Arch^logique, 1868.
5S8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Enamel and Enamel Work. — On many of the specimens
of metal-work preserved in the National Museum may be
seen enamel patterns worked with exquisite skill, showing
that the Irish artists were thorough masters of this branch
of art. Their enamel was a sort of whitish or yellowish
transparent glass as a foundation, coloured with different
metallic oxides. It was fused on to the surface of the
heated metal, where it adhered, and was worked while soft
into various patterns. Red or crimson enamel, which
seems to have been a favourite, was called cruan, from
the Irish word crUy * blood.' O'Davoren, a late authority,
quoting from older works, vaguely defines cruan^ * a kind
of old brazier work.' In other old glossaries the word is
explained buidhe ocus dearg^ * yellow and red,' as much as
to say that cruan was of an orange or crimson colour.*
The art of enamelling was common to the Celtic people
of Great Britain and Ireland, in pre-Christian as well as in
Christian times ; and beautiful specimens have been found
in both countries, some obviously Christian, and others, as
their designs and other characteristics show, belonging to
remote pagan ages. Many objects showing exquisite
enamel work, variously coloured, all found in Ireland, have
been described, and several of them figured, by Miss Stokes
in the article mentioned below. The art was taken up
and improved by the Christian artists, who used it in
metal-work with the interlaced ornamentation, similar to
that in the Book of Kells and other manuscripts.
A few years ago a great block of cruan or red enamel
weighing lOlb., formed of glass coloured with red oxide
of copper — being the raw material intended for future
work — was found under one of the raths at Tara, and is
now in the National Museum. On this a Paper was con-
tributed to vol. XXX., Transactions of the R. I. Acad., by
* See V. Ball and Miss Stokes in the Paper mentioned in the text : Bk.
of Rights, 267 : Stokes in Trip. Life, Introd. cxlvv, note 2 : and Dr. William
Stokes's Life of Petrie, 420.
CHAP. XVI] ART 559
Mr. Valentine Ball, giving the history of the find, along
with a description and chemical analysis of the block,
followed by a series of " Observations on the use of Red
Enamel in Ireland," by Miss Margaret Stokes.
Cruan is often mentioned in the oldest Irish records.
For instance, in the story of Bruden Da Derga in the Book
of the Dun Cow, we read of " thrice fifty dark grey steeds,
with thrice fifty bridles of cruan on them."* As bearing
out the correctness of such old descriptions as this, we
find in the National Museum portions of bridles and other
horse-trappings, most beautifully enamelled in various
rich colours, one of which may be seen pictured by Miss
Stokes in the above-mentioned Paper, and another in the
Kilkenny Archaeological Journal, vol. for 1856-57, p. 423.
In the Tripartite Life we read that when Bishop Muinis
settled in Forgney, St Patrick left him a cross of {ix. orna-
mented with) crtMti moithniy with the four ardda^ or points-
of-the-compass, of cruan mdin^ marked on itt These of
course were different kinds of cruan, but beyond this
we know nothing. The enamel work of Christian artists
is seen in perfection in the Cross of Cong, the Ardagh
Chalice, and the Tara Brooch.
3. Artistic Metal Work.
The pagan Irish, like the ancient Britons, practised
from time immemorial — long before the introduction of
Christianity — the art of working in bronze, silver, gold,
and enamel ; an art which had become highly developed
in Ireland by the time St Patrick and his fellow-mis-
sionaries arrived. Some of the antique Irish articles made
in pagan times show great mastery over metals, and
exquisite skill in design and execution.} This primitive
* Braden Da Derga, 5 1 : LU, 85, a, 27 to 32. For more about ornamented
bridles, see chap, zxviii., sect. 3, infra. f Trip. Life, 86, 87.
\ See on this Miss Stokes, Early Christism Art in Ireland, pp. 53 to 56.
See also description and illustrations of Gold Gorgets in chap, xxii., sect. 3^
infra.
S6o RELIGION, LEARNING, AND AKT [PAKT II
art was continued into Christian times, and was brought
to its highest perfection in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
"As in writing" — says the German scholar Dr. Wattenbach
— " so likewise in music, in goldsmith's work of all kinds,
"and in carving, the Scots [Irish] have been celebrated
*' from olden times, and in those arts they have also been
*' the teachers of the industrious monks of St Gall.""
Artistic metal work continued to flourish to about the
end of the twelfth century, but gradually declined after
that, owing to the general disoi^nisation of society con-
sequent on the Anglo-Norman Invasion, and to the want
of encouragement A great variety of gold ornaments may
be seen in the National Museum, many of beautiful work-
manship ; which will be noticed in chapter xxi!., sect 3.
The ornamental designs of metal work executed by
Christian artists were generally similar to those used in
■ Ulst, Jotttn. Arcliaeol. vii. 138.
CHAP. XVlJ ART 561
manuscripts (for, as has been observed, interlaced orna-
mentation, whether in penwork, on stone, or in metals,
came in with Christianity), and the execution was dis-
tinguished by the same exquisite skill and masterly
precision. The pre-Christian artists exercised their skill
in making and ornamenting shields ; swords ; sword-hilts ;
chariots ; brooches ; bridles, &c., &c : our oldest records
testify to the manufacture of these articles by skilled
artists in- remote pagan times : and the numerous exquisite
specimens of their handiwork in our museums fully corro-
borate those accounts. In addition to these the Christian
artists — who were chiefly, but not exclusively, ecclesiastics*
— made crosses ; crosiers ; chalices ; bells ; brooches ;
shrines or boxes to hold books or bells or relics ; and book-
satchels, in which the two materials, metal and leather,,
were used. Specimens of all these — many of them of very
remote antiquity — may be seen in the National Museum
in Dublin. The three most remarkable, as well as the
most beautiful and most elaborately ornamented objects
in this museum, are the Ardagh Chalice, the Tara Brooch,,
and the CroM of Cong, all made by Christian artists.
But many of the articles in the Museum, belongfing to-
pagan times, both of gold and of mixed metals, especially
the golden gorgets, exhibit elaborate and beautiful
workmanship.
The Ardagh Chalice, which is 7 inches high and 9J
inches in diameter at top, was found a few years ago
buried in the gjround under a stone in an old lis at Ardagh,
in the county Limerick. Beyond this nothing is known of
its history. It is elaborately ornamented with designs in
metal and enamel ; and, judging from its shape and from
its admirable workmanship, it was probably made some
short time before the tenth century. It is very fully
described in a Paper by the late Earl of Dunraven
(Feb. 22, 1869) in vol. xxiv. of the Trans, of the R. L
* See Dr. Wm. Stokes's Life of Petrie, chap. viii.
2 O
S62 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
Academy, and in two communications from Dr. W. K.
Sullivan, and Mr. Edmond Johnson of Dublin, both
included in Lord Dunraven's Paper.
The Tara brooch was found in 1S50 by a child on the
strand near Drogheda. It is ornamented all over with
amber, glass, and enamel, and with the characteristic Irish
filigree or interlaced work in metal. From its style of
workmanship it seems obviously contemporaneous with
CHAP. XVl] ART 5^3
the Ardagh Chalice.* In the old Irish romances, we con-
stantly read that the mantle of both men and women was
&stened at the throat by a lai^e ornamental brooch. Many
* Se« Miss Stoket on the ,Tsr* Brooch and Ardagh Chalice, Proc. Roy.
Ir. Acad., Second Ser., vol,ii.,~p. 4JI, andherEulyChriitian An, pp. 69-48.
303
564 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of these old brooches are preserved, but the one now under
notice is by far the most perfect and beautiful of all. No
drawing can give any adequate idea of the extraordinary
delicacy and beauty of the work on this brooch, which
is perhaps the finest specimen of ancient metal-work
remaining in any country.
The Cross of Cong, which is 2 feet 6 inches high, was
a processional cross, made to enshrine a piece of the true
cross. It is all covered over with elaborate ornamentation
of pure Celtic design, and a series of inscriptions in the
Irish language along the sides give its full history. It was
made by order of Turlogh O'Conor king of Connaught,
for the church of Tuam, then governed by Archbishop
Muredach O'DuflTy. The accomplished artist, who finished
his work in 11 23, and who deserves to be remembered to
all time, was Mailisa Mac Braddan O'Hechan.
Some of the finest of the metal-work is exhibited on
the shrines, of which many specimens are preserved in the
National Museum in Dublin. Of these, two have already
been mentioned, those of St. Maidoc and St Patrick's bell.
An engraving of this last splendid specimen of ancient
Irish metal-work forms the Frontispiece of our Second
Volume. Another very remarkable one, probably made
in the beginning of the twelfth century, is the shrine of
St. Manchan of Lemanaghan in King's County, now and
from time immemorial kept in the Roman Catholic Church
of Boher, in the parish of Lemanaghan. It is profusely
decorated with the usual Irish ornamentation ; and there
were originally fifty-two bronze figures of laymen and
ecclesiastics formed in high relief, fastened on the two
sloping sides, of which only ten remain. Five of these
figures are pictured elsewhere in this book. A restored
model, heavily gilt, as the shrine itself originally was, witli
the whole fifty-two figures, may be seen in the National
Museum *
* This shrine is fully described and illustrated by the Rev. James Graves
in the Kilk. Arch. Joum. for 1874-5, P* '34'
CHAP. XVI] ART 565
In 1896 Mr. Edmond Johnson, of Dublin, a practical
goldsmith and jeweller, made a detailed examination of
some Irish gold ornaments belonging to remote pre-
Christian times ; and vrrote a most useful and interesting
memorandum on the modes of working in use among the
ancient Irish goldsmiths.* He believes that the fuel used
must have been birch charcoal, which gjave the highest
temperature within reach of those old cairds. With the
appliances then available, neither coal nor anthracite gave
sufficient heat to melt gold : and he says that he remem-
bered birch charcoal used for this purpose in his father's
workshop. A furnace of about one cubic foot internal
measurement would — as he states — be sufficient: it was
filled with the charcoal, having the crucible buried in the
centre of the glowing mass : and even with this, some
flux, such as nitre or borax, would be required to melt
the gold. It would, he says, be necessary to have a small
orifice at the base for a bellows of considerable power ;
which agrees with our own inference (in chap, xxiv.,
sect 4, infra), about an ordinary forge-fire, that the orifice
for the bellows-pipe was in the centre of the bottom, or in
. the bottom of one of the side-flags, Mr. Johnson shows
that such tube-shaped articles as the fibula or Bunne-
do-atf — all of pagan times — were made of several pieces,
each of which was first cast roughly and then hammered
on shaped anvil-surfaces into the required form. After
the pieces had been made to accurately fit each other,
they were " sweated," or welded together by surface-
melting — never soldered. Mr. Johnson's observation about
the practice of shaping gold by hammering is corroborated
by the old records. In the Book of the Dun Cow the
£ipn€ or frontlet worn by the charioteer Loeg is com-
pared, for its colour, to gold hammered over the edge of
an anvil. J
• Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., 1 893-1 896, p. 780. t Sec these in Index, infra.
tKilk. Arch. Jonrn., 1870-71, p. 424.
566 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
The ornamentation, which consists — as already ob-
served—of lines, circles, spirals, lozenges, &c., was not
done by engraving with a sharp tool, but by hammer
and chisel. Some concentric rings on the buttons or
cups at the two ends of the fibulae are so true that
th^ must — he says — have been turned on a lathe : which
also agrees with the statements as to the knowledge and
use of the lathe in chap, xxiv., sect 5, infra,
Mr. Johnson states that the tools and appliances
necessary to produce these gold ornaments were : —
furnace, charcoal, crucible, mould for the roughly-cast
ingot, flux, bellows, several hammers, anvils, sw^e-anvil
{i.e. an anvil shaped for moulding by hammering), chisels
for impressing ornament, sectional tool for producing
concentric rings, [also a lathe] : all these, it is to be
remembered, in remote pagan times. Certain beautiful
ornaments on one of the specimens quite puzzled Mr.
Johnson as to how they were produced with the tools
then at the disposal of workmen : none of his workmen —
some of the best goldworkers anywhere to be found —
could produce them with the tools in question."
4. Storte Carving.
A stone-carver was called tollaid [tullee], from toll, ' a
hole': tollaim,'\ bore, pierce, perforate.' Stone-carvers are
mentioned in the eighth-century Milan Irish glosses : onaib
*For more about melsl -workers, see chsp. xxiv.
CHAP. XVI] ART 567
tollatdib bite oc cumtach s6n : * by the stone-cutters engaged
in building.** Artistic stone-carving is chiefly exhibited
in the great stone crosses, of which about fifty-five still
remain in various parts of Ireland. One peculiarity of the
Irish-Celtic cross is a circular ring round the intersection,
binding the arms together. This peculiar shape was
developed in Ireland ; and once formed, it remained fixed
from the eighth or ninth century to the twelfth. Thirty-
two of the fifty-five existing crosses are richly ornamented ;
and eight have inscriptions with names of persons who
have been identified as living at various times from A.D.
904 to 1 1 50. Miss Stokes gives the dates of the high
stone crosses as extending over a period from the tenth to
the thirteenth century inclusive. Besides the omamenta^
tion, most of the high crosses contain groups of figures
representing various subjects of sacred history, such as the
Crucifixion, the fall of man, Noah in the ark, the sacrifice
of Isaac, the fight of David and Goliath, the arrest of oui
Lord, the crucifixion of St Peter head downward. Eve
presenting the apple to Adam, the journey to Egypt, &a
These sculptures were " iconographic," that is to say,
they were intended to bring home to the minds of the
unlettered people the truths of religion and the facts of
Scripture history by vivid illustration : something like the
representations of the " Stations of the Cross " in Roman
Catholic churches of the present day. No doubt the
preachers, in their discourses, directed attention to these
representations : and perhaps they often lectured standing
kt foot of the cross with the people ranged in front, the
preacher pointing to the several sculptured groups as he
went on, and as occasion required. It is probable that the
groups were painted in colours so as to bring them out
more distinctly.
This practice of teaching by pictorial or sculptured
representation was common in all Christian countries, and
* Stokes and Strachan, Thesaurus, I. 449.
CHAP. XVI] ART 569
prevails everywhere at the present day. " The churches,"
writes Miss Stokes • " were to be the books of the un-
" learned, as St. John Damascene has said of sculptured
" images : — ' The learned have them as a kind of book
** which is for the use of the unlearned and ignorant.' "
S.
•^rtcA^^
As for the ornamentation on the high crosses, it is still
of the same general Celtic character that we find in metal-
work and in illuminated manuscripts ; and it exhibits the
■ Id her Papa on Cbriitian Iconography in Ireland, which the reader maj
coDwlt for foithei information on this poiDtfMelist of Aalhorities, m^).
570 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
same masterly skill and ease both in design and execution.
A few high crosses of the Irish shape are found in the
south of Scotland, and in the north of England ; but they
are obviously imitations of those of Ireland, made by Irish
artists or under the influence of Irishmen.
The progress made by the ancient Irish in sculpture
may be best described in the substance of Petrie's words as
recorded by Dr. William Stokes. Many evidences, Petrie
observes, may be found of the Irish having possessed great
proficiency in this art before the tenth century. This is
shown chiefly in the carved tombstones and in the stone
crosses. Statues, properly so called, were not introduced
for some centuries later. Monumental effigies appear to
have been brought in by the Anglo-Normans. And again:
true it is that in the drawing of the human figure, as seen
in the older MSS. and in sculptures, whether in stone or in
metal, it is easy to perceive a deficient power of execution
and design ; but even with such defects, the old Irish
artists are often most successful in expression. The bas-
reliefs of ecclesiastics and of holy women in their early
costumes on the Shrine of St. Maidoc are of an execution
marvellously delicate ; the expression of the countenances
is in a high degree felicitous and varied ;* and to come to
later times, the crowned effigies of O'Brien and O'Conor,
at Corcomroe and Roscommon Abbeys, exhibit a power of
sculpture which may compare with anything of the same
date in England. The same admirable quality of expres-
sion may be seen in the figure of the Saviour on the Cross
of Tuam, and in many other examples."!"
*For example see two of these figures depicted in chap, xxii., sect.i,
infra, expressing sorrow after the Crucifixion.
t Stokes's Life of Petrie, pp. 269, 297. See also Petrie*s Letter at p. 404
of the same book. On the subject of Irish crosses, see O'NeilPs Irish
Crosses : Mr. Brash's article on Irish Sculptured Crosses, in the Kilk. Arch.
Joum., 1872-3 ; and especially Miss Stokes's book on The High Crosses of
Castledermot and Durrow, and her Early Christian Art in Ireland. From
these two last books the greater part of the information given above about
the High Crosses has been taken.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 571
Churches and Kound Towers have been noticed in
chap. X. ; and Dwelling Houses and Fortresses will be
treated of in chap. xx. For more about Workers in
stone, see chap. xxiv.
CHAPTER XVH
MUSIC
Section i. History,
RISH Musicians were celebrated for their skill from
the very earliest ages. Our native literature —
whether referring to pagan or Christian times —
abounds in references to music and to skilful
musicians, who are always spoken of in terms
of the utmost respect Everywhere through the
Records we find evidences that the ancient Irish
people, both high and low, were passionately
fond of music: it entered into their daily life: formed
part of their amusements, meetings, and celebrations of
every kind. In the Visions — such as those of Adamnan —
music is always one of the delights of heaven ; and one of
the chief functions of the angels who attend on God is
to chant music of ineffable sweetness for Him, which they
do generally while in the shape of white birds. The
legend mentioned at page 395, supra, of a person being
entranced for centuries with the singing of a bird, while
imagining the time was only a few hours, is indicative of
intense appreciation of music ; and an equally striking
example is found in the Saltair na Rann, where the hard
lot of Adam and Eve for a whole year after their expulsion
572 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
from Paradise is described, when they were "without
proper food, fire, house, music^ or raiment." Here music
is put in among the necessaries of life, so that it ^vas a
misery to be without it. In Christian times "music" — ^says
Dr. Keller — " was cultivated by them [the Irish] as an art
intimately connected with public worship ";* and another
distinguished German scholar. Dr. Wattenbach, has been
quoted (p. 560, supra) as also bearing testimony to their
musical skill.
In the early ages of the church many of the Irish
ecclesiastics took great delight in playing on the harp ;
and in order to indulge this innocent and refining taste,
they were wont to bring with them in their missionary
wanderings a small portable harp. This fact is mentioned
not only in the Lives of some of the Irish saints, but also
by Giraldus Cambrensis.t Figures of persons playing on
harps are — as we shall see — common on Irish stone
crosses, and also on the shrines of ancient reliquaries.
It appears from several authorities that the practice of
playing on the harp as an accompaniment to the voice was
common in Ireland as early as the fifth or sixth century.
During the long period when learning flourished in
Ireland, Irish professors and teachers of music would seem
to have, been as much in request in foreign countries as
those of literature and philosophy. In the middle of
-the seventh century, Gertrude, daughter of Pepin, mayor
of the palace, abbess of Nivelle in Belgium, engaged
SS. Foillan and Ultan, brothers of the Irish saint Fursa
of Peronne, to instruct her nuns in psalmody .J In the
latter half of the ninth century the cloister schools of
St. Gall were conducted by an Irishman, Maengal or
Marcellus, a man deeply versed in sacred and human
literature, including music. Under his teaching the music
school there attained its highest fame ; and among his
• Ulst. Journ. of Archsol., vin. 218. fTop. Hib.# ill. xu.
% Boll. Acta SS., 17 Mar., p. 595 : Lanigan, 11. 464.
J
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 573
disciples was Notker Balbulus, one of the most celebrated
musicians of the middle ages.*
That the cultivation of music was not materially
interrupted by the Danish troubles appears from several
authorities. Warton, in his " History of English Poetry ,"f
says : — " There is sufficient evidence to prove that the
" Welsh bards were early connected with the Irish. Even
"so late as the eleventh century the practice continued
" among the Welsh bards of receiving instruction in the
"bardic profession [of poetry and music] from Ireland."
The Welsh records relate that Gryffith ap Conan, king of
Wales, whose mother was an Irishwoman, and who was
himself bom in Ireland, brought over to Wales — about
the year 1078 — a number of skilled Irish musicians,
who, in conference with the native bards, reformed the
instrumental music of the Welsh. {
But the strongest evidence of all — evidence quite
conclusive as regards the particular period — is that of
Giraldus Cambrensis, who seldom had a good word for
anything Irish. He heard the Irish harpers in 1185, and
gives his experience as follows : — ** They are incomparably
" more skilful than any other nation I have ever seen. For
" their manner of playing on these instruments, unlike that
" of the Britons [or Welsh] to which I am accustomed, is
" not slow and harsh, but lively and rapid, while the melody
" is both sweet and sprightly. It is astonishing that in so
" complex and rapid a movement of the fingers the musical
" proportions [as to time] can be preserved ; and that
" throughout the difficult modulations on their various
"instruments, the harmony is completed. with such a sweet
"rapidity. They enter into a movement and conclude it
"in so delicate a manner, and tinkle the little strings so
" sportively under the deeper tones of the bass strings —
" they delight so delicately and soothe with such gentleness,
* Schubiger, Die Sangerschule St. Gallens, p. 33 ; Lanigan, nu 285.
t Vol. I., Diss. I. J Harris's Ware, Antiqq., 184.
S74 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
** that the perfection of their art appears in the concealment
" of art."*
For centuries after the time of Giraldus music con-
tinued to be cultivated uninterruptedly, and there was
an unbroken succession of great professional harpers.
That they maintained their ancient pre-eminence down
to the seventeenth century there is abundant evidence,
both native and foreign, to prove. Among those who
were massacred with Sir John Bermingham, in 1328, was
the blind harper Mulrony Mac Carroll, " chief minstrel
of Ireland and Scotland," " of whom it's reported that no
man in any age ever heard, or shall hereafter hear, a better
timpanist [harper]."f The Scotch writer, John Major,
early in the sixteenth century, speaks of the Irish as most
eminent in the musical art Richard Stanihurst (1584)
mentions in terms of rapturous praise an Irish harper of
his day named Cruise ; and Drayton (161 3) has the
following stanza in his " Polyolbion " : —
** The Irish I admire
And still cleave to that lyre,
As our Muse's mother ;
And think till I expire,
Apollo's such another."
The great harpers of those times are, however, mostly
lost to history. It is only when we arrive at the seven-
teenth century that we begin to be able to identify certain
composers as the authors of existing airs. The oldest
harper of great eminence coming within this description
is Rory Dall (blind) O'Cahan, who, although a musician
from taste and choice, was really one of the chiefs of the
Antrim family of O'Cahan. He was the composer of
many fine airs, some of which we still possess. He visited
Scotland with a retinue of gentlemen about the year 1600,
where he died after a short residence, and many of his airs
• Top. Hib., ni. xi. f FM, a.d. 1328, note w.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 575
are still favourites among the Scotch people, who claim them
— and sometimes even the author himself — as their own.
Thomas O'Connallon was born in the county Sligo
early in the seventeenth century. He seems to have been
incomparably the greatest harper of his day, and com-
posed many exquisite airs. We have still extant a short
and very beautiful Irish ode in praise of his musical per-
formances, written by some unknown contemporary bard,
which has been several times translated.* After his death,
which happened in or about 1700, his brother Laurence
travelled into Scotland, where he introduced several of the
great harper's compositions.
A much better-known personage was Turlogh O'Carolan
or Carolan: born in Nobber, county Meath, about 1670:
died in 1738. He became blind in his youth from an
attack of smallpox, after which he began to learn the
harp ; and ultimately he became the greatest Irish musical
■composer of modem times. Like the bards of old, he was
a poet as well as a musician. Many of his Irish songs are
published in **Hardiman*s Irish Minstrelsy" and elsewhere.
A large part of his musical compositions are preserved,
and may be found in various published collections of Irish
airs. Carolan belonged to a respectable family, and, like
Rory Dall, became a professional musician from taste
rather than from necessity. He always travelled about
with a pair of horses, one for himself and the other for his
servant who carried his harp ; and he was received and
welcomed everywhere by the gentry, Protestant as well as
Catholic.
2. Musical Instruments.
The Harp is mentioned in the earliest Irish literature;
it is constantly mixed up with our oldest legends and
historical romances ; and it was in use from the remotest
• A beautiful translation, but too free, by the Rev. James Wills, may be
seen in the Dub. Pen. Journ., I. 112 : and a much closer one by Sir Samuel
Ferguson in his Lays of the Western Gael.
S76
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
pagan times. It was called croti or cruitt which always
glosses ciihara in Zeuss. A later term for a harp is
cldirsech, which is now the name in general use. Several
harps are sculptured on the high crosses, some of which
are depicted here and at p. 582, farther on, from which we
can form a good idea of their shape and size in old times.
From all these, and from several incidental expressions
found in the literature, we can see that the harps of the
ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries were of medium size
or rather small, the average height being about 30 inches :
and some were not much more than half this height.
Probably those of the early centuries were of much the
same size — from 16 to 36 inches. Very small harps
were often used for singing with. In the story of Felim
Mac Criffan, king of Munster in the ninth century, already
noticed (p. 445), we read of a poet singing to a little instru-
ment of eight strings : and from the manner in which it is
mentioned, it was evidently a type in common use. The
specimens of harps belonging to later ages — including
" Brian Boru's harp " noticed below — are all small — still
about thirty inches. But in more recent times it was the
fashion to make them larger.
The ordinary harp of the fifteenth and sixteenth
centuries — as we know by many specimens remaining —
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 577
had generally thirty strings, comprehending a little more
than four octaves : but sometimes it had double that
number* Several harps of the old pattern are still pre-
served in museums in Dublin and elsewhere, the most
interesting of which is the one now popularly known
as Brian Boru's harp in Trinity
College, Dublin. This is the
oldest harp in Ireland — probably
the oldest in existence. Yet it
did not belong to Brian Boru ;
for Dr. Petrie's investigation t
has rendered it highly probable
that it was not made twfore the
end of the fourteenth century.
It is thirty-two inches high ; it
had thirty strings; and the orna-
mentation and general workman-
ship are exquisitely beautiful.
No specimen of the Irish harp
used in the middle ages has been
preserved. Irish harpers always
played with the fingers or finger-
nails. The harp was the instru-
ment of the higher classes, among
whom harp-playing was a very iriu.Hiip.i>iiwiiiB.m>ii.iMiiiB™
usual accomplishment Speaking ita^aJ!^J™y^ai^°Fv^
of recent times, Crofton Croker ^j^^.A^'^of^'l^ ."ta^!^
and HardimanJ tellusthatinthe «'™"™''*C''*'°<«'^'*^i
eighteenth century almost every one [of the higher classes]
played on the Irish harp. In very early ages a professional
harper was honoured beyond all other musicians : in social
* See Vtigatan't article "Of the Antiquity of tbe Haip and Bagpipe in
Ireland," in Banting's Ancient Irish Music (1S40), p. 37.
t In his memoir of this harp, inBmiting's Anc. Mus. of Irel., 1840, p. 41.
O'Cnn? (Man. & Gust., II., Lecta. xxxii. and uiiii.) believes it to be older;
but lie does not refer it to the time of Brian Bom.
t Irish Minstrelsy, i. 1S3.
2 P
578 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
position he ranked— according to the Brehon Law — with
a chief of the bo-aire class (p. 1 57, supra). A harper more-
over was the only musician that was entitled to honour-
price on account of his music*
The Irish had a small stringed instrument called a
Timpan, which had only a few strings — from three to eight
It was played with a bow, or with both a bow and plectrum,
or with the finger-nail; and the strings were probably
stopped with the fingers of the left hand, like those of a
violin or guitar. That the bow was used in playing it
appears evident from a short quotation from the Brehon
Laws given by 0'Curry,t in which it is stated that the
timpanist used "a [bended] wand furnished with hair":
and he gives another quotation (p. 364) that plainly points
to the use of the finger-nail. This little instrument was
-evidently a great favourite, for we constantly meet with
such expressions as the "sweet-stringed timpan." Giraldus
mentions the harp and the timpan by the names "cithara"
and "tympanum": but the timpan is noticed in two native
authorities much older: Cormac's Glossary and Saltair
na Rann. From the explanation of the name given by
Cormac (p. 163), we see that the frame — like that of the
harp — was made of willow, and that it had brass strings.
The instrument usually denoted — outside Ireland —
by the Latin tympanum, or in its shortened form tympan^
we know was a drum of some sort : and to Irish anti-
quarians it has been a puzzle how the word came to be
applied in Ireland to a stringed instrument Probably
the Irish timpan was really a small flat tympanum or
•drum, with a short neck added, furnished with three or
more strings, stretched across the flat face and along the
neck, and tuned and regulated by pins or keys and a
bridge — something like the modem guitar • or banjo, but
with the neck much shorter. The drum — ^with a few
small openings in the side — gave resonance ; and probably
• Br. Lavrs, V. 107, bot. t Man. & Cost., 11. 363.
CHAP, xy II] ':. MUSIC 579
during the playing, the body, or the stretched membrane
of the drum, was struck now and then with the hand, as
players noW occasionally strike the body of the guitar :
so that to some extent it still preserved the character of
a drum. There can be hardly a doubt that Giraldus's
** tympanum " was the Irish timpan ; and he would scarcely
have given it that name unless it . was really a drum-
shaped instrument — ^a drum furnished with neck and
strings.
There was a small harp called a oeis [kesh], which was
used to accompany the ordinary harp, and which will be
again mentioned farther on (p. 587). On one panel of the
north high cross of Castledermot is a figure seated playing
on a small harp, which is represented as about sixteen
inches high : it is square-shaped : the top corner farthest
from the player is sharp : the other three corners are much
rounded — so that the bottom of the little instrument forms
almost a semicircle. Possibly this may be intended to
represent a ceis : but then there is no player with a larger
instrument near this harper : as we might expect in case
•of a ceis.
The harp— as well as the timpan — was furnished with
brass strings, as is seen by the explanation of " ceis," as
meaning, in one of its applications, *a small pin which
fastens the brazen string of the harp.'* The tuning-key
was made with a wooden handle tipped with steel, like
the modem piano-key. It was called crann-gUsa (* tuning-
wood ') ; and it was considered so important — inasmuch as
the harp was silent without it — that provision was made in
the Brehon Law — with penalties — for its prompt return in
case the owner lent it.t Both harp and timpan, when not
in use, were kept in a case, commonly of otter skins, called
a cotffUt (* case ' or * keeper '), and crott-bolg (* harp-bag'). J
A harper was called cruitire (cruttera) : the word ^enmaire
•Rev. Cdt., XX. 165. t O'Cuny, Man. U Cust, ii. 256.
^T&in bo Fraeich, p. 141 : Silva Gad., 217, mid.
2 P 2
53o KELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
[shennimSre] was sometimes applied to a musician in
general, from senm, ' sound ' (Trip. Life, 142, 12).
The bagpipei were known in Ireland from the earliest
times : the form used was something like that now com-
monly known as the Highland pipes — slung from the
shoulder, the bag inflated by the mouth. The other form
— resting on the lap, the bag inflated by a bellows— which
is much the finer instrument, is of modem invention.
The bagpipes were in very general use,
especially among the lower classes.
The ancient name of the whole instru-
ment or set was iintte [2-syll.]: and so
Dr. Stokes renders this word in the
passage of the Bruden Da Dei^ where
King Conari's nine pipers are de-
scribed.* The pipers themselves are
called in the same passage, cusUnnack,
from cusle (now cuisle), ' a pipe ' — one of
the pipes of the tinne. As there were
nine players here, we can see that the
custom then probably was, as it is now
Fio-isj. in Scotland, to have a body of pipers
J;?'Jt^''^iX P'aying t(^ether. That the pipes or
taS|l"SirtiS«rt)^^ A««tf of those days were much the same
as the Scotch or Highland pipes of our
time, may be inferred from the descriptive epithet
cetharchSire (kehercora) applied to the set of pipes in the
above-mentioned passage. This term means ' four-tuned '
(from cetkir, ' four,' and cdir, ' tuning "), and — as Dr. Stokes
remarks — "seems to refer to the tuning of the chanter,
" of the two shorter reed-drones, and of the longest drone,
" four in all."
The simple pipe — as we might expect — was much in use,
blown by the mouth at the end : the note being produced
either by a whistle as in the modem flageolet, or by a reed
■Rev. Celt., xxii. iSj, 1S4.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 581
as in the clarionet. It was called bunne or buinne [2-sylI.],
which means a * pipe ' or * tube ' of any kind.* An ancient
Irish glossator, annotating the words of a Latin commen-
tary on the Psalms of David, explains the words tuba
cometa (* horn-shaped tube *) of the text by an Irish
phrase, which is in English: — [tuba-cometa] "a buinne
which was in the shape of a horn" (Zeuss, 499, 41). The
single pipe was also called cutsle or cuislenn.
We obtain a good idea of the shape and size of those
pipes from several representations on the high crosses.
Some are quite straight ; others very slightly curved up-
wards, i.e. having the convex side downwards while being
played. All get gradually larger from the mouthpiece to
the end : and they are represented of various lengths from
about 14 inches up to 24. On the south-east cross of
Monasterboice, three men are shown playing on these
pipes. On one of the Clonmacnoise crosses a man is
playing a triple pipe, i.e. having three tubes in close
contact, apparently with a single mouthpiece : the lengths
represented as about 24, 20, and 16 inches, respectively.!
It is to be presumed that there was a double-tubed instru-
ment as well as single and triple. One of the men shown
on fig. 155 plays on a compound pipe, which seems double.
These pipes noticed here as figured on the crosses, though
trumpet-shaped, were not trumpets : and, doubtless, they
were made of wood. We often meet expressions in the
tales showing that the music of this simple pipe — whether
single, double, or triple— was in great favour, and was
considered very sweet : — Btndithir re ceolaib cuislindi
bindfoghar a gotha ecus a Gaedeilgi na hingine : * sweet
as pipe-tunes was the melodious sound of the maiden's
voice and her Gaelic.'}
* In the Glosses, the Latin tibia (a pipe or flute) is commonly explained
by buinne (Z., 13, ts : 67, 39) * see the word in another sense discussed in
chap, xxii., sect. 3, infra.
1 0*Neill*s Crosses, PI. 24. % Stokes's Acallamh, p. 316.
582
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
A player on the buinne was called a Iminnire [3-syll,].
In the arrangements for seating the guests at the banquets
of Tara," the buinnire and the comaire, or hom-blower,
were placed at the same table. There was a sort of
musical pipe called a
cuisech or cuisig, differing
in some way from the
, buinne \ : and another
called a feddn or whistle,
the player on which was
a feddnach-X fig 1 ?
't Pieu Inluid.> Flfiiui
In several of the eighth-century quotations of Zeuss a
pipe-player is called erochair-chetlmd [erohar-kailee], which
always glosses tibicen, a 'pipe-player': from erochair, i,e.
erus, 'a [hollow] plant-stem'; and cetlaid, which glosses
* Petrie's Tara, p. 106 ; where hunniri is mislranslited ' footmen ' : but
Ibal wai more Uian sixty years ago, vhen the eminent men who dealt vith
those difficult old texts had few or none of the aids available to scholars of
the pTesent day. On the buinne, see also O'Curry, Man. & Cusl., II. 306.
t O'Curry, Man. & CnsL, 11. 310, 313, 315.
X Ibid., 12%, 36S, 376 : also Br. Laws, V. 108, lOg.
CHAP. XVIl] MUSIC S8'3
cantar^ * a musician or player.' These archaic explanations
indicate that the primitive pipe was the hollow stem of
some plant, such as the elder or boortree, from which boys
sometimes make musical pipes at the present day.
The Irish had curved bronze trumpets and horns, of
various shapes and sizes, which, judging from the gfreat
numbers found buried in clay and bogs, must have been
in very general use. They are indeed found in far greater
numbers in Ireland than in any other country. In 1750
thirteen were found in a place between Cork and Mallow ;
in 1787 three were turned up in Limerick ; four in 1794 in
a bog on the edge of Loughnashade, beside the old palace
of Emain ; among the great workshop find at Dooros-Heath
(see this in Index) were thirteen trumpets ; several were
found in a bog near Killamey in 1835 ; four in a bog in
Antrim in 1840; three in Cavan in 1847. The fact that
they are so often found in numbers together would indicate
their military use. The Irish probably derived their fond-
ness for trumpets from their ancestors the Gauls, who, we
know from the best authorities, used them in great numbers
in battle.
In the National Museum in Dublin there is a collec-
tion of twenty-six trumpets, varying in length from about
18 inches up to 8 feet; besides portions of others more
or less imperfect. Fig. 1 57 will give a good idea of their
shapes. Some have the blowing aperture in the side>
while others were blown from the end. It is not known
how the side aperture was used : no trumpeter of the
present day could produce a musical note by blowing
through it The smaller ones were cast in one piece, an
operation which, considering the thinness of the castings
the tubular shape, and the extent of surface, required much
skill and delicate adjustment of moulds. The very long
ones were not cast, but formed of thin hammered bronze.
The two shown at the bottom of the figure are like each
. other in construction. The smaller one is six feet long : it
584
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
has a circular ornamented plate at the large end, which is
shown separately in fig. 1 59. The large one at the bottom,
which, so far as we know, is the finest specimen ever
found in any country, measures 8j- feet in length, and
had probably an ornamented plate, as in fig. 159. The
mouth-pieces of both have been lost. Each consists of
two parts, made separately, and carefully jointed, as seen
in the figure. The bronze was hammered thin and bended
into shape till the two edges were in close contact all
along the concave side. The edges were then joined, not
by soldering, but by means of thin narrow bronze straps
Fig. 157.
Group of Irish Trumpets, now in National Museum, Dublin : described in texL
(From Wilde's Catalogue, p. 637.)
extending along the whole length, and riveted at both
sides of the joining. It is difficult to understand how
the riveting was done in such a long and slender tube.
The rivets are very small and placed close together-
six or seven to the inch — fixed with absolute uniformity,
exhibiting the most perfect and beautiful example of
riveting ever found in Ireland. The three smaller trum-
pets shown in the figure were made by casting.
A few of those in the Museum are plain, but most are
ornamented. One prevailing ornament is a circle of pro-
jecting conical buttons or studs, similar to those seen on
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 585
the caldrons and on the gold gorgets : they appear on two
of the small trumpets in the figure. There is nothing rude
in the construction of these trumpets. On the contrary,
they all exhibit great taste in design, and consummate
skill in workmanship, a circumstance that must excite
our wonder when we recollect their great antiquity ; for
according to the opinion of those who have studied such
remains, not only in Ireland but all over Europe, some of
them at least belong to a period long prior to the Christian
era.
The most common name for a trumpet is stoc\ but
there were several other names : — corn, buabaill, adharc,
dudag, gall-trompa, and barra-buadk [borra-boo]. These
no doubt denoted trumpets _ ,
or horns of different kinds. bj |
O'Curry believes that the 'i j.
com (i.e. 'horn') was the long g |
trumpet blown from the end, \ \
the stoc being the shorter * I
one. A trumpeter was usu- "^ — "
ally called stocaire [stuckera] ; Riif«iiie«iTnm.peB.
a horn - blower, cornaire
[cumera] ; and both are constantly mentioned in old
Irish literature.*
Among the household of every king and chief there
was a band of trumpeters, who were assigned their proper
places at feasts and meetings. Trumpets were used for
various purposes : — in war (p. 147, supra) ; in hunting ; for
signals during meetings and banquets ; as a mark of
honour on the arrival of distinguished visitors ; and such
like. For war purposes, trumpeters — as already noticed —
had difierent calls for directing movements (p. 148, supra).
Trumpeters and horn-blowers sometimes imitated the
* See Pelrie's article on Trnmpeti in Dab. Fen. Joum., 11. 37 ; Wilde on
Trampets in bii CaUlopie (p. 613); and O'Curry, Man. it Cast., I[. 307.
In all thete article* reTerencex are given to other autborilies.
S86 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PAJtt 11
voices and cries of animals. In Cormac's Glossary (p. gi),
under the word " Grice" [Grauk^], we read that this word
means 'raven-conversation,' t.e. the croaking, or language,
of ravens ; and immediately afterwards it is stated that
trumpeters produced imitations of these sounds on horns.
{See also Man. & Gust, IL 368.)
The ancient Irish were very fond of a craebk-ciuil
[crave-cule], or ' musical branch,' a little branch on which
were suspended a number of diminutive bells, which pro-
duced a sweet tinkling when shaken : a custom found
also in early times on
the Continent. The
musical branch figures
much in Irish romantic
literatiue. A performer
called cnam-fer or
'bone-man'is mentioned
in the "Fair of Carman"
among the musicians.
The term probably re-
fers to sounding-bones
or castanets. - In the
'■'0. ■i9- same poem (Which is in
"'"""if^'^-^x^tl'^T'"' the Book of Leinster)
is named a fidil or
fiddle : but we cannot tell what was its shape or how it
was played.*
3. Cfiaracteristics ; Classes; Styles.
In early Irish literature, whether in the native language
or in Latin, music and poetry are often confounded, so
that one sometimes finds it impossible to determine to
which of the two the passages under notice refer. The
"O'Cuny, Man. it Cost., II. 305, gives the oameB of twenty masiol
iiutniments mentioned in Irish records, and ditcnues them all at length in
Lectures ux.-xxiviij.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 587
confusidn no doubt arose from the circumstance that the
same man was formerly often both poet and musician.
Music is indeed often specially mentioned, but always very
vaguely ; and the airs that tradition has handed down are
almost the only means we have of forming an opinion of
the state of musical education in those old times. It is to
be observed that writers of our own day, when treating of
Irish music, are quite as much in the habit of confounding
poetry and music as were those of a thousand years ago^
and with less excuse.
There was not in Ireland, any more than elsewhere^
anything like the modem developments of music. There
were no such sustained and elaborate compositions as
operas, oratorios, or sonatas. The music of ancient Ireland
consisted wholly of short airs, each with two strains or
parts — seldom more. But these, though simple in com-
parison with modern music, were constructed with such
exquisite art that of a large proportion of them it may
be truly said no modem composer can produce airs of a
similar kind to equal them.
The ancient Irish must have used harmony, as appears
from Giraldus's mention — in the passage quoted at p. 573
— of the little strings tinkling under the deeper tones of
the bass strings: and this is home out by several words
and expressions in native Irish writings. There are at
least seven native words for concerted singing or playing,,
indicating how general was the custom : — cdmsetnm^
cdicetuly aidbse^ cepSc or cepdg^ claisSy clais-cetuly and
foacanad,
Cdmseinm is from cdm^ * together,' and seinm^ ' play-
ing ' : * playing together.' This word occurs in an instruc-
tive illustrative note by the commentator on the AmrUy.
explaining ceis (kesh), in one of its applications, as " a
small crutt or harp that accompanies a large cruit in
comseinm or concerted playing " :* showitig a harmonic
• Stokes in Rev. Celt., xx. i65.
588 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
combination of instrumental music. As cdntseinnt was
applied to the music of instruments, cotcetul refers to the
voice, meaning, as it is explained in Cormac's Glossary
(p. 43), * singing together,' from cetul, * singing,' When the
poets had been freed at Drumketta by the intercession of
St Columba (p. 456, supra), the Preface to the Amra tells
us that "they made a mighty music [by all singing to-
gether] for Columba [to honour him] : and atdbse [ive-she]
is the name of that music" And in another part of the
Preface it is said that " they used to make that music \i,e.
aidbse\ singing simultaneously " \i n-oen/hecht]* In one
of the old glosses of the Amra, it is stated that among the
people of Alban or Scotland the atdbse or chorus-singing
was called cepdg (keppoge). But this word was used in
Ireland too : Ferloga, in the Tale of Mac Datho's Pig, says
to Concobar: — ^**The young women and girls of Ulster
shall sing a cepSc round me each evening " : and Amergin
the poet, lamenting the death of Aithime (p. 453, supra\
says : — ^** I will make a cepSc here, and I will make his
lamentation."! It appears from all these references that
the atdbse or cepdc was a funeral song. Claiss (closh), Lat
classis^ means a ' choir,' a number of persons singing
together.} In one of the Zeuss Glosses persons are men-
tioned as singing the 'P^T^ms for clais^ i.e. ' in choir': and
from this again comes clais-cetul^ * choir-singing.' || The
Latin stucino (i.e. sub-cano^ * I sing under,' or in subordi-
nation to another — I accompany) is glossed in Zeuss
(429, 16; 880,27), by the \rvAi foacanim, which has precisely
the same meaning, ixomfoa, * under ' ; and canim^ * I sing* :
showing, independently of the existence of the native
"word foacaninty that it was usual for one person to accom-
pany another. Moreover, * singing under * {fo\ or subordi-
♦ Rev. Celt., xx. 43. See also O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., II. 246.
t O'Cuny, Man. & Cust., 11. 371, 373, 374 : Ir. Texte, 1. 106, i», u : Hib.
Minora, 64, is. } Windisch in Ir. Texte, I. 425, <' Claiss."
{ Corm. Gloss., 35, «« Clais." || Stokes, Lives of SS., line 3749.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 589
nate to, another, could not mean singing in unison or in
octave, but what we now mean by the expression " singing
a second," Le. in simple harmony.
Cedly * music,' and btnnius^ * melody or sweetness,* are,
in the old writings, distinguished from cuibdtus, this last
being a further development, to be understood no doubt
as harmony. Thus in an ancient passage quoted by
Prof Kuno Meyer in " Hibernia Minora " (p. 27), it is said
that " David added binnius and cuibdius to the Psalms,"
meaning apparently that he put melody to the words,
and harmony to the melody. And farther on in the same
passage : — " The Holy Spirit inspired in Asaph's mind the
" ce6l or music \i,e, the melody merely], and the sense that
" are in the Psalm ; and David added cuibdius or harmony
" to them." That cuibdius means ' harmony * appears also
from O'Davoren's Glossary — which was compiled from
ancient authorities — where he defines rinn^ a certain kind
or arrangement of music, as \ce6l\ co cuibdius ina aghaidhy
[music] " with cuibdius against it"* It is to be noticed^
too, that in Cormac's Glossary (p. 163,2) the word sym-
phonia is used as applicable to the music of the timpan.
In some of the above examples the "singing or playing
together " might mean merely in unison or in octaves ; but
coupling all the Irish expressions with that of Cambrensis,
we must conclude that the Irish harpers and singers used
harmony, though no doubt it was of a very simple kind.
The Irish musicians had three ttyles, the effects of
which the old Irish romance-writers describe with much
exaggeration, as the Greeks describe the effects produced
by the harp of Orpheus. Of all three we have numerous
well-marked examples descending to the present day.
The Oen-traige [gan-tree], which incited to merriment and
laughter, is represented by the lively dance-tunes and
other such spirited pieces. The Ool-traige [gol-tree]
expressed sorrow : represented by the keens or death-
* Three Irish Glossaries, 1 10 : O'Corry, Man. & Cust., 11. 252.
590 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
tunes, many of which are still preserved. The Sfian-traige
[suan-tree] produced sleep. This style is seen in our
lullabies or nurse-tunes, of which we have numerous
beautiful specimens. Two of these styles—^sorrow-music
and mirth-music — are explained in Cormac's Glossary
(pp. 89, 90). Probably the oldest example of the words
of a lullaby that has come down to us is that composed
by Muirenn for her son Finn when he was six years old :
of which the Psalter of Cashel copy of the story, " The
Boyish Exploits of Finn " — as old an authority as Cormac's
Glossary — preserves the first line, and unfortunately only
the first : — Codail re suandn saime : " Sleep [my child] with
pleasant slumber* " : which is the same as the beginning of
some of our modern Irish nurse-songs.
Among the higher classes, both young and old were
often lulled to sleep with musk and song, so that the
Suan-tree must have been in constant requisition. In the
"Battle of Rossnaree" (p. 21), taken from the Book of
Leinster, we are told that the guests in Dundalgan " were
" put into their sleeping-rooms and lay on their couches :
"and tunes and songfs and eulogies were sung to them"
[till they fell asleep]. The custom of lulling people — of
all ages— to sleep by music or singing is very frequently
noticed in the tales, though it was oftenest used with
children : and it continued to our own time, as I have the
best reason to remember.
The Irish had also what may be called ooonpation-tanes.
The young girls accompanied their spinning with songs —
both air and words made to suit the occupation. Special
airs and songs were used during working-time by smiths,
by weavers, and by boatmen : and we have still a " Smith's
Song," the notes of which imitate the sound of the hammers
on the anvil,t like Handel's "Harmonious Blacksmith."
* Tromdamh, p. 293.
t See for this air (which was contributed by me) Petrie's Anc. Mus. of
Ireland,, p. 17c,
■it
<t
CHAP. XVIl] MUSIC 591
At milking- time the girls were in the habit of chanting a
particular sort of air, in a low gentle voice. These milking-
songs were slow and plaintive, something like the nurse-
tunes, and had the effect of soothing the cows and of
making them submit more gently to be milked. This
practice was common down to fifty or sixty years ago:
and I remember seeing cows grow restless when the song
was interrupted, and become again quiet and placid when
it was resumed. The old practice also prevailed in
Scotland, and probably has not yet quite died out there.
Martin (p. 155) says that in his time — 1703 — when a cow
-was enraged by the loss of her calf, " the last remedie us*d
to pacifie her is to use the sweetest voice and sing all the
time of milking her." And referring to our own time,
Carmichael, in his "Carmina Gadelica" (l. 258), says: —
■** The cows become accustomed to these lilts and will not
give their milk without them, nor, occasionally, without
their favourite airs being sung to them ": and so generally
is this recognised that — as he tells us— girls with good
voices get higher wages than those that cannot sing.
While ploughmen were at their work, they whistled
a peculiarly wild, slow, and sad strain, which had as powerful
an effect in soothing the horses at their hard work as the
milking-songs had on the cows. Plough-whistles also
were quite usual down to 1847 : and often when a mere
boy, did I listen enraptured to the exquisite whistling of
Phil Gleeson on a calm spring-day behind his plough.
There were, besides, hymn-tunes : and young people used
simple airs for all sorts of games and sports. In most
<:ases, words suitable to the several occasions were sung
with lullabies, laments, and occupation-tunes. Like the
kindred Scotch, each tribe had a war-march which
inspirited them when advancing to battle. Specimens
of all these may be found in the collections of Bunting,
Petrie, Joyce, and others. We have evidence that these
occupation-tunes were in use at a very early time : for
592 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
in Cormac's Glossary (p. 69) it is stated that while the
Fena were cooking their open-air dinner after their day's
hunting, they chanted a kind of music called esnad.
The music of Ireland, like our ballad-poetry, has a con-
siderable tendency to sadness. The greater number of the
keenSy lullabies, and plough-whistles, and many of our
ordinary tunes, are in the minor mode, which is essentially
plaintive, even though it is often used in lively tunes : and
the same plaintive character is impressed on many of the
major airs by a minor seventh note. This tendency to
sadness was the natural outcome of the miseries endured
by the people during long centuries of disastrous wars and
unrelenting penal laws. But it is a mistake to suppose
that the prevailing character of Irish music is sad : by far
the largest proportion of the airs are either light-hearted
dance-tunes or song-airs full of energy and spirit, without a
trace of sadness.
4. Modem Collections of ancient Irish Music
In early times they had no means of writing down
music; and musical compositions were preserved in the
memory and handed down by tradition from generation
to generation ; but in the absence of written record many
were lost. While we have in our old books the Irish
words of numerous early odes and lyrics, we know nothing
of the music to which they were sung. It was only in the
seventeenth or eighteenth century that people began to
collect Irish airs from singers and players, and to write
them down.* Some attempts were made at home early
in the eighteenth century : but later on more effectual
measures were taken. Several meetings of harpers — the
first in 178 1 — were held at Granard in the county Longford,
*Mr. Chappell, the well-known writer on Musical History, author of
Popular [English] Music of the Olden Time, once told me in conversation
that in the British Museum there are copies of great numbers of Irish airs,
much older than any collections we have in Ireland. So there is a field for
some zealous investigator and collector of Irish music.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 593
under the patronage and at the expense 6f James Dungan,
a native of Granard, then living at 'Copenhagen. Each
meeting was terminated by a baill, at which prizes were
distributed to those who had been adjudged the best
performers. Dungan himself was present at the last ball,
when upwards of i,ooo guests, as we are told, assembled.
A few years later, a meeting to encourage the harp was
organised in Belfast by a society of gentlemen under the
leadership of Dr. James MacDonnell. This meeting, which
was held in Belfast in 1792, and which was attended by
almost all the nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood,
was followed by more practical -results than those held at
Granard. The harpers of the whole country had been
invited to attend. But the confiscations, the penal laws, and
the social disturbances of the preceding century and a half
had done their work. The native gentry who loved music
and patronised the harpers ^were scattered and ruined, and
the race of harpers had almost died out. Only ten responded
to the call, many of them very bid and most of them blind,
the decayed representatives of the great harpers of old.
Edward Bunting, a local musician, was appointed to meet
them ; and after they had all exhibited their skill in public,
and prizes had been awarded to the most distinguished, he
took down the best of the airs they played.
This was the origin of Builting's well-known collection
of Irish music. He published three volumes, ihe first 'in
1796, the second in 1809, ^^d the third in 1840. Another
collection, edited by Greorge Petrie, was published by
Holden of Dublin about the year U84D. A volume of
Carolan's airs was published by his son in 1747 and
republished by John Lee of Dublin in 1780 ; but many
of Carolan's best airs are omitted fi-om this collection ;
and it poorly represents the great composer. A large
number of Irish airs were printed in four volumes of a
Dublin periodical called " The Citizen " in 1840 and
1 841 : and these were followed up by a special volume
2Q
594 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
of airs by the editor. In 1844 was published "The Music
of Ireland," by Frederick W. Homcastle, of the Chapel
Royal, Dublin, a number of airs with accompaniments
and English words ; most of the airs had been already
published, but some appeared then for the first time,
among which was one very beautiful sudntree called
« The Fairies* Lullaby."
In 1855 a large volume of Irish music hitherto
unpublished was edited, under the auspices of "The
Society for the Preservation and Publication of the
Melodies of Ireland," by Dr. George Petrie : and the first
number (i>. the fourth part of a volume) was printed, but
never published. A volume of airs never before published
was edited by me in 1873, collected by myself from singers
and players in the course of many years. A second instal-
ment of the Petrie collection was printed in 1877, edited by
F. Hoffman. These are the principal original collections
of Irish music extant ; other collections are mostly copied
from them. About 1870 Bussell of Dublin issued a large
collection of Irish airs, edited by Dr. Francis Robinson,
with a good Introduction on Irish Music by George
Farquhar Graham : all the airs in this had been published
before. Later on two volumes of the Dance Music of
Ireland were edited by Mr. R. M. Levey of Dublin ; some
of which then appeared for the first time. Dr. Charles
Villiers Stanford has quite recently (1902-3) edited the
whole of Petrie's collection, about 1800 airs — the simple
melodies without accompaniments — ^which include those
of Petrie's already published, with numerous others that
had never previously seen the light This work, as
Dr. Stanford observes in his short Preface, forms " a
vast treasure-house of folk-song."
The man who did most in modem times to draw
attention to Irish music was Thomas Moore. He com-
posed his exquisite songs to old Irish airs ; and songs and
airs were published in successive numbers or volumes.
CHAP. XVII] MUSIC 595
beginning in 1807. They at once became popular, not
only in the British Islands, but on the Continent and in
America ; and Irish music was thenceforward studied and
admired where it would have never been heard of but for
Moore. The whole collection of songs and airs — well
known as " Moore's Melodies " — is now published in one
small cheap volume.
We know the authors of many of the airs composed
within the last 200 years : but these form the smallest
portion of the whole body of Irish musia All the rest
have come down from old times, scattered fragments of
exquisite beauty, that remind us of the refined musical
culture of our forefathers. To this last class belong such
well-known airs as Savoumeen Dheelish, Shule Aroon,
Molly Asthore, The Boyne Water, Garryowen, Patrick's
Day, Eileen Aroon, Langolee (Dear Harp of my Country),
The Groves of Blarney (The Last Rose of Summer), &c.,
&c. To illustrate what is here said, I may mention that
of about 120 Irish airs in all " Moore's Melodies," we know
the authors of less than a dozen : as to the rest, nothing
is known either of the persons who composed them or of
the times of their composition.
As the Scotch of the western coasts and islands of
Scotland were the descendants of Irish colonists, preserv-
ing the same language and the same traditions, and as
the people of the two countries kept up intimate inter-
course with each other for many centuries, the national
music of Scotland is, as might be expected, of much the
same general character as that of Ireland. The relation-
ship of Irish and Scotch music may be stated as follows.
There is in Scotland a large body of national melodies,
composed by native musicians, airs that are Scotch in
every sense, and not found in Irish collections. In Ire-
land there is a much larger body of airs, acknowledged
on all hands to be purely Irish, and not found in Scotch
collections. But outside of these are great numbers of airs
2 Q 2
596 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART M
common to the two countries, and included in both Scotch
and Irish collections. In r^^rd to a considerable proportion
of them, it is now impossible to determine whether they are
originally Irish or Scotch. A few are claimed in Irelatnd
that are certainly Scotch; but a very large number claimed
•by Scotland are really Irish, of which the well-known air
Eileen Aroon or Robin Adair is an example.
From the earliest times it was a common practice
*among the Irish harpers to travel through Scotland. How
«close was the musical connexion between the two countries
is hinted at by the Four Masters, when in recording the
-death of Mulrony Mac Carroll they call him the "chief
-minstrel of Ireland and Scotland " : and there is abundant
evidence to show that this connexion was kept up till
the close of the eighteenth century. Ireland was long the
school for Scottish harpers, as it was for those of Wales :
" Till within the memory of persons still living, the school
" for Highland poetry and music was Ireland ; and thither
"professional men were sent to be accomplished in these
"arts."* Such facts as these sufficiently explain why so
many Irish airs have become naturalised in Scotland.
It is not correct to separate and contrast the music
of Ireland and that of Scotland as if they belonged to
two different races. They ar6 in reality an emanation
direct from the heart of one Celtic .people ; and they
form a body of national melody superior to thfet of any
other nation in the world.t
« Jameson's ed. of Litters fr&m the North of Scottaptd (xSiS), vol. ii.^
p. 65, note.
t I'hose who wish to follow up the study of Irish music and its literature
will find much information in the following works:— O'Cbrry's Lectures on
the subject in his Manners and Customs, and the corresponding portion
of Sullivan's Introduction : Dr. William Stokes's Life of Petrie : Petrie's
Ancient Music of Ireland, including the Preface : Bunting's Prefaces to his
three volumes, including Ferguson's and Petrie's Essays, in the third volume :
I«ynch, Cambrensis Eversus, chap. iv. : Joyce's Ancient Irish Music and
Irish Music and Song: Graham's Introduction to Robinson's collection of
Irish airs. Remark also what is said of Irish music preserved in the British
Museum, in the note at p. 59a, supra.
Fig. i6a— Ornament on top of Derenish Rovnd Tower. (From Petrie's Round Toweis.)
CHAPTER XVm
MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS
T-r
Section i. Medical Doctors.
EDICINE and Surgery were carefully studied in
Ireland from the very earliest tinFies. There
was a distinct professional class of physicians
who underwent a regular course of education
and practical training, and whose qualifkations and priv^-
leges were universally recognised. Those intended ft>r
the profession were usually educated by being apprenticed
to a physician of standings in whose house they lived
<kiring their pupilage^ and by whom they were instructed.
This profession, like others in anctent Ireland, became in
great measure hereditary in certain famiKes ^ but it does*
not seem to have become speciaHsed to any extent, so that
the same person commonly practised both as a physician
and as a surgeon. The anciient Irish name for a physician
is Haig [leea], which is radically the same as the old
EngKsh word leech.
The Irish, like the Greeks and other ancient nation3>
had their great mythical physicians, of whom the most
distinguished was the Dedannan leech-god Diancecht
[Dianket]. His name signifies Vehement power,* and
marvellous stories are related of his healing skill ; similar
to those of some old Greek physicians. He is celebrated
in many ancient authorities, including Cormac's Glossary
598 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
(p. 56) : and he is mentioned prominently in some eighth-
century copies of Irish incantations for health and long
life given by Zeuss in his " Grammatica Celtica," showing
his wide-spread reputation twelve hundred years ago. He
had a son Midach and a daughter Airmeda, both of whom
in some respects excelled himself ; and in the story of the
Second Battle of Moytura* we are told that he grew at
last so jealous of Midach that he killed him. And after
a time there grew up from the young physician's g^ve
365 herbs from the 365 joints and sinews and members of
his body, each herb with mighty virtue to cure diseases of
the part it grew from. His sister Airmeda plucked up the
herbs, and carefully sorting them, wrapped them up in
her mantle. But the jealous old Diancecht came and
mixed them all up, so that now no leech has complete
knowledge of their distinctive qualities " unless " — adds the
story — "the Holy Spirit should teach him": this last
remark inserted by some Christian redactor. The notion
that there are 365 joints, sinews, and members in the
human body is found elsewhere, as in the old Irish reli-
gious treatise called Na Arrada^ which, according to the
editor (Kuno Meyer), was composed probably not later
than the eighth century. As the Dedannans had their
Diancecht, so all the other mythical colonies had their
physicians, who are named in the legends.}
Coming to a later period, but still beyond the fringe
of authentic history, we find in several authorities a record
of the tradition that in the second century before Christy
Josina, the ninth king of Scotland, was educated in Ireland
by the native physicians, and that he wrote a* treatise " On
the virtues and power of herbs."§ Whatever credit we may-
attach to this tradition, it shows that the Irish physicians
had a reputation abroad for great skill at a very early
period.
• Rev. Celt., xii. 69. J O'Cuny, MS. Mat., 221.
t Or * < De Arreis ** : in Rev. Celt. , XV. § Harris's Ware, Writers, p. 306.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 599
Medical doctors figure conspicuously in the Tales of
the Red Branch Knights. A whole medical corps accom-
panied the Ulster army during the war of the Tdin. They
were under the direction of Fingin Faithliaig* (the * pro-
phetic leech': pron. faw-lee), King Concobar's physician,
who had his residence at Ferta Fingin on the brow of
Slieve Fuaid in Armagh. Each man of his company
carried, slung from his waist, a bag full of medicaments;
and at the end of each day's fighting, whether between
numbers or individuals, the leeches came forward and
applied their salves.t At the Battle of Crinna, fought
A.D. 226, a Munster chief named Teige was badly wounded,
after which he remained at Tara under the care of a skilful
physician, also named Fingin Faithliaig, who ultimately
cured him.J These legendary records are mentioned to
show how well the profession was recognised in Ireland
even from the far distant times of tradition and romance.
The medicine bag carried by a physician was called
Us [lace] : and how general was the custom is indicated by
the expression in the Amra, that the state of Columba's
companions after his death was like that of a physician
attempting to cure without his Us\ as much as to say
that a leech without his medicine bag was quite helpless.
Occasionally the medicine bag was called ^fer-bolgy * man-
bag': but this term more commonly means the bag for
keeping a set of chessmen.
The first notice of an individual physician we find in
the annals of Christian times occurs under A.D. 860, where
the death is recorded of Maelodar O'Tinnri, "the best
physician in Ireland ': but from that period downwards
the annals record a succession of eminent physicians,
whose reputation, like that of the Irish scholars of other
professions, reached the Continent Even so late as the
* For all about him, see OXurry, MS. Mat., 641, and Man. & Cust., 11. 97 :
also LL, 89, b^ 30.
t Miss Hull, Cuch. Saga, 215. { Keating, 3^6.
600 RELIdOS, LEARNING, AND ART [PA&T II
beginning of the seventeenth century, when medicine had
been successfully studied m Ireland for more than a
thousand years, Van Helmont of Brussels, a distinguidred
physician and writer on mecfical subjects, gave a brief but
very correct account of the Irish physicians of his tmi3c;
flieir books and their remedies, and praised them for thehr
dkilL He says : —
**The Irish nobility have in every family a domestic physician,
who has a tract of land firee for his remuneration, and who is
appointed, not on account of the amount of learning" he brings away
in> his^ head from eoUegesy but because* he can cure disorders. These
doctors obtain their medical knowledgie chiefly from books belonging
to particular families lefr them by tiieir ancestors, in which are laid
down the symptoms of the several diseases, with the remedies
annexed : which remedies are vernacula — the productions of their
own country. Accordingly the Irish are better managed in sick-
ness than the Italians, who have a phjrsician in every village."*
From the earliest times reached by our records the
kings and great Irish iafinlics had physicians attached to
their households, whose office was,, as in other professions,
hereditary. In the tenth century the physicians, like tiie
rest of the community, took £amily-names : and there
are abundant notices in Irish writings of the household
hereditary physicians of mo^ of the leadti^ diiefe.
The O'Callanans were physicians to the MacCarthys of
Desmond ; the O'Cassidys, of whom individuals of eminence
are recorded,! to the Maguires of Fermanagh ; the O'Lees,
to the OTlahertys of ContMtught ; and the O'Hickeys, to
the O'Briens of Thomond, to the O'Kennedys of Orroond,
and to the Macnamaras of Clare.^ From what a remote
time the two last-mentioned families — the O'Lees and
* Translated from Van Helmont^s Confessio Authoris, p. 13 r Amstelod,
Ed, Ebtv^ 164S. t As in FM, at a.d. 13W. 1335, 1450^ 15<H-
X For more about medical families, see 0*Donovan, FM, vol. I., p. 494 :
Gough*8 Camden, Ed. 1789, iii. 665: an article in Duffy's* Mag., Ii. 273,
unsigned, but written, as I believe, by Dr. William Wilde : and Ceosns of
Ireland for 1851, Report on Tables of Deaths.
CHAP.XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 6oi
O'Hickeys — drew their hereditary leechcraft may be
inferred from the very names of the two ancestors from
whom the: family*names were derived. At whatever time
these two. men lived, they must have sprung into cdd^rity
oa account of their skill in medicine : so much so that
their ordinary names were changed to {cidAe [eekee], the
* healer^' and Img [leea], the * leech' ; and O'Lee signifies
the descendant of thje leoch, and O'HJickey of the healer.
Their profession^ like that of the other mj&dical families,
was transmitted from £akther to son ft>r hundreds of years^
till it finally died out ia times comtparatively recent : a
good example of the extraordinary tenacity with which
families clung to heredftary offices in Ireland
The O'Shiels were physicians to the MacMahons of
Oriel^ and to the Mac Coghlans of Delvin, in the present
King's County : and their hereditary estate here> which is
near the village. oC Ferbane, is still called Ballyshiel,
^O'Shiel's town.' Colgan states that in his timoe —
seventeenth centuty — the O'Shiels were widely spread
through Ireland, and were celebrated for their skill in
natural science and medicine. Owen Q'Shiel was greatly
distinguished as a physician in the same century; he
attended the army o£ Owen Roe O'Neill, and fell fighting
oa the Catholic side in a battle fought near Letterkenny
in 1650.* Only quite recently — in 1889 — Dr. Shiel> an
eminent physician of Ballyshannon, left by his will a lai^e
fortune to found a hospital for the poor in that town. So
that even stiU the hereditary genius of the family continues
to exercise its benign influeiKe.
The amount of remuneration of a family leech depended
on his own eminence and on the status of the king or
chief in whose household he lived. The stipend usually
consbted of a tract of land and a residence in the
neighbourhood, held free of all rent and tribute, together
with certain allowances and perquisites : and the physician
* See the article in Dufiy's Mag. referred to in last note.
602 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
might practise for fee outside his patron's household. Five
hundred acres of land was a usual allowance : and some of
these estates — now ordinary townlands — retain the family
names to this day : such as Farrancassidy in Fermanagh,
the ferann or land of the O'Cassidys ; and Ballyshiel,
already mentioned. The household physician to a king —
who should always be an ollave-leech^ that is, one who had
attained the highest rank in the profession (p. 65, supra)
— held a very dignified position, and indeed lived like a
prince, with a household and dependents of his own. He
was always among the king's immediate retinue, and was
entitled to a distinguished place at table. The practice of
keeping physicians as well as other professional men in the
households of chiefs continued till the end of the sixteenth
or the b^inning of the seventeenth century, when the old
Irish order began to be broken up everywhere.
Speaking generally, the best physicians were those
attached to noble households. Those unattached lived
by their fees ; the amounts for the several operations or
attendances being defined by the Brehon Laws.* A
qualified physician — as we have said — kept pupils or
graduates who lived in his house and accompanied him
in his visitations to learn his methods. If he had to
remain for any time in the house of the patient, he was
entitled to diet for himself and for his pupils, besides his
fees.t From an entry in the Brehon Law we infer that
in going his rounds he himself usually rode on horseback,
like the ollave poet ; for the law (II. 119) states that when
a physician was distrained, one of the things that might be
taken was his echlaisc or whip.
We have already seen (p. 207) that a man who inflicted
a wound had, on conviction, to pay a certain eric-fine to
the wounded person. A leech who, through carelessness,
or neglect, or gross want of skill, failed to cure a wound,
♦ See Br. Laws, in. 477 ; iv. 301 : and Sullivan, Introd., 280.
t Census, 1851, Table of Deaths, p. 33.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 6o$
bad to pay the same fine to the patient as if he had
inflicted the wound with his own hand. When a physi-
cian treated a wound, a certain time was allowed to test
whether he had made a good cure. If it broke out afresh
before the end of the testing-time, the cure was regarded as
unsuccessful ; and the leech had to return the fee and pay
the usual eric-fine. Moreover, if, during treatment, he and
his pupils had lived in the patient's house, he had to refund
the cost of maintenance. But he might provide agfainst
these penalties — as is stated below — by first obtaining
a gfuarantee of immunity. The testing-time for a wound
of the hand or arm was a year ; for a wound of the leg a
little more ; for a wound of the head, i.e. probably a frac-
ture of the skull, three years. Afler the testing-time the
physician and the wounded were both exempt, no matter
what happened.*
Those who had gone through the prescribed course of
study and training were technically and legally qualified
physicians, and were probably able to produce a certificate
or diploma of qualification. A person might also set up as
a leech and practise without any regular qualification — an
** unlawful physician," as he was called, meaning not legally
recognised. There was no law to prevent this ; but such
persons were subject to certain disabilities and dangers not
incurred by the regular practitioner : something like quack
doctors of the present time. A qualified physician per-
forming a serious surgical operation, such as removing
a bone, a joint, or a limb, had previously to get a guarantee
of immunity : if he neglected this, he was liable to the
usual damages in case of failure — taking the element of
time into consideration. The unqualified practitioner
had of course to take the same precautions or abide
the consequences ; and Ae should also give notice that he
was not a regular physician. In lighter operations, such
• Br. Laws, in. 347-9, 533, 535 ; and Table of Deaths, 185 1, p. 23 : see
also Br: Laws, v., pp. 147, 149, 487, 489.
604 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PARTII
as blood-letting, extracting a small splinter, &c., the
regular physician was free from liability without any
guarantee : while if there was no guarantee, the other
was liable if unsuccessful *
It IS worthy of remark that in our legendary history
female physicians are often mentioned. Though the
several accounts of these are shadowy enough, the
legends must hare had some foundation : and at any
rate ve see th^t in ancient Ireland the idea was abroad
whkh is so extefksively coming into practice in our own
day.t
2. Medical Manuscripts.
The physicians of ancient Ireland, likei those of other
countries, derived a large part of their 3pecial learning
from books, which in those times were all manuscripts.
The Irish oiedical MSS. were written on vellum in a peculiar
hand generally easy to recognise, small, neat, and regular.
The members of each nxedical family had generally their
own special book, which was handed down reverently from
father to son, and which, at long intervals, when it had
become damaged and partly illegfible through age, was
carefully transcribed into a new volume. Several of these
venerable leech-books are still preserved, as mentioned
farther oa.
But besides these special books belonging to particular
families, there were many others, which were copied and
multiplied from time to time ; so that the chief medical
families had libraries containing such medical knowledge
as was then available. Many medical tracts, too, are
found scattered through the large miscellaneous MSS. : for
instance, the Yellow Book of Lecan contains four spch
tracts. The very early medical works in Ireland shared
in the general destruction of books spoken of at p. 489,
supra^ and those that remain are of comparatively late
* Br. Laws, in. 321. t O'Cuny, MS. Mat., 221 : Tromdamh, 1 19.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 605
date.* The oldest rtiedical manuscript in Ireland appears
to be one copied in 1352, mentioned below; but there are
others older in the British Museum. Of those remaining,
a vast number, written from the thirteenth to the b^inning
of the eighteenth century, are preserved in the libraries
of Dublin, London, and Oxford, forming a collection of
medical literature in Irish, probably the largest in exist-
ence in any one tongue.
Many of the manuscripts consist of the works of
classical medical authors, to which the Irish physicians
obviously had full access ; such as the Aphorisms of
Hippdcraites, the works of Galen, Rhazcs, Avicenna,
Serapioti, Dioscorides, &c. Some were copies of one or
more of tliose in Latin ; but many were translations into
Irish : and all, whether Latin or Irish, were accompanied
with native commentaries-! The great bulk of the Irish
medical, literature is made up of these texts and commen-
taries : and the Irish physicians of each generation added
the knowledge derived from other 'books or from their own
experience. It may be interesting to give a brief descrip-
tion of a few of the existing MSS., ^hith will serve as
examples of all.
The manner in which these books were generally com-
piled and the motives of the compilers may be gathered
from the following translation of a prefatory statement in
Irish by the writer of a medical manuscript of the year
1352, now hi the Royal Irish Academy, — a statement
breathing a spirit worthy of the best traditions of the
faculty : —
'' May the merciful God have mercy on us all. I have hisre
collected practical rules from several works, for the honour of God,
for the benefit of the Irish people, for the instruction of my pupils,
and for the love of my friends and of my kindred. I have translated
*In the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, there is a Catalogue of the
Academy's Med. MSS. drawn op by O'Corry.
t Table of Deaths, 1851, pp. 26, 30, 31, 44 : Table, 1842, p. iv.
6o6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
diem from Latin into Gaelic from the authority of Galen in the
last Book of his Practical Pantheon, and from the Book of the
Prognostics of Hippocrates. These are things gentle, sweet, profit-
able, and of little evil, things which have been often tested by us
and by our instructors. I pray God to bless those doctors who will
use this book; and I lay it on their souls as an injunction, that
they extract not sparingly from it; that they fail not on account
of neglecting the practical rules [herein contained]; and more
especially that they do their duty devotedly in cases where they
receive no pay [on account of the poverty of the patients]. I
implore every doctor, that before he begins his treatment he
remember God the father of health, to the end that his work may
be finished prosperously. Moreover let him not be in mortal sin,
and let him implore the patient to be also free from grievous sin.
Let him offer up a secret prayer for the sick person, and implore the
Heavenly Father, the physician and balm-giver for all mankind, to
prosper the work he is entering upon and to save him from the
shame and discredit of failure."*
The Book of the O'Hickeys, now in the Royal Irish
Academy, commonly known as the " Lily of Medicine," is
a translation into Irish of a Latin work, LUium MedicimBy
originally written by Bernard Grordon — a Continental
physician — in 1303. This manuscript was at one time
greatly celebrated among the Irish doctors.
The Book of the O'Lees in the Royal Irish Academy is
a large-sized vellum manuscript, written in 1443, partly in
Latin and partly in Irish. The pages are curiously ruled
and divided, so that the writing forms patterns resembling
astrological figures. It is a complete system of medicine^
treating, among other things, of putrid fevers ; of abscesses
and pustules ; of wounds, poisons, and hydrophobia ; of
affections of the brain, eye, stomach, and other parts ; of
the period of life and time of year when certain diseases
* Census, Table of Deaths, 1 851, p. 31. It should be remembered that
this Preface was written at a time when — in England, as elsewhere — <* it was
not usual [for physicians] to give gratuitous advice to the poor in any
circumstances, however pressing" (Social England, in, p. 149).
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 607
usually come on ; and of the temperature or " cardinal
point " that influences them.*
The Book of the O'Shiels, now also in the Royal Irish
Academy, which was transcribed in 1657 from some
manuscript of unknown date, not now in existence,
consists partly of translations and partly of dissertations
on the medical properties of herbs. It is a system of
medical science still more complete and scientific than
even the Book of the O'Lees.
The Book of MacAnlega was transcribed in 15 12
by Melaghlin MacAnlega (whose name — MacAnlega —
signifies the * son of the phy3ician ') from an older book
lent him by one of the O'Mulconrys, a family noted for
their Irish scholarship. It is a commentary on ancient
classical writers on medicine, those named at p. 605, and
others.
3. Diseases.
The general names for disease, sickness, or ailment,
were galar (still used), atncesSy and sometimes teidni [taim].
Other words now in use are breSitechty iagcruasy and aidd.
All the chief diseases and epidemics we are now acquainted
with were known and studied by the Irish physicians. In
early times great plagues were of frequent occurrence all
over the world; and Ireland was not exempt A pestilence
or any great mortality was denoted by several words, the
most usual being tarn or tamh [tauv]. Tetdnt [taim] was
often used : but this was also applied to any severe seizure
in an individual, such as colic Duinebath [dinnevah] is
* a plague,' literally * man-death.' Dibath and dr are often
used in the same sense, as in bd-dtbaih and bo-dr^ both
denoting cattle-plague, from bd^ *a cow.* In later times
* See, for a curious accouut of this book, lar Connaught, pp. 70, 71, where
the legend is given that it was brought from I-Brazil or Fairyland, and that
the person who found and brought it — one of the 0*Lees — though previously
ignorant of medicine, at once became a great physician by reading it. See
also Table of Deaths, 1842, p. iv.
6o8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the word plaig [plaw], a plague, was borrowed from Latin
plaga. Lastly, a terrible pestilence of any kind was some-
times designated by the expressive word scuab^ * a besom
or broom/
The victims of a plague were commonly buried m one
spot, which was fenced round and preserved as in a
manner sacred for ever after. In Cormac's Glossary
(p. 1 60) it is stated that the place of such wholesale
interment was called tamhlachta or iamklacht, i.e. 'plague-
grave,' from iamh and lachty a monument or memorial
over the dead. Tamhlacht^ which is still a living word,
has given name to the village of Tallaght near Dublin,
where the Parthalonian colony, who all died of a plague in
one week, were interred. On the side of Tallaght hill are
to be seen to this day a number of pagan graves and
burial mounds.* Just by the chapel of Shanbally near
Monkstown below Cork, there is a large rock with some
ancient remains on its top ; it is called on the Ordnance
map Carrigaplau, representing the Irish Carraig-ci-phlaigh^
*the rock of the plague'; but the popular anglicised name
is Carrigafly, which better represents the pronunciation,
the / being aspirated as it ought Probably the victims
of some long-forgotten local plague were interred here.
One of the popular fancies regarding a plague was that
it was a malignant living thing which roamed about the
country, bringing sickness and death wherever it went.
When the deadly plague called Cromm Connaill, in the
sixth century, made its way to Kerry, the terrified people
sent for St. Mac Cr^ichet to save them. He celebrated
Mass, and prayed, and sounded his little consecrated bell,
whereupon the people saw a fiery bolt from heaven coming
towards them : and it fell on the Cromm Connaill so that
it killed it and reduced its body to ashes.J This notion
• See FM, a.m. 2820: and Joyce, Irish Names of Places, i. 161.
t A Kerryman, the patron of Kilmacrehy in Clare.
X O'Curry, MS. Mat., 631, 632.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 609
has trickled down through generations to our own day.
Many years ago an intelligent peasant — a delightful old
shanachie — told me that on one occasion, before his time,
when the plague in its fearful career was approaching a
certain townland, the people, in great terror, sent a wise
old herb-leech to stand guard on the hither bank of the
river that separated them from the next territory. And
when the evil thing approached and was about to cross,
the old man chanted in a loud voice a sort of incantation
commanding it to proceed no £irther ; on which it turned
back and the townland was saved. My informant repeated
for me the incantation — in Irish verse — but I had not the
forethought to take it down.
The Irish annalists more often attribute the plague to
demons. We find the following entry in, Tigernach's
Annals: —
[a.d. 1 084.] * * A great pestilence \Jeidm mdr] in this year, which
killed a fourth of the men of Ireland. It began in the south and
spread throughout the four quarters of Ireland. The causa causans
of that pestilence was this — demons came out of the northern
isles of the woild, to wit, three battalions, and in each battaHon
there were thirty and ten hundred and two thousand [3030 each], as
CEngus Oc the son of the Dagda [p. 260, supra"], related to Gilla
Lugan, who used to haunt the fairy mound [stde] every year on
Samain night [the eve of the first of November}. And he him-
self beheld at Maistiu the battalion of them which was destroying*
Leinster. Even so, they were seen by Gilla Lugan's son : and
wherever their heat or fiiry reached, there their venom [nem] wa^
taken. For there was a sword of fire out of the gullet of each of
them, and every one of them was as high as the clouds of heaven.
So that is the cause of the pestilence."*
So also the Four Masters under A.D. 986 :— " Druidical
" or magical sickness was caused by demons in the east of
" Ireland, which caused mortality of men plainly before
" people's eyes." The idea of disease inflicted by demons
• Stokes in Rev. Celt., XVIJ., p. 416.
2 R
6lO RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
found its way into the legends of the saints. Adamnan
relates that in the time of St Columba, a host of demons
invaded the island of Tirree and brought pestilential
diseases to the monastery there ; of which many of the
monks sickened, and some died.
Within historic times, the most remarkable and
destructive of all the ancient plagues was the Blefed^ or
Butde'Connaill [boy-connell] or yellow plague, which
swept through Ireland twice, in the sixth and seventh
•centuries, and which we know from outer sources deso-
lated all Europe about the same time. The Irish records
abound in notices of its ravages. There is a curious l^[end
in the Life of St Mochua, that when the Sil-Murray were
suffering from this pestilence, the saint cured them, and
transferred the yellow colour of their skin to his crosier,
which was thence called the Bachal-bhuidhe, the * yellow
crosier.'*
Many other special plagues are recorded in the annals.
During the fourteenth century the country was hardly
ever free from pestilence of some kind. The worst of all
was the Black Death, which, judging of its ravages by the
appalling description of Friar Clyn,t was as destructive in
Ireland as elsewhere* In 1375 and 1378 certain persons
are recorded to have died ol fiolun [filloon], a scorbutic
or scrofulous disease of the skin and joints : \ this is still
a living word, and is used to denote sometimes scurvy
and sometimes king's evil. The Four Masters and other
annalists record the prevalence in 1361 of a plague called
Cluithe-an-righ [cluhanree], or *the king's game'; but
what was the nature of the disease or why so called is
not known. In 1404, the Annals of Loch-C^ notice
numerous diseases that broke out that year, especially
* Stokes, Lives of SS., 287.
t Clyn*s Annals, 1348 ; published by the Irish Archseol. Society, 1849,
See also on tbb, Joyce, Short History of Ireland, p. 316.
\ See FM under the above dates.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 6l I
^alar-na-leptacyy^'t *bed distemper/ which Hennessy thinks
was a sort of ague.
The idea that a plague could not travel over sea farther
than nine waves was very general, both in pagan and
Christian times. It has been already related (p. 308,
supra) how St. Colman, with his companions, fled from
the yellow plague to an island somewhere near Cork, so
as to put a distance of nine waves between them and
the mainland.
There are several terms in Irish for cutaneous diseases
of the nature of leprosy. Of these samthrusc is applied to
a great epidemic of the sixth century, which was a sort of
mange or scaly leprosy.* Clam and trosc were also in
common use for some form of the same disease, as well as
for a leper. But the most general word for leprosy is lobor^
cognate with Latin lepra. In the oldest Irish writings, as
in the eighth-century glosses of Zeuss, lobor is used in the
sense simply of infirmus^ or * sick * ; but later on it came
to be applied in a special sense to a leper. We are told in
Cormac's Glossary (p. 27) that the word bill also denoted
a leper.
Some cutaneous disease, very virulent and infectious,
known by names — ^such as lobor — that indicated a belief
that it was leprosy, existed in Ireland from a very early
date : but Wildef and other experts of our day, doubt if
it was true leprosy. Whatever it was, it would seem to
have been a well-recognised disease in the fifth century ;
for we are told, in one of the Lives of St Patrick, that at
one time he maintained a leper in his own house. After
his time our literature, especially the Lives of the Saints,
abounds with notices of the disease. We read in the
historical tale of the Boruma that immediately before the
Battle of Dunbolg, the young warrior Ron Kerr, having
smeared himself all over with a calf s blood mixed with
* Ann. Ulst., A.D. 553 : also Tigemach.
t Census, 1842, Table of Deaths, p. xzxvi.
2 R 2
6l2 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
dough of rye, so as to look like a leper, went in this
disguise as a spy into the enemy's camp, from which he
brought back a report to his own commander, Branduflf,
king of Ldnster,* We have other instances of the same
scMt of disguise :t from which we can infer that this disease
was painfully common and familiar, and that the skin of
those afflicted with it presented a squamous or scaly
appearance with blood oozing through the sores.
The annals record several individual deaths by leprosy :
and sometimes it broke out as an epidemic which carried
off great numbers. From the time of St Patrick till the
seventeenth century the country appears never to have
been free from it. Gerard Boate (p. loi) states that in
his time (1645) it had disappeared ; and he attributes its
former prevalence to the habit of eating salmon out of
season. He tells us that it was specially prevalent in
Munster: and his assertion would seem to derive some
support from an incidental expression in an Irish authority
very much older than his time, the Book of Rights (p. 49),.
where the mountainous district of Slieve Lougher in Kerry
is called Luachair-na-lubhatry ' Lougher of the lepers.'
In the middle ages lepers were treated everywhere in
Europe with great consideration and tenderness. In con-
sequence of this, in Ireland at least, they gave themselves
airs and became impudent and exacting. We are told in
the Life of St Fechin that a leper full of disease from
crown to sole once came to him at Fore and made a
very preposterous and impudent request : " for" — adds the
narrative — " he was wanton \pg macftus] as is th^ manner
of lepers."J
Though the Irish physicians derived a large part of
their information from the writings of foreigners, yet they
• Silva Gad., 415.
t See O'Curry, MS. Mat., 528 : Rev. Celt.» xvi. 282 : and Courtship of
Emer, 152, s*
{Rev. Celt., XII. 343, For another instance see Stokes, Three Iri^
Homilies, p. 79. See also Stokes in Introd. to Trip. Life, p. czcvi.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 6x3
had native names for most of the indigenous diseases,
which is one of the circumstances indicating that the
science was of home-gfrowth — ^a fact also attested by the
native traditions and records. Many examples of native
Irish medical nomenclature might be adduced in addition
to those already given : but I will content myself with the
following : —
The annals record several outbreaks of smallpox and
many individual deaths from it It was known by two
names, both still in use in different parts of the country : —
bolgach or * pustule disease ' {bolg^ * a bag or pustule '), and
gcUar-brecCy the 'speckled disease.'*
Consumption was but too well known, then as now. A
person in consumption was called anfobracht or anbobracht^
which in Cormac's Glossary (p. 6} is explained, '* a pets on
without bracht or fat "; and in the Brehon Laws (l. 141 bot.),
" one who has no juice of strength." Murkertagh O'Brien,
the powerful king of Munster, who is counted among th^
kings of Ireland, was struck down by a wasting disease—
evidently consumption — till he became an anbobracht^ which
O'Donovan (FM, A J). 1 1 14) translates * a living skeleton ':
so that he retired to the Monastery of Lismore, where he
died in 1 1 14. A usual term for consumption was serg^
that is, 'withering or decaying.'
One of the eighth-century Irish incantations noticed at
p. 631, farther on, is against galar fuail^ disease of the
bladder or kidney — literally * disease of the urine.' That
diseases of this class were studied and understood is indi-
cated by*the fact that in an Irish mediaeval tract, copied
about the year 1500 from an original some centuries
older, renal calculus is designated in Irish, Lecc in ardin^
' stone in the kidney.' In the same tract, which has been
edited by Dr. Stokes,f chiragra^ or * gout in the hand,' is
explained in Irish by crupan na Idtn^ ' cramp or spasm of
* See FM, a.d. 1327, note o ; and a.d. 774, note x.
t Irish Glosses in a Tract on Lat. Dec!., p. 60, sss ; and 61, ui.
6l4 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
the hands * : and ophthalmia is gcUar siila^ * disease of the
eye.' This word crupdn [cruppaun], * a spasm or seizure,*
is still used in parts of Ireland to denote a paralytic affec-
tion in cattle : it was also applied to convulsions. In the
Tripartite Life and other old documents, colic is designated
by tregat^ modem treaghaid^ which is still a spoken
word. [A.D. 986] '* a colic \treghaid\ in the east of Ireland
" caused by demons, which inflicted slaughter on people :
" and they [the demons] appeared clearly before men's
*^eyes."* One of the early kings of Ireland was called
Aed Uaridnech (A.D. 603 to 611), or * Aed of the shivering
disease,' no doubt ague.t Palsy was known by the
descriptive name crith-ldm [crih-lauv], * trembling of the
hands,' from crith, 'shaking,' and Idm or Idmh^ *a hand.'t
Epilepsy, or " falling sickness," was called in Irish galar
Pdil^ * Paul's sickness,' from a notion, prevalent in Ireland
as elsewhere, that St Paul, after one of his visions, was sub-
ject to such a collapse of the nervous system as resembled
or was identical with an epileptic fit. A person subject
to falling sickness was called by the expressive name
talmaidheach [tallaveeagh], * prone to the earth,* from
talatnh, ' the earth.'§
St. Camin of Inis-Celtra died in 653 of teine-buirry
* fire of swelling* — St Antony's fire or erysipelas — ^which
withered away all his body, so that his bones fell asunder
as they laid him in the gfrave. In one of Zeuss's eighth-
century glosses, cancer is explained by two Irish words,
tuthle and atlse^ the latter of which is still in use in the
same sense: and elsewhere in the same glosses another
native word for the same disease occurs, iirphasiu.\\
Diarrhoea was called in Irish buinnech^ i.e. *flux,' from
buinne^ * a wave or stream.1 Under A.D. 785, the Annals
♦ Tigernach, in Rev. Celt., xvii. 345. See also Trip. Life, p. 228, si ;
and p. 229. t Silva Gad., 418 : FM, A.D. 601.
X MacCarthy, Cod.-Pal.-Vat., p. 61. § O'Donovan, Suppl. O'R., 707.
g Zeuss, 73, m; 8i, i; 264, ,4; 266, 9; 266, 46 ; 775» «*•
% Rev. Celt., XIII. 119 ; and O'Reilly, Diet.
CHAP.XVril] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 61$
of Ulster record the ravages of a plague called scamach,
which in the Annals of Clonmacnoise is anglicised
skawaghe : possibly some skin disease of a squamous or
scaly nature.*
Madness has already been treated of (p. 224).
Our annals teem with accounts of great cattle-places
or murrains : commonly called ho-dtbad [bo-yeeva] or
' cow-destruction ' : and sometimes bo-baith\ and bo-dr
{baith, ' death ' : dr, ' slaughter *). ' Special cattle diseases
were baccach, the dry murrain (literally 'lameness"):
moilgarb, a cutaneous disease of some kind, previously
unknown, broke out among cattle, A.D. 987. There was
another kind of cattle disease called cotiach, believed to be
produced by swallowing a sort of caterpillar with that
name. This disease was treated by causing the animal to
drink water in which a conach — that is, a metallic amulet
in the shape of the caterpillar — had been steeped. The
closeness with which animal diseases were studied is indi-
cated by the number of native names for horse-distempers,
of which the following are given by the glossator on the
Senchus Mdr, but without any explanation : — odback^
adbuck, iudha-fothuck, lec-os-cru, and delgmuch ; while
many others incident to animals in general will be found in
the MS. referred to in the note on this passage in the law.f:
•FM, A,D. 781, note o. tConn. Glins., p. »I. J Br. Laws, nr., p. 7-
6l6 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
It should be mentioned that a Paper by H. Cameron
Gillies, M.D., on " Gaelic Names of Diseases and of diseased
States," in the "Caledonian Medical Journal," and reprinted
as a pamphlet in 1898, contains a great deal of information
on this subject It is written from a Scotch rather than
from an Irish standpoint, which makes it all the more
interesting to the Irish student
4. Treatment,
Hospitals. — The idea of a hospital, or a house of some
kind for the treatment of the sick or wounded, was familiar
in Ireland from remote pagan times. In some of the tales
of the Tdin we read that in the time of the Red Branch
Knights there was a hospital for the wounded at Emain
called Brdinbherg^ the * house of sorrow.** But coming to
historic times, we know that there were hospitals all over
the country, many of them in connexion with monasteries.
Some were for sick persons in general ; some were special,
as, for instance, leper-houses. Monastic hospitals and
leper-houses are very often mentioned in the annals. These
were charitable institutions, supported by, and under the
direction and management of, the monastic authorities.
But there were secular hospitals for the common use of
the people of the tuath or district : hence they were called
forus tuatthe [tooha], the * house of the territory /f These
came under the direct cognisance of the Brehon Law, which
laid down certain general r^ulations for their manage-
ment . Patients who were in a position to do so were
expected to pay for food, medicine, and the attendance
of a physician. In all cases cleanliness and ventilation
seem to have been well attended to ; for it was expressly
prescribed in the law that any house in which sick persons
were treated should be free from dirt, should have four
open doors — ^**that the sick man may be seen from every
side " — and should have a stream of water running across
♦Kealiffg, 271. f Fonts fuai/h^f Br. Lawj», IV. 302, 5; 303, §, 9.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINP AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 617
it through the middle of the floor.* These r^ulations —
rough and ready as they were, though in the right direc-
tion— applied to a house or private hospital kept by a
doctor for the treatment of his patients. The regulation
about the four open doors and the stream of water may be
said to have anticipated by a thousand years the present
open-air treatment for consumption. Even when only
one person was under cure in a house, if he belonged to
the higher classes, who could aflbrd to pay for all necessary
accommodation, we generally find much the same arrange-
ments carried out The Munster chief, Cormac Cas, after
being wounded in the head in a battle fought in the
third century, was treated in a house of this kind at
Duntryleague, in the County Limerick.f
If a person wounded another or injured him bodily in
any way, without justification, he — or his fini or imme-
diate circle of relations if he himself was out of reach —
was obliged by the Brehon Law to pay for " Sick mainte-
nance" (called oihrtis or folach-othnisd)^ Le. the cost of
maintaining the wounded man in a hospital, either wholly
or partly, according to the circumstances of the case, till
recovery or death ; which payment included the fees of
the physician, and one or more attendants according to
the rank of the injured person.J This provision, so far as
it went, answered to the modern arrangement of insurance
companies to give a weekly allowance during illness caused
by accident The injured person might either go to a
hospital or be treated at home. But in some cases at least
the aggressor might choose either to select his own home
as the place of treatment of the person he had wounded, or
to send him the determined amount of expenses and let
him choose his own place of treatment. § Those of the
very high grades of society never went to (a hospital in
*Br. Laws, i. 131 : Sullivan, Introd., 3T9. .t Silva Gad., 129.
J Corm. Gloss., 132 (*« OUiras*^') : Br. Laws, 1. 131 ; III. 357, 471, tt seq, ;
IV. ** Sick Maintenance," in Index.: Soil., Introd., 234. \Bi, Laws, v. 313.
6l8 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
case of sick maintenance: they were always treated in
their own houses ; the cost of nursing and medical atten-
dance being defrayed by the wounder, who in this case
had his choice either to send a nursetender (a man in the
case cited in the law), or pay the cost of maintaining one.
If the patient went to a hospital, his mother was to go
with him, if she was living, and available ;* and it is to be
presumed the cost of her support also was defrayed by
the aggressor. Moreover, it was his duty to see that the
patient was properly treated : — ^that there were the usual
four doors and a stream of water ; that the bed was
properly furnished ; that the physician's orders were
strictly carried out — for example, the patient was not to
be put into a bed forbidden by the doctor, or given pro-
hibited food ; and " dogs and fools and female scolds "
were to be kept away from him lest he might be worried. t
If the wounder neglected this duty, he was liable to
penalty^ From the frequent mention of sick maintenance
in the law, it is obvious that the custom was very general
and universally recognised.
Leper hospitals were established in various parts of
Ireland, generally in connexion with monasteries, so that
they became very general, and are often noticed in the
annals. In the time of Henry VI 1 1, all such charitable
institutions in connexion with monasteries were sup-
pressed, among them that attached to the priory of
St. John's, Dublin. The former prevalence of hospitals of
several kinds is attested by the number of places to which
they have given names that remain to this day; such as
Hospital, Spittal, Spiddal, Leopardstown, properly Lepers-
town, near Dublin, &c.J
Kedioated Baths. — In Irish historical tales, which we
know were to a great extent legendary, we read that the
♦ Br. Laws, r7. 303, 333. t Br. Laws, 1. 131 ; iv. 303.
t A list of leper hospitals, formerly in connexioii with monasteries, is
given in Part 11. of the Census of 185 1.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 619
mythical physicians often used medicated baths to heal the
wounded. The earliest example of this was in the second
battle of Moytura fought by the Dedannans against the
Fomorians, where the wonderful skill of Dianket was
brought into play. He selected near the battlefield a
well called sldn [slaun], i.e. * health-giving/ into which he
put a number of sanative herbs gathered in every part of
Ireland ; and over these again he and his daughter and
his two sons chanted incantations. During the battle all
the wounded Dedannans were brought from the field and
plunged into this bath, fro^n which they came out whole
and sound and ready to join battle again.*
While Eremon was king of Ireland, the king of
Leinster and his people were sorely harassed by a neigh-
bouring British people who used poisoned weapons, so that
the least wound they inflicted was followed by certain
death. At last, the king, by the advice of a druid, pre-
pared a bath on the eve of the next battle, into which was
poured the milk of 150 white hornless cows. During the
battle, as fast as the king's men were wounded they
were plunged into this bath, which at once healed them ;
and by this means the poison tribe were defeated and
slaughtered.f In the old epic of the Tdin we are told
that Fingin, Concobar mac Nessa's physician — the faith-
liaig or * prophet-leech,' — cured the wounded Ulstermen
by means of baths medicated at one time with the
marrow of a gfreat number of cows, and at another with
medicinal herbs.J
This is, of course, all l^end, though we may infer from
it that medicated baths of some kind were in use in the
time of the writers. The ordinary bath was used for
some skin-diseases ; for instance, for leprosy, as we learn
from an incidental expression in Cormac*s Glossary
(p. 73). Under the word fothrucud (* a bath *) he says in
•Rev. Celt., xn. 95, 97. t Keating, 215 : Irish Nenniu-s 125.
X O'Cnny, Man. & Cost., 11. loi.
620 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
explanation : — " bathing for sick persons : and it is for
lepers {doinnlSbru) that it is oftenest practised."
Treflning. — In the Battle of Moyrath, fought AD. 637 —
the same battle from which Sweeny ran away distracted
(p. 225, supra) — a young Irish chief named Cennfaelad
[Kenfaila] had his skull fractured by a blow of a sword,
after which he was a year under cure at the celebrated
school of Tomregan in the present County Cavan. The
injured portion of the skull and a portion of the brain were
removed, which so cleared his intellect and improved his
memory that on his recovery he became a great scholar
and a great jurist, whose name — "Kennfaela the Learned" —
\s to this day well-known in Irish literature.* He was the
author of the Uraicept na nieces [Oorakeft-nan-aigas], or
* Primer of the Poets,' a work still in existence. Certain
Legal Commentaries which have been published, forming
part of the Book of Acaill (Br. Laws, III.), have also been
attributed to him ; and he was subsequently the founder of
a famous school at Derryloran in Tyrone.
The old Irish writer of the Tale accounts for the sudden
improvement in Kennfa^la's memory by saying that his
brain of forgetfulness was removed. It would be hardly
scientific to reject all this as mere fable. What really
happens in such cases is this. Injuries of the head are
often followed by loss of memory, or by some other
mental disturbance, which in modem times is cured, and
the mind restored to its former healthful action — but
nothing beyond — by a successful operation on skull and
brain. The effects of such cures, which are sufficiently
marvellous, have been exaggerated even in our own day;
and in modem medical literature physicians of some
standing have left highly-coloured accounts of sudden
wonderful improvements of intellect following injuries of
the head after cure. Kennfaela's case comes well within
* Moyrath, 279 to 285, text and notes; also Br. Laws, ni. 89; and
O'Curry, Man. and Cust., i. 92.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 62I
historic times: and the old Irish writer's account seems
merely an exaggeration of what was a successful cure.
Kennfaela was no doubt a man of exceptional ability,
which was turned into a new channel — or rather into its
proper channel — when he. was forced to give up the
profession of arms, with a result that astonished his con-
temporaries. No doubt a similar explanation will apply
to the modem cases, in many of which the exaggeration
is at least as great as in the story of Kennfaela — in some
instances much greater indeed. We must bear in mind
that the mere existence in Irish literature of this story, and
of some others like it, shows that this critical operation —
trefining — was well known and recognised, not only
among the faculty but among the general public In those
fighting times, too, the cases must have been sufHciently
numerous to afford surgeons good practice.
The art of closing up wounds by stitching was known
to the old Irish surgeons. In the story of the death of
King Concobar mac Nessa we are told that the surgeons
stitched up the wound in his head with thread of gold,
because his hair was golden colour.*
Cupping and Probing. — Cupping was commonly practised
by the Irish physicians, who for this purpose carried about
with them a sort of horn called a gipne or gibne^ as doctors
now always carry a stethoscope. This practice was well
established long before the tenth century ; for in Cormac's
Glossary (p. 91), we find the word gibne explained adarc
legty a ' leech's [cupping] horn."' An actual case of cupping
is mentioned in the Acallamh,f where the female leech
Bebinn had the venom drawn from an old unhealed wound
on Cailte's 1^, by means of two fedans or tubes ; by which
the wound was healed. It is stated in the text that these
were " the fedans of Modam's daughter Binn " [a former
lady-doctor], from which we may infer that they were
^ MS. Mat., 638, 6 from bottom ; 641, is.
t Stokes, Acall., lines 7220-7224 : Silva Gad*., 253, 34.
622 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART H
something more than simple tubes — that they were of
some special construction cunningly designed for the
operation. On this passage Stokes directs attention to
the Iliad, iv. 218 : and here we find a parallel case among
the Homeric Greeks, where the physician Machaon healed
an arrow-wound on Menelaus by sucking out the noxious
blood and applying salves. The lady-physician Bebinn also
treated Cailte for general indisposition by administering
five successive emetics at proper intervals, of which the
effects of each are fully described in the old text Bebinn
prepared the draughts by steeping certain herbs in water :
each draught was different from all the others, and acted
differently ; and the treatment restored the patient to
health,* A probe {fraig) was another instrument regarded
as requisite for a physician, for in the Brehon Law (iL 119)
the probe and the whip are named as articles belonging to
a doctor that might be seized in distraint
The CsBsarean Operation was known and practised. When
Eithne, daughter of King Eochaidh Feidlech, was with
child, she was drowned by her sister's son Lugaid Sriab
n-Derg, who caused the child — afterwards called Furbaide
— to be cut from her womb.f
SleepixLg-Dranglit — In one of the oldest of the Irish
Tales — the original version of the " Wooing of Emer "{ —
it is stated that the warrior lady Scathach gave Cuculainn
a sleeping-draught {deoch suaiti) to keep him from going to
battle : it was strong enough to put an ordinary person to
sleep for twenty-four hours ; but Cuculainn woke up after
one hour. This shows that at the early period when this
story was written— seventh or eighth century — the Irish
had a knowledge of sleeping-potions, and knew how to
regulate their strength.
* Silva Gad., 252 (Irish text, 222) : the transUtion does not reproduce the
•details given in its text.
fRennes Dind., Rev« Celt., xvi. 39; see LL, 199, a, m; O'Donovan,
Suppl. O'R., "Glaise": and 0»Curry, Man. & Cust., i. 290.
X Rev. Celt., xi, 449.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 623
Kateria Kedioa. — I have stated that some of the medical
manuscripts contain descriptions of the medical properties
of herbs. But besides these there are regular treatises
on materia medica, one of which has been translated by
Dr. Stokes.* It consists of a long list of herbs and other
substances, with a description of their medical qualities and
their application to various diseases. Another similar
treatise has been translated by the late Joseph O'Longan,
the accomplished scribe of the Royal Irish Academy.f
This is a description of the curative qualities of various
substances, with directions how to prepare and administer
them, the Latin names being given, and also the Irish
names in case of native products.
The chief part of the Irish pharmacopoeia consisted of
lierbs, which are classified according to the old system,
into " moist and dry," " hot and cold " : but a few minerals
are included, such as iron, copperas, and alum : all produced
at home. In the " Battle of Moyrath " (p. 103) we are
told that at the accession of King Domnall to the sove-
reignty of Ireland, A.D. 627, the country was unusually
prosperous, one of the evidences being the great knowledge
of the virtues of herbs the physicians had attained — an
^ntry which shows that such knowledge was considered a
test of a leech's skill. The Irish doctors had the reputation
—outside Ireland — of being specially skilled in medicinal
botany.
Yariooft Curative Applioations. — The following are a few
examples of the applications for the cure of diseases
adopted by Irish physicians within historic times, taken
from O'Longan's translation of the Irish treatise on
Materia Medica already spoken of. They illustrate the
odd mixture of sound knowledge and superstition common
in those times, not only among Irish physicians, but among
those of all countries. Magic, charms, and astrological
♦Rev. Celt., IX. 224.
t This translatioii is in the Royal Irish Academy, Dublin.
624 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
observations, as aids in medical treatment, were universal
among physicians in England down to the seventeenth
century.
Dysentery, — Make 3J lb. of iron red-hot, and plunge it into
3 quarts of new milk till it cools. Do this three times till the milk
is boiled down to three pints. Half a pint taken in the morning
and half a pint in the evening will cure.
St, Antonyms Fire or jErysipelas {Irish, Teine Dhia and Teine
Buirr). — ^Take sorrel (Irish, samhadhx Latin names also given),
"which doctors say is cold in the first degree and dry in the second
degree " : break it up together with another substance (named but
not identified), and apply it as a plaster. Another cure. — Boil the
house-leek (Irish, lusra-an^teoiteainx 'herb of burning'*), and
squeeze its juice on the diseased part. Another cure. — Rub the
diseased part with the blood of a black cat.
An ulcerated Wound, — Break up sorrel, and mix it with apple -
juice : put this on the wound.
Swelling and Inflammation of the Eyes. — Break up sorrel, and
mix it with the white of an ^gg : apply this, and it will reduce the
inflammation.
Diarrhoea : in Irish, ' Flux of the Belly.' — Boil sorrel with red
wine, and drink in doses.
A S^ain, — Break the roots of marsh-mallows : mix with hog's
lard ; and apply as a plaster.
A Woman* s sore Breast. — Boil [in certain proportions] hog*s
lard, flour, beeswax, and the white of a hen-egg in strong ale ; and
apply as a plaster.
For Persons injured by Fairies. — Take the following twenty-
five herbs [which are all named] : while pulling them, certain
prayers are to be said. Boil them in the water of a spring-well
(not the water from a running stream). Be careful not to let a drop
of the mixture fall, and not to put it on the ground, till the patient
has drunk it all.
A sore Eye. — Take yarrow and the daisy plant, and bruise and
squeeze the juice out of them : put into a little bottle with the milk
of a woman who has given birth to a daughter, and a grain of white
copperas, also the red blossom of the common eye -bright Let the
mixture stand till the next evening, and then wash the sore eye
with it.
* So called from the belief that it will preserve a house from fire if set
growing on the roof.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 625
5. Popular Cures,
Hot-Air Bath and Sweatrng-Home. — We know that the
Turkish bath is of recent introduction in these countries.
But the hot-air bath was well known in Ireland, and was
used as a cure for rheumatism down to a few years ago.
I have not found it referred to in any ancient authorities ;
though it was probably in use from old times ; and the
masonry of the Inishmurray sweating-house, represented
here, has all the appearance — as Mr. Wakeman remarks
— of being as old as any of the other primitive buildings in
the island. The structures in which these baths were given
are known by the name of Tigk 'n alluis [TeenolUsh],
' sweating-house ' {alius, ' sweat '). They are still well
known in the northern parts of Ireland ; and several have
been described by Mr. MilHgan, Mr. Wakeman, and the
Rev. D, B. Mulcahy.* They are small houses, entirely
of stone, from five to seven feet long inside, with a low
■See Kilk. AtcIueoI. Joam., iSSj-ti, p. iii; i88g, p. l68; 1S90-91,
PP- 165. 589-
626 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
little door through which one must creep : always placed
remote from habitations : and near by is commonly a pool
or tank of water four or five feet deep. They were used
in this way. A great fire of turf was kindled inside till the
house became heated like an oven ; after which the embers
and ashes were swept out Then the person, wrapping
himself in a blanket, crept in and sat down on a bench
of sods, after which the door was closed up. He remained
there an hour or so till he was in a profuse perspiration ;
and then creeping out, plunged right into the cold water,
after emerging from which he was well rubbed till he
became warm. After several baths at intervals of some
days he commonly got cured. Usually several people
took the bath together. Persons are still living who used
these baths or saw them used. The fame of the Irish hot-
air bath must have found its way to the Continent, in some
parts of which the people made baths in imitation of them,
according to the following curious memorandum by the
late Prof. Henry Hennessy, F.R.S., in the Kilkenny Arch.
Journal for 1885-6, p. 211 : — ^**It is remarkable that what
** are called Turkish baths in Ireland and Great Britain
"have been designated Roman -Irish baths in Germany
" and Bohemia. I saw baths designated * Romische-
" Irische bader' at Prague and Nuremberg in 1879."
Fairy-Bath. — In Ireland they had fairy-baths, made
with fairy -herbs, and these descended from old times.
In the Agallamh na Sean6rach it is related how two
ladies, sisters, had been repudiated by their husbands for
two other women. But Cailte, to whom they came for
advice, gave them a bundle oi fairy-herbs with directions
how to use them. They washed in a bath in which these
had been steeped, and sought out their husbands, whose
love was revived by the virtue of the herbs ; and the two
wives were restored to their homes.*
* Silva Gadelica, p. 126 : see also pp. 252, 253 for another instance.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 62/
Within our own time medicated fairy-baths were in
use. Sometimes children waste away by some internal
disease, which in certain parts of the country is attri-
buted to the fairies. The friends prepare a bath in
which they steep the lusmore^ or fairy-thimble {digitalis
purpurea)^ an herb of potent virtue in fairy-cures ; and
in this they bathe the little sufferer in full expectation
of a cure.
Popular Herb-Knowledge. — The peasantry were skilled
in the curative qualities of herbs and in preparing and
applying them to wounds and local diseases ; and their
skill has in a measure descended to the peasantry of the
present day. There were "herb-doctors," of whom the
most intelligent, deriving their knowledge chiefly from
Irish manuscripts, had considerable skill and did a good
practice. But these [were not recogjnised among the pro-
fession : they were amateurs without any technical quali-
fication* : and they were subject to the disabilities already
mentioned (p. 603). From the peasantry of two centuries
ago, Threlkeld and others who wrote on Irish botany,
obtained a large part of the useful information they have
given us in their books.t Popular cures were generally
mixed up with much fairy superstition, which may perhaps
be taken as indicating their great antiquity and pagan
origin.
Poison. — How to poison with deadly herbs was known.
The satirist Cridenb^l died by swallowing something put
into his food by the Dagda, whom the people then
accused of killing him by giving him a deadly herb {tre
luib eccineo[),X After Cobthach C6el Breg had murdered
his brother Loegaire Lore, he had Loegaire's son Ailill
murdered also by paying a fellow to poison him.§
* Census, 1842 : Table of Deaths, p. zxziii, note.
t Ibid., pp. iii and iv.
X Second Battle of Moytnra, Rev. Celt., xn. 65.
i Zeitschr. fOr Celt. Phil., in. 10 (from LL) : see also Keating, 251.
628 RELIGION, I.EARNING, AND ART [PART II
Eealing-StouM. — There were healing-stones preserved
in various places ; one for instance in the little church of
Relig near Bruckless in Donegal, which the people
brought to their sick friends with much faith in its
curative power." An amulet of this kind — a round
stone of agate two inches in diameter — has been pre*
served from time immemorial in the family of Fitzgerald,
formerly seneschals of Imokilly in Cork. It is sometimes
called dock'Omra, the ' amber-stone,' and often the ' mur-
rain stone ' : for the water in which it has been steeped
_ when given to cattle is believed to be
a cure for murrain. The water is also
often given for hydrophobia, both to
human beings and to the lower ani-
mals-t A similar talisman — an oval
crystal stone — is preserved by the
family of M'Carthy of the Glen in
Cork ; and it is still lent out to the
neighbouring farmers for sick cattle.J
In the church of Sl Gobinet at Bally-
T»,iw^°H!Ji(-«o« voumey in Cork is a marvellous medi-
™2S^|^.''°!'S!^ cine stone ; and several other talismans
S^i.'TSo ^"™ *" of a similar kind are preserved by
families in various parts of Ireland.§
Martin found medical stones very common in the
western islands of Scotland in 1703II : and they were
used all over Scotland until very recently. The reader
will here be reminded of the Lee-penny stone in " The
Talisman," the curative virtue of which was almost iden-
tical with that of the ImoktUy stone. No doubt this
* Kilk. Arch. Jontn., 1870-1, 469. t Ibid,, 1874-5, P- 440-
I/J<a., 1864-6, p. 324.
{ For othen we Wood-MartiD, Pagan Ireland, 156 : and Kilk. An:Ii»>I.
Journ., 1889, p. 72. See also Windele'i article on "Iriih Medical Snpenti-
tloD" in Kilk. AtcbiMl. Joum., 1864-6, p. 306.
I Martin, pp. 134, 136, &c.
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 629
custom was originally brought to Scotland from Ireland,
like most other early Scottish popular customs.
The use of medical stones probably descended from
pagan times : but, tike many another pagan custom, it
was adopted by some of the early saints. In Adamnan's
*' Life of St Columba " (11. xxxiii.), we read that on one
occasion Columba took up a white stone from the river
Ness, and having blessed it, he said to his companions : —
" Mark this white stone, by which the Lord will work
many cures of the sick among the heathen people." And
the narrative goes on
to say that many
persons got cured qf
deadly ailments by
drinking the water in
which it had been
steeped. Holy wells
credited with miracu-
lous curative virtues j.;^. 104. im 165.
have already been Tir<nie-vr™i»iuj.id.,orit(C«urfiu4ffl>ia;ii.itite.
noticed; an addi-
tional one is figured
on next page.
Prayera, Inoantatloiu, and Chamu. — Prayers to individual
saints for special diseases, and many incantations and
charms used for similar purposes, some in Irish, some in
Latin, are met with in Irish manuscripts of the seventh,
eighth, and ninth centuries : the Latin often in verse, the
Irish commonly in a sort of rhythmic prose. Aed mac Brie
(Aed or Hugh the son of Brec), bishop, was the tutelary
saint of the Kinelea, a tribe who occupied what is now
known as the barony of Moycashel in Westmeath. He
was descended from Niall of the Nine Hostages, and died
in the year 589. From hira is named the present parish of
Rahugh (Hugh's or Aed's rath) near Tullamore ; for the
chief of the tribe presented him with his rath or fort
630 RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART II
within which Aed built a church : and the old fort and
the ruins of Bishop Aed's church are to be seen to this
day. A legend in his Life relates that once a man who
was afflicted with a violent headache came to him for
relief: and the saint, not being able to cure him in any
other way, took the headache himself and sent the man
away relieved. Hence it came to pass, as the legend
goes on to say, that persons were in the habit of invoking
this saint's name for a headache. St Aed mac Brie is still
invoked for a headache by the people of Westmeath. Near
the ruins of the old monastery of Rahugh is his holy well ;
and in the same place is a large stone, still called Bishop
Hugh's stone — for, according to local tradition, the saint
was accustomed to pray on it — to which the people of the
surrounding districts have been, time out of mind, in the
habit of resorting for the relief of headache. A century
and a half ago an accidental discovery linked this modem
practice with remote antiquity. In the middle of the
eighteenth century a continental scholar, Mone, archive
director of Carlsruhe, published a short Latin poem which
CHAP. XVIII] MEDICINE AND MEDICAL DOCTORS 63 1
he found in a manuscript preserved in the monastery of
Reichenau on an island in Lake Constance. It is a prayer
written by an Irishman in the eighth century — copied in
all probability from an older book — invoking " Aidus
Sanctus mech Brich" for relief from a headache. This
venerable and highly interesting document, as well as the
legend of the saint's life, shows that the practice of invoking
St. Aed for a headache has continued from the time of his
death to this day, a period of thirteen centuries.*
In an eighth-century manuscript in the monastery of
St. Gall in Switzerland are several prayers, charms, and
incantations for various diseases, some in Irish, some in
Latin, which have been printed by Zeuss (p. 949). One
(in Irish) is for galarfuail^ * disease of the urine ' ; another
for long life, said to have been bequeathed by the great
Dedannan leech-god Blanket ; and another (in Latin) for
headache. This last is not addressed to any particular
saint It invokes " the eye of Isaia, the tongue of Solomon,
"the mind of Benjamin, the heart of Paul, the faith of
** Abraham," &c., ending with " Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus,
" Dominus Deus Sabaoth" ; to which this direction in Irish
* The following is a copy of this obscurely- worded old invocation : —
O rex, o rector regminis,
o cnltor coeli carminis
o persecutor murmoris
o deus alti agminis.
«'.#.filiof'.«. pater
Aido sanctus mech Brich benibula
posco puro precamina,
ut refrigerat flumina
mei capitis calida.
Curat caput cum renibus
f'.tf. cerebre
meis, atque talibus,
cum oculis et genibus,
cum auribus et naribus.
i,e, nervibus
Cum inclitis euntibus,
cum fistulis sonantibus
cum lingua atque dentibus,
cum lachrymarum fontibus.
Sanctus Aid altus adjuvat,
meum caput ut liberat,
ut hoc totum perseverat
sanum atque vigilat.
For further information about Aed mac Brie, see Dr. Reeves, '< On the
Hymnus Sancti Aidi," Proc. Roy. Ir. Acad., vii. 91 : the Rev. Prof. George
Stokes, ** On St. Hugh and his Church," Joum. Roy. Soc. Antiqq. Ireland,
1896, 325 : and Joyce, Irish Names of Places, ii. 86.
632
RELIGION, LEARNING, AND ART [PART 11
is added : — " Say this thing every day for thy head against
" headache ; after repeating it, place thy spittle upon thy
" palm, and put it on thy temples, and on the back of thy
" head, and say the Pater thrice thereupon, and draw a
" cross with thy spittle on the top of thy head ; and on
" thy head also draw the form of the letter XJ"
Incantations and charms for diseases ace also used
in the Highlands and Islands of Scotlafid, where indeed
the custom is now more general than it is in the
mother country. Many of these will be found — all in
Scotch Gaelic and translated — in Carmichael's " Carmina
Gadelica," voL ii., pp/2-21, and 124. One of them is ar
galarfuail^ * against disease of the urine' or gravel : which,,
although different in words from that printed by Zeuss
from a manuscript written twelve centuries ago, is identical
with it in tone and spirit
FIG. 167.— ortunieut composed from the Book of Kelb.
END OF VOL. I.
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