A literary history of Ireland from the earliest times to the present day

The Library

of

Literary History

pbrarg of f tierarg pst0rg

A LITERARY HISTORY OF INDIA. By R. W
FRAZER, LL.B.

A LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND. By DOUGLAS
HYDE, LL.D.

A LITERARY HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES.
By BARRETT WENDELL.

Other Volumes in Preparation.

A LITERARY HISTORY OF THE JEWS. By
ISRAEL ABRAHAMS.

ETC. ETC. ETC.

There is for every nation a history, which does not respond to the
trumpet-call of battle, which does not limit its interests to the conflict of
dynasties. This — the history of intellectual growth and artistic achievement
— if less romantic than the popular panorama of kings and queens, finds its
material in imperishable masterpieces, and reveals to the student something
at once more vital and more picturesque than the quarrels of rival parlia-
ments. Nor is it in any sense unscientific to shift the point of view from
politics to literature. It is but a fashion of history which insists that a
nation lives only for her warriors, a fashion which might long since have
been ousted by the commonplace reflection that, ir spite of history, the poets
are the true masters of the earth. If all record of a nation's progress were
blotted out, and its literature were yet left us, might we not recover the out-
lines of its lost history ?

It is, then, with the literature of nations, that the present series is
concerned.

Each volume will be entrusted to a distinguished scholar, and the aid of
foreign men of letters will be invited whenever the perfection of the series
demands it.

THE LIBRARY

OF
LITERARY HISTORT

A Literary History of Ireland

CASE OF

MOLAISE'S

GOSPELS.

A Literary History
of Ireland

From Earliest Times to the Present Day

By

Douglas Hyde, LL.D., M.R.I. A.

[An Craoibhfn Aoibhinn]

SECOND IMPRESSION

, A

New York

Charles Scribner's Sons
1901

SDeDication,

TO THE MEMBERS OF THE GAELIC LEAGUE,

THE ONLY BODY IN IRELAND WHICH APPEARS TO

REALISE THE FACT THAT IRELAND HAS A PAST, HAS A

HISTORY, HAS A LITERATURE, AND THE ONLY BODY IN

IRELAND WHICH SEEKS TO RENDER THE PRESENT A

RATIONAL CONTINUATION OF THE PAST,

I DEDICATE

THIS ATTEMPT AT A REVIEW OF THAT LITERATURE

WHICH DESPITE ITS PRESENT NEGLECTED POSITION

THEY FEEL AND KNOW TO BE A TRUE

POSSESSION OF NATIONAL

IMPORTANCE.

DO CHONNRADH NA GAEDHEILGE.

A Chonnradh chaoin, a Chonnradh choir,
Rinn obair mhor gan or gan cabhair,

Glacaidh an dos a dlighim daoibh,
Guidhim, glacaidh go caoimh mo leabhar.

A chdirde cleibh is iomdha Id

D'oibrigheamar go bredgh le ch&ile,
Gan clampar, agusfosgan cad,

'S da mhead dr dteas', gan puinn di-chiille.

Chuireabhar suil 'san bhfear bhi dall,
Thugabhar cluas donfhear bhi bodhar,

Glacaidh an cios do bheirim daoibh,
Guidhim, glacaidh go caoimh mo leabhar.

\

PREFACE

THE present volume has been styled — in order to make it a
companion book to other of Mr. Unwin's publications — a
" Literary History of Ireland," but a " Literary History of
Irish Ireland " would be a more correct title, for I have ab-
stained altogether from any analysis or even mention of the
works of Anglicised Irishmen of the last two centuries. Their
books, as those of Farquhar, of Swift, of Goldsmith, of Burke,
find, and have always found, their true and natural place in
every history of English literature that has been written,
whether by Englishmen themselves or by foreigners.

My object in this volume has been to give a general view of
the literature produced by the Irish-speaking Irish, and to
reproduce by copious examples some of its more salient, or at
least more characteristic features.

In studying the literature itself, both that of the past and
that of the present, one of the things which has most forcibly
struck me is the marked absence of the purely personal note,
the absence of great predominating names, or of great pre-
dominating works ; while just as striking is the almost uni-
versal diffusion of a traditional literary taste and a love of
literature in the abstract amongst all classes of the native Irish.
The whole history of Irish literature shows how warmly the
efforts of all who assisted in its production were appreciated.

x PREFACE

The greatest English bard of the Elizabethan age was allowed
by his countrymen to perish of poverty in the streets of
London, while the pettiest chief of the meanest clan would
have been proud to lay his hearth and home and a share of his
wealth at the disposal of any Irish " ollarhh." The love for
literature of a traditional type, in song, in poem, in saga,
was, I think, more nearly universal in Ireland than in any
country of western Europe, and hence that which appears to-
me to be of most value in ancient Irish literature is not that
whose authorship is known, but rather the mass of traditional
matter which seems to have grown up almost spontaneously,
and slowly shaped itself into the literary possession of an entire
nation. An almost universal acquaintance with a traditional
literature was a leading trait amongst the Irish down to the
last century, when every barony and almost every townland
still possessed its poet and reciter, and song, recitation, music,
and oratory were the recognised amusements of nearly the
whole population. That population in consequence, so far as
wit and readiness of language and power of expression went,,
had almost all attained a remarkably high level, without how-
ever producing any one of a commanding eminence. In col-
lecting the floating literature of the present day also, the
unknown traditional poems and the Ossianic ballads and the
stories of unknown authorship are of greater value than the
pieces of bards who are known and named. In both cases,
that of the ancient and that of the modern Irish, all that is of
most value as literature, was the property and in some sense
the product of the people at large, and it exercised upon them
a most striking and potent influence. And this influence may
be traced amongst the Irish-speaking population even at the
present day, who have, I may almost say, one and all, a re-
markable command of language and a large store of traditional
literature learned by heart, which strongly differentiates them
from the Anglicised products of the " National Schools " ta
the bulk of whom poetry is an unknown term, and amongst

PREFACE xi

whom there exists little or no trace of traditional Irish feelings,
or indeed seldom of any feelings save those prompted by (when
they read it) a weekly newspaper.

The exact extent of the Irish literature still remaining in
manuscript has never been adequately determined. M. d'Arbois
de Jubainville has noted 133 still existing manuscripts, all
copied before the year 1600, and the whole number which he
has found existing chiefly in public libraries on the Continent
and in the British Isles amounts to 1,009. But many others
have since been discovered, and great numbers must be
scattered throughout the country in private libraries, and
numbers more are perishing or have recently perished of
neglect since the " National Schools " were established.
Jubainville quotes a German as estimating that the literature
produced by the Irish before the seventeenth century, and
still existing, would fill a thousand octavo volumes. It is hard
to say, however, how much of this could be called literature in
a true sense of the word, since law, medicine, and science were
probably included in the calculation. O'Curry, O'Longan,
and O'Beirne Crowe catalogued something more than half the
manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy, and the catalogue of
contents filled thirteen volumes containing 3,448 pages. To
these an alphabetic index of the pieces contained was made in
three volumes, and an index of the principal names, etc., in
thirteen volumes more. From a rough calculation, based on
an examination of these, I should place the number of different
pieces catalogued by them at about ten thousand, ranging from
single quatrains or even single sentences to long poems and
epic sagas. But in the Academy alone, there are nearly as
many more manuscripts which still remain uncatalogued.

It is probably owing to the extreme difficulty of arriving at
any certain conclusions as to the real extent of Irish literature
that no attempt at a consecutive history of it has ever pre-
viously been made. Despite this difficulty, there is no doubt
that such a work would long ago have been attempted had it

xii PREFACE

not been for the complete breakdown and destruction of Irish
Ireland which followed the Great Famine, and the unexpected
turn given to Anglo-Irish literature by the efforts of the
Young Ireland School to compete with the English in their
own style, their own language, and their own models.

For the many sins of omission and commission in this
volume I must claim the reader's kind indulgence ; nobody can
be better aware of its shortcomings than I myself, and the only
excuse that I can plead is that over so much of the ground I have
had to be my own pioneer. I confidently hope, however, that
in the renewed interest now being taken in our native civi-
lisation and native literature some scholar far more fully
equipped for his task than I, may soon render this volume
superfluous by an ampler, juster, and more artistic treatment
of what is really a subject of great national importance.

National or important, however, it does not appear to be
considered in these islands, where outside of the University of
Oxford — which has given noble assistance to the cause of Celtic
studies — sympathisers are both few and far between. Indeed,
I fancy that anybody who has applied himself to the subject of
Celtic literature would have a good deal to tell about the
condescending contempt with which his studies have been
regarded by his fellows. " I shall not easily forget," said Dr
Petrie, addressing a meeting of the Royal Irish Academy upon
that celebrated example of early Celtic workmanship the Tara
Brooch, " that when in reference to the existence of a similar
remain of ancient Irish art, I had first the honour to address
myself to a meeting of this high institution, I had to encounter
the incredulous astonishment of the illustrious Dr. Brinkley "
{of Trinity College, President of the Academy] " which was
implied in the following remark, ' Surely, sir, you do not mean
to tell us that there exists the slightest evidence to prove that
the Irish had any acquaintance with the arts of civilised life
anterior to the arrival in Ireland of the English ?' nor shall I

PREFACE xiii

forget that in the scepticism which this remark implied nearly
all the members present very obviously participated." Exactly
the same feeling which Dr. Petrie encountered was prevalent
in my own alma mater in the eighties, where one of our most
justly popular lecturers said — in gross ignorance but perfect
good faith — that the sooner the Irish recognised that before the
arrival of Cromwell they were utter savages, the better it would
be for everybody concerned ! Indeed, it was only the other
day that one of our ablest and best known professors protested
publicly in the Contemporary Review against the enormity of
an Irish bishop signing so moderate, and I am sure so reason-
able a document, as a petition asking to have Irish children
who knew no English, taught through the medium of the
language which they spoke. Last year, too, another most
learned professor of Dublin University went out of his way to
declare that " the mass of material preserved [in the Irish
manuscripts] is out of all proportion to its value as 'literature,'"
and to insist that " in the enormous mass of Irish MSS. pre-
served, there is absolutely nothing that in the faintest degree
rivals the splendours of the vernacular literatures of the Middle
Ages," that " their value as literature is but small," and that
"for educational purposes save in this limited sense [of linguistic
study] they are wholly unsuited," winding up with the extra-
ordinary assertion that " there is no solid ground for supposing
that the tales current at the time of our earliest MSS. were
much more numerous than the tales of which fragments have
come down to us." As to the civilisation of the early Irish
upon which Petrie insisted, there is no longer room for the
very shadow of a doubt ; but whether the literature which they
produced is so utterly valueless as this, and so utterly devoid of
all interest as " literature," the reader of this volume must
judge for himself. I should be glad also if he were to institute
a comparison between " the splendours of the vernacular
literatures " of Germany, England, Spain, and even Italy and
France, prior to the year 1000, and that of the Irish, for I am

xiv PREFACE

very much mistaken if in their early development of rhyme,
alone, in their masterly treatment of sound, and in their
absolutely unique and marvellous system of verse-forms, the
Irish will not be found to have created for themselves a place
alone and apart in the history of European literatures.

I hardly know a sharper contrast in the history of human
thought than the true traditional literary instinct which four
years ago prompted fifty thousand poor hard-working Irishmen
in the United States to contribute each a dollar towards the
foundation of a Celtic chair in the Catholic University of
Washington in the land of their adoption, choosing out a fit
man and sending him to study under the great Celticists of
Germany, in the hope that his scholarship might one day
reflect credit upon the far-off country of their birth ; while in
that very country, by far the richest college in the British Isles,
one of the wealthiest universities in the world, allows its so-
called " Irish professorship " to be an adjunct of its Divinity
School, founded and paid by a society for — the conversion of
Irish Roman Catholics through the medium of their own
language !

This is the more to be regretted because had the unique
manuscript treasures now shut up in cases in the underground
room of Trinity College Library, been deposited in any other
seat of learning in Europe, in Paris, Rome, Vienna, or Berlin,
there would long ago have been trained up scholars to read
them, a catalogue of them would have been published, and
funds would have been found to edit them. At present the
Celticists of Europe are placed under the great disadvantage of
having to come over to Dublin University to do the work that
it is not doing for itself.

It is fortunate however that the spread of education within
the last few years (due perhaps partly to the establishment
of the Royal University, partly to the effects of Intermediate
Education, and partly to the numerous literary societies which
working upon more or less national lines have spontaneously

PREFACE xv

sprung up amongst the Irish people themselves) has, by taking
the prestige of literary monopoly out of the hands of Dublin
University, to a great extent undone the damage which had
so long been caused to native scholarship by its attitude.
It was the more necessary to do this, because the very fact
that it had never taken the trouble to publish even a printed
catalogue of its Irish manuscripts — as the British Museum
authorities have done — was by many people interpreted, I
believe, as a sort of declaration of their worthlessness.

In dealing with Irish proper names I have experienced the
same difficulty as every one else who undertakes to treat of
Irish history. Some native names, especially those with
4i mortified " or aspirated letters, look so unpronounceable as to
prove highly disconcerting to an English reader. The system
I have followed is to leave the Irish orthography untouched,
but in cases where the true pronunciation differed appreciably
from the sound which an English reader would give the letters,
I have added a phonetic rendering of the Irish form in
brackets, as " Muighmheadhon [Mwee-va-on], Lughaidh
[Lewy]." There are a few names such as Ossian, Meve,
Donough, MuiTough and others, which have been almost
adopted into English, and these forms I have generally retained
— perhaps wrongly — but my desire has been to throw no unne-
cessary impediments in the way of an English reader ; I have
always given the true Irish form at least once. Where the
word " mac " is not part of a proper name, but really means
"son of" as in Finn mac Cumhail, I have printed it with
a small " m " ; and in such names as " Cormac mac Art "
I have usually not inflected the last word, but have written
" Art " not " Airt," so as to avoid as far as possible confusing
the English reader.

I very much regret that I have found it impossible, owing
to the brief space of time between printing and publication,
to submit the following chapters to any of my friends for

xvi PREFACE

their advice and criticism. I beg, however, to here express
my best thanks to my friend Father Edmund Hogan, S.J.,
for the numerous memoranda which he was kind enough to
give me towards the last chapter of this book, that on the
history of Irish as a spoken language, and also to express my
regret that the valuable critical edition of the Book of Hymns
by Dr. Atkinson and Dr. Bernard, M. Bertrand's " Religion
Gauloise," and Miss Hull's interesting volume on " Cuchullin
Saga," which should be read in connection with my chapters
on the Red Branch cycle, appeared too late for me to make
use of.

RATH-TREAGH, OIDHCHE SAMHNA
MDCCCXCIX.

CONTENTS

CHAP. PACK

I. WHO WERE THE CELTS? i
II. EARLIEST ALLUSIONS TO IRELAND FROM FOREIGN

SOURCES ...... 17

III. EARLY HISTORY DRAWN FROM NATIVE SOURCES . 25

IV. How FAR CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON ? . 38
V. THE PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND EARLY PANTHEON 44

VI. EVIDENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY . 56

VII. DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE . . 70

VIII. CONFUSION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN . . 77

IX. DRUIDISM ...... 82

X. THE IRISH ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH . 94

XI. EARLY USE OF LETTERS, OGAM AND ROMAN . 105

v XII. EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION .... 122

XIII. ST. PATRICK AND THE EARLY MISSIONARIES . 133

XIV. ST. BRIGIT . . . . .156
XV. COLUMCILLE ...... 166

/ XVI. THE FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND . 192

XVII. THEIR FAME AND TEACHING .... 215

XVIII. CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER . . . 225

xviii CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

XIX. THE BARDIC SCHOOLS .... 239

XX. THE SUGGESTIVELY PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH

LITERATURE . . . . .251

•/XXL THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS . . .263

• XXII. EARLY SAGA AND ROMANCE . . . 276

XXIII. THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE . . .281

XXIV. THE HEROIC OR RED BRANCH CYCLE— CUCHU-

LAIN ...... 293

XXV. DEIRDRE ...... 302

XXVI. THE TAIN Bo CHUAILGNE . . . . 319

XXVII. THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN . . .341

XXVIII. OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH . . 354

XXIX. THE FENIAN CYCLE . . . .363

XXX. MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE .... 387

XXXI. PRE-DANISH POETS ..... 405

XXXII. THE DANISH PERIOD .... 419

XXXIII. FROM CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST . 443

XXXIV. SUDDEN ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT . 452
XXXV. FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY . . . 465

XXXVI. DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY . . . 479

XXXVII. THE OSSIANIC POEMS . . . .498

XXXVIII. THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS . . 514

XXXIX. RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL .... 539

XL. PROSE WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 552

XLI. THE IRISH ANNALS. .... 573

XLII. THE BREHON LAWS . . . .583

XLIII. THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . 591

XLIV. THE HISTORY OF IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 608

INDEX ........ 639

Literary History of Ireland

CHAPTER I

WHO WERE THE CELTS ?

rHO were those Celts, of whose race the Irish are to-day
perhaps the most striking representatives, and upon whose past
the ancient literature of Ireland can best throw light ?

Like the Greeks, like the Romans, like the English, this
great people, which once ruled over a fourth of Europe, sprang
from a small beginning and from narrow confines. The
earliest home of the race from which they spread their conquer-
ing arms may be said, roughly speaking, to have lain along
both banks of the upper Danube, and in that portion of
Europe comprised to-day in the kingdoms of Bavaria and
Wiirtemberg and the Grand Duchy of Baden, with the
country drained by the river Maine to the east of the Rhine
basin. In other words, the Celtic race and the Celtic language
sprang from the heart of what is to-day modern Germany, and
issuing thence established for over two centuries a vast empire
held together by the ties of political unity and a common
language over all North-west and Central Europe.

The vast extent of the territory conquered and colonised by
the Celts, and the unity of their speech, may be conjectured
from an examination of the place-names of Celtic origin which

A i

2 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

either still exist or figure as having existed in European
history.1

The Celts seem to have been first known to Greek — that is,
to European history — under the semi-mythological name of
the Hyperboreans,2 an appellation which remained in force
from the sixth to the fourth century before Christ. The
name Celt or Kelt 3 first makes its appearance towards the year
500 B.C., in the geography of Hecataeus of Miletum, and is
thereafter used successively by Herodotus, Xenophon, Plato,
and Aristotle, and from that time forward it seems to have
been employed by the Greek scholars and historians as a
generic term whereby to designate the Celts of the Continent.

Soon afterwards the word Galatian came also into use,4 and
was used as a synonym for Celt. In the first century B.C.,
however, the discovery was made that the Germans and the
Celts, who had been hitherto confounded in the popular esti-
mation, were really two different peoples, a fact which Julius
Caesar was almost the first to point out. Diodorus Siculus,

1 Take, for instance, the Celtic word duno-nt Latinised dunum, which is
the Irish dun " castle " or " fortress," so common in Irish topography, as in
Dunmore, Dunsink, Shandun, &c. There are over a dozen instances of
this word in France, nearly as many in Great Britain, more than half a
dozen in Spain, eight or nine in Germany, three in Austria, a couple in
the Balkan States, three more in Switzerland, one at least (Lug-dun, now
Leyden) in the Low Countries, one in Portugal, one in Piedmont, one in
South Russia.

Celtic was once spoken from Ireland to the Black Sea, although the
population who can how speak Celtic dialects is not more than three or four
millions. As for Celtic archaeological remains " on les trouve tant dans
nos musees nationaux (en particulier au Musee de Saint Germain) que dans
les collections publiques de la Hongrie, de 1'Autriche, de la Hesse, de la
Boheme, du Wurtemburg, du pays de Bade, de la Suisse, de 1' Italic
(Bertrand and Reinach, p. 3).

3 K€\T-O£. The Greeks, the Latins, and the Celts themselves pronounced
Kelt, as do the modern Germans. It is against the genius of the French
language to pronounce the c hard, but not against that of the English, who
consequently had better say Kelt.

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 3

accordingly, struck by this discovery, translates Caesar's Gal/us
or Gaul by the word Celt, and his Germanus or German by
the word Galatian, while the other Greek historian, Dion Cassius,
does the exact opposite, calling the Celts " Galatians," and the
Germans "Celts " ! The examples thus set, however, were the
result of ignorance and were never followed. Plutarch treats
the two words as identical, as do Strabo, Pausanias and all
other Greek writers.

The word Celt itself is probably of very ancient origin, and
was, no doubt, in use 800 or 1,000 years before Christ.1 It
cannot, however, be proved that it is a generic Celtic name for
the Celtic race, and none of the present Celtic-speaking races
have preserved it in their dialects. Jubainville derives it, very
doubtfully I should think, from a Celtic root found in the old
Irish verb "ar-CHELL-aim" ("I plunder") and the old substantive
to-CHELL ("victory") ; while he derives Galatian from a Celtic
substantive now represented by the Irish gal2 ("bravery").
This latter word " Galatian " is one which the German peoples
never adopted, and it appears to have only come into use sub-
sequently to their revolt against their Celtic masters. After the
break-up of the Celtic Empire it was employed to designate the
eastern portion of the race, while the inhabitants of Gaul were
called Celtae and those of Spain Celtici or Celtiberi, but the
Greeks called all indifferently by the common name of Galatians.

The Romans termed the Celts Galli, or Gauls, but they
used the geographical term Gallia, or Gaul, in a restricted
sense, first for the country inhabited by the Celts in North

1 As is proved, according to Jubainville, by its having made its way
into German before the so-called Laut-verschiebung took place, to the
laws of which it submitted, for out of Celtis, the feminine form of it, they
have made Childis, as in the Frank-Merovingian Bruni-Childis or
Brunhild, and the old Scandinavian Hildr, the war-goddess.

2 This was actually a living word as recently as ten years ago. I knew
an old man who often used it in the sense of "spirit," " fire," "energy" :
he used to say cuir gal a nn, meaning do it bravely, energetically. This
was in the county Roscommon. I cannot say that I have heard the word
elsewhere.

4 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Italy upon their own side of the Alps, and after that for the
Celtic territory conquered by Rome upon the other side of the
Alps.

The Germans appear to have called the Celts Wolah, a
name derived from the Celtic tribe the Volcae, who were so
long their neighbours, out of which appellation came the
Anglo-Saxon Wealh and the modern English " Welsh."

There is one curious characteristic distinguishing, from its
very earliest appearance, the Celtic language from its Indo-
European sisters : this is the loss of the letter p both at the
beginning of a word and when it is placed between two
vowels.1 This dropping of the letter p had already given to
the Celtic language a special character of its own, at the time
when breaking forth from their earliest home the Celts crossed
the Rhine and proceeded, perhaps a thousand years before
Christ, to establish themselves in the British Isles. The Celts
who first colonised Ireland said, for instance, atir for pater,
but they had not yet experienced, nor did they ever experience,
that curious linguistic change which at a later time is assumed
to have come over the Celts of the Continent and caused
them to not only recover their faculty of pronouncing />,
but to actually change into a p the Indo-European guttural
q. Their descendants, the modern Irish, to this very day
retain the primitive word-forms which had their origin a
thousand years before Christ. So much so is this the case
that the Welsh antiquary Lhuyd, writing in the last century,
asserted, and with truth, that there were " scarce any words
in the Irish besides what are borrowed from the Latin or
some other language that begin with />, insomuch that in
an ancient alphabetical vocabulary I have by me, that letter is
omitted."2 Even with the introduction' of Christianity and

x Thus the Greek vTrtp, Latin s-uper, German iiber is ver in ancient Celtic
(for in Old Irish, ar in the modern language), platanus becomes litano-s
(Irish leathan), irapd becomes are, and so on.

a Lhuyd's " Comparative Etymology," title i. p. 21. Out of over 700 pages
in O'Reilly's Irish dictionary only twelve are occupied with the letter/.

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 5

the knowledge of Latin the ancient Irish persisted in their
repugnance to this letter, and made of the Latin Tasch-a
(Easter) the word Casg, and of the Latin purpur-a the Irish
curcur.

But meantime the Continental Celts had either — as Jubain-
ville seems to think — recovered their faculty for pronouncing
/>, or else — as Rhys believes — been overrun by other semi-Celts
who, owing to some strong non-Aryan intermixture, found q
repugnant to them, and changed it into p. This appears to have
taken place prior to the year 500 B.C., for it was at about this
time that they, having established themselves round the Seine
and Loire and north of the Garonne, overran Spain, carrying
everywhere with them this comparatively newly adopted />,
as we can see by their tribal and place-names. They appeared
in Italy sometime about 400 B.C.,1 founded their colony in
Galatia about 279 B.C., and afterwards sent another swarm into
Great Britain, and to all these places they bore with them this
obtrusive letter in place of the primitive ^, the Irish alone
resisting it, for the Irish represented a first off-shoot from the
cradle of the race, an off-shoot which had left it at a time
when q represented />, and not p q. Hence it is that Welsh is
so full of the p sound which the primitive Irish would never
adopt, as a glance at some of the commonest words in both
languages will show.

English : Son tree head person worm feather everyone.
Welsh : Map prenn pen nep pryv pluv pa.up.

Irish : Mac crann cenn nech cruiv 2 duv 2 each.

So that even the Irish St. Ciaran becomes Piaran in Wales.3

1 Probably for the second time. MM. Bertrand and Reinach seem to
have proved that the Cisalpine peoples of North Italy who were under the
dominion of the Etruscans were Celtic in manners and costume, and
probably in language also. See " Les Celtes dans les vallees du Po et du
Danube." Chapter on La Gaule Cisalpine.

2 Rather " cruimh " and " clumh," the mh being pronounced ».

3 In this matter of labialism Greek stands to some small extent with
regard to Latin, as Welsh to Irish. Nor is Latin itself exempt from it ;
compare the labialised Latin sept-em with the more primitive Irish secht.

6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The Celts invaded Italy about the year 400 B.C., and
stormed Rome a few years later. They were at this time at
the height of their power. From about the year 500 to 300
B.C. they appear to have possessed a very high degree of
political unity, to have been led by a single king,1 and to have
followed with signal success a wise and consistent external
policy. The most important events in their history during
this period were the three successful wars which they waged—
first against the Carthaginians, out of whose hands they wrested
the peninsula of Spain ; secondly in Italy against the Etruscans,
which ended in their making themselves masters of the north
of that country ; and thirdly against the Illyrians along the
Danube. All of these wars were followed by large accessions
of territory. One of the most striking features of their
external policy during this period was their close alliance with
the Greeks, whose commercial rivalry with the Phoenicians
naturally brought them into relations with the Celtic enemies
of Carthaginian power in Spain, relations from which they
reaped much advantage, since the necessity of making head
against the Celtic -invaders of Spain must have seriously
crippled the Carthaginian power, at the very time when, as
ally of the Persians, she attacked the Greeks in Sicily, and lost
the battle of Himera on the same day that the Persians lost
that of Salamis. Greek writers of the fourth century speak of
the Celts as practising justice, of having nearly the same
manners and customs as the Greeks, and they notice their
hospitality to Grecian strangers.2 Their war with the Etruscans
in North Italy completed the ruin of an hereditary enemy of

1 See Livy's account of Ambicatus, who seems to have been a kind of
Celtic Charlemagne, or more probably the equivalent of the Irish ard-righ.
Livy probably exaggerates his importance.

3 Cf. the remarkable verses quoted by d'Arbois de Jubainville of
Scymnus of Chio, following Ephorus :

'* XjObttrat <5c KeXroi roif
t%ovT£Q ouc€iorara TT/oog rr}v 'EXXada
Sid TUQ VTTOGOX&C; rutv i

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 7

the Greeks,1 and their war with the Illyrians no doubt largely
strengthened the hands of Philip, the father of Alexander the
Great, and enabled him to throw off the tribute which the
Illyrians had imposed upon Macedonia. Nor did Alexander
himself embark upon his expedition into Asia without having
first assured himself of the friendship of the Celts. He
received their ambassadors with cordiality, called them his
friends, and received from them a promise of alliance. " If we
fulfil not our engagement," said they, " may the sky falling upon
us crush us, may the earth opening swallow us up, may the sea
overflowing its borders drown us," and we may well believe ;
that these were the very words used by the Celtic chieftains j
when we find in an Irish saga committed to writing about the '
seventh century 2 the Ulster heroes swearing to their king when
he wished to leave his wing of the battle to repel the attacks
of a rival, and saying, " heaven is over us and earth is under
us and sea is round about us, and unless the firmament fall
with its star-showers upon the face of the earth, or unless
the earth be destroyed by earthquake, or unless the ridgy,
blue-bordered sea come over the expanse ( ?) of life, we shall
not give one inch of ground."

While the ambassadors were drinking the young king asked
them what was the thing they most feared, thinking, says the
historian, that they would say himself, but their answer was
quite different. " We fear no one," they said ; u there is
only one thing that we fear, which is, that the heavens may
fall upon us ; but the friendship of such a man as you we
value more than everything," whereat the king, no doubt
considerably astonished, remarked in a low voice to his
courtiers what a vainglorious people these Celts were.3

1 By this war the newly-arrived bands drove out the Etruscan aristocracy
and took its place, ruling over a population of what were really their Celtic
kinsmen.

8 The Tain Bo Chuailgne.

3 [KfXrotig] a7r£7T€/A»//6, roerovrov iiirtiirutv on a\a£oVef KeXrot elaiv (Arrian,
bk. i. chap. iv.).

8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

All through the life of Alexander the Celts and Mace-
donians continued on good terms, and amongst the many envoys
who came to Babylon to salute the youthful conqueror of
Persia, appeared their representatives also. Some forty years
later, however, this good understanding came to an end, and
the Celts overthrew and slew in battle the Macedonian ruler
Ptolemy Keraunos about 280 B.C.

With the Romans, as with the Greeks, the relations of the
Celts were, during the fifth and fourth century B.C., upon the
whole friendly, and their hostility to the Etruscans must have
tended naturally to render them and the Romans mutual allies.
The battle of Allia, fought on the i8th of July, 390 B.C., and
the storming of Rome three days later, were a punishment
inflicted on the Romans by the Celts in their exasperation
at seeing the Roman ambassadors, contrary to the right of
nations, assisting their enemies the Etruscans under the walls
of Clusium, but these events appear to have been followed by
a long peace.1

It is only in the third century B.C. that the hitherto
victorious and widely-colonising Celts appear to have laid
aside their internal political unity and to have lost their
hitherto victorious tactics. The Germans, over whom they
had for centuries domineered and whom they had deprived of
their independence, rise against them about 300 B.C., and
drive out their former conquerors from between the Rhine and

* See Livy, book v. chap, xxxvi. : " Ibi, jam urgentibus Romanam urbem
fatis, legati contra jus gentium arma capiunt, nee id clam esse potuit, quum
ante signa Etruscorum tres nobilissimi fortissimi-que Romance juventutis
pugnarent. Tantum eminebat peregrina virtus. Quin etiam Q. Fabius
erectus extra aciem equo, ducem Gallorum, ferociter in ipsa signa Etrus-
corum incursantem, per latus transfixum hasta, occidit : spolia-que ejus
legentem Galli agnovere, perque totem aciem Romanum legatum esse
signum datum est. Omissa inde in Clusinos ira, receptui canunt minantes
Romanis." It was the refusal of the Romans to give satisfaction for this
outrage that first brought the Gauls upon them.

Jubainville rejects as fabulous the self-contradicting accounts of Livy
about Roman wars with the Celts during the next forty years after the
storming of Rome.

I

WHO WERE THE CELTS? g

the Black Sea, from between the Elbe and the Maine. The
Celts fall out with the Romans and are beaten at Sentinum in
295 B.C. ; they ally themselves with their former enemies the
Etruscans, and are again beaten in 283 B.C. and lose territory.
They cease their alliance with the Greeks, and are guilty of
the shameful folly of pillaging the temple of Delphi, an act
of brigandage from which no good results could come, and
from which no acquisition of territory resulted. They estab-
lished a colony in Asia Minor in 278 B.C., successfully indeed,
but absolutely cut off from the rest of the Celtic Empire, and
such as in any federation of the Celtic tribes could only be a
source of weakness. Again, about the same time, we see
Celts driving out and supplanting Celts in the districts
between the Rhine, the Seine, and the Marne. In 262 B.C.
we find a body of three or four thousand Celts assisting their
former foes the Carthaginians at the siege of Agrigentum,
where they perish. Many of the Celts now took foreign
service. It was at their instigation that the war of mer-
cenaries broke out, which at one time brought Carthage to
the very verge of destruction.

Only two centuries and a half, as Jubainville remarks, had
elapsed since the Celts had conquered Spain from the Phoeni-
cians, and only a hundred and thirty years since they had
taken Rome, but their victorious political unity had already
begun to break up and crumble, and now Rome and Carthage
commenced that deadly duel in which the victor was destined
to impose his sway upon the ruins of the Celtic Empire as
well as on that of Alexander — impose it, in fact, upon all the
world then known to the Greeks, except only the extreme east.

One of the circumstances which must have helped most
materially to break up the Celtic Empire was the successful
revolt of the Germans against their former masters. The
relation of the German to the Celtic tribes is very obscure
and puzzling. The ancient Greek historians of the sixth,
fifth, and fourth centuries B.C., who tell us so much about the

io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Celts, know absolutely nothing of the Germans. As early as
the year 500 B.C. Hecataeus of Miletum is able to name three
peoples and two cities of India. But of the Germans, who
were so much nearer to Marseilles than the nearest point of
India is to the most eastern Greek colony, he says not a word.
Ephorus, in the fourth century, knows of only one people to
the extreme west, and they are the Celts, and their immediate
neighbours are the Scythians. He knows of no intermediate
state or nation. Where, then, were the Germans ?

The explanation lies, according to Jubainville, in this, that
even before this period the German had been conquered by
the Celt and become subordinated to him. The Greek
historians knew of no independent state bordering upon the
Scythians except the Celtic Empire alone, because none such
existed. In the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., and perhaps as
early as the seventh and sixth, the Germans had been subdued
and had lost their independence. How and when this took
place we can only conjecture, but we have philological reasons
for believing that the two races had come into mutual contact
at a very early date, probably as early as the eleventh century
B.C. The early German name for the Rhine, for instance,
Rino-sy comes directly from the primitive Indo-European form
Relno-s and not from the Celtic Reno-s, which shows that the
Germans had reached that river at a time when the Celts who
lived along it still called it Reinos, not Renos. The Celts
afterwards changed the primitive ei into £, and from their
carrying the form rein x with them into Ireland, they had
probably done this as early as the ninth or tenth century B.C.,
for, as we have shown, the Celts who inhabited Ireland have
preserved the very oldest forms of the Celtic speech.

On the other hand the Celts always called that Germanic
tribe who accompanied the Cimbri by the name of Teutoni,
thus showing that they first came in contact with them at a

1 Rein =a primitive reni. It occurs in the Amra Colum-cilli, meaning
"of the sea."

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 11

date anterior to the phonetic law which introduced the so-
called explosive consonants into German, and which caused the
root Teutono (preserved intact by the Celts) to be turned into
Theudono. From this it follows that the German and Celtic
peoples were in touch with one another at a very remote period.
The long subordination of the German to the Celt has left
its marks deeply behind it, for his " language had remained un-
cultivated during ages of slavery, had been reduced to the
condition of a patois, and had forced the explosive consonants to
submit to modifications of sound, the analogues of which appear
in the Latin and Celtic languages during their decadence many
centuries after those modifications of sound had deformed the
language of the Germans."1

" In fine the Germanic has created for itself a place apart, amongst
the other Indo-European languages, though the excessive poverty
of its conjugation, which only knows three tenses — the present tense
and two past tenses — and which has lost in particular the imperfect
or secondary present, the future, and the sigmatic aorist, and which
has not had strength to regain those losses by the aid of new com-
posite tenses, with the exception of its dental preterite. The Celtic
has preserved the three tenses which the Germanic has lost." a

The Celtic language is in a manner allied to that of Italy,
as is shown by its grammar^ and out of all the circle of Indo-
European languages the Latin comes nearest to it, and it and
the Latin possess certain grammatical characteristics in common
which are absent from the others.3 To account for these we may

1 D'Arbois de Jubainville's " Premiers Habitants de 1'Europe," book iii.
chap. iii. § 15.

2 D'Arbois de Jubainville, ibid.

3 " Some of the oldest and deepest morphological changes in Aryan
speech are those which affect the Celto-Italic language. Such are the
formation of a new passive, a new future, and a new perfect. Hence it is
believed that the Celto-Italic languages may have separated from the rest
while the other Aryan languages remained united." Taylor's " Origin of
the Aryans," p. 257. Mr. Taylor is here alluding to the passive in r and the
future in bo, but my friend, M. Georges Dottin, in his laborious and
ample volume published last year, " Les desinences en R," has shown that
the r-passives, at least, are, in Italic and Celtic, independent creations.

12 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

assume what may be called an Italo-Celtic period, prior, pro-
bably, to the establishment of the Italian races in Italy, perhaps
some twelve hundred years before Christ.

On the other hand such mutual influence as Celtic and
German have exercised upon each other is restricted merely to
the vocabularies of the languages, for when these races came in
contact with each other the two tongues had been already
completely formed, and the grammar of the one could no longer
be affected by that of the other.

That there existed a kind of Celto-Germanic civilisation is
easily proved by the number of words common to each lan-
guage which are not found in the other Indo-European tongues,
or which if they occur in them, are found bearing a different
meaning. The two peoples, the dominant Celts and the
subject Germans, obeyed the same chiefs and fought in the
same armies, and naturally a certain number of words became
common to both. It is noticeable, however, that none of the
terms relating to either gods or priests or religious ceremonies
bear in either language the slightest resemblance to one another.
It was probably this difference of religion which preserved the
conquered people from being assimilated, and which was ulti-
mately the cause of the successful uprising of the servile tribes.

The words which are common to the Germanic and the
Celtic languages belong either to the art of government,
political institutions, and law, or else to the art of war. These
d'Arbois de Jubainville divides ioto two classes — those which can
be phonetically proved to be of Celtic origin, and those which,
though almost certainly of Celtic origin, yet cannot be proved
to be so to actual demonstration. Such important German
words1 as Reich and Ami are beyond all doubt Celtic loan-

1 These loan-words " can hardly be later than the time of the Gaulish
Empire founded by Ambicatus in the sixth century B.C. We gather from
them that at this or some earlier period the culture and political organisa-
tion of the Teutons was inferior to that of the Celts, and that the Teutons
must have been subjected to Celtic rule. It would seem from the linguistic

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 13

words, as are probably such familiar vocables as Bann, fret,
Bid, Geisel, leihen, Erbey Werth* all terms relating to law and
government, imposed on or borrowed by the conquered Germans.
From the Celts come also all such words concerning war and
fighting as are common to both nations, such as Held, Heer,
Sieg, Beute. From the Celts too come names of domiciles, as
Burg, Dorf Zaun, also of localities as Land, F/ur, Furty and the
English woody and of domestic aids as Pferd, Bell, and the Anglo-
Saxon Vir (a torque). They too seem to have been the first
in Northern Europe to have practised the art of medicine, for
from the Celtic 'comes the Gothic lekels — English leech."2
Certain other domestic words, such as Eisen, Loth, and Leder,
both races have in common.

Despite the long subjection of the Germans they never lost
their language, nor were they assimilated by the conquering
race, a fate from which they were probably preserved, as we have
said, by the complete difference of their sacred customs. There is
hardly one name in all the Teutonic theogony which even faintly
resembles a Celtic one.3 Their funeral rites were different,

evidence that the Teutons got from their Celtic and Lithuanian neighbours
their first knowledge of agriculture and metals, of many weapons and
articles of food and clothing, as well as the most elementary social,
religious, and political conceptions, the words for nation, people, king, and
magistrate being, for instance, loan-words from Celtic or Lithuanian." —
Taylor's " Origin of the Aryans," p. 234.

1 Also the Gothic word magus (" a slave"), old Irish mug, or mogh, liugan
(" to swear "), Irish luigh, dulgs (a debt), Irish dualgus, &c.

a Irish liaig. The Finns again borrowed this word from the Germans.
It is the root of the name Lee, in most Irish families of that surname,
indicating that their ancestors practised leech-craft.

3 Rhys indeed compares the great Teutonic sky-god Woden with the
Welsh Gwydion and Thor with the Celtic Taranucus or Thunder-God,
and is of opinion that a good deal of Teutonic mythology was drawn from
Celtic sources — a theory which, when we consider how much the
Germans are indebted to the Celts for their culture-terms, may well be
true with regard to later mythological conceptions and mythological saga.
However, it is now generally acknowledged that while all the nations of
Aryan origin possess a common inheritance of language, any inheritance of
a common mythology, if such exist at all, must be reduced to very small

H LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the Germans burning, but the Celts burying their dead. Their
systems of priesthood were absolutely different, that of the
Celts being always an institution distinct from the kingship,
while that of the Germans was for centuries vested in the head
of the tribe or family. The priests of the Germans, even after
the functions of priesthood had been severed from those of
kingship, still exercised criminal jurisdiction, and even in the
army a soldier could not be punished without their sanction.
On the other hand the milder druids of the Celts appear
to have never taken part in the judgment of delinquents
against the State. Caesar makes no mention of their ever
acting as judges in criminal cases. The culprit guilty or
treason was not put to death by them but by the citizens —
ab civitate.*

It was about the year 300 B.C. that the German tribes, so
long incorporated with the Celts, at last rose against their
masters and broke their yoke from off their necks. They
succeeded in dislodging the Celts from the country which lies
between the Rhine and the North Sea, between the Elbe and
the basin of the Maine. It was in consequence of this blow
that the Celtic Belgae were obliged to withdraw from the
right bank of the Rhine to the left, and to occupy the country
between it, the Seine, and the Marne, whilst other tribes
settled themselves along the Rhine, and others again marched
upon Asia Minor and founded their famous colony of Galatia
in the extreme east of Europe, to whom, over three centuries
later, St. Paul addressed his epistle, and whose descendants were
found by St. Jerome in the fourth century still speaking
Celtic.^

proportions. The complete difference between the names of the Indian,
Hellenic, Italic, Teutonic, and Celtic gods is very striking.

1 " De Bello Gallico," book vii. chap. iv.

2 Which he speaks of as a mark of folly, in just the same tone as an
Anglicised Hibernian does of the Irish-speaking of the native Celts. His
words are worth quoting : — " Antiquae stultitiae usque hodie manent vesti-
gia. Unum est quod inferimus, et promissum in exordioreddimus, Galatas

WHO WERE THE CELTS? 15

It is no longer necessary to follow the fortunes of the Conti-
nental Celts, to trace the history of their Galatian colony, to
tell how they lost Spain, to recount the exploits of Marius and
Sylla, the wars of Caesar, the heroic struggle of Vercingetorix,
the division of Gaul by Octavius, the oppression of the Romans,
and finally the inroads of the barbaric hordes of Visigoths,
Burgundians, and Francs. It is sufficient to say that already
in the third century of our era Gaul had lost every trace of its
ancient Celtic organisation, and in its laws, habits, and civil
administration had become purely Roman. The upper classes
had, like the Irish upper classes of this and of the last century,
thrown aside every vestige of Gaulish nationality, and piqued
themselves upon the perfection with which they had Romanised
themselves, as the Irish upper classes do upon the thoroughness
with which they have become Anglicised. They threw aside
their Gaulish names to adopt others more consonant to Latin ears,
as the Irish are doing at this moment. Above all they prided
themselves upon speaking only the language of their conquerors,
and like so many of the Irish of to-day they derided their ancient
language as lingua rustica. It, however, banished from the
mouths of the nobles and officials, lived on in the villages and
rural parts of Gaul, as it has to this day done in Ireland, until
the sixth century, when it finally gave ground and retired into
the mountains and wastes of Armorica, where it coalesced
with the Welsh which the large colony of British brought in
with them when flying from the Saxon, and where it, in the

excepto sermone Graeco quo omnis Oriens loquitur propriam linguam
eamdem pene habere quam Treviros, nee referre si aliqua exinde corrum-
perint, cum et Aphri Phcenicum linguam nonnulla ex parte mutaverint, et
ipsa Latinitas et regionibus quotidie mutetur et tempore." His insinuation
that they spoke their own language badly is also thoroughly Anglo-
Hibernian, reminding one very much of Sir William Petty and others. See
Jerome's preface to his " Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians,"
book vii. p. 429. Migne's edition. In another passage he is more compli-
mentary, and calls them the Conquerors of the East and West — " Gallo-
graecia [i.e., Galatia] in qua consederunt Orientis Occidentisque victores."
See his " Epistle to Rusticus," book i. p. 935. Migne.

1 6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Cymraeg form of it, is still spoken by a couple of million
people.1

1 Although Celtic has so long disappeared out of France with the
exception of Armorica, it has left its traces deeply behind it upon the
French language. This is also true even of linguistic sounds. "Tous
les sons simples du francais se retrouvent dans le breton, et tous ceux
du breton a 1'exception d'un seul (le ch on le x) sont aussi dans notre
langue : I'M et \'e tres-ouvert, Ve muet si rare partout ailleurs, le j pur
inconnu a toute 1' Europe, les deux sons mouilles du n et du I (comme
dans les mots bataille et dignite) sont communs a la langue fran^aise
et aux idiomes celtiques," says Demogeot. Even in French customary
law there are " distinct and numerous traces " of old Gaulish habits and
legislation, as Laferriere has pointed out in his history of the civil law
of Rome and France. Nor is this to be in the least wondered at, when
we remember that nineteen-twentieths of the modern French blood is
computed to be that of the aboriginal races — Aquitanians, Celts, and Belgae ;
whilst out of the remaining twentieth " the descendants of the Teutonic in-
vaders— Franks, Burgundians, Goths, and Normans doubtless contributed
a more numerous element to the population than the Romans, who, though
fewer in number than any of the others, imposed their language on the
whole country " (see Taylor's " Origin of the Aryans," p. 204). The bulk
of the French nation is probably pre-Celtic. The modern Frenchman does
not at all resemble the Gallic type as described by the Greek and Roman
writers.

CHAPTER II

EARLIEST ALLUSIONS TO IRELAND FROM FOREIGN SOURCES

OF all the tribes of the Celts, and indeed of all their neigh-
bours in the west of Europe, the children of Milesius have been
at once blessed and cursed beyond their fellows, for on the
shores of their island alone did the Roman eagle check its
victorious flight, and they alone of the nations of western
Europe were neither moulded nor crushed into his own shape
by the conqueror of Gaul and Britain.

Undisturbed by the Romans, unconquered though shattered
by the Norsemen, unsubdued though sore-stricken by the
Normans, and still struggling with the Saxons, the Irish Gael
alone has preserved a record of his own past, and preserved it
in a literature of his own, for a length of time and with a con-
tinuity which outside of Greece has no parallel in Europe.

His own account of himself is that his ancestors, the Milesians,
or children of Miledh,1 came to Ireland from Spain about the
year 1000 B.C.,2 and dispossessed the Tuatha De Danann who

1 Milesius is the ordinary Latinised form of the Irish Miledh ; the real
name of Milesius was Golamh, but he was surnamed Miledh Easpain, or
the Champion of Spain. He himself never landed in Ireland.

3 1016 according to O'Flaherty, in the eighth century B.C. according to

Charles O' Conor of Belanagare, but as far back as 1700 B.C. according to

. the chronology of the " Four Masters." Nennius, the Briton who wrote in

B 17

1 8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

had come from the north of Europe, as these had previously
dispossessed their kinsmen the Firbolg, who had arrived from
Greece.

Such a suggestion, however, despite the continuity and
volume of Irish tradition which has always supported it, appears
open to more than one rationalistic objection, the chiefest
being that the voyage from Spain to Ireland would be one of
some six hundred miles, hardly to be attempted by the early
Irish barks composed of wickerwork covered with hides, fragile
crafts which could hardly hope to live through the rough waters
of the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic on a voyage from Spain,
or through the Mediterranean and the Atlantic on a voyage
from Greece.

On the other hand, if we assume that our ancestors passed
over from Gaul into Britain and thence into Ireland, we
shall find it fit in with many other facts. To begin with, the
voyage from Gaul to Britain is one of only some two and
twenty miles, and from Britain to Ireland, at its narrowest
point, is hardly twelve. The splendid physique, too, of the
Irish,1 which is now alas ! sadly degenerated through depression,

the time of Charlemagne, gives two different accounts of the landing of
the Irish, one evidently representing the British tradition, and the other
that of the Irish themselves, of which he says sic mihi peritissimi Scotornm
nunciaverunt. Both these accounts make the Irish come from Spain, the
first being that three sons of a certain Miles of Spain landed in Ireland
from Spain at the third attempt. According to what the Irish told him
they reached Ireland from Spain 1,002 years after flying from Egypt.

1 Even Giraldus Cambrensis, that most bigoted of anti-Irishmen, could
nevertheless write thus of the natives in the twelfth century. " In Ireland
man retains all his majesty. Nature alone has moulded the Irish, and as
if to show what she can do has given them countenances of exquisite
colour, and bodies of great beauty, symmetry, and strength." This testi-
mony agrees with what Caesar says of the Celts of Gaul, whose large per-
sons he compares with the short stature of the Romans, and admires their
mirifica corpora. Strabo says of a Celtic tribe, the Coritavi, " to show how
tall they are, I myself saw some of their young men at Rome, and they
were taller by six inches than any one else in the city." The Belgic Gauls
are uniformly described as tall, large-limbed, and fair, and Silius Italicus
speaks of the huge limbs and golden locks of the Boii who gave their name

ALLUSIONS FROM FOREIGN SOURCES 19

poverty, famine, and the rooting out of the best blood, but which
has struck during the course of history such numerous foreign
observers, seems certainly to connect the Irish by a family
likeness with the Gauls, as these have been described to us by
the Romans, and not with the Greeks or the swarthy, sun-
burnt Iberians. Tacitus also, writing less than a century after
Christ, tells us that the Irish in disposition, temper, and habits,
differ but little from the Britons, and we find in Britain, North
Gaul, and Germany, tribes of the same nomenclature as several
of those Irish tribes whose names are recorded by Ptolemy
about the year 150.*

On the one hand, then, we have the ancient universal Irish
traditions, backed up by all the authority of the bards, the
annalists and the shanachies, that the Milesians — who are the
ancestors of most of the present Irish — came to Ireland direct
from Spain ; and, on the other hand, we have these rationalistic
grounds for believing that Ireland was more probably peopled
from Gaul and Britain. The question cannot here be carried
further, except to remark that in an age ignorant of geography
the term Spain may have been used very loosely, and may rather
have implied some land oversea, rather than any particular
land.2

to Bavaria (Boio-varia) and to Bohemia (Boio-haims). They were probably
the ruling race in Gaul, but the type is now very rarely seen there, the
aristocratic Celts having been largely wiped out by war, as in Ireland, and
having when shorn of their power become amalgamated with the Ligurians
and other pre-Celtic peoples.

1 As the Brigantes, Menapii, and Cauci.

2 Buchanan the Scotchman (1506-81), having urged some of these
objections against the Irish tradition, is thus fairly answered by Keating,
writing in Irish, about half a century after Buchanan's death : " The first
of these reasons," says Keating (to prove that the Irish came from Gaul),
" he deduces from the fact that Gaul was formerly so populous that the
part of it called Gallia Lugdunensis would of itself furnish 300,000 fighting
men, and that it was therefore likely that it had sent forth some such
hordes to occupy Ireland,, as were the tribes of the Gauls. My answer to
that is that the author himself knew nothing of the specific time at which
the Sons of Miledh arrived in Ireland, and that he was consequently
perfectly ignorant as to whether France was populous or waste at that

20 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

If Ireland were not — thanks to her native annalists, her
autochtonous traditions and her bardic histories — to a great
extent independent of classical and foreign authors, she would
have fared badly indeed, so far as history goes, lying as she
does in so remote a corner of the world, and having been
untrodden by the foot of recording Greek or masterful
Roman. There are, however, some few allusions to the
island to be found, of which, perhaps, the earliest is the quota-
tion in Avienus, who writing about the year 380 mentions the
account of the voyage of Himilco, a Phoenician,1 to Ireland
about the year 510 B.C., who said in his account that Erin was
called "Sacra"2 by the ancients, that its people navigated the
vast sea in hide-covered barks, and that its land was populous
and fertile. In the Argonautics of the pseudo-Orpheus, which
may have been written about 500 B.C., the lernianS — that is

epoch. And even though the country were as populous as he states, when
the Sons of Miledh came to Ireland, it does not follow that we must
necessarily understand that it was the country whence they emigrated ; for
why should it be supposed to be more populous at that time than Spain,
the country they really did come from ? "

1 Aristotle, too, mentions the discovery by the Phoenicians, of an
island supposed to be Ireland, rich in forest and river and fruit, which,
however, this account would make out to have been uninhabited :
iv ry QdXaaoy ry f£o> 'HpaicXeiwv crijX&v <f>daiv VTTO Kap^j^oi/iwv vijaov
evpeQijvai tpr}\Li\v, l^ovaav vXrjv rt TravToficnrij KO.I TroTafjibvQ TrXwrouf, Kal
TOIQ XonroiQ jcapTroif Oavfiaairrjv, airk^ovaav Se. TrXeiovw rip,£.pu>v, etc.
Ireland was splendidly wooded until after the Cromwellian wars, and not
unfrequently we meet allusions in the old literature to the first clearances
in different districts, associated with the names of those who cleared them.

3 Sacra is apparently a translation of 'lepa = Eiriu, old form of Eire
now called Erin, which last is really an oblique case.

3 vrjffoiffiv 'Itpvlaiv, and vijaov 'lepviSa. The names by which Ireland
and its inhabitants were known to the writers of antiquity are very various,
as 'lovepma, 'lovipvoi, Juverna, Juberna, Iverna, Hibernia, Hibernici, Hiber-
nienses, Jouvernia, Ouepi/icr, 'lovpvia, and even Vernia and Bepv/a. St.
Patrick in his confessions calls the land Hyberione and speaks of Hibernae
Gentes and " filii Scotorum." There can be little doubt that Aristotle's
'Ispvjj, the vrjffov 'Itpvlda of the Argonautics and Diodorus' "Ipif represent
the same country. Here are Keating's remarks on it: "An t-aonmhadh
hainm deag Juvernia do reir Ptolomeus, no Juverna do reir Sholinuis, no
lerna do reir Claudianus, no Vernia do reir Eustatius ; measaim nach

ALLUSIONS FROM FOREIGN SOURCES 21

apparently the Irish — Isle is mentioned. Aristotle knew
about it too. lerne, he says, is a very large island beyond the
Celts. Strabo, writing soon after the birth of Christ, describes
its position and shape, also calling it lerne, but according to
his account — which he acknowledges, however, that he does
not make on good authority — it is barely habitable and its
people are the most utter savages and cannibals.1 Hibernia,
says Julius Caesar, is esteemed half the size of Britain and is as
distant from it as Gaul is. Diodorus, some fifty years before
Christ, calls it Iris, and says it was occupied by Britons.2
Pomponius Mela, in the first century of our era, calls Ireland
Iverna, and says that "so great was the luxuriance of grass
there as to cause the cattle to burst " ! Tacitus a little later,
about the year 82, telling us how Agricola crossed the Clyde
and posted troops in that part of the country which looked
toward Ireland, says that Hibernia " in soil and climate, in the
disposition, temper, and habits of its people, differed but little
from Britain, and that its approaches and harbours were better
known through traffic and merchants." 3

bhfuil do cheill san deifir ata idir na h-ughdaraibh sin do leith an fhocail-se
Hibernia, acht nar thuigeadar cread 6 ttainig an focal fein 7 da reir sin go
ttug gach aon fo leith amus uaidh fein air, agus is de sin thainig an
mhalairt ud ar an bhfocal." (See Haliday's " Keating," p. 119.)

1 'Igpj/?/ TTfjoi ?IQ ow^v t%o^6v Xlyeiv <ra0£f, except that the inhabitants
are avQpo>iro<f>ayoi and 7ro\u0ayoi ! TOVQ re Trarkpaq TfXtvT^aavraQ KctTea-
OIEIV tv KaXy Tidepevoi. He adds, however, TCLVTO. d'ovra) Xeyofiev wf OVK
t-XovTEQ dZioTricrrovQ /taprupaf (Book IV., ch. v.). In another passage he
shows how utterly misinformed he must have been by saying that 'lepvrj
was d9\iui£ Se Sia ^t»x°C oiKovfiivijv werre TO. iireKeiva vopi&iv doiicrjTa.
(II. 5). Elsewhere he calls the inhabitants dyptwrepoi r&v Bperavwj/.

2 T(JJV BperraixSv, TOVQ KCLTOIKOVVTCIQ TJ]V 6vop,a^onsvr}v"Ipiv.

3 " Solum ccelumque et ingenia cultusque hominum haud multum a
Britannia different ; in melius aditus portusque per commercia et nego-
ciatores cogniti." This employment of in before melius is curious, and the
passage, which Diefenbach in his Celtica malignly calls the " Lieblings-
stelle der irischen Schriftsteller," is not universally accepted as meaning
that the harbours of Ireland were better known than those of Great
Britain ; but when we consider the antiquarian evidence for ancient Irish
civilisation, and that in artistic treatment, and fineness of manufacture

22 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Ptolemy, writing about the year 150, unconsciously bears
out to some extent what Tacitus had said of Ireland's
harbours being better known than those of Britain, for he has
left behind him a more accurate account of Ireland than of
Britain, giving in all over fifty Irish names, about nine of
which have been identified, and mentioning the names of two
coast towns, seven inland towns, and seventeen tribes, some of
which, as we have said, nearly resemble the names of tribes in
Britain and North Gaul. Solinus, about A.D. 238, is the first
to tell us that Hibernia has no snakes — observe this curious
pre-Patrician evidence which robs our national saint of one of
his laurels — saying, like Pomponius Mela, that it has luxurious
pastures, and adding the curious intelligence that, " warlike
beyond the rest of her sex, the Hibernian mother places the
first morsel of food in her child's mouth with the point of the
sword." Eumenius mentions the Hibernians about the year
306 in his panegyric on Constantine, saying that until now
the Britons had been accustomed to fight only Pictish and
Hibernian enemies. In 378 Ammianus Marcellinus mentions
the Irish under the name of Scots, saying that the Scotti and
Attacotti1 commit dreadful depredations in Britain, and

Irish bronzes are fully equal to those of Great Britain, and her gold objects
infinitely more numerous and every way superior, there seems no reason
to doubt that the text of Tacitus must be translated as above, and not sub-
jected to such forced interpretations as that the harbours and approaches
of Ireland were better known than the land itself!

1 " Picti Saxonesque et Scotti et Attacotti Britannos aerumnis vexavere
continuis." These Attacotti appear to have been an Irish tribe. There is a
great deal of controversy as to who they were. St. Jerome twice mentions
them in connection with the Scots (i.e., the Irish) : Scotorum ct Atticotonim
ritu, they have their wives and children in common, as Plato recommends
in his Republic ! (Migne's edition, Book I., p. 735.) He says that he himself
saw some of them when he was young, " Ipse adolescens in Gallia viderim
Attacottos, Scotorum (one would expect Attacotorum) natio uxores proprias
non habet. The name strongly resembles Cassar's Aduatuci and Diodorus's
ArovariKoi and certainly appears to be same as the Gaelic Aitheach-Tuatha,
so well known in Irish history, a name which O'Curry translates by
" rent-paying tribes," probably of non-Milesian origin. These rose in the
first century against their Milesian masters and massacred them. If as

ALLUSIONS FROM FOREIGN SOURCES 23

Claudian a few years later speaks rather hyperbolically of the
Irish invasion of Britain ; "the Scot (/.*., the Irishman)," he
says, " moved all lerne against us, and the Ocean foamed under
his hostile oars — a Roman legion curbs the fierce Scot, through
Stilicho's care I feared not the darts of the Scots — Icy Erin
wails over the heaps of her Scots."1 The Irish expeditions
against both Gaul and Britain became more frequent towards
the end of the fourth century, and at last the unfortunate
Britons, driven to despair, and having in vain appealed to the
now disorganised Romans to aid them, sooner than stand the
fury of the Irish and Picts threw themselves into the arms of
the Saxons.2

It is towards the middle or close of the fourth century that
we come into much closer historical contact with the Irish,
and indeed we know with some certainty a good deal about
their internal history, manners, laws, language, and institutions
from that- time to the present. Of course if we can trust
Irish sources we know a great deal about them for even seven
or eight hundred years before this. The early Irish annalist,
Tighearnach,3 who died in 1088, and who had of course the

Thierry thinks the east and centre of Gaul were Gaelic speaking, they too
may have had their Aitheach-Tuatha, which may have been a general name
for certain non-Celtic tribes reduced by the Celts. According to the
Itinerarium of Ricardus Corinensis quoted by Diefenbach, Book III., there
were Attacotti along the banks of the Clyde : " Clottce ripas accolebant Atta-
cotti, gens toil aliquando Britannice formidanda"

1 " Scotorum cumulos flevit glacialis lerne" ("glacialis," of course, only
when looked at from a southern point of view. Strabo, as we have seen,
said the island was scarcely habitable from cold).

" — Totam quum Scotus lernen
Movit et infesto spumavit remige Tethys. "

It is probably mere hyperbole of Claudian to say that the Roman chased

the Irish out to sea,

" — nee falso nomine Pictos
Edomuit, Scotumque vago mucrone secutus
Fregit Hyperboreas velis audacibus undas."

3 These appear in Britain in the middle of the fifth century, in 449
according to the Saxon Chronicle, which is probably substantially correct.
3 Pronounced " Teear-nach."

24 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

records of the earliest Irish writers — so far as they had escaped
extinction by the Danes — before his eyes when he wrote, and
who quotes frequently and judiciously from Joseph us, St. Jerome,
Bede, and other authors, was of opinion, after weighing evidence
and comparing Irish with foreign writers, that the monumenta
Scotorum, or records of the Irish prior to Cimbaeth (/.*., about
300 B.C.) were uncertain. This means that from that time
forwards he at least considered that the substance of Irish
history as handed down to us might, to say the least of it, be
more or less relied upon. Cimbaeth was the founder of
Emania, the capital of Ulster, the home of the Red Branch
Knights, which flourished for 600 years and which figures so
conspicuously in the saga-cycle of Cuchulain.

What then — for we pass over for the present the colonies of
Partholan, the Tuatha De Danann, and the Nemedians,
leaving them to be dealt with among the myths — have our
native bards and annalists to say of these six or seven centuries ?
As several of the best and greatest of Irish sagas deal with
events within this period, we can — if bardic accounts, probably
first committed to writing about the sixth or seventh century
may at all be trusted — to some extent recall its leading features,
or reconstruct them.

CHAPTER III

EARLY HISTORY DRAWN FROM NATIVE SOURCES

THE allusions to Ireland and the Irish from the third century
before to the fourth century after Christ, are, as we have seen,
both few and scanty, and throw little or no light upon the
internal affairs or history of the island ; for these we must go
to native sources.

At the period when Emania was founded, that is, at the
period when according to the learned native annalist Tighear-
nach, the records of the early Irish cease to be " uncertain,"
the throne of Ireland was occupied by a High-king called
Ugony x the Great, and a certain body of saga, much of which
is now lost, collected itself around his personality, and attached
itself to his two sons, Cobhthach Caol-mBreagh and Leary2
Lore, and around Leary Lore's grandson, Lowry 3 the mariner.
It was this Ugony who attempted to substitute a new terri-
torial division of Ireland in place of the five provinces into
which it had been divided by the early Milesians. He exacted
an oath by all the elements — the usual Pagan oath — from the
men of Ireland that they would never oppose his children or
his race, and then he divided the island into twenty-five parts,

1 In Irish, lugoine. a In Irish, Laoghaire.

3 In Irish, Labhraidh Loingseach.

25

26 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

giving one to each of his children. He succeeded in this
manner in destroying the ancient division of Ireland into
provinces and in perpetuating his own, for several generations,
when Eochaidh F£idhleach x once more reverted to the ancient
system of the five provinces — Ulster, Connacht, Leinster, and
the two Munsters. This Eochaidh F&dhleach came to the
throne about 140 years before Christ, according to the "Four
Masters,"2 and it was his daughter who is the celebrated heroine
Meve,3 queen of Connacht, who reigned at Rathcroghan in
Connacht, and who undertook the great Tain Bo or Cattle
Raid into Ulster, that has been celebrated for nigh on 2,000
years in poem and annal among the children of the Gael ; and
her name introduces us to Conor 4 mac Nessa, king of Ulster,
to the palace of Emania, to the Red Branch knights, to the
tragedy of D£irdre and all the vivid associations of the Cuchu-
lain cycle.

It was thirty-three years before Christ, according to the
"Four Masters," that Conaire the Great, High-king of all
Ireland, was slain, and he is the central figure of the famous
and very ancient saga of the Bruidhean Da Derga.5

And now we come to the birth of Christ, which is thus
recorded by the " Four Masters" : " The first year of the age of
Christ and the eighth of the reign of Crimhthan Niadhnair." 6
Crimhthan was no doubt one of the marauding Scots who
plundered Britain, for it is recorded of him that " it was this
Crimhthan who went on the famous expedition beyond the sea
from which he brought home several extraordinary and costly

1 Pronounced " Yo-hy Faylach."

2 Less than 100 years before, according to Keating.

3 In Irish, Meadhbh, pronounced Meve or Maev. In Connacht it is
often strangely pronounced " MQW," rhyming with " cow." This name
dropped out of use about 150 years ago, being Anglicised into Maud.

4 In Irish, Concobar, or Conchubhair, a name of which the English
have made Conor, almost in accordance with the pronunciation.

s Pronounced " Breean Da Darga," i.e., the Mansion Da Derga.
6 Pronounced " Crivhan " or " Criffan Neeanar." Keating assigns the birth
of Christ to the twelfth year of his reign.

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 27

treasures, among which were a gilt chariot and a golden chess-
board, inlaid with three hundred transparent gems, a tunic of
various colours and embroidered with gold, a shield embossed
with pure silver," and many other valuables. Curiously
enough O'Clery's Book of Invasions contains a poem of
seventy-two lines ascribed to this king himself, in which he
describes these articles. He was fabled to have been accom-
panied on this expedition by his " bain-leannan " or fairy
sweetheart, one of an interesting race of beings of whom
frequent mention is made in Irish legend and saga.

The next event of consequence after the birth of Christ
is the celebrated revolt led by Cairbre Cinn-cait, of the
Athach-Tuatha,1 or unfree clans of Ireland, in other words the
serfs or plebeians, against the free clans or nobility, whom they
all but exterminated, three unborn children of noble line alone
escaping.2

The people of Ireland were plagued — as though by heaven
— with bad seasons and lack of fruit during the usurper
Cairbre"'s reign. As the " Four Masters " graphically put it,
"evil was the state of Ireland during his reign, fruitless her
corn, for there used to be but one grain on the stalk ; fishless

1 The Athach (otherwise Aitheach) Tuatha Dr. O' Conor translates
" giant-race," but it has probably no connection with the word \f\athach,
"a giant." O' Curry and most authorities translate it "plebeian," or "rent-
paying," and Keating expressly equates it with daor-chlanna, or "unfree
clans." These were probably largely if not entirely composed of Firbolgs
and other pre-Milesians or pre-Celtic tribes. See p. 22, note i.

2 These were Fearadach, from whom sprang all the race of Conn of
the Hundred Battles, i.e., most of the royal houses in Ulster and Connacht,
Tibride Tireach, from whom the Dal Araide, the true Ulster princes,
Magennises, etc., spring, and Corb Olum, from whom the kings of the
Eoghanachts, that is, the royal families of Munster, come. O'Mahony,
however, points out that this massacre could not have been anything like
as universal as is here stated, for the ancestors of the Leinster royal
families, of the Dal Fiatach of Ulster, the race of Conaire, that of the
Ernaans of Munster, and several tribes throughout Ireland of the races of
the Irians, Conall Cearnach, and Feargus Mac Roigh, were not involved
in it.

28 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

her rivers ; milkless her cattle ; unplenty her fruit, for there
used to be but one acorn on the oak." The belief that bad
seasons were sent as a punishment of bad rulers was a very
ancient and universal one in Ireland, and continued until very
lately. The ode which the ollav or head-bard is said to have
chanted in the ears of each newly-inaugurated prince, took
care to recall it to his mind, and may be thus translated : —

" Seven witnesses there be

Of the broken faith of kings.
First — to trample on the free,

Next — to sully sacred things,
Next — to strain the law divine,

(This defeat in battle brings).
Famine, slaughter, milkless kine,

And disease on flying wings.
These the seven-fold vivid lights

That light the perjury of kings ! " x

According to the Book of Conquests the people of
Ireland, plagued by famine and bad seasons, brought in, on the
death of Cairbre, the old reigning families again, making
Fearadach king, and the " Athach-Tuatha swore by the heaven
and earth, sun, moon, and all the elements, that they would
be obedient to them and their descendants, as long as the sea

1 " Mos erat ut omni, qui in dignitatem elevatus fuerit, philosopho-poeta
Oden caneret," etc. (See p. 10 of the " Institutio Principis " in the Trans-
actions of the Gaelic Society, 1808, for O'Flanagan's Latin.) He does not
give the original, nor have I ever met it. Consonant with this is a verse
from Tadhg Mac Daire's noble ode to Donogh O'Brien —

" Teirce, daoirse, dith ana,
Plagha, cogtha, conghala,
Diombuaidh catha, gairbh-shion, gold,
Tre ain-bhfir flatha fasoid."

I.e ., " Dearth, servitude, want of provisions, plagues, wars, conflicts, defeat
in battle, rough weather, rapine, through the falsity of a prince they
arise." I find a curious extension of this idea in a passage in the " Annals
of Loch Ce " under the year 1568, which is recorded as " a cold stormy
year of scarcity, and this is little wonder, for it was in it Mac Diarmada
(Dermot) died " !

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 29

should surround Ireland." The land recovered its tranquillity
with the reign of Fearadach. " Good was Ireland during llis
time. The seasons were right tranquil ; the earth brought
forth its fruit. Fishful its river mouths ; milkful the kine ;
heavy-headed the woods."

There was a second uprising of the Athach-Tuatha later
on,1 when they massacred their masters on Moy Bolg. The
lawful heir to the throne was yet unborn at the time of this
massacre and so escaped. This was the celebrated Tuathal
[Too-a-hal, now Toole], who ultimately succeeded to the throne
and became one of the most famous of all the pre-Patrician
kings. It was he who first established or cut out the province
of Meath. The name Meath had always existed as the ap-
pellation of a small district near which the provinces of Ulster,
Connacht, Leinster, and the two Munsters joined. Tuathal cut
off from each of the four provinces the angles adjoining it, and
out of these he constituted a new province 2 to be thenceforth the

1 There is a rather suspicious parallelism between these two risings,
which would make it appear as though part at least of the story had been
reduplicated. First Cairbre Cinn-Cait, and the Athach-Tuatha, in the year
10, slay the nobles of Ireland, but Fearadach escapes in his mother's womb.
His mother was daughter of the King of Alba. After five years of famine
Cairbre dies and Fearadach comes back and reigns. Again, in the year
56, Fiachaidh, the legitimate king, is slain by the provincial kings at the
instigation of the Athach-Tuatha, in the slaughter of Moy Bolg. His
unborn son also escapes in the womb of his mother. This mother is also
daughter of the King of Alba. Elim the usurper reigns, but God again
takes vengeance, and during the time that Elim was in the sovereignty
Ireland was " without corn, without milk, without fruit, without fish," etc.
Again, on the death of Elim the legitimate son comes to the throne, and
the seasons right themselves . Keating's account agrees with this except
that he misplaces Cairbre's reign. There probably were two uprisings of
the servile tribes against their Celtic masters, but some of the events
connected with the one may have been reduplicated by the annalists.
O'Donovan, in his fine edition of the " Four Masters," does not notice this
parallelism.

2 This would appear to have left six provinces in Ireland, but the dis-
tinction between the two Munsters became obsolete in time, though about
a century and a half later we find Cormac levying war on Munster and
demanding a double tribute from it as it was a double province ! So late

30 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

special estate, demesne, and inheritance of the High-kings of
Ireland. He built, or rebuilt, four palaces in the four quarters
of the district he had thus annexed, all of them celebrated in
after times — of which more later on. It was he also who,
under evil auspices and in an evil hour, extorted from Leinster
the first Borumha,1 or Boru tribute, — nomen infaustum — a
step which contributed so powerfully to mould upon lines
of division and misery the history of our unhappy country
from that day until the present, by estranging the province of
Leinster, throwing it into the arms of foreigners, and causing
it to put itself into opposition to the rest of Ireland. This
unhappy tribute, of which we shall hear more later on, was
imposed during the reigns of forty kings.

Thirteen years after the death of Tuathal, Cathaoir [Cau-
heer], celebrated for his Will or Testament,2 reigned ; he was
of pure Leinster blood, and the men of that province have
always felicitated themselves upon having given at least this

as the fourteenth century O'Dugan, in his poem on the kings of the line of
Eber, refers to the two provinces of Munster.

" Da thir is aille i n-Eirinn
Da chuige an Chlair leibhinn,
Tir fhoid-sheang aird-mhin na ngleann
Coigeadh i d'Aird-righ Eireann " —

i.e.y the two most beauteous lands in Ireland, the two provinces of the
delightful plain, the slender-sodded, high-smooth land of the valleys, a
province is she for the High-king of Ireland.

1 There is a town in Clare called Borumha [gen. "Boirbhe," according to
O'Brien] from which it is said Brian Boru derived his name. But the usual
belief is that he derived it from having imposed the boroimhe tribute again
on Leinster. Borumha is pronounced Bo-roo-a, hence the popular Boru[a]
Boroimhe is pronounced Bo-ruvS.. It is also said that the town of Borumha
in Clare got its name from having the Boroimhe tribute driven into it.
The spelling Boroimhe [ = Boruva] instead of Borumha [Boru-a] has been
a great crux to English speakers, and I noticed the following skit, in a little
Trinity College paper, the other day —

" Says the warrior Brian Boroimhe,
I'm blest if I know what to doimhe —

My favourite duck

In the chimney is stuck,
And the smoke will not go up the floimhe ! "

2 See " The Book of Rights," p. 172.

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 31

one great king to Ireland. It is from him that the great
Leinster families — the O'Tooles, O'Byrnes, Mac Morroughs
or Murphys, O'Conor Falys, O'Gormans, and others — descend.
He was slain, A.D. 123, by Conn of the Hundred Battles.1

There are few kings during the three hundred years pre-
ceding and following the birth of Christ more famous than this
Conn, and there is a very large body of saga collected round
him and his rival Eoghan [Owen], the king of Munster who
succeeded in wresting half the sovereignty from him. As the
result of their conflicts that part of Ireland which lies north
of the Escir Riada,2 or, roughly speaking, that lies north of a
line drawn from Dublin to Gal way, has from that day to this
been known as Conn's Half, and that south of the same line as
Owen's Half. Owen was at last slain by him of the hundred
battles at the fight of Moy Leana.

Owen, as we have seen, was never King of Ireland, but he
left behind him a famous son, Oilioll 3 Olum, who was married
to Sadhbh,4 the daughter of his rival and vanquisher, Conn of
the Hundred Battles, and it is to this stem that nearly all the
ruling families of Munster trace themselves. From his eldest

1 It was O'Beirne Crowe, I think, who first translated this name by "Conn
the Hundred- Fighter," " egal-a-cent-guerriers," as Jubainville has it, a trans-
lation which, since him, every one seems to have adopted . This translation
makes the Irish adjective ceadcathach exactly equivalent to the Greek
6Karoira/ia%oe, but it is certainly not correct, for Keating says distinctly
that Conn was called ceadcathach, or of the hundred battles, "from the
hundreds of battles which he fought against the pentarchs or provincial
kings of Ireland," quoting a verse from a bard by way of illustration.

2 Pronounced " Eskkir Reeada."

3 Pronounced "Ell-yull."

4 Pronounced " Sive,"but asMeadhbh is curiously pronounced like "Mow "
in Connacht, so is SadJibh pronounced " sow," rhyming to " cow." I heard
a Galway woman in America, the mother of Miss Conway, of the Boston
Pilot quote these lines, which she said she had often heard in her youth —

"Sow, Mow [i.e., Sive and Meve], Sorcha, Sighle,
Anmneacha cat agus madah na tire."

7.0., " Sive, Meve, Sorcha and Sheela are the names of all the cats and
dogs in the country," and hence by implication unsuited for human beings.
This was part of the process of Anglicisation.

32 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

son, Owen Mor, come the Mac Carthys, O'Sullivans, O'Keefes,
O'Callaghans, etc. ; from his second son come the Mac Namaras
and Clancys ; and from his third son, Cian,1 come the so-called
tribes of the Cianachts, the O'CarrolIs, O'Meaghers, O'Haras,
O'Garas, Caseys, the southern O'Conors, and others. There is a
considerable body of romance gathered around this Oilioll and his
sons and wife, chiefly connected with the kingship of Munster.

Conn's son, Art the Lonely — so-called because he survived
after the slaughter of his brothers — was slain by Mac Con,
Sive's son by her first husband, and the slayer ruled in his place,
being the third king of the line of the Ithians, of whom we
shall read later on, who came to the throne.

He, however, was himself killed at the instigation of Cormac,
son of Art, or Cormac mac Art, as he is usually designated.
This Cormac is a central figure of the large cycle of stories
connected with Finn and the Fenians. He was at last slain
in the battle of Moy Mochruime. His advice to a prince,
addressed to his son Cairbre of the Liffey, will be noticed later
on, andj so far as it may be genuine, bears witness to his
reputed wisdom, " as do the many other praiseworthy institutes
named from him that are still to be found among the books
of the Brehon Laws." 2 This Cormac it was who built the
first mill in Ireland, and who made a banqueting-place of the
great hall of Mi-Cuarta,3 at Tara, which was one hundred
yards long, forty-five feet high, one hundred feet broad, and
which was entered by fourteen doors. The site is still to be
seen, but no vestige of the building, which, like all early Irish
structures, was of wood.

Cairbre of the Liffey succeeded his father Cormac, and it
was he who fought the battle of Gabhra (Gowra) with the
Fenians, in which he himself was slain, but in which he broke,
and for ever, the power of that unruly body of warriors.

About the year 331 the great Ulster city and palace of

1 Pronounced " Keean." 2 Keating.

3 I.e., the hall of "the circulation of mead."

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 33

Emania, which had been the home of Conor and the Red
Branch knights, and the capital of Ulster for six hundred
years, was taken and burnt to the ground by the Three Collas,
who thus become the ancestors of a number of the tribes
of modern Ulster. From one of them descend the
Mac Mahons, the ruling family of Monaghan ; the Maguires,
barons of Fermanagh ; and the O'Hanlons, chiefs of Orior ;
while another was the ancestor of the Mac Donalds of Antrim
and the Isles, of the Mac Dugalds, and the Mac Rories. The old
nobility of Ulster, whose capital had been Emania, were thrust
aside into the north-east corner of Ulster, whence most of
them were expelled by the planters of James I.

We now come to Eochaidh [Yohee] Muigh-mheadhoin
[Mwee-va-on] who was father of the celebrated Niall of the
Nine Hostages. From one of his sons, Brian, come the Ui
[Ee] Briain, that is, the collection of families composed of
the seed of Brian — the O'Conors, kings of Connacht ; the
Mac Dermots, princes of Moylurg, afterwards of Coolavin ;
the O'Rorkes, princes of Breffny; the O'Reillys, O'Flaherties,
and Mac Donaghs. From another son of his, Fiachrach, come
the Ui Fiachrach, who were for ages the rivals of the Ui
Briain in contesting the sovereignty of Connacht — the
O'Shaughnesies were one of the principal families representing
this sept.1

Eochaidh Muigh-mheadhoin was succeeded in 3662 by
Crimhthan [Crivhan], who was one of those militant Scots at
whose hands the unhappy Britons suffered so sorely. He
u gained victories," say the annals, " and extended his sway
over Alba, Britain, and Gaul," which probably means that he
raided all three, and possibly made settlements in South-west
Britain. He was poisoned by his sister in the hope that the
sovereignty would fall to her favourite son Brian. In this,
however, she was disappointed, and it is a noticeable fact in

1 Also the O'Dowdas of Mayo, the O'Heynes, O'Clearys, and Kilkellies.

2 In 360 according to Keating.

c

34 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Irish history that none of the Ui Briain, or great Connacht
families, ever sat upon the throne of Ireland, with the excep-
tion of Turlough O'Conor, third last king of Ireland, ancestor
of the present O'Conor Don, and Roderick O'Conor, the
last of all the High-kings of the island.

Brian being set aside, Niall of the Nine Hostages ascended
the throne in 379. It was he who first assisted the Dal Riada
clans to gain supremacy over the Picts of Scotland. These
Dal Riada were descended from a grandson, on the mother's
side, of Conn of the Hundred Battles. There were two septs
of these Dal Riada, one settled in Ulster and the other in Alba
[Scotland]. It was from the conquests x achieved by the Scots
{I.e. Milesians] of Ireland that Alba was called Lesser Scotia.
In course of ages the inconvenient distinction of the countries
into Lesser and Greater Scotia died away, but the name
Scotia, or Scotland, without any qualifying adjective, clung to
the lesser country to the frightful confusion of historians,
while the greater remained known to foreigners as Erin, or
Hibernia.2 This Niall was surnamed " of the Nine Hostages,"
from his having extorted hostages from nine minor kings. He
mercilessly plundered Britain and Gaul. The Picts and Irish

1 One branch of the Dal Riada settled in Scotland in the third century,
and their kinsfolk from Ulster kept constantly crossing over and assisting
them in their struggles with the Picts. They were recruited also by some
other minor emigrations of Irish Picts and Milesians. Their complete
supremacy over the Picts was not obtained till the beginning of the sixth
century. It was about the year 502 that Fergus the Great, leading a fresh
and powerful army of the Dal Riada into Scotland, first assumed for himself
Royal authority which his descendants retained for 783 years, down to the
reign of Malcolm IV., slain in 1285. It was not, however, till about the
year 844 that the Picts, who were almost certainly a non-Aryan race, were
finally subdued by King Keneth Mac Alpin, who completely Gaelicised them.

2 The name of Scotia was used for Ireland as late as the fifteenth cen-
tury upon the Continent, in one or two instances at least, and "kommt
noch am 15 Jahrhundert in einer Unkunde des Kaisers Sigismund vor, und
der Name Schottenkloster setzt das Andenken an diese ursprungliche
Bezeichnung Irlands noch in mehreren Stadten Deutschlands (Regens-
burg, Wurtzburg, Coin, £c.), Belgien, Frankreich und der Schweiz fort "
(Rodenberg's " Insel der Heiligen." Berlin, 1860, vol. i. p. 321).

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 35

Gaels combined had at one time penetrated as far as London and
Kent, when Theodosius drove them back.1 It was probably
against Niall that Stilicho gained those successes so magnilo-
quently eulogised by Claudian, " when the Scot moved all
lerne against us and the sea foamed under his hostile
oars." Niall had eight sons, from whom the famous Ui [Ee]
Neill are all descended. One branch of these, the branch
descended from his son Owen, took the name of O'Neill in the
eleventh century, not from him of the Nine Hostages, but from
King Niall of the Black Knee, a less remote ancestor, of whom
more later on. This was the great family of the Tyrone
O'Neills. So solidly did the posterity of Niall establish itself,
and upon so firm a basis was his power perpetuated, that
almost all the following kings of Ireland were descended from
him, besides multitudes of illustrious families, " nearly three
hundred of his descendants, eminent for their learning and the
sanctity of their lives," says O'Flaherty, " have been enrolled
in the catalogue of the saints." 2 He it was who, while plun-
dering in Britain or Armorica, led back amongst other
captives the youth, then sixteen years old, who was destined,
under the title of the Holy Patrick, to revolutionise Ireland.
St. Patrick's own " Confession " and his Epistle to Coroticus

1 Bede describes the bitter complaints of the unfortunate Britons.
" Repellunt," they said, " Barbari ad mare, repellit mare ad Barbaros.
Inter hasc duo genera funerum oriuntur, aut jugulamur aut mergimur."

2 The Northern and Southern Ui Neill [i.e., the septs descended from Niall]
are so inextricably connected with all Irish history that it may be as well to
state here that four of his sons settled in Meath, and that their descendants
are called the Southern Ui Neill. The so-called Four Tribes of Tara— O'Hart,
O'Regan, O'Kelly of Bregia, and O'Conolly — with many more subsepts,
belong to them. The other four sons are the ancestors of the Northern Ui
Neill of Ulster, the O'Neills, O'Donnells, and their numerous co-relatives.
The Ui Neill remained to the last the ablest and most powerful clan in Ireland,
only rivalled — if rivalled at all — by the O'Briens of Thomond, and later by
the Geraldines, who were of Italian lineage according to most authori-
ties. " Giraldini qui amplissimos et potentissimos habeunt ditiones in Austro
et Oriente, proxime quidem ex Britannia hue venerunt, origine vero sunt
I tali nempe vetustissimi et nobilissimi Florentini sive Amerini " (Peter
Lombard, " De Regno Hibernias." Louvain, 1632, p. 4).

36 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

have come down to us — the former preserved in the Book of
Armagh, a manuscript copied by a scribe named Ferdomnach
in 807 (or 812 according to a truer chronology), apparently
from St. Patrick's own copy, for at the end of the Confession
the scribe adds this note : " Thus far the volume which Patrick
wrote with his own hand." x In this ancient manuscript (itself
only a copy of older ones so damaged as to be almost illegible 2
to the scribe who copied them in 807, a little more than three
hundred years after St. Patrick's death), we find nearly a dozen
mentions of Niall of the Nine Hostages, of his son Laeghaire
[Leary], and several more who lived before St. Patrick's arrival,
and so find ourselves for the first time upon tolerably solid
historical ground, which from this out never deserts us. St.
Columcille, the evangeliser of the Picts and the founder of
lona, was the great-great-grandson of this Niall, and the great-
grandson of Conall Gulban, so celebrated even to this day in
Irish romance and history.3

Ascertainable authenticated Irish history, then, begins with
Niall and with Patrick, but in this chapter we have gone

1 " Hucusque volumen quod Patricius manu conscripsit sua. Septima
decima martii die translatus est Patricius ad ccelos."

2 See Father Hogan's preface to his admirable edition of St. Patrick's
life from the Book of Armagh edited by him for the Bolandists, where
he says of the MS. that though beautifully coloured it is " tamen difficilis
lectu, turn quod quaedam voces aut etiam paginae plus minus injuria tem-
porum deletae sunt, turn quod ipsum exemplar unde exscriptus est jam
videtur talem injuriam passum : quod indicant rursus notae subinde ad
marginem appositae, praesertim vero signum h (vel in i.e. incerium ?) et Z
(£»/rei) quae dubitationem circa aliquot vocum scriptionem prodere
videntur." The words incertus liber hie, "the book is not clear here,"
occur twice, and the zeta of inquiry eight times. See Dr. Reeves' paper,
" Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy." August, 1891.

3 Heaven itself was believed to have reverenced this magnificent
genealogy, for in his life, in the Book of Lecan, we read how " each man
of the bishops used to grind a quern in turn, howbeit an angel from
heaven used to grind on behalf of Columcille. This was the honour which
the Lord used to render him because of the eminent nobleness of his
race " ! See Stokes' " Lives of the Saints, from the Book of Lecan,"
P- 173.

EARLY HISTORY FROM NATIVE SOURCES 37

behind it to see what may be learned from native sources —
rather traditional than historical — of Irish life and history, from
the founding of Emania three hundred years before Christ
down to the coming of St. Patrick. But for all the things
which we have recounted we have no independent external
testimony, nor have we now any manuscripts remaining of
which we could say, u We have here documentary evidence
fifteen or twenty centuries old attesting the truth of these
things." No ; we are entirely dependent for all that pre-
Patrician history upon native evidence alone, and that evidence
has come down to us chiefly but not entirely in manuscripts
copied in the twelfth and in later centuries.

CHAPTER IV

HOW FAR CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON ?

IT must next be considered what amount of reliance can be
placed upon the Irish annals and annalists, who have preserved
to us our early history. If, in those few cases where we happen
to have some credible external evidences of early events, we find
our native annalists notoriously at variance with such evidences,
our faith in them must of necessity be shaken. If, on the other
hand, we find them to coincide fairly well with these other
accounts taken from foreign sources, we shall be inclined to
place all the more reliance on their accuracy when they record
events upon which no such sidelights can be thrown.

Now, from the nature of the case, it is exceedingly difficult,
considering how isolated Ireland was while evolving her own
civilisation, and considering how little in early ages her internal
affairs clashed with those of Europe, to find any specific events
,*-. of which we have early external evidence. We can, for instance,
apart from our own annals and poems, procure no corrobora-
tive evidence of the division of Ireland between Conn and
Owen, of the destruction of Emania by the Three Collas, or of
the battle of Gabhra. But despite the silence upon Irish affairs
of ancient foreign writers, we have luckily another class of
proof of the highest possible value, brought to light by the dis-

38

CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON? 39

coveries of modern science, and powerfully strengthening the
credibility of our annals. This is nothing less than the record
of natural phenomena. If we find, on calculating backwards,
as modern science has enabled us to do, that such events as the
appearance of comets or the occurrence of eclipses are recorded
to the day and hour by the annalists, we can know with some-
thing like certainty that these phenomena were recorded at the
time of their appearance by writers who observed them, whose
writings must have been actually consulted and seen by those
later annalists, whose books we now possess. Nobody could
think of saying of natural phenomena thus accurately recorded,
as they might of mere historical narratives, that they were
handed down by tradition only, and reduced to writing for the
first time many centuries later. Now it so happens that the
Annals of Ulster, annals which treat of Ireland and Irish his-
tory from about the year 444, but of which the written copy
dates only from the fifteenth century, contain from the year
496 to 884, as many as 18 records of eclipses and comets
which agree exactly even to the day and hour with the
calculations of modern astronomers. How impossible it is
to keep such records unless written memoranda are made of
them by eye-witnesses, is shown by the fact that Bede, born
himself in 675, in recording the great solar eclipse which took
place only eleven years before his own birth is yet two days
astray in his date ; while, on the other hand, the Ulster annals
give not only the correct day but the correct hour — thus
showing that Cathal Maguire, their compiler, had access
either to the original or to a copy of the original account of an
eye-witness.1

Again, we occasionally find the early records of the two great

1 Nor is this mere conjecture ; it is fully borne out by the annals them-
selves, which actually give us their sources of information. Thus under
the year 439, we read that " Chronicon magnum (i.e., The Senchas Mor)
scriptum est "; at 467 and 468, the compiler quotes " Sic in Libro Cuanach
inveni " ; at 482, " Ut Guana scripsit " ; in 507, " Secundum librum
Mochod " ; in 628, " Sicut in libro Dubhdaleithe narratur," &c.

40 LITERARY HISTORY OP IRELAND

branches of the Celtic race, the Gaelic and the Cymric, throwing
a mutual light upon each other. There exists, for instance, an
ancient Irish saga, of which several versions have come down
to us, a saga well known in Irish literature under the
title of the Expulsion of the Desi,1 which, according to
Zimmer — than whom there can be no better authority — was,
judging from its linguistic forms, committed to writing in the
eighth century. The Desi were a tribe settled in Bregia, in
Meath, and the Annals 2 tell us that the great Cormac mac
Art defeated them in seven battles, forcing them to emigrate and
seek new homes. This composition describes their wanderings
in detail. Some of the tribe we are told migrated to Munster,
whilst another portion crossed the Irish Sea and settled down
in that part of South Wales called Dyfed, under the leadership
of one Eochaidh [Yohy], thence called " from-over-sea." There
Eochaidh with his sons and grand-children lived and died, and
propagated themselves to the time of the writer, who states
that they were then — at the time he wrote — ruled over by one
Teudor mac Regin, king of Dyfed, who was then alive, and
whose pedigree is traced in fourteen generations up to the
father of that Eochaidh who had led them over in Cormac mac
Art's time. Taking a generation as 33 years, and starting with
the year 270, about the time of the expulsion of the Desi, we
find that Teudor Mac Regin should have reigned about the
year 730, and the Irish saga must have been written at this
time, which agrees with Zimmer's reckoning, although his
computation is based on purely linguistic grounds. That school
of interpreters who decry all ancient Irish history as a mixture
of mythology and fiction, and who can see in Cormac mac
Art only a sun-god, would probably ascribe the expulsion of the
Desi and other records of a similar nature to the creative imagi-
nation of the later Irish, who, they hold, invented their genea-
logies as they did their history. But in this case it happens by
the merest accident that we have collateral evidence of these
1 " Indarba inna nDesi." 2 See " Four Masters," A.D. 265.

CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON? 41

events, for in a Welsh pedigree of Ellen, mother of Owen, son
of Howel Dda, preserved in a manuscript of the eleventh cen-
tury, this same Teudor is mentioned, and his genealogy traced
back by the Welsh scribe ; the names of eleven of his ancestors,
corresponding — except for inconsiderable orthographical differ-
ences— with those preserved in the ancient Irish text.

" When we consider," says Dr. Kuno Meyer, " that these Welsh
names passed through the hands of who knows how many Irish
scribes, one must marvel that they have preserved their forms so
well ; " and he adds, " in the light of this evidence alone, I have no
hesitation in saying that the settlement of an Irish tribe in Dyfed
during the latter half of the third century must be considered a well-
authenticated fact." *

Dr. Reeves cites another remarkable case of undesigned coin-
cidence which strongly testifies to the accuracy of the Irish
annalists. In the Antiphonary of Bangor, an ancient service
book still preserved on the Continent, we find the names of
fifteen abbots of the celebrated monastery of Bangor — at which
the heresiarch Pelagius was probably educated — and these
fifteen abbots are recorded by the same names and in the same
order as in the Annals; "and this undesigned coincidence," says
Reeves, " is the more interesting because the testimonies are
perfectly independent, the one being afforded by Irish records
which never left the kingdom, and the other by a Latin com-
position which has been a thousand years absent from the
country where it was written.'*

Another incidental proof of the accuracy of early Irish
literary records is afforded by the fact that on the few occa-
sions where the Saxon Bede, when making mention of some
Scot, /.*., Irishman, gives also the name of his father, this
name coincides with that given by the annals.

We may, then, take it, without any credulity on our part,

1 See Kuno Meyer's paper on the " Early Relations between the Gael
and Brython," read before the Hon. Society of Cymmrodorion, May 28,
1896.

42 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

that Irish history as drawn from native sources may be very
well relied upon from about the middle of the fourth century.
Beyond that date, going backwards, we have no means at our
disposal for checking its accuracy or inaccuracy, no means of
determining the truth of such events as the struggle between
Conn and Owen, between the Fenian bands and the High-
king, between Ulster under Conor and Connacht under
Meve, no means of determining the actual existence of
Conaire the Great, or of Cuchulain, or of the heroes of the
Red Branch, or of Finn mac Cumhail [Cool] and his son
Ossian and his grandson Oscar. Is there any solid ground
for treating these things as objective history ?

It has been urged that it is unphilosophic of us and was
unphilosophic of the annalist Tighearnach to fix the reign of
Cimbaeth * [Kimbae], who built Emania, the capital of
Ulster, some three hundred years before Christ, as a terminus
from which we may begin to place some confidence in Irish
accounts, seeing that the Annals carry back the list of Irish
kings with apparently equal certainty for centuries past him,
and back even to the coming of the Milesians, which took
place at the lowest computation some six or seven hundred
years before. All that can be said in answer to this, is to
point out that there must have been hundreds of documents
existing at the time when Tighearnach wrote, " the countless
hosts of the illuminated books of the men of Erin," as his con-
temporary Angus called them — records of the past which he
was able to examine and consult, but which we are not.

1 To start with Cimbaeth as Tighearnach does " is just as uncritical as
to take the whole tale of kings from the very beginning," says Dr.
Atkinson, in his preface to the Contents of the facsimile Book of Leinster ;
and he adds, " if the kings who are supposed to have lived about fifteen
centuries before Christ are mere figments, which is tolerably certain, there
is little more reason for believing in the kings who reigned after Christ
prior to the introduction of writing with Christianity (sic) into the island,"
— an unconvincing sorites! One hundred and thirty-six pagan and six
Christian kings in all reigned at Tara according to the fictions of the Bards.

CAN NATIVE SOURCES BE RELIED ON? 43

Tighearnach was a professed annalist, "a modern but cautious
chronicler," x and for his age a very well-instructed man, and
it seems evident that he would not have placed the founding
of Emania as a terminus a quo if he had not inferred rightly or
wrongly that native accounts could be fairly trusted from that
forward. It certainly creates some feeling of confidence to
find him pushing aside as uncertain and unproven the arid roll
of kings so confidently carried back for hundreds of years
before his starting-point. The historic sense was well
developed in Tighearnach, and he no doubt discredited these
far-reaching claims either because he could not find sufficiently
early documentary evidence to corroborate them, or more
likely because such accounts as he had access to, began to
contradict one another and were unable to stand any scrutiny
from this time backwards. With him it was probably largely
a question of documents. But this brings us at once to the
question, when did the Irish learn the use of letters and begin
to write, to which we shall turn our attention in a future
chapter.

1 Dr. Whitley Stokes' "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick," vol. i. p. cxxix.
" That Tighearnach had access to some library or libraries furnished with
books of every description is manifest from his numerous references ; and
the correctness of his citations from foreign authors, with whose works
we are acquainted may be taken as a surety for the genuineness of his
extracts from the writings of our own native authors now lost." For the
non-Irish portions of his annals Tighearnach used, as Stokes has shown,
St. Jerome's " Interpretatio Chronicae Eusebii Pamphili," the seven books
of the history of Paulus Orosius, " The Chronicon, or Account of the Six
Ages of the World," in Bede's Works, "The Vulgate," "The Etymolo-
garium," " Libri XX of Isodorus Hispalensis," Josephus' " Antiquities of
the Jews," probably in a Latin translation, and perhaps the lost Chronicon
of Julius Africanus.

CHAPTER V

THE PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND EARLY PANTHEON

IN investigating the very early history of Ireland we are met
with a mass of pseudo-historic narrative and myth, woven
together into an apparently homogeneous whole, and all now
posing as real history. This is backed up, and eked out, by a
most elaborate system of genealogy closely interwoven with
it, which, together with a good share of the topographical
nomenclature of the island, is there to add its entire influence
to that of historian and annalist in apparently attesting the
truth of what these latter have recorded.

If in seeking for a path through this maze we grasp the
skirt of the genealogist and follow his steps for a clue, we shall
find ourselves, in tracing into the past the ancestry of any
Milesian chief, invariably landed at the foot of some one
of four persons, three of them, Ir, Eber, Eremon,1 being sons
of that Milesius who made the Milesian conquest, and the
fourth being Lughaidh [Lewy], son of Ith, who was a
nephew of the same. On one or other of these four does the
genealogy of every chief and prince abut, so that all end
ultimately in Milesius.

Milesius' own genealogy and the wanderings of his ancestors

1 In modern times spelt Eibhear [^Evir] and Eireamhoin [^E
44

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 45

are also recounted for many generations before they land in
Ireland, but during this pre-Milesian period there are no side-
genealogies, the ancestors of Milesius himself alone are given,
traced through twenty-two apparently Gaelic names and
thirteen Hebrew ones, passing through Japhet and ending in
Adam. It is only with the landing of the three sons and
the nephew of Milesius that the ramifications of Irish genea-
logies begin, and they are backed up by the whole weight of
the Irish topographical system which is shot through and
through with places named after personages and events of the
early Milesian period, and of the period of the Tuatha De
Danann.

It will be well to give here a brief resume of the accounts of
the Milesians' wanderings before they arrived in Ireland. Briefly
then the Gaels are traced back all the way to Fenius Farsa, a
king of Scythia, who is then easily traced up to Adam. But
beginning with this Fenius Farsa we find that he started a
great school for learning languages. His son was Niul, who
also taught languages, and his son again was Gaedhal, from
whom the Gaels are so called. . This Niul went into Egypt
and married Scota, daughter of Pharaoh. This is a post-
Christian invention, which is not satisfied without bringing
Niul into contact with Aaron, whom he befriended, in return
for which Moses healed his son Gaedhal from the bite of a
serpent. Since then says an ancient verse —

" No serpent nor vile venomed thing
Can live upon the Gaelic soil,
No bard nor stranger since has found
A cold repulse from a son of Gaedhal."

Gaedhal's son was Esru, whose son was Sru, and when the
Egyptians oppressed them he and his people emigrated to
Crete. His son was Eber Scot, from whom some say the
Gaels were called Scots, but most of the Irish antiquarians
maintain that they are called Scots because they once came

46 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

from Scythia,1 to which cradle of the race Eber Scot led the
nation back again. Expelled from Scythia a couple of genera-
tions later the race plant themselves in the country of Gaeth-
luighe, where they were ruled over by one called Eber of
the White Knee. The eighth in descent from him emigrated
with four ships to Spain. His son was Breogan, who built
Brigantia. His grandson was Golamh, called Miledh Easpain,
/.*., Warrior of Spain,2 whose name has been universally, but
badly, Latinised Milesius, and it was his three sons and his
nephew who landed in Ireland and who planted there the
Milesian people. Milesius himself never put foot in Ireland,
but he seems in his own person to have epitomised the
wanderings of his race, for we find him returning to Scythia,
making his way thence into Egypt, marrying Scota, a daughter
of Pharaoh, and finally returning to Spain.

Much or all of this pre-Milesian account of the race must be
unhesitatingly set down to the influence of Christianity, and
to the invention of early Christian bards who felt a desire to
trace their kings back to Japhet.3 The native unchristianised

1 It is just as likely that, as the only name of any people known to the
early Irish antiquaries which bore some resemblance to their own was
Scythia, they said that the Scoti came from thence.

2 " The race of the warrior of Spain " continued until recent times to be
a favourite bardic synonym for the Milesians. There is a noble war ode
by one of the O'Dalys which I found preserved in the so-called " Book of
the O'Byrnes," in Trinity College Library, in which he celebrates a victory
of the O'Byrnes of Wicklow over the English about the year 1580 in
these words : —

" Sgeul tdsgmhar do rdinigfd chriochaibh Fail
Da tdinig Idn-tuile i nGaoidhiltigh (?) Chldir.
Do chloinn aird dithiosaigh Mhile Easpdin
Toisg airmioch (?), ar Idr an laoi ghil bhdin."

It is to be observed that of the four great Irish stocks the descendants of
Ith are often called the Clanna Breogain.

3 Nennius, in the time of Charlemagne, quotes the Annals of the Scots,
and the narrative of the peritissimi Scotorum as his authorities for deducing
the Scots, i.e. Irish, from a family of Scythia, who fled out of Egypt with
the children of Israel, which shows that the original narrative had
assumed this Christian form in the eighth century. In the Book of

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 47

genealogies all converge in the sons and nephew of Milesius.
The legends of their exploits and those of their successors are
the real race-heritage of the Gael, unmixed with the fanciful
Christian allusions and Hebraic adulterations of the pre-
Milesian story, which was the last to be invented.

The genuine and early combination of Irish myth and history
centres not on foreign but on Irish soil, in the accounts of the
Nemedians, the Firbolg, the Tuatha De Danann, and the early
Milesians, accounts which have been handed down to us in short
stories and more lengthy sagas, as well as in the bold brief
chronicles of the annalists. No doubt the stories of the landing
of his race on Irish soil, and the exploits of his first chieftains were
familiar in the early days to every Gael. They became, as it
were, part and parcel of his own life and being, and were pre-
served with something approaching a religious veneration. His
belief in them entered into his whole political and social system,
the holding of his tribe-lands was bound up with it, and a highly-
paid and influential class of bardic historians was subsidised
with the express purpose of propagating these traditions and
maintaining them unaltered.

Everything around him recalled to the early Gael the
traditional history of his own past. The two hills of Slieve
Luachra in Kerry he called the paps of Dana,1 and he knew
that Dana was the mother of the gods Brian, luchar, and
lucharba, the story of whose sufferings, at the hands of Lugh

Invasions — the earliest MS. of which is of the twelfth century— the Christian
invention has made considerable strides, and we start from Magog, Japhet,
and Noah, and from the Tower of Babel pass into Egypt. Nel or Niul is
called from the Plain of Senaar to the Court of Pharaoh, and marries his
daughter Scota, and their son is named Gaedhal. They have their own
exodus, and arrive in Scythia after many adventures ; thence into Spain,
where Breogan built the tower from whose top Ireland was seen. It would
seem from this that the later writer of the Book of Invasions enhanced the
simpler account which the Irish had given Nennius three or four centuries
before. Zimmer, however, thinks that Nennius quoted from a preceding
Book of Invasions now lost.
1 Da chich Danainne.

48 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the Long-handed, has in later times so often drawn tears from
its auditors. When he beheld the mighty barrows piled upon
the banks of the Boyne,1 he knew that it was over the
Dagda — an Irish Jupiter — and over his three sons 2 that they
were heaped ; and one of these, Angus of the Boyne, was, down
to the present century, reverenced as the presiding genius of the
spot. The mighty monuments of Knock Aine in Limerick,
and Knock Greine, as well as those of Knowth, Dowth, and
New Grange, were all connected with his legendary past. It
was Lugh of the Tuatha De Danann, he knew, who had first
established the great fair of Tailltin,3 to which he and his
friends went from year to year to meet each other, and contract
alliances for their grown children. The great funeral mound,
round which the games were held, was sacred to Talti, the foster-
mother of Lugh, who had there been buried, and in whose
honour the games in which he participated were held upon the
day which he called — and still calls, though he has now for-
gotten why — Lughnasa or Lugh's gathering.4 His own
country he called — and still calls — by the various names of
Eire, Fodhla [Fola], and Banba, and they, as he knew, were
three queens 5 of the Tuatha De Danann. The Gael of
Connacht knew that Moycullen, near Galway, was so named
from Uillin, a grandson of the Tuatha De Danann king
Nuada ; and Loch Corrib from Orbsen, the other name of the
sea-god Manannan, slain there by this Uillin, and each of the
provinces was studded with such memorials.

The early Milesian invaders left their names just as closely

1 Sidh an Bhrogha [Shee in Vrow-a].

2 Aengus, Aedh, and Cermad.

3 Now monstrously called Telltown by the Ordnance Survey people, as
though to make it as like an English word as possible, quite heedless of the
remonstrance of the great topographer O'Donavan, and of the fact that
they are demolishing a great national landmark.

4 Or perhaps " Lugh's Memorial." Lughnas is the 1st of August, and
the month has received its name in Irish from Lugh's gathering.

s The Irish translation of Nennius ascribed to Giolla Caoimhghin [Gilla
Keevin], who died in 1012, calls them goddesses, " tri bande Folia Banba
ocus Eire."

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 49

imprinted upon our topography as did their predecessors the
Tuatha De Danann. The great plain of Bregia in Meath was
so called from Brega, son of that Breogan who built Brigantia.
Slieve Cualann in Wicklow — now hideously and absurdly called
the Great Sugar Loaf ! — is named from Cuala, another son of
Breogan ; Slieve Bladhma, or Bloom, is called from another son
of the same ; and from yet another is named the Plain of
Muirthemni, where was fought the great battle in which fell
Cuchulain "fortissimus heros Scotorum." The south of
Munster is called Corca Luighe from Lughaidh, son of Ith,
nephew of Milesius. The harbour of Drogheda was called
Inver Colpa, from Colpa of the sword, another son of Milesius,
who was there drowned when trying to effect a landing.
The Carlingford Mountains were called Slieve Cualgni, and
a well-known mountain in Armagh Slieve Fuad, from two
more sons of Breogan of Brigantia, slain after the second
battle with the Tuatha De Danann, while they followed up
the chase. The sandhills in the west of Munster, where
Donn, the eldest son of Milesius, was shipwrecked and lost his
life — as did his whole crew consisting as is said of twenty-four
warriors, five chiefs, twelve women, four servants, eight
rowers, and fifty youths-in-training — is called Donn's House.
So vivid is this tradition even still, that we find a Munster poet
as late as the last century addressing a poem to this Donn as
the tutelary divinity of the place, and asking him to take him
into his sidh [shee] or fairy mound and become his patron.
This poem is remarkable, as showing that in popular opinion
the early Milesians shared the character of sub-gods, fairies, or
beings of supernatural power, in common with the Tuatha
De Danann themselves, for the poet treats him as still living
and reigning in state, as peer of Angus of the Boyne, and
cousin of Cliona, queen of the Munster fairies.1 Wherever he

1 It is worth while to quote some of these hitherto unpublished verses
from a copy in my possession. The author, Andrew Mac Curtin, a good
scholar and poet of Munster, knew of course perfectly well that Donn

D

50 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

turned the Gael was thus confronted with scenes from his own
past, or with customs — like the August games at Tailltin —
deliberately established to perpetuate them.

In process of time, partly perhaps through the rationalising
influences of a growing civilisation, but chiefly through the
direct action of Christianity, with which he came into active
contact in perhaps the fourth, or certainly in the fifth cen-
tury, the remembrance of the old Gaelic theogony, and the old
Gaelic deities and his religious belief in them became blunted,
and although no small quantity of matter that is purely pagan,
and an immense amount of matter, but slightly tinged with
Christianity, has been handed down to us, yet gods, heroes,

was a Milesian, yet he, embodying in his poem the popular opinion on the
subject, treats him as a god or superior being, calls him brother or cousin
of Aine and Aoife [Eefi] and " of the great son of Lear [i.e. Manannan],
who used to walk the smooth sea," and relates him to Angus Og, and Lugh
the Long-handed, says that he witnessed the tragedy of the sons of Usnach,
the feats of Finn mac Cool, and the battle of Clontarf, and treats him as
still living and powerful. The poem begins, Beannughadh doimhin duit a
Dhoinn na Ddibhchc. It goes on to say —

" Nach tu brathair Aine as Aoife
A's mic an Deaghadh do b' ard-fhlaith ar tiorthaibh,
A's moir-mhic Lir do ritheadh an mhin-mhuir
Dhoinn Chnuic-na-ndos agus Dhoinn Chnuic Firinn' ?
Nach tu gan^doirbhe do h-oileadh 'san riogh-bhrogh
Ag Aongus 6g na Boinne caoimhe,
Do bhi tu ag Lugha ad' chongnamh i gcaoinsgir [cath]
Ag claoidh Balair a dhanar 's a dhraoithe.
Do bhi tu ag maidhm anaghaidh mic Mhiledh
Ag teacht asteach thar neart na gaoithe :
'S na dhiaigh sin i gciantaibh ag Naoise ;
Do bhi tu ag Conall 'san gcosgar do bh' aoirde
Ag ceann de'n ghad de cheannaibh righteadh :
Budh thaoiseach treasa i gcathaibh Chuinn thu."

The allusion in the last line but one is to the heads that Conall Cearnach
strung upon the gad or rod, to avenge the death of Cuchulain, for which
see later on.

Curtin finally asks Donn to let him into his fairy mansion, if not as a
poet to enliven his feasts, then at least as a horse-boy to groom his horses.

" Munar bhodhar thu o throm ghuth na taoide
No mur bhfuarais bas mar chach a Dhoinn ghil," &c.

I.e., " unless thou hast grown deaf by the constant voice of the tide, or
unless, O bright Donn, thou hast died like everybody else ! "

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 51

and men have been so far brought to a common level, that it
is next to impossible at first sight to disentangle them or to say
which is which.

Very probably there was, even before the introduction of
Christianity, no sharply-defined line of demarcation drawn
between gods and heroes, that, in the words of Pindar, £v
avSpuv ev Gewv ycvoc, " one was the race of gods and men,"
and when in after times the early mythical history of Ireland
came to be committed to parchment, its historians saw in the
Irish pantheon nothing but a collection of human beings. It
is thus, no doubt, that we find the Fomorians and the Tuatha
De Danann posing as real people, whilst in reality it is more
than likely that they figured in the scheme of Gaelic mythology
as races of beneficent gods and of evil deities, or at least as
races of superhuman power.

The early Irish writers who redacted the mythical history
of the country were no doubt imbued with the spirit of the
so-called Greek " logographers," who, when collecting the
Grecian myths from the poets, desired, while not eliminating
the miraculous, yet to smooth away all startling discrepancies
and present them in a readable and, as it were, a historical
series.1 Others no doubt wished to rationalise the early myths
so far as they conveniently could, as even Herodotus shows an
inclination to do with regard to the Greek marvels ; and the
later annalists and poets of the Irish went as far as ever went
Euhemerus, reducing gods and heroes alike to the level of
common men.

We find Keating, who composed in Irish his Forus Feasa
or History, in the first half of the seventeenth century,
and who only re-writes or abbreviates what he found before
him in the ancient books of the Gaels now lost, distracted
between his desire to euhemerise — in pther words, to make
mere men of the gods and heroes — and his unflinching fidelity

1 Hellanikus, one of the best known of these, went so far as to give the
very year, and even the very day of the capture of Troy.

52 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

to his ancient texts. Thus he professes to give the names of
"the most famous and noble persons of the Tuatha De Danann,"
and amongst them he mentions " the six sons of Delbaeth, son
of Ogma, namely, Fiacadh, Ollamh, Indaei, Brian, luchar,
and lucharba" * but in another place he quotes this verse from
some of his ancient sources —

" Brian lucharba and the great luchar,
The three gods of the sacred race of Dana,
Fell at Mana on the resistless sea
By the hand of Lughaidh, son of Ethlenn."

These whom the ancient verse distinctly designates as gods,
Keating makes merely " noble persons," but at the very same
time in treating of the De Danann he interpolates amongst his
list of their notable men and women this curious sentence : 2

1 Mac Firbis, in his great MS. book of genealogies, marks the mythical
character of these personages still more clearly, for in his short chapter
on the Tuatha De Danann he describes them as of light yellow hair, etc.
[monga finbuidhe orra], and gives the names of their three Druids and
their three distributors, who were called Enough, Plenty, Filling [Sdith,
Leor, Linad] ; their three gillies, three horses, three hounds, three musicians ;
Music Sweet and Sweetstring [Ceol Bind Tetbind], and so on, all evidently
allegorical. See facsimile of the Book of Leinster, p. 30, col. 4, 1. 40, and
p. 187, col. 3, 1. 55, for the oldest form of this.

2 The following is the whole quotation from O'Mahony's Keating (for an
account of this book see below, p. 556) : " Here follows an enumeration
of the most famous and noble persons of the Tuatha Da Danann, viz.,
Eochaidh the Ollamh called the Dagda, Ogma, Alloid, Bres, and Delbaeth,
the five sons of Elathan, son of Niad, and Manannan, son of Alloid,
son of Delbaeth. The six sons of Delbaeth, son of Ogma, namely,
Fiachadh, Ollamh, Indaei, Brian, luchar, and lucharba. Aengus Aedh
Kermad and Virdir, the four sons of the Dagda. Lughaidh, son of Cian,
son of Diancecht, sons of Esary, son of Niad, son of Indaei. Gobnenn the
smith, Credni the artist, Diancecht the physician, Luchtan the mason, and
Carbni the poet, son of Tura, son of Turell. Begneo, son of Carbni, Cat-
cenn, son of Tabarn, Fiachadh, son of Delbaeth, with his son Ollamh,
Caicer and Nechtan, the two sons of Namath. Eochaidh the rough, son
of Duach Dall. Sidomel, the son of Carbri Crom, son of Elcmar, son of
Delbaeth. Eri Fodhla and Banba, the three daughters of Fiachadh, son
of Delbaeth, son of Ogma, and Ernin, daughter of Edarlamh, the mother
of these women. The following are the names of their three goddesses,
viz., Badhbh, Macha, and Morighan. Bechoil and Danaan were their two
Ban-tuathachs, or chief ladies, Brighid was their poetess. Fe and Men

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 53

" The following are the names of three of their goddesses, viz.,
Badhbh. [Bive], Macha, and Morighan." *

There are many allusions to the old Irish pantheon in
Cormac's Glossary, which is a compilation of the ninth or tenth
century explanatory of expressions which had even at that early
date become obscure or obsolete, and many of these are evidently
of pagan origin. Cormac describes Ana as mater deorum hiber-
nensium^ the mother of the Irish gods, and he adds, "Well
used she to nourish the gods, it is from her name is said * anae,'
/.*., abundance, and from her name is called the two paps of
Ana." Buanann, says Cormac, was the " nurse of heroes," as
" Anu was mother of the gods, so Buanann was mother of the
c Fiann.' " Etan was nurse of the poets. Brigit, of which
we have now made a kind of national Christian name, was in
pagan times a female poet, daughter of the Dagda. Her
divinity is evident from what Cormac says of her, namely, that
" she was a goddess whom poets worshipped, for very great
and very noble was her superintendence, therefore call they
her goddess of poets by this name, whose sisters were Brigit,
woman of smith- work, and Brigit, woman of healing, namely,
goddesses — from whose names Brigit 2 was with all Irishmen
called a goddess," *.*., the terms "Brigit" and "goddess" were
synonymous (?) The name itself he derives fancifully from
the words breo-shaighit^ "fiery arrow," as though the inspirations

were the ladies or ban-tuathachs of their two king-bards, and from them
Magh Femen in Munster has its name. Of them also was Triathri Tore,
from whom Tretherni in Munster is called. Cridinbhel, Brunni, and
Casmael were their three satirists."

1 O' Curry, who, like his great compeer O'Donovan, naturally took the
De Danann to be a real race of men, comically calls these goddesses
" three of the noble non-professional druidesses of the Tuatha De Danann."
(u M. and C.," vol. ii. p. 187). We have seen how the Irish Nennius calls
the three queens of the De Danann goddesses also.

2 The " g " of Brigit was pronounced in Old Irish so that the word rhymed
to English spiggit. In later times the " g " became aspirated and
silent, the " t " turned into " d," and the word is now pronounced
" B'reed," and in English very often <( Bride," which is an improvement
on the hideous Brid-get.

54 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of a poet pierced like fiery arrows. Diancecht Cormac calls
" the sage of the leech-craft of Ireland," but in the next line
we read that he was so called because he was " Dia na c£cht,"
i.e.y Deus salutis, or god of health. Zeuss quotes an incantation
to this god from a manuscript which is, he says, at least a
thousand years old. His daughter was Etan, an artificer, one
of whose sayings is quoted by Cormac. Neith was the god of
battle among the Irish pagans, Nemon was his wife. The
euhemerising tendency comes out strongly in Cormac's
account of Manannan, a kind of Irish Proteus and Neptune
combined, who according to him was "a renowned trader
who dwelt in the Isle of Man, he was the best pilot in the
West of Europe ; through acquaintance with the sky he knew
the quarter in which would be fair weather and foul weather,
and when each of these two seasons would change. Hence
the Scots and Britons called him a god of the sea. Thence,
too, they said he was the sea's son — Mac Lir, i.e.y son of the
sea."

Another ancient Irish gloss * alludes to the mysterious
Mor-rigan or war-goddess, of whom we shall hear more later
on ; and to Machae, another war-goddess, " of whom is said
Machae's mast-feeding," meaning thereby, u the heads of men
that have been slaughtered."

From all that we have said it clearly appears that carefully
as the Christianised Irish strove to euhemerise their pantheon,
they were unable to succeed. If, as Keating acknowledges,
Brian, luchar, and lucharba were gods, then a fortiori much
more so must have been the more famous Lugh, who compassed
their death, and the Dagda, and Angus Og. Keating himself,
in giving us a list of the famous Tuatha De Danann has
probably given us also the names of a large number of primitive
Celtic deities — not that these were at all confined to the De
Danann tribes.

It is remarkable that there is no mention of temples nor of
1 H. 2, 16, col. 119. Quoted by Stokes, " Old Irish Glossaries," p. xxxv.

'

PRE-MILESIAN FABLE AND PANTHEON 55

churches dedicated to these Irish gods, nor do we find any of
those inscriptions to them which are so common in Gaul,
Belgium, Switzerland, and even Britain, but they appear from
passages in Cormac's Glossary x to have had altars and images
dedicated to them.

We are forced, then, to come to the conclusion that the
pagan Irish once possessed a large pantheon, probably as highly
organised as that of the Scandinavians, but owing to their
earlier and completer conversion to Christianity only traces of
it now remain.

1 See the word " Hindelba " in the Glossary which is thus explained, " i.e.,
the names of the altars or of those idols from the thing which they used
to make(?) on them, namely, the delba or images of everything which
they used to worship or of the beings which they used to adore, as, for
instance, the form or figure of the sun on the altar." Again, the word
" Hidoss " is explained as coming from " the Greek f-Uog which is found in
Latin, from which the word idolum, namely, the shapes or images
[arrachta] of the idols [or elements] which the Pagans used formerly to
make."

CHAPTER VI

EVIDENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY

THE ramifications of early Irish literary history and its claims
to antiquity are so multiple, intricate, and inter-connected, that
it is difficult for any one who has not made a close study of it
to form a conception of the extent it covers and the various
districts it embraces. The early literature of Ireland is so
bound up with the early history, and the history so bound up and
associated with tribal names, memorial sites, patronymics, and
topographical nomenclature, that it presents a kind of hetero-
geneous whole, that which is recognised history running into
and resting upon suspected or often even evident myth, while
tribal patronymics and national genealogies abut upon both,
and the whole is propped and supported by legions of place-
names still there to testify, as it were, to the truth of all.

We have already glanced st some of the marks left by
the mysterious De Danann race upon our nomenclature.
Mounds, raths, and tumuli, called after them, dot all Ireland.
It is the same with the early Milesians. It is the same
with the men of the great pseudo-historic cycle of story-
telling, that of Cuchulain and the Red Branch, not to speak of
minor cycles. There is never a camping-ground of Meve's
army on their march a century B.C. from Rathcroghan in

56

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 57

Roscommon to the plain of Mochruime in Louth, and never
a skirmish fought by them that has not given its name to some
plain or camping-ground or ford. Passing from the heroes of
the Red Branch to the history of Finn mac Cool and the
Fenians, we find the same thing. Finn's seat, the Hill of the
Fenians, Diarmuid and Grainne's bed, and many other names
derived from them or incidents connected with them, are
equally widely scattered.

The question now arises, does the undoubted existence of
these place-names, many of them mentioned in the very oldest
manuscripts we have — these manuscripts being only copies of
still more ancient ones now lost — mentioned, too, in connec-
tion with the celebrated events which are there said to have
given them their names, do these and the universally received
genealogies of historic tribes which trace themselves back to
some ancestor who figured at the time when these place-names
were imposed, form credible witnesses to their substantial
truth ? In other words, are such names as Creeveroe x (Red
Branch) given to the spot where the Red Branch heroes have
been always represented as residing ; or Ardee 2 (Ferdia's Ford)
where Cuchulain fought his great single fight with that
champion — are these to be accepted as collateral evidence of the
Red Branch heroes of Ferdia and of Cuchulain ? Are See-
finn2 (Finn's seat) or Rath Coole2 (Cool's rath) to be
accepted as proving the existence of Finn and his father
Cool ?

In my opinion no stress, or very little, can be laid upon the
argument from topography, which weighed so heavily with
Keating, O'Donovan, and O'Curry, for if it is admitted at all it
proves too much. If it proves the objective existence of Finn

1 Craobh-ruadh.

2 I.e., Ath-Fhirdia, Suidhe Fhinn, Rath Chumhail. There are See-finns
or See-inns, i.e., Finn's seats in Cavan, Armagh, Down, King's County,
Galway, Mayo, Sligo, Tyrone, and perhaps elsewhere, and there are many
forts, flats, woods, rivers, bushes, and heaps, which derive their name from
the Fenians.

58 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and of Cuchulain, so does it that of Dana, " the mother of the
gods," and of divinities by the score. Besides the Gaels brought
their topographical nomenclature with them to Alba, and
places named from Finn and the Fenians, are nearly as plentiful
there as in Ireland. Wherever the early Gaels went they took
with them their heroic legends, and wherever they settled place-
names relating to their legends which were so much a part of
their intellectual life, grew up round them too. Something of
the same kind may be seen in Greece — a land which presents
so many and so striking analogies to that of the Gael ; for
wherever a Grecian colony settled, east or west, it was full of
memorials of the legendary past, and Jasonia, or temples of
Jason, and other memorials of the voyage of the Argonauts, are
to be found from Abdera to Thrace, eastward along the coast
of the Euxine and in the heart of Armenia and Media, just as
memorials of the flight of Diarmuid and of Grainne from
before Finn mac Cool may be found wherever the Gael are
settled in Ireland, in Scotland, or the Isles.

Having come to the conclusion that Irish topography is
useless for proving the genuineness of past history, let us look
at Irish genealogy. When the Mac Carthys, descendants of
Mac Carthy Mor, trace themselves through Oilioll Olum, king
of Ireland in the second century, to Eber Finn, son of Milesius ;
when the O'Briens of Thomond trace themselves to the same
through Oilioll Olum's second son ; when the O'Carrolls of Ely
trace themselves to the same through Cian, the third son ; when
the O'Neills trace themselves back through Niall of the Nine
Hostages, and Conn of the Hundred Battles to Eremon, son of
Milesius ; when the O'Driscolls trace themselves to Ith, who
was uncle of Milesius ; when the Magennises trace themselves
through Conall Cearnach, the Red Branch hero, back to Ir,
the son of Milesius ; and when every sept and name and family
and clan in Ireland fit in, and even in our oldest manuscripts
have always fitted in, each in its own place, with universally
mutual acknowledgment and unanimity, each man carefully

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 59

counting his ancestors through their hundredfold ramifications,
and tracing them back first to him from whom they get their
surname, and next to him from whom they get their tribe
name, and from thence to the founder of their house, who in
his turn grafts on to one of the great stems (Eremonian, Eberian,
Irian, or Ithian)1 ; and when not only political friendships and
alliances, but the very holding of tribal lands, depended upon
the strict registration and observance of these things — we ask
again do such facts throw any light upon the credibility of
early Irish history and early Irish records ?

The whole intricate system of Irish genealogy, jealously
preserved from the very first, as all Irish literature goes to
show,2 played so important a part in Irish national history and
in Irish social life, and is at the same time so intimately bound
up with the people's traditions and literature, and throws so
much light upon the past, that it will be well to try to get a
grip of this curious and intricate subject, so important for all
who would attempt to arrive at any knowledge of the life and
feelings of the Irish and Scottish Gael, and upon which so
much formerly depended in the history and alliances of both
races.

All Milesian families trace themselves, as I have said, to one or
other of the three sons of Milesius, who were Eremon, Eber, and
Ir, or to his uncle Ith, who landed in Ireland at any time between

1 As the various Teutonic races of Germany traced themselves up to one
of the three main stems, Ingasvones, Iscsevones, and Herminones, who
sprang from the sons of Mannus, whose father was the god Tuisco.

2 A large part of the Books of Leinster, Ballymote, and Lecan, is occu-
pied with these genealogies, continued up to date in each book. The MSS.
H. 3. 18 and H. 2. 4 in Trinity College, Dublin, are great genealogical
compilations. Well-known works were the Book of the genealogies of the
Eugenians, the Book of Meath, the Book of the Connellians (i.e., of Tir-
connell), the genealogy of Brian, son of Eochaidh's descendants (see above,
p. 33), the Book of Oriel,, the Genealogies of the descendants of the Three
Collas (see above, p. 33) in Erin and Scotland, the Book of the Maineach
(men of O' Kelly's country), the Leinster Book of Genealogies, the Ulster
Book, the Munster Book, and others.

60 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

1700 and 800 years before Christ according to Irish computa-
tion.1 But while they all trace themselves back to this point,
it is to be observed that long before they reach it, in each of
the four branches, some place in the long row of ancestors is
arrived at, some name occurs, in which all or most of the
various genealogies meet, and upon which all the branch lines
converge. Thus in the Eberian families it is found that they
all spring from the three sons of Oilioll [Ul-yul] Olum, who
according to all the annals lived in the second century — in this
Oilioll all the Eberian families converge.

Again all, or nearly all, the Irians trace themselves to either
Conall Cearnach or Fergus Mac Roy, the great Red Branch
champions who lived in the North shortly before the birth of
Christ.

The tribes of the Ithians, the least numerous and least im-
portant of the four, seem to meet in Mac Con, king of Ireland,
who lived in the second century, and who is the hero of the
saga called the Battle of Moy Mochruime, where Art, son of
Conn of the Hundred Battles, was slain.

In the line of Eremon only, the greatest of the four, do we
find two pedigrees which meet at points considerably antecedent
to the birth of Christ, for the Dal Riada of Scotland join the
same stem as the O'Neills as much as 390 years before Christ,
and the O'Cavanaghs at a still more remote period, in the reign
of Ugony M6r. But setting aside these two families we find
that all the other great reigning houses, as the Mac Donnells of
Antrim, Maguires^of Fermanagh, O'Kellys of Connacht, and
others, either meet in the third century in Cairbre of the Liffey,
son of King Cormac mac Art, and grandson of Conn of the
Hundred Battles ; or else like the O'Neills of Tyrone,
O'Donnells of Tirconnell, O'Dogherties of Inishowen,
O'Conors of Connacht, O'Flaherties of Galway, they meet in
a still later progenitor — the father of Niall of the Nine
Hostages.

1 See above, p. 17, note 2.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 61

It will be best to examine here some typical Irish pedigree
that we may more readily understand the system in its simplest
form, and see how families branch from clans, and clans from
stems. Let us take, then, the first pedigree of those given at
the end of the Forus Feasa, that of Mac Carthy Mor, and
study it as a type.

This pedigree begins with Donal, who was the first of the
Mac Carthys to be created Earl of Clancare, or Clancarthy, in
1565. Starting from him the names of all his ancestors are
traced back to Eber, son of Milesius. Passing over his five
immediate ancestors, we come to the sixth. It was he who
built the monastery of Irriallach on the Lake of Killarney.
The seventh ancestor was Donal, from whose brother Donagh
come the families of Ard Canachta and Croc Ornachta. The
tenth was Donal Roe, from whom come the Clan Donal Roe,
and from whose brother, Dermot of Tralee, come the family
of Mac Finneens. The eleventh was Cormac Finn, from
whom come also the Mac Carthys of Duhallow and the kings
of Desmond ; while from his brother Donal come the Mac
Carthys Riabhach, or Grey Mac Carthys. The thirteenth was
Dermot of Kill Baghani, from whom come the Clan Teig Roe
na Sgarti. The fourteenth was Cormac of Moy Tamhnaigh,
from whose brother Teig come the Mac Auliffes of Cork.
The fifteenth was Muireadach, who was the first of the line to
assume the surname of Mac Carthy, which he did from his father
Carthach, from whom all the Siol Carthaigh [Sheeol Caurhy],
or Seed of Carthach, including the Mac Fineens, Mac Auliffes,
etc., are descended. The seventeenth was Saerbhrethach, from
whose brother Murrough spring the sept of the O'Callaghans.
The nineteenth was Callaghan of Cashel, king of Munster, cele-
brated in Irish romance for his warfare with the Danes. The
twenty-third was Snedgus, who had a brother named Fogartach,
from whose son Finguini sprang the Muinntir Finguini, or
Finguini's People. The twenty-eighth was Falbi Flann, who
was king of Munster from 622 to 633, from whose brother

62 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Finghin sprang the sept of the O'Sullivans. The thirty-second
was Angus, from one son of whom Eochaidh [Yohy] Finn are
descended the O'Keefes ; while from another son Enna, spring
the O'Dalys of Munster — he was the first king of Munster
who became a Christian, and he was slain in 484. The thirty-
fourth was Arc, king of Munster, from whose son Cas, spring
the following septs : The O'Donoghue Mor — from whom,
branched off the O'Donoghue of the Glen — O'Mahony Finn
and O'Mahony Roe, i.e.y the White and Red O'Mahonys, and
O'Mahony of Ui Floinn Laei, and O'Mahony of Carbery, also
O'Mullane * and O'Cronin ; while from his other son, " Cairbre
the Pict," sprang the O'Moriarties, and from Cairbre's grand-
son came the O'Garvans. The thirty-sixth ancestor was Olild
Flann Beg, king of Munster, who had a son from whom are
descended the sept of O'Donovan, and the O'Coileains, or
Collinses. And a grandson from whom spring the O'Meehans,
O'Hehirs, and the Mac Davids of Thomond. The thirty-
seventh, Fiachaidh, was well known in Irish romance ; the
thirty-eighth was Eoghan, or Owen Mor, from whom all the
septs of the Eoghanachts, or Eugenians of Munster come, who
embrace every family and sept hitherto mentioned, and many
more. They are carefully to be distinguished from the Dal-
cassians, who are descended from Owen's second son Cas. It
was the Dalcassians who, with Brian Boru at their head, pre-
served Ireland from the Danes and won Clontarf. For many
centuries the history of Munster is largely composed of the
struggles between these two septs for the kingship. The thirty-
ninth is the celebrated Oilioll [Ulyul] Olum, king of Mun-
ster, whose wail of grief over his son Owen is a stock piece in
Irish MSS. He is a son of the great Owen, better known as
Mogh Nuadhat, or Owen the Splendid, who wrested half the

1 The great Daniel O'Connell's mother belonged to this sept of the
O'Mullanes, and the so-called typical Hibernian physiognomy of the
Liberator was derived from her people, whom he nearly resembled, and
not from the O'Connells.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 63

kingdom from Conn of the Hundred Battles, so that to this
very day Connacht and Ulster together are called in Irish
Conn's Half, and Munster and Leinster Owen's Half. The
forty-third ancestor is Dergthini, who is known in Irish history
as one of the three heirs of the royal houses in Ireland, whom
I have mentioned before as having been saved from massacre
when the Free Clans or Nobility were cut to pieces by the
Unfree or Rent-paying tribes at Moy Cro — an event which is
nearly contemporaneous with the birth of Christ. Hitherto
there have been nine kings of Munster in this line, but not a
single king of Ireland, but the forty-ninth ancestor, Duach
Dalta Degadh, also called Duach Donn, attains this high
honour, and takes his place among the Reges Hiberniae about
1 72 years before Christ, according to the " Four Masters." After
this a rather bald catalogue of thirty-six more ancestors are
reckoned, no fewer than twenty-four being counted among the
kings of Ireland, and at last, at the eighty-sixth ancestor from
the Earl of Clancarthy, the genealogy finds its long-delayed
goal in Eber, son of Milesius.

It will be seen from this typical pedigree of the Mac Carthys
— any other great family would have answered our purpose just
as well — how families spring from clans and clans from septs — to
use an English word — and septs from a common stem ; and how
the nearness or remoteness of some common ancestor bound a
number of clans in nearer or remoter alliance to one another.
Thus all septs of the great Eberian stem had some slight and
faint tie of common ancestry connecting them, which comes
out most strongly in their jealousy of the Eremonian or northern
stem, but was not sufficient to produce a political alliance
amongst themselves. Of a much stronger nature was the tie
which bound those families descended from Eoghan Mor, the
thirty-eighth ancestor from the first earl. These went under the
name of the Eoghanachts, and held fairly together, always
opposing the Dalcassians, descended from Cas. But when it
came to the adoption of a surname, as it did in the eleventh

64 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

century, those who descended from the ancestor who gave them
their name, were bound to one another by the common ties or
a nearer kinship and a common surname.

It will be seen at a glance from the above pedigree, how,
taking the Mac Carthys as a stem, and starting from the first
earl, the Mac Finneens join that stem at the eleventh ancestor
from the earl, the Mac Auliffes at the fifteenth, the O'Calla-
ghans at the eighteenth, the O'Sullivans at the twenty-ninth,
the O'Keefes at the thirty-second, the O'Dalys x of Munster
at the thirty-second, the O'Donoghues, O'Mahonys,
O'Mullanes, O'Cronins, O'Garvans, and Moriartys at the
thirty-fourth, the O'Donovans, Collinses, O'Meehans,
O'Hehirs, and Mac Davids at the thirty-sixth.

Now each of these had his own genealogy equally carefully
kept by his own ancestral bardic historian. If, for instance,
the Mac Carthys could boast of nine kings of Munster amongst
them, the O'Keefes could boast of ten ; and an O'Keefe
reckoning from Donal Og, who was slain at the battle of
Aughrim, would say that the Mac Carthys joined his line at
the thirty-sixth ancestor from Donal.

All the Gaels of Ireland of the free tribes trace back their
ancestry, as we have seen, to one or other of the four great
stocks of Erimon, Eber, Ir, and Ith. Of these the ERE-
MONIANS were by far the greatest, the EBERIANS coming next.
The O'Neills, O'Donnells, O'Conors, O'Cavanaghs, and
almost all the leading families of the north, the west, and the
east were Erimonian ; the O'Briens, Mac Carthys, and most
of the leading tribes of the south were Eberians.2 It was

1 Not to be confounded with the Siol nDalaigh, who were the great
northern family of the O'Donnells, who had also an ancestor called Dalach,
from whom they derived, not their surname, but their race-patronymic.

2 Strange to say Daniel O'Connell was not an Eberian but an Erimonian.
The history of his tribe is very curious. It was descended from the cele-
brated Ernaan, or Degadian tribe to which the hero Curigh Mac Daire slain
by Cuchulain belonged, who trace their genealogy back to Aengus
Tuirmeach, High-king of Ireland about 388 B.C. These tribes were of
Erimonian descent, but settled in the south. They were quite conquered

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 65

nearly always a member of one or the other of these two stems
who held the high-kingship of Ireland, but so much more
powerful were the Eremonians within historical times, that the
Southern Eberians, although well able to maintain themselves
in the south, yet found themselves absolutely unable to place
more than one or two r high-kings upon the throne of All-
Ireland, from the coming of Patrick, until the great Brian Boru
once more broke the spell and wrested the monarchy from the
Erimonians. The Irians gave few kings to Ireland, and the
Ithians still less — only three or four, and these in very early,
perhaps mythic, times.

If now we trace the O'Neill pedigree back as we did that of
the Mac Carthys, we find the great Shane O'Neill who fought
Elizabeth, traced back step by step to the perfectly historical
character Niall of the Nine Hostages, son of Eochaidh
Muigh-mheadhoin [Mwee-va-on], who was grandson of
Fiachaidh Sreabhtine [Sravtinna], son of Cairbre of the Liffey,
son of the great Cormac Mac Art, and grandson or Conn of the
Hundred Battles, all of whom are celebrated in history and end-
less romance ; and thence through a list containing in all forty-
four High-kings of Ireland back to EREMON, son of Milesius,
brother of that Eber from whom the Mac Carthys spring, and
from whom he is the eighty-eighth in descent. The O'Donnells
join his line at the thirty-sixth ancestor, the O'Gallaghers at
the thirty-second, the O'Conor Don and O'Conor Roe and the
O'Flaherty at the thirty-seventh. We find too, on examining
these pedigrees, the most curious inter-mixtures and crossing
of families. Thus, for instance, the two families of O'Crowley

by the descendants of Oilioll Olum — i.e., the Eberians, who owned nearly
all the south — yet they continued to exist in the extreme west of Munster.
The O'Connells, from whom came Daniel O'Connell, the O'Falveys and
the O' Sheas were their chief families, but none of them were powerful.

1 The Munster annals of Innisfallen themselves claim only five, but the
claims of some of them are untenable. Moore will not admit that any
Eberian was monarch of Ireland from the coming of St. Patrick to the
" usurpation " of Brian Boru.

E

66 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

in Minister spring from the Mac Dermot Roe of Connacht,
who, with the Mac Donogh, sprang from Mac Dermot of
Moylurg in Roscommon, ancestor of the prince of Coolavin ;
while the O'Gara, former lord of Coolavin in the same county,
to whom the " Four Masters " dedicated their annals, was of
southern Eberian stock.

The great warriors of the Red Branch, the men of the
original kingdom of Uladh [Ulla, /.*., Ulster], were of the
third great stock, the IRIANS or race of Ir,1 but they are
perhaps better known as the Clanna Rudhraighe [Rury] or
Rudricians, so named from Rudhraighe, a great monarch of
Ireland who lived nearly three hundred years before Christ, or
as Ulidians because they represented the ancient province of
Uladh. But the Three Collas, grandsons of Cairbre of the
Liffey, who was himself great-grandson of Conn of the Hundred
Battles, and of course of the Eremonian stock, overthrew the
Irians in the year 332, and burned their capital, Emania. The
Irians were thus driven out by the Eremonians, and forced back
into the present counties of Down and Antrim, where they
continued to maintain their independence. So bitterly, how-
ever, did they resent the treatment they had received at the
hands of the Eremonians, and so deeply did the burning of
Emania continue to rankle in their hearts, that after a period of
nearly 900 years they are said to have stood sullenly aloof from
the other Irish, and to have refused to make common cause
with them against the Normans at the battle of Downpatrick
in 1260, where the prince of the O'Neills was slain.2 So
powerful, on the other hand, did the idea of race-connection
remain, that we find one of the bards so late as the sixteenth

* Their greatest families were in later times the Magennises, now Guin-
nesses, O'Mores, O'Farrells, and O'Connor Kerrys, with their correlatives.

2 O'Donovan says that Brian O'Neill was not assisted by any of the
Ulidians at this battle, but of course they had more recent wrongs than the
burning of Emania to complain of, for battles between them and the
invading Eremonian tribes continued for long to be recorded in the
annals. See p. 180, " Miscellany of the Celtic Society."

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 67

century urging a political combination and alliance between
the descendants of the Three Collas who had burned E mania
over twelve hundred years before, and who were then repre-
sented by the Maguires of Fermanagh, the Mac Mahons of
Oriel x and the far-off O'Kellys of Ui Maine2 [Ee maana].

As for the fourth great stock, the ITHIANS,S they were
gradually pushed aside by the Eberians of the south, as the
Irians had been by the Eremonians of the north, and driven
into the islands and coasts of West Munster. Yet curiously
enough the northern Dukes of Argyle and the Campbells and
MacAllans of Scotland spring from them. Their chief tribes
in Ireland were known as the Corca Laidhi [Corka-lee] ; these
were the pirate O'Driscolls and their correlatives, but they
were pushed so hard by the Mac Carthys, O'Mahonys, and
other Eberians, that in the year 1615 their territory was con-
fined to a few parishes, and twenty years later even these are
found paying tribute to the Mac Carthy Reagh. There is one
very remarkable peculiarity about their genealogies, which is,
that, though they trace themselves with great apparent, and no
doubt real, accuracy back to Mac Con, monarch of Ireland and
contemporary with Oilioll Olum in the end of the second
century, yet from that point back to Milesius a great number
of generations (some twenty or so) are missing, and no genea-
logist, so far as I know, in any of the books of pedigrees which
I have consulted, has attempted to supply them by rilling them
up with a barren list of names, as has been done in the other
three stems.4

1 I.e. Monaghan. 2 Parts of the counties Galway and Roscommon.

3 In later times their chief families were the O'Driscolls, the Clancys
[Mac Fhlanchadhas] of the county Leitrim, the Mac Allans of Scotland, the
Coffeys and the O'Learys of Roscarberry, etc. They were commonly
called the Clanna Breogain, or Irish Brigantes, from Breogan, father of Ith.

* From Mac Con, son of Maicniad, king of Ireland, to the end of the
second century, Mac Firbis's great book of genealogies only reckons twelve
generations of Breogan, but in the smaller handwriting at the foot of the
page twenty-two generations are counted up. See under the heading, " Do
genealach Dairfhine agus shil Luighdheach mic lotha Mac Breoghain," at
p. 670 of O'Curry's MS. transcript. Michael O'Clery's great book of

68 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Let us now consider how far these genealogies tend to
establish the authenticity of our early history, saga, and litera-
ture. The first plain and obvious objection to them is this —
that genealogies which trace themselves back to Adam must
be untrue inventions.

We grant it.

But all Gaelic genealogies meet, as we have shown in
Milesius or his uncle, Ith. Strike off all that long tale or
pre-Milesian names connecting him with Adam, and count
them as a late excrescence — a mixture of pagan myth and
Christian invention added to the rest for show. This leaves
us only the four stems to deal with.

The next objection is that pedigrees which trace themselves
back to the landing of the Milesians — a date in the computation
of which Irish annalists themselves differ by a few hundred
years — must also be untrue, especially as their own annalist,
Tighearnach, has expressly said that all their history prior
to about 300 B.C. is uncertain.

We grant this also.

What, then, remains ?

This remains — namely the points in each of the four great
race stems, in which all or the most of the leading tribes and
families belonging to that stem converge, and, as we have seen,
all of these with a few exceptions take place within reach of
the historical period. In the lines of EBER and of ITH, this
point is at the close of the second century ; in the race of IR
it is about the time of Christ's birth,1 and in the fourth and

genealogies counts twenty-three generations from Maic Niad to Ith, both
included, see p. 223 of O'Clery's MS. Keating's pedigree, as given in
the body of his history, gives twenty-three generations also, but only
seventeen in the special genealogy attached to it. There are no such
curious discrepancies in the other three stems. I can only account for it
by the impoverished and oppressed condition of the Ithians, which in later
times may have made them lose their records .

1 The chief exceptions being, as we have seen, the Scottish Dal Riada
and the Leinster O'Cavanaghs, who do not join the Eremonian line, one
till the fourth and the other till the seventh century before Christ.

TOPOGRAPHY AND GENEALOGY 69

perhaps most important stem, that of EREMON, the two main
points of convergence are in the historical Niall of the Nine
Hostages, who came to the throne in 356, and in Cairbr6 of
the Liffey, who became High-king in 267. x

1 Conall Cearnach, from whom, along with his friend Fergus mac Roigh
or Roy, the Irians claim descent, was first cousin of Cuchulain, and
Tighearnach records Cuchulain's death as occurring in the second year
after the birth of Christ, the " Chronicon Scotorum " having this curious
entry at the year 432, " a morte Concculaind herois usque ad hunc annum
431, a morte Concupair [Conor] mic Nessa 412 anni sunt." It is worth
noting that none of the Gaelic families trace their pedigree, so far as I
know, to either Cuchulain himself, or to his over-lord, King Conor mac
Nessa. Cuchulain was himself not of Ithian but of Eremonian blood,
although so closely connected with Emania, the Red Branch, and the
Clanna Rury. If Irish pedigrees had been like modern ones for sale, or
could in any way have been tampered with, every one would have pre-
ferred Cuchulain for an ancestor. That no one has got him is a strong
presumption in favour of the genuineness of Irish genealogies.

CHAPTER VH

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE

WE must now consider whether Irish genealogies were really
traced or not to those points which I have mentioned. Is
there any documentary evidence in support of such an asser-
tion ?

There is certainly some such evidence, and we shall proceed
to examine it.

In the Leabhar na h-Uidhre [Lowar na Heera], or Book of
the Dun Cow, the existing manuscript of which was trans-
cribed about the year 1 100, in the Book of Leinster, transcribed
about fifty years later, in the Book of Ballymote and in the
Book of Lecan, frequent reference is made to an ancient book
now lost called the Cin or Codex of Drom-sneachta. This
book, or a copy of it, existed down to the beginning of the
seventeenth century, for Keating quotes from it in his history,
and remarks at the same time, " and it was before the coming
of Patrick to Ireland the author of that book existed." r This
evidence of Keating might be brushed aside as an exaggeration
did it stand alone, but it does not, for in a partially effaced
memorandum in the Book of Leinster, transcribed from older
books about the year 1150, we read: " [Ernin, son of]

1 See Haliday's " Keating," p. 215.
70

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE 71

Duach,1 son of the king of Connacht, an ollav and a
prophet and a professor in history and a professor in wisdom ;
it was he that collected the genealogies and histories of the
men of Erin into one, and that is the Cin Droma-sneachta."
Now there were only two Duachs according to our annals,
one of these was great-grandson of Niall of the Nine Hostages,
and of course a pagan, who died in 379 ; the other, who was
an ancestor of the O 'Flaherties, died one hundred and twenty
years later. It was Duach the pagan, whose second son was
Ernin ; the other had only one son, whose name was Senach.
If O'Curry has read the half-effaced word correctly, then the
book may have been, as Keating says it was, written before
St. Patrick's coming, and it contained, as the various references
to it show, a repertoire of genealogies collected by the son of a
man who died in 379 ; this man, too, being great-grandson of
that Niall of the Nine Hostages in whose son so large a
number of the Eremonian genealogies converge.2

There are many considerations which lead me to believe
that Irish genealogical books were kept from the earliest intro-
duction of the art of writing, and kept with greater accuracy,
perhaps, than any other records of the past whatsoever. The
chiefest of these is the well-known fact that, under the tribal
system, no one possessed lawfully any portion of the soil in-
habited by his tribe if he were not of the same race with his
chief. Consequently even those of lowest rank in the tribe
traced and recorded their pedigree with as much care as did
the highest, for " it was from his own genealogy each man of
the tribe, poor as well as rich, held the charter of his civil
state, his right of property in the cantred in which he was

1 See p. 15 of O'Curry's MS. Materials. There was some doubt in
his mind about the words in brackets, but as the sheets of his book were
passing through the press he took out the MS. for another look on a par-
ticularly bright day, the result of which left him no doubt that he had read
the name correctly.

2 For 'a typical citation of this book see p. 28 of O'Donovan's " Genealogy
of the Corca Laidh," in the " Miscellany of the Celtic Society."

72 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

born." * All these genealogies were entered in the local books
of each tribe and were preserved in the verses of the hereditary
poets. There was no incentive to action among the early
Irish so stimulative as a remembrance of their pedigree. It
was the same among the Welsh, and probably among all tribes
of Celtic blood. We find the witty but unscrupulous Giraldus,
in the twelfth century, saying of his Welsh countrymen that
every one of them, even of the common people, observes the
genealogy of his race, and not only knows by heart his grand-
fathers and great-grandfathers, but knows all his ancestors
up to the sixth or seventh generation,2 or even still further,
and promptly repeats his genealogy as Rhys, son of Griffith,
son of Rhys, son of Teudor, etc.3

The poet, Cuan O'Lochain, who died in the year 1024,
gives a long account of the Saltair of Tara now lost, the com-
pilation of which he ascribes to Cormac mac Art, who came
to the throne in 227,4 and in which he says the synchronisms
and chronology of all the kings were written. The Book of
Ballymote too quotes from an ancient book, now lost, called
the Book of the Uachongbhail, to the effect that " the syn-
chronisms and genealogies and succession of their kings and
monarchs, their battles, their contests, and their antiquities

1 See " Celtic Miscellany," p. 144, O'Donovan's tract on Corca Laidb.

2 " Generositatem vero et generis nobilitatem prae rebus omnibus magis
appetunt. Unde et generosa conjugia plus longe capiunt quam sumptuosa
vel opima. Genealogiam quoque generis sui etiam de populo quilibet
observat, et .non solum, avos, atavos, sed usque ad sextam vel septimam et
ultra procul generationem, memoriter et prompte genus enarrat in hunc
modum Resus filius Griffini filii Resi filii Theodori, filii Aeneae, filii Hoeli
filii Cadelli filii Roderici magni et sic deinceps.

"Genus itaque super omnia diligunt, et darana sanguinis atque dedecoris
ulciscuntur. Vindicis enim animi sunt et irae cruentse nee solum novas
et recentes injurias verum etiam veteres et antiquas velut instanter vindicare
parati " (" Cambrise Descriptio," Cap. XVII.).

3 O'Donovan says — I forget where — that he had tested in every part of
Ireland how far the popular memory could carry back its ancestors, and
found that it did not reach beyond the seventh generation.

* According to the " Four Masters " ; in 213, according to Keating.

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE 73

from the world's beginning down to that time were written in
it, and this is the Saltair of Tara, which is the origin and
fountain of the historians of Erin from that period down to
this time." This may not be convincing proof that Cormac
mac Art wrote the Saltair, but it is convincing proof that
what were counted as the very earliest books were filled with
genealogies.

The subject of tribal genealogy upon which the whole
social fabric depended was far too important to be left without
a check in the hands of tribal historians, however well-
iritentioned. And this check was afforded by the great
convention or Feis, which took place triennially at Tara,1
whither the historians had to bring their books that under
the scrutiny of the jealous eyes of rivals they might be purged
of whatever could not be substantiated, " and neither law nor
usage nor historic record was ever held as genuine until it had
received such approval, and nothing that disagreed with the
Roll of Tara could be respected as truth."2

" It was," says Duald Mac FirbisS — himself the author of
probably the greatest book of genealogies ever written, speak-
ing about the chief tribal historians of Ireland, " obligatory on
every one of them who followed it to purify the profession " ;
and he adds very significantly, " Along with these [historians]
the judges of Banba [Ireland] used to be in like manner pre-
serving the history, for a man could not be a judge without being
a historian^ and he is not a historian who is not a judge in the
BRETHADH NiMHEDH,4 that is the last book in the study of
the Shanachies and of the judges themselves."

1 But see O'Donovan's introduction to " The Book of Rights," where he
adduces some reasons for believing that it may have been a septennial not
a triennial convocation.

2 See Keating's History under the reign of Tuathal Teachtmhar.

3 In the seventeenth century. His book on genealogies would, O' Curry
computed, fill 1,300 pages of the size of O'Donovan's " Four Masters."

4 This was a very ancient law book, which is quoted at least a dozen
times in Cormac's Glossary, made in the ninth or tenth century.

74 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The poets and historians " were obliged to be free from
theft, and killing, and satirising, and adultery, and everything
that would be a reproach to their learning." Mac Firbis, who
was the last working historian of a great professional family,
puts the matter nobly and well.

" Any Shanachie," he says, " whether an ollav or the next in rank,
or belonging to the order at all, who did not preserve these rules,
lost half his income and his dignity according to law, and was
subject to heavy penalties besides, so that it is not to be supposed
that there is in the world a person who would not prefer to tell the
truth, if he had no other reason than the fear of God and the loss of
his dignity and his income : and it is not becoming to charge
partiality upon these elected historians [of the nation]. However, if
unworthy people did write falsehood, and attributed it to a historian,
it might become a reproach to the order of historians if they were
not on their guard, and did not look to see whether it was out of
their prime books of authority that those writers obtained their
knowledge. And that is what should be done by every one, both by
the lay scholar and the professional historian — everything of which
they have a suspicion, to look for it, and if they do not find it con-
firmed in good books, to note down its doubtfulness,1 along with it,
as I myself do to certain races hereafter in this book, and it is thus
that the historians are freed from the errors of others, should these
errors be attributed to them, which God forbid."

I consider it next to impossible for any Gaelic pedigree to
have been materially tampered with from the introduction of
the art of writing, because tribal jealousies alone would have
prevented it, and because each stem of the four races was
connected at some point with every other stem, the whole
clan system being inextricably intertwined, and it was neces-
sary for all the various tribal genealogies to agree, in order that
each branch, sub-branch, and family might fit, each in its own
place.

I have little doubt that the genealogy of O'Neill, for
instance, which traces him back to the father of Niall of the

1 Thus quaintly expressed in the original, for which see O'Curry's
MS. Materials, p. 576 : " muna ffaghuid dearbhtha iar ndeghleabhraibh
e, a chuntabhairt fen do chur re a chois."

DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE 75

Nine Hostages who came to the throne in 356 is substantially
correct. Niall, it must be remembered, was father of Lao-
ghaire [Leary], who was king when St. Patrick arrived, by
which time, if not before, the art of writing was known in
Ireland. A fortiori^ then, we may trust the pedigrees of the
O'Donnells and the rest who join that stem a little later on.
If this be acknowledged we may make a cautious step or two
backwards. No one, so far as I know, has much hesitation in
acknowledging the historic character of that King Laoghaire
whom St. Patrick confronted, nor of his father Niall of the
Nine Hostages. But if we go so far, it wants very little to
bring us in among the Fenians themselves, and the scenes con-
nected with them and with Conn of the Hundred Battles ; for
Niall's great-grandfather was that Fiachaidh who was slain
by the Three Collas — those who burnt Emania and destroyed
the Red Branch — and his father is Cairbre of the Liffey, who
overthrew the Fenians, and his father again is the great Cormac
son of Art, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles who divided
the kingdom with Owen M6r. But it is from the three
grandsons of this Owen M6r the Eberians come, and from
their half-brother come the Ithians, so that up to this point
I think Irish genealogies may be in the main accepted. Even
the O'Kavanaghs and their other correlations, who do not join
the stem of Eremon till between 500 or 600 years before
Christ, yet pass through Enna Cennsalach, king of Leinster,
a perfectly historical character mentioned several times in the
Book of Armagh,1 who slew the father of Niall of the Nine
Hostages ; and I believe that, however we may account for the
strange fact that these septs join the Eremonian stem so many
hundreds of years before the O'Neills and the others, that up
to this point their genealogy too may be trusted.

1 See pp. 102, 113 of Father Hogan's " Documenta de S. Patricio ex
Libro Armachano," where he is called Endae. He persecuted Cuthbad's
three sons, " fosocart endae cennsalach fubithin creitme riacach," but
Patrick is said to have baptized his son, "Luid iarsuidiu cucrimthan
maccnendi ceinnselich et ipse creditit."

;6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

If this is the case, and if it is true that every Gael belonging
to the Free Clans of Ireland could trace his pedigree with
accuracy back to the fourth, third, or even second century, it
affords a strong support to Irish history, and in my opinion
considerably heightens the credibility of our early annals, and
renders the probability that Finn mac Cool and the Red
Branch heroes were real flesh and blood, enormously greater
than before. It will also put us on our guard against quite
accepting such sweeping generalisations as those of Skene,
when he says that the entire legendary history of Ireland
prior to the establishment of Christianity in the fifth century
partakes largely of a purely artificial character. We must not
forget that while no Irish genealogy is traced to the De Danann
tribes, who were undoubtedly gods, yet the ancestor of the
Dalcassians — Cormac Cas, Oilioll Olum's son — is said to have
married Ossian's daughter.

CHAPTER VIII

m
CONFUSION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN

OF that part of every Irish pedigree which runs back from the
first century to Milesius nothing can be laid down with
certainty, nor indeed can there be any absolute certainty in
affirming that Irish pedigrees from the eleventh to the third
century are reliable — we have only an amount of cumulative
evidence from which we may draw such a deduction with
considerable confidence. The mere fact that these pedigrees
are traced back a thousand years further through Irish kings
and heroes, and end in a son of Milesius, need not in the
least affect — as in popular estimation it too often does — the
credibility of the last seventeen hundred years, which stands
upon its own merits.

On the contrary, such a continuation is just what we should
expect. In the Irish genealogies the sons of Milesius occupy
the place that in other early genealogies is held by the gods.
And the sons of Milesius were possibly the tutelary gods of
the Gael. We have seen how one of them was so, at least
in folk belief, and was addressed in semi -seriousness as still
living and reigning even in the last century.

All the Germanic races looked upon themselves as descended
from gods. The Saxon, Anglian, Danish, Norwegian, and

77

78 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Swedish kings were traced back either to Woden or to some
of his companions or sons.1 It was the same with the Greeks,
to whom the Celts bear so close a similitude. Their Hera-
kleids, Asklepiads, ./Eakids, Neleids, and Daedalids, are a close
counterpart to our Eremonians, Eberians, Ithians, and Irians,
and in each case all the importance was attached to the
primitive eponymous hero or god from whom they sprang.
Without him the whole pedigree became uninteresting, un-
finished, headless. These beliefs exercised full power even
upon the ablest and most cultured Greeks. Aristotle and
Hippocrates, for instance, considered themselves descended from
Asklepius, Thucidydes from ./Eakus, and Socrates from
Daedalus ; just as O'Neill and O'Donnell did from Eremon,
O'Brien from Eber, and Magennis from Ir. It was to the
divine or heroic fountain heads of the race, not so much as to
the long and mostly barren list of names which led up to it,
that the real importance was attached. It is not in Ireland
alone that we see mythology condensing into a dated
genealogy. The same thing has happened in Persian history,
and the history of Denmark by Saxo Grammaticus affords
many such instances. In Greece the Neleid family of Pylus
traced their origin to Neptune, the Lacedaemonian kings traced
theirs to Cadmus and Danaiis, and Hekataeus of Miletus was
the fifteenth descendant of a god.

Again we meet with in Teutonic and Hellenic mythology
the same difficulty that meets us in our own — that of distin-
guishing gods from heroes and heroes from men. The legends
of the Dagda and of Angus of the Boyne and the Tuatha
De Danann, of Tighearnmas and the Fomorians, of Lugh the
Long-handed and the children of Tuireann — all evidently
mythologic — were treated in the same manner, recited by the
same tongues, and regarded with the same unwavering belief,
as the history of Conor mac Nessa and Deirdre, of Cuchulain

1 These genealogies were in later times, like the Irish ones, extended to
N6ah.

CONFUSION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN 79

and Meve, or that of Conn of the Hundred Battles, Owen
Mor, Finn mac Cool, and the Fenians. The early Greek,
in the same way, treated the stories of Apollo and Artemis, of
Ares and Aphrodite, just as he did those of Diomede and
Helen, Meleager and Althasa, Achilles, or the voyage of the
Argo. All were in a primitive and uncritical age received
with the same unsuspicious credulity, and there was no hard-
and-fast line drawn between gods and men. Just as the M6r-
rfgan, the war-goddess, has her eye dashed out by Cuchulain,
so do we find in Homer gods wounded by heroes. Thus, too,
Apollo is condemned to serve Admetus, and Hercules is sold
as a slave to Omphale. Herodotus himself confesses that he
is unable to determine whether a certain Thracian god
Zalmoxis, was a god or a man,1 and he finds the same difficulty
regarding Dionysus and Pan ; while Plutarch refuses to deter-
mine whether Janus was a god or a king ; 2 and Herakleitus
the philosopher, confronted by the same difficulty, made the
admirable mot that men were " mortal gods," gods were " im-
mortal men." 3

In our literature, although the fact does not always appear
distinctly, the Dagda, Angus Og, Lugh the Long-handed,
Ogma, and their fellows are the equivalents of the immortal
gods, while certainly Cuchulain and Conor and probably
Curigh Mac Daire, Conall Cearnach, and the other famous
Red Branch chiefs, whatever they may have been in reality,
are the equivalent of the Homeric heroes, that is to say,
believed to have been epigoni of the gods, and therefore greater

1 Herod, iv. 94-96. 2 Numa, ch. xix.

3 " 9eot OvijToi," " avOpwTToi aOdvaroi." It is most curious to find this so
academic question dragged into the hard light of day and subjected to the
scrutiny of so prosaic a person as the Roman tax-collector. Under the
Roman Empire all lands in Greece belonging to the immortal gods were
exempted from tribute, and the Roman tax-collector refused to recognise
as immortal gods any deities who had once been men. The confusion
arising from such questions offered an admirable target to Lucian for his
keenest shafts of ridicule.

8o LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

than ordinary human beings ; while just as in Greek story
there are the cycles of the war round Thebes, the voyage of
the drgOy the fate of CEdipus, etc., so we have in Irish
numerous smaller groups of epic stories — now unfortunately
mostly lost or preserved in digests — which, leaving out the
Cuchulain and Fenian cycles, centre round such minor cha-
racters as Macha, who founded Emania, Leary Lore, Labhraidh
[Lowry] the Mariner, and others.

That the Irish gods die in both saga and annals like so many
human beings, in no wise militates against the supposition of
their godhead. Even the Greek did not always consider his gods
as eternal. A study of comparative mythology teaches that gods
are in their original essence magnified men, and subject to all
men's changes and chances. They are begotten and born
like men. They eat, sleep, feel sickness, sorrow, pain, like
men. "Like men," says Grimm, "they speak a language,
feel passions, transact affairs, are clothed and armed, possess
dwellings and utensils." Being man-like in these things, they
are also man-like in their deaths. They are only on a greater
scale than we. " This appears to me," says Grimm,1 " a
fundamental feature in the faith of the heathen, that they
allowed to their gods not an unlimited and unconditional
duration, but only a term of life far exceeding that of man."
As their shape is like the shape of man only vaster, so are
their lives like the lives of men only indefinitely longer. "With
our ancestors [the Teutons]," said Grimm, "the thought of
the gods being immortal retires into the background. The
Edda never calls them * eylifir ' or c odauSligir,' and their
death is spoken of without disguise." So is it with us also.
The Dagda dies, slain in the battle of North Moytura ; the
three " gods of the De Danann " die at the instigation or
Lugh ; and the great Lugh himself, from whom Lugdunum,
now Lyons, takes its name, and to whom early Celtic
inscriptions are found, shares the same fate. Manannan is
1 " Deutsche Mythologie," article on the Condition of the Gods.

CONFUSION BETWEEN GODS AND MEN Si

slain, so is Ogma, and so are many more. And yet though
recorded as slain they do not wholly disappear. Manannan
came back to Bran riding in his chariot across the Ocean,1
and Lugh makes his frequent appearances amongst the
living.

1 " Voyage of Bran mac Febail," Nutt and Kuno Meyer, vol. i. p. 16.

CHAPTER IX

DRUIDISM

ALTHOUGH Irish literature is full of allusions to the druids it
is extremely difficult to know with any exactness what they
were. They are mentioned from the earliest times. The pre-
Milesian races, the Nemedians and Fomorians, had their
druids, who worked mutual spells against each other. The
Tuatha De Danann had innumerable druids amongst them,
who used magic. The invading Milesians had three druids
with them in their ships, Amergin the poet and two others.
In fact, druids are mentioned in connection with all early
Irish fiction and history, from the first colonising of Ireland
down to the time of the saints. It seems very doubtful,
however, whether there existed in Ireland as definitely estab-
lished an order of druids as in Britain and on the Continent.1

1 Caesar's words are worth repeating. He says that there were two
sorts of men in Gaul both numerous and honoured — the knights and the
Druids, " equites et druides," because the people counted for nothing and
took the initiative in nothing. As for the Druids, he says : " Rebus divinis
intersunt, sacrificia publica et privata procurant, religiones interpretantur.
. . . nam fere de omnibus controversiis publicis privatisque constituunt,
et si quod est admissum facinus, si ccedes facta, si de hereditate, de finibus
controversia est iidem decernunt prsemia, pcenasque constituunt." All
this seems very like the duties of the Irish Druids, but not what follows :
" si qui, aut privatus aut populus eorum decreto non stetit, sacrificiis inter-

DRUIDISM 83

They are frequently mentioned in Irish literature as ambas-
sadors, spokesmen, teachers, and tutors. Kings were sometimes
druids, so were poets. It is a word which seems to me to have
been, perhaps from the first, used with great laxity and great lati-
tude. The druids, so far as we can ascertain, do not seem to be
connected with any positive rites or worship ; still less do they
appear to have been a regular priesthood, and there is not a
shadow of evidence to connect them with any special worship
as that of the sun or of fire. In the oldest saga-cycle the
druid appears as a man of the highest rank and related to
kings. King Conor's father was according to some — pro-
bably the oldest — accounts a druid ; so was Finn mac Cool's
grandfather.

Before the coming of St. Patrick there certainly existed
images, or, as they are called by the ancient authorities,
" idols " in Ireland, at which or to which sacrifice used to be
offered, probably with a view to propitiating the earth-gods,
possibly the Tuatha De Danann, and securing good harvests
and abundant kine. From sacrificial rites spring, almost of
necessity, a sacrificial caste, and this caste — the druids — had
arrived at a high state of organisation in Gaul and Britain
when observed by Caesar, and did not hesitate to sacrifice whole
hecatombs of human beings. " They think," said Caesar,
" that unless a man's life is rendered up for a man's life, the
will of the immortal God cannot be satisfied, and they have
sacrifices of this kind as a national institution."

There appears nothing, however, that I am aware of, to
connect the druids in Ireland with human sacrifice, although
such sacrifice appears to have been offered. The druids, how-
ever, appear to have had private idols of their own. We find
a very minute account in the tenth-century glossary of King
Cormac as to how a poet performed incantations with his

dicunt. Hasc poena apud eos est gravissima." Nor do the Irish appear
to have had the over-Druid whom Caesar talks of. (See " De Bello Gallico,"
book vi. chaps. 13, 14).

84 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

idols. The word " poet " is here apparently equivalent to
druid, as the word " druid " like the Latin vates is frequently
a synonym for " poet." Here is how the glossary explains the
incantation called Imbas Forosnai : —

"This," says the ancient lexicographer, "describes to the poet
whatsoever thing he wishes to discover,1 and this is the manner in
which it is performed. The poet chews a bit of the raw red flesh
of a pig, a dog, or a cat, and then retires with it to his own bed
behind the door,2 where he pronounces an oration over it and
offers it to his idol gods. He then invokes the idols, and if he has not
received the illumination before the next day, he pronounces incan-
tations upon his two palms and takes his idol gods unto him [into
his bed] in order that he may not be interrupted in his sleep. He
then places his two hands upon his two cheeks and falls asleep. He
is then watched so that he be not stirred nor interrupted by any one
until everything that he seeks be revealed to him at the end of a
nomad,3 or two or three, or as long as he continues at his offering,
and hence it is that this ceremony is called Imbas, that is, the two
hands upon him crosswise, that is, a hand over and a hand hither
upon his cheeks. And St. Patrick prohibited this ceremony, because
it is a species of Teinm Laeghdha,4 that is, he declared that any one
who performed it should have no place in heaven or on earth."

These were apparently the private images of the druid
himself which are spoken of, but there certainly existed public
idols in pagan Ireland before the evangelisation of the island.
St. Patrick himself, in his u Confession," asserts that before his
coming the Irish worshipped idols — idola et immunda — and we
have preserved to us more than one account of the great gold-
covered image which was set up in Moy Slaught 5 [/.*., the

1 " Cach raet bid maith lasin filid agus bud adla(i)c do do fhaillsiugad."
a Thus O'Curry (" Miscellany of the Celtic Society," vol. ii. p. 208) ;
but Stokes translates, " he puts it then on the flagstone behind the door."
See the original in Cormac's Glossary under " Himbas." I have not
O'Donovan's translation by me.

3 O'Curry translates this by " day." It is at present curiously used, I sup-
pose by a kind of confusion with the English "moment," in the sense of a
minute or other short measure of time. At least I have often heard it so used.

4 Another species of incantation mentioned in the glossary,
s In Irish Magh Sleacht.

DRUIDISM 85

Plain of Adoration], believed to be in the present county of
Cavan. It stood there surrounded by twelve lesser idols orna-
mented with brass, and may possibly have been regarded as a
sun-god ruling over the twelve seasons. It was called the
Crom Cruach or Cenn Cruach,1 and certain Irish tribes con-
sidered it their special tutelary deity. The Dinnseanchas, or
explanation of the name of Moy Slaught, calls it " the King
Idol of Erin," "and around him were twelve idols made
of stones, but he was of gold. Until Patrick's advent he was
the god of every folk that colonised Ireland. To him they
used to offer the firstlings of every issue and the chief scions
of every clan ; " and the ancient poem in the Book of Leinster
declares that it was " a high idol with many fights, which was
named the Cromm Cruaich." 2

The poem tells us that " the brave Gaels used to worship it,
and would never ask from it satisfaction as to their portion of
the hard world without paying it tribute."

1 In O'Donovan's fragmentary manuscript catalogue of the Irish MSS.,
in Trinity College, Dublin, he writes apropos of the life of St. Maedhog or
Mogue, contained in H. 2, 6 : "I searched the two Brefneys for the
situation of Moy Sleacht on which stood the chief pagan Irish idol Crom
Cruach, but have failed, being misled by Lanigan, who had been misled by
Seward, who had been blinded by the impostor Beauford, who placed
this plain in the county of Leitrim. It can, however, be proved from this
life of St. Mogue that Magh Sleacht was that level part of the Barony of
Tullaghan (in the county of Cavan) in which the island of Inis Breaghwee
(now Mogue's Island), the church of Templeport, and the little village
of Ballymagauran are situated." I have been told that O'Donovan
afterwards found reason to doubt the correctness of this identifica-
tion.

2 M. de Jubainville connects the name with cru (Latin, cruor), " blood,"
translating Cenn Cruach by tete sanglante and Crom Cruach by Courbe
sanglante, or Croissant ensanglante ; but Rhys connects it with Cruach,
" a reek " or " mound," as in Croagh-Patrick, St. Patrick's Reek. Cenn
Cruach is evidently the same name as the Roman station Penno-Crucium,
in the present county of Stafford, the Irish " c " being as usual the equivalent
of the British " p." This would make it appear that Cromm was no local
idol. Rhys thinks it got its name Crom Cruach, " the stooped one of the
mound," from its bent attitude in the days of its decadence.

86 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" He was their God,1
The withered Cromm with many mists,
The people whom he shook over every harbour,
The everlasting kingdom they shall not have.

To him without glory

Would they kill their piteous wailing offspring,

With much wailing and peril

To pour their blood around Cromm Cruaich.

Milk and corn

They would ask from him speedily

In return for one-third of their healthy issue,

Great was the horror and scare of him.

To him

Noble Gaels would prostrate themselves,

From the worship of him, with many manslaughters

The Plain is called Moy Sleacht.

In their ranks (stood)

Four times three stone idols

To bitterly beguile the hosts,

The figure of Cromm was made of gold.

Since the rule

Of Hercmon,2 the noble man of grace,

There was worshipping of stones

Until the coming of good Patrick of Macha [Ardmagh]."

There is not the slightest reason to distrust this evidence as
far as the existence of Crom Cruach goes.

1 Observe the exquisite and complicated metre of this in the original,
a proof, I think, that the lines are not very ancient. It has been edited
from the Book of Leinster, Book of Ballymote, Book of Lecan, and Rennes
MS., at vol. i. p. 301 of Mr. Nutt's "Voyage of Bran," by Dr. Kuno Meyer—

^

In Cromm Crin co n-immud da
In lucht ro Craith 6s each Cuan
In flaithius Euan nochos Bia."

2 I.e., Eremon or Erimon, Son of Milesius, see above, p. 59.

DRUIDISM 87

" This particular tradition," says Mr. Nutt, " like the majority of
those contained in it [the Dinnseanchas] must be of pre-Christian
origin. It would have been quite impossible for a Christian monk
to have invented such a story, and we may accept it as a perfectly
genuine bit of information respecting the ritual side of insular Celtic
religion." *

St. Patrick overthrew this idol, according both to the poem
in the Book of Leinster and the early lives of the saint.
The life says that when St. Patrick cursed Crom the ground
opened and swallowed up the twelve lesser idols as far as their
heads, which, as Rhys acutely observes, shows that when the
early Irish lives of the saint were written the pagan sanctuary
had so fallen into decay, that only the heads of the lesser idols
remained above ground, while he thinks that it was at this
time from its bent attitude and decayed appearance the idol
was called Crom, "the Stooper."2 There is, however, no

1 The details of this idol, and, above all, the connection in which it stands
to the mythic culture-king Tighearnmas, could not, as Mr. Nutt well
remarks, have been invented by a Christian monk ; but nothing is more
likely, it appears to me, than that such a one, familiar with the idol rites
of Judaea from the Old Testament, may have added the embellishing trait
of the sacrifice of "the firstlings of every issue."

3 Sir Samuel Ferguson's admirable poem upon the death of Cormac
refers to the priests of the idol, but there is no recorded evidence of any
such priesthood —

" Crom Cruach and his sub-gods twelve,

Saith Cormac, are but carven treene,

The axe that made them haft or helve,

Had worthier of your worship been.

But he who made the tree to grow,

And hid in earth the iron stone,
And made the man with mind to know

The axe's use is God alone.

Anon to priests of Crom -were brought —

Where girded in their service dread,
They ministered in red Moy Slaught —

Word of the words King Cormac said.

They loosed their curse against the king,
They cursed him in his flesh and bones,

And daily in their mystic ring
They turned the maledictive stones."

88 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

apparent or recorded connection between this idol and the
druids, nor do the druids appear to have fulfilled the functions
of a public priesthood in Ireland, and the Introduction to the
Seanchas Mor, or ancient Book of the Brehon Laws, distinctly
says that, "until Patrick came only three classes of persons
were permitted to speak in public in Erin, a chronicler to
relate events and to tell stories, a poet to eulogise and to
satirise, and a Brehon to pass sentence from precedents and
commentaries," thus noticeably omitting all mention of the
druids as a public body.

The idol Crom with his twelve subordinates may very well
have represented the sun, upon whom both season and crops
and consequently the life both of man and beast depend. The
gods to whom the early Irish seem to have sacrificed, were no
doubt, as I think Mr. Nutt has shown, agricultural powers,
the lords of life and growth, and with these the sun, who is at
the root of all growth, was intimately connected, u the object of
that worship was to promote increase, the theory of worship was
— life for life." * That the Irish swore by the sun and the moon
and the elements is certain ; the oath is quoted in many places,2

D'Arcy McGee also refers to Crom Cruach in terms almost equally
poetic, but equally unauthorised : —

" Their ocean-god was Manannan Mac Lir,

Whose angry lips
In their white foam full often would inter

Whole fleets of ships.
Crom was their day-god and their thundcret,

Made morning and eclipse ;
Bride was their queen of song, and unto her

They prayed with fire-touched lips ! "

1 Nutt's " Voyage of Bran," vol. ii. p. 250.

2 The elements are recorded as having slain King Laoghaire because he
broke the oath he had made by them. In the Lament for Patrick Sarsfield
as late as the seventeenth century, the unknown poet cries :

" Go mbeannaigh' an ghealach gheal 's an ghrian duit,
O thug tu an la as laimh Righ 'Liam leat."

I.e., May the white Moon and the Sun bless you, since thou hast taken
the Day out of the hand of King William.

DRUID ISM 89

and St. Patrick appears to allude to sun-worship in that passage
of his " Confession," where he says, " that sun which we see
rising daily at His bidding for our sake, it will never reign,
and its splendour will not last for ever, but those who adore it
will perish miserably for all eternity : " this is also borne out
by the passage in Cormac's Glossary of the images the pagans
used to adore, " as, for instance, the form or figure of the sun
on the altar." *

Another phase of the druidic character seems to have been
that he was looked upon as an intermediary between man and
the invisible powers. In the story which tells us how Midir
the De Danann, carries off the king's wife, we are informed
that the druid's counsel is sought as to how to recover her,
which he at last is enabled to do " through his keys of science
and Ogam," after a year's searching.

The druids are represented as carrying wands of yew, but
there is nothing in Irish literature, so far as I am aware of,
about their connection with the oak, from the Greek for
which, S/oucy2 they are popularly supposed to derive their
name. They used to be consulted as soothsayers upon the
probable success of expeditions, as by Cormac mac Art, when
he was thinking about extorting a double tribute from
Munster,3 and by Dathi, the last pagan king of Ireland, when

And a little later we find the harper Carolan swearing " by the light of
the sun."

" Molann gach aon an te bhios craibhtheach coir,
Agus molann gach aon an te bhios pairteach leo,
Dar solas na greine se mo radh go deo
Go molfad gan speis gan bhreig an t-ath mar geobhad."

1 See above, p. 55, note.

2 The genitive of drai, the modern draoi (dhree) is druad, from whence
no doubt the Latin druidis. It was Pliny who first derived the name from
SpvQ. The word with a somewhat altered meaning was in use till recently.
The wise men from the East are called druids (draoithe) in O'Donnell's
translation of the New Testament. The modern word for enchantment
(draoidheacht} is literally "druidism," but an enchanter is usually
draoidheadoir, a derivation from draoi.

3 See above, p. 29, note 2.

90 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

setting out upon his expedition abroad ; they took auguries by
birds, they could cause magic showers and fires, they observed
stars and clouds, they told lucky days,1 they had ordeals of their
own,2 but, above all, they appear to have been tutors or teachers.
Another druidic practice which is mentioned in Cormac's
Glossary is more fully treated of by Keating, in his account
of the great pagan convention at Uisneach, a hill in Meath,
"where the men of Ireland were wont to exchange their
goods and their wares and other jewels." This convention
was held in the month of May,

"And at it they were wont to make a sacrifice to the arch-god,
whom they adored, whose name was Bel. It was likewise their
usage to light two fires to Bel in every district in Ireland at this
season, and to drive a pair of each herd of cattle that the district
contained between these two fires, as a preservative, to guard them
against all the diseases of that year. It is from that fire thus made
that the day on which the noble feast of the apostles Peter and
James is held has been called Bealtaine [in Scotch Beltane], i.e.,
Bel's fire."

Cormac, however, says nothing about a god named Bel — who,
indeed, is only once mentioned elsewhere, so far as I know 3 —
but explains the name as if it were Bil-tene, "goodly fire,"
from the fires which the druids made on that day through
which to drive the cattle.4

1 Cathbad, Conor mac Nessa's Druid, foretold that any one who took
arms — the Irish equivalent for knighthood — upon a certain day, would
become famous for 'ever, but would enjoy only a brief life. It was
Cuchulain who assumed arms upon that day.

2 O'Curry quotes a druidic ordeal from the MS. marked H. 3. 17 in
Trinity College, Dublin. A woman to clear her character has to rub her
tongue to a red-hot adze of bronze, which had been heated in a fire of
blackthorn or rowan-tree.

3 " Revue Celt.," vol. ii. p. 443. Is Bel to be equated with what Rhys
calls in one place " the chthonian divinity Beli the Great," of the Britons,
and in another " Beli the Great, the god of death and darkness " ? (See
"Hibbert Lectures," pp. 168 and 274.)

4 The Christian priests, apparently unable to abolish these cattle
ceremonies, took the harm out of them by transferring them to St. John's

DRUID ISM 91

Post-Christian accounts of the druids as a whole, and or
individual druids differ widely. The notes on St. Patrick,
in the Book of Armagh, present them in the worst
possible light as wicked wizards and augurs and people of
incantations,1 and the Latin lives of the Saints nearly always
call them "magi." Yet they are admitted to have been able
to prophecy. King Laoghaire's [Leary's] druids prophesied
to him three years before the arrival of Patrick that " adze-heads
would come over a furious sea,

" Their mantles hole-headed,
Their staves crook-headed,
Their tables in the east of their houses." a

In the lives of the early saints we find some of them on
fair terms with the druids. Columcille's first teacher was a
druid, whom his mother consulted about him. It is true that
in the Lismore text he is called not a druid but a faldh^ i.e.)
•vates or prophet, but this only confirms the close connection
between druid, prophet, and teacher, for his proceedings are
distinctly druidical, the account runs : " Now when the time
for reading came to him the cleric went to a certain prophet

Eve, the 24th of June, where they are still observed in most districts of
Ireland, and large fires built with bones in them, and occasionally cattle
are driven through them or people leap over them. The cattle were pro-
bably driven through the fire as a kind of substitute for their sacrifice,
and the bones burnt in the fire are probably a substitute for the bones
of the cattle that should have been offered up. Hence the fires are
called "teine cnamh" (bone-fire) in Irish, and bone-fire (not bonfire) in
English.

1 St. Patrick is there stated to have found around the king " scivos et
magos et auruspices, incantatores et omnis malse artis inventores."

2 This means tonsured men, with cowls, with pastoral staves, with
altars in the east end of the churches. The ancient Irish rann is very
curious :—

" Ticcat Tailcinn
Tar muir meirceann,
A mbruit toillceann.
A crainn croimceann.
A miasa n-airrter tige
Friscerat uile amen."

92 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

who abode in the land to ask him when the boy ought to
begin. When the prophet had scanned the sky, he said ' Write
an alphabet for him now.' The alphabet was written on a
cake, and Columcille consumed the cake in this wise, half to
the east of a water, and half to the west of a water. Said the
prophet through grace of prophecy, ' So shall this child's
territory be, half to the east of the sea, and half to the west of
the sea.'" x Columcille himself is said to have composed a
poem beginning, " My Druid is the son of God." Another
druid prophesies of St. Brigit before she was born,2 and other
instances connecting the early saints with druids are to be
found in their lives, which at least show that there existed
a sufficient number of persons in early Christian Ireland who
did not consider the druids wholly bad, but believed that
they could prophecy, at least in the interests of the saints.

From what we have said, it is evident that there were
always druids in Ireland, and that they were personages of
great importance. But it is not clear that they were an
organised body like the druids of Gaul,3 or like the Bardic
body in later times in Ireland, nor is it clear what their exact
functions were, but they seem to have been teachers above
everything else. It is clear, too, that the ancient Irish — at
least in some cases — possessed and worshipped images. That
they sacrificed to them, and even offered up human beings, is
by no means so certain, the evidence for this resting upon the
single passage in the Dinnseanchas, and the poem (in a modern
style of metre) in the Book of Leinster, which we have just
given, and which though it is evidence for the existence of the
idol Crom Cruach, known to us already from other sources,
may possibly have had the trait of human sacrifice added as a
heightening touch by a Christian chronicler familiar with the

1 I.e., one half in Ireland, the other in Scotland, alluding to his work at
lona and among the Picts.

2 Stokes, " Lives of the Saints, from the Book of Lismore," p. 183.

3 Who were, according to Ammianus Marcellinus, quoting the Greek
historian, Timagenes, " sodaliciis adstricti consortiis."

DRUIDISM 93

accounts of Moloch and Ashtaroth. The complete silence
which, outside of these passages,1 exists in all Irish literature
as to a proceeding so terrifying to the popular imagination,
seems to me a proof that if human sacrifice was ever resorted
to at all, it had fallen into abeyance before the landing; of
the Christian missionaries.

1 There is one other instance of human sacrifice mentioned in the Book
of Ballymote, but this is recorded in connection with funeral games, and
appears to have been an isolated piece of barbarity performed " that it
might be a reproach to the Momonians for ever, and that it might be a
trophy over them." Fiachra, a brother of Niall of the Nine Hostages, in
the fourth century, carried off fifty hostages from Munster, and dying of
his wounds, the hostages were buried alive with him, round his grave :
"ro hadnaicead na geill tucadh a neass ocus siad beo im fheart Fiachra
comba hail for Mumain do gres, ocus comba comrama forra." For
another allusion to " human sacrifice " see O' Curry's " Manners and
Customs," vol. i. p. dcxli and cccxxxiii. The " Dinnseanchas," quoted
from above, is a topographical work explaining the origin of Irish place-
names, and attributed to Amergin mac Amhalgaidh, poet to King Diarmuid
mac Cearbaill, who lived in the sixth century. "There seems no reason, "says
Dr. Atkinson, in his preface to the facsimile Book of Leinster, " for disputing
his claims to be regarded as the original compiler of a work of a similar
character — the original nucleus is not now determinable." The oldest
copy is the Book of Leinster and treats of nearly two hundred places and
contains eighty-eight poems. The copy in the Book of Ballymote contains
one hundred and thirty-nine, and that in the Book of Lecan even more.
The total number of all the poems contained in the different copies is
close on one hundred and seventy. The copy in the Bodleian Library
was published by Whitley Stokes in " Folk-lore," December, 1892, and
that in the Advocates Library, in Edinburgh, in " Folk-lore," December,
1893. The prose tales, from a copy at Rennes, he published in the " Revue
Celtique," vols. xv. and xvi. An edition of the oldest copy in the Book
of Leinster is still a desideratum. The whole work is full of interesting
pagan allusions, but the different copies, in the case of many names, vary
greatly and even contradict each other.

CHAPTER X

THE IRISH ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH

CJESAR, writing some fifty years before Christ about the
Gauls and their Druids, tells his countrymen that one of the
prime articles which they taught was that men's souls do not
die — non interlre animas — " but passed over ^after death from
one into another," and their opinion is, adds Caesar, that this
doctrine u greatly tends to the arousing of valour, all fear of
death being despised." * A few years later Diodorus Siculus
wrote that one of their doctrines was " that the souls of men
are undying, and that after finishing their term of existence
they pass into another body," adding that at burials of the
dead some actually cast letters addressed to their departed
relatives upon the funeral pile, under the belief that the dead
would read them in the next world. Timagenes, a Greek who
wrote a history of Gaul now lost, Strabo, Valerius Maximus,
Pomponius Mela, and Lucan 2 in his " Pharsalia," all have
passages upon this vivid belief of the Gauls that the soul
lived again. This doctrine must also have been current in
Britain, where the Druidic teaching was, to use Caesar's phrase,

1 " De Bello Gallico," vi. 14.

2 See "Voyage of Bran," vol. ii. pp. 107-111, where all these passages
have been lucidly collected by Mr. Nutt.

94

THE ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH 95

"discovered, and thence brought into Gaul," and it would
have been curious indeed if Ireland did not share in it.

There is, moreover, abundant evidence to show that the
doctrine of metempsychosis was perfectly familiar to the pagan
Irish, as may be seen in the stories of the births of Cuchulain,
Etain, the Two Swineherds, Conall Cearnach, Tuan Mac
Cairill, and Aedh Slane.1 But there is not, in our existing
literature, any evidence that the belief was ever elevated into
a philosophical doctrine of general acceptance, applicable to
every one, still less that there was ever any ethical stress laid
upon the belief in rebirth. It is only the mythological
element in the belief in metempsychosis which has come down
to us, and from which we ascertain that the pagan Irish
believed that supernatural beings could become clothed in flesh
and blood, could enter into women and be born again, could
take different shapes and pass through different stages of
existence, as fowls, animals, or men. What the actual
doctrinal form of the familiar idea was, or how far it influenced
the popular mind, we have no means of knowing. But as
Mr. Nutt well remarks, "early Irish religion must have
possessed some ritual, and what in default of an apter term
must be styled philosophical as well as mythological elements.
Practically the latter alone have come down to us, and that in
a romantic rather than in a strictly mythical form. Could
we judge Greek religion aright if fragments of Apollodorus or
the ' Metamorphoses ' were all that survived of the literature it
inspired ? "2 The most that can be said upon the subject, then,
is that the doctrine of rebirth was actually taught with a
deliberate ethical purpose — that of making men brave, since on
being slain in this life they passed into a new one — amongst
the Celts of Gaul, that it must have been familiar to the
Britons between whose Druids and those of Gaul so close a
resemblance subsisted, and that the idea of rebirth which

1 All of these have been studied by Mr. Nutt, chap. xiv.
8 Vol. ii. p. 121.

96 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

forms part of half-a-dozen existing Irish sagas, was perfectly
familiar to the Irish Gael, although we have no evidence that
it was connected with any ritual or taught as a deliberate
doctrine.

In reconstructing from our existing literature the beliefs and
religion ot our ancestors, we can only do so incompletely, and
with difficulty, from passages in the oldest sagas and other
antique fragments, mostly of pagan origin, from allusions in
very esrly poems, from scanty notices in the annals, and from
the lives of early saints. The relatively rapid conversion of the
island to Christianity in the fifth century, and the enthusiasm
with which the new religion was received, militated against
any full transmission of pagan belief or custom. We cannot
now tell whether all the ancient Irish were imbued with the
same religious beliefs, or whether these varied — as they probably
did — from tribe to tribe. Probably all the Celtic races, even
in their most backward state, believed — so far as they had any
persuasion on the subject at all — in the immortality of the soul.
Where the souls of the dead went to, when they were not re-
incarnated, is not so clear. They certainly believed in a happy
Other- World, peopled by a happy race, whither people were
sometimes carried whilst still alive, and to gain which they
either traversed the sea to the north-west, or else entered one
of the Sidh [Shee] mounds, or else again dived beneath the
water.1 In all cases, however, whatever the mode of access,
the result is much the same. A beautiful country is discovered

1 In a large collection of nearly sixty folk-lore stories taken down in
Irish from the lips of the peasantry, I find about five contain allusions to
the belief in another world full of life under water, and about four in a life
in the inside of the hills. The Hy Brasil type — that of finding the dead
living again on an ocean island — is, so far as I have yet collected, quite
unrepresented amongst them. An old Irish expression for dying is going
" to the army of the dead," used by Deirdre in her lament, and I find a
variant of it so late as the beginning of this century, in a poem by Raftery,
a blind musician of the county Mayo, who tells his countrymen to remember
that they must go " to the meadow of the dead." See Raftery's " Aith-
reachas," in my " Religious Songs of Connacht," p. 266.

THE ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH 97

where a happy race free from care, sickness, and death, spend
the smiling hours in simple, sensuous pleasures.

There is a graphic description of this Elysium in the " Voyage
of Bran," a poem evidently pagan,1 and embodying purely
pagan conceptions. A mysterious female, an emissary from
the lovely land, appears in Bran's household one day, when the
doors were closed and the house full of chiefs and princes, and
no one knew whence she came, and she chanted to them
twenty-eight quatrains describing the delights of the pleasant
country.

" There is a distant isle
Around which sea-horses glisten,
A fair course against the white-swelling surge,
Four feet uphold it.2

Feet of white bronze under it,
Glittering through beautiful ages.
Lovely land throughout the world's age
On which the many blossoms drop.

An ancient tree there is with blossoms
On which birds call to the Hours.
Tis in harmony, it is their wont
To call together every Hour.

1 Admirably translated by Kuno Meyer, who says " there are a large
number of [word] forms in the 'Voyage of Bran/ as old as any to be found
in the Wurzburg Glosses," and these Professor Thurneysen ascribes unhesi-
tatingly to the seventh century. Zimmer also agrees that the piece is not
later than the seventh century, that is, was first written down in the seventh
century, but this is no criterion of the date of the original composition.

2 I give Kuno Meyer's translation : in the original —

" Fil inis i n-eterchein
Immataitnet gabra rein
Rith find fris toibgel tondat
Ceitheoir cossa foslongat."

In modern Irish the first two lines would run

" [Go] bhfuil inis i n-idir-chein
Um a dtaithnigeann gabhra rein."

Rein being the genitive of rian, " the sea," which, according to M. d'Arbois,
the Gaels brought with them as a reminiscence of the Rhine, see above p. 10.

98 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Unknown is wailing or treachery
In the familiar cultivated land,
There is nothing rough or harsh,
But sweet music striking on the ear.

Without grief, without sorrow, without death,
Without any sickness, without debility,
That is the sign of Emain,
Uncommon, an equal marvel.

A beauty of a wondrous land
Whose aspects are lovely,
Whose view is a fair country,
Incomparable in its haze.

The sea washes the wave against the land,
Hair of crystal drops from its mane.

Wealth, treasures of every hue,

Are in the gentle land, a beauty of freshness,

Listening to sweet music,

Drinking the best of wine.

Golden chariots on the sea plain
Rising with the tide to the sun,
Chariots of silver in the plain of sports
And of unblemished bronze.

At sunrise there will come

A fair man illumining level lands,

He rides upon the fair sea- washed plain,

He stirs the ocean till it is blood.

Then they row to the conspicuous stone
From which arise a hundred strains.

It sings a strain unto the host

Through long ages, it is not sad,

Its music swells with choruses of hundreds.

They look for neither decay nor death.

THE ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH 99

There will come happiness with health

To the land against which laughter peals.

Into Imchiuin [the very calm place] at every season,

Will come everlasting joy.

It is a day of lasting weather
That showers [down] silver on the land,
A pure-white cliff in the verge of the sea
Which from the sun receives its heat."

Manannan, the Irish Neptune, driving in a chariot across the
sea, which to him was a flowery plain, meets Bran thereafter,
and chants to him twenty-eight more verses about the lovely
land of Moy Mell, " the Pleasant Plain," which the unknown
lady had described, and they are couched in the same strain.

" Though [but] one rider is seen
In Moy Mell of many powers,
There are many steeds on its surface
Although thou seest them not.

A beautiful game, most delightful
They play [sitting] at the luxurious wine,
Men and gentle women under a bush
Without sin, without crime.

A wood with blossom and fruit,
On which is the vine's veritable fragrance ;
A wood without decay, without defect,
On which are leaves of golden hue."

Then, prophesying of the death of Mongan, he sang —

" He will drink a drink from Loch Lo,
While he looks at the stream of blood ;
The white hosts will take him under a wheel of clouds,
To the gathering where there is no sorrow."

I know of few things in literature comparable to this lovely
description, at once so mystic and so sensuous, of the joys of

ioo LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the other world. To my mind it breathes the very essence of
Celtic glamour, and is shot through and through with the
Celtic love of form, beauty, landscape, company, and the
society of woman. How exquisite the idea of being trans-
ported from this world to an isle around which sea-horses
glisten, where from trees covered with blossoms the birds call
in harmony to the Hours, a land whose haze is incomparable !
What a touch ! Where hair of crystal drops from the mane
of the wave as it washes against the land ; where the chariots
of silver and of bronze assemble on the plain of sports,
in the country against which laughter peals, and the day of
lasting weather showers silver on the land. And then to play
sitting at the luxurious wine —

" Men and gentle women under a bush
Without sin, without crime ! "

I verily believe there is no Gael alive even now who would
not in his heart of hearts let drift by him the Elysiums of
Virgil, Dante, and Milton to grasp at the Moy Mell of the
unknown Irish pagan.

In another perhaps equally ancient story, that of the elope-
ment of Connla, son of Conn of the Hundred Battles,1 with a
lady who is a denizen of this mysterious land, we find the
unknown visitor giving nearly the same account of it as that
given to Bran.

" Whence hast thou come, O Lady ? " said the Druid.

" I have come," said she, " from the lands of the living in
which there is neither death, nor sin, nor strife;2 we enjoy
perpetual feasts without anxiety, and benevolence without
contention. A large Sidh [Shee, " fairy-mound "] is where we

1 Preserved in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a MS. compiled from older
ones about the year noo. See for this story " Gaelic Journal," vol. ii.
p. 306.

2 " Dodeochadsafor in ben a tirib bed ait inna hi has na pcccad na imorbus,
i.e. [go], ndeachas-sa ar san bhean 6 tiribh na mbeo, ait ann nach mbionn
bas na peacadh na immarbhadh."

THE ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH 101

dwell, so that it is hence we are called the Sidh [Shee]
people."

The Druids appear, as I have already remarked, to have
acted as intermediaries between the inhabitants of the other
world and of this, and in the story of Connla one of them
chants against the lady so that her voice was not heard, and he
drives her away through his incantation. She comes back,
however, at the end of a month, and again summons the prince.

" 'Tis no lofty seat," she chanted, " upon which sits Connla
amid short-lived mortals awaiting fearful death ; the ever-living
ones invite thee to be the ruler over the men of Tethra."

Conn of the Hundred Battles, who had overheard her
speech, cried, " Call me the Druid ; I see her tongue has
been allowed her to-day [again]."

But she invisible to all save the prince replied to him —

" O Conn of the Hundred Battles, druidism is not loved,
for little has it progressed to honour on the great Righteous
Strand, with its numerous, wondrous, various families."

After that she again invites the prince to follow her,
saying —

" There is another land which it were well to seek.

I see the bright sun is descending, though far off we shall reach it

ere night.

Tis the land that cheers the mind of every one that turns to me.
There is no race in it save only women and maidens."

The prince is overcome with longing. He leaps into her
well-balanced, gleaming boat of pearl. Those who were left
behind upon the strand " saw. them dimly, as far as the sight
of their eyes could reach. They sailed the sea away from
them, and from that day to this have not been seen, and it is
unknown where they went to."

In the fine story of Cuchulain's sick-bed,1 in which though

1 Also contained in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a MS. transcribed about
the year uoo.

102 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the language of the text is not so ancient, the conceptions
are equally pagan, the deserted wife of Manannan, the Irish
Neptune, falls in love with the human warrior, and invites
him to the other-world to herself, through the medium of an
ambassadress. Cuchulain sends his charioteer Laeg along with
this mysterious ambassadress, that he may bring him word
again, to what kind of land he is invited. Laeg, when he
returns, repeats a glowing account of its beauty, which
coincides closely with those given by the ladies who summoned
Bran and Connla.

" There are at the western door,

In the place where the sun goes down,
A stud of steeds of the best of breeds
Of the grey and the golden brown.

There wave by the eastern door

Three crystal-crimson trees,
Whence the warbling bird all day is heard

On the wings of the perfumed breeze.

And before the central door

Is another, of gifts untold.
All silvern-bright in the warm sunlight,

Its branches gleam like gold." x

In the saga of the Wooing of Etain we meet with what is
substantially the same description. She is the wife of one of
the Tuatha De Danann, is reborn as a mortal, and weds the
king of Ireland. Her former husband, Midir, still loves her,
follows her, and tries to win her back. She is unwilling, and
he chants to her this description of the land to which he would
lure her.

1 Literally : " There are at the western door, in the place where the sun
goes down, a stud of steeds with grey-speckled manes and another crimson
brown. There are at the eastern door three ancient trees of crimson
crystal, from which incessantly sing soft-toned birds. There is a tree in
front of the court, it cannot be matched in harmony, a tree of silver against
which the sun shines, like unto gold is its great sheen."

THE ELYSIUM AND BELIEF IN REBIRTH 103

" Come back to me, lady, to love and to shine
In the land that was thine in the long-ago,
Where of primrose hue is the golden hair
And the limbs are as fair as the wreathed snow.

To the lakes of delight that no storm may curl,
Where the teeth are as pearl, the eyes as sloes,

Which alight, whenever they choose to seek,

On the bloom of a cheek where the foxglove glows.

Each brake is alive with the flowers of spring,
Whence the merles sing in their shy retreat ;

Though sweet be the meadows of Innisfail,
Our beautiful vale is far more sweet.

Though pleasant the mead be of Innisfail,
More pleasant the ale of that land of mine,

A land of beauty, a land of truth,

Where youth shall never grow old or pine.

Fair rivers brighten the vale divine, —
There are choicest of wine and of mead therein,

And heroes handsome and women fair
Are in dalliance there without stain or sin.

From thence we see, though we be not seen,
We know what has been and shall be again,

And the cloud that was raised by the first man's fall,
Has concealed us all from the eyes of men.

Then come with me, lady, to joys untold,
And a circlet of gold on thy head shall be,

Banquets of milk and of wine most rare,
Thou shalt share, O lady, and share with me." "

1 A Befind in raga lim / I tir n-ingnad hifil rind / Is barr sobairche folt
and / Is dath snechtu chorp coind. Literally : " O lady fair wouldst thou
come with me to the wondrous land that is ours, where the hair is as the
blossom of the primrose, where the tender body is as fair as snow.
There shall be no grief there nor sorrow ; white are the teeth there, black
are the eyebrows, a delight to the eye is the number of our host, and on
every cheek is the hue of the foxglove.

" The crimson of the foxglove is in every brake, delightful to the eye
[there] the blackbird's eggs. Although pleasant to behold are the plains of
Innisfail, after frequenting the Great Plain rarely wouldst thou [remember
them]. Though heady to thee the ale of Innisfail, headier the ale of the

104 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The casual Christian allusion in the penultimate verse need
not lead us astray, nor does it detract from the essentially
pagan character of the rest, for throughout almost the whole
of Irish literature the more distinctly or ferociously pagan any
piece is, the more certain it is to have a Christian allusion
added at the end as a make-weight. There is great ingenuity
displayed in thus turning the pagan legend into a Christian
homily by the addition of two lines suggesting that if men
were not sinful, this beautiful pagan world and the beautiful
forms that inhabited it would be visible to the human ken.
This was sufficient to disarm any hostility to the legend on the
part of the Church.

From what we have said it is evident that the ancient Irish
pagans believed in the possibility of rebirth, and founded
many of their mythical sagas on the doctrine of metempsychosis,
and that they had a highly ornate and fully-developed belief in
a happy other- world or Elysium, to which living beings were
sometimes carried off without going through the forms of
death. But it is impossible to say whether rebirth with life
in another world, for those whom the gods favoured, was
taught as a doctrine or had any ethical significance attached to
it by the druids of Ireland, as it most undoubtedly had by
their cousins the druids of Gaul.

great land, a beauty of a land, the land I speak of. Youth never grows
there into old age. Warm, sweet streams traverse the country with
choicest mead and choicest wine, handsome persons [are there], without
blemish, conception without sin, without stain.

" We see every one on every side, and no one seeth us ; the cloud of
Adam's wrong-doing has concealed us from being numbered. O lady, if
thou comest to my brave land, it is a crown of gold shall be upon thy
head, fresh flesh of swine, banquets of new milk and ale shalt thou have
with me then, fair lady."

Apropos of the Irish liking for swine's flesh, Stanihurst tells a good
story : " ' No meat,' says he, ' they fansie so much as porke, and the fatter
the better. One of John O'Nel's [Shane O'Neill's] household demanded
of his fellow whether beefe were better than porke. ' That,' quoth the
other, ' is as intricate a question as to ask whether thou art better than
O'Nell.' "

CHAPTER XI

WE now come to the question, When and where did the Irish
get their alphabet, and at what time did they begin to practise
the art of writing ? The present alphabet of the Irish, which
they have used in all their books from the seventh century
down, and probably for three hundred years before that, is only
a modification — and a peculiarly beautiful one — of the Roman
letters. This alphabet they no doubt borrowed from their
neighbours, the Romanised Britons, within whose territory
they had established themselves, and with whom — now in
peace, now in war — they carried on a vigorous and constant
intercourse.1 The general use of letters in Ireland is, how-
ever, to be attributed to the early Christian missionaries.

But there is no reason to believe that it was St. Patrick, or
indeed any missionary, who first introduced them. There
probably were in Ireland many persons in the fourth century,
or perhaps even earlier, who were acquainted with the art of

1 Dr. Jones, the Bishop of St. Davids, in his interesting book, " Vestiges
of the Gael in Gwynedd " (North Wales) has come to the conclusion that
the Irish occupied the whole of Anglesey, Carnarvon, Merioneth, and
Cardiganshire, with at least portions of Denbighshire, Montgomery, and
Radnor. Their occupation of part of the south and south-west of
England is attested by the area of Ogam finds.

105

io6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

writing. Already, at the beginning of the third century at
least, says Zimmer in his " Keltische Studien," British
missionaries were at work in the south of Ireland. Bede, in
his history, says distinctly that Palladius was sent from Rome
in the year 431 to the Irish " who believed in Christ " — "ad
Scottos in Christum credentes." Already, at the close of the
third century, there was an organised British episcopate, and
three British bishops attended the Council of Aries held in
314. It is quite impossible that the numerous Irish colonies
settled in the south of England and in Wales could have
failed to come into contact with this organised Church, and
even to have been influenced by it. The account in the
Acta Sanctorum, of Declan, Bishop of Waterford, said to
have been born in 347, and of Ailbe, another southern bishop,
who met St. Patrick, may be looked upon as perfectly true
in so far as it relates to the actual existence of these pre-
Patrician bishops. St. Chrysostom, writing in the year 387,
mentions that already churches and altars had been erected in
the British Isles. Pelagius, the subtle and persuasive heresiarch
who taught with such success at Rome about the year 400,
and acquired great influence there, was of Irish descent — " habet
progeniem Scotticae gentis de Brittanorum vicinia," said St.
Jerome. As St. Augustine and Prosper of Aquitaine call
him " Briton " and " British scribe," he probably belonged to
one of the Irish colonies settled in Wales or the South-west of
England. His success at Rome is a proof that some Irish
families at least were within reach of literary education in the
fourth century. His friend and teacher, Celestius, has also
been claimed as an Irishman, but Dr. Healy has shown that
this claim is perhaps founded upon a misconception.1

" The influence of the ancient Irish on the Continent,"
says Dr. Sigerson, " began in the works of Sedulius,
whose ' Carmen Paschale,' published in the fifth century,

1 " Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars," p. 39. I find Migne, in his
note on Pelagius, apparently confounding Scotia with Great Britain.

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 107

is the first great Christian epic worthy of the name."
Sedulius, the Virgil of theological poetry, flourished in
the first half of the fifth century, and seems to have
studied in Gaul, passed into Italy, and finally resided in
Achaia in Greece, which he seems to have made his
home. There are at least eight Irish Siadals (in Latin
Sedulius, in English Shiel) commemorated by Colgan. The
strongest evidence of Sedulius's Irish nationality is that the
Irish geographer Dicuil, in the eighth century, quoting some
of his lines, calls him noster Sedulius. John of Tritenheim,
towards the close of the fifteenth century, distinctly calls him
an Irishman natlone Scotus, but attributes to him the verses
of a later Sedulius. Dr. Sigerson, by a clever analysis of his
verse-peculiarities confirms this opinion.1

In the "Tripartite Life of St. Patrick" we read that the
druids at the king's court, when St. Patrick arrived there,
possessed books, and when, at a later date, St. Patrick deter-
mined upon revising the Brehon law code, the books in
which it was written down were laid before him. That there
has come down to our time no written record earlier than the
seventh or eighth century2 is chiefly due to the enormous
destruction of books by the Danes and English. The same
causes produced a like effect in Britain, for the oldest surviving
British MSS. are not even as old as ours, although the art of
writing must have been known and practised there since the
Roman occupation.

The Irish had, however, another system of writing which

1 See for Dr. Sigerson's ingenious argument "Bards of the Gael and
Gaul," Introduction, p. 30.

2 Except perhaps on stone. There is an inscription on a stone in
Galway, " Lie Luguaedon Mace Lmenueh," for a facsimile of which
see O'Donovan's grammar, p. 411. O'Donovan says it was set up over a
nephew of St. Patrick's. Mr. Macalister reads it no doubt correctly, " Lie
Luguaedon macci Menueh." This is probably the oldest extant inscription
in Roman letters, and it shows that the old Ogam form maqui had already
changed into mac[c]i. The "c" in place of "q" is only found on the
later Ogam stones, and only one stone is found to read " maic."

io8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

they themselves invented. This was the celebrated Ogam
script, consisting of a number of short lines, straight or slant-
ing,1 and drawn either below, above, or through one long
stem-line, which stem-line is generally the angle between two
sides of a long upright rectangular stone. These lines repre-
sented letters ; and over two hundred stones have been found
inscribed with Ogam writing. It is a remarkable fact that
rude as this device for writing is, it has been applied with
considerable skill, and is framed with much ingenuity. For in
every case it is found that those letters which, like the vowels,
are most easily pronounced, are also in Ogam the easiest to
inscribe, and the simpler sounds are represented by simpler
characters than those that are more complex. To account for
the philosophical character of this alphabet 2 " than which no

1 Thus four cuts to the right of or below the long line stand for S, above
it they mean C, passing through the long line half on one side and half on
the other they mean E. These straight lines, being easily cut on stone
with a chisel, continued long in use. The long line, with reference to
which all the letters are drawn, is usually the right angle or corner of the
upright stone between the two sides. The inscription usually begins at
the left-hand corner of the stone facing the reader and is read upwards,
and is sometimes continued down on the right-hand angular line as well.
The vowels are very small cuts on the angle of the stone, but much larger
than points. There is no existing book written in Ogam, but various
alphabets of it have been preserved in the Book of Ballymote, and some
small metal articles have been found inscribed with it, showing that its
use was not peculiar to pillar stones.

2 See a curious monograph by Dr. Ernst Rethwisch entitled, " Die
Inschrift von Killeen Cormac und der Ursprung der Sprache," 1886.
" Einfachere Schriftzeichen als das keltische Alphabet sind nicht
denkbar . . . die Vocale haben die einfachsten Syinbole und unter den
Vocalen haben wieder die am bequemsten auszusprechenden bequemer
zu machende Zeichen wie die Andern. Unter den Consonanten, hat die
Klasse die am schwierigsten gelingt . . . die am wenigsten leicht
einzuritzenden Zeichen : die Gaumenlaute." He is greatly struck by " der
so verstandig und sachgemass erscheinende Trieb dem einfachsten Laut
das einfachste Symbol zu widmen." " Eine Erklarung [of the rational
simplicity of the Ogam script] ist nur moglich wenn man annimmt dass
die natiirliche Begabung der Kelten, der praktische auf Einfachheit und
Beobachtungsgabe beruhende Sinn viel friiher zu einer gewissen Reife
gediehen sind, als bei den Indogermanischen Verwandten" (p. 29).

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 109

•

simpler method of writing is imaginable," a German, Dr.
Rethwisch, who examined it from this side, concluded that
"the natural gifts of the Celts and their practical genius for
simplicity and observation ripened up to a certain stage far
earlier than those of their Indo-European relations." This
statement, however, rests upon the as yet unproved assump-
tion that Ogam writing is pre-Christian and pagan. What
is of more interest is that the author of it supposed that with
one or two changes it would make the simplest conceivable
universal-alphabet or international code of writing. It is very
strange that nearly all the Irish Ogam stones are found in the
south-west, chiefly in the counties of Cork and Kerry, with
a few scattered over the rest of the country — but one in West
Connacht, and but one or two at the most in Ulster.
Between twenty and thirty more have been found in Wales
and Devonshire, and one or two even farther east, thus bear-
ing witness to the colonies planted by the Irish marauders in
early Britain, for Ogam writing is peculiar to the Irish Gael
and only found where he had settled. Ten stones more have
fceen found in Scotland, probably the latest in date of any, for
some of these, unlike the Irish stones, bear Christian symbols.
Many Ogams have been easily read, thanks to the key con-
tained in the Book of Ballymote ; thanks also to the fact that
one or two Ogams have been found with duplicates inscribed
in Latin letters. But many still defy all attempts at decipher-
ing them, though numerous efforts have been made, treating
them as though they were cryptic ciphers, which they were
long believed to be. That Ogam was, as some assert, an
early cryptic alphabet, and one intended to be read only by
the initiated, is both in face of the numbers of such inscrip-
tions already deciphered and in the face of the many instances
recorded in our oldest sagas of its employment, an absurd
hypothesis. It is nearly always treated in them as an ordinary
script which any one could read. It may, however, have been
occasionally used in later times in a cryptic sense, names being

i io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

written backwards or syllables transposed, but this was certainly
not the original invention. Some of the latest Ogam pillars
are gravestones of people who died so late as the year 600,
but what proportion of them, if any, date from before the
Christian era it is as yet impossible to tell. Certain it is that
the grammatical forms of the language inscribed upon most of
them are vastly older than those of the very oldest manuscripts,1
and agree with those of the old Gaulish linguistic monuments.
Cormac's Glossary — a work of the ninth or tenth century —
the ancient sagas, and many allusions in the older literature,
would seem to show that Ogam writing was used by the
pagan Irish. Cormac, explaining the word fe^ says that " it
was a wooden rod used by the Gael for measuring corpses
and graves, and that this rod used always to be kept in the
burial-places of the heathen, and it was a horror to every
one even to take it in his hand, and whatever was abominable
to them they (the pagans) used to inscribe on it in Ogam."2
The sagas also are full of allusions to Ogam writing. In the
" Tain Bo Chuailgne," which probably assumed substantially
its present shape in the seventh century, we are told how
when Cuchulain, after assuming arms, drove into Leinster with

1 As Curd and maqi for the genitives of Core and mac. In later times
the genitive ending i, became incorporated in the body of the word,
making Cuirc and maic in the MSS., which latter subsequently became
attenuated still further into the modern mic. Another very common and
important form is avi, which has been explained as from a nominative
*avios [for (*p)avios], Old Irish aue, modern ua or o. Another extra-
ordinary feature is the suffix *gnos = cnos, the regular patronymic forma-
tive of the Gaulish inscriptions. Another important word is muco, genitive
tnucot, meaning "descendant," but in some cases apparently "chief."
The word anm or even ancm, which often precedes the genitive of the
proper noun, as anm meddugini, has not yet been explained or accounted
for. All these examples help to show the great age of the linguistic '
monuments preserved in Ogam.

2 "Ocus no bid in flesc sin dogres irelcib nangente ocus bafuath la each a
gabail inalaim ocus each ni ba hadetchi leo dobertis [lege nobentis] tria |
Ogam innti, i.e. Agus do bhiodh an fleasg sin do ghnath i reiligibh na ?
ngente, agus budh fuath, le each a gabhail ann a laimh, agus gach nidh
budh ghranna leo do bhainidis [ghearradaois] tre Ogham innti."

EARLY USE OF LETTERS in

his charioteer and came to the dun or fort of the three sons
of Nechtan, he found on the lawn before the court a stone
pillar, around which was written in Ogam that every hero
who passed thereby was bound to issue a challenge. This was
clearly no cryptic writing but the ordinary script, meant to be
read by every one who passed.1 Cuchulain in the same saga
frequently cuts Ogam on wands, which he leaves in the way
of Meve's army. These are always brought to his friend
Fergus to read. Perhaps the next oldest allusion to Ogam
writing is in the thoroughly pagan "Voyage of Bran," which
both Zimmer and Kuno Meyer consider to have been com-
mitted to writing in the seventh century. We are there told
that Bran wrote the fifty or sixty quatrains of the poem in
Ogam. Again, in Cormac's Glossary 2 we find a story' of how
Lomna Finn mac Cool's fool (druth) made an Ogam and
put it in Finn's way to tell him how his wife had been
unfaithful to him. A more curious case is the story in the
Book of Leinster of Core's flying to the Court of King
Feradach in Scotland. Not knowing how he might be
received he hid in a wood near by. The King's poet, how-
ever, meets him and recognises him, having seen him before
that in Ireland. The poet notices an Ogam on the prince's
shield, and asks him, " Who was it that befriended you with
that Ogam, for it was not good luck which he designed for
you ? " " Why," asked the prince, " what does it contain ? "
" What it contains," said the poet, " is this — that if by day
you arrive at the Court of Feradach the king, your head shall
be struck off before night ; if it be at night you arrive your
head shall be struck off before morning." 3 This Ogam was

1 See Zimmer's " Summary of the Tain Bo Chuailgne," Zeit. f. vgl.,
Sprachforschung, 1887, p. 448.

2 Under the word ore trcith.

3 The classical reader need hardly be reminded of the striking resem-
blance between this and the <7r//zara \vypa which, according to Homer,
Prcetus gave the unsuspecting Bellerophon to bring to the King of Lycia,

iv Trivaict TTTVKT^ Ovfio<j)06pa TroXXa.

ii2 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

apparently readable only by the initiated, for the prince did not
himself know what he was bearing on his shield.

All ancient Irish literature, then, is unanimous in attributing
a knowledge of Ogam to the pre-Christian Irish. M. d'Arbois
de Jubainville seems also to believe in its pagan antiquity, for
when discussing the story of St. Patrick's setting a Latin
alphabet before Fiach, and of the youth's learning to read the
Psalms within the following four-and-twenty hours, he remarks
that the story is just possible since Fiach should have known
the Ogam alphabet, and except for the form of the letters it
and the Latin alphabet were the same.1

St. Patrick, too, tells us in his " Confession " how after his
flight from Ireland he saw a man coming as it were from that
country with innumerable letters, a dream that would scarcely
have visited him had he known that there was no one in
Ireland who could write letters.2

The Ogam alphabet, however, is based upon the Roman.
Of this there can be no doubt, for it contains letters which,

1 The " alphabet " laid before Fiacc, however, was not a list of letters, but
a kind of brief catechism, in Latin " Elementa." St. Patrick is said to hav
written a number of these " alphabets " with his own hand.

2 The " Confession " and Epistles attributed to St. Patrick are, by Whitle
Stokes, Todd, Ussher, and almost all other authorities, considered genuine
Recently J. V. Pflugk-Harttung, in an article in the " Neuer Heidelberge
Jahrbuch," Jahrgang Hi., Heft. I., 1893, has tried to show by interna
evidence that the " Confession " and Epistle, especially the former, are a littl
later than St. Patrick's time, and he relies strongly on this passage, sayin
that it is difficult to imagine how St. Patrick came by the idea that
man could bring him " innumerable letters from the heathen Ireland o
that time, where, except for Ogams and inscribed stones (ausser Ogham
und Skulpturzeicheri), the art of writing was as yet unknown." But seeing
that Christian missionaries were almost certainly at work in Munster a
early as the third century this contention is ridiculous. It is noteworthy
however, that even this critic seems to believe in the antiquity of the Ogam
characters. As to his main contention that the " Confession " is not the wori
of Patrick, Jubainville writes, " II ne m'a pas convaincu " (Revue Celtique
vol. xiv. p. 215), and M. L. Duchesne, commenting on Zimmer's view of St
Patrick's nebulousness, writes, " Contestir 1'authenticite de la Confession
et de la lettre a Coroticus me semble tres aventure" (Ibid., vol. xv. p. 188]
and Thurneysen also entirely refuses his credence.

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 113

according to the key, represents Q (made by five upright
strokes above the stem line), Z, and Y, none of which letters
are used in even the oldest MSS., and two of which at least must
have been borrowed from the Romans. The most, then, that
can at present be said with absolute certainty is, as Dr. Whitley
Stokes cautiously puts it, that these Ogam inscriptions and the
language in which they are couched are " enough to show 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." * The presence of these
Roman letters never used by the Irish on vellum, and the
absence of any aspirated letters (which abound even in the
oldest vellum MSS.) are additional proofs of the antiquity of
the Ogam alphabet.

The Irish themselves ascribed the invention of Ogam to
[the god] Ogma, one of the leading Tuatha De Danann,2
and although it may be, as Rhys points out, philologically
unsound to derive Ogam from Ogma, yet there appears to be
an intimate connection between the two words, and Ogma
may well be derived from Ogam, which in its early stage may
have meant fluency or learning rather than letters. Certainly
there cannot be any doubt that Ogma, the Tuatha De Danann,
was the same as the Gaulish god Ogmios of whom Lucian,
that pleasantest of Hellenes, gives us an account so delightfully
graphic that it is worth repeating in its entirety as another
proof of what I shall have more to speak about later on, the
solidarity — to use a useful Gallicism — of the Irish and the
Continental Gauls.

1 Preface to "Three Old Irish Glossaries," p. Iv. Zeuss had already
commented on the Ogams found in the St. Gall codex of Priscian, and
written thus of them, " Figurae ergo vel potius liniae ogamicae non
diversse ab his quae notantur a grammaticis hibernicis, in usu jam in hoc
vetusto codice, quidni etiarn inde a longinquis temporibus?" There are
eight Ogam sentences in a St. Gall MS. of the ninth century which have
been published by Nigra in his " Manoscritto irlandese di S. Gallo."

2 See above, p. 52, note. See O'Donovan's Grammar, p. xxviii, for the
original of the passage from the Book of Ballymote.

H

H4 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

"The Celts," * says Lucian, "call Heracles in the language of their
country Ogmios, and they make very strange representations of the
god. With them he is an extremely old man with a bald forehead
and his few remaining hairs quite grey ; his skin is wrinkled and
embrowned by the sun to that degree of swarthiness which is cha-
racteristic of men who have grown old in a seafaring life ; in fact,
you would fancy him rather to be a Charon or Japetus, one of the
dwellers in Tartarus, or anybody rather than Heracles. But although
he is of this description he is nevertheless attired like Heracles, for
he has on him the lion's skin, and he has a club in the right hand ;
he is duly equipped with a quiver, and his left hand displays a bow
stretched out, in these respects he is quite Heracles.2 It struck me
then that the Celts took such liberties with the appearance of
Heracles in order to insult the gods of the Greeks and avenge
themselves on him in their painting, because he once made a raid
on their territory, when in search of the herds of Geryon he harassed
most of the Western peoples. I have not yet, however, mentioned
the most whimsical part of the picture, for this old man Heracles
draws after him a great number of men bound by their ears, and the
bonds are slender cords wrought of gold and amber, like necklaces
of the most beautiful make ; and although they are dragged on by
such weak ties they never try to run away, though they could easily
do it, nor do they at all resist or struggle against them, planting their
feet in the ground and throwing their weight back in the direction
contrary to that in which they are being led. Quite the reverse,
they follow with joyful countenance in a merry mood, and praising
him who leads them, pressing on, one and all, and slackening their
chains in their eagerness to proceed ; in fact, they look like men
who would be grieved should they be set free. But that which
seemed to me the most absurd thing of all I will not hesitate also to
tell you : the painter, you see, had nowhere to fix the ends of the
cords since the right hand of the god held the club and his left the

1 Translated by Rhys in his " Hibbert Lectures," from Bekker's editioi
No. 7, and Dindorf's, No. 55.

2 The Gauls assimilated their pantheon to those of the Greeks am
Romans in so far as they could, and as the Greek gods are by no mear
always the equivalents of the Roman gods with whom popular opinic
equated them, still less were of course the Gaulish ; and this is a g(
case in point, for Ogmios has evidently nothing of a Hercules aboi
him, though the Gauls tried to make him the equivalent of Hercules b]
giving him the classical club and lion's skin, yet his attributes are per-
fectly different.

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 115

bow ; so he pierced the tip of his tongue and represented the people
as drawn on from it, and the god turns a smiling countenance
towards those whom he is leading. Now I stood a long time look-
ing at these things and wondered, perplexed and indignant. But
a certain Celt standing by, who knew something about our ways,
as he showed by speaking good Greek — a man who was quite
a philosopher I take it in local matters — said to me : ' Stranger,
I will tell you the secret of the painting, for you seem very
much troubled about it. We Celts do not consider the power
of speech to be Hermes as you Greeks do, but we represent it by
means of Heracles, because he is much stronger than Hermes. Nor
should you wonder at his being represented as an old man, for the
power of words is wont to show its perfection in the aged ; for your
poets are, no doubt, right when they say that the thoughts of young
men turn with every wind, and that age has something wiser to tell
us than youth. And so it is that honey pours from the tongue of that
Nestor of yours, and the Trojan orators speak with a voice of the
delicacy of the lily, a voice well covered, so to say, with bloom, for
the bloom of flowers, if my memory does not fail me, has the term
lilies applied to it. So if this old man Heracles (the power of speech)
draws men after him, tied to his tongue by their ears, you have no
reason to wonder ; as you must be aware of the close connection
between the ears and the tongue. Nor is there any injury done him
by the latter being pierced ; for I remember, said he, learning, while
among you, some comic iambics to the effect that all chattering
fellows have the tongue bored at the tip. In a word, we Celts are
of opinion that Heracles himself performed everything by the
power of words, as he was a wise fellow, and that most of his com-
pulsion was effected by persuasion. His weapons, I take it, were his
utterances, which are sharp and well-aimed, swift to pierce the
mind, and you too say that words have wings.' Thus far the
Celt."

We see, then, that the Irish legend that it was Ogma (who
is also said to have been skilled in dialects and poetry) who
invented the Ogam alphabet, so useful as a medium through
which to convey language, is quite borne out by the account
given to Lucian of the Gaulish god Ogmios, the eloquent old
man whose language was endowed with so great a charm that
he took his hearers captive. He turns, says Lucian, towards
his willing captives with a smiling face, and the Irish Ogma,

ii6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

too, is called Ogma " of the shining countenance." x Nor
does the Gaul in dressing Ogma as a Hercules appear to have
acted altogether whimsically, because not only is Ogma skilled
in poetry and dialects and the inventor of Ogam, but he is
also all through the battle of Moytura actually depicted as the
strong man of the De Danann,- strong enough to push a stone
which eighty pair of oxen could not have moved.

The modern Irish names for books, reading, writing, letters,
pens, and vellum, are all derived from the Latin.2 But there
seem to have been other names in use to designate the early
writing materials of the Irish. These were the Taibhli
Fileadh, " poets' tablets," and Tamhlorg Fileadh, which is
translated by O'Curry as poets' " headless staves." This
latter word, whatever may be the exact meaning of it, is at
least pure Gaelic. We read in the " Colloquy of the Ancients"
that St. Patrick began to feel a little uneasy at the delight
with which he listened to the stories of the ancient Fenians,
and in his over-scrupulous sanctity he feared it might be
wrong to extract such pleasure from merely mundane narra-
tions. Accordingly he consulted his two guardian angels on
the matter, but received an emphatic response from both of
them, not only to the effect that there was no harm in listening
to the stories themselves, but actually desiring him to get
them written down " in poets' tamhlorgs and in the words of
ollavs, for it will be a rejoicing to numbers and to the good
people to the end of time, to listen to those stories." 3 An

1 Grian-aineach, or " of the sunny countenance." See O'Curry MS.
Mat., p. 249. Ogma was, according to some accounts, brother of Breas,
who held the regency amongst the Tuatha De Danann for seven years,
while Nuada was getting his silver hand.

2 Leabhra, leigheadh, sgriobhadh, litreacha, pinn, meamram.

3 " A anam a naem-chleirigh ni mo ina trian a seel innisit na senlaeich ut,
or daig dermait ocus dichhuimne. Ocus sgribthar let-sa i tamlorgaibh
filed ocus i mbriathraib ollamhan, or bud gairdiugad do dronguibh ocus do
degdainib deirid aimsire eisdecht fris na scelaib sin" (" Agallamh," p. 101.

Silva Gadelica," vol. ii.) O'Grady has here translated it by " tabular staffs."
Tdibhli is evidently a Latin loan word, tabdla. The thing to be remem-
bered is that Ogam writing on staves appears to be alluded to.

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 117

ancient passage from the Brehon Laws prescribes that a poet
may carry a tabhall-lorg or tablet-staff, and O'Curry acutely
suggests that these so-called tablet-staves were of the nature of
a fan which could be closed up in the shape of a square stick,
upon the lines and angles of which the poet wrote in Ogam.
We can well imagine the almost superstitious reverence which
in rude times must have attached itself, and which as we know
did attach itself, to the man who could carry about in his
hand the whole history and genealogy of his race, and pro-
bably the catchwords of innumerable poems and the skeletons
of highly-prized narratives. It was probably through these
means that the genealogies of which I have spoken were so
accurately transmitted and kept from the third or fourth
century, and possibly from a still earlier period.

Amongst many other accounts of pre-Christian writing
there is one so curious that it is worth giving here in extenso.*

THE STORY OF BAILE MAC BUAIN, THE SWEET-SPOKEN.

" Buain's only son was Baile.3 He was specially beloved by
Aillinn,2 the daughter of Lewy,3 son of Fergus Fairge — but some say
she was the daughter of Owen, son of Dathi — and he was specially
beloved not of her only, but of every one who ever heard or saw
him, on account of his delightful stories.

" Now Baile and Aillinn made an appointment to meet at Rosnaree,
on the banks of the Boyne in Bregia. And he came from Emania
in the north to meet her, passing over Slieve Fuad and Muirthuimhne
to Traigh mBaile (Dundalk), and here he and his troops unyoked
their chariots, sent their horses out to pasture, and gave themselves
up to pleasure and happiness.

" And while they were there they saw a horrible spectral personage
coming towards them from the South. Vehement were his steps and
his rapid progress. The way he sped over the earth might be com-

1 O'Curry found this piece in the MS. marked H. 3. i8in Trinity College,
Dublin, and has printed it at page 472 of his MS. Materials. Kuno Meyer
has also edited it from a MS. in the British Museum, full of curious word-
equivalents or Kennings. ($ee " Revue Celtique," vol. xiii. p. 221. See
also a fragment of the same story in Kuno Meyer's " Hibernica Minora,"
p. 84.)

2 Pronounced " Bal-a," and " Al-yinn." 3 jn Irish, Lughaidh.

ii8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

pared to the darting of a hawk down a cliff or to wind from off the
green sea, and his left was towards the land [i.e., he came from the
south along the shore].

" ' Go meet him/ said Baile, ' and ask him where he goes, or
whence he comes, or what is the cause of his haste.'

" ' From Mount Leinster I come, and I go back now to the North,
to the mouth of the river Bann ; and I have no news but of the
daughter of Lewy, son of Fergus, who had fallen in love with Baile
mac Buain, and was coming to meet him. But the youths of Leinster
overtook her, and she died from being forcibly detained, as Druids
and fair prophets had prophesied, for they foretold that they would
never meet in life, but that they would meet after death, and not
part for ever. There is my news,' and he darted away from them
like a blast of wind over the green sea, and they were not able to
detain him.

" When Baile heard this he fell dead without life, and his tomb
and his rath were raised, and his stone set up, and his funeral games
were performed by the Ultonians.

" And a yew grew up through his grave, and the form and shape
of Baile's head was visible on the top of it— whence the place is
called Baile's Strand [now Dundalk].

" Afterwards the same man went to the South to where the maiden
Aillinn was, and went into her grianan or sunny chamber.

" * Whence comes the man whom we do not know ? ' said the
maiden.

" ' From the northern half of Erin, from the mouth of the Bann I
come, and I go past this to Mount Leinster.'

" ' You have news ? ' said the maiden.

" ' I have no news worth mentioning now, only I saw the Ultonians
performing the funeral games and digging the rath, and setting up
the stone, and writing the name of Baile mac Buain, the royal heir
of Ulster, by the side of the strand of Baile, who died while on his
way to meet a sweetheart and a beloved woman to whom he had
given affection, for it was not fated for them to mee£ in life, or for
one of them to see the other living,' and he darted out after telling
the evil news.

" And Aillinn fell dead without life, and her tomb was raised, etc.
And an apple tree grew through her grave and became a great tree
at the end of seven years, and the shape of Aillinn's head was upon
its top.

" Now at the end of seven years poets and prophets and visioners
cut down the yew which was over the grave of Baile, and they made
a poet's tablet of it, and they wrote the visions and the espousals and

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 119

the loves and the courtships of Ulster in it. [The apple tree which
grew over the grave of Aillinn was also cut down] and in like
manner the courtships of Leinster were written in it.

" There came a November eve long afterwards, and a festival was
made to celebrate it by Art, the son of Conn [of the Hundred Battles,
High-king of Ireland], and the professors of every science came to
that feast as was their custom, and they brought their tablets with
them. And these tablets also came there, and Art saw them, and
when he saw them he asked for them ; and the two tablets were
brought and he held them in his hands face to face. Suddenly the
one tablet of them sprang upon the other, and they became united
the same as a woodbine round a twig, and it was not possible to
separate them. And they were preserved like every other jewel in
the treasury at Tara until it was burned by Dunlang, son of Enna,
at the time he burnt the Princesses at Tara, as has been said

' The apple tree of noble Aillinn,
The yew of Baile — small inheritance —
Though they are introduced into poems
Unlearned people do not understand them.'

and Ailbhe, daughter of Cormac, grandson of Conn [of the Hundred
Battles] said too

* What I liken Lumluine to
Is to the Yew of Baile's rath,
What I liken the other to
Is to the Apple Tree of Aillinn.' "

So far this strange tale. But poetic as it is, it yields —
unlike most — its chief value when rationalised, for as O 'Curry
remarks, it was apparently invented to account for some in-
scribed tablets in the reign of King Art in the second century,
which had — as we ourselves have seen in the case of so
many leaves of very old manuscripts at this day — become
fastened to each other, so that they clung inextricably together
and could not be separated.

Now the massacre of the Princesses at Tara happened,
according to the " Four Masters," in the year 241, when the
tablets were burnt. Hence one of two things must be the
case ; the story must either have originated before that date to
account for the sticking together of the tablets, or else some

120 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

one must have invented it long afterwards, that is, must,
without any apparent cause, have invented a story out of his
own head, as to how there were once on a time two tablets
made of trees which once grew on two tombs which were once
fastened together before Art, son of Conn, and which were
soon afterwards unfortunately burnt. A supposition which,
considering there were then, ex hypothesi, no adhering tablets
to prompt the invention, appears at first sight improbable.

Brash, who made personal examination of almost every
Ogam known to exist, and whose standard work on the
subject reproduces most of the inscriptions discovered up to
the date of writing, was of opinion that no Ogam monument
had anything Christian about it, and that if any Christian
symbol were discovered on an Ogam stone, it must be of later
date than the Ogam writing. Dr. Graves, however, has
since shown that Ogam was in some few cases at least used
over the graves of Christians ; and he believes that all Ogam
writing is really post-Christian, despite the absence of Christian
emblems on the stones, and that it belongs to a comparatively
modern period — " in fact, for the most part, to a time between
the fifth and seventh century." x Brash's great work was
supplemented by Sir Samuel Ferguson's, and since that time
Professor Rhys2 and Dr. Whitley Stokes have thrown upon
the inscriptions themselves all the light that the highest
critical acumen equipped with the completest philological
training could do, and have, to quote Mr. Macalister,
" between them reduced to order the confusion which almost
seemed to warrant the cryptical theories, and have thereby
raised Ogam inscriptions from the position of being mere
learned playthings to a place of the highest philological im-
portance, not only in Celtic but in Indo-European epigraphy."

1 " Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," May, 1894.

2 See " Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland," vol. xxvi.
p. 263.

EARLY USE OF LETTERS 121

He himself — the latest to deal with the subject — waves for the
present as " difficult — perhaps in some measure insoluble " —
all " questions of the time, place, and manner of the develop-
ment of the Ogham script." * Rhys has traced in certain of
the inscriptions the influence exercised on the spoken language
of the Celtic people by an agglutinating pre-Celtic tongue.2
This gives us a glimpse at the pre-Aryan languages of the
British Isles, which is in the highest degree interesting.

To me it seems probable that the Irish discovered the use of
letters either through trade with the Continent or through the
Romanised Britons, at any time from the first or second century
onward. But how or why they invented the Ogam alphabet,
instead of using Roman letters, or else Greek ones like the
Gauls, is a profound mystery. One thing is certain, namely,
that the Ogam alphabet — at whatever time invented — is a
possession peculiar to the Irish Gael, and only to be found
where he made his settlements.

1 " Studies in Irish Epigraphy," London, 1897, part i., by R. A. Stewart
Macalister, who gives a most lucid study of the Ogam inscriptions in the
Barony of Corcaguiney and of a few more, with a clear and interesting
preface on the Ogam words and case-endings.

3 It is thus he explains such Ogam forms as " Ere maqi maqi-Ercias,"
i.e., [the stone] of Ere, son of, etc. But " Ere " is nominative, " maqi " is
genitive, hence " Ere maqi " must be looked upon as one word, agglu-
tinated as it were, in which the genitive ending of the "maqi" answers
for both. As a rule, however, the name of the interred is in the genitive
case in apposition to "maqi."

CHAPTER XII

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION

IT has been frequently assumed, especially by English writers,
that the pre-historic Irish, because of their remoteness from
the Continent, must have been ruder, wilder, and more un-
civilised than the inhabitants of Great Britain. But such an
assumption is — to say nothing of our literary remains — in no
way borne out by the results of archaeological research. The
contrary rather appears to be the case, that in point of wealth,
artistic feeling, and workmanship, the Irish of the Bronze Age
surpassed the inhabitants of Great Britain.

When we read such accounts as that, for example, in the
Book of Ballymote, of Cormac mac Art, taking his seat at the
assembly in Tara, all covered with gold and jewels, we must
not set it down to the perfervid imagination of the chronicler
without first consulting what Irish archaeology has to say
upon the point. The appearance of Cormac (king of Ireland
in the third century, and perhaps greatest of pre-Christian
monarchs), is thus described. "Beautiful," says the writer,
quoting probably from ancient accounts now lost, "was the
appearance of Cormac in that assembly, flowing and slightly
curling was his golden hair. A red buckler with stars and

animals of gold and fastenings of silver upon him. A crimson
122

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION 123

cloak in wide descending folds around him, fastened at his
neck with precious stones. A torque of gold around his
neck. A white shirt with a full collar, and intertwined with
red gold thread upon him. A girdle of gold, inlaid with
precious stones, was around him. Two wonderful shoes of
gold, with golden loops upon his feet. Two spears with
golden sockets in his hands, with many rivets of red bronze.
And he was himself, besides, symmetrical and beautiful of form,
without blemish or reproach." The abundance of gold orna-
ment which Cormac is here represented as wearing, is no
mere imagination of the writer's. It is founded upon the
undoubted fact that of all countries in the West of Europe
Ireland was pre-eminent for its wealth in gold. How much
wealthier was Ireland than Great Britain may be imagined
from the fact that while the collection in the British Museum
of pre-historic gold from England, Scotland, and Wales
together amounted a couple of years ago to some three dozen
ounces, that in the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin weighs five
hundred and seventy ounces. And yet the collection in the
Academy contains only a small part of the gold-finds made in
Ireland, for before 1861, when the new law about treasure-
trove came into force, great numbers of gold objects are known
to have been sold to the goldsmiths and melted down. The
wealth of Ireland in gold — some of it found and smelted in the
Wicklow mountains1 — must have at an early period deter-

1 In the Irish Annals gold is said to have been first smelted in Leinster.
As late as the last century native gold was discovered on the confines of
Wicklow and Wexford, and nuggets of 22, 18, 9, and 7 ounces are
recorded as having been found there. Mr. Coffey quotes a most interesting
account by a Mr. Weaver, director of the works established there by the Irish
Government before the Union to look for gold. "The discovery of native
gold in Ballinvally stream, at Croghan Kinshella," says Mr. Weaver, " was
at first kept secret, but being divulged, almost the whole population of the
immediate neighbourhood flocked in to gather so rich a harvest, actually
neglecting at the time the produce of their own fields. This happened about
the autumn of the year 1796, when several hundreds of people might be
seen daily assembled digging and searching for gold in the banks and bed
of the stream. Considerable quantities were thus collected ; this being as

124 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

mined continental trade in its direction, and we have seen that
Tacitus reported its harbours as being better known through
trade than those of Great Britain, or, on the most unfavour-
able reading of the passage, as being " known by commerce
and merchants."1 This is also borne out by archaeologists.
Professor Montelius, who has traced a close connection in
pre-historic times between Scandinavia and the West of
Europe,2 regards much of the pre-historic gold found in the
northern countries as Irish. Speaking of certain gold orna-
ments found in Fiinen, which show, according to him, marked
Irish influence, he writes : " Gold ornaments like these have
not been discovered elsewhere in Scandinavia, while a great
number of similar ornaments have been found in the British
Isles, especially in Ireland, whose wealth of gold in the Bronze
Age is amazing." Again he writes, " As certain of the gold

it subsequently proved the most productive spot ; and the populace
remained in undisturbed possession of the place for nearly six weeks,
when Government determined to commence active operations. . . .
Regular stream works were soon established, and up to the unhappy time
of the rebellion in May, 1798, when the works were destroyed, Government
had been fully reimbursed its advances ; the produce of the undertaking
having defrayed its own expenses and left a surplus in hand." The total
amount of gold collected from this place in the last hundred years is
valued at about £30,000. This particular spot had been probably overlooked,
as Mr. Coffey remarks, by the searchers of earlier days, but no doubt other
auriferous streams in the Wicklow mountains had given up their gold
long since in pre-historic times to the ancient workers. (See Coffey's
" Origins of Pre-historic Ornament in Ireland," p. 40.) Dr. Frazer, on the
other hand, does not believe that any great part of the gold found in
Ireland is indigenous, and talks of Spain and South Russia, and gold
plundered from Britain. But if this be the case, what an enormous pre-
historic trade Ireland must have carried on, or what a powerful invader
she must have been to come by such quantities of gold ! (So? Dr. Frazer's
paper in R. I. A. Proceedings, May, 1896). He has since supplemented
this by another in the Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries in
which he leans to the opinion that the Roman aurei, the coins plundered
from the Britons, were the real source of Irish gold.

1 See above, p. 21, note 3.

2 " Verbindungen zwischen Skandinavien und dem westlichen Europa
vor Christi Geburt" (" Archiv fur Anthropologie," vol. xix., quoted by Mr.
George Coffey in his " Origins of Pre-historic Ornament in Ireland," p. 63).

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION 125

objects found in Denmark have been introduced demonstrably
from the British Islands, probably from Ireland, the thought
is obvious — is not a great part of the other gold objects found
in Southern Scandinavia also of Irish origin, and of the
Bronze Age there ? . . . for this island [Ireland] was, during
the Bronze Age, one of the lands of Europe richest in gold."
"No other country in Europe possesses so much manufactured
gold belonging to early and mediaeval times," writes Mr.
Ernest Smith.1

It is true that the Irish Celts, despite their mineral wealth,
never minted coin, a want which has been adduced to prove
a lack of civilisation on their part. But, as Mr. Coffey points
out, coinage is a comparatively late invention ; the Egyptians
— for all their civilisation — never possessed a native coinage,
and even such ancient trading cities as Carthage and Gades did
not strike coins until a late period. " A little reflection," says
Professor Ridgeway, " shows us that it has been quite possible
for peoples to attain a high degree of civilisation without
feeling any need of what are properly termed coins." " The
absence of coinage," adds Mr. Coffey, " does not necessarily
imply the absence of a currency system, and Professor Ridge-
way has shown that the ancient Irish possessed a system of
of currency or values, and a standard of weights."

A most interesting paper by Mr. Johnson, a Dublin
jeweller, recently read before the Royal Irish Academy,2 has

1 " Notes on the Composition of Ancient Irish Gold and Silver Orna-
ments," by Ernest A. Smith, Assoc. R.S.M., F.C.S, Royal School of Mines,
London, R. I. A. Transactions, May, 1896.

2 " Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," May, 1896. The tools and
appliances necessary for producing the fine gold fibulae of a private
collector, which Mr. Johnson examined, would be, he says, " a furnace,
charcoal, crucible, mould for ingot, flux, bellows, several hammers, anvil,
swage anvil, swages, chisels for ornament, sectional tool for producing
concentric rings." On one of them, he says, " there is a thickened edge
and a beautiful moulded ornament on the outer side only, which quite
puzzles one as to how it was produced without suggesting what are con-
sidered to be modern tools."

126 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

shown with the authority due to an expert, the marvellous
skill with which the pre-historic Irish worked their gold, and
the wealth of proper appliances which they must have possessed
in order to turn out such unique and admirable results.1

The workmanship of Irish bronze articles is also very fine,
and fully equal to that of Britain, while Greenwell considers
their clay urns and food-vessels superior to the British. In
Ireland he says the urns, " and especially the food vessels, are
of better workmanship, and more elaborately and tastefully
ornamented than in most parts of Britain. Many of the food
vessels found in Argyleshire, and in other districts in the South-
west of Scotland, as might be perhaps expected, are very
Irish in character, and may claim to be equally fine in taste
and delicate in workmanship with those of Ireland." 2

The brilliant appearance of Cormac mac Art when presiding
over the assembly at Tara, covered with gold and jewels,
receives enhanced credibility from the proofs of early Irish
wealth and culture that I have just adduced. Let us glance
at Tara itself, as it existed in the time of Cormac, and see
whether archaeology can throw any light upon the ancient
accounts of that royal hill. It was round this hill that the
great Feis, or assemblage of the men of all Ireland, took place
triennially,3 with a threefold purpose — to promulgate laws
universally binding upon all Ireland ; to test, purge, and

1 A splendid find of gold ornaments made last year near the estuary of
the Foyle river, of a golden model of a boat, evidently a votive offering,
fitted with seat, mast, oars, and punting poles, an exquisitely-wrought gold
collar, decorated in relief with the most beautiful embossed work, torques,
neckchains, etc., has been dated from internal evidences as work of the
second century, the neck-chains being clearly provincial Roman work of
that date. It is to be regretted that these exquisite articles have found
their way to the British Museum, where they will be practically lost,
instead of being added to the unique Irish collection in Dublin, to which

hey properly belong.

2 Greenwell's " British Barrows," p. 62, quoted by Coffey.

3 O'Donovan, in his preface to " The Book of Rights," gives some reasons
for believing that it may have been held only septennially.

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION 127

sanction the annals and genealogies of Ireland, in the presence
of all men, so that no untruth or flaw might creep in ; and,
finally, to register the same in the great national record, in
later times called the Saltair of Tara, so that cases of disputed
succession might be peacefully settled by reference to this
central authoritative volume. The session of the men of
Ireland thus convened took place on the third day before
Samhain — November day — and ended the third day after it.
We are told that Cormac, who presided over these assemblies,1
had ten persons in constant waiting upon his person, who hardly
ever left him. These were a prince of noble blood, a druid,
a physician, a brehon, a bard, a historian, a musician, and three
stewards. And Keating tells us that the very same arrangement
was observed from Cormac's time — in the third century — to
the death of Brian Boru in the eleventh, the only alteration
being that a Christian priest was substituted for the druid.

To accommodate the chiefs and princes who came to the
great F&s, Cormac built the renowned Teach Miodhchuarta
[Toch Mee-coo-ar-ta] which was able to accommodate a
thousand persons, and which was used at once for a house of
assembly, a banqueting hall, and a sleeping abode. We have
two accounts of this hall and of the other monuments of Tara,
written, the one in poetry, the other in verse, some nine
hundred years ago. The prose of the Dinnseanchus describes
accurately the lie of the building, "to the north-west of the
eastern mound." " The ruins of this house " — it lay in ruins
then as now — " are thus situated : the lower part to the north
and the higher part to the south ; and walls are raised about it
to the east and to the west. The northern side of it is
enclosed and small, the lie of it is north and south. It is in
the form of a long house with twelve doors upon it, or
fourteen, seven to the west and seven to the east. This was
the great house of a thousand soldiers."2 Keating, follow-

1 See the Forus Feasa, p. 354 of O'Mahony's translation.

2 See Petrie's " Antiquities of Tara Hill," p. 129.

128 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

ing his ancient authorities, graphically describes the Tara
assembly.

" The nobles," he writes, " both territorial lords and captains of
bands of warriors, were each man of them, always attended by his
own proper shield-bearer. Again their banquet-halls were arranged
in the following manner, to wit, they were long narrow buildings
with tables arranged along both the opposite walls of the hall ; then
along these side walls there was placed a beam, in which were fixed
numerous hooks (one over the seat destined for each of the nobles),
and between every two of them there was but the breadth of
one shield. Upon these hooks the shanachy hung up the shields
of the nobles previously to their sitting down to the banquet, at
which they all, both lords and captains, sat each beneath his own
shield. However, the most honoured side of the house was
occupied by the territorial lords, whilst the captains of warriors *
were seated opposite to them at the other. The upper end of the
hall was the place of the ollavs, while the lower end was assigned to
the attendants and the officers in waiting. It was also prescribed
that no man should be placed opposite another at the same table,
but that all, both territorial lords and captains, should sit with their
backs towards the wall, beneath their own shields. Again, they
never admitted females into their banquet-halls ; these had a hall of
their own in which they were separately served. It was likewise the
prescribed usage to clear out the banquet-hall previous to serving
the assembled nobles therein. And no one was allowed to remain
in the building but three, namely, a Shanachy and a bolsgaire [mar-
shal or herald], and a trumpeter, the duty of which latter officer was
to summon all the guests to the banquet-hall by the sound of his
trumpet-horn. He had to sound his horn three times. At the first
blast the shield-bearers of the territorial chieftains assembled round
the door of the hall, where the marshal received from them the
shields of their lords, which he then, according to the directions of
the shanachy, hung up each in its assigned place. The trumpeter
then sounded his trumpet a second time, and the shield-bearers of
the chieftains of the military bands assembled round the door of the
banquet-hall, where the marshal received their lords' shields from
them also, and hung them up at the other side of the hall according
to the orders of the shanachy, and over the table of the warriors.
The trumpeter sounded his trumpet the third time, and thereupon

1 This seems a plain allusion to the Fenians, believed in Ireland to have
been Cormac's militia.

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION 129

both the nobles and the warrior chiefs entered the banquet-hall, and
then each man sat down beneath his own shield, and thus were all
contests for precedency avoided amongst them."

These accounts of the Dinnseanchus and of Keating, taken
from authorities now lost, will be likely to receive additional
credit when we know that the statements made nine hundred
years ago, when Tara had even then lain in ruins for four
centuries, have been verified in every essential particular by
the officers of the Ordnance Survey. The statement in the
Dinnseanchus made nearly nine hundred years ago that there
were either six or seven doors on each side, shows the condition
into which Tara had then fallen, one on each side being so
obliterated that now, also, it is difficult to say whether it was a
door or not. The length of the hall, according to Petrie's
accurate measurements, was seven hundred and sixty feet, and
its breadth was nearly ninety. There was a double row of
benches on each side, running the entire length of the hall,
which would give four rows of men if we remember that the
guests were all seated on the same side of the tables, and
allowing the ample room of three feet to each man, this would
just give accommodation to a thousand. In the middle of the
hall, running down all the way between the benches, there
was a row of fires, and just above each fire was a spit
descending from the roof, at which the joints were roasted.
There is a ground plan of the building, in the Book of Leinster,
and the figure of a cook is rudely drawn with his mouth open,
and a ladle in his hand to baste the joint. The king sat at
the southern end of the hall, and the servants and retainers
occupied the northern.

The banqueting-hall and all the other buildings at Tara
were of wood, nor is the absence of stone buildings in itself
a proof of low civilisation, since, in a country like Ireland,
abounding in timber, wood could be made to answer every
purpose — as in point of fact it does at this day over the greater
part of America, and in all northern countries where forests

i

130 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

are numerous.1 All or most Irish houses, down to the period
of the Danish invasions, were constructed of wood, or of wood
and clay mixed, or of clay and unmortared stones, and their
strongholds were of wooden pallisades planted upon clay earth-
works. This is the reason why so few remains of pre-historic
buildings have come down to us, but it is no reason for believing
that, as in Cormac's banquet-hall, rude palatial effects were not
often produced. An interesting poem in the Dialogue of the
Sages, from the Book of Lismore, describes the house of the
Lady Crede, said to have been a contemporary of Finn mac
Cumhail in the third century.2 Though the poem may not
itself be very old, it no doubt embodies many ancient truths,
and is worth quoting from. A poet comes to woo the lady, and
brings this poem with him. Finn accompanies him. When they
reached her fortress " girls, yellow-haired, of marriageable age,
showed on the balconies of her bowers." The poet sang to her—

" Happy is the house in which she is
Between men and children and women,
Between druids and musical performers,
Between cupbearers and doorkeepers.3

1 Bede mentions, if I remember rightly — I forget where — a church
built in the north of Britain, more Scotorum, robore secto, " of cleft
oak, in the Irish fashion." The Columban churches were also of
wood and wattles, contemporaneous with which were the beehive
cells of uncemented stone, probably less warm and less comfortable
than the thatched houses. " Ce que nous savons des anciens edifices
irlandais," says M. Jubainville, " donne le droit d'affirmer que la plupart
des constructions elevees a Emain macha [i.e., Emania, the capital of
Ulster, and of the Red Branch heroes, two miles west of Armagh] pendant
le periode epique de 1'histoire d'Irlande, ont du etre en bois ; cependant il
y avait etc employe au moins quelques pierres." Angus the Culdee has
a noble verse relating to the stones of Emania, the finest, perhaps, in the
whole Saltair na rann, " Emania's palace has vanished, yet its stones still
remain, but the Rome of the western world is now Glendaloch of the
gatherings," " is Ruam iarthair beatha Gleann dalach da locha."

2 Sec " Silva Gadelica," p. in, and O'Curry's MS. Materials, p. 595.

3 Aibhinn in tech in ata,
Idir fira is maca is mna, f
Idir dhruidh ocus aes ceoil,
Idir dhailiumh is dhoirseoir.

EARLY IRISH CIVILISATION 131

Between equerries without fear,
And distributors who divide [the fare],
And, over all these, the command belongs
To Crede of the yellow hair.

The colour [of her house] is like the colour of lime,
Within it are couches and green rushes (?)
Within it are silks and blue mantles,
Within it are red, gold, and crystal cups.

Of its many chambers the corner stones,
Are all of silver and yellow gold,
In faultless stripes its thatch is spread,
Of wings of brown, and of crimson red.

Two door posts of green I see,

Door not devoid of beauty,

Of carved silver, long has it been renowned,

In the lintel that is over the door.

Crede's chair is on your left hand,
The pleasantest of the pleasant it is,
All over, a blaze x of Alpine gold
At the foot of her beautiful couch.

A splendid couch in full array
Stands directly above the chair ;
It was made by Tulle in the East,
Of yellow gold and precious stones.

There is another bed on your right hand
Of gold and silver without defect,
With curtains with soft [pillows],
With graceful rods of golden-bronze.

An hundred feet spans Crede's house
From one angle to the other,
And twenty feet are fully measured
In the breadth of its noble door.

Its portico is covered, too,

With wings of birds, both yellow and blue,

Its lawn in front and its well

Of crystal and of Carmogel."

1 Thus O'Curry translates casair as if he had taken it to be lasair.
O'Grady translates " an overlay of Elpa's gold."

132 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The houses of the ancient Irish were either like Cormac's
banqueting-hall and Crede's house, built quadrilaterally of
felled trees or split planks planted upright in the earth, and
thatched overhead, or else, as was most usually the case, they
were cylindrical and made of wickerwork, with a cup-shaped
roof, plastered with clay and whitewashed. The magnificent
dimensions of Cormac's palace, verified as they are by the
careful measurements of the Ordnance Survey — a palace
certainly erected in pagan times, since Tara was deserted for
ever about the year 550 — bear evidence, like our wealth of
beautifully-wrought gold ornaments, and the superior work-
manship of our surviving articles of bronze and clay, to a high
degree of civilisation and culture amongst the pre-Christian
Irish ; I have here adduced them as bearing indirect evidence
in favour of the probability that a people so civilised would
have been likely to have seized on the invention of writing
when they first came in contact with it, and would have kept
their annals and genealogies all the more accurately from the
very fact that they were evidently so advanced in other
matters.

CHAPTER XIII

ST. PATRICK AND THE EARLY MISSIONARIES

EVEN supposing the Ogam alphabet to have been used in
pre-Christian times, though it may have been employed by
ollavs and poets to perpetuate tribal names and genealogies,
still it was much too cumbrous and clumsy an invention to
produce anything deserving the name of real literature. It is, ,
so far as we know, only with the coming of Patrick that i
Ireland may be said to have become, properly speaking, a j
literary country. The churches and monasteries established
by him soon became so many nuclei of learning, and from
the end of the fifth century a knowledge of letters seems to |
have entirely permeated the island. So suddenly does this
appear to have taken place, and so rapidly does Ireland seem
to have produced a flourishing literature of laws, poems, and
sagas, that it is very hard to believe that the inhabitants
had not, before his coming, arrived at a high state of
indigenous culture. This aspect of the case has been
recently strongly put by Dr. Sigerson. " I assert," said
he, speaking of the early Brehon laws, at the revision of
which in a Christian sense St. Patrick is said to have
assisted, " that, speaking biologically, such laws could not

133

134 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

emanate from any race whose brains have not been subject to
the quickening influence of education for many generations." T

The usual date assigned for St. Patrick's landing in Ireland
in the character of a missionary is 432, and his work among
the Irish is said to have lasted for sixty yearsy during which
time he broke down the idol Crom Cruach, burnt the
books of the druids at Tara, ordained numerous missionaries
and bishops, and succeeded in winning over to Christianity
a great number of the chiefs and sub-kings, who were in their
turn followed by their tribesmen.

St. Patrick did not work alone, nor did he come to Ireland
as a solitary pioneer of a new religion ; he was accompanied,
as we learn from his life in the Book of Armagh, by a
multitude of bishops, priests, deacons, readers, and others,2
who had crossed over along with him for the service. Several
were his own blood relations, one was his sister's son. Many
likely youths whom he met on his missionary travels he con-
verted to Christianity, taught to read, tonsured, and afterwards
ordained. These new priests thus appointed worked in all
directions, establishing churches and getting together congre-
gations from amongst the neighbouring heathen. Unable to
give proper attention to the teaching of the youths whom he
elected as his helpers, so long as he himself was engaged in
journeying through Ireland from point to point, he, after about
twenty years of peripatetic teaching, established at Armagh
about the year 450 the first Christian school ever founded in
Ireland, the progenitor of that long line of colleges which made
Ireland famous throughout Europe, and to which, two hundred
years later, her Anglo-Saxon neighbours flocked in thousands. 3

1 " Contemporary Review."

2 So Tirechan, in Book of Armagh, fol. 9. " Et secum fuit multitude
episcoporum sanctorum et presbiterorum, et diaconorum, ac exorcis-
tarum, hostiarium, lectorumque, necnon filiorum quos ordinavit."

3 So many English were attracted to Armagh in the seventh century
that the city was divided into three wards, or thirds, one of which was
called the Saxon Third.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 135

The equipments of these newly-made priests was of the
scantiest. Each, as he was sent forth, received an alphabet-
of-the-faith or elementary-explanation of the Christian doc-
trine, frequently written by Patrick himself, a "Liber ordinis,"
or " Mass Book," a written form for the administration of
the sacraments, a psaltery, and, if it could be spared, a copy of
the Gospels.1 A good-sized retinue followed Patrick in all his
journeyings, ready to supply with their own hands all things
necessary for the new churches established by the saint, as
well as to minister to his own wants. He travelled with his
episcopal coadjutor, his psalm-singer, his assistant priest, his
judge — originally a Brehon by profession, whom he found most
useful in adjudicating on disputed questions — a personal cham-
pion to protect him from sudden attack and to carry him
through floods and other obstacles, an attendant on himself,
a bellringer, a cook, a brewer, a chaplain at the table, two
waiters, and others who provided food and accommodation for
himself and his household. He had in his company three
smiths, three artificers, and three ladies who embroidered.
His smiths and artificers made altars, book-covers, bells, and
helped to erect his wooden churches ; the ladies, one of them
his own sister, made vestments and altar linens.2

St. Patrick was essentially a man of work and not of letters,
and yet it so happens that he is the earliest Irish writer of
whom we can say with confidence that what is ascribed to him
is really his. And here it is as well to say something about
the genuineness of St. Patrick's personality and the authen-
ticity of his writings, for the opinion started by Ledwich has
gone abroad, and has somehow become prevalent, that St.
Patrick's personality is nearly as nebulous as that of King
Arthur or of Finn mac Cumhail, and at the best is made up of
a number of little Patricks lumped into one great one. That

1 See Dr. Healy's " Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars," p. 64.

2 There is a curious poem on St. Patrick's family of artificers quoted in
the " Four Masters " under A.D. 278.

136 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

there was more than one Patrick * is certain,2 and that the
great Saint Patrick who wrote the "Confession" may have got
credit in the early Latin and later Irish lives for the acts of
others, is perfectly possible, but that most of the essential
features of his life are true, is beyond all doubt, and we
have a manuscript 1091 years old, apparently copied from
his own handwriting, and containing his own confession and
apologia.

How this exquisite manuscript, consisting of 21 6 vellum
leaves, written in double columns, has happily been preserved
to us, we shall not lose time in inquiring ; but how its exact
date has been ascertained through what Dr. Reeves has charac-
terised as "one of the most elegant and recondite demonstrations

1 There were no less than twenty-two saints of the name of Colum, yet
that does not detract one iota from the genuineness of the life of the great
Colum, called Columcille. There were fourteen St. Brendans, there
were twenty-five St. Ciarans, and fifteen St. Brigits.

How Ledwich — who, however, as O' Donovan remarks, looks at every-
thing Irish with a jaundiced eye — could have written down St. Patrick
as a myth is inconceivable, in the face of the fact that he was already
recognised in the sixth century as a great saint. The earliest mention of
him' is probably St. Columba's subscription to the Book of Durrow, in
the sixth century, which runs : "Rogo beatitudinem tuam Sancte Presbyter
Patrici, ut quicumque hunc libellum manu tenuerit Columbse Scriptoris,
qui hoc scripsi . . . met evangelium per xii. dierum spatium." Here we
see a prayer already addressed to him as a national saint.

- This is clearly shown by the 56th chap, of Tirechan's life fol. i6aa
of the Book of Armagh, where he makes the following statement :
"XIII. Anno Teothosii imperatoris a Celestino episcopo papa Romae
Patricius episcopus ad doctrinam Scottorum mittitur. Qui Celestinus
XLVII episcopus fuit a Petro apostolo in urbe Roma. Paladius episcopus
primus mittitur [in the year 430, according to Bede] qui Patricius alio
nomine appellabatur, qui martirium passus est apud Scottos, ut tradunt
sancti antiqui. Deinde Patricius secundus ab anguelo Dei, Victor nomine,
et a Celestino papa mittitur, cui Hibernia tota credidit, qui earn pene
totam bab [titzavit] ." Also it is to be observed that St. Patrick's life
according to the usual computations, covers 120 years, which seems an
improbably long period. According to the Brussels Codex of Muirchu
Maccu Machteni's life, he died a passiom Domini nostri 436 ; the author, no
doubt, imagined the passion to have taken place in A.D. 34 ; this would fix
Patrick's death as in 470. See p. 20 of Father Hogan's " Documenta
ex Libro Armachano," and with this Tirechan also agrees, saying

ST. PA TRICK AND EARL Y MISSIONARIES 137

which any learned society has on record, is worth mentioning."
The Rev. Charles Graves, the present Bishop of Limerick,
made a thorough examination of the whole codex when, after
many vicissitudes and hair-breadth escapes from destruction, it
had been temporarily deposited in the Royal Irish Academy.
Knowing, as O'Curry pointed out, that it was the custom for
Irish scribes to sign their own names, with usually some par-
ticulars about their writing, at the end of each piece they
copied, he made a careful search and discovered that this
had actually been done in the Book of Armagh, and in
no less than eight places, but that on every spot where it
occurred it had been erased for some apparently inscrutable
reason, with the greatest pains. In the last place but one,

"A passione autem christi colleguntur anni ccccxxxvi. usque ad
mortem Patricii." Tirechan curiously contradicts himself in saying,
" Duobus autem vel v annis regnavit Loiguire post mortem Patricii, omnis
autem regni illius tempus xxxvi. ut putamus," in chap, ii., and in chap,
liii. he says that Patrick taught (i.e., in Ireland) for 72 years ! He
evidently compiled badly from two different documents.

The only cogent reason for doubting about the reality of St. Patrick is
that he is not mentioned in the Chronicon of Prosper, which comes down
to the year 455, and which ascribes the conversion of Ireland to Palladius,
as does Bede afterwards. It is the silence of Prosper and Bede about
any one of the name of Patrick which has cast doubt upon his existence.
A most ingenious theory has been propounded by Father E. O'Brien in
the " Irish Ecclesiastical Record " to explain this. According to him Patrick
is the Palladius of Prosper and Bede. The earliest lives, and the scholiast
on Fiacc's hymn, tell us that Patrick had four names ; one of these was
Succat " qui est deus belli," but Palladius is the Latin of Patrick's name
(succat). The Dens belli could only be rendered into Latin by the words
Arius Martius or Palladius, these being the only names drawn from war-
gods, and. of these Palladius was the commonest. It seems not unlikely
that the Patrick who wrote the " Confession" and converted Ireland is the
Palladius of Bede and Prosper, who also converted Ireland. The Paladius
of Tirechan who failed to convert Ireland is evidently another person
altogether.

It is to be remarked that although Bede never mentions Patrick in his
"Ecclesiastical History," nevertheless in the " Martyrology " — found by
Mabillon at Rheims, and attributed to Bede, Patrick is distinctly com-
memorated—

" Patricius Domini servus conscendit ad aulam,
Cuthbertus ternas tenuit denasque Kalendas."

138 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

however, where the colophon occurred, the process of erasure
had been less thorough than in the others, and after long con-
sideration, and treatment of the erasure with gallic acid and
spirits of wine, Dr. Graves discovered that the words so care-
fully rubbed out were Pro Ferdomnacho ores, " Pray for Fer-
domnach." Turning to the other places, he found that the
erased words in at least one other place were evidently the
same. This settled the name of the scribe ; he was Ferdom-
nach. The next step was to search the " Four Masters," who
record the existence of two scribes of that name who died at
Armagh, one in 726 and the other in 844. One of these it
must have been who wrote the Book of Armagh, — but
which ? This also Dr. Graves discovered, with the greatest
ingenuity. At the foot of Fols. 52-6 he was, with extreme
difficulty, able to decipher the words . . . ach hunc . . .
e dictante . . . ach herede Patridi scrtpsit. From these stray
syllables he surmised that Ferdomnach had written the book
at the bidding of some Archbishop of Armagh whose name
ended in ach. For this the Psalter of Cashel, Leabhar Breac,
and " Four Masters," were consulted, and it was found that
one Archbishop Senaach died in 609 ; it could not then have
been by his commands the book was written by the first
Ferdomnach ; then came, after a long interval, Faoindea-
lach, who died in 794, Connmach, who died in 806,
and Torbach, who held the primacy for one year after
him. On examining the hiatus it was found that the
letter which preceded the fragment ach could not have been
either an / or an m, but might have been a by thus putting out
of the question the names of Connmach and Faoindealach.
Besides the vacant space before the ach was just sufficient to
admit of the letters T0r, but not Conny much less Faoindea.
The conclusion was obvious : the passage ran, Ferdomnach
hunc librum e dictante Torbach herede Patricii scripsit, "Fer-
domnach wrote this book at the dictation (or command) of
Torbach, Patrick's heir (successor)." Torbach, as we have

ST. PA TRICK AND EARL Y MISSIONARIES 139

seen, became Archbishop in 806 and died in 807. The date
was in this way recovered.1

I have been thus particular in tracing the steps by which
the age of this manuscript came to light, because it contains the
earliest piece of certain Irish literature we have, the "Confession
of St. Patrick." Now the usually accepted date of St. Patrick's
death, as given in the Annals of Ulster, is 4.92, about three hundred
years before that, and Ferdomnach, the scribe, after copying it,
added these words : " Hue usque volumen quod patricius manu
comer ipsit sua. Septimadecima martil die translate est patricius ad
ceelosy i.e., " thus far the volume which Patrick wrote with his own
hand. On the seventeenth day of March was Patrick translated
to the heavens." It would appear highly probable from this
that Ferdomnach actually copied from St. Patrick's autograph,2
which had become so defaced or faded during the three previous
centuries, that the scribe has written in many places incertus
liber hie, " the book is uncertain here," or else put a note 3 of

1 For the full particulars of this acute discovery, which sets the date of
the codex beyond doubt or cavil, see Dr. Graves' paper read before the
Royal Irish Academy, vol. iii. pp. 316-324, and a supplementary paper
giving other cogent reasons, vol. iii. p. 358. According to O'Donovan, the
" Four Masters " antedate here by five years. It is worth remarking that
Torbach, who caused this copy to be made, was himself a noted scribe.
His death in 807 is recorded in the " Four Masters" and in the "Annals
of Ulster," we read " Torbach, son of Gorman, scribe, lector, and Abbot of
Armagh, died."

2 There are several passages omitted in the Book of Armagh, which
are found in an ancient Brussels MS. of the eleventh century. These were
probably omitted from the Book of Armagh because they were unde-
cipherable. The Brussels MS. and others contain nearly as much again as it,
and there are many proofs that this extra matter is not of later or spurious
origin ; thus Tirechan refers to Patrick's own records, "ut in scriptionesua
affirmai" for evidence of a fact not mentioned in the " Confession" as given
in the Book of Armagh, but which is supplied by the other MSS., namely, that
Patrick paid the price of fifteen " souls of men," or slaves, for protection
on his missionary journey across Ireland. The frequent occurrence of
dcest, et cetera, et rdiqua, show that the Armagh copy of the ''Confession"
is nothing like a full one. The Brussels MS. formerly belonged to the
Irish monastery of Wurzburg.

3 See p. 36, note 2.

140 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

interrogation to indicate that he was not sure whether he had
copied the text correctly. It will be seen from this that there
was not the slightest trace of any concealment on the part of
the scribe as to who he himself was, or what he was copying ;
there was no attempt to antedate his own writing, or to
suggest that his copy was an original. But long after the
scribe's generation had passed away and the origin of his work
been forgotten, the volume which at first had been regarded
only as a fine transcript of early documents, became known as
"Canon Phadraig," or Patrick's Testament, and popular
opinion, relying on the colophon " thus far the book which
Patrick wrote with his own hand," set down the work as the
saint's autograph. The belief that the volume was St.
Patrick's own autograph of course enhanced enormously its
value, and with it the dignity of its possessors, and the
unscrupulous plan was resolved on of erasing the signature of
the actual scribe. The veneration of the public was thus
secured by interested persons at the cost of truth, and the
deception probably lasted so long as the possession of such
a volume brought with it either credit or dignity. This same
volume * has another interest attaching to it, so that we
cannot but felicitate ourselves that out of the wreck of so
many thousands of volumes, it has been spared to us — it was
brought to Brian Boru, when in the year 1004 he went upon
his royal progress through Ireland, the first man of the race
of Eber who had attained the proud position of monarch
or Ard-righ for many centuries, and he, by the hand of
his secretary, made an entry which may still be seen to-
day, confirming the primacy of Armagh, and re-granting to it

1 The other contents of the Book of Armagh, besides the Patrician
documents, are a copy of the New Testament, enriched with concordance
tables and illustrative matter from Jerome, Hilary, and Pelagius. It
includes the Epistle to the Laodiceans attributed to St. Paul, but it is j
mentioned that Jerome denied its authenticity. There are some pieces
relating to St. Martin of Tours, and the Patrician pieces — the Life, the
Collectanea, the Book of the Angel, and the " Confession."

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 141

the episcopal supremacy of Ireland which it had always
enjoyed.1

It is now time to glance at St. Patrick's " Confession," as it
is usually called, though in reality it is much more of the
nature of an apologia pro vita sua. The evidence in favour of
its authenticity is overwhelming, and is accepted by such
cautious scholars as Stokes,2 Todd, and Reeves, no first-rate
critic, with perhaps one exception, having so far as I know
ever ventured to question its genuineness. It is impossible to
assign any motive for a forgery, and casual references to
Decuriones, Slave-traffic, and to the " Brittaniae," or Britains,
bear testimony to its antiquity. Again, the Latin in which it
is written is barbarous in the extreme, the periods are rude,
sometimes ungrammatical, often nearly unintelligible. He
begins by telling us that his object in writing this confession
in his old age was to defend himself from the charge of
presumptuousness in undertaking the work he tried to perform
amongst the Irish. He tells us that he had many toils and
perils to surmount, and much to endure while engaged upon
it. He never received one farthing for all his preaching and
teaching. The people indeed were generous, and offered
many gifts, and cast precious things upon the altar, but he
would not receive them lest he might afford the unrighteous
an occasion to cavil. He was still encompassed about with
dangers, but he heeded them not, looking to the success which
had attended his efforts, how " the sons of the Scots and the

1 " Sanctus Patricus iens ad ccelum mandavit totum fructum laboris sui
tarn baptism! tarn causarum quam elemoisinarum deferendum esse
apostolicse urbi quae scotice nominatur ardd-macha. Sic reperi in Biblio-
thics Scotorum. Ego scripsi, id est Caluus Perennis, in conspectu Briain
imperatoris Scotorum, et quod scripsi finituit pro omnibus regibus Maceriae
[i.e., Cashel]." " Calvus Perennis " is the Latin translation of Mael-suthain,
Brian's scribe and secretary. For a curious story about this Mael-suthain,
see p. 779 O'Curry's MS. Materials.

3 See above p. 112, note 2. It has been printed in Haddan and Stubb's,
" Councils," etc., vol. ii. p. 296, and also admirably in Gilbert's facsimiles
of National MSS.

I42 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

daughters of their princes became monks and virgins of Christ,"
and "the number of holy widows and of continent maidens was
countless." It would be tedious were he to recount even a
portion of what he had gone through. Twelve times had his
life been endangered, but God had rescued him, and brought
him safe from all plots and ambuscades and rewarded him for
leaving his parents, and friends, and country, heeding neither
their prayers nor their tears, that he might preach the gospel
in Ireland. He appeals to all he had converted, and to all who
knew him, to say whether he had not refused all gifts — nay, it
was he himself who gave the gifts, to the kings and to their
sons, and oftentimes was he robbed and plundered of everything,
and once had he been bound in fetters of iron for fourteen days
until God had delivered him, and even still while writing this !
confession he was living in poverty and misery, expecting
death or slavery, or other evil. He prays earnestly for one j
thing only, that he may persevere, and not lose the people
whom God has given to him at the very extremity of the j
world.

Unhappily this " Confession" is a most unsatisfying composi- j
tion, for it omits to mention almost everything of most interest j
relating to the saint himself and to his mission. What floods
of light might it have thrown upon a score of vexed questions, j
how it might have set at rest for ever theories on druidism, j
kingship, social life, his own birthplace, his mission from Rome,1]
his captors. Even of himself he tells us next to nothing,?
except that his father's name was Calpornus, 2 the son ofi

1 It has often been said that the life of the saint in the Book of Armagh ,
ignores the Roman Mission. But while the life of Muirchu Maccu \
Machteni does ignore it, Tirechan's his contemporary's, life, in the same s
book, distinctly acknowledges it, in these words, "deinde Patricius se-j
cundus ab anguelo dei, Victor nomine, et a Celestino papa mittitur cui
Hibernia tola credidit, qui earn pene totam bap[titzavit]." (See chap. 56 ofi
Tirechan's life.)

2 In Irish he is usually called Son of Alprann or Alplann, the C of:
Calpornus being evidently taken as belonging to the Mac, thus Mac Cal-;j
prainn became Mac Alprainn. In the Brussels Codex of Muirchu Maccu !

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 143

Potitus, the son of Odissus, a priest, and that he dwelt in the
vicus or township of Benaven Taberniae ; he had also a small
villa not far off, where he tells us he was made captive at
the age of about sixteen years. Because his Christian training
was bad, and he was not obedient to the priests when they
admonished him to seek for salvation, therefore God punished
him, and brought him into captivity in a strange land at the
end of the world. When he was brought to Ireland he tells
us that his daily task was to feed cattle, and then the love of
God entered into his heart, and he used to rise before the sun
and pray in the woods and mountains, in the rain, the hail, and
the snow. Then there came to him one night a voice in his
sleep saying to him " Your ship is ready," and he departed and
went for two hundred miles, until he reached a port where
he knew no one. This was after six years' captivity. The
master of the ship would not take him on board, but afterwards
he relented just as Patrick was about to return to the cottage
where he had got lodging. He succeeded at last in reaching
the home of his parents in 'Britannls [i.e., in some part of
Britain, including Scotland], and his parents besought him,
now that he had returned from so many perils, to remain with
them always. But the angel Victor came in the guise of a
man from Ireland, and gave him a letter, in which the voice of
the Irish called him away, and the voices of those who dwelt
near the wood of Focluth called him to walk amongst them,
and the spirit of God, too, urged him to return.1

Machteni's life, however, he is called Alforni filius, and the place of his
birth is called Ban navem thabur indecha, supposed to be Killpatrick, near
Dumbarton, in Scotland, which is evidently a corruption of his own
Bannaven Taberniae, which seems to mean River-head Tavern ; it may be
from the two words navem thabur that St. Fiacc's hymn says that he was
born in nemthur. Patrick himself only gives us two generations of his
ancestry, and it is very significant of Irish ways to find Flann of
Monasterboice, running it up to fourteen !

1 It is worth while to transcribe this passage as a fair specimen of St.
Patrick's style and latinity. " Et ibi scilicet in sinu noctis virum venientem
quasi de Hiberione cui nomen Victoricus, cum sepistulis innumerabilibus

144 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

He says nothing of his training, or his ordination, or his long
sojourn in Gaul, or of St. Germanus, with whom he studied
according to the " Lives," but he alludes incidentally to his
wish to see his parents and his native Britain, and to revisit the
brethren in Gaul, and to see the face of God's saints there ; but
though he desired all this, he would not leave his beloved
converts, but would spend the rest of his life amongst them.1

From this brief resume of the celebrated "Confession" it will
be seen that it is the perfervid outpouring of a zealous early
Christian, anxious only to clear himself from the charges of
worldliness or carelessness, and absolutely devoid of those
appeals to general interest which we meet with in most of
such memoirs, but there is a vein of warm piety running
through the whole, and an abundance of scriptural quotations
— all, of course, from the ante-Hieronymian or pre-Vulgate
version, another proof of antiquity — which has caused it to be
remarked that a forger might, perhaps, write equally bad Latin,
but could hardly "forge the spirit that breathes in the language
which is the manifest outpourings of a heart like unto the
heart of St. Paul." 2

There are two other pieces of literature assigned to St.
Patrick, as well as the " Confession " ; these are the " Epistle to
Coroticus " in Latin, and the " Deer's Cry " in Irish. Tl

vidi ; et dedit mihi unam ex his et legi principium sepistolae continental
' Uox Hiberionacum.' Et dum recitabam principium aepistolae, putabai
enim ipse in mente audire vocem ipsorum qtii erant juxta silvam Foclut
[in the county Mayo] quae est prope mare occidentale. Et sic exclam-
averunt : ' Rogamus te sancte puer ut venias et adhuc ambulas inter nos.'
Et valde compunctus sum corde, et amplius non potui legere. Et sic
expertus {i.e. experrectus] sum. Deo gratias quia post plurimos ann<
prsestitit illis Dominus secundum clamorum illorum " (Folio 23, 66, Bool
of Armagh, p. 126 of Father Hogan's Bollandist edition).

1 The " Confession " ends with a certain rough eloquence : " Christi
Dominus pauper fuit pro nobis ; ego vero miser et infelix, et si
voluero jam non habeo ; neque me ipsum judico quia quotidie spero aut
internicionem aut circumveniri, aut redigi in servitatem, sive occassic
cujus-libet. . . Et haec est confessio mea antequam moriar."

2 Dr. Healy's " Ireland's Ancient Schools and Scholars," p. 68.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 145

Epistle is not found in the Book of Armagh, but it is found
in other MSS. as old as the tenth or eleventh century, and
bears such close resemblance in style and language to the
" Confession," whole phrases actually occurring in both, that it
also has generally been regarded as genuine.1 There is some
doubt as to who Coroticus was, but he seems to have been a
semi-Christian king of Dumbarton who, along with some Scots,
i.e., Irish, and the Southern Picts who had fallen away from
Christianity, raided the eastern shores of Ireland and carried
off a number of St. Patrick's newly-converted Christians,
leaving the white garments of the neophytes stained with
blood, and hurrying into captivity numbers upon whose fore-
heads the holy oil of confirmation was still glistening. The
first letter was to ask Coroticus to restore the captives, and
when this request was derided the next was sent, excommuni-
cating him and all his aiders and abettors, calling upon all
Christians neither to eat nor drink in their company until
they had made expiation for their crimes. Patrick himself
had, he here explains, preached the gospel to the Irish nation
for the sake of God, though they had made him a captive and
destroyed the men-servants and maids of his father's house.
He had been born a freedman and a noble, the son of a
decurio or prefect, but he had sold his nobility for others and
regretted it not. His lament over the loss of his converts is
touching : " Oh ! my most beautiful and most loving brothers
and children whom in countless numbers I have begotten in
Christ, what shall I do for you ? Am I so unworthy before
God and men that I cannot help you ? Is it a crime to have
been born in Ireland ? 2 And have we not the same God as
they have ? I sorrow for you, yet I rejoice, for if ye are taken
from the world ye are believers through me, and are gone to
Paradise."

1 It is printed by Haddan and Stubbs, " Councils," etc., vol. ii. p. 314.

2 This is certainly the first time on record that this question— so often
repeated since in so many different forms — was asked.

K

146 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The "Cry of the Deer," or "Lorica," as it is also called, is in
Irish. The saint is said to have made it when on his way to
visit King Laoghaire [Leary] at Tara, and the assassins who
had been planted by the king to slay him and his companions
thought as he chanted this hymn that it was a herd of deer
that passed them by, and thus they escaped. The metre of
the original is a kind of unrhymed or half-rhymed rhapsody,
called in Irish a Rosg, and is perfectly unadorned. The
language, however, though very old, has of course been
modified in the process of transcription. Patrick calls upon
the Trinity to protect him that day at Tara, and to bind to
him the power of the elements.

I bind me to-day x

God's might to direct me,
God's power to protect me,
God's wisdom for learning,
God's eye for discerning,
God's ear for my hearing,
God's word for my clearing,
God's hand for my cover,
God's path to pass over,
God's buckler to guard me,
God's army to ward me,

Against snares of the devils,

Against vices, temptations,

1 See the original in Windsch's " Irische Texte," I. p. 53, and Todd's
" Liber Hymnorum " —

" Atomrigh indiu niurt De dom luamaracht
Cumachta De dom chumgabail
Ciall De domm imttms
Rose De dom reimcise,
Cluas De dom estecht
Briathar De dom erlabrai,
Lam De domm imdegail
Intech De dom remthechtas.
Sciath De dom ditin
Sochraite De domm anucul
Ar intledaib demna
Ar aslaigthib dualche
Ar cech nduine miduthrastar dam,
icein ocus i n-ocus
i n-uathed ocus hi sochaide," etc.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 147

Against wrong inclinations,
Against men who plot evils

To hurt me anew,
Anear or afar with many or few.

Christ near, Christ here,

Christ be with me,

Christ beneath me,

Christ within me,

Christ behind me,

Christ be o'er me,

Christ before me,
Christ in the left and the right,

Christ hither and thither,

Christ in the sight,
Of each eye that shall seek me," * etc.

In the Book ot Armagh, in the last chapter of Tirechan's
life, St. Patrick is declared to be entitled to four honours in
every church and monastery of the island. One of these
honours was that the hymn written by St. Seachnall, his
nephew, in praise of himself, was to be sung in the churches
during the days when his festival was being celebrated, and
another was that " his Irish canticle " was to be always sung,2
apparently all the year through, in the liturgy, but perhaps only
during the week of his festival. The Irish canticle is evidently

1 Thus translated almost literally by Dr. Sigerson, " Bards of the Gael
and Gall," p. 138. This is not the only poem attributed to St. Patrick,
several others are ascribed to him in the "Tripartite Life," and a MS. in the
Bibliotheque Royale contains three others. Eight lines of one of them is
found in the Vatican Codex of Mananus .Scotus and are given by Zeuss
in his " Grammatica Celtica," p. 961, second edition. The lines there given
refer to St. Brigit. There is also a rann attributed to St. Patrick quoted
by the "Four Masters," and the "Chronicon Scotorum" attributes to him a
rann on Bishop Ere.

2 " Canticum ejus scotticum semper canere," which a marginal note in
the book explains as Ymnns Comanulo, which Father Hogan interprets as
proteciio Clamoris, adding "ac proinde synonymavoci Faith Fiada," which
has been interpreted clamor cnstodis or "The Guardsman's Cry " by Stokes.
The poem, then, was extant in the seventh century, was attributed to St.

itrick, and was sung in the churches — a strong argument for its
thenticity.

148 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

this " Lorica," which was, as we see from this notice in the
Book of Armagh, believed to be his in the seventh century,
and it has been sung under that belief from that day almost to
our own.1

The other hymn, the singing of which at his festival is
alluded to as one of St. Patrick's " honours," was composed
by Seachnall [Shaughnal],2 a nephew of St. Patrick's, in lauda-
tion of the saint himself. It is a very interesting piece of
rough latinity, and is generally regarded as genuine. The
occasion of its composition deserves to be told, for it casts a
ray of light on the prudential and self-restrained side of St.
Patrick's character, which no doubt contributed largely to his
success when working in the midst of his wavering converts.
Seachnall said that Patrick's preaching would be perfect if he
only insisted a little more on the necessity of giving, for then
more property and land would be at the disposal of the Church
for pious uses. This remark of his nephew was repeated to
St. Patrick, who was very much annoyed at it, and said
beautifully, that " for the sake of charity he forbore to preach
charity," and intimated that the holy men who should come
after him might benefit by the offerings of the faithful which
he had left untouched. Then Seachnall, grieved at having
thus pained his uncle, and anxious to win his regard again,

1 " Even to this day," says Dr. Healy, in " Ireland's Ancient Schools and
Scholars," p. 77, " the original is chanted by the peasantry of the south
and west in the ancestral tongue, and it is regarded as ;i strong shield
against all dangers natural or supernatural." I, myself, however, in
collecting the " Religious Songs of Connacht," have found no trace of this,
and I am not sure that the learned Bishop of Clonfert, led astray by
Petrie, is not here confounding it with the " Marainn Phadraig," which
mysterious piece is implicitly believed to be the work of St. Patrick,
and is still recited all over the west, with the belief that there is a peculiar
virtue attached to it. I have even known money to have been paid for its
recital in the west of Gal way, as a preventive of evil. For this curious
piece, which is to me at least more than half unintelligible, see my

' Religious Songs of Connacht." It appears to have been founded upon
an incident similar to that recorded by Muirchu Maccu Machteni, book
. chap. 26.

2 Of Dunshaughlin recte Dunsaughnil (Domhnach Seachnaill) in Meath.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 149

composed a poem of twenty-two stanzas each beginning with a
different letter, with four lines of fifteen syllables in each verse.1
When he had done this he asked permission of Patrick to
recite to him a poem which he had composed in praise of a
holy man, and when Patrick said that he would gladly hear
the praises of any of God's household, the poet adroitly
suppressing Patrick's name which occurs in the first verse,
recited it for him. Patrick was pleased, but interupted the
poet at one stanza when he said that the subject of his lauda-
tions was maximus in regno cezlorumf "the greatest in the
kingdom of heaven," asking how could that be said of any

1 As this was probably the first poem in Latin ever composed in Ireland,
it deserves some consideration. It is a sort of trochaic tetrameter cata-
lectic, of the very rudest type. The ictus, or stress of the voice, which is
supposed to fall on the first syllable of the first, third, fifth, and seventh
feet, seldom corresponds with the accent. The elision of "m" before a vowel
is disregarded, no quantities are observed, and the solitary rule of prosody
kept is that the second syllable of the seventh foot is always short, with
the exception of one word, indutus, which the poet probably pronounced
as indiitus. The third verse runs thus, with an evident effort at vowel
rhyme (" Liber Hymnorum," vol. i. p. n).

"Beati Christi custodit mandata in omnibus
Cujus opera refulgent clara inter homines."

Muratori printed this hymn, from the so-called Antiphonary of Bangor,
a MS. of the eight century preserved in the Ambrosian Library. The
rude metre is that employed by Hilary in his hymn beginning —

" Ymnum dicat turba fratrum, ymnum cantus personet,"

which, as Stokes points out, is the same as that of the Roman soldiers,
preserved in Suetonius,

" Cassar Gallias subegit, Nicomedes Caesarem."

The internal evidence of the antiquity of this hymn is " strong," says
Stokes, "first, the use of the present tense in describing the saint's actions ;
secondly, the absence of all reference to the miracles with which the
Tripartite and other lives are crowded ; and, thirdly, the absence of all
allusion to the Roman mission on which many later writers from Tirechan
downwards insist with much persistency." We may then, I think, receive
this hymn as authentic.

2 " Maximus namque in regno caslorum vocabitur,

§ui quod verbis docet sacris factis adimplet bonis ;
ono procedit exemplo formamque fidelium
Mundoque in corde habet ad Deum fiduciam."

ISO LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

man. Maximusy ingeniously replied Seachnall, does not here
mean "greatest," but only "very great." He then disclosed to
his uncle that he himself was the object of the poem, and
asked — like all bards — for the reward for it, whereupon Patrick
promised that to all who recited the hymn piously morning
and evening, God in His mercy might give the glory of
heaven. "I am content with that award," said the poet, "but
as the hymn is long and difficult to be remembered I wish you
would obtain the same reward for whosoever recites even a part
of it." Whereupon St. Patrick promised that the recitation
of the last three verses would be sufficient, and his nephew
was satisfied, having proved himself the first poet of Christian
Ireland, and having obtained such a reward for his verses as
neither bard nor ollav had ever obtained before him. It was
probably this same Seachnall who was the author of the much
finer hymn of eleven verses which used to be sung in the old
Irish churches at communion —

" Sancti venite

Christ! corpus sumitc,
Sanctum bibentes
Quo redempti sanguinem.
Salvati Christ!

Corpore et sanguine,
A quo refect!
Laudes dicamus Deo.

Hoc sacramento

Corporis et sanguinis

Omnes exuti

Ab inferni faucibus," etc.

The legend in the Leabhar Breac has it that this hymn was
first chanted during the holy communion by the angels in
his church, on the reconciliation between himself and Saint
Patrick, whence the origin of chanting it during the com-
munion service.

The Book of Armagh contains the two earliest lives of
the national saint that we have, probably the two earliest

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 151

biographies of any size ever composed in Ireland. They are
written in rude Latin, with a good deal of Irish place-names
and Irish words intermixed, the first by one Muirchu Maccu
Machteni,1 who tells us that he wrote at the instigation of
Aed, bishop of Sletty, who, as we know from the " Four
Masters," died about 698, and the second by Tirechan, who
says he received his knowledge of the saint from the lips and
writings of Bishop Ultan,2 his tutor, who died in 656, and
who, supposing him to have been seventy or eighty years old
at the time of his death, must have been born only eighty or
ninety years after the death of St. Patrick himself. Both of
these writers appear to have had older memoirs to draw on,
for Muirchu says that many had before them endeavoured to
write the history of St. Patrick from what their fathers and
those who were ministers of the Word from the beginning
had told them, though none had ever succeeded in producing a
proper biography, 3 and in Tirechan's life of him in the Book
of Armagh — an evident patchwork — we read that all his
godly doings had been brought together 4 and collected by the

1 In the " Martyrology of Tallaght " this curious name is written Mac
hui Machteni, i.e., the son of the grandson of Machtenus, or Muirchu, i.e.,
Murrough, descendant of Machtenus, and the Leabhar Breac has this
note at the name of Muirchu : " civitas ejus in uib Foelan, i.e., mac hui
Mathcene," thereby giving us to understand that he was a native of what
is the present county of Waterford. Maccumachteni is not a surname,
for these were not introduced into Ireland for three centuries later.

2 " Omnia quse scripsi a principio libri hujus scitis quia in vestris
regionibus gesta sunt, nizi de eis pauca inveni in utilitatem laboris mei
a senioribus multis, ac ab illo Ultano episcopo Conchubernensi qui nutrivit
me, retulit sermo ! "

3 " Multos jam conatos esse ordinare narrationem istam secundum
quod patres eorum et qui ministri ab initio fuerunt sermonis tradiderunt
illis ; sed propter difficillimum narrationis opus diversasque opiniones et
plurimorum plurimas suspiciones nunquam ad unum certumque historiae
tramitem pervenisse."

4 "Omnia in Deo gesta ab antiquis peritissimis adunata atque collecta
sunt ; " and again : " Post e?dtum Patricii alumpni sui valde ejusdem libros
conscripserunt ; " but this may mean that they made copies of the books
left behind him.

152 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

most skilful of the ancients. The first of these lives consists
of two books containing twenty-eight and thirteen short
chapters, respectively, the second, Tirechan's, of one book
containing fifty-seven chapters, in addition to which there are
a number of minor notes referring to St. Patrick in Latin and
in Irish, which Ferdomnach, who transcribed the book in 807,
appears to have taken from other old lives or memoirs of
the saint. The Irish portions of these notes are of peculiar
interest, as showing what the Irish language was, as written
about the year 800. 1

If it is genuine the earliest life of Patrick ever written
would probably be the brief metrical life ascribed to Fiacc
of Sletty, the sixth or seventh in descent from Cathaoir
[Cauheer] Mor, who was king of Leinster at the close of
the second century.2 His mother was a sister of Dubhthach's
[Duv-hach], the chief poet and Brehon of Ireland, who, we are
told, helped St. Patrick to review and revise the Brehon Laws.
Fiacc was a youthful poet in Dubhthach's train at Tara.
Afterwards he was tonsured by St. Patrick, became Bishop
of Sletty, and on Patrick's death is said to have written
his life, and not forgetful of his former training, to have
written it in elaborate verse.3 So famous a critic as Zimmer
believed half the poem to be genuine, but Thurneysen rejects

1 Here is a specimen : " Dulluid patricc othemuir hicrich Laigen con-
rancatar ocus dubthach mucculugir uccdomnuch mar criathar la auu
censelich. Aliss patricc dubthach imdamnae .n. epscuip diadesciplib
dilaignib idon fer soer socheniuil cenon cenainim nadip ru becc nadi-
promar bedasommae, toisclimm fer oinsetche dunarructhae actoentuistiu,"
which would run some way thus in the modern language : " Do luid
(i.e., Chuaidh) Padraic 6 Theamhair i gcrich Laighean go rancadar [fein]
agus Dubhthach Mac Lugair ag Domhnach Mor Criathair le uibh Ceinn-
sealaigh. Ailis (i.e., fiafruighis) Padraic Dubhthach um damhna (i.e.,
adhbhar) easboig d' a dheiscioblaibh, eadhoin fear saor soi-chineail, gan
on gan ainimh (i.e., truailiughadh), nar 'bh ro bheag [agus] nar 'bh
romhor, a shaidhbhreas (?). Toisg [riachtanus] liom fear aon seitche
[mna] d'a nach rugadh acht aon tuistui (gein)," etc.

9 For Cathaoir Mor, see p. 30.

3 The metre was called Cctal nothi, Thurneysen's " Mittelirische Vers-
lehren," p. 63. It scarcely differs in most parts from Little Rannaigheacht.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 153

it because it does not fall in with his theories of Irish
metre.1

But the longest and most important life of St. Patrick
is that known as the Tripartite, or Triply-divided Life,
which is really a series of three semi-historical homilies, or
discourses, which were probably delivered in honour of the
saint on the three festival days devoted to his memory, that is,
the Vigil, the Feast itself, on March lyth, and the day after,
or else the Octave. This Tripartite life, which is a fairly
complete one, is written in ancient Irish, with many passages
of Latin interspersed. The monk Jocelin, who wrote a life
of the saint in the twelfth century, tells us that St. Evin2
—from whom Monasterevin, in Queen's County, is called,
a saint of the early sixth century — wrote a life of Patrick
partly in Latin and partly in Gaelic, and Colgan, the learned
Franciscan who translated the Tripartite in his "Trias
Thaumaturga," 3 believed that this was the very life which
St. Evin wrote. Colgan found the Tripartite life in three very
ancient Gaelic MSS., procured for him, no doubt, by the un-
wearied research of Brother Michael O'Clery in the early part of
the seventeenth century, which he collated one with the other,
and of which he gives the following noteworthy account : —

" The first thing to be observed is that it has been written by its
first author and in the aforesaid manuscript, partly in Latin, partly

1 See " Keltische Studien," Heft ii., and the " Revue Celtique." The
first verses run thus : —

" Genair Patraicc in Nemthur
Is ed atfet hi scelaib
Maccan se mbliadan deac
In tan dobreth fo deraib.

Succat a ainm itubrad
Ced a athair ba fissi
Mac Calpairn male Otide
Hoa deochain Odissi."

2 He was tenth in descent from that Owen Mor who wrested half the
sovereignty of Ireland from Conn, of the Hundred Battles.

3 I.e., " The wonder-working Three," containing the lives of Patrick,
Brigit, and Columcille, translated by Colgan from Irish into Latin.

154 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

in Gaelic, and this in very ancient language, almost impenetrable
by reason of its very great antiquity, exhibiting not only in the same
chapter, but also in the same line, alternate phrases now in the Latin,
now in the Gaelic tongue. In the second place, it is to be noticed
that this life, on account of the very great antiquity of its style,
which was held in much regard, used to be read in the schools of
our antiquarians in the presence of their pupils, being elucidated
and expounded by the glosses of the masters, and by interpretations
of and observations on the more abstruse words ; so that hence it
is not to be wondered at that some words — which certainly did
happen— gradually crept from these glosses into the texts, and thus
brought a certain colour of newness into this most ancient and
faithful author, some things being turned from Latin into Gaelic,
some abbreviated by the scribes, and some altogether omitted."

Colgan further tells us that, "of the three MSS. above
mentioned, the first and chief is from very ancient vellums of
the O'Clerys, antiquarians in Ulster ; the second from the
O'Deorans, of Leinster ; the third taken from I know not
what codex ; and they differ from each other in some respects ;
one relating more diffusely what is more close in the others,
and one relating in Latin what in the others was told in
Gaelic ; but we have followed the authority of that which
relates the occurrences more diffusely and in Latin." O'Curry
discovered in the British Museum a copy of this life, made in
the fifteenth century, and it has since been admirably edited by
Dr. Whitley Stokes, who, however, does not believe for philo-
logical and other reasons, that it could have been written before
the middle of the tenth century. If so it is no doubt a
compilation of all the pre-existing lives of the saint, and it
mentions distinctly that six different writers, not counting
Fiacc the poet, had collected the events of St. Patrick's life
and his miracles, amongst whom were St. Columcille, who
died in 592, and St. Ultan, who died in 656.! It is hardly

1 Also St. Aileran the Wise, whose " Fragments " are published by
Migne ; St. Adamnan, the author of the " Life of Columcille " ; St.
Ciaran of Belach-Duin ; and St. Colman. Jocelyn says that Benignus,
who died in 468, wrote another life of Patrick, but of it nothing is known.

ST. PATRICK AND EARLY MISSIONARIES 155

necessary, however, to say that in the matter of all anonymous
Gaelic writings like the present, it is difficult to decide with
any certainty as to age or date. The occurrence, indeed, of
very old forms, shows that the sentences containing those old
forms were first written at an early period ; the occurrence of
more modern forms, however, is no proof that the passages
containing them were first written in modern times, for the
words may have been altered by later transcribers into the
language they spoke themselves ; nor are allusions to events
which we know were later than the date of an alleged writer,
a/ways conclusive proofs that the work which contains them
cannot be his work, for such allusions constantly creep into
the margin of books at the hands of copyists, especially if those
books were — as Colgan says the Tripartite life was — annotated
and explained in schools. In cases of this kind there is always
considerable latitude to be allowed to destructive and con-
structive criticism, and at the end matters must still remain
doubtful. *

So much for the more important lives of St. Patrick, the
first known litterateur of Ireland.

1 Here is a short passage from the Tripartite, which will show the
language in which it is written : " Fecht ann occ tuidhecht do Patraic
do Chlochur antuaith da fuarcaib a thren-fher dar doraid and, i.e., Epscop
mac Cairthind. Issed adrubart iar turcbail Patraic : uch uch. Mu
Debroth, ol Patraic ni bu gnath in foculsin do rad duitsiu. Am senoir
ocus am lobur ol Epscop Mac Cairthind," which would run some way
thus in the modern language : " Feacht [uair] do bhi ann, ag tigheacht
do Phadraig go Clochar (i gcondae, Tir-Eoghain) on tuaidh, d' iomchair
a threan-fhear e thar sruth do bhi ann, eadhoin Easbog Mac Cairthind.
Is eadh adubhairt tar eis Padraig do thogbhail " Uch, uch ! " Mo Dhebh-
roth [focal do bhi ag Padraig, ionnann agus " dar mo laimh " no mar
sin], nior ghnath an focal sin do radh duit-se. Taim im sheanoir agus
im lobhar ar Easbog Mac Cairthind. See O'Curry MS. Materials, p. 598.

CHAPTER XIV

ST. BRIGIT

ST. BRIGIT was — after St. Patrick himself — probably the most
noted figure amongst Irish Christians in the fifth century.
She must have attained her extraordinary influence through
sheer ability and intellectuality, for she appears to have been
the daughter of a slave- woman,1 employed in the mansion of
a chief called Dubhthach [Duv-hach, or Duffach], who was
himself tenth in descent from Felimidh, the lawgiver monarch
of Ireland in the second century. The king's wife, jealous of
her husband's liking for his slave, threatened him with these
words, " Unless thou sellest yon bondmaid in distant lands I
will exact my dowry from thee and I will leave thee," and so
had her driven from the place and sold to a druid, in whose
house her daughter, Dubhthach's offspring, soon afterwards saw
the light. She was thus born into slavery, though not quite
a slave ; for Dubhthach, in selling the mother into slavery,
expressly reserved for himself her offspring, whatever it
might be. She must have been, at least, early inured to
hardship, as St. Patrick had been. The druid, however, did

1 Cogitosus, who probably wrote in the beginning of the eighth
century, makes no allusion to her slave-parentage, but this was to be
expected.
156

ST. BRIGIT 157

not prevent her from being baptized. She grew up to be a
girl of exceeding beauty, and many suitors sought her in
marriage. She returned to her father's house, but refused all
offers of matrimony. She aroused the jealousy of her father's
wife, as her mother had done before her, and Dubhthach,
indignant at her unbounded generosity with his goods, decided
upon selling her to the king of North Leinster. Her father's
abortive attempt to get rid of her on this occasion is thus
quaintly described in her Irish life in the Leabhar Breac.

"Thereafter," says the life, "Dubhthach and his consort were
minded to sell the holy Brigit into bondage, for Dubhthach liked
not his cattle and his wealth to be dealt out to the poor, and that is
what Brigit used to do. So Dubhthach fared in his chariot and
Brigit along with him.

" Said Dubhthach to Brigit, ' Not for honour or reverence to thee
art thou carried in a chariot, but to take thee, to sell thee to grind
the quern for Dunlang mac Enda, King of Leinster.'

"When they came to the King's fortress Dubhthach went in to
the king, and Brigit remained in her chariot at the fortress door.
Dubhthach had left his sword in the chariot near Brigit. A leper
came to Brigit to ask an alms. She gave him Dubhthach's sword.

"Said Dubhthach to the King, 'Wilt thou buy a bondmaid,
namely, my daughter ? ' says he.

" Said Dunlang, ' Why sellest thou thine own daughter ? '

" Said Dubhthach, ' She stayeth not from selling my wealth and
from giving it to the poor.3

" Said the King, ' Let the maiden come into the fortress.'

" Dubhthach went to Brigit, and was enraged against her because
she had given his sword to the poor man.

"When Brigit came into the King's presence the King said to
her, ' Since it is thy father's wealth that thou takest, much more
wilt thou take my wealth and my cattle and give them to the poor.'

" Said Brigit, ' The Son of the Virgin knoweth if I had thy might,
with all Leinster, and with all thy wealth, I would give them to the
Lord of the Elements.'

" Said the King to Dubhthach, ' Thou art not fit on either hand
to bargain about this maiden, for her merit is higher before God
than before men/ and the King gave Dubhthach an ivory-hilted sword
(Claideb det], et sic liberata est sancta Virgo Brigita a captivititate.1"

' See Stokes, « Three Middle Irish Homilies."

158 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

She at length succeeded in assuming the veil of a nun at
the hands of a bishop called Mucaille, along with seven virgin
companions. With these she eventually retired into her
father's territory and founded a church at Kildare, beside an
ancient oak-tree, which existed till the tenth century, and
which gives its name to the spot.1 Even at this early
period Kildare seems to have been a racecourse, and St. Brigit
is described in the ancient lives as driving across it in her
chariot.

It is remarkable that there is scarcely any mention of St.
, Brigit in the lives of St. Patrick, although, according to the
usual chronology they were partly contemporaries, St. Brigit
having become a nun about the year 467, and St. Patrick
having lived until 492. About the only mention of her in the
saint's life is that which tells how she once listened to Patrick
preaching for three nights and days, and fell asleep, and as she
dreamt she saw first white oxen in white corn-fields, and then
darker ones took their place, and lastly black oxen. And
thereafter, she beheld sheep and swine, and dogs and wolves
quarrelling with each other, and upon her waking up, St.
Patrick explained her dream as being symbolical of the history
of the Irish Church present and future. The life of Brigit
herself in the Book of Lismore tells the vision somewhat
differently :

" ' I beheld,' said she, to Patrick, when he asked her why she had
fallen asleep, ' four ploughs in the north-east which ploughed the
whole island, and before the sowing was finished the harvest was
ripened, and clear well-springs and shiny streams came out of the
furrows. White garments were on the sowers and ploughmen. I
beheld four other ploughs in the north which ploughed the island
athwart and turned the harvest again, and the oats which they had
sown grew up at once and were ripe, and black streams came out of
the furrows, and there were black garments on the sowers and on the
ploughmen.' "

1 Cill-dara, the " Church of the Oak-tree," now Kildare.

ST. BRIG IT 159

This vision Patrick explained to her, saying —

" ' The first four ploughs which thou beheldest, those are I and
thou, who sow the four books of the gospel with a sowing of faith and
belief and piety. The harvest which thou beheldest are they who
come unto that faith and belief through our teaching. The four
ploughs which thou beheldest in the north are the false teachers and
the liars which will overturn the teaching which we have sown.' "

St. Brigit's small oratory at Kildare, under the shadow of her
branching oak, soon grew into a great institution, and within
her own lifetime two considerable religious establishments
sprang up there, one for women and the other for men. She
herself selected a bishop to assist her in governing them, and
another to instruct herself and her nuns. Long before her
death, which occurred about the year 525, a regular city and a
great school rivalling the fame of Armagh itself, had risen
round her oak-tree. Cogitosus, himself one of the Kildare
monks, who wrote a Latin life of St. Brigit at the desire of the
community, gives us a fine description of the great church of
Kildare in his own day, which was evidently some time prior
to the Danish invasion at the close of the eighth century,1 but
how long before is doubtful. He tells us that the church
was both large and lofty, with many pictures and hangings, and
with ornamental doorways, and that a partition ran across the
breadth of the church near the chancel or sanctuary :

" At one of its extremities there was a door which admitted the
bishop and his clergy to the sanctuary and to the altar ; and at the

1 He himself says, " Et quis sermone explicate potest maximum decorem
hujus ecclesiae et innumera illius civitatis qui dicemus miracula . . . [hie]
nullus carnalis adversarius nee concursus timetur hostium, sed civitas est
refugii tutissima . . . et quis ennumerare potest diversas turbas et in-
numerabiles populos de omnibus provinciis affluentes, alii ad epularum
abundantiam, alii languidi propter sanitates, alii ad spectaculum turbarum,
alii cum magnis donis venientes ad solemnitatem Nativitatis S. Brigitae
quae in die Calendarum est," etc. These are the evident outcome of the
piping times of peace which Ireland enjoyed in the seventh and eighth
centuries. It would have been impossible to have written in this way after
the close of the eighth century. See chap. 36 of Cogitosus's life, " Trias
Thaumaturga," p. 524 of the Louvain edition.

160 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

other extremity on the opposite side there was a similar door by
which Brigit and her virgins and widows used to enter to enjoy the
banquet of the Body and Blood of Christ. Then a central partition
ran down the nave, dividing the men from the women, the men
being on the right and the women on the left, and each
division having its own lateral entrance. These partitions did
not rise to the roof of the church, but only so high as to serve
their purpose. The partition at the sanctuary or chancel was formed
with boards of wood decorated with pictures and covered with linen
hangings which might, it seems, be drawn aside at the consecration,
to give the people in the nave a better view of the holy mysteries."1

The two institutions — nuns and monks — planted by St.
Brigit continued long to flourish side by side, and Kildare is
the only religious establishment in Ireland, says Dr. Healy,
which down to a comparatively recent period preserved the
double line of succession, of abbot-bishops and of abbesses. The
annalists always took care to record the names of the abbesses
with the same accuracy as those of the abbots, and to the last
the abbesses as successors of St. Brigit, were credited with, in
public opinion, and probably enjoyed in fact, a certain
supremacy over the bishops of Kildare themselves.

Amongst other occupations the monks and scholars of Kildare
seem to have given themselves up to decorative art, and a
school of metal work under the supervision of Brigit's first
bishop soon sprang into existence, producing all kinds of
artistically decorated chalices, bells, patens, and shrines ; and
the impulse given thus early to artistic work and to beautiful
creations seems to have long propagated itself in Kildare, as
the description of the church by Cogitosus shows, and as we
may still conjecture from the exquisite round tower with its
unusually ornamented doorway and its great height of over 1 30
feet, the loftiest tower of the kind in Ireland.

1 Thus well summarised by Dr. Healy from the more diffuse Latin of
Cogitosus. His description of the church is as follows: It was "solo
spatiosa et in altum minaci proceritate porrecta ac decorata pictis tabulis,
tria intrinsecus habens oratoria ampla, et divisa parietibus tabulatis." One of
the walls was " decoratus, et imaginibus depictus, ac linteaminibus tectus."

ST. £ RIG IT 161

No doubt several attributes of the pagan Brigit,1 who, as we
have seen, was accounted by the ancient Irish to have been the
goddess of poets, passed over to her Christian namesake, who
was also credited with being the patroness of men of learning.
On this, her life in the Book of Lismore contains the following
significant and rather obscure passage :

" Brigit was once with her sheep on the Curragh, and she saw
running past her a son of reading,2 to wit Nindid the scholar was he.

" ' What makes thee unsedate, O son of reading ? ' saith Brigit, ' and
what seekest thou in that wise ? '

" ' O nun/ saith the scholar, ' I am going to heaven.'

"'The Virgin's son knoweth/ said Brigit, 'happy is he that goeth
that journey, and for God's sake make prayer with me that it may be
easy for me to go.'

" ' O nun/ said the scholar, ' I have no leisure, for the gates of
heaven are open now and I fear they may be shut against me. Or,
if thou art hindering me pray the Lord that it may be easy for me to
go to heaven, and I will pray the Lord for thee, that it may be easy
for thee, and that thou mayest bring many thousands with thee, into
heaven.'

1 This has not escaped Windisch. " Wahrend," he writes, " Patrick nur der
christlichen Hagiologie angehort, scheint Brigit zugleich die Erbin einer
alien heidnischen Gottheit zu sein. Ihr Wesen enthalt Ziige die mehr
als eine heilig gesprochen Nonne hinter ihr vermuthen lassen." Windisch
bases this chiefly upon the expressions in Broccan's hymn, which calls her
the mother of Christ, and calls Christ her son, and equates her with Mary.
The passage which I have adduced from the Irish life is even more
remarkable :

" Brigit," writes Whitley Stokes " (cp. Skr. bhargas) was born at sunrise
neither within nor without a house, was bathed in milk, her breath revives
the dead, a house in which she is staying flames up to heaven, cow-dung
blazes before her, oil is poured on her head ; she is fed from the milk of
white red-eared cow ; a fiery pillar rises over her head ; sun rays support
jr wet cloak ; she remains a virgin ; and she was one of the two mothers
Christ the Anointed. She has, according to Giraldus Cambrensis, a
perpetual ashless fire watched by twenty nuns, of whom herself was one,
blown by fans or bellows only, and surrounded by a hedge within which
no male could enter " ("Top. Hib." chaps. 34, 35and36),from all which Stokes
declares that one may without much rashness pick out certain of her life-
incidents, as having " originally belonged to the myth or the ritual of some
Idess of fire." (See preface to "Three Middle Irish Homilies.")

2 " Mac-leighinn," which is to this day a usual Irish term for student.

1 62 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" Brigit recited a paternoster with him. And he was pious thence-
forward, and it is he that gave her communion and sacrifice when
she was dying. Wherefore thence it came to pass that the comradeship
of the world's sons of reading is with Brigit, and the Lord gives them
through Brigit every perfect good they ask" *

/ As St. Patrick is pre-eminently the patron saint of Ireland,

/ so is Brigit its patroness, and with the Irish people no Christian

• name is more common for their boys than Patrick, or for their

\girls than Brigit.2 She was universally known as the "Mary

of the Gael," and reverenced with a certain chivalric feeling

which seems to have been always present with the Gaelic nation

in the case of women, for, says her Irish life, her desire " was

to satisfy the poor, to expel every hardship, to spare every

miserable man. ... It is she that helpeth every one who is in

a strait or a danger ; it is she that abateth the pestilences ; it is

she that quelleth the anger and the storm of the sea. She is

the prophetess of Christ : she is the queen of the south : She

is the Mary of the Gael" The writer closes thus in a burst

of eloquence :

1 Thus translated by Dr. Whitley Stokes in his " Lives of the Saints
from the Book of Lismore," p. 194. In the original : " Conid assein dorala
cumthanus mac leighinn in domuin re Brigit, co tabair in coimdhi doibh
tria atach Brigte gach maith fhoirbhthi chuinghid."

2 Or to speak more accurately no names lyere more common, but owing
to the action of various influences, particularly of the National Board,
with unsympathetic persons at its head, and of the men who direct
the modern education of the Irish, the people who are not allowed by tl
National Board to learn history, and who are taught to despise the Irish
language, are gradually being made ashamed of any names that are not
English, and Patrick and Brigit almost bid fair to follow the way of
Cormac, Cortn, Felim, Art, Donough, Fergus, Diarmuid, and a score
other Christian names of men in common use a century ago, but run
almost wholly extinct, and of Meve, Sive, Eefi, Sheela, Nuala, and as many
more female names now nearly or completely obsolete. A woman of
some education said to me lately, " God forbid I should handicap my
daughter in life by calling her Brigit ; " and a Catholic bishop said th<
other day that too often when an Irish parent abroad did pluck up courage
to christen his son " Patrick," he put it in, in a shamefaced whisper,
the end of several other names. This is the direct result of the teacl
given by the National Board.

ST. BRIG IT 163

" Her relics are on earth, with honour and dignity and primacy,
with miracles and marvels. Her soul is like a sun in the heavenly
kingdom, among the choir of angels and archangels. And though
great be her honour here at present, greater by far will it be when
she shall arise like a shining lamp, in completeness of body and soul
at the great Assembly of Doomsday, in union with cherubim and
seraphim, in union with the Son of Mary the Virgin, in the union
that is nobler than every union, in the union of the Holy Trinity,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

As of St. Patrick, so of his great co-evangeliser St. Brigit,
there exist quite a number of various lives ; the most ancient
being probably a metrical life in Irish contained in the Book
of Hymns, of which there still exists an eleventh century MS.
It consists of fifty-three stanzas of four lines each, and is
ascribed to St. Broccan or Brogan Cloen, who seems to have
lived at the beginning of the seventh century.1 This life does
little more than expatiate upon Brigit's miracles and virtues.
The next life of importance is that already mentioned, by
Cogitosus, the Kildare monk, whose date is uncertain, but is
clearly prior to the Danish invasions. This life, which is in
very creditable Latin, and four others, were printed by Colgan.
The first of these four is — probably falsely — attributed to St.
Ultan, who died in the middle of the seventh century ; the
next is by a monk who is called Animosus, but of whom

1 He is said to have written this hymn at the instigation of Ultan, who
died in 653, but, as Windisch remarks, mention is probably made of Ultan
only because he is said to have been the first to collect the miracles of
Brigit — "die Sprache," adds Windisch, uist alterthiimlich ; besonders
beachtenswerth sind die ziemlich zahlreichen Perfectformen." It is remark-
able that the miracles attributed to Brigit are given in the same order in
this hymn and in Cogitosus' life of her. The metre is irregular.

" Xi bu Sanct Brigit suanach

Ni bu huarach im seirc De,
Sech ni chiuir ni cossena
Ind noeb dibad bethath che."

The life by Cogitosus is evidently pre-Danish, and it is more likely to be
an extension of the short metrical one, than that the metrical one should
be a resume of it. If this is so it bespeaks a considerable antiquity for the
Irish verses.

1 64 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

nothing is known, though, as St. Donatus, who became bishop
of Fiesole in 824, alludes to his works, he must have been an
early author ; the third is a twelfth-century work, by Laurence
of Durham, an Englishman ; and the last is in Latin verse,
taken from a MS. which the unwearied Colgan procured from
Monte Cassino, and which is attributed to Coelan, a monk of
Iniscaltra, who probably lived in the eighth century, while a
prologue to this life is prefixed by a later writer, the celebrated
Irish bishop of Fiesole, Donatus, who, in the early part of the
ninth century, worked with great success in Italy. There is
something touching in the language with which this great and
successful child of the Gael reverts in his prologue to the home
of his childhood : —

" Far in the west they tell of a matchless land,1 which goes in
ancient books by the name of Scotia [i.e., Ireland] ; rich in resources
this land, having silver, precious stones, vestures and gold, well suited
to earth-born creatures as regards its climate, its sun, and its arable
soil ; that Scotia of lovely fields that flow with milk and honey, hath
skill in husbandry, and raiments, and arms, and arts, and fruits. There
are no fierce bears there, nor ever has the land of Scotia brought
forth savage broods of lions. No poisons hurt, no serpent creeps
through the grass, nor does the babbling frog croak and complain by
the lake. In this land the Scottish race are worthy to dwell, a
renowned race of men in war, in peace, in fidelity."

Whitley Stokes has published the Irish lives of St. Brigit
from the Leabhar Breac and the Book of Lismore, and
Donatus alludes to other lives by St. Ultan 2 and St. Eleran,

1 There is a fragment in the Irish MS. Rawlinson, B. 512, quoted some-
where by Kuno Meyer, which reminds one of this passage. It begins :
" Now the island of Ireland, Inis Herenn, has been set in the west. As
Adam's Paradise stands at the sunrise, so Ireland stands at the sunset, and
they are alike in the nature of their soil," etc.

2 St. Ultan wrote a beautiful Irish hymn and also a Lafin hymn to her—
at least they are attributed to him — beginning —

" Christus in nostra insola *

Sue vocatur hibernia
stensus est hominibus
Maximis mirabilibus.

ST. BRIG IT

165

so that Brigit has not lacked biographers. She herself is said
to have written a rule for her nuns and some other things, and
O'Curry prints one Irish poem ascribed to her — in which she
prays for the family of heaven to be present at her feast :
"I should like the men of heaven in my own house, I
should like rivers of peace to be at their disposal," etc. —
which appears to be alluded to in the preface to the Litany
of Angus the Culdee, as the " great feast which St. Brigit
made for Jesus in her heart." I

Que perfecit per felicem
Celestis vite virginem
Precellentem pro merito
Magno in mundi circulo."

See Todd's " Liber Hymnorum," vol. ii. p. 58.
the Irish is seldom quite perfect.
1 This poem begins :

The Latin orthography of

" Ropadh maith lem corm-lind mor
Do righ na righ

Ropadh maith lem muinnter nimhe
Acca hoi tre bithe shir."

I.e., " I would like a great lake of ale for the King of the kings, I would
like the people of heaven to be drinking it through eternal ages," which
sounds curious, but Brigit probably meant it allegorically.

CHAPTER XV

COLUMCILLE

THE third great patron Saint of Ireland, the man who stands
out almost as conspicuously as St. Patrick himself in the
religious history of the Gael, the most renowned missionary,
scribe, scholar, poet, statesman, anchorite, and school-founder
of the sixth century is St. Columcille.1 Everything about this
remarkable man has conspired to fix upon him the imagination
of the Irish race. He was not, like St. Patrick, of alien, nor
like St. Brigit, of semi-servile birth, but was sprung from the
highest and bluest blood of the Irish, being son of Felemidh,
son of Fergus, son of Conall Gulban — renowned to this day in
saga and romance — son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, that
great monarch of Ireland who ravaged Britain "and exacted
tributes far and wide from his conquered enemies.

He was born on the yth of December, 52i,2 twenty-nine
years after the reputed death of St. Patrick, and four years

1 Also often called St. Columba, to be strictly distinguished from Colum-
banus, who laboured on the Continent. The name is written sometimes
Colomb Cille and Colum Kille or Columkille. It is pronounced in Irish
Cullum-kilia, and means literally the " Dove of the Church," but in English
the name is generally pronounced Columkill.

2 As calculated by Dr. Reeves, who coincides with the " Four Masters"
and Dr. Lanigan. The other Annals waver between 518 and 523.

166

COLUMCILLE 167

before that of St. Brigit, at Gartan x in Donegal, a wild but
beautiful district of which his father was the prince. The
reigning monarch of Ireland was his half-uncle, while his mother
Ethne was the direct descendant of the royal line of Cathaoir
[Cauheer] Mor, the regnant family of Leinster, and he himself
would have had some chance of the reversion of the monarchy
had he been minded to press his claims. Reared at Kilmacrenari,
near Gartan, the place where the O'Donnells were afterwards
inaugurated, he received his first teaching at the hands of
St. Finnen or Finnian in his famous school at Moville, for
already since Patrick's death Ireland had become dotted with
such small colleges. It was here at this early age that his
school-fellows christened him Colum-cille, or jColum of the
Qhurch, on account of the assiduity with which he sought
the holy building. At this period the Christian clergy and the
bardic order were the only two educational powers in Ireland,
and after leaving St. Finnian, Columcille travelled south into
Leinster to a bard called Gemman2 with whom he took lessons.
From him he went to St. Finnen or Finnian of Clonard.
While studying at Clonard it was the custom for each of the
students to grind corn in his turn at a quern, but Columcille's
Irish life in the Book of Lismore tells us naively, in true old
Irish spirit, " howbeit an angel from heaven used to grind on
behalf of Columcille ; that was the honour which the Lord
used to render him because of the eminent nobleness of his
race." St. Ciaran [Keeran] was at this time a fellow-student
with him, and Finnian, says the Irish life, saw one night a
vision, " to wit, two moons arose from Clonard, a golden moon
and a silver moon. The golden moon went into the north

1 See the lines in O'Donnell's life of the saint, ascribed to St. Mura :

" Rugadh i nGartan da dheoin / S do h-oileadh i gCill mhic Neoin
'S do baisteadh mac na maise / A dTulaigh De Dubhghlaise."

2 He is called "German the Master" in the Book of Lismore life. In
the life of Finnian of Clonard he is called Carminator nomine gemanus,
who brings to St. Finnian " quoddam carmen magnificum."

1 68 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of the island, and Ireland and Scotland gleamed under it. The
silver moon went on until it stayed by the Shannon, and
Ireland at her centre gleamed." That, says the author,
signified " Columcille with the grace of his noble kin and
his wisdom, and Ciaran with the refulgence of his virtues
and his good deeds."

Leaving Clonard behind him, Columcille passed on to yet
another school — this time to that of Mobhi at Glasnevin, near
Dublin, where there were as many as fifty students at work,
living in huts or cells grouped round an oratory, some of whom
were famous men in after-time, for they included Cainnech and
Comgall and Ciaran. A curious incident is recorded of these
three and of Columcille in the Irish life in the Book of Lismore.

Columcille was driven from Glasnevin by the approach of
the great plague which ravaged the country, and of which
his teacher Mobhi died.

" Once on a time," says the author, " a great church was built by
Mobhi. The clerics were considering what each of them would
like to have in the church. ' I should like,' said Ciaran, ' its full of
church children to attend the canonical hours.' ' I should like,' said
Cainnech, ' to have its full of books to serve the sons of life.'
should like,' said Comgall, ' its full of affliction and disease to be in
my own body : to subdue me and repress me.' Then Columcille
chose its full of gold and silver to cover relics and shrines withal.
Mobhi said it should not be so, but that Columcille's community
would be wealthier than any community, whether in Ireland* or in
Scotland." x

1 A similar story of Cummain the Tall, of Guaire the Connacht king who
still gives his name to the town of Gort, which is Gort Inse-Guaire, and
of Caimine of Inisceltra, is told in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, and printed
by Whitley Stokes in a note at p. 304 of his " Lives from the Book of
Lismore." Each of the three got as he had desired, for, says the
chronicler, "all their musings were made true. The earth was given
to Guaire. Wisdom was given to Cummain. Diseases and sicknesses
were inflicted on Caimine, so that no bone of him joined together in the
earth, but melted and decayed with the anguish of every disease and of
every tribulation, so that they all went to heaven according to their
musings." (See for the same story the Yellow Book of Lecan, p. 132,
of facsimile.)

COLUMCILLE 169

Betaking himself northward with a growing reputation, he
was offered by his cousin, then Prince of Aileach, near Derry,
and afterwards monarch of Ireland, the site of a monastery on
the so-called island of Derry, a rising ground of oval shape,
covering some two hundred acres, along the slopes of which
flourished a splendid forest of oak-trees, which gave to the
oasis its name of Derry or the oak grove. Columcille, like
all Gaels — and indeed all Celts — was full of love for every-
thing beautiful in nature, both animate and inanimate, and so
careful was he of his beloved oaks that, contrary to all custom,
he would not build his church with its chancel towards the
east, for in that case some of the, oaks would have had to be
felled to make room for it. He laid strict injunctions upon all
his successors to spare the lovely grove, and enjoined that if
any of the trees should be blown down some of them should go
for fuel to their own guest-house, and the rest be given to
the people.

This was Columcille's first religious institution,* and, like
every man's firstling, it remained dear to him to the last.
Years afterwards, when the thought of it came back to him
on the barren shores of lona, he expressed himself in passionate
Irish poetry.

For oh ! were the tributes of Alba mine
From shore unto centre, from centre to sea,

The site of one house, to be marked by a line
In the midst of fair Derry were dearer to me.

That spot is the dearest on Erin's ground,

For the treasures that peace and that purity lend,

For the hosts of bright angels that circle it round,
Protecting its borders from end to end.

The dearest of any on Erin's ground

For its peace and its beauty I gave it my love,

Each leaf of the oaks around Derry is found
To be crowded with angels from heaven above.

i;o LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

My Derry ! my Derry ! my little oak grove,
My dwelling, my home, and my own little cell,

May God the Eternal in Heaven above
Send death to thy foes and defend thee well." x

Columcille was yet a young man, only twenty-five years of
age, when he founded Derry, but both his own genius, and
more especially his great friends and kinsfolk, had conspired to
make him famous. For the next seventeen years he laboured
in Ireland, and during this time founded the still more
celebrated schools of Durrow in the present King's County,
and of Kells in Meath, both of which became most famous in
after years. Durrow,2 which, like Derry, was named from

1 Literally, " Were the tribute of all Alba mine, from its centre to its
border, I would prefer the site of one house in the middle of Derry. The
reason I love Derry is for its quietness, for its purity, and for the crowds
of white angels from the one end to the other. The reason why I love
Derry is for its quietness, for its purity, crowded full of heaven's angels in
every leaf of the oaks of Derry. My Derry, my little oak grove, my
dwelling and my little cell, O Eternal God in heaven above, woe be to
him who violates it."

" Is aire, caraim Doire
Ar a reidhe, ar a ghloine,
's ar iomatt a aingel find
On chind go soich aroile."

This poem is taken from a Brussels MS., copied by Michael O'Clery for
Father Colgan, and by him accepted apparently as genuine. Some of it
may very well be so, only, as usual, it has been greatly altered and
modified in transcription, as may be seen from the above verse. (See
p. 288 of Reeves' " Adamnan.") Some of the verses are evidently inter-
pelations, but the Irish life in the Book of Lismore distinctly attributes to
him the verse which I have here given, going out of its way to quote it in
full, but the third line is a little different as quoted in the life : " ar is
lomlan aingeal bhfinn."

2 In Irish Dair-magh, " oak-plain." Columcille seems to have been
particularly fond of the oak, for his Irish life tells us that it was under
a great oak-tree that he resided while at Kells also. The writer adds,
"and it" — the great oak-tree — "remained till these latter times, when it
fell through the crash of a mighty wind. And a certain man took some-
what of its bark to tan his shoes with. Now, when he did on the shoes,
he was smitten with leprosy from his sole to his crown." It is well known
to this day that it is unlucky, or worse, to touch a saint's tree. I have been
observing one that was, when in the last stage of decrepitude, blown down

COLUMCILLE 171

the beautiful groves of oak which were scattered along the slope
of Druim-cain, or " the pleasant hill," seems to have retained
to the last a hold upon the affections of Columcille second only
to that of Deny. When its abbot, Cormac the voyager,
visited him long years afterwards in lona, and expressed his
unwillingness to return to his monastery again, because, being
a Momonian of the race of Eber, the southern Ui Neill were
jealous of him, and made his abbacy unpleasant or impossible,
Columcille reproached him in pathetic terms for abandoning so
lovely an abode —

" With its books and its learning,
A devout city with a hundred crosses."

" O Cormac," he exclaimed —

" I pledge thee mine unerring word
Which it is not possible to impugn,
Death is better in reproachless Erin
Than perpetual life in Alba [Scotland].1 -*

a few years ago at the well of St. Aracht or Atracta, a female saint of
Connacht in the plains of Boyle ; yet, though the people around are
nearly famished for want of fuel, not one twig of it has yet been
touched. In the Edinburgh MS. of Columcille's life we read how on
another occasion he made a hymn to arrest a fire that was consuming the
oak-wood, " and it is sung against every fire and against every thunder
from that time to this." (See Skene's " Celtic Scotland," vol. ii. pp. 468-507.)

1 " 7s si mo cubhus gan col

's nocha conagar m' eiliughadh
Ferr ecc ind Eirind cen ail
Ina sir beatha ind Alpuin."

For the whole of this poem, in the form of a dialogue between Cormac
and Columcille, see p. 264 of Reeves' " Adamnan." It is very hard to say
how much or how little of these poems is really Columcille's. Colgan
was inclined to think them genuine. Of course, as we now have them,
the language is greatly modernised ; but I am inclined to agree with Dr.
Healy, who judges them rather from internal than from linguistic
evidence ; and while granting, of course, that they have been retouched
by later bards, adds, "but in our opinion they represent substantially
poems that were really written by the saint. They breathe his pious
spirit, his ardent love for nature, and his undying affection for his native

1/2 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

And on another occasion, when it strikes him how happy
the son of Dima, /.*., Cormac, must be at the approach ot
summer along the green hillside of Rosgrencha — another
name for Durrow — amid its fair slopes, waving woods, and
singing birds, compared with himself exiled to the barren
shores of rugged lona, he bursts forth into the tenderest
song—

" How happy the son is of Dima ! no sorrow

For him is designed,

He is having, this hour, round his own cell in Durrow
The wish of his mind :

The sound of the wind in the elms, like the strings of

A harp being played,
The note of the blackbird that claps with the wings of

Delight in the glade.

With him in Rosgrencha the cattle are lowing

At earliest dawn,
On the brink of the summer the pigeons are cooing

And doves on his lawn," etc.1

Columcille continued his labours in Ireland, founding
churches and monasteries and schools, until he was forty-two

land. Although retouched, perhaps, by a later hand, they savour so
strongly of the true Columbian spirit that we are disposed to reckon them
amongst the genuine compositions of the saint." (" Ireland's Schools and
Scholars," p. 329.) " The older pieces here preserved," says Dr. Robert
Atkinson in his preface to the contents of the facsimile of the Book of
Leinster, " and of whose genuineness and authenticity there seems no room
for doubt, ex. gr., the Poems ofColum Cille, bear with them the marks of the
action of successive transcribers, whose desire to render them intelligible
has obscured the linguistic proofs of their age."

1 Literally, "How happy the son of Dima of the devout church, when he
hears in Durrow the desire of his mind, the sound of the wind against the
elms when 'tis played, the blackbird's joyous note when he claps his
wings ; to listen at early dawn in Rosgrencha to the cattle, the cooing of
the cuckoo from the tree on the brink of summer," etc. (See Reeves'
" Adamnan," p. 274).

" Fuaim na goithi ris in leman ardos peti
Longaire luin duibh conati ar mben a eti."

i

COLUMC1LLE 173

years of age. He was at this time at the height of his physical
and mental powers, a man of a masterful but of a too passion-
ate character, of fine physique, and enjoying a reputation
second to that of none in Erin. The commentator in the
Feilire of Angus describes his appearance as that of "a man
well-formed, with powerful frame ; his skin was white, his
face was broad and fair and radiant, lit up with large, grey,1
luminous eyes ; his large and well-shaped head was crowned,
except where he wore his frontal tonsure, with close and
curling hair. His voice was clear and resonant, so that he
could be heard at the distance of 1,500 paces,2 yet sweet with
more than the sweetness of the bards." His activity was
incessant. " Not a single hour of the day," says Adamnan,
" did he leave unoccupied without engaging either in prayer,
or in reading, or in writing, or in some other work ; " and he
laboured with his hands as well as with his head, cooking or
looking after his ploughmen, or engaged in ecclesiastical or
secular matters. All accounts go to show that he was of a
hot and passionate temperament, and endowed with both the
virtues and the faults that spring from such a character.
Indeed this was, no doubt, why in the " famous vision " 3

1 He himself refers to his " grey eye looking back to Erin " in one of
his best-known poems.

2 In token of which is the Irish quatrain quoted in his life —

" Son a ghotha Coluim cille,
mor a binne os gach cleir
go ceann cuig cead deag ceimeann,
Aidhbhle reimeann, eadh ba reill.

3 " So then Baithine related to him the famous vision, to wit, three
chairs seen by him in heaven, even a chair of gold and a chair of silver
and a chair of glass. Columcille explained the vision. Ciaran the Great,
the carpenter's son, is the chair of gold for the greatness of his charity and
his mercy. Molaisse is the chair of silver because of his wisdom and his
piety. I myself am the chair of glass because of my affection, for I prefer
the Gaels to the men of the world, and Kinel Conall [his own tribe] to the
[other] Gaels, and the kindred of Lughid to the Kinel Conall." (Leabhar
Breac, quoted by Stokes, " Irish Lives," p. 303 ; but the reason here given
for being seated on a chair of glass is, as Stokes remarks, unmeaning.)

174 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

which Baithin saw concerning him, he was seated only on
a chair of glass ; while Ciaran was on a chair of gold, and
Molaisse upon a chair of silver. The commentator on the
Feilire of Angus boldly states that, " though his devotion was
delightful, he was carnal and often frail even as glass is fragile."
Aware of this, he wore himself out with fastings and vigils,1
and no doubt —

" Lenior et melior fit accedente senectu,"

for Adamnan describes him, from the recollections of the
monks who knew him, as being angelic in aspect 2 and bright
in conversation, and despite his great labours yet " dear to all,
displaying his holy countenance always cheerful." A curious
story is told in the Leabhar Breac, of the stratagems to which
his people resorted to checkmate his self-imposed penance ; for
having one day seen an old woman living upon pottage of
nettles, while she was waiting for her one cow to calve and
give her milk, the notion came to him that he too would
thenceforward live upon the same, for if she could do so, much
more could he, and it would be profitable to his soul in gaining
the kingdom of heaven. So, said the writer, he called his ser-
vant—

" ' Pottage/ saith he, ' from thee every night, and bring not the
milk with it.'

" ' It shall be done,' said the cook.

" He (the cook) bores the mixing-stick of the pottage, so that it
became a pipe, and he used to pour the meat juice into the pipe,
down, so that it was mixed through the pottage. That preserves
the cleric's (Columcille's) appearance. The monks perceived the

1 " Jejunationum quoque et vigiliarum indefessis laboribus sine ulla
intermissione, die noctu-que ita occupatus ut supra humanam possibili-
tatem uniuscujusque pondus specialis videretur opens," says Adamnan in
the preface to his first book.

2 " Erat enim aspectu angelicus, sermone nitidus, opere sanctus, ingenio
optimus, consilio magnus. . . et inter haec omnibus carus, hilarem semper
faciem ostendens sanctam, spiritus sancti gaudio intimis laitificabatur
praecordiis."

COLUMCILLE 175

cleric's good appearance, and they talked among themselves. That
is revealed to Columcille, so he said, ' May your successors be
always murmuring.'

" ' Well now,' said Columcille, said he, to his servant, * what dost
thou give me every day ? '

" ' Thou art witness,' said the cook, ' unless it come out of the iron
of the pot, or out of the stick wherewith the pottage is mixed, I know
nought else in it save pottage ! ' "

It was now, however, that events occurred which had the
result of driving Columcille abroad and launching him upon
a more stormy and more dangerous career, as the apostle of
Scotland and the Picts. St. Finnian of Moville, with whom he
studied in former days, had brought back with him from Rome
a copy of the Psalms, probably the first copy of St. Jerome's
translation, or Vulgate, that had appeared in Ireland, which he
highly valued, and which he did not wish Columcille to copy.
Columcille however, who was a dexterous and rapid scribe,
found opportunity, by sitting up during several nights, to make
a copy of the book secretly,1 but Finnian learning it claimed

1 This copy made by Columcille is popularly believed to be the cele-
brated codex known as the Cathach or " Battler," which was an heirloom
of the saint's descendants, the O'Donnells. It was always carried three
times round their army when they went to battle, on the breast of a cleric,
who, if he were free from mortal sin, was sure to bring them victory. The
Mac Robartaighs were the ancestral custodians of the holy relic, and
Cathbar O'Donnell, the chief of the race at the close of the eleventh cen-
tury, constructed an elaborately splendid shrine or cover for it. This
precious heirloom remained with the O'Donnells until Donal O'Donnell,
exiled in the cause of James II., brought it with him to the Continent and
fixed a new rim upon the casket with his name and date. It was reco-
vered from the Continent in 1802 by Sir Neal O'Donnell, and was opened
by Sir William Betham soon after. This would in the previous century
have been considered a deadly crime, for " it was not lawful " to open the
Cathach ; as it was, Sir Neal's widow brought an action in the Court of
Chancery against Sir William Betham for daring to open it. There turned
out to be a decayed wooden box inside the casket, and inside this again
was a mass of vellum stuck together and hardened into a single lump. By
long steeping in water however, and other treatment, the various leaves
came asunder, and it was found that what it contained was really a Psalter,
written in Latin, in a "neat but hurried hand." Fifty-eight leaves re-
mained, containing from the 3ist to the io6th Psalm, and an examination of

i;6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the copy. Columcille refused it, and the matter was referred
to King Diarmuid at Tara. The monarch, to whom books
and their surroundings were probably something new, as a
matter for legal dispute, could find in the Brehon law no
nearer analogy to adjudicate the case by, than the since cele-
brated sentence le gach boln a boimn, "with every cow her calf,"
in which terms he, not altogether unnaturally, decided in
favour of St. Finnian, saying, "with every book its son-book,
as with every cow her calf." r This alone might not have
brought about the crisis, but unfortunately the son of the king
of Connacht, who had been present at the great Convention or
Feis of Tara, in utter violation of the law of sanctuary which
alone rendered this great meeting possible, slew the son of the
king's steward, and knowing that the penalty was certain
death, he fled to the lodging of the northern princes Fergus
and Domhnall [Donall] who immediately placed him under the
protection of St. Columcille. This however did not avail him,
for King Diarmuid, who was no respecter of persons, had him
promptly seized and put to death in atonement for his crime.
This, combined with his unfortunate judgment about the
book, enraged the imperious Columcille to the last degree.
He made his way northward and appealed to his kinsmen to
avenge him. A great army was collected, led by Fergus and
Domhnall, two first cousins of Columcille, and by the king
of Connacht, whose son had been put to death. The High-
king marched to meet this formidable combination with all
the troops he could gather. Pushing his way across the island
he met their combined forces in the present county of Sligo,

the text has shown that it really does contain a copy of the second revision ,
of the Psalter by St. Jerome, which helps to strengthen the belief that this
may have been the very book for which three thousand warriors fought
and fell in the Battle of Cooldrevna.

1 Keating says that this account of the affair was preserved in the Black
Book of Molaga, one of his ancient authorities now lost. The king decided,
says Keating, " gorab Ids gach leabhar a mhaic-lcabhar, mar is le gach
boinn a boinin"

COLUMCILLE 177

between Benbulbin and the sea. A furious battle was de-
livered in which he was defeated with the loss of three thou-
sand men.

It was soon after this battle that Columcille decided to leave
Ireland. There is a great deal of evidence that he did so as a
kind of penance, either self-imposed or enjoined upon him by
St. Molafse [Moleesha], as Keating says, or by the " synod of
the Irish saints," as O'Donnell has it. He had helped to fill
all Ireland with arms and bloodshed, and three thousand men
had fallen in one battle largely on account of him, and it was
not the only appeal to arms which lay upon his conscience.1
He set sail from his beloved Derry in the year 593, determined,
according to popular tradition, to convert as many souls to
Christ as had fallen in the battle of Cooldrevna. Amongst
the dozen monks of his own order who accompanied him were
his two first cousins and his uncle.

It was death and breaking of heart for him to leave the land
of Erin, and he pathetically expresses his sorrow in his own
Irish verses.

" Too swiftly my coracle flies on her way,

From Derry I mournfully turned her prow,
I grieve at the errand which drives me to-day
To the Land of the Ravens, to Alba, now.

How swiftly we travel ! there is a grey eye
Looks back upon Erin, but it no more

Shall see while the stars shall endure in the sky
Her women, her men, or her stainless shore.

" These were," says the commentator on St. Columcille's hymn, the
; Altus," " the three battles which he had caused in Erin, viz., the battle of
1-Rathain, between him and Comgall, contending for a church, viz.,
. Torathair ; and the battle of Bealach-fheda of the weir of Clonard ; and
battle of Cul Dremhne [Cooldrevna] in Connacht, and it was against
rmait Mac Cerball [the High-king], he fought them both." Keating's
int also agrees with this, but Reeves has shown that the two later
les in which he was implicated probably took place after his exile,

M

i;8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

From the plank of the oak where in sorrow I lie,
I am straining my sight through the water and wind,

And large is the tear of the soft grey eye

Looking back on the land that it leaves behind.

To Erin alone is my memory given,
To Meath and to Munster my wild thoughts flow,

To the shores of Moy-linny, the slopes of Loch Leven,
And the beautiful land the Ultonians know."

He refers distinctly to the penance imposed upon him by St.
Moleesha.

" To the nobles that gem the bright isle of the Gael

Carry this benediction over the sea,
And bid them not credit Moleesha's tale,
And bid them not credit his words of me.

Were it not for the word of Moleesha's mouth
At the cross of Ahamlish that sorrowful day,

I now should be warding from north and from south
Disease and distemper from Erin away."

His mind reverts to former scenes of delight —

" How dear to my heart in yon western land

Is the thought of Loch Foyle where the cool waves pour,
And the bay of Drumcliff on Culcinne's strand,
How grand was the slope of its curving shore !

O bear me my blessing afar to the West,
For the heart in my bosom is broken ; I fail.

Should death of a sudden now pierce my breast
I should die of the love that I bear the Gael ! " r

1 Literally : " How rapid the speed of my coracle and its stern turned
towards Derry. I grieve at the errand over the proud sea, travelling to Alba
of the Ravens. There is a grey eye that looks back upon Erin : it shall not
see during life the men of Erin nor their wives. My vision o'er the brine I
stretch from the ample oaken planks ; large is the tear from my soft grey
eye when I look back upon Erin. Upon Erin is my attention fixed, upon
Loch Leven [Lough Lene in West Meath], upon Line [Moy-linny, near

COLUMCILLE 179

Columcille is the first example in the saddened page of Irish
history of the exiled Gael grieving for his native land and
refusing to be comforted, and as such he has become the very
type and embodiment of Irish fate and Irish character. The
flag in bleak Gartan, upon which he was born, is worn thin
and bare by the hands and feet of pious pilgrims, and " the
poor emigrants who are about to quit Donegal for ever, come
and sleep on that flag the night before their departure from
Derry. Columcille himself was an exile, and they fondly hope
that sleeping on the spot where he was born will help them to
bear with lighter heart the heavy burden of the exile's
sorrows." x He is the prototype of the millions of Irish exiles
in after ages —

" Ruined exiles, restless, roaming,
Longing for their fatherland," 3

and the extraordinary deep roots which his life and poetry have
struck into the soil of the North was strikingly evidenced this

Antrim] , upon the land the Ultonians own, upon smooth Munster, upon
Meath. . . . Carry my benediction over the sea to the nobles of the Island
of the Gael, let them not credit Moleesha's words nor his threatened
persecution. Were it not for Moleesha's words at the Cross of Ahamlish,
I should not permit during my life disease or distemper in Ireland. . . .
Beloved to my heart also in the west is Drumcliff at Culcinne's strand : to
behold the fair Loch Foyle, the form of its shores is delightful. . . .
Take my blessing with thee to the west, broken is my heart in my
breast, should sudden death overtake me it is for my great love of the
Gael."

Dr. Healy's " Ireland's Schools and Scholars," p. 293. A fact which
is also confirmed by Dr. Reeves, p. Ixviii of his "Adamnan," where he
says: "The country people believe that whoever sleeps a night on this
stone will be free from home-sickness when he goes abroad, and for this
reason it has been much resorted to by emigrants on the eve of their
departure." I cannot say whether the breaking up of old ties produced
by the National Board — which has elsewhere so skilfully robbed the people/
of their birthright — may not have put an end to this custom within the last
few years.

3 " Deoraidhe gan sgith gan sos,
Mianaid a dtir 's a nduthchas."

This verse was either composed or quoted by John O'Mahony, the
Fenian Head-centre, when in America.

i So LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

very year (1898) by the wonderful celebration of his centenary at
Gartan, at which many thousands of people, who had travelled
all night over the surrounding mountains, were present, and
where it was felt to be so incongruous that the life of such a
great Irish patriot, prince, and poet, in the diocese, too, of an
O'Donnell, should be celebrated in English, that — probably for
the first time in this century — Irish poems were read and Irish
speeches made, even by the Cardinal-Primate and the
Bishop of the diocese.

Of Columcille's life on the craggy little island of lona, of
his splendid labours in converting the Picts, and of the
monastery which he established, and which, occupied by Irish
monks, virtually rendered lona an Irish island for the next
six hundred years, there is no need to speak here, for these
things belong rather to ecclesiastical than to literary history.

Columcille himself was an unwearied scribe, and delighted
in poetry. Ample provision was made for the multiplication
of books in all the monasteries which he founded, and his
Irish life tells us that he himself wrote "three hundred
gifted, lasting, illuminated, noble books." The life in the
Book of Lismore tells us that he once went to Clonmacnois
with a hymn he had made for St. Ciaran, 'for he made
abundant praises for God's household, as said the poet,

" Noble, thrice fifty, nobler than every apostle,
The number of miracles [of poems] are as grass,
Some in Latin, which was beguiling,
Others in Gaelic, fair the tale." '

Of these only three in Latin are now known to exist, whilst
of the great number of Irish poems attributed to him only a
few — half a dozen at the most — are likely to be even partly
genuine. His best known hymn is the " Altus," so called
from its opening word ; it was first printed by Colgan,1 and

1 Also in the " Liber Hymnorum," vol. ii. ; and again in 1882 with a prose
paraphrase and notes by the Marquis of Bute, who says : " the intrinsic

COLUMCILLE 181

its genuineness is generally admitted. It is a long and rudely-
constructed poem, of twenty-two stanzas, preserved in the
Book of Hymns, a MS. probably of the eleventh century.
Each stanza consists of six lines,1 and each line of sixteen
syllables. There is a pause after the eighth syllable, and a
kind of rhyme between every two lines. The first verses run
thus with an utter disregard of quantity.

"Altus prosator, vetustus dierum et ingenitus,
Erat absque origine primordii et crepidine,
Est et erit in saecula saeculorum infinitus,
Cui est unigenitus Christus et Spiritus Sanctus/' etc.

The second Latin hymn is a supplement to this one, com-
posed in praise of the Trinity, because Pope Gregory who, as
the legend states, perceived the angels listening when the "Altus"
was recited to him, was yet of opinion that the first stanza of
the original poem, despite its additional line, was insufficient to
express a competent laudation of the mystery, consequently
Columcille added, it was said, fifteen rude-rhyming couplets of
the same character as the "Altus," but it is very doubtful whether
they are genuine. The third hymn, the " Noli Pater," is still
shorter, consisting of only seven rhyming couplets with sixteen
syllables in each line. It was in ancient times considered an
efficient safeguard against fire and lightning. Some of his reputed
Irish poems we have already glanced at ; three that Colgan con-
sidered genuine were printed by Dr. Reeves in his " Adamnan ;"
and another, the touching " Farewell to Ara," is contained in the
"Gaelic Miscellany" of 1808; and another on his escape from

merits of the composition are undoubtedly very great, especially in the
latter capitula [i.e., stanzas], some of which the editor thinks would not
suffer by comparison with the Dies Irce." Dr. Dowden, Bishop of Edin-
burgh, has printed, in his pleasant little volume on the " Celtic Church in
Scotland," p. 323, a most admirable translation of it into English verse
by the Rev. Anthony Mitchell.

1 Except the first stanza, which being in honour of the Holy Trinity has
jven lines.

182 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

King Diarmuid, when the king of Connacht's son was put
to death for violating the Feis at Tara, is printed in the
"Miscellany" of the Irish Archaeological Society.1 There are
three verses, composed by him as a prayer at the battle of
Cooldrevna, ascribed to him in the "Chronicon Scotorum ;" and
there is a collection of fifteen poems attributed to him in the
O'Clery MSS. at Brussels, and nearly a hundred more — mostly
evident forgeries — in the Bodleian at Oxford.2 He does not
seem to have ever written any work in prose.

There are six lives of Columcille still extant, the greatest of
them all being that in Latin by Adamnan,3 who was one of
his successors in the abbacy of lona, and who was born only
twenty-seven years after Columcille's death. This admirable
work, written in flowing and very fair Latin, was derived, as
Adamnan himself tells us, partly from oral and partly from
written sources. A memoir of Columcille had already been
written by Cuimine Finn or Cummeneus Albus,4 as Adamnan
calls him, the last Abbot of lona but one before himself, and
that memoir he almost entirely embodied in his third book.
He had also some other written accounts before him, and the
Irish poems, both of the saint himself and of other bards,
amongst them Baithine M6r, who had enjoyed his personal
friendship, and St. Mura, who was a little his junior — poems

1 This poem begins —

" M'cenuran dam is in sliab,
A rig grian rop sorad sed,
Nocha n-eaglaigi dam ni,
Na du mbeind tri licit ced."

I find other verses attributed to him in the MS marked H i. n. in
Trinity College, Dublin.

2 Laud, 615.

3 Edited in 1857 for the Irish Archaeological Society by Dr. Reeves,
afterwards Bishop of Down, with all the perfection which the most
accurate scholarship and painstaking research could accomplish. It is not
too much to say that his name is likely to remain in the future associated
with those of Adamnan and Columcille.

4 Book iii., chapter 5 of Adamnan's " Life of Columcille."

COLUMCILLE 183

now lost. He had also constant opportunities of conversing
with those who had seen the great saint and had been familiar
with him in life, and he was writing on the spot and amidst
the associations and surroundings wherein his last thirty years
had been spent, and which were inseparably connected with
his memory. The result was that he produced a work, which
although not ostensibly a history, and dealing only with the
life of a single man, and that rather from the transcendental
than from the practical side, is nevertheless of the utmost value
to the historian on account not only of the general picture of
manners and customs, but still more on account of its incidental
references to contemporary history. " It is," says Pinkerton,
who, as Dr. Reeves remarks, was a writer not over-given to
eulogy, " 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." Adamnan's other great
work on Sacred Places is mentioned by his contemporary, the
Venerable Bede, but he is silent as to Columcille's life. There
is, however, abundant internal evidence of its authenticity.
This evidence, however it might satisfy the minds of mere
Irish students like Colgan and Stephen White, proved in-
sufficient, however, to meet the exacting claims of certain
British scholars. " I cannot agree," said Sir James Dalrymple,
in the last century, " that the authority of Adamnanus is equal,
far less preferable to that of Bede, since it was agreed on all
hands to be a fabulous history lately published in his name, and
that he was remarkable for nothing, but that he was the first
abbot of that monastery who quit the Scottish institution, and
became fond of the English Romish Rites." r Dr. Giles, too,
who thought of editing it, tells us in his translation of
Bede's " Ecclesiastical History," that he had "strong doubts of

1 Alluding to the fact that Adamnan tried to persuade his countrymen
to change their mode of calculating Easter, and to adopt the Roman
tonsure. Sir James Dalrymple is here engaged in defending the Presby-
terian view of church government.

1 84 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Adamnan's having written it." x And, finally, Schoell, a German,
professed to have convinced himself that Adamnan's preface
could not have been written by the same hand which wrote
the life, so different did the style of the two appear to him,
and wholly rejected it as a work of the seventh century written
at lona.

But it so happened that shortly before the year 1851, when
Schoell was impugning the genuineness of this work, the
ancient manuscript from which it had been copied by the
Irish Jesuit, Stephen White — and, from his copy, printed by
Colgan — actually came to light again, discovered by Dr.
Ferdinand Keller at the bottom of an old book-shelf in the
public library of Schaffhausen, into which it had been turned
with some other old manuscripts and books. A close exami-
nation of this remarkable text written in a heavy round Irish
hand, in nearly the same type of script as the Books of Kells
and Durrow, and of a more archaic character than that of the
Book of Armagh (written in 807), rendered it certain that
here was a codex of great value and antiquity. Nor was the
usual colophon containing the scribe's name and asking a prayer
for him missing. That name was Dorbene, a most rare one, of
which only two instances are known, both connected with
lona, the first of which records the death of Faelcu, son of
Dorbene, in 729, but as we know that Faelcu died in his
eighty-second year his father could hardly have been the scribe.
The other Dorbene was elected abbot of lona in 713 and died
the same year, so that it may be regarded as almost certain that
this book was written by him and that this copy is in his
handwriting. We have in this codex, then, the actual hand-
writing 2 of a contemporary of Adamnan himself, the handi-

1 "It is to be hoped," Dr. Reeves caustically remarked, "that the doubts
originated in a different style of research from that which made Bede's
Columcilli an island, and Dearmach [Durrow] the same as Derry ! "

" It may be objected," says Dr. Reeves, "that it was written by another
person of this name, or copied by a later hand from the autograph of this
Dorbene. The former exception is not probable, the name being almost

COLUMCILLE 185

work of the generation which succeeded Columcille, a volume
a hundred years older than even the Book of Armagh, a
volume which had been carried over to some of the numerous
Irish institutions on the Continent after the break-up of lona
by the Northmen. There are several corrections of the
orthography in a different and later hand, the date of which
is fixed by Dr. Keller at 800-820, and these are evidently the
work of a German monk, who was displeased with the peculiar
orthography of the Irish school, and who made these emenda-
tions after the MS. had been brought from lona to the
Continent. The following passage describing the last hours
of Columcille will both serve as a specimen of Adamnan's style
and also afford a minutely particular account of the end of this
great man. Its accuracy can hardly be impugned as it is
written by one who had every minute particular from eye-
witnesses, and as the actual manuscript from which it is
printed was copied from the author's own, either during his
life or within less than ten years after his death.1

Adamnan first tells us of several premonitions which the
saint had of his approaching end, how he, "now an old man,
wearied with age," was borne in his waggon to view his monks
labouring in the fields on the western slope of the island, and
intimated to them that his end was not far off, but that lest

unique, and found so pointedly connected with the Columbian society ;
the latter is less probable, as the colophon in Irish MSS. is always peculiar
to the actual scribe and likely to be omitted in transcription, as is the case
of later MSS. of the same recension preserved in the British Museum."
" Hoc ipsum MS. credi posset authographum Dorbbenei," says Van der
Meer, a learned monk, " subscriptio enirii ilia in rubro vix ab alio
descriptore addita fuisset ; characteres quoque antiquitatem sapiunt sasculi
octavi."

1 He died in 704, and Dorbene the scribe in 713. It is necessary to be
thus particular, even at the risk of being tedious, to correct the unlearned
assertions of people who can write that in treating of the "lives of St.
Patrick and St. Columba, one's faith is tried to the uttermost, leading not
a few to deny the very existence of the two missionaries " (" Irish Druids
and Religions," Berwick, p. 304) ; or the biassed dicta of men like Ledwich
who says that all Irish MSS. " savour of modern forgery."

1 86 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

their Easter should be one of grief, he would not be taken
from them until it was over. Later on in the year he went
out with his servant Diarmuid to inspect the granary, and was
pleased at the two large heaps of grain which were lying there,
and remarked that though he should be taken from his dear
monks, yet he was glad to see that they had a supply for the
year.

" And," says Adamnan, " when Diarmuid his servant heard this he
began to be sad, and said, ' Father, at this time of year you sadden
us too often, because you speak frequently about your decease.'
When the saint thus answered, ' I have a secret word to tell you,
which, if you promise me faithfully not to make it known to any
before my death, I shall be able to let you know more clearly about
my departure.' And when his servant, on bended knees, had
finished making this promise, the venerable man thus continued,
' This day is called in the sacred volumes the Sabbath, which is
interpreted Rest. And this day is indeed to me a sabbath, because
it is my last of this present laborious life, in which, after the trouble
of my toil, I take my rest ; for in the middle of this coming sacred
Sunday night, I shall to use the Scripture phrase, tread the way of
my fathers ; for now my Lord Jesus Christ deigns to invite me, to
whom, I say, at the middle of this night, on His own invitation, I
shall pass over ; for it was thus revealed to me by the Lord Himself.'
His servant, hearing these sad words, begins to weep bitterly : whom
the saint endeavoured to console as much as he was able.

" After this the saint goes forth from the barn, and returning to
the monastery sits down on the way, at the place where afterwards
a cross let into a millstone, and to-day standing there, may be per-
ceived on the brink of the road. And while the saint, wearied with
old age, as I said before, sitting in that place was taking a rest, lo !
the white horse, the obedient servant who used to carry the milk-
vessels between the monastery and the byre, meets him. It,
wonderful to relate, approached the saint and placing its head in
his bosom, by the inspiration of God, as I believe, for whom every
animal is wise with the measure of sense which his Creator has.-
bidden, knowing that his master was about to immediately depart
from him, and that he would see him no more, begins to lament and
abundantly to pour forth tears, like a human being, into the saint's
lap, and with beslavered mouth to make moan. Which when the
servant saw, he proceeds to drive away the tearful mourner, but the
saint stopped him, saying, ' Allow him, allow him who loves me, to

COLUMCILLE 187

pour his flood of bitterest tears into this my bosom. See, you,
though you are a man and have a rational mind, could have in no
way known about my departure if I had not myself lately disclosed
it to you, but to this brute and irrational animal the Creator Himself,
in His own way, has clearly revealed that his master is about to
depart from him.' And saying this he blessed the sorrowful horse
[the monastery's] servant, as it turned away from him.

" And going forth from thence and ascending a small hill, which
rose over the monastery, he stood for a little upon its summit, and
as he stood, elevating both his palms, he blessed his community and
said, ' Upon this place however narrow and mean, not only shall the
kings of the Scots [i.e., Irish] with their peoples, but also the rulers
of foreign and barbarous nations with the people subject to them,
confer great and no ordinary honour. By the saints of other
churches also, shall no common respect be accorded it.'

" After these words, going down from the little hill and returning
to the monastery, he sat in his cell writing a copy of the Psalms, and
on reaching that verse of the thirty-third Psalm where it is written,
' But they that seek the Lord shall lack no thing that is good ; '
' Here/ said he, 'we may close at the end of the page ; let Baithin
write what follows.' Well appropriate for the parting saint was
the last verse which he had written, for to him shall good things
eternal be never lacking, while to the father who succeeded him
[Baithin], the teacher of his spiritual sons, the following [words]
were particularly apposite, ' Come, my sons, hearken unto me. I
shall teach you the fear of the Lord,' since as the departing one
desired, he was his successor not only in teaching but also in
writing.1

" After writing the above verse and finishing the page, the saint
enters the church for the vesper office preceding the Sunday ; which
finished, he returned to his little room, and rested for the night on
his couch, where for mattress he had a bare flag, and for pillow
a stone, which at this day stands as a kind of commemorative

1 " Post haec verba de illo descendens monticellulo, et ad monasterium
revertens, sedebat in tugurio Psalterium scribens ; et ad ilium tricesimi
tertii psalmi versiculum perveniens ubi scribitur, Inquirentes autem
Dominum non deficient omni bono, Hie, ait, in fine cessandum est
paginae ; quae vero sequuntur Baitheneus scribat. Sancto convenienter
congruit decessori novissimus versiculus quern scripserat, cui numquam
bona deficient aeterna : succesori vero sequens patri, spiritalium doctor!
filiorum, Venite filii, audite me, timorem Domini docebo vos, congruenter
convenit ; qui, sicut decessor commendavit, non solo ei docendo sed etiam
scribendo successit."

1 88 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

monument beside his tomb.1 And there, sitting, he gives his last
mandates to the brethren, in the hearing of his servant only, saying,
' These last words of mine I commend to you, O little children, that
ye preserve a mutual charity with peace, and a charity not feigned
amongst yourselves ; and if ye observe to do this according to the
example of the holy fathers, God, the comforter of the good, shall
help you, and I, remaining with Him, shall make intercession for
you, and not only the necessaries of this present life shall be
sufficiently supplied you by Him, but also the reward of eternal
good, prepared for the observers of things Divine, shall be rendered
you.' Up to this point the last words of our venerable patron [when
now] passing as it were from this wearisome pilgrimage to his
heavenly country, have been briefly narrated.

"After which, his joyful last hour gradually approaching, the
saint was silent. Then soon after, when the struck bell resounded
in the middle of the night,2 quickly rising he goes to the church, and
hastening more quickly than the others he entered alone, and with
bent knees inclines beside the altar in prayer. His servant,
Diarmuid, following more slowly, at the same moment beholds, from
a distance, the whole church inside filled with angelic light round
the saint ; but as he approached the door this same light, which he had
seen, swiftly vanished ; which light a few others of the brethren, also
standing at a distance, had seen. Diarmuid then entering the church,
calls aloud with a voice choked with tears, ' Where art thou, Father ? '
And the lamps of the brethren not yet being brought, groping in
the dark, he found the saint recumbent before the altar : raising
him up a little, and sitting beside him, he placed the sacred head in
his own bosom. And while this was happening a crowd of monks
running up with lights, and seeing their father dying, begin to
lament. And as we have learned from some who were there
present, the saint, his soul not yet departing, with eyes upraised,
looked round on each side, with a countenance of wondrous joy and
gladness, as though beholding the holy angels coming to meet him.
Diarmuid then raises up the saint's right hand to bless the band of
monks. But the venerable father himself, too, in so far as he was

1 It is still shown at the east end of the Cathedral in lona, surrounded
by an iron cage to keep off tourists.

2 " The saint had previously attended at the vespertinalis Dominicce
noctis missa, an office equivalent to the nocturnal vigil, and now at the
turn of midnight the bell rings for matins, which were celebrated accord-
ing to ancient custom a little before daybreak." — Reeves. The early bells
were struck like gongs, not rung, hence the modern Irish for " ring the
beal " is bain an clog, " strike the bell."

COLUMCILLE 189

able, was moving his hand at the same lime, so that he might appear
to bless the brethren with the motion of his hand, what he could not
do with his voice, during his soul's departure. And after thus
signifying his sacred benediction, he straightway breathed forth
his life. When it had gone forth from the tabernacle of his body,
the countenance remained so long glowing and gladdened in a
wonderful manner by the angelic vision, that it appeared not that
of a dead man but of a living one sleeping. In the meantime the
whole church resounded with sorrowful lamentations." T

Besides the lives of Columcille, written by Adamnan and
Cummene, at least four more exist ; an anonymous life in
Latin, printed by Colgan and erroneously supposed by him
to be that of Cummene ; a life by John of Tinmouth, chiefly
compiled from Adamnan, which is also printed by Colgan ;
the old Irish life contained in four Irish MSS., namely, in the
Leabhar Breac, in the Book of Lismore, in a vellum MS. in
Edinburgh, and in an Irish parchment volume found by the
Revolutionary Commissioners, during the Republic, in a
private house in Paris, and by them presented to the Royal
Library of that city—

" Quae regio in terris nostri non plena laboris ! "

This life has been printed from the Book of Lismore by
Dr. Whitley Stokes. The last and most copious life is a
compilation of all existing documents and poems both in
Latin and Old Irish, and was made by order of O'Donnell
in 1532.

" Be it known," says the preface, " to the readers of this Life that
it was Manus, son of Hugh, son of Hugh Roe, son of Niall Garv, son
of Turlough of the wise O'Donnell, who ordered the part of this
Life which was in Latin to be put into Gaelic ; and who ordered
the part that was in difficult Gaelic to be modified, so that it might
be clear and comprehensible to every one ; and who gathered and
put together the parts of it that were scattered through the old

1 This scene took place, as Dr. Reeves has shown, " just after midnight
between Saturday the 8th and Sunday the Qth of June, in the year 597."

I9o LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Books of Erin ; and who dictated it out of his own mouth with great
labour and a great expenditure of time in studying how he should
arrange all its parts in their proper places, as they are left here in
writing by us ; and in love and friendship for his illustrious saint,
relative, and patron, to whom he was devoutly attached. It was in
the Castle of Port-na-tri-namhad [Lifford] that his Life was indited,
when were fulfilled 12 years and 20 and 500 and 1000 of the age of
the Lord."

This life, written in a large vellum folio, is preserved in
the Bodleian Library at Oxford and has never yet been
printed.1

The remains of Columcille, which after a three days' wake
were interred in lona, were left undisturbed for close upon a
hundred years. They were afterwards disinterred and placed
within a splendid shrine of gold and silver, which, in due time,
became the prey of the marauding Norsemen. The belief is
very general that his remains found their last resting-place in
Downpatrick, along with those of St. Patrick and St. Brigit.
The present appearance of the spot where they are supposed
to lie, may be gathered from the indignant verses 2 of a member
of a now defunct literary body, to which I had the honour of
belonging some years ago, one of those numerous Irish literary
societies which produce verses as thick as leaves in Vallombrosa.

" I stood at a grave by the outer wall

Of the Strangers' Church in Down,
All lorn and lost in neglect, and crossed

By the Church of the Strangers' frown.
All lorn and waste, and with footsteps crossed

The grave of our Patrons Three,
Not a leaf to wave o'er that lonely grave

That seemed not a grave to me !

1 It is to be hoped that it may soon see the light as one of the volumes
whose publication is contemplated by the new Irish Texts Society. The
copy of it used by Colgan is now back in the Franciscans' Library in
Dublin, a beautiful vellum written for Niall 6g O'Neill.

2 P. 50 of a little volume called " Lays and Lyrics of the Pan-Celtic
Society," long out of print, by P. O'C. MacLaughlin.

COLUMCILLE 191

But a trench where some traitor was flung of yore —

'Twas " a sight for a f oeman's eye " !
Where Patrick still and Saint Columbkille

And the Dove * of the Oak Tree lie.

Those men who spoke bravely of rending chains

(And never a fetter broke !)
Those men who adored the flashing sword

(When never a tocsin spoke !)
Those little men, who are very great

In marble and bronze, are still
The city's pride, whilst that trench holds Bride

And Patrick and Columbkille ! "

1 Evidently alluding to the passage in her Irish life which says, " Her
:ype among created things is as the Dove among birds, the vine among
:rees, and the sun above stars." There is a Latin distich on this grave in
Downpatrick which I have seen somewhere,

In burgo Duno tumulo tumulantur in uno
Brigida Patricius atquc Columba plus.

CHAPTER XVI

THE FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND

ST. PATRICK and the early Christians of the fifth century
spent much of their time and labour in the conversion of
pagans and the building of churches. Columcille and the
leading churchmen of the sixth century, on the other hand,
gave themselves up more to the foundation of monastic
institutions and the conduct of schools. They belonged to
what is well known in Irish ecclesiastical history as the second
Order of Saints. The first Order was composed of Patrick and
his associates, bishops filled with piety, founders of churches,
three hundred and fifty in number, mostly Franks, Romans,
and Britons, but with some Scots [i.e. Irish] also amongst them.
These worshipped, says the ancient " Catalogue of the Saints,"
one head — Christ, and followed one leader — Patrick. They
had one tonsure, one celebration of the Mass, and one Easter.
They mixed freely in the society of women, because they feared
not the wind of temptation, and this first Order of Saints, as it
is called, is reckoned by the Irish to have lasted during four
reigns.

The next Order of Saints had few bishops but many priests,
this was the order to which Columcille belonged, and most of
the saints who founded the great schools of Ireland which in

192

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 193

the following century became so flourishing and spread their
fame throughout Europe, as those of Ciaran and Finnian and
Brendan, and a score of others. This Order shunned all
association with women, and would not have them in their
monasteries.1 These saints whilst worshipping God as their
head, and celebrating one Easter and having one tonsure, yet
had different rites for celebrating, and different rules for living.
The rite with which they celebrated Mass they are said to
have secured from the British saints, St. David, St. Gildas, and
others. They also lasted for four reigns, or, roughly speaking,
during the last three quarters of the sixth century.

After these came what is called the third Order of Saints who
appear in their time to have been pre-eminent amongst the
other Christians, and to have been mostly anchorites, who
lived on herbs and supported themselves by such alms as they
were given, despising all things earthly and all things fleshly.
They observed Easter differently, they had different tonsures,
they had different rules of life, and different rites for cele-
brating Mass. They are said to have numbered about a
hundred and to have lasted down to the time of the great
plague in 664.

This third Order, says the writer of the "Catalogue of Saints,"
who gives their names, was holy, the second holier, but the first
Order was most holy. " The first glowed like the sun in the
fervour of their charity, the second cast a pale radiance like the
moon, the third shone like the aurora. These three Orders the
blessed Patrick foreknew, enlightened by heavenly wisdom,
when in prophetic vision he saw at first all Ireland ablaze, and
afterwards only the mountains on fire, and at last saw lamps
lit in the valleys."

By the middle of the sixth century Ireland had been honey-
ombed from shore to shore with schools, monasteries, colleges,

*

1 It is a common tradition that Columcille would not allow a cow on
lona, because, said he, " where there is a cow there will be a woman " !
This tradition is entirely contradicted, however, by Adamnan's life.

N

I94 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

(and foundations of all kinds belonging to the Christian com-
munity, and books had multiplied to a marvellous extent. At
the same time the professional bards flourished in such numbers
that Keating says that " nearly a third of the men of Ireland
belonged, about that period, to the poetic order." Omitting for
the present the consideration of the bards and the non-Christian
literature of poem and saga — mostly anonymous — which they
produced, we must take a rapid survey of some of the most
important of the Christian schools, whose pious professors,
whose number, and whose learning, secured for Ireland the
title of the Island of Saints. We have already seen how the
three patron saints of Ireland established their schools in
Armagh, Kildare, and lona, and their example was followed
by hundreds.

St. Enda, the son of a king of Oriel, after having studied at
some school in Great Britain (probably with St. Ninian — who
is said to have been himself an Irishman — at his noble
monastery of Candida Casa in Galloway, built about the
year 400), and after travelling through various parts of
Ireland, settled down finally about the year 483 in the
rocky and inaccessible island of Aran Mor, and was the
first of those holy men who have won for it the appel-
lation of Aran of the Saints. " One hundred and twenty-
seven saints sleep in the little square yard around Killeany
Church " x alone, and we are told that the countless numbers
of saints who have mingled their clay with the holy soil of
Aran will never be known until the day of Judgment.
Here most of the saints of the second Order repaired sooner or
later, to be instructed by, or to hold converse with St. Enda ;
amongst them Brendan the Voyager, whose wanderings, under
the title of Navigatio Brendani^ became so well known in later
ages to all mediaeval Europe. To him also came St. Finnian
of Clonard, who was himself celebrated in later days as the '
"Tutor of the Saints of Erin." From the remote north came
1 Dr. Healy's " Ireland's Schools and Scholars," p. 169.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 195

Finnian of Moville, Columcille's first teacher, and Ciaran, the
carpenter's son, the illustrious founder of Clonmacnois. St.
Jarlath of Tuam was there too, with St. Carthach the elder,
of Lismore, and with St. Keevin of Glendalough. St.
Columcille1 himself was amongst Enda's visitors, and tore
himself away with the utmost difficulty, solacing himself by
recourse to the Irish muse as was his wont —

" Farewell from me to Ara's Isle,

Her smile is at my heart no more,
No more to me the boon is given
With hosts of heaven to walk her shore.

How far, alas ! how far, alas !

Have I to pass from Ara's view,
To mix with men from Mona's fen,

With men from Alba's mountains blue.

Bright orb of Ara, Ara's sun,

Ah ! softly run through Ara's sky,
To rest beneath thy beam were sweeter

Than lie where Paul and Peter lie,

O Ara, darling of the West,

Ne'er be he blest who loves not thee,

O God, cut short her foeman's breath,
Let Hell and Death his portion be.

O Ara, darling of the West,

Ne'er be he blest who loves not thee,

Herdless and childless may he go
In endless woe his doom is dree.

O Ara, darling of the West,

Ne'er be he blest who loves thee not,

When angels wing from heaven on high
And leave the sky for this dear spot." 3

1 There is a story of Columcille when in Aran discovering the grave
an " abbot of Jerusalem " who had come to see Enda, and died there,
rinted by Kuno Meyer from Rawlinson B. 512 in the " Gaelic Journal,"

1. iv. p. 162.

1 Literally : " Farewell from me to Ara, it is it anguishes my heart not to
in the west among her waves, amid groups of the saints of heaven. It

far, alas ! it is far, alas ! I have been sent from Ara West, out towards

1 96 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Another early school was that founded by St. Finnian at
Cluain Eraird, better known under its corrupt form Clonard,
a spot hard by the river Boyne, to which students from both
north and south resorted in great numbers. Finnian, who
was of the Clanna Rury, or Irian race, had been baptized by
Bishop Fortchern, who — so quickly did the Christian cause
progress — was a grandson of King Laeghaire, who withstood
St. Patrick. This Fortchern, too, like Brigit's favourite
bishop, was a skilled artificer in bronze and metal, a calling
to which many of the early saints evinced a strong bias.
Clonard even during Finnian's lifetime became a great school,
and three thousand students are said to have been gathered
round it, amongst them the so-called Twelve Apostles of Erin.
These are Ciaran of Clonmacnois and Ciaran of Saigher, who
is patron saint of Ossory ; Brendan of Birr, the " prophet,"
and Brendan of Clonfert, the " navigator " ; Columba of
Tir-da-glass and Columcille ; Mobhi of Glasnevin and—
tnfaustum nomen ! — Rodan of Lothra or Lorrha ; Senanus of
Iniscathy, whose name is known to the lovers of the poet
Moore ; Ninnidh of Loch Erne ; Lasserian, and St. Cainnech
of Kilkenny, known in Scotland as Kenneth, and second in
that country only to St. Columcille and St. Brigit in popularity.
The school of Clonard was founded about the year 520, when,
to quote the rather jingling hymn from St. Finnian's office —

" Re versus in Clonardiam
Ad cathedram lecturae
Opponit diligentiam
Ad studium scripturae."

the population of Mona to visit the Albanachs. Ara sun, oh Ara sun, mj
affection lies buried in her in the west, it is the same to be beneath
pure soil as to be beneath the soil of Paul and Peter. Ara blessed, 0
Ara blessed, woe to him who is hostile to her, may he be given for it
shortness of life and hell. Ara blessed, O Ara blessed, woe to him who is
hostile to her, may their cattle decay and their children, and be he hin
on the other side (of this life) in evil plight. O Ara blessed, O Ara bles
woe to him who is hostile to her," etc.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 197

The numbers who attended his teaching are given in another
verse —

" Trium virorum millium

Sorte fit doctor humilis,
Verbi his fudit fluvium
Ut fons emanans rivulis."

Like all the other early Irish foundations which attained to
wealth and dignity before the ninth century, Clonard suffered
in proportion to its fame. It was after that date plundered and
destroyed twelve times, and was fourteen times burnt down
either wholly or in part. That being so, it is not much to be
wondered at that there only remains a single surviving literary
work of this school, which is the u Mystical Interpretation of
the Ancestry of our Lord Jesus Christ," by St. Aileran the
Wise, one of Finnian's successors, who died of the great plague
in 664. This piece, like so many others, was found in the
Swiss monastery of St. Gall, whither it had been brought by
some monks from Ireland. The editors who printed it for the
Benedictines in the seventeenth century say that, although the
writer did not belong to their Order, they publish it because
he " unfolded the meaning of sacred scripture with so much
learning and ingenuity that every student of the sacred
volume, and especially preachers of the Divine Word, will
regard the publication as most acceptable." The learned
editors could have hardly paid the Irish writer a higher
compliment. "A Short Moral Explanation of the Sacred
Names " is another still existing fragment of Aileran's, and
"whether we consider the style of the latinity, the learning,
or the ingenuity of the writer," says Dr. Healy, " it is equally
marvellous and equally honourable to the school of Clonard."
Aileran is said to have also written lives of St. Patrick, St.
Brigit, and St. Fechin of Fore, and to be the original author
of a litany, part Irish, part Latin, preserved in the Yellow
look of Lecan.
Another great Irish college was Clonfert on the Shannon,

198 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

founded about the year 556 by Brendan the Navigator, who,
like Finnian, came of the Irian race, being descended from
Fergus mac Roy.1 He was born towards the close of the
fifth century, and his school, too, became very famous, having,
it is said, produced as many as three thousand monks. The
influence of the Navlgatio Brendani^ by whomsoever written,
was immense, and was felt through all Europe, so that in
many of the great continental libraries good MS. copies of
it, sometimes very ancient, may be found.2 But perhaps
Brendan's grand-nephew and pupil may have indirectly in-
fluenced European literature in a still more important manner.
This was Fursa, afterwards St. Fursa, whose visions were
known all over Ireland, Great Britain, and France. There
can be no doubt about the substantial accuracy of St. Fursa's
lite, for Bede himself, who dedicates a good deal of space to
Fursa's visions,3 refers to it. It must have been written within
ten or fifteen years after his death, because it refers to the
plague and the great eclipse of the sun which happened last
year^ that is 664. Now Dante was acquainted with Bede's
writings, for he expressly mentions him, and Bede's account
of Fursa and Fursa's own life may have been familiar to him,
and furnished him with the groundwork of part of the Divine
Comedy of which it seems a kind of prototype.4

1 See p. 69, note.

2 It has been edited both by a Frenchman, M. Jubinal, and a German, Karl
Schroeder, from eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth century MSS. preserved
in Paris, Leipsic, and Wolfenbuttel, and by Cardinal Moran from, I believe,
a ninth-century one in the Vatican. Giraldus Cambrensis alludes to it as
well known in his time, " Haec autem si quis audire gestierit qui de vita
Brendani scriptus est libellum legat" ("Top. Hib.," II. ch. 43). There
is a copy of Brendan's acts in the so-called Book of Kilkenny in Marsh's
Library, Dublin, a MS. of probably the fourteenth century.

s " Eccles. Hist.," lib. iii. c. 19. He calls him " Furseus, verbo et actibus
clarus sed et egregiis insignis virtutibus," and dedicates five pages of Mayer
and Lumby's edition to an account of him and his visions.

4 Father O'Hanlon, in his great work on the Irish saints, has pointed
out a large number of close parallels between Fursa's vision and Dante's
poem which seem altogether too striking tc be fortuitous. (Sec vol. i.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 199

Brendan's own adventures and his view of hell, which he
was shown by the devil, may also have been known to Dante.
Brendan prepared three vessels with thirty men in each, some
clerics, some laymen, and with these, says his Irish life in
the Book of Lismore, he sailed to seek the Promised Land,
which, evidently influenced by the old pagan traditions of
Moy Mell x and Hy Brassil, he expected to find as an island
in the Western Sea, and so says his Irish life poetically —

"Brendan, son of Finnlug, sailed over the wave-voice of the
strong-maned sea, and over the storm of the green-sided waves,
and over the mouths of the marvellous awful bitter ocean, where
they saw the multitude of the furious red-mouthed monsters with
abundance of the great sea-whales. And they found beautiful
marvellous islands, yet they tarried not therein."

Like Sindbad in the Arabian tales,2 they land upon the back
of a great whale as if it had been solid land. There they
celebrated Easter. They endured much peril from the sea.
" On a certain day, as they were on the marvellous ocean " —
this adjective is strongly indicative of the spirit in which the
Celt regards the works of nature — " they beheld the deep bitter
streams and the vast black whirlpools of the strong-maned sea,
and in them their vessels were being constrained to founder
because of the greatness of the storm." Brendan, however,
cried to the sea, " It is enough for thee, O mighty sea, to
drown me alone, but let this folk escape thee," and on hearing

pp. 115-120.) There are a poem and a litany attributed to St. Fursa in
the MS. H. I. II. in Trinity College, Dublin. The visions of Purgatory
seen by Dryhthelm, a monk of Melrose, as recorded by Bede, which are
later than St. Fursa's vision, are conceived very much in the same style,
only are much more doctrinal in their purgatorial teaching. " Tracing
the course of thought upwards," says Sir Francis Palgrave ("History of
Normandy and England "), " we have no difficulty in deducing the poetic
genealogy of Dante's ' Inferno' to the Milesian Fursaeus."

1 See above, p. 97.

2 The same story, as Whitley Stokes points out, is told in two ninth-
century lives of St. Machut, so that a tenth-century version of Sindbad's
first voyage cannot have been the origin of it.

200 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

his cry the sea grew calm. It was after this that Brendan got
a view of hell.

" On a certain day," says the Irish Life, " that they were on the
sea, the devil came in a form old, awful, hideous, foul, hellish, and
sat on the rail of the vessel before Brendan, and none of them saw
him save Brendan alone. Brendan asked him why he had come
before his proper time, that is, before the time of the great resurrec-
tion. ' For this have I come,' said the devil, ' to seek my punishment
in the deep closes of this black, dark sea.' Brendan inquired of him,
' What is this, where is that infernal place ? ' ' Sad is that,' said the
devil ; ' no one can see it and remain alive afterwards.' Howbeit the
devil there revealed the gate of hell to Brendan, and Brendan beheld
that rough, hot prison full of stench, full of flame, full of filth, full of
the camps of the poisonous demons, full of wailing and screaming
and hurt and sad cries and great lamentations and moaning and
handsmiting of the sinful folks, and a gloomy, mournful life in hearts
of pain, in igneous prisons, in streams of the rows of eternal fire, in
the cup of eternal sorrow and death, without limit, without end ; in
black, dark swamps, in fonts of heavy flame, in abundance of woe
and death and torments, and fetters, and feeble wearying combats,
with the awful shouting of the poisonous demons, in a night ever-
dark, ever-cold, ever-stinking, ever-foul, ever-misty, ever-harsh,
ever-long, ever-stifling, deadly, destructive, gloomy, fiery-haired, of
the loathsome bottom of hell. On sides of mountains of eternal
fire, without rest, without stay, were hosts of demons dragging the
sinners into prisons . . . black demons ; stinking fires ; streams of
poison ; cats scratching ; hounds rending ; dogs baying ; demons
yelling ; stinking lakes ; great swamps ; dark pits ; deep glens ; high
mountains ; hard crags ; . . . winds bitter, wintry ; snow frozen,
ever-dropping ; flakes red, fiery ; faces base, darkened ; demons
swift, greedy ; tortures vast, various." *

This is one of the earliest attempts in literature at the pour-
trayal of an Inferno.

1 This is evidently the passage upon which Keating's description of hell
in the " Three Shafts of Death," Leabh. III. allt. ix., x., xi., is modelled. He
quite outdoes his predecessor in declamation and exuberance of alliterative
adjectives. Compare also the description in the vision of Adamnan of the
infernal regions as it is elaborated in the copy in the Leabhar Breac, in
contradistinction to the more sober colouring of the older Leabhar na
h-Uidhre.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 201

After a seven-years' voyage Brendan returned home to his
own country without having found his Earthly Paradise, and
his people and his follc at home " brought him," says the Irish
Life, "treasures and gifts as if they were giving them to
God " !

His foster-mother St. Ita now advised him not to put forth
in search of that glorious land in those dead stained skins which
formed his currachs, for it was a holy land he sought, and he
should look for it in wooden vessels. Then Brendan built
himself "a great marvellous vessel, distinguished and huge."
He first sailed to Aran to consort with St. Enda, but after a
month he heaved anchor and sailed once more into the
West.

He reaches the Isle of Paradise after many adventures, and is
invited on shore by an old man " without any human raiment,
but all his body full of bright white feathers like a dove
or a sea-mew, and it was almost the speech of an angel that
he had." "O ye toilsome men," he said, "O hallowed
pilgrims, O folk that entreat the heavenly rewards, O ever-
weary life expecting this land, stay a little now from your
labour." The land is described in terms that forcibly record
the delights of the pagan Elysium of Moy Mell, and prove how
intimately the Brendan legend is bound up with primitive pre-
Christian mythological beliefs. " The delightful fields of the
land " are described as " radiant, famous, lovable," — " a land
odorous, flower-smooth, blessed, a land many-melodied, musical,
shouting-for-joy, unmournful." " Happy," said the old man,
"shall he be with well-deservingness and with good deeds,
whom B randan, son of Finnlug, shall call into union with him
on that side to inhabit for ever and ever the island whereon we
stand."

But better known — at least in ecclesiastical history — than
even St. Brendan, is St. Cummian, surnamed "fada" or the
Long, who was one of his successors in the school of Clonfert,
and who perished in or a little before the great plague of 664.

202 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

There are two hymns, one by himself in Latin,1 and one in
Irish by his tutor, Colman Ua Cluasaigh [Clooasy] of Cork,
preserved in the " Liber Hymnorum." But his great achieve-
ment was his celebrated letter on the Paschal question addressed
to his friend Segienus, the abbot of lona. The question of
when to celebrate Easter day was one which long sundered
the British and Irish Churches from the rest of Europe, and
has, as students of ecclesiastical history know, given rise to all
sorts of conjectures as to the independence of these churches.
The charge against the Irish was that they celebrated Easter
on any day from the fourteenth to the twentieth day of the
moon, even on the fourteenth if it should happen to be Sunday,
but the fourteenth was a Jewish festival and the Council of Nice
had, in 325, declared it to be unlawful to celebrate the Christian
Easter on a Jewish festival.2 The Irish had obtained their own
doctrine of Easter from the East, through Gaul, which was
largely open to Eastern influence ; also the Irish used the old
Roman cycle of 84 years, not the newer and more correct
Alexandrian one of 19 years. The consequence was the
scandal of having different Churches of Christendom celebrating
Easter on different days, and some mourning when others were

1 Beginning : —

" Celebra Juda festa Christi gaudia
Apostulorum exultans memoria.

Claviculari Petri primi pastoris
Piscium rete evangelii corporis
Alleluia."

This hymn, says Dr. Todd, " bears evident marks of the high antiquity
claimed for it, and there seem no reasonable grounds for doubting its
authenticity."

2 " The correct system lays down three principles. First, Easter day
must be always a Sunday, never on but next after the fourteenth day of the
moon ; secondly, that fourteenth day of the full moon should be that
on or next after the vernal equinox ; and thirdly, the equinox itself was
invariably assigned to the 2ist of March" (Dr. Healy's " Ireland's Schools
and Scholars," p. 234). At Rome the i8th had been regarded as the equinox ;
St. Patrick, however, rightly laid it down that the equinox took place on •
the 2ist.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 203

feasting, a scandal which the Epistle of Cummian was designed
to put an end to.

" I call this letter," says Professor G. Stokes,1 " a marvellous con-
position because of the vastness of its learning ; it quotes besides the
Scriptures and Latin authors, Greek writers like Origen, and Cyril,
Pachomius the head and reformer of Egyptian monasticism, and
Damascius the last of the celebrated neo-Platonic philosophers of
Athens, who lived about the year 500, and wrote all his works in
Greek. Cummian discusses the calendars of the Macedonians,
Hebrews, and Copts, giving us the Hebrew, Greek, and Egyptian
names of months and cycles, and tells us that he had been sent as
one of a deputation of learned men a few years before to ascertain
:he practice of the Church of Rome. When they came to Rome
hey lodged in one hospital with a Greek and a Hebrew, an Egyptian,
and a Scythian, who told them that the whole world celebrated the
Roman and not the Irish Easter."

Cummian throughout this letter displays the true spirit of a
cholar, he humbly apologises for his presumption in addressing
uch holy men, and calls God to witness that he is actuated by
no spirit of pride or contempt for others. When the new
cycle of 532 years was first introduced into Ireland he did not
at once accept it, but held his peace and took no side in the
matter, because he did not think himself wiser than the
rlebrews, Greeks, and Latins, nor did he venture to disdain
the food he had not yet tasted. So he retired for a whole year
nto the study of the question, to examine for himself the facts
of history, the nature of the various cycles in use, and the
testimony of Scripture.

There is another book, "De Mensura Pcenitentiarum,"
ascribed to Cummian and printed in Migne ; and there is a
poem on his death by his tutor, St. Colman, who was carried
off by the same plague a short time after him.2

1 Late professor of Ecclesiastical History in Dublin University. See
'Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy," May, 1892, p. 195.
* The first verse runs thus : —

" Ni beir Luimneach for a druim
Di sil Muimhneach i Leth Cuinn
Marban in noi bu fiu do
Do Cuimmine mac Fiachno " —

204 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The great institution presided over by St. Cummian was
flourishing in full vigour at the time of the first incursions of
the Northmen. It is frequently mentioned in the Irish Annals
as a place of note and learning. Turgesius the Dane, attracted
by so fair a booty, promptly plundered and burnt it to the
ground. Again and again it was rebuilt, and again and again
the same fate befell it. The monastery and the school
survived, however, until the coming of the Normans, and the
"Four Masters" under the year 1170 record the death of one
of its teachers, Cormac O'Lumlini, whom they pathetically
designate u the remnant of the sages of Erin," for by this time
Clonfert had been six times burnt and four times plundered.

Even a greater school, however, than Clonfert, was that
founded by St. Ciaran [Keeran], the carpenter's son, beside a
curve in the Shannon, at Clonmacnois, not far from Athlone,
about the year 544. He had himself been educated by St.
Finnian of Clonard, and he died at the early age of thirty-
three, immediately after laying the foundations of what was
destined to become the greatest Christian college in Ireland.1

The monastery and cells of St. Ciaran rapidly grew into a
city, to which students flocked from far and near. In one
sense the College of Clonmacnois had an advantage over all its
rivals, for it belonged to no one race or clan. Its abbots and
teachers were drawn from many different tribes, and situated
as it was, in almost the centre of the island, all the great races,
Erimonians, Eberians, Irians, and Ithians, resorted to it
impartially, and it became a real university. There the
O'Conors, kings of Connacht, had their own separate church ;
there the Southern Ui Neill reared apart their own cathedral ;
there the MacDermots, princes of Moylurg, and the

" The lower Shannon bears not upon its surface, of Munster race in Leath
Cuinn, any corpse in boat, equal to him, to Cuimin, son of Fiachna." His
corpse was apparently brought home by water.

1 There is a verse ascribed to Ciaran in the " Chronicon Scotorum,"
beginning " Darerca mo mhathair-si," and a poem ascribed to him in
H. i. ii. Trinity College, Dublin.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 205

O'Kellys, kings of Hy Mainy, had each their own mortuary
chapels ; there the Southerns built one round tower, the
O'Rorkes another ; and there too the Mac Carthys of Munster
had a burial-place. Who, even at this day, has not heard of
the glories of Clonmacnois, of its ruins, its graves, its crosses ;
of its churchyard, which possesses a greater variety of sculp-
tured and decorated stones than perhaps all the rest of Ireland
put together, and of which the Irish poet beautifully sang so
long ago—

" In a quiet watered land, a land of roses,

Stands St. Ciaran's city fair,

And the warriors of Erin in their famous generations,
Slumber there.

There beneath the dewy hill-side sleep the noblest

Of the clan of Conn,
Each below his stone, with name in branching Ogham,

And the sacred knot thereon.

There they laid to rest the seven kings of Tara,

There the sons of Cairbre sleep,
Battle-banners of the Gael that in Ciaran's Plain of Crosses,

Now their final hosting keep.

And in Clonmacnois they laid the men of Teffia,

And right many a lord of Breagh.
Deep the sod above Clan Creide and Clan Conaill,

Kind in hall and fierce in fray.

Many and many a son of Conn the Hundred-Fighter

In the red earth lies at rest,
Many a blue eye of Clan Colman the turf covers,

Many a swan-white breast." x

1 Thus admirably translated by my friend Mr. Rolleston in " Poems
and Ballads of Young Ireland," Dublin, 1888, a little volume which seems
to have been the precursor of a considerable literary movement in Ireland.
Literally : " The city of Ciaran of Clonmacnois, a dewy-bright red-rose
town, of its royal seed, of lasting fame, the hosts in the pure-streamed
peaceful town. The nobles of the clan of Conn are in the flag-laid brown-
sloped churchyard, a knot or a branch above each body and a fair correct
name in Ogam. The sons of Cairbre over the seven territories, the seven
great princes from Tara, many a sheltering standard on a field of battle is

206 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Some of the most distinguished scholars of Ireland, if not of
Europe, were educated at Clonmacnois, including Alcuin, the
most learned man at the French court, who remembered his
alma mater so affectionately that he extracted from King
Charles of France a gift of fifty shekels of silver, to which he
added fifty more of his own, and sent them to the brotherhood
of Clonmacnois as a gift, with a quantity of olive oil for the
Irish bishops. His affectionate letter to "his blessed master
and pious father " Colgan, chief professor at Clonmacnois, is
still extant.

This Colgu, or Colgan, himself wrote a book in Irish, called
"The Besom of Devotion," which appears to be now lost.
A litany of his still remains. The great eleventh-century
annalist, Tighearnach, was an alumnus of Clonmacnois. So,
too, was the reputed author of the " Chronicon Scotorum,"
O'Malone, in 1123. The Annals of Clonmacnois was one
of the books in the hands of the " Four Masters," but it is now
lost, and a different book called by the same name (the original

with the people of Ciaran's Plain of Crosses. The men of Teffia, the
tribes of Breagh were buried beneath the clay of Cluain[macnois]. The
valiant and hospitable are yonder beneath the sod, the race of Creide and
the Clan Conaill. Numerous are the sons of Conn of the Battles, with red
clay and turf covering them, many a blue eye and white limb under the
earth of Clan Colman's tomb." The first verses run in modern spelling
thus:

" Cathair Chiarain Chluain-mic-Nois

Baile drucht-solas, dearg-rois.

Da shil rioghraidh is buan bladh

Sluaigh fa'n sith-bhaile sruth-ghlan.

Ataid uaisle cloinne Chuinn
Fa'n reilig leacaigh learg-dhuinn
Snaoidhm no Craobh os gach cholain
Agus ainm caomh ceart Oghaim."

The clan of Conn here mentioned are principally the Ui Neill and their
correlatives. Teffia is something equivalent to Longford, and Breagh to
Meath. Clan Creide are the O' Conors of Connacht, and the Clan Colman
principally means the O'Melaughlins and their kin. " Colman mor, a quo
Clann Cholmain ie Maoileachlain cona fflaithibh " (Mac Firbis MS. Book
of Genealogies, p. 161 of O'Curry's transcript). Colman was the brother
of King Diarmuid, who was slain in 552.

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 207

of which has also perished) was translated into English by
Macgeoghegan in I627-1 The celebrated Leabhar na h-Uidhre
[Lowar na Heera] or "Book of the Dun Cow," compiled
about the year uoo, emanated from this centre of learning.
Like Clonfert, and every other home of Irish civilisation, the
city of Clonmacnois fell a prey to the barbarians. The North-
men plundered it or burnt it, or both, on ten separate occasions.
Turgesius, their leader, set up his wife Ota as a kind of
priestess to deliver oracles from its high altar;2 and some of
he Irish themselves, reduced to a state of barbarism by the
lorrors of the period, laid their sacrilegious hands upon its
loly places ; and afterwards the English of Athlone stepped in
nd completed its destruction. It now remains only a ruin and

name.

Another very celebrated school was that of Bangor, on
Belfast Loch, founded by Comgall, the friend of Columcille,
>etween 550 and 560. It soon became crowded with scholars,
nd next to Armagh it was certainly the greatest school of the
northern province, and produced men of the highest eminence
kt home and abroad. Its fame reached far across the sea. St.
Bernard called it "a noble institution, which was inhabited by
hiany thousands of monks;" and Joceline of Furness, in the
twelfth century, called it "a fruitful vine breathing the odour
j)f salvation, whose offshoots extended not only over all Ireland,
put far beyond the seas into foreign countries, and filled many
lands with its abounding fruitfulness."

The most distinguished of Bangor's sons of learning were
Columbanus, the evangeliser of portions of Burgundy and Lom-

rdy ; St. Gall, the evangeliser of Switzerland ; Dungal, the

tronomer ; and later on, in the twelfth century, Malachy

Published a couple of years ago by the late Father Murphy, S.J., for
ic Royal Antiquarian Society of Ireland.

- " Airgid cealla ardnaomh Ereann uile ocus as ar altoir Cluana mac Nois
bhereadh Otta bean Tuirghes uirigheall do gach ae[n] " (Mac Firbis
[S. of Genealogies, p. 768 in O' Curry's transcript). Also " Gael and
" p. 13.

208 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

O'Morgair, who, though not known as an author, distinguished
himself in the province of Church discipline.

The lives of St. Columbanus and of St. Gall belong rather
to foreign than to Irish history, but we may glance at them
again in another place. Dungal, poet, astronomer, and
theologian, was also like them, for a time, an exile. His identity
is uncertain ; the "Four Masters" mention twenty-two persons
of the same name between the years 744 and 1015, but his
Irish nationality is certain, and he calls himself " Hibernicus
exul " in his poem addressed to his patron Charlemagne. He
appears to have died in the Irish monastery at Bobbio, in North
Italy, to which he left his library, and amongst other books the
celebrated Antiphonary of Bangor, his possession of which seems
to warrant us in supposing that Bangor was his original college.
He appears to have been a close friend of Charlemagne's, and
in 811 he wrote him his celebrated letter, explanatory of the
two solar eclipses which had taken place the year before. The
emperor could apparently find at his court no other astronomer
of sufficient learning to explain the phenomena. Later on we
find Dungal, at the request of Lothaire, Charlemagne's grand-
son, opening a school at Pavia to civilise the Lombards, to]
which institution great numbers of students flocked from
every quarter. Dungal may, in fact, be regarded as the.:
founder of the University of Pavia. His greatest effort whilst
in Pavia was his work against the Iconoclasts. Dungal's attack
upon the cultured Spanish bishop, Claudius, who championed
them, as it was the first, so it appears to have been the ablest
blow struck ; and Western iconoclasm seemed to have for the
time received a mortal wound from his hand.1 Besides his long
eulogy on his friend and patron Charlemagne, several other smaller

1 Claudius was Bishop of Turin, and a man of much culture and ability ;
so disgusted was he with the congregation of ignorant Italian bishops-
culture was then at the lowest ebb in Italy — before whom he argued his
case that he called them a congregatio asinorum, and says Zimmer, " Ein
Ire, Dungal, musste fur sie die Vertheidigung des Bilderdienstes iiber-
nehmen."

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 209

poems of his survive, showing him to have been — like almost
all Irishmen of that date — no mere pedant and student.

Like almost all the more famous and attractive of the Irish
colleges, Bangor suffered fearfully from the attacks of the
northern pirates, who, according to St. Bernard, slew there as
many as nine hundred monks. " Not a cross, not even a
stone," says Dr. Healy, " now remains to mark the site of the
famous monastery, whose crowded cloisters for a thousand
years overlooked the pleasant islets and broad waters of Inver
Becne." It has shared the fate of its compeers :

etiam periere ruina\

It would prove too tedious to enumerate the other Irish
colleges which dotted the island in the sixth and seventh
centuries. The most remarkable of them besides those that
I have mentioned were Moville, at the head of Loch Cuan
or Strangford Lough, in the County Down, founded by St.
Finnian, who was born before 500, and who afterwards became
known as Frigidius, Bishop of Lucca, in Switzerland. Colman,
whose hymn is preserved in the " Liber Hymnorum," and
Marianus Scotus, the Chronicler, were alumni of Moville.

Cluain Eidnech, or Clonenagh, the " Ivy Meadow," was
founded by St. Fintan, near Maryborough, in the present
Queen's County. Angus the Culdee, who with its Abbot
Maelruain is said to have composed the Martyrology of
jTallaght prior to 792, was its greatest ornament. Of his
Irish works we shall have more to say later on. Clonenagh
(suffered so much from the Northmen, that its great foundation
jhad already in the twelfth century dwindled to a parochial

lurch ; in the nineteenth it is a green mound.

Glendalough, founded by the celebrated St. Kevin,1 became
a college of much note. St. Moling, to whom a great

Pronounced " Keevin," not " Kevin." The Irish form is Caoimh-
=keev, " aoi " being in Irish always pronounced like ce, and " mh " like v]
jhinn, the " g " being aspirated is scarcely pronounced.

o

210 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

number of Irish poems x are ascribed, was one of his successors
in the seventh century, and his life seems to have taken
peculiar hold upon the imagination of the populace, for he has
more poems — many of them evident forgeries — attributed to
him than we find ascribed to any of the saints except to
Columcille ; and he has a place amongst the four great
prophets of Erin.2 It was he who procured the remission of

1 The celebrated Evangelistarium, or Book of Moling, was, with its case
or cover, deposited in Trinity College, Dublin, ini the last century by the
Kavanaghs of Borris. Giraldus Cambrensis classes Moling as a prophet
with Merlin, and as a saint with Patrick and Columba. One of the
prophecies assigned to him is given by O'Curry, MS. Mat., p. 427. The
oldest copy of any of Moling's poems is in the monastery of St. Paul in
Carinthia, contained in a MS. originally brought from Augia Dives, or
Reichenau. It is in the most perfect metre, and runs :—

" Is en immo niada sas
Is nau tholl diant eslinn guas,
Is lestar fas, is crann crin
Nach digni toil ind rig tuas."

(" He is a bird round which a trap closes,
He is a leaky bark in weakness of peril,
He is an empty vessel, he is a withered tree
Who doth not do the will of the King above.")

I.e., "Iseanum a n-iadhann sas / is nau' (long) thollta darb' eislinn guais.
Is leastar fas (folamh) " is crann crion, [an te] nach ndeanann toil an righ
shuas."

The poem is also given in the Book of Leinster, and contains eight
verses. One would perhaps have expected the third line to run, " is crann
crin is lestar fas." The St. Paul MS., which is of the eighth century, con-
tains two of Molling's poems, and they scarcely differ in wording or
orthography from copies in MSS. six hundred years later.

2 Patrick, Columcille, and Berchan of Clonsast, are the others. Even
the English settlers had heard of their fame. Baron Finglas, writing i
Henry VIII.'s reign, says, "The four saints, St. Patrick, St. Columb, S
Braghane [i.e., Berchan], and St. Moling, which many hundred y
agone made prophecy that Englishmen should have conquered Irela
and said that the said Englishmen should keep their owne laws, and as
soon as they should leave, and fall to Irish order, then they should decay,
the experience whereof is proved true." (From Ryan's " History and
Antiquities of the co. Carlow," p. 93.) A still more curious allusion to the ,
four Irish prophets is one in the Book of Howth, a small vellum folio of
the sixteenth century, written in thirteen different hands, published in the
Calendar of State Papers. " Men say," recounts the anonymous writer,

* that the Irishmen had four prophets in their time, Patrick, Marten [sic],

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 211

the Boru tribute from King Finnachta about the year 693.
Glendalough was plundered and destroyed by the Danes five
times over, within a period of thirty years, yet it to some
extent recovered itself, and the great St. Laurence O'Toole,
who was Archbishop of Dublin at the coming of the Normans,
had been there educated.

Lismore, the great college of the south-east, was founded by
St. Carthach in the beginning of the seventh century, who left
behind him, according to O'Curry, a monastic rule of 580
lines of Irish verse.1 Cathal, or Cathaldus, born in the
beginning of the seventh century, who afterwards became
bishop and patron saint of Tarentum, in Italy, was a student,
and perhaps professor in this college. The office of St. Cathal-
dus states that Gauls, Angles, Irish, and Teutons, and very
many people of neighbouring nations came to hear his lectures
at Lismore, and Morini's life of him expresses in poetic terms
the tradition of Lismore's greatness.2 St. Cuanna, another
member of Lismore, was probably the author of the Book or

Brahen [i.e., Berchan], and Collumkill. Whosoever hath books in Irish
written every of them speak of the fight of this conquest, and saith that
long strife and oft fighting shall be for this land, and the land shall be
harried and stained with great slaughter of men, but the Englishmen fully
shall have the mastery a little before doomsday, and that land shall be
from sea to sea i-castled and fully won, but the Englishmen shall be after
that well feeble in the land and disdained ; so Barcan [Berchan] saith :
that through a king shall come out of the wild mountains of St. Patrick's,
that much people shall slew and afterwards break a castle in the wooden
of Affayle, with that the Englishmen of Ireland shall be destroyed by
that." The prophecy that the Englishmen fully shall have the mastery a
little before Doomsday is amusingly equivocal !

1 Described in O'Curry's MS. Materials, p. 375, but I do not know
where the original is.

2 Quoted in O'Halloran's " History of Ireland," bk. ix. chap. 4.
" Celeres vastissima Rheni / jam vadaTeutonici, jam deseruere Sicambri ; /
Mittit ab extremo gelidos Aquilone Boemos / Albis et Arvenni coeunt,
Batavi-que frequentes, / Et quicunque colunt alta sub rupe Gebennas. / . . .
Certatim hi properunt diverso tramite ad urbem / Lesmoriam [Lismore]

ijuvenis primos ubi transigit annos." Sec also corroborative proof of the
numbers of Gauls, Teutons, Swiss, and Italians visiting Lismore about the
year 700 in Ussher's " Antiquities," Works, vi., p. 303.

212 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Cuanach, now lost, but often quoted in the Annals of
Ulster. He died in 650, and the book is not quoted after
the year 628, which makes it more than probable that he was
the author. Lismore was burnt down by the Danes, but
recovered itself in the general revival of native institutions that
took place prior to the conquest of the Anglo-Normans.
However, when these latter came upon the Irish stage it fared
ill with Lismore. Strongbow, indeed, was bought off from
burning its churches in 1173 by a great sum of money, but in
the following year his son, in spite of this, plundered the place.
Four years later the English forces again attacked it, plundered
it, and set it on fire. In 1207 the whole town and all about it
was finally consumed, so that at the present day not a vestige
remains behind of its schools, its cloisters, or its twenty
churches.

Cork college was founded by St. Finnbarr towards the
end of the sixth century. One of its professors, Colman
O'Cluasaigh, who died in 664, wrote the curious Irish hymn
or prayer mixed with Latin, preserved in the Book of
Hymns.1 The place was burned four times between 822 and
840, but in the twelfth century the ancient monastery which
had fallen into decay was rebuilt by Cormac Mac Carthy, king

1 Reprinted by Windisch in his " Irische Texte," Heft I., p. 5. The
first verse runs —

" Sen De don fe for don te
Mac maire ron feladar !
For a fhoessam dun anocht
Cia tiasam, cain temadar,"

which is in no wise easy to translate ! There are fifty-six verses not all in
the same metre. Another acknowledges St. Patrick as a patron saint, it
would run thus, in modernised orthography —

" Beannacht ar erlam [patrun] Padraig
Go naomhaib Eireann uime
Beannacht ar an gcathair-se
Agus ar chach bhfuil innti !

A three-quarter Latin verse runs thus —

" Regem regum rogamus/ in nostris sermonibus
Anacht Noe a luchtlach/ diluvi temporibus."

FIRST SCHOOLS OF CHRISTIAN IRELAND 213

of Munster, and builder of the celebrated Cormac's Chapel
at Cashel.

The school of Ross was founded by St. Fachtna for the
Ithian tribes1 of Corca Laidhi [Cor-ka-lee] in South-west
Munster. Ross is frequently referred to in the Annals up to
the tenth century. There is extant an interesting geo-
graphical poem in Irish, of 136 lines, written by one of the
teachers there in the tenth century, and apparently intended
as a kind of simple text to be learned by heart by the students.2
Ross was plundered by the Danes in 840, but appears to have
been flourishing until North-west Munster was laid waste by
the Anglo-Normans under FitzStephen, after which no more is
heard of its schools or colleges.

Innisfallen was founded upon an exquisite site on the lower
lake of Killarney by St. Finan.3 The well-known " Annals
of Innisfallen," preserved in the Bodleian Library, were
probably written by Maelsuthain [Calvus Perennis] O'Carroll,
the "soul-friend" of Brian Boru, who inserted the famous
entry in the Book of Armagh.4 It is probable that Brian
himself was also educated there. This monastery, owing to
its secure retreat in the Kerry mountains, appears to have
remained unplundered by the Norsemen, and to have been
accounted " a paradise and a secure sanctuary."

Iniscaltra is a beautiful island in the south-west angle of
Loch Derg, between Galway and Clare, still famous for its
splendid round tower. It was here Columba of Terryglass,
who died in 552, established a school and monastery which
became so famous that in the life of St. Senan seven ships are
mentioned as arriving at the mouth of the Shannon crowded with
students for Iniscaltra. It was this Columba who, when asked
by one of his disciples why the birds that frequented the island
'•ere not afraid of him, made the somewhat dramatic answer,

1 Sec p. 67. 2 See " Proceedings of R. I. Academy for 1884."

3 Whose name is preserved in O'Connell's residence, "Derrynane,"
which is really " Derry-finan " (Doire-Fhionain), •* See p. 140 and 141 not§

214 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" Why should they fear me ? am I not a bird myself, for my
soul always flies to heaven as they fly through the sky."
Columba had a celebrated successor called Caimin, who died in
653. Ussher, who calls him St. Caminus, tells us that part of
his Psalter was extant in his own time, and that he had himself
seen it " having a collation of the Hebrew text placed on the
upper part of each page, and with brief scholia added on the
exterior margin." x

A great number of lesser monastic institutions and schools
seem to have existed alongside of these more famous ones, and
it is hardly too much to say that during the sixth, seventh,
eighth, and perhaps ninth centuries Ireland had caught and
held aloft the torch of learning in the lampadia of mankind,
and procured for herself the honourable title of the island of
saints and scholars.

1 " Habebatur psalterium, cujus unicum tantum quaternionem mihi
videre contigit, obelis et asteriscis diligentissime distinctum ; collatione
cum veritate Hebraica in superiore parte cujusque paginae posita, et
brevibus scholiis ad exteriorem marginem adjectis." (See " Works," vol.
vi. p. 544. Quoted by Professor G. Stokes, "Proceedings R. I. Academy,"
May, 1892.)

CHAPTER XVII

THEIR FAME AND TEACHING

IT is very difficult to say what was exactly the curriculum of
the early Irish colleges, and how far they were patronised by
laymen. Without doubt their original design was to pro- \
pagate a more perfect knowledge of the Scriptures and of \
theological learning in general, but it is equally certain that
they must have, almost from the very first, taught the heathen /
classics and the Irish language side by side with the Scriptures /
and theology. There is no other possible way of accounting
for the admirable scholarship of the men whom they turned
out, and for their skill in Latin and often also in Irish poetry. ^
Virgil, Ovid, Terence, and most of the Latin poets must have
been widely taught and read. " It is sufficient," says M.
d'Arbois de Jubainville, talking of Columbanus who was born
in 543, and who was educated at Bangor, on Belfast Loch,
" to glance at his writings, immediately to recognise his
marvellous superiority over Gregory of Tours and the Gallo-
Romans of his time. He lived in close converse with the
classical authors, as later on did the learned men of the sixteenth
century, whose equal he certainly is not, but of whom he
seems a sort of precursor." From the sixth to the sixteenth
century is a long leap, and no higher eulogium could be passed

215

2i 6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

upon the scholarship of Columbanus and the training given by
his Irish college.1 All the studies of the time appear to have
been taught in them through the medium of the Irish language,
not merely theology but arithmetic, rhetoric, poetry, hagio-
graphy, natural science as then understood, grammar, chron-
ology, astronomy, Greek, and even Hebrew.

"The classic tradition," sums up M. Darmesteter, "to all appear-
ances dead in Europe, burst out into full flower in the Isle of Saints,
\ and the Renaissance began in Ireland 700 years before it was known

"* in Italy. During three centuries Ireland was the asylum of the

higher learning which took sanctuary there from the uncultured
states of Europe. At one time Armagh, the religious capital of
Christian Ireland, was the metropolis of civilisation."

1 Here are a few lines from the well-known Adonic poem which he, at
the age of 68, addressed to his friend Fedolius —

" Extitit ingens Impia quippe

Causa malorum Pygmalionis

Aurea pellis, Regis ob aurum

Corruit auri Gesta leguntur.
Munere parvo
Ccena Deorum.

Ac tribus illis Fcemina soepe

Maxima Us est Perdit ob aurum

Orta Deabus. Casta pudorem.

Hinc populavit Non Jovis aun

Trogugenarum Fluxit in inibre,

Ditia regna Sed quod adulter

Dorica pubes. Obtulit aurum

Juraque legum Aureus ille

Fasque fides que Fingitur imber."
Rumpitur aure.

Dr. Sigerson in " Bards of the Gael and Gaul," p. 407, prints as Jubain-
ville also does, the whole of this noted poem, and points out that it is shot
through and through with Irish assonance. " Not less important than its
assonance," writes Dr. Sigerson, " is the fact that it introduces into Latin
verse the use of returning words, or burthens with variations, which
supply the vital germs of the rondeau and the ballad." I am not myself
convinced of what Dr. Sigerson considers marks of intentional assonance
in almost every line.

His chief remaining works are a Monastic Rule in ten chapters ; a book
on the daily penances of the monks ; seventeen sermons ; a book on the
measure of penances ; a treatise on the eight principal vices ; five
epistles written to Gregory the Great and others ; and a good many Latin
verses. His life is written by the Abbot Jonas, a contemporary of
his own,

THEIR FAME AND TEACHING 217

" Ireland," says Babington in his " Fallacies of Race Theories," *
" had been admitted into Christendom and to some measure of
culture only in the fifth century. At that time Gaul and Italy
enjoyed to the full all the knowledge of the age. In the next
century the old culture-lands had to turn for some little light and
teaching to that remote and lately barbarous land."

When we remember that the darkness of the Middle Ages
had already set in over the struggles, agony, and confusion of
feudal Europe, and that all knowledge of Greek may be said
to have died out upon the Continent — " had elsewhere absolutely
vanished," says M. Darmesteter — when we remember that
even such a man as Gregory the Great was completely ignorant
of it, it will appear extraordinary to find it taught in Ireland
alone, out of all the countries of Western Europe.2 Yet this
is capable of complete and manifold proof. Columbanus for
instance, shows in his letter to Pope Boniface that he knows
something of both Greek and Hebrew.3 Aileran, who died of
the plague in 664, gives evidence of the same in his book on
our Lord's genealogy. Cummian's letter to the Abbot of
lona has been referred to before, and, as Professor G. Stokes puts
it, "proves the fact 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 at Durrow in the very centre of the Bog
of Allen." Augustine, an un-identified Irish monk of the
second half of the seventh century, gives many proofs of Greek
and Oriental learning and quotes the Chronicles of Eusebius.
The later Sedulius, the versatile abbot of Kildare, about the
year 820 " makes parade of his Greek knowledge," to quote a

Jmch writer in the " Revue Celtique," " employs Greek words
P. 122.
" Grossere oder geringere Kenntniss klassischen Alterthums, vor allem
mtniss des Griechischen ist daher in jener Zeit ein Mazstab sowohl fur
Bildung einer einzelnen Personlichkeit als auch fur den Culturgrad eines
.zen Zeitalters " (Zimmer, " Preussische Jahrbucher," January, 1887).
He plays on his own name Columba, " 3 dove," and turns it into Greek
\ Hebrew, irepurrepct and j-jj-p

218 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

without necessity, and translates into Greek a part of the
definition of the pronoun." z St. Caimins's Psalter, seen by
Bishop Ussher with the Hebrew text collated, convinced Dr.
Reeves that Hebrew as well as Greek was studied in Ireland
about the year 600. Nor did this Greek learning tend to die
out. In the middle of the ninth century John Scotus
Erigena, summoned from Ireland to France by Charles the
Bald, was the only person to be found able to translate the
Greek works of the pseudo-Dionysius,2 thanks to the training
he had received in his Irish school. The Book of Armagh
contains the Lord's Prayer written in Greek letters, and there
is a Greek MS. of the Psalter, written in Sedulius' own hand,
now preserved in Paris. Many more Greek texts, at least a
dozen, written by Irish monks, are preserved elsewhere in
Europe. "These eighth and ninth century Greek MSS.,"
remarks Professor Stokes, " covered with Irish glosses and Irish
poems and Irish notes, have engaged the attention of palaeo-
graphers and students of the Greek texts of the New Testament
during the last two centuries." They are indeed a proof
that — as Dr. Reeves puts it — the Irish School " was unques-
tionably the most advanced of its day in sacred literature."

This remarkable knowledge of Greek was evidently derived
from an early and direct commerce with Gaul, where Greek
had been spoken for four or five centuries, first alongside of
Celtic, and in later times of Latin also.3 The knowledge

1 Dr. Sigerson prints an admirably graceful poem either by this or
another Sedulius of the ninth century at p. 411 of his "Bards of the Gael
and Gaul." It shows how far from being pedants the Irish monks were.
This poem is a dispute between the rose and lily.

2 This translation which Charles sent to the Pope threw Anastasius, the
Librarian of the Roman Church, into the deepest astonishment. " Mir-
andum est," he writes in his letter of reply, dated 865, " quomodo vir ille
barbarus in finibus mundi positus, talia intellectu capere in aliamque
linguam transferre valuerit" (Sec Prof. Stokes, " R. I. Academy Pro-
ceedings," May, 1892).

3 St. Jerome tells us that the people of Marseilles were in his day trilin-
gual, " Massiliam Phocsei condiderunt quos ait Varro trilingues esse, quod
et Graece loquantur, et Latine et Gallice " (Migne's edition, vol. vii. p. 425).

THEIR FAME AND TEACHING 219

of Hebrew may have been derived from the Egyptian monks
who passed over from Gaul into Ireland. Egypt and the East
were more or less in close communication with Gaul in the
fifth century, and the Irish Litany, ascribed to Angus the
Culdee, commemorates seven Egyptian monks amongst many
other Gauls, Germans, and Italians who resided in Ireland.
The close and constant intercommunication between Greek-
speaking Gaul and Ireland accounts for the planting and culti-
vation of the Greek language in the Irish schools, and once
planted there it continued to flourish more or less for some
centuries. There is ample evidence to prove the connection
between Gaul and Ireland from the fifth to the ninth century.
We find Gaulish merchants in the middle of Ireland at
Clonmacnois, who had no doubt sailed up the Shannon in the
way of commerce, selling wine to Ciaran in the sixth century.
We find Columbanus, a little later on, inquiring at Nantes for
a vessel engaged in the Irish trade — qua vexerat commercium cum
Hibernia. In Adamnan's Life of Columcille we find
mention of Gaulish sailors arriving at Cantire. Adamnan's
own treatise on Holy Places was written from the verbal
account of a Gaul. In the Old Irish poem on the Fair
of Carman in Wexford — a pagan institution which lived on
in Christian times — we find mention of the

" Great market of the foreign Greeks,
Where gold and noble clothes were wont to be ; " *

the foreign Greeks being no doubt the Greek-speaking
Gaulish merchants. Alcuin sends his gifts of money and oil
and his letters direct from Charlemagne's court to his friends
in Clonmacnois, probably by a vessel engaged in the direct
Irish trade, for, as he himself tells us, the sea-route between
England and France was then closed. If more proof of the

1 Sec appendix to O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," vol. iii. p. 547—
" Margaid mor na n-gall ngregach
I mbid or is ard etach."

220 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

close communication between Ireland and Gaul were wanted,
the fact that Dagobert II., king of France in the seventh
century, was educated at Slane,1 in Ireland, and also that
certain Merovingian and French coins have been found
here, should be sufficient.

The fame of these early Irish schools attracted students in
the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries from all quarters to
Ireland, which had now become a veritable land of schools
and scholars. The Venerable Bede tells us of the crowds
of Anglo-Saxons who flocked over into Ireland during the
plague, about the year 664, and says that they were all warmly
welcomed by the Irish, who took care that they should be
provided with food every day, without payment on their part ;
that they should have books to read, and that they should
receive gratuitous instruction from Irish masters.2 Books
must have already multiplied considerably when the swarms
of Anglo-Saxons could thus be supplied with them gratis.
This noble tradition of free education to strangers lasted down
to the establishment of the so-called " National " schools in
Ireland, for down to that time " poor scholars " were freely
supported by the people and helped in their studies. The num-
ber of scribes whose deaths have been considered worth
recording by the annalists is very great, and books consequently
must have been very numerous. This plentifulness of books
probably added to the renown of the Irish schools. An English
prince as well as a French one was educated by them in the
seventh century ; this was Aldfrid, king of Northumbria, who

1 He is said to have spent eighteen or twenty years there and to have
acquired all the wisdom of the Scots. The reason why he was sent to
Slane, as Dr. Healy well observes, was, not because it was the most cele-
brated school of the time, but because it was in Meath where the High-
kings mostly dwelt, and it was only natural to bring the boy to some place
near the Royal Court. (" Ireland's Schools and Scholars," p. 590.)

2 " Quos omnes Scotti libentissime suscipientes victum eis quotidianum
sine pretio, libros quoque ad legendum, et magisterium gratuitum, prae-
bere curabant " (" Ecc. Hist.," book iii. chap. 27). Amongst these were th$
celebrated Egbert, of whoni Bede tells us §o much, and St, Chad,

THEIR FAME AND TEACHING 221

was trained in all the learning of Erin, and who always aided
and abetted the Irish in England, in opposition to Wilfrid, who
opposed them. That the king got a good education in Ireland
may be conjectured from the fact that Aldhelm, abbot of
Malmesbury, dedicated to him a poetic epistle on Latin
metric and prosody, in which, says Dr. Healy, "he con-
gratulates the king on his good fortune in having been edu-
cated in Ireland." Aldhelm's own master was also an Irishman,
Mael-dubh, and his abbacy of Malmesbury is only a corruption
of this Irishman's name Maeldubh's-bury.1 In another place
Aldhelm tells us that while the great English school at Canter-
bury was by no means overcrowded, the English swarmed to
the Irish schools like bees. Aldfrid himself, when leaving
Ireland, composed a poem of sixty lines in the Irish language
and metre, which he must have learned from the bards, in
which he compliments each of the provinces severally, as
though he meant to thank the whole nation for their hos-
pitality.2

" I found in Inisfail the fair
In Ireland, while in exile there,
Women of worth, both grave and gay men,
Learned clerics, heroic laymen.

1 He is called Mailduf by Bede, and Malmesbury Maildufi urbem, which
shows that the aspirated " b " in dubh had twelve hundred years ago the
sound of " f " as it has to-day in Connacht.

2 O'Reilly states that the poem consisted of ninety-six lines, but Hardi-
man, in his " Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 372, gives only sixty. Hardiman
has written on the margin of O'Reilly's " Irish Writers " in my possession,
" I have a copy, the character is ancient and very obscure." Aldfrid may
well have written such a poem, of which the copy printed by Hardiman
may be a somewhat modernised version. It begins —

" Ro dheat an inis finn Fail
In Eirinn re imarbhaidh,
lomad ban, ni baoth an breas,
lomad laoch, iomad cleireach."

It was admirably and fairly literally translated by Mangan for Montgomery.
His fourth line, however, runs, " Many clerics and many laymen," which
conveys no meaning save that of populousness. I have altered this line
to make it suit the Irish " many a hero, many a cleric."

222 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" I travelled its fruitful provinces round,
And in every one of the five I found,
Alike in church and in palace hall,
Abundant apparel and food for all."

St. Willibrord, a Saxon noble educated in Ireland about
the same time with King Aldfrid, went out thence and
ultimately became Archbishop of Utrecht. Another noted
scholar of the same period was Agilbert, a Frank by birth,
who spent a long time in Ireland for the purpose of study and
afterwards became Bishop of Paris.1 We have seen how the
Office of St. Cathaldus states that the school of Lismore was
visited by Gauls, Angles, Scotti, Teutons, and scholars from
other neighbouring nations. The same was more or less the
case with Clonmacnois, Bangor, and some others of the most
noted of the Irish schools.

It was not in Greek attainments, nor in ecclesiastical studies,
nor in Latin verses alone, that the Irish excelled ; they also
produced astronomers like Dungal and geographers like
Dicuil. Dungal's attainments we have glanced at, but
Dicuil's book — de mensura orbis terrarum — written about the
year 825, is more interesting, although nothing is known about
the author's own life, nor do we know even the particular
Irish school to which he belonged.2 His book was published
by a Frenchman because he found Dicuil's descriptions of the
measurements of the Pyramids a thousand years ago tallied
with his own.

" Antioch," writes Professor G. Stokes, " about A.D. 600, was the
centre of Greek culture and Greek erudition, and the chronicle of
Malalas, as embodied in Niebuhr's series of Byzantine historians,
is a mine of information on many questions ; but compare it with
the Irish work of Dicuil and its mistakes are laughable."

1 " Natione quidem Gallus," says Bede, " sed tune legendarum gratia
scripturarum in Hibernia non parvo tempore demoratus."

2 Probably Clonmacnois. See Stokes, " Celtic Church," p. 214, and Dr.
Healy's " Ireland's Schools and Scholars," p. 283.

THEIR FAME AND TEACHING 223

A great deal of his work is founded of course upon Pliny,
Solinus, and Priscian, but he shows a highly-developed critical
sense in comparing and collating various MSS. which he had
inspected to ensure accuracy. What he tells us at first-hand,
however, is by far the most interesting. In speaking of the
Nile he says that : —

" Although we never read in any book that any branch of the Nile
flows into the Red Sea, yet Brother Fidelis told in my presence to
my master Suibhne [Sweeny] — to whom under God I owe whatever
knowledge I possess — that certain clerics and laymen from Ireland
who went to Jerusalem on pilgrimage sailed up the Nile a long way."

They sailed thence by a canal into the Red Sea, and this state-
ment proves the accuracy of Dicuil, for this canal really existed
and continued in use until 767, when it was closed to hinder
the people of Mecca and Medina getting supplies from Egypt.
The account of the Pyramids is particularly interesting.
"The aforesaid Brother Fidelis measured one of them and
found that the square face was 400 feet in length." The
same brother wished to examine the exact point where Moses
had entered the Red Sea in order to try if he could find any
traces of the chariots of Pharaoh or the wheel tracks, but the
sailors were in a hurry and would not allow him to go on this
excursion. The breadth of the sea appeared to him at this
point to be about six miles. Dicuil describes Iceland long
before it was discovered by the Danes.

" It is now thirty years," said he, writing in 825, " since I was told
by some Irish ecclesiastics, who had dwelt in that island from the
ist of February to the ist of August, that the sun scarcely sets
there in summer, but always leaves, even at midnight, light enough
to do one's ordinary business — vel pediculos de camisia abstrahere " !

Those writers are greatly mistaken, he says, who describe the
Icelandic sea as always frozen, and who say that there is day
there from spring to autumn and from autumn to spring, for
the Irish monks sailed thither through the open sea in a month

224 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of great natural cold, and yet found alternate day and night,
except about the period of the summer solstice. He also
describes the Faroe Isles : —

" A certain trustworthy monk told me that he reached one of them
by sailing for two summer days and one night in a vessel with two
benches of rowers. ... In these islands for almost a hundred
years there dwelt hermits who sailed there from our own Ireland
[nostra Scottia], but now they are once more deserted as they were
at the beginning, on account of the ravages of the Norman pirates."

This is proof positive that the Irish discovered and inhabited
Iceland and the Faroe Islands half a century or a century
before the Northmen. Dicuil was distinguished as a gram-
marian, metrician, and astronomer,1 but his geographical treatise,
written in his old age, is the most interesting and valuable of
his achievements.

Fergil, or Virgilius, as he is usually called, was another great
Irish geometer, who eventually became Archbishop of Salzburg
and died in 785. He taught the sphericity of the earth and
the doctrine of the Antipodes, a truth which seems also to have
been familiar to Dicuil. St. Boniface, afterwards Archbishop
of Mentz, evidently distorting his doctrine, accused him to the
Pope of heresy in teaching that there was another world and
other men under the earth, and another sun and moon.
" Concerning this charge of false doctrine, if it shall be
established," said the Pope, " that Virgil- taught this per-
verse and wicked doctrine against God and his own soul,
do you then convoke a council, degrade him from the priest-
hood, and drive him from the Church." Virgil, however,
seems to have satisfactorily explained his position, for nothing
'was done against him.

These instances help to throw some light upon a most
difficult subject — the training given in the early Irish Christian
schools, and the cause of their undoubted popularity for three
centuries and more amongst the scholars of Western Europe.

* His astronomical work, written in 814-16, remains as yet unpublished.

CHAPTER XVIII

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER

THE extraordinary and abnormal receptivity of the Irish of
the fifth century, and the still more wonderful and unprece-
dented activity of their descendants in the sixth and following
ones had almost bid fair to turn the nation into a land of
apostles. This outburst of religious zeal, glorious and en-
during as it was, carried with it, like all sudden and powerful
movements, an element of danger. It was unfortunately
destined in its headlong course to overflow its legitimate
barriers and to come into rude contact with the civil power
which had been established upon lines more ancient and not
wholly sympathetic.

A striking passage in one of Renan's books dwells upon the
obvious religious inferiority of the Greeks and Romans to the
Jews, while it notes at the same time their immense political
and intellectual superiority over the Semitic nation. The
inferiority of the Jew in matters political and intellectual the
French writer seems inclined to attribute to his abnormally
developed religious sense, which, absorbed in itself, took all too
little heed of the civic side of life and of the necessities of the
state. Nor can it, I think, be denied that primitive Chris-
tianity in some cases took over from the Hebrews a certain

P 225

226 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

amount of this spirit of self-absorption and of disregard for the
civil side of life and social polity. "Quand on prend les choses
humaines par ce c6te," remarks Renan, " on fonde de grands
proselytismes universels, on a des apotres courant le monde
d'un bout a 1'autre, et le convertissant ; mais on ne fonde pas
des institutions politiques, une independance nationale, une
dynastic, un code, un peuple."

We have already seen how the exaggerated pretensions of
St. Columcille had come almost at once into opposition with
the established law of the land, the law which enjoined death
as the penalty for homicide at Tara, and how the priest
unjustifiably took upon himself to override the civil magistrate
in the person of the king.

Of precisely such a nature — only with far worse and far
more enduring consequences — was the cursing of Tara by St.
Ruadhan of Lothra. The great palace where, according to
general belief, a hundred and thirty-six pagan and six Christian
kings had ruled uninterruptedly, the most august spot in all
Ireland, where a " truce of God " had always reigned during
the great triennial assemblies, was now to be given up and
.deserted at the curse of a tonsured monk. The great
Assembly or F£is of Tara, which accustomed the people to
the idea of a centre of government and a ruling power,
could no more be convened, and a thousand associations and
memories which hallowed the office of the High-king were
vsnapped in a moment. It was a blow from which the
monarchy of Ireland never recovered, a blow which, by
putting an end to the great triennial or septennial conven-
tions of the whole Irish race, weakened the prestige of the
central ruler, increased the power of the provincial chieftains,
segregated the clans of Ireland from one another, and opened
a new road for faction and dissension throughout the entire
island.

There is a considerable amount of mystery attached to this
whole transaction, and all the great Irish annalists, the " Four

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 229

" When King Diarmuid heard of the killing he sent his young men
and his executive to waste and to spoil Aedh Guaire. And he flees to
Bishop Senan, for one mother they had both, and Senan the bishop
goes with him to Ruadhan of Lothra, for it was two sisters of
Lothra that nursed Bishop Senan, Gael and Ruadhnait were their
names. But Aedh Guaire found no protection with Ruadhan, but
was banished away into Britain for a year, and Diarmuid's people
came to seek for him in Britain, so he was again sent back to
Ruadhan. And Diarmuid himself comes to Ruadhan to look for
him, but he had been put into a hole in the ground by Ruadhan,
which is to-day called 'Ruadhan's Hole.' Diarmuid sent his man
to look in Ruadhan's kitchen whether Aedh Guiare were there. But
on the man's going into the kitchen his eyes were at once struck
blind. When Diarmuid saw this, he went into the kitchen himself,
but he did not find Aedh Guiare there. And he asked Ruadhan
where he was, for he was sure he would tell him no lie.

" ' I know not where he is/ said Ruadhan, ' if he be not under
yon thatch.'

"After that Diarmuid departs to his house, but he remembered
the cleric's word and returns to the recluse's cell, and he sees the
candle being brought to the spot where Aedh Guaire was. And he
sends a confidential servant to bring him forth — Donnan Donn was
his name — and he dug down in the hiding place, but the arm he
stretched out to take Aedh withered to the shoulder. And he
makes obeisance to Ruadhan after that, and the two servants
remained with Ruadhan after that in Poll Ruadhain. After this
Diarmuid [himself] carries off Aedh Guaire to Tara."

Upon this, we are told, Ruadhan made his way to Brendan
of Birr, and thence to the so-called twelve apostles of Ireland,1
and they all followed the King and came to Tara, and they
fast upon the King that night, and he, " relying on his kingly
quality and on the justice of his cause, fasts upon them." 2

" In such fashion, and to the end of a year they continued before
Tara under Ruadhan's tent exposed to weather and to wet, and they
were every other night without food, Diarmuid and the clergy, fast-
ing on each other."

After this the story goes on that Brendan the Navigator had
in the meantime landed from his foreign expeditions, and

1 See above, p. 196.

* " A niurt a fhlatha ocus a fhirinne,"

228 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

story-teller, is never easily determined. The story runs as
follows : —

King Diarmuid's steward and spear-bearer had been ill and
wasting away for a year. On his recovery he goes to the
King, and asks him whether " the order of his discipline and
peace " had been observed during the time of his illness. The
King answered that he had noticed no breach or diminution
of it. The spear-bearer said he would make sure of the
King's peace by travelling round Ireland with his spear held
transversely, and he would see whether the door of every liss
and fortress would be opened wide enough to let the spear
pass — such on the approach of the King's spear seems to have
been the law — and "so shall the regimen and peace of
Ireland," said he " be ascertained."

" From Tara, therefore, goes forth the spear-bearer,1 and with
him the King of Ireland's herald, to proclaim Ireland's peace, and
he arrived in the province of Connacht, and made his way to the
mansion of Aedh [^E] Guaire of Kinelfechin. And he at that time
had round his rath a stockade of red oak, and had a new house too,
that was but just built [no doubt inside the rath] with a view to his
marriage feast. Now, a week before the spear-bearer's arrival the
other had heard that he was on his way to him, and had given orders
to make an opening before him in the palisade [but not in the
dwelling] .

" The spear-bearer came accordingly, and Aedh Guaire bade him
welcome. The spear-bearer said that the house must be hewn
[open to the right width] before him.

" ' Give thine own orders as to how it may please thee to have it
hewn/ said Aedh Guaire, but, even as he spake it, he gave a stroke
of his sword to the spear-bearer, so that he took his head from off
him.

" Now at this time the discipline of Ireland was such that who-
soever killed a man void of offence, neither cattle nor other valu-
able consideration might be taken in lieu of the slain, but the slayer
must be killed, unless it were that the King should order or permit
the acceptance of a cattle-price.

1 He is called Aedh Baclamh here, " Bacc Lonim " in the " Life." Bac-
lamh apparently indicates some office. I have here called him only the
spear-bearer.

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 229

" When King Diarmuid heard of the killing he sent his young men
and his executive to waste and to spoil Aedh Guaire. And he flees to
Bishop Senan, for one mother they had both, and Senan the bishop
goes with him to Ruadhan of Lothra, for it was two sisters of
Lothra that nursed Bishop Senan, Cael and Ruadhnait were their
names. But Aedh Guaire found no protection with Ruadhan, but
was banished away into Britain for a year, and Diarmuid's people
came to seek for him in Britain, so he was again sent back to
Ruadhan. And Diarmuid himself comes to Ruadhan to look for
him, but he had been put into a hole in the ground by Ruadhan,
which is to-day called 'Ruadhan's Hole/ Diarmuid sent his man
to look in Ruadhan's kitchen whether Aedh Guiare were there. But
on the man's going into the kitchen his eyes were at once struck
blind. When Diarmuid saw this, he went into the kitchen himself,
but he did not find Aedh Guiare there. And he asked Ruadhan
where he was, for he was sure he would tell him no lie.

" ' I know not where he is,' said Ruadhan, ' if he be not under
yon thatch.'

"After that Diarmuid departs to his house, but he remembered
the cleric's word and returns to the recluse's cell, and he sees the
candle being brought to the spot where Aedh Guaire was. And he
sends a confidential servant to bring him forth — Donnan Donn was
his name — and he dug down in the hiding place, but the arm he
stretched out to take Aedh withered to the shoulder. And he
makes obeisance to Ruadhan after that, and the two servants
remained with Ruadhan after that in Poll Ruadhain. After this
Diarmuid [himself] carries off Aedh Guaire to Tara."

Upon this, we are told, Ruadhan made his way to Brendan
of Birr, and thence to the so-called twelve apostles of Ireland,1
and they all followed the King and came to Tara, and they
fast upon the King that night, and he, " relying on his kingly
quality and on the justice of his cause, fasts upon them." 2

" In such fashion, and to the end of a year they continued before
Tara under Ruadhan's tent exposed to weather and to wet, and they
were every other night without food, Diarmuid and the clergy, fast-
ing on each other."

After this the story goes on that Brendan the Navigator had
in the meantime landed from his foreign expeditions, and

1 See above, p. 196.

3 "A niurt a fhlatha ocus 3 fhfrinne."

230 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

hearing that the other saints of Ireland were fasting before
Tara, he also proceeds thither. But King Diarmuid, learning
of his coming, was terrified, and consented to give up Aedh
Guaire for "fifty horses, blue-eyed with golden bridles."
Brendan the Voyager, fresh from his triumphs on the ocean,
summons fifty seals and makes them look like horses, and
guaranteeing them for a year and a quarter, hands them over
to the King and receives Aedh Guaire. But when the time
guaranteed was out, they became seals again, and brought their
riders with them into the sea. And Diarmuid was very wroth
at the deception, " and shut the seven lisses of Tara to the end
that the clergy should not enter into Tara, lest they should
leave behind malevolence and evil bequests."

It appears that the clerics still continued fasting upon the
King, and he fasting upon them,

" And people were assigned [by the King] to wait upon them and
to keep watch and ward over them until the clergy should have accom-
plished the act of eating and consuming food in their presence. But
on this night Brendan gave them this advice — their cowls to be about
their heads and they to let their meat and ale pass by their mouths
into their bosoms and down to the ground, and this they did. Word
was brought to the King that the clergy were consuming meat and
ale, so Diarmuid ate meat that night, but the clerics on the other
hand fasted on him through stratagem.

" Now Diarmuid's wife — Mughain was his wife — saw a dream, which
dream was this, that upon the green of Tara was a vast and wide-
foliaged tree, and eleven slaves hewing at it, but every chip which
they knocked from it would return into its place again and adhere to
it [as before], till at last there came one man that dealt the tree but a
stroke, and with that single cut laid it low, as the poet spoke the lay —

" ' An evil dream did she behold
The wife of the King of Tara of the heavy torques,
Although it brought to her grief and woe
She could not keep from telling it.
A powerful stout tree did she behold,
That might shelter the birds of Ireland,
Upon the hill-side, smitten with axes,
And champions hewing together at it, etc.
(48 lines more.)

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 231

As for Diarmuid, son of Cerbhall [the King] , after that dream he
arose early, so that he heard the clergy chant their psalms, and he
entered into the house in which they were.

" ' Alas ! ' he said, ' for the iniquitous contest which ye have waged
against me, seeing that it is Ireland's good that I pursue, and to pre-
serve her discipline and royal right, but 'tis Ireland's unpeace and
murderousness which ye endeavour after. For God Himself it is
who on such or such a one confers the orders of prince, of righteous
ruler, and of equitable judgment, to the end that he may maintain
his truthfulness, his princely quality, and his governance. Now that
to which a king is bound is to have mercy coupled with stringency
of law, and peace maintained in the sub-districts, and hostages in
fetters ; to succour the wretched, but to overwhelm enemies, and to
banish falsehood, for unless on this hither side one do the King of
Heaven's will, no excuse is accepted by him on the other. And thou,
Ruadhan,' said Diarmuid, 'through thee it is that injury and rending
of my mercy and of mine integrity to Godward is come about, and
I pray God that thy diocese be the first in Ireland that shall be
renounced, and thy Church lands the first that shall be impugned.'

" But Ruadhan said, ' Rather may thy dynasty come to nought, and
none that is son or grandson to thee establish himself in Tara for
ever ! '

" Diarmuid said, ' Be thy Church desolate continually.'

" Ruadhan said, ' Desolate be Tara for ever and for ever.

" Diarmuid said, ' May a limb of thy limbs be wanting to thee, and
come not with thee under ground, and mayest thou lack an eye !'

" ' Have thou before death an evil countenance in sight of all ; may
thine enemies prevail over thee mightily, and the thigh that thou
liftedst not before me to stand up, be the same mangled into pieces.'

" Said Diarmuid, ' The thing [i.e., the man] about which is our
dispute, take him with you, but in thy church, Ruadhan, may the
alarm cry sound at nones always, and even though all Ireland be
at peace be thy church's precinct a scene of war continuously.'

" And from that time to this the same is fulfilled." x

There follows a poem of 88 lines uttered by the King.
The same story in all its essential details is told in the MS.

1 There is a poem ascribed to Ruadhan in the MS. marked H. 4. in
Trinity College. O'Clery's Feilire na Naomh has a curious note on
Ruadhan which runs thus : Ruadhan of Lothra, " he was of the race of
Owen Mor, son of Oilioll Olum. A very old ancient book (sein leabhar ro
aosta) as we have mentioned at Brigit, ist of February, states that Ruadhan
of Lothra was in manners and life like Matthew the Apostle."

232 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Egerton 1782, a vellum of the fifteenth century, which pro-
fesses to follow the lost Book of Sligo. It is quite as unbiassed
and outspoken about the result of the clerics' action as the
Book of Lismore. It makes Diarmuid address the clerics thus —

" ' Evil is that which ye have worked O clerics, my kingdom's ruina-
tion. For in the latter times Ireland shall not be better off than she
is at this present. But, however it fall out,' said he, ' may bad
chiefs, their heirs-apparent, and their men of war, quarter them-
selves in your churches, and may it be their [read your ?] own selves
that in your houses shall pull off such peoples' brogues for them, ye
being the while powerless to rid yourselves of them.' "

This codex sympathises so strongly with the king that it
states that one of Ruadhan's eyes burst in his head when the king
cursed him. Beg mac De, the celebrated Christian prophet, is
made to prophecy thus, when the king asks him in what fashion
his kingdom should be after his death,

"' An evil world,' said the prophet, 'is now at hand, in which men
shall be in bondage, woman free ; mast wanting ; woods smooth ;
blossom bad ; winds many ; wet summer ; green corn ; much cattle ;
scant milk ; dependants burdensome in every country, hogs lean,
chiefs wicked ; bad faith ; chronic killing ; a world withered, raths in
number.' "

King Diarmuid died in 558, according to the "Four
Masters ; " it is certain he never retreated a foot from Tara,
but it was probably his next successor who, intimidated at the
clerics' curser and the ringing of their bells — for they circled
Tara ringing their bells against it — deserted the royal hill
for ever.1

The palace of Cletty, not far from Tara, was also cursed by
St. Cairneach at the request of the queen of the celebrated
Muircheartach Mor mac Earca, and deserted in consequence.2

1 After this the High-kings of Ireland belonging to the northern Ui Neill
resided in their own ancient palace of Aileach near Derry, and the High-
kings of the southern Ui Neill families resided at the Rath near Castle-
pollard, or at Dun-na-sgiath (" the Fortress of the Shields ") on the brink of
Loch Ennell, near Mullingar. Brian Boru resided at Kincora in Clare,

? See O'Donovan's letter from Navan on Brugh na Boinne,

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 233

Another, but probably more justifiable, instance of the clergy
fasting upon a lay ruler and cursing him, was that of the
notorious Raghallach (Reilly), king of Connacht, who made
his queen jealous by his infidelity, and committed other crimes.
The story is thus recorded by Keating —

" The scandal of that evil deed soon spread throughout all the land
and the saints of Ireland were sorrowful by reason thereof. St.
Fechin of Fobar [Fore is West Meath] came in person to Raghallach
to reprehend him, and many saints came in his company to aid him
in inducing the prince to discontinue his criminal amour. But
Raghallach despised their exhortations. Thereupon they fasted
against him, and as there were many other evil-minded persons
besides him in the land, they made an especial prayer to God that for
the sake of an example he should not live out the month of May,
then next to come on, and that he should fall by the hands of villains,
by vile instruments, and in a filthy place ; and all these things hap-
pened to him,"

as Keating goes on to relate, for he was killed by turf-cutters.

Sometimes the saints are found on opposite sides, as at
the Battle of Cooldrevna where Columcille prayed against
the High-king's arms, and Finian prayed for them ; or as in
the well-known case of the expulsion of poor old St.
Mochuda z and his monks in 631 from the monastery at
Rathain, where his piety and success had aroused the jealousy
of the clerics of the Ui Neill, who ejected him by force, despite
his malediction. It was then he returned to his own province
and founded Lismore, which soon became famous.2

Led away by our admiration of the magnificent outburst of
learning and the innumerable examples of undoubted devotion
displayed by Irishmen from the sixth to the ninth century, we
are very liable to overlook the actual state of society, and to
read into a still primitive social constitution the thoughts and
ideas of later ages, forgetting the real spirit of those early times.
We must remember that St. Patrick had made no change in
the social constitution of the people, and that the new religion
' Also called Carthachi 9 See above, p, 211,

234 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

in no way affected their external institutions, and as a natural
consequence even saints and clerics took the side of their own
I kings and people, and fought in battle with as much gusto as
any of the clansmen. Women fought side by side with men,
and were only exempted from military service in 590, through
the influence of Columcille at the synod of Druimceat — of
which synod more hereafter, and Adamnan had to get the law
renewed over a hundred years later, for it had become in-
operative. The monks were of course as liable as any other of
the tribesmen to perform military duty to their lords, and were
only exempted * from it in the year 804. The clergy fought
with Cormac mac Culenain as late as 908 at the battle where
he fell, and a great number of them were killed.2 The
clergy often quarrelled among themselves also. In 673 the
monks of Clonmacnois and Durrow fought one another, and
the men of Clonmacnois slew two hundred of their opponents.
In 816 four hundred men were slain in a fight between rival
monasteries. The clan system, in fact, applied down to the
eighth or ninth century almost as much to the clergy as to the
laity, and with the abandonment of Tara and the weakening
of the High-kingship, the only power which bid fair to over-
ride feud and faction was got rid of, and every man drank for
himself the intoxicating draught of irresponsibility, and each
princeling became a Caesar in his own community.

The saints with their long-accredited exercises of semi-
miraculous powers, formed an admirable ingredient wherewith
to spice a historic romance, such as the soul of the Irish story-
tellers loved, and they were not slow to avail themselves of it.
A passage in the celebrated history of the Boru tribute,
preserved in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster, turns both
Columcille and his biographer Adamnan to account in this
way, by introducing dialogues between them and their con-

1 By Fothadh called "na Canoine" who persuaded Aedh Oirnide to
release them from this duty.

2 See " Fragments of Irish Annals " by O'Donovan, p. 210, and his note

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 235

temporary kings of Ireland, which are worth giving here, as
they preserve some primitive traits, but more especially as an
example of how the later mediaevalists conceived their own
early saints. Aedh [Ae], the High-king of Ireland, had asked
Columcille how many kings of all whom he himself had come
in contact with, or had cognisance of, would win, or had won,
to heaven ; and Columcille answered :

" ' Certainly I know of only three, Daimin King of Oriel, and Ailill
King of Connacht, and Feradach of Corkalee, King of Ossory.

"'And what good did they do/ said Aedh, 'beyond all other
kings ? '

" ' That's easy told,' said Columcille, ' as for Daimin no cleric ever
departed from him having met with a refusal, and he never reviled
a cleric, nor spoiled church nor sanctuary, and greatly did he bestow
upon the Lord. Afterwards he went to heaven, on account of his mild
dealing with the Lord's people ; and the clerics still chant his litany.

" ' As for Ailill, moreover, this is how he found the Lord's clemency ;
he fought the battle of Cul Conaire with the Clan Fiacrach, and they
defeated him in that battle, and he said to his charioteer, " Look
behind for us, and see whether the slaying is great, and are the
slayers near us ? "

" ' The charioteer looked behind him, and 'twas what he said :

" ' " The slaying with which your people are slain," said he, " is
unendurable."

" ' " It is not their own guilt that falls on them, but the guilt of my
pride and my untruthf ulness," said he ; " and turn the chariot for us
against [the enemy]," said he, " for if I be slain amidst them (?) it
will be the saving of a multitude.'

" ' Thereupon the chariot was turned round against the enemy, and
thereafter did Ailill earnestly repent, and fell by his enemies. So
that man got the Lord's clemency,' said Columcille.

"'As for Feradach,1 the King of Ossory, moreover, he was a
covetous man without a conscience, and if he were to hear that a
man in his territory had only one scruple of gold or silver, he would
take it to himself by force, and put it in the covers of goblets
and crannogues and swords and chessmen. Thereafter there came
upon him an unendurable sickness. They collect round him all
his treasures, so that he had them in his bed. His enemies came,
the Clan Connla, after that, to seize the house on him. His sons,

1 This story is also told in the " Three Fragments of Irish Annals," p. 9.

236 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

too, came to him to carry away the jewels with them [to save them
for him].

" ' " Do not take them away, my sons," said he, " for I harried many
for those treasures, and I desire to harry myself on this side the
tomb for them, and that my enemies may bring them away of my
good will, so that the Deity may not harry me on the other side."

" ' After that his sons departed from him, and he himself made
earnest repentance, and died at the hands of his enemies, and gains
the clemency of the Lord.'

"'Now as for me myself/ said Aedh, 'shall I gain the Lord's
clemency ? '

" ' Thou shalt not gain it on any account,' said Columcille.

'"Well, then, cleric,' said he, 'procure for me from the Deity that
the Leinster men [at least] may not overthrow me.'

" ' Well, now, that is difficult for me,' said Columcille, ' for my
mother was one of them, and the Leinstermen came to me to
Durrow,1 and made as though they would fast upon me, till I should
grant them a sister's son's request, and what they asked of me was
that no outside king should ever overthrow them ; and I promised
them that too, but here is my cowl for thee, and thou shalt not be
slain while it is about thee.' "

Less clement is Adamnan depicted in his interview, over a
century later, with King Finnachta, who had just been per-
suaded by St. Moiling 2 to remit the Boru tribute (then leviable
off Leinster), until luan^ by which the King unwarily under-
stood Monday, but the more acute saint Doomsday, the word
having both significations. Adamnan saw through the decep-
tion in a moment, and hastened to interrupt the plans of his
brother saint.

" He sought therefore," says the Book of Leinster, " the place
where [king] Finnachta was, and sent a clerk of his familia to summon
him to a conference. Finnachta, at the instant, busied himself with
a game of chess, and the cleric said, ' Come, speak with Adamnan.'
" ' I will not,' he answered, ' until this game be ended.'
"The ecclesiastic returned to Adamnan and retailed him this
answer. Then the saint said, ' Go and tell him that in the interval

1 See above, p. 170.

~ For Moiling, see above, p. 209-10. The following translation is by
Standish Hayes O'Grady, " Silva Gadelica," p, 422,

CONFLICTS WITH THE CIVIL POWER 237

I shall chant fifty psalms, in which fifty is a single psalm that will
deprive his children and grandchildren, and even any namesake of
his, for ever of the kingdom.' x

" Again the clerk accosted Finnachta and told him this, but until
his game was played the King never noticed him at all.

" ' Come, speak with Adamnan,' repeated the clerk, ' and '

"'I will not,' answered Finnachta, 'till this [fresh] game, too,
shall be finished/ all which the cleric rendered to Adamnan, who
said :

" ' A second time begone to him, tell him that I will sing other
fifty psalms, in which fifty is one that will confer on him shortness
of life.'

"This, too, the clerk, when he was come back, proclaimed to
Finnachta, but till the game was done, he never even perceived the
messenger, who for the third time reiterated his speech.

" ' Till this new game be played out I will not go,' said the King,
and the cleric carried it to Adamnan.

" ' Go to him,' the holy man said, ' tell him that in the meantime I
will sing fifty psalms, and among them is one that will deprive him
of attaining the Lord's peace.'

" This the clerk imparted to Finnachta, who, when he heard it,
with speed and energy put from him the chess-board, and hastened
to where Adamnan was.

" ' Finnachta,' quoth the saint, ' what is thy reason for coming
now, whereas at the first summons thou earnest not ? '

" ' Soon said,' replied Finnachta. ' As for that which first thou
didst threaten against me ; that of my children, or even of my
namesakes, not an individual ever should rule Ireland — I took it
easily. The other matter which thou heldest out to me — shortness
of life — that I esteemed but lightly, for Moiling had promised me
heaven. But the third thing which thou threatenedst me — to deprive
me of the Lord's peace — that I endured not to hear without coming
in obedience to thy voice.'

" Now the motive for which God wrought this was : that the gift
which Moiling had promised to the King for remission of the tribute
He suffered not Adamnan to dock him of."

It would be easy to multiply such scenes from the writings
of the ancient Irish. That they are not altogether eleventh
or twelfth-century inventions, but either the embodiment of a

1 For a description of the awful consequences of a saint's curse that
make a timid lunatic out of a valliant warrior see O'Donovan's frag-
mentary "Annals," p. 233.

238 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

vivid tradition, or else, in some cases, the working-tip of earlier
documents, now lost, is, I think, certain, but we possess no
criterion whereby we may winnow out the grains of truth
from the chaff of myth, invention, or perhaps in some cases
(where tribal honour is at stake) deliberate falsehood. The
only thing we can say with perfect certainty is that this is the
way in which the contemporaries of St. Lawrence O'Toole
pictured for themselves the contemporaries of St. Columcille
and St. Adamnan.

CHAPTER XIX

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS

WE must now, leaving verifiable history behind us, attempt a
cautious step backwards from the known into the doubtful,
and see what in the way of literature is said to have been
produced by the pagans. We know that side by side with
the colleges of the clergy there flourished, perhaps in a more \
informal way, the purely Irish schools of the Brehons and the 1
Bards. Unhappily however, while, thanks to the great >
number of the Lives of the Saints,1 we know much about
the Christian colleges, there is very little to be discovered about
the bardic institutions. These were almost certainly a con-\
tinuation of the schools of the druids, and represented some-
thing far more antique than even the very earliest schools of ;
the Christians, but unlike them they were not centred in a
fixed locality nor in a cluster of houses, but seem to have been
peripatetic. The bardic scholars grouped themselves not
round a locality but round a personality, and wherever it
pleased their master to wander — and that was pretty much all

1 O'Clery notices, in his Feilire na Naomh, the lives of thirty-one saints
written in Irish, all extant in his time, not to speak of Latin ones. I fancy
most of them still survive. Stokes printed nine from the Book of Lismore ;
Standish Hayes O'Grady four more from various sources.

240 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

round Ireland — there they followed, and the people seem to
have willingly supported them.

There seems to be some confusion as to the forms into
which what must have been originally the druidic school
disintegrated itself in the fifth and succeeding centuries, but
from it we can see emerging the poet, the Brehon, and the
historian, not all at once, but gradually. In the earliest period
the functions of all three were often, if not always, united in
one single person, and all poets were ipso facto judges as well.
We have a distinct account of the great occasion upon which
the poet lost his privilege of acting as a judge merely because
he was a poet. It appears that from the very earliest date the
learned classes, especially the " files," had evolved a dialect of
their own, which was perfectly dark and obscure to every one
except themselves. This was the Bearla Feni, in which so
much of the Brehon law and many poems are written, and
which continued to be used, to some extent, by poets down to
the very beginning of the eighteenth century. Owing to
their predilection for this dialect, the first blow, according to
Irish accounts, was struck at their judicial supremacy by the
hands of laymen, during the reign of Conor mac Nessa, some
time before the birth of Christ. This was the occasion when
the sages Fercertne and Neide" contended for the office of
arch-ollav of Erin, with its beautiful robe of feathers, the
Tugen.1 Their discourse, still extant in at least three MSS.
under the title of the " Dialogue of the Two Sages," 2 was so
learned, and they contended with one another in terms so
abstruse that, as the chronicler in the Book of Ballymote
puts it : —

" Obscure to every one seemed the speech which the poets uttered
in that discussion, and the legal decision which they delivered was
not clear to the kings and to the other poets.

" ' These men alone/ said the kings, ' have their judgment and

1 See Cormac's glossary sub voce.
8 See " Irische Texte," Dritte Serie, i Heft, pp. 187 and 204.

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS 241

their skill, and their knowledge. In the first place we do not
understand what they say.'

" ' Well, then,' said Conor, < every one shall have his share therein
from to-day for ever.' " l

This was the occasion upon which Conor made the law that
the office of poet should no longer carry with it, of necessity,
the office of judge, for, says the ancient writer, "poets alone
had judicature from the time that Amairgin Whiteknee
delivered the first judgment in Erin " until then.

That the Bardic schools, which we know flourished as public
institutions with scarcely a break from the Synod of Drumceat
in 590 (where regular lands were set apart for their endow- /
ment) down to the seventeenth century, were really a|
continuation of the Druidic schools, and embodied much that/
was purely pagan in their curricula, is, I think, amply shown
by the curious fragments of metrical text-books preserved in
the Books of Leinster and Ballymote, in a MS. in Trinity
College, and in a MS. in the Bodleian, all four of which have
been recently admirably edited by Thurneysen as a continuous
text.2 He has not however ventured upon a translation, for
the scholar would be indeed a bold one who in the present state
of Celtic scholarship would attempt a complete interpretation
of tracts so antique and difficult. That they date, partially at
least, from pre-Christian times seems to me certain from their
prescribing amongst other things for the poet's course in one
of his years of study a knowledge of the magical incantations
called Tenmlaida, Imbas forosnai^ and ^Dichetal do chennaib na
tuaithe, and making him in another year learn a certain poem
or incantation called Cetnad^ of which the text says that —

" It is used for finding out a theft. One sings it, that is to say,
through the right fist on the track of the stolen beast " [observe the
antique assumption that the only kind of wealth to be stolen is cattle]

1 Agallamh an da Suadh.

2 " Irische Texte," Dritte serie, Heft i.

3 See above, p. 84.

242 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" or on the track of the thief, in case the beast is dead. And one sings
it three times on the one [track] or the other. If, however, one
does not find the track, one sings it through the right fist, and goes
to sleep upon it, and in one's sleep the man who has brought it
away is clearly shown and made known. Another virtue [of this
lay] : one speaks it into the right palm and rubs with it the quarters
of the horse before one mounts it, and the horse will not be over-
thrown, and the man will not be thrown off or wounded."

Another Cetnad to be learned by the poet, in which he
desires length of life, is addressed to " the seven daughters of
the sea, who shape the thread of the long-lived children."

Another with which he had to make himself familiar was the
Glam dichinnj- intended to satirise and punish the prince who
refused to a poet the reward of his poem. The poet —

" was to fast upon the lands of the king for whom the poem was to
be made, and the consent of thirty laymen, thirty bishops" — a
Christian touch to make the passage pass muster — " and thirty poets
should be had to compose the satire ; and it was a crime to them to
prevent it when the reward of the poem was withheld " — a pagan touch
as a make-weight on the other side ! " The poet then, in a company
of seven, that is, six others and himself, upon whom six poetic
degrees had been conferred, namely afocloc, macfuirmedh, doss, cana,
cliy anradh, and ollamh, went at the rising of the sun to a hill which
should be situated on the boundary of seven lands, and each of them
was to turn his face to a different land, and the ollamh 's (ollav's) face
was to be turned to the land of the king, who was to be satirised,
and their backs should be turned to a hawthorn which should be
growing upon the top of a hill, and the wind should be blowing from
the north, and each man was to hold a perforated stone and a thorn
of the hawthorn in his hand, and each man was to sing a verse of
this composition for the king — the ollamh or chief poet to take the
lead with his own verse, and the others in concert after him with
theirs ; and each then should place his stone and his thorn under
the stem of the hawthorn, and if it was they that were in the
wrong in the case, the ground of the hill would swallow them, and
if it was the king that was in the wrong, the ground would swallow
him and his wife, and his son and his steed, and his robes and his
hound. The satire of the macfuirmedh fell on the hound, the satire

1 See O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 217, and " Irische
Texte," Dritte serie, Heft. i. pp. 96 and 125.

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS 243

of thefocloc on the robes, the satire of the doss on the arms, the
satire of the cana on the wife, the satire of the cli on the son, the
satire of the anrad on the steed,1 the satire of the ollam/i on the
king."

These instances that I have mentioned occurring in the.
books of the poets' instruction, are evidently remains of magic
incantations and terrifying magic ceremonies, taken over from
the schools and times of the druids, and carried on into the i
Christian era, for nobody, I imagine, could contend that they
had their origin after Ireland had been Christianised.2 And
the occurrence in the poets' text-books of such evidently pagan
passages, side by side with allusions to Athairne the poet — a
contemporary of Conor mac Nessa, a little before the birth of
Christ, Caoiltc, the Fenian poet of the third century, Cormac
his contemporary, Laldcend mac Bairchida about the year
400, and others — seems to me to be fresh proof for the real
objective existence of these characters. For if part of the
poets' text-books can be thus shown to have preserved things
taught in the pre-Christian times — to be in fact actually pre-
Christian — why should we doubt the reality of the pre-Christian
persons mixed up with them ?

The first poem written in Ireland by a Milesian is said to
be the curious rhapsody of Amergin, the brother of Eber, Ir,
and Erimon, who on landing broke out in a strain of
exultation : —

" I am the wind which breathes upon the sea,
I am the wave of the ocean,
I am the murmur of the billows,
\ I am the ox of the seven combats,
I am the vulture upon the rock,
I am a beam of the sun,

1 It is curious to thus make the steed rank apparently next to the king
himself, and above the wife and son, for the anrad who curses the steed
inks next to the ollamh.

2Thurneysen expresses some doubt about the antiquity of the last
:itation.

244 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

am the fairest of plants,

am a wild boar in valour,

am a salmon in the water,

am a lake in the plain,

am a word of science,
I am the point of the lance of battle,
I am the god who creates in the head [i.e., of man] the fire [i.e.,

the thought]

Who is it who throws light into the meeting on the mountain ?
Who announces the ages of the moon [if not I] ?
Who teaches the place where couches the sea [if not I] ? " x

There are two more poems attributed to Amergin of much
the same nature, very ancient and very strange. Irish
tradition has always represented these poems as the first made
by our ancestors in Ireland, and no doubt they do actually
represent the oldest surviving lines in the vernacular of any
country in Europe except Greece alone.

The other pre-Christian poets2 of whom we hear most, and
to whom certain surviving fragments are ascribed, are Feir-
ceirtne, surnamed file^ or the poet, who is usually credited with
the authorship of the well-known grammatical treatise called
Uraicept na n-fLigeas or " Primer of the Learned."s It was he

1 See Text I. paragraph 123 of Thurneysen's " Mittelirische Verslehren "
for three versions of this curious poem, printed side by side from the
Books of Leinster and Ballymote, and a MS. in the Bodleian. The old
Irish tract for the instruction of poets gives it as an example of what it
calls Cetal do chendaib. I have followed D'Arbois de Jubainville's inter-
pretation of it. He sees in it a pantheistic spirit, but Dr. Sigerson has
proved, I think quite conclusively, that it is liable to a different interpre-
tation, a panegyric upon the bard's own prowess, couched in enigmatic
metaphor. (See " Bards of the Gael and Gaul," p. 379.)

8 A number of names are mentioned — chiefly in connection with law
fragments — of kings and poets who lived centuries before the birth of
Christ, including an elegy by Lughaidh, son of Ith (from whom the Ithians
sprang), on his wife's death, Cimbaeth the founder of Emania, before
whose reign Tighearnach the Annalist considered omnia monumenta
Scotormn to be incerta, Roigne, the son of Hugony the Great, who lived
nearly three hundred years before Christ, and some others.

3 The " Uraicept " or " Uraiceacht " is sometimes ascribed to Forchern.

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS 245

who contended with Neide for the arch-poet's robe, causing King
Conor to decide that no poet should in future be also of necessity
a judge. The Uraicept begins with this preface or introduction:
" The Book of Feirceirtn£ here. Its place Emania ; its time
the time of Conor mac Nessa ; its person Feirceirtne the poet ;
its cause to bring ignorant people to knowledge." There is
also a poem attributed to him on the death of Curoi mac
Daire, the great southern chieftain, whom Cuchulain slew,
and the Book of Invasions contains a valuable poem ascribed to
him, recounting how Ollamh Fodla, a monarch who is said to
have flourished many centuries before, established a college of
professors at Tara.

There was a poet called Adhna, the father of that Neide
with whom Feirceirtne contended for the poet's robe,
who also lived at the court of Conor mac Nessa, and his
name is mentioned in connection with some fragments of
laws.

Athairne, the overbearing insolent satirist from the Hill
of Howth, who figures largely in Irish romance, was
contemporaneous with these, though I do not know that
any poem is attributed to him. But he and a poet
called Forchern, with Feirceirtne* and Neide, are said to
have compiled a code of laws, now embodied with others
under the title of Breithe Neimhidh in the Brehon I -aw
Books.

There was a poet Lughar at the Court of Oilioll and Meve
in Connacht about the same time, and a poem on the descen-
dants of Fergus mac Roigh [Roy] is ascribed to him, but as
he was contemporaneous with that warrior he could not have
written about his descendants.

It gives examples of the declensions of nouns and adjectives in Irish,
distinguishing feminine nouns from masculine, etc. It gives rules of
syntax, and exemplifies the declensions by quotations from ancient poets.
A critical edition of it from the surviving manuscripts that contain it in
whole or part is a desideratum.

246 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

There is a prose tract called Moran's Will,1 ascribed to
Moran, a well-known jurist who lived at the close of the first
century.

Several other authors, either of short poems or law frag-
ments, are mentioned in the second and third centuries, such
as Feradach king of Ireland, Modan, Ciothruadh the poet,
Fingin, Oilioll Olum himself, the great king of Munster, to
whom are traced so many of the southern families. Fithil, a
judge, and perhaps some others, none of whom need be
particularised.

At the end of the third century we come upon three or
four names of vast repute in Irish history, into whose mouths
a quantity of pieces are put, most of which are evidently of
later date. These are the great Cormac mac Art himself,
the most striking king that ever reigned in pagan Ireland, he
who built those palaces on Tara Hill whose ruins still remain ;
Finn mac Cumhail his son-in-law and captain ; Ossian, Finn's
son ; Fergus, Ossian 's brother ; and Caoilte [Cweeltya] mac
Ronain.

The poetry ascribed to Finn mac Cumhail, Ossian, and the
other Fenian singers we will not examine in this place, but
we must not pass by one of the most remarkable prose tracts
of ancient Ireland with which 1 am acquainted, the famous
treatise ascribed to King Cormac, and well known in Irish
literature as the " Teagasg riogh," or Instruction of a Prince,
which is written in a curious style, by way of question and
answer. Cairbre, Cormac's son, he who afterwards fell out
with and overthrew the Fenians, is supposed to be learning
kingly wisdom at his father's feet, and that experienced monarch
instructs him in the pagan morality of the time, and gives
him all kinds of information and advice. The piece, which is
heavily glossed in the Book of Ballymote, on account of the
antiquity of the language, is of some length, and is far too
interesting to pass by without quoting from it.
1 Udacht Morain, H. 2, 7, T. C., D.

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS 247

THE INSTRUCTION OF A PRINCE,

" ' O grandson of Con, O Cormac,' said Cairbre, ' what is good for
a king.'1

" ' That is plain,' said Cormac, ' it is good for him to have patience
and not to dispute, self-government without anger, affability without
haughtiness, diligent attention to history, strict observance of cove-
nants and agreements, strictness mitigated by mercy in the execution
of laws. ... It is good for him [to make] fertile land, to invite ships
to import jewels of price across sea, to purchase and bestow raiment,
[to keep] vigorous swordsmen for protecting his territories, [to make]
war outside his own territories, to attend the sick, to discipline his
soldiers ... let him enforce fear, let him perfect peace, [let him]
give much of metheglin and wine, let him pronounce just judgments
of light, let him speak all truth, for it is through the truth of a king
that God gives favourable seasons.'

" 'O grandson of Con, O Cormac/ said Cairbre, 'what is good for
the welfare of a country ? '

" ' That is plain; said Cormac, ' frequent convocations of sapient
and good men to investigate its affairs, to abolish each evil and
retain each wholesome institution, to attend to the precepts of the
ciders ; let every assembly be convened according to law, let the
law be in the hands of the nobles, let the chieftains be upright and
unwilling to oppress the poor,' " etc., etc.

A more interesting passage is the following : —

" ' O grandson of Con, O Cormac, what are the duties of a prince
at a banqueting-house ? '

" ' A Prince on Samhan's [now All Souls] Day, should light his
lamps, and welcome his guests with clapping of hands, procure
comfortable seats, the cupbearers should be respectable and active
in the distribution of meat and drink. Let there be moderation of
music, short stories, a welcoming countenance, a welcome for the
learned, pleasant conversations, and the like, these are the duties of
the prince, and the arrangement of the banqueting-house.' "

After this Cairbre puts an important question which was
asked often enough during the period of the Brehon law, and

1 In the original in the Book of Ballymote : "A ua Cuinn a Cormaic,
ol coirbre cia is deach [i.e., maith], do Ri. Nin ol cormac [i.e., Ni doiligh
liom sin]. As deach [i.e., maith], do eimh ainmne [i.e., foighde] gan deabha
[i.e., imreasoin] uallcadi fosdadh [i.e., foasdadh] gan fearg. Soagallamha
gan mordhacht," etc. The glosses in brackets are written above the words.

248 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

which for over a thousand years scarce ever received a different
answer. He asks, " For what qualifications is a king elected
over countries and tribes of people ? "

Cormac in his answer embodies the views of every clan in
Ireland in their practical choice of a leader.

" From the goodness of his shape and family, from his ex-
perience and wisdom, from his prudence and magnanimity, from
his eloquence and bravery in battle, and from the number of his
friends."

After this follows a long description of the qualifications of a
prince, and Cairbre having heard it puts this question : — " O
grandson of Con, what was thy deportment when a youth ; "
to which he receives the following striking answer :

" ' I was cheerful at the Banquet of the Midh-chuarta [Mee-cuarta,
"house of the circulation of mead3'], fierce in battle, but vigilant and
circumspect. I was kind to friends, a physician to the sick, merciful
towards the weak, stern towards the headstrong. Although possessed
of knowledge, I was inclined towards taciturnity.1 Although strong
I was not haughty. I mocked not the old although I was young. I
was not vain although I was valiant. When I spoke of a person in
his absence I praised, not defamed him, for it is by these customs
that we are known to be courteous and civilised (liaghalach).' "

There is an extremely beautiful answer given later on by
Cormac to the rather simple question of his son :

" ' O grandson of Con, what is good for me ? '

" ' If thou attend to my command,' answers Cormac, 'thou wilt not

1 Compare Henry IV.'s advice to his son, not to make himself too familiar
but rather to stand aloof from his companions.

" Had I so lavish of my presence been,
So common-hackneyed in the eyes of men,
So stale and cheap to vulgar company —
Opinion, that did help me to the crown,
Had still kept loyal to possession," etc.

As for Richard his predecessor —

" The skipping king, he ambled up and down
With shallow jesters and rash bavin wits,
Soon kindled, and soon burned ; carded his state ;
Mingled his royalty with capering fools, ' etc.

" Henry IV.," Part I., act iii., scene 2.

THE BARDIC SCHOOLS 249

mock the old although thou art young, nor the poor although thou
art well-clad, nor the lame although thou art agile, nor the blind
although thou art clear-sighted, nor the feeble although thou art
strong, nor the ignorant although thou art learned. Be not slothful,
nor passionate, nor penurious, nor idle, nor jealous, for he who is so
is an object of hatred to God as well as to man.' "

" ' O grandson of Con,' asks Cairbre, in another place, ' I would
fain know how I am to conduct myself among the wise and among
the foolish, among friends and among strangers, among the old and
among the young,' and to this question his father gives this notable
response.

" ' Be not too knowing nor too simple ; be not proud, be not inactive,
be not too humble nor yet haughty ; be not talkative but be not too
silent ; be not timid neither be severe. For if thou shouldest appear
too knowing thou wouldst be satirised and abused ; if too simple
thou wouldst be imposed upon ; if too proud thou wouldst be
shunned ; if too humble thy dignity would suffer ; if talkative thou
wouldst not be deemed learned ; if too severe thy character would
be defamed ; if too timid thy rights would be encroached upon.' "

To the curious question, " O grandson of Con, what are the
most lasting things in the world ? " the equally curious and to
me unintelligible answer is returned, " Grass, copper, and yew."

Of women, King Cormac, like so many monarchs from
Solomon down, has nothing good to say, perhaps his high
position did not help him to judge them impartially. At least,
to the question, " O grandson of Con, how shall I distinguish
the characters of women ? " the following bitter answer is
given :

" ' I know them, but I cannot describe them. Their counsel is
foolish, they are forgetful of love, most headstrong in their desires,
fond of folly, prone to enter rashly into engagements, given to
swearing, proud to be asked in marriage, tenacious of enmity, cheer-
less at the banquet, rejectors of reconciliation, prone to strife, of
much garrulity. Until evil be good, until hell be heaven, until the sun
hide his light, until the stars of heaven fall, women will remain as we
have stated. Woe to him, my son, who desires or serves a bad
woman, woe to every one who has got a bad wife ' " !

This Christian allusion to heaven and hell, and some others
of the same sort, show that despite a considerable pagan flavour-

250 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

ing the tract cannot be entirely the work of King Cormac,
though it may very well be the embodiment and extension of an
ancient pagan discourse, for, as we have seen, after Christianity
had succeeded in getting the upper hand over paganism, a kind
of tacit compromise was arrived at, by means of which the
bards and files and other representatives of the old pagan
learning, were allowed to continue to propagate their stories,
tales, poems, and genealogies, at the price of incorporating with
them a small share of Christian alloy, or, to use a different
simile, just as the vessels of some feudatory nations are compelled
to fly at the mast-head the flag of the suzerain power. But so
badly has the dovetailing of the Christian and the pagan parts
been managed in most of the older romances, that the pieces
come away quite separate in the hands of even the least skilled
analyser, and the pagan substratum stands forth entirely dis-
tinct from the Christian accretion.

i

CHAPTER XX

THE SUGGESTIVELY PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERATURE

IT is this easy analysis of early Irish literature into its ante-
Christian and its post-Christian elements, which lends to it its
absorbing value and interest. For when all spurious accretions
have been stripped off, we find in the most ancient Irish poems
and sagas, a genuine picture of pagan life in Europe, such as
we look for in vain elsewhere.

" The Church," writes Windisch, " adopted towards pagan sagas,
the same position that it adopted towards pagan law. ... I see
no sufficient ground for doubting that really genuine pictures of
a pre-Christian culture are preserved to us in the individual sagas,
pictures which are of course in some places faded, and in others
painted over by a later hand." T

Again in his notes on the story of Deirdre, he remarks —

" The saga originated in pagan, and was propagated in Christian
times, and that too without its seeking fresh nutriment as a rule from ;
Christian elements. But we must ascribe it to the influence of
Christianity that what is specifically pagan in Irish saga is blurred

1 " Ich sehe daher keinen geniigenden Grund daran zu zweifeln dass
uns in den Einzelsagen wirklich echte Bilder einer vorchristtichen Cultur
erhalten sind, allerdings Bilder die an einigen Stellen verblasst, an andern
von spaterer Hand iibermalt sind " (" Irische Texte," I., p. 253).

251

252 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

•over and forced into the background. And yet there exist many
whose contents are plainly mythological. The Christian monks were
certainly not the first who reduced the ancient sagas to fixed form,
but later on they copied them faithfully, and propagated them after
Ireland had been converted to Christianity."

Zimmer too has come to the same conclusion.

" Nothing," he writes, " except a spurious criticism which takes
for original and primitive the most palpable nonsense of which
Middle-Irish writers from the twelfth to the sixteenth century are
guilty with regard to their own antiquity, which is in many respects
strange and foreign to them : nothing but such a criticism can, on
the other hand, make the attempt to doubt of the historical character
of the chief persons of the Saga cycles.1 For we believe that Meve,
Conor mac Nessa, Cuchulain, and Finn mac Cumhail, are exactly as
much historical personalities as Arminius, or Dietrich of Bern, or
Etzel, and their date is just as well determined as that of the above-
mentioned heroes and kings, who are glorified in song by the
Germans, even though, in the case of Irish heroes and kings, external
witnesses are wanting.' "

M. d'Arbois de Jubainville expresses himself in like terms.
" We have no reason," he writes, " to doubt of the reality of
the principal role in this [cycle of Cuchulain] ; "2 and of the
story of the Boru tribute which was imposed on Leinster about
a century later ; he writes, " Le recit a pour base des faits reels,
quoique certains details aient e"te cr£es par Imagination ; " and
again, u Irish epic story, barbarous though it is, is, like Irish
law, a monument of a civilisation far superior to that of the
most ancient Germans ; if the Roman idea ot the state was
wanting to that civilisation, and, if that defect in it was a
radical flaw, still there is an intellectual culture to be found

1 " Nur eine Afterkritik die den handgreiflichsten Unsinn durch den
mittelirische Schreiber des 12-16 Jahrh. sich am eigenem Altherthum
versiindigen das ihnen in mancher Hinsicht fremd ist fiir urfangliche
Weisheithalt, nun eine solche Kritik kann, umgekehrt den Versuch machen
an dem historischen Character der Hauptperson beider Sagenkreise zu
zweifeln," etc. ( " Kelt-Studien," Heft. II., p. 189).

3 " Introduction a 1'etude de la litterature celtique," p. 217,

PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERA TURE 253

there, far more developed than amongst the primitive
Germans.' " *

" Ireland, in fact," writes M. Darmesteter in his " English Studies,"
well summing up the legitimate conclusions from the works of the
great Celtic scholars, " has the peculiar privilege of a history con-
tinuous from the earliest centuries of our era until the present day.
She has preserved in the infinite wealth of her literature a complete
and faithful picture of the ancient civilisation of the Celts. Irish
literature is therefore the key which opens the Celtic world."

But the Celtic world means a large portion of Europe, and
the key to unlock the door of its past history is in the Irish
manuscripts of saga and poenic Without them the student
would have to view the past history of Europe through the dis-
torting glasses of the Greeks and Romans, to whom all outer
nations were barbarians, into whose social life they had no
motive for inquiring. He would have no other means of
estimating what were the feelings, modes of life, manners, and
habits, of those great races who possessed so large a part of the
ancient world, Gaul, Belgium, North Italy, parts of Germany,
Spain, Switzerland, and the British Isles ; who burned Rome,
plundered Greece, and colonised Asia Minor. But in the
Irish romances and historical sagas, he sees come to light
another standard by which to measure. Through this early
Irish peep-hole he gets a clear look at the life and manners
of the race in one of its strongholds, from which he may
conjecture and even assume a good deal with regard to
the others.

That the pictures of social life and early society drawn in
the Irish romances represent phases not common to the
Irish alone, but to large portions of that Celtic race which
once owned so much of Europe, may be surmised with some
certainty from the way in which characteristics of the Celts
barely mentioned by Greek and Roman writers re-appear
amongst the Irish in all the intimate detail and fond expansion
1 Preface to " L'Epopee Celtique en Irlande."

254 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of romance. M. d'Arbois de Jubainville has drawn attention
to many such instances.

Posidonius, who was a friend of Cicero, and wrote about a
hundred years before Christ, mentions a custom which existed
in Gaul in his time of fighting at a feast for the best bit which
was to be given to the most valiant warrior. This custom,
briefly noticed by Posidonius, might be passed by unnoticed by
the ordinary reader, but the Irish one will remember the early
romances of his race in which the curadh-mir or " heroes bit "
so largely figures. He will remember that it is upon this
custom that one of the greatest sagas of the Cuchulain cycle,
the feast of Bricriu, hinges. Bricriu, the Thersites of the
Red Branch, having built a new and magnificent house,
determines to invite King Conor and the other chieftains to
a feast, for the house was very magnificent.

" The dining hall was built like that of the High-king at Tara.
From the hearth to the wall were nine beds, and each of the side
walls was thirty-five feet high and covered with ornaments of gilt
bronze. Against one of the side walls of that palace was reared a
royal bed destined for Conor,1 king of Ulster, which looked down
upon all the others. It was ornamented with carbuncles and pre-
cious stones and other gems of great price. The gold and silver and
all sorts of jewellery which covered that bed shone with such splen-
dour that the night was as brilliant as the day."

He had prepared a magnificent curadh-mir for the feast,
consisting of a seven-year old pig, and a seven-year old cow
that had been fed on milk and corn and the finest food since their
birth, a hundred cakes of corn cooked with honey — and every

1 This name is written Concobar in the ancient texts, and Conchiibhair in
the modern language, pronounced Cun-hoo-ar or Cun-hoor, whence the
Anglicised form Conor. The " b " was in early times pronounced, but there
are traces of its being dropped as early as the twelfth century, though with
that orthographical conservatism which so distinguishes the Irish lan-
guage, it has been preserved down to the present day. Zimmer says he
found it spelt Conchor in the twelfth-century book the Liber Landavensis.
From this the form Crochor (" cr " for " en " as is usual in Connacht) fol-
lowed, and the name is now pronounced either Cun-a-char or Cruch-oor.

PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERATURE 255

four cakes took a sack of corn to make them — and a vat of
wine large enough to hold three of the warriors of the
Ultonians. This magnificent " heroes' bit " he secretly pro-
mises to each of three warriors in turn, Laeghaire [Leary],
Conall Cearnach, and Cuchulain, hoping to excite a quarrel
among them. On the result of his expedient the saga
turns. I

Again, Caesar tells us that when he invaded the Gauls they
did not fight any longer in chariots, but it is recorded that they
did so fight two hundred years before his time, even as the Persians
fought against the Greeks, and as the Greeks themselves must
have fought in a still earlier age commemorated by Homer. But
in the Irish sagas we find this epic mode of warfare in full force.
Every great man has his charioteer, they fight from their cars
as in Homeric days, and much is told us of both steed, chariot
and driver. In the above-mentioned saga of Bricriu's feast it
is the charioteers of the three warriors who claim the heroes'
bit for their masters, since they are apparently ashamed to make
the first move themselves. The charioteer was more than a
mere servant. Cuchulain sometimes calls his charioteer friend
or master (popa), and on the occasion of his fight with Ferdiad
desires him in case he (Cuchulain) should show signs of
yielding, to " excite reproach and speak evil to me so that the
ire of my rage and anger should grow the more on me, but if
he give ground before me thou shalt laud me and praise me and
speak good words to me that my courage may be the greater,"
and this command his friend and charioteer punctually
executes.

The chariot itself is in many places graphically de-

1 The reminiscence of the hero-bit appears to have lingered on in folk
memory. A correspondent, Mr. Terence Kelly, from near Omagh, in the
county Tyrone, tells me that he often heard a story told by an old
shanachie and herb-doctor in that neighbourhood who spoke a half-Scotch
dialect of English, in which the hero-bit figured, but it had fallen in
magnificence, and was represented as bannocks and butter with some
minor delicacies.

256 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

scribed. Here is how its approach is pourtrayed in the
Tain-

" It was not long," says the chronicler, " until Ferdiad's charioteer
heard the noise approaching, the clamour and the rattle, and the
whistling, and the tramp, and the thunder, and the clatter and the
roar, namely the shield-noise of the light shields, and the hissing of
the spears, and the loud clangour of the swords, and the tinkling of
the helmet, and the ringing of the armour, and the friction of the
arms ; the dangling of the missive weapons, the straining of the
ropes, and the loud clattering of the wheels, and the creaking of the
chariot, and the trampling of the horses, and the triumphant advance
of the champion and the warrior towards the ford approaching him."

In the romance called the " Intoxication of the Ultonians,"
it is mentioned that they drave so fast in the wake of Cuchu-
lain, that " the iron wheels of the chariots cut the roots of the
immense trees." Here is how the romancist describes the
advance of such a body upon Tara-Luachra.

" Not long were they there, the two watchers and the two druids,
until a full fierce rush of the first band broke hither past the glen.
Such was the fury with which they advanced that there was not left
a spear on a rack, nor a shield on a spike, nor a sword in an armoury
in Tara-Luachra that did not fall down. From every house on which
was thatch in Tara-Luachra it fell in immense flakes. One would
think that it was the sea that had come over the walls and over the
corners of the world upon them. The forms of countenances were
changed, and there was chattering of teeth in Tara-Luachra within.
The two druids fell in fits and in faintings and in paroxysms, one of
them out over the wall and the other over the wall inside."

On another occasion the approach of Cuchulain's chariot is
thus described —

"Like a mering were the two dykes which the iron wheels of
Cuchulain's chariot made on that day of the sides of the road. Like
flocks of dark birds pouring over a vast plain were the blocks and
round sods and turves of the earth which the horses would cast away
behind them against the ... of the wind. Like a flock of swans
pouring over a vast plain was the foam which they flung before them
over the muzzles of their bridles. Like the smoke from a roval

PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERA TURE 257

hostel was the dust and breath of the dense vapour, because of the
vehemence of the driving which Liag, son of Riangabhra, on that
day gave to the two steeds of Cuchulain." x

Elsewhere the chariot itself is described as " wythe-wickered,
two bright bronze wheels, a white pole of bright silver with a
veining of white bronze, a very high creaking body, having its
firm sloping sides ornamented with cred (tin ? ), a back-arched
rich golden yoke, two rich yellow-peaked alls, hardened sword-
straight axle-spindles." Laeghaire's chariot is described in
another piece as " a chariot wythe-wickered, two firm black
wheels, two pliant beautiful reins, hardened sword-straight
axle-spindles, a new fresh-polished body, a back-arched rich
silver-mounted yoke, two rich-yellow peaked alls ... a bird
plume of the usual feathers over the body of the chariot." 2

Descriptions like these are constantly occurring in the Irish
tales, and enable us to realise better the heroic period of warfare
and to fill up in our imagination many a long-regretted lacuna
in our knowledge of primitive Europe.

" Those philosophers," says Diodorus Siculus, a Greek writer of
the Augustan age, speaking of the Druids, "like the lyric poets
called bards, have a great authority both in affairs of peace and war,
friends and enemies listen to them. Also when the two armies are
in presence of one another and swords drawn and spears couched,
they throw themselves into the midst of the combatants and appease
them as though they were charming wild beasts. Thus even
amongst the most savage barbarians anger submits to the rule of
wisdom, and the god of war pays homage to the Muses."

To show that the manners and customs of the Keltoi or Celts
of whom Diodorus speaks were in this respect identical with
those of their Irish cousins (or brothers), and to give another
instance of the warm light shed by Irish literature upon the
early customs of Western Europe I shall convert the abstract

1 See "Revue Celtique," vol. xiv. p. 417, translated by Whitley Stokes.
8 Leabhar na h-Uidhre, p. 122, col. 2, translated by Sullivan,
" Manners and Customs," vol. i. p. cccclxxviii,

R

258 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

into the concrete by a page or two from an Irish romance, not
an old one,1 but one which no doubt preserves many original
traditionary traits. In this story Finn mac Cumhail or Cool 2
at a great feast in his fort at Allen asks Goll about some tribute
which he claimed, and is dissatisfied at the answer of Goll, who
may be called the Ajax of the Fenians. After that there arose
a quarrel at the feast, the rise of which is thus graphically
pourtrayed —

" ' Goll,' said Finn, ' you have acknowledged in that speech that
you came from the city of Beirbhe to the battle of Cnoca, and that
you slew my father there, and it is a bold and disobedient thing of
you to tell me that/ said Finn.

" ' By my hand, O Finn,' said Goll, ' if you were to dishonour me
as your father did, I would give you the same payment that I gave
Cool.'

" ' Goll,' said Finn, ' I would be well able not to let that word pass
with you, for I have a hundred valiant warriors in my following for
every one that is in yours.'

" ' Your father had that also,' said Goll, ' and yet I avenged my
dishonour on him, and I would do the same to you if you were to
deserve it of me.'

" White-skinned Carroll O Baoisgne3 spake, and 't is what he said :
' O Goll,' said he, ' there is many a man,' said he, ' to silence you and
your people in the household of Finn mac Cumhail.'

" Bald cursing Conan mac Morna spake, and 't is what he said, ' I
swear by my arms of valour/ said he, ' that Goll, the day he has least
men, has a man and a hundred in his household, and not a man of
them but would silence you.'

" ' Are you one of those, perverse, bald-headed Conan ? ' said
Carroll.

" ' I am one of them, black-visaged, nail-torn, skin-scratched, little-
strength Carroll/ says Conan, ' and I would soon prove it to you that
Cumhail was in the wrong.'

1 In Irish Fionn mac Cumhail, pronounced " Finn (or Fewn in Mun-
ster), mac Coo-wil " or " Cool."

2 I translated this from manuscript in my possession made by one
Patrick O'Pronty (an ancestor, I think, of Charlotte Bronte) in 1763. Mr.
Standish Hayes O'Grady has since published a somewhat different text of it.

3 Pronounced " Bweesg-na," the triphthong aoi is always pronounced
like ee in Irish.

PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITERATURE 259

" It was then that Carroll arose, and he struck a daring fist, quick
and ready, upon Conan, and there was no submission in Conan's
answer, for he struck the second fist on Carroll in the middle of his
face and his teeth."

Upon this the chronicler relates how first one joined in and
then another, until at last all the adherents of Goll and Finn
and even the captains themselves are hard at work. u After
that," he adds, " bad was the place for a mild, smooth-fingered
woman or a weak or infirm person, or an aged, long-lived
elder." This terrific fight continued "from the beginning of
the night till the rising of the sun in the morning," and was
only stopped — just as Diodorus says battles were stopped — by
the intervention of the bards.

"It was then," says the romancist, " that the prophesying poet of
the pointed words, that guerdon-full good man of song, Fergus
Finnbheoil, rose up, and all the Fenians' men of science along with
him, and they sang their hymns and good poems, and their perfect
lays to those heroes to silence and to soften them. It was then they
ceased from their slaughtering and maiming, on hearing the music
of the poets, and they let their weapons fall to earth, and the poets
took up their weapons and they went between them, and grasped
them with the grasp of reconciliation."

When the palace was cleared out it was found that 1,100 of
Finn's people had been killed between men and women, and
eleven men and fifty women of GolPs party.

Caesar speaks of the numbers who frequented the schools of
the druids in Gaul ; " it is said," he adds, " that they learn
there a great number of verses, and that is why some of those
pupils spend twenty years in learning. It is not, according to
the druids, permissible to entrust verses to writing although
they use the Greek alphabet in all other affairs public and
private." Of this prohibition to commit their verses to paper,
we have no trace, so far as I know, in our literature, but the
accounts of the early bardic schools entirely bear out the
description here given of them by Caesar, and again shows the
solidarity of custom which seems to have existed between the

260 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

various Celtic tribes. According to our early manuscripts it
took from nine to twelve years for a student to take the
highest degree at the bardic schools, and in many cases where
the pupil failed to master sufficiently the subjects of the year,
he had probably to spend two over it, so that it is quite possible
that some might spend twenty years over their learning. And
much of this learning was, as Caesar notes, in verse. Many
earlier law tracts appear to have been so, and even many of the
earliest romances. There is a very interesting account extant
called the " Proceedings of the Great Bardic Association,"
which leads up to the Epic of the Tain Bo Chuailgne, the
greatest of the Irish romances, according to which this great
tale was at one time lost, and the great Bardic Institution was
commanded to hunt for and recover it. The fact of it being
said that the perfect tale was lost for ever " and that only a
fragmentary and broken form of it would go down to posterity "
perhaps indicates, as has been pointed out by Sullivan, " that
the filling up the gaps in the poem by prose narrative is
meant." In point of fact the tale, as we have it now, consists
half of verse and half of prose. Nor is this peculiar to the
Tain. Most of the oldest and many of the modern tales are
composed in this way. In most cases the verse is of a more
archaic character and more difficult than the prose. In very
many an expanded prose narrative of several pages is followed
by a more condensed poem saying the same thing. So much
did the Irish at last come to look upon it as a matter of course
that every romance should be interspersed with poetry, that
even writers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
who consciously invented their stories as a modern novelist
invents his, have interspersed their pieces with passages, in
verse, as did Comyn in his Turlough mac Stairn, as did the
author of the Son of Ill-counsel, the author of the Parliament of
.Clan Lopus, the author of the Women's Parliament, and others.
/We may take it, then, that in the earliest days the romances
» were composed in verse and learned by heart by the students

PAGAN ELEMENT IN IRISH LITER A TURE 261

— possibly before any alphabet was known at all ; afterwards >
when lacunas occurred through defective memory on the part
of the reciter he filled up the gaps with prose. Those who
committed to paper our earliest tales wrote down as much of
the old poetry as they could recollect or had access to, and
wrote the connecting narrative in prose. Hence it soon came
to pass that if a story pretended to any antiquity it had to be
interspersed with verses, and at last it happened that the Irish
taste became so confirmed to this style of writing that authors
adopted it, as I have said, even in the seventeenth and eigh-
teenth centuries.

In spite of the mythological and phantastic elements which
are undoubtedly mingled with the oldest sagas,

"the manners and customs in which the men of the time lived
and moved, are depicted," writes Windisch,1 " with a naive realism
which leaves no room for doubt as to the former actuality of the
scenes depicted. In matter of costume and weapons, eating and
drinking, building and arrangement of the banqueting-hall, manners
observed at the feast, and much more, we find here the most valuable
information." " I insist upon it," he says in another place, " that
Irish saga is the only richly-flowing source of unbroken Celtism."

All the remaining linguistic monuments of Breton, Cornish,
and Welsh, " would form," writes M. d'Arbois de Jubainville,

" un ensemble bien incomplet et bien obscur sans la lumiere que
la litterature irlandaise projette sur ces debris. C'est le vieil irlandais
qui forme le trait d'union pour ainsi dire entre les dialectes neo-
celtiques de la fin du moyen age ou des temps modernes, et le
Gaulois des inscriptions lapidaires, des monnaies, des noms propres
conserves par la litterature grecque et la litterature romaine.'' a

It may, then, be finally acknowledged that those of the great /
nations of to-day, whose ancestors were mostly Celts, but/
whose language, literature, and traditions have completely dis-
appeared, must, if they wish to study their own past, turn

1 " Irische Texte," I., p. 252.

2 " Etudes grammaticales sur les langues Celtiques," 1881, p. vii.

262 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

themselves first to Ireland. When we find so much of the
brief and scanty information given us by the classics, not only
borne out, but amply illustrated by old Irish literature, when
we find the dry bones of Posidonius and Caesar rise up again
before us with a ruddy covering of flesh and blood, it is not
too much to surmise that in other matters also the various
Celtic races bore to each other a close resemblance.

Much more could be said upon this subject, as that the four
Gallo-Roman inscriptions to Brigantia found in Great Britain
are really to the Goddess Brigit;1 that the Brennus who
burned Rome 390 years before Christ and the Brennus who
stormed Delphi no years later were only the god Brian,
under whose tutelage the Gauls marched ; and that Lugu-
dunum, Lugh's Dun or fortress, is so-called from the god
Lugh the Long-handed, to whom two Celtic inscriptions are
found, one in Spain and one in Switzerland, as may be seen
set forth at length in the volumes of Monsieur d'Arbois de
Jubainville.

1 See above pp. 53 and 161.

CHAPTER XXI

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS

THE books of saga, poetry, and annals that have come down to
our day, though so vastly more ancient and numerous than
anything that the rest of Western Europe has to show, are
yet an almost inappreciable fragment of the literature that at
one time existed in Ireland. The great native scholar O'Curry,
who possessed a unique and unrivalled knowledge of Irish
literature in all its forms, has drawn up a list of lost books
which may be supposed to have contained our earliest litera-
ture.

We find the poet Senchan Torpeist — according to the
account in the Book of Leinster, a manuscript which dates
from about the year 1150 — complaining that the only per-
fect record of the great Irish epic, the Tain Bo Chuailgne T or
Cattle-spoil of Cooley, had been taken to the East with the
Cuilmenn,2 or Great Skin Book. Now Zimmer, who made
a special and minute study of this story, considers that the!
earliest redaction of the Tain dates from the seventh century.'

1 Pronounced "Taun Bo Hoo-il-n'ya." The "a" in Tain is pronounced
nearly like the " a " in the English word " Tarn."

2 Cuilmenn — it has been remarked, I think, by Kuno Meyer — seems
cognate with Colmmene, glossed nervus, and Welsh cwlm, "a knot or
tie." It is found glossed lebar—i^ leabhar, or " book."

264 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

This legend about Senchan — a real historical poet whose
eulogy in praise of Columcille, whether genuine or not,
was widely popular — is probably equally old, and points to
the early existence of a great skin book in which pagan
tales were written, but which was then lost. The next
great book is the celebrated Saltair of Tara, which is alluded
to in a genuine poem of Cuan O'Lochain about the year
1000, in which he says that Cormac mac Art drew up the
Saltair of Tara. Cormac, being a pagan, could not have
called the book a Saltair or Psalterium, but it may have got the
name in later times from its being in metre. All that this
really proves, however, is that there then existed a book about
the prerogatives of Tara and the provincial kings so old that
Cuan O'Lochain — no doubt following tradition — was not
afraid to ascribe it to Cormac mac Art who lived in the third
century. The next lost book is called the Book of the
Uacongbhail, upon which both the O'Clerys in their Book
of Invasions and Keating in his history drew, and which,
according to O'Curry, still existed at Kildare so late as 1626.
The next book is called the Cin of Drom Snechta. It is
quoted in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, or " Book of the Dun
Cow" — a MS. of about the year noo — and often in the Book
of Ballymote and by Keating, who in quoting it says, " And
it was before the coming of Patrick to Ireland that that book
existed," * and the Book of Leinster ascribes it to the son
of a king of Connacht who died either in 379 or 499. The
next books of which we find mention were said to have
belonged to St. Longarad, a contemporary of St. Columcille.
The scribe who wrote the glosses on the Fe"ilire of Angus the
Culdee, said that the books existed still in his day, but that
nobody could read them ; for which he accounts by the tale
that Columcille once paid Longarad a visit in order to see his
books, but that his host refused to show them, and that Colum-
cille then said, " May your books be of no use after you, since
1 For the authorship of this book see above, p. 71.

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS 265

you have exercised inhospitality about them." On account of
this the books became illegible after Longarad's death. Angus
the Culdee lived about the year 800, but Stokes ascribes the
Feilire to the tenth century ; a view, however, which Mr.
Strachan's studies on the Irish deponent verb, which is of such
frequent occurrence in the Feilire, may perhaps modify. At
what time the scholiast wrote his note on the text is uncertain,
but it also is very old. It is plain, then, that at this time a
number of illegible books — illegible no doubt from age — existed ;
and to account for this illegibility the story of Columcille's
curse was invented. The Annals of Ulster quote another
book at the year 527 under the name of the Book of St.
Mochta, who was a disciple of St. Patrick. They also quote
the Book of Guana at the year 468 and repeatedly afterwards
down to the year 610, while they record the death of Cuana,
a scribe, at the year 738, after which no more quotations from
Guana's book occur.

The following volumes, almost all of which existed prior to
the year noo, are also alluded to in our old literature : — The
Book of Dubhdaleithe ; the Yellow Book of Slane ; the original
Leabhar na h-Uidhre, or " Book of the Dun Cow " ; the Books
of Eochaidh O'Flanagain ; a certain volume known as the
book eaten by the poor people in the desert ; the Book of Inis
an Duin ; the short Book of Monasterboice ; the Books of
Flann of Monasterboice ; the Book of Flann of Dungiven ;
the Book of Downpatrick ; the Book of Derry ; the Book of
Sabhal Patrick ; the Black Book of St. Molaga ; the Yellow
Book of St. Moiling ; the Yellow Book of Mac Murrough ;
the Book of Armagh (not the one now so called) ; the Red
Book of Mac Egan ; the Long Book of Leithlin ; the Books
of O'Scoba of Clonmacnois ; the " Duil " of Drom Ceat ; the
Book of Clonsost ; the Book of Cluain Eidhneach (the ivy
meadow) in Leix ; and one of the most valuable and often
quoted of all, Cormac's great Saltair of Cashel, compiled by
Cormac mac Culinan, who was at once king of Munster

266 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and archbishop of Cashel,1 and who fell in battle in 903,
according to the chronology of the "Four Masters." The
above are certainly only a few of the books in which a large
early literature was contained, one that has now perished
almost to a page. Michael O'Clery, in the Preface to his
Book of Invasions written in 1631, mentions the books
from which he and his four antiquarian friends compiled their
work — mostly now perished ! — and adds : —

" The histories and synchronisms of Erin were written and tested
in the presence of those illustrious saints, as is manifest in the great
books that are named after the saints themselves and from their
great churches ; for there was not an illustrious church in Erin that
had not a great book of history named from it or from the saints who
sanctified it. It would be easy, too, to know from the books which
the saints wrote, and the songs of praise which they composed in
Irish that they themselves and their churches were the centres of
the true knowledge, and the archives and homes of the manuscripts
of the authors of Erin in the elder times. But, alas ! short was the
time until dispersion and decay overtook the churches of the saints,

1 " At what time this book was lost," says O'Curry, " we have no precise
knowledge, but that it existed, though in a dilapidated state, in the year
1454 is evident from the fact that there is in the Bodleian Library at
Oxford (Laud 610) a copy of such portions of it as could be deciphered at
that time, made by Shawn O'Clery for Mac Richard Butler. From the
contents of this copy and from the frequent references to the original for
history and genealogies found in the Books of Ballymote, Lecan, and
others, it must have been an historical and genealogical compilation of
large size and great diversity."

A legible copy of the Saltair appears, however, to have existed at
a much later date. I discovered a curious poem in an uncatalogued MS.
in the Royal Irish Academy by one David Condon, written apparently at
some time between the Cromwellian and Williamite wars, in which he
says —

" Saltair Chaisill is dearbh gur leigheas-sa
Leabhar ghleanna-da-locha gan go ba leir dam,
Leabhar Buidhe Mhuigleann (?) obair aosta," &c.

I.e., " Surely I have read the Saltair of Cashel, and the Book of Glendaloch
was certainly plain to me, and the Yellow Book of Mulling (?) (see above,
p. 210), an ancient work, the Book of Molaga, and the lessons of Cionn-
faola, and many more (books) along with them which are not (now) found
in Ireland."

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS 267

their relics, and their books ; for there is not to be found of them
now [1631] but a small remnant that has not been carried away into
distant countries and foreign nations — carried away so that their
fate is unknown from that time unto this."

As far as actual existing documents go, we have no speci-
mens of Irish MSS. written in Irish before the eighth century.
The chief remains of the old language that we have are mostly
found on the Continent, whither the Irish carried their books
in great numbers, and unfortunately they are not books of
saga, but chiefly, with the exception of a few poems, glosses
and explanations of books used evidently in the Irish ecclesias-
tical schools.1 A list of the most remarkable is worth giving
here, as it will help to show the extraordinary geographical
diversity of the Irish settlements upon the Continent, and the
keenness with which their relics have been studied by European
scholars — French, German, and Italian. The most important
are the glosses found in the Irish MSS. of Milan, published
by Ascoli, Zeuss, Stokes, and Nigra ; those in St. Gall — a
monastery in Switzerland founded by St. Gall, an Irish friend
of Columbanus, in the sixth century — published by Ascoli and
Nigra ; those in Wurtzburg, published by Zimmer and Zeuss ;
those in Carlsruhe, published by Zeuss ; those in Turin,
published by Zimmer, Nigra, and Stokes in his " Goidelica " ;
those in Vienna, published by Zimmer in his " Glossae Hibernicae "
and Stokes in his " Goidelica " ; those in Berne, those in Leyden,
those in Nancy, and the glosses on the Cambrai Sermon,
published by Zeuss.2 Next in antiquity to these are the Irish
parts of the Book of Armagh, the poems in the MSS. of St.

1 Such, for example, is the fragment of a commentary on the Psalter
published by Kuno Meyer in " Hibernica Minora," from Rawlinson, B. 512.
The original is assigned by him, judging from its grammatical forms, to
about the year 750. It is very ample and diffuse, and tells about the
Shophetim, or Sophtim, as the writer calls it, the Didne Haggamim, etc.,
and is an excellent example of the kind of Irish commentaries used by the
early ecclesiastics.

2 " Gram. Celt.," p. 1004-7.

268 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Gall and Milan,1 and some of the pieces published by Windisch
in his " Irische Texte." Next to this is probably the
Martyrology of Angus the Culdee. And then come the
great Middle-Irish books — the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, the Book
of Leinster, and the rest.

From a palaeographic point of view the oldest books in
Ireland are probably the " Domhnach Airgid," a copy of the
Four Gospels in a triple shrine of yew, silver-plated copper,
and gold-plated silver, which St. Patrick was believed to have
given to St. Carthainn when he told that saint with a shrewd
wisdom, which in later days aroused the admiration of Mr.
Matthew Arnold, to build himself a church " that should not
be too near to himself for familiarity nor too far from himself
for intercourse." It probably dates from the fifth or sixth
century. The Cathach supposed to have been surreptitiously
written by Columcille from Finnian's book2 — a Latin copy of
the Gospels in Trinity College, Dublin ; the Book of Durrow,
a beautiful illuminated copy of the same ; the Book of Dim-
ma, containing the Four Gospels, ritual, and prayers, probably
a work of the seventh century ; the Book of Moiling, ot
probably about the same date ; the Gospels of Mac Regol,
the largest of the Old Irish Gospel books, highly but not
elegantly coloured, with an interlinear Anglo-Saxon version
in a late hand carried through its pages ; the Book of Kells,
the unapproachable glory of Irish illumination, and some other
ecclesiastical books. After them come the Leabhar na
h-Uidre and the great books of poems and saga.

Although the language of these sagas and poems is not that
of the glosses, but what is called " Middle-Irish," still it does
not in the least follow that the poems and sagas belong to the
Middle-Irish period. "The old Middle- Irish manuscripts,"
says Zimmer, " contain for the most part only Old Irish texts
re- written." 3 " Unfortunately," says Windisch, " every new

1 Published by Zeuss in his " Gramrnatica Celtica."

3 See above, p. 175. 3 " Keltische Studien," Heft i. p. 88.

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS 269

copyist has given to the text more or less of the linguistic garb
of his own day, so that as far as the language of Irish texts goes,
it depends principally upon the age of the manuscript that con-
tains them." * And again, in his preface to Adamnan's vision, he
writes : " Since we know that Irish texts were rewritten by
every fresh copyist more or less regularly in the speech of his
own day, the real age or a prose text cannot possibly be
determined by the linguistic forms of its language." 2 It is
much easier to tell the age of poetry than prose, for the
gradual modification of language, altering of words, shortening
of inflexions, and so on, must interfere with the metre, so that
when we find a poem in a twelfth-century manuscript written
in Middle Irish and in a perfect metrical form, we may — no
matter to what age it is ascribed — be pretty sure that it cannot
be more than two or three centuries older than the manuscript
that contains it. Yet even of the poems Dr. Atkinson
writes : "The poem may be of the eighth century, but the
forms are in the main of the twelfth." 3 Where poems that
really are of ancient date have had their language modified
in transcription so as to render them intelligible, the metre is
bound to suffer, and this lends us a criterion whereby to gauge
the age of verse, which is lacking to us when we come to deal
with prose.

This modification of language is not uncommon in literature
and takes place naturally, but I doubt if there ever was a
literature in which it played the same important part as in
Irish. Thus let us take the story of the Tain Bo Chuailgne,
of which I shall have more to say later on. Zimmer, after
long and careful study of the text as preserved to us in a manu-
script of about the year noo, came to the conclusion from the
marks of Old Irish inflexion, and so forth, which still remain in
the eleventh-century text, that there had been two recensions of

Preface to Loinges Mac n-Usnig, " Irische Texte," i. 61.

2 " Irische Texte," i. p. 167.

3 Preface to the list of contents of the facsimile Book of Leinster.

270 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the story, a pre-Danish, that is, say, a seventh-century one,
and a post-Danish, that is a tenth- or eleventh-century one.
Thus the epic may have been originally committed to paper in
the seventh century, modified in the tenth, transcribed into
the manuscripts in which we have it in the eleventh and twelfth,
and propagated from that down to the eighteenth century, in
copies every one of which underwent more or less alteration
in order to render it more intelligible ; and it was in fact in
an eighteenth-century manuscript, yet one that differed, as I
subsequently discovered, in few essentials from the copy in the
Book of Leinster that I first read it. As the bards lived to
please so they had to please to live. The popular mind only
receives with pleasure and transmits with readiness popular
poetry upon the condition that it is intelligible,1 and hence
granting that Finn mac Cool was a real historical personage, it
is perfectly possible that some of his poetry was handed down
from generation to generation amongst the conservative Gael,
and slightly altered or modified from time to time to make it
more intelligible, according as words died out and inflexions be-
came obsolete. The Oriental philologist, Max Miiller, in
attempting to explain how myths arose (according to his theory)
from a disease of language, thinks that during the transition
period of which he speaks, there would be many words "under-
stood perhaps by the grandfather, familiar to the father, but
strange to the son, and misunderstood by the grandson." This
is exactly what is taking place over half Ireland at this very
moment, and it is what has always been at work amongst a
people whose language and literature go back with certainty for
nearly 1,500 years. Accordingly before the art of writing
became common, ere yet expensive vellum MSS. and a highly-

1 With the exception of the ancient Irish prayers like Mairinn Phadraig,
preserved by tradition, which are for the most part not intelligible to the
reciters, but which owe their preservation to the promise usually tacked on
at the end that the reciters shall receive some miraculous or heavenly
blessing. See my " Religious Songs of Connacht."

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS 271

paid class of historians and schools of scribes to a certain extent
stereotyped what they set down, it is altogether probable that
people who trusted to the ear and to memory, modified and
corrupted but still handed down, at least some famous poems,
like those ascribed to Amergin or Finn mac Cool. That the
Celtic memory for things unwritten is long I have often
proved. I have heard from peasants stanzas composed by
Donogha Mor O'Daly, of Boyle, in the thirteenth cen-
tury ; I have recovered from an illiterate peasant, in 1890 in
Roscommon, verses which had been jotted down in phonetic
spelling in Argyleshire by Macgregor, Dean of Lismore, in
the year 1512, and which may have been sung for hundreds
of years before it struck the fancy of the Highland divine to
commit them to paper ; * and I have again heard verses in
which the measure and sense were preserved, but found on
comparing them with MSS. that several obsolete words had
been altered to others that rhymed with them and were
intelligible. 2 For these reasons I should, in many cases,
refuse absolutely to reject the authenticity of a poem
simply because the language is more modern than that ot
the bard could have been to whom it is ascribed, and it
seems to me equally uncritical either to accept or reject
much of our earliest poetry, except what is in highly-
developed metre, as a good deal of it may possibly be the
actual (but linguistically modified) work of the supposed
authors.

This modifying process is something akin to but very
different in degree from Pope's rewriting of Donne's satires
or Dryden's version of Chaucer, inasmuch as it was probably
both unconscious and unintentional. To understand better
how this modification may have taken place, let us examine a

1 See my note on the Story of Oscar au fleau, in " Revue Celtique,"
vol. xiii. p. 425.

2 Cf. my note on Bran's colour, at p. 277 of my "Beside the
Fire."

272 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

few lines of the thirteenth-century English poem, the " Brut"
of Layamon : —

" And swa ich habbe al niht
Of mine swevene swithe ithoht,
For ich what to iwisse
Agan is al my blisse."

These lines were, no doubt, intelligible to an ordinary English-
man at the time. Gradually they become a little modernised,

thus : —

" And so I have all night
Of min-e sweeven swith ythought,
For I wat to ywiss
Agone is all my bliss."

Had these verses been preserved in folk-memory they must
have undergone a still further modification as soon as the words
sweeven (dream), swith (much), and ywiss (certainty) began
to grow obsolete, and we should have the verse modified and
mangled, perhaps something in this way : —

" And so I have all the night
Of my dream greatly thought,
For I wot and I wis
That gone is all my bliss."

The words "I wot and I wis," in the third line, represent
just about as much archaism as the popular memory and taste
will stand without rebelling. Some modification in the direc-
tion here hinted at may be found in, I should think, more than
half the manuscripts in the Royal Irish Academy to-day, and
just in the same sense as the lines,

" For I wot and I wis

That gone is my bliss,"

are Layamon's ; so we may suppose,

" Dubthach missi mac do Lugaid
Laidech lantrait

THE OLDEST BOOKS AND POEMS 273

Me rue inmbreith etir Loegaire
Ocus Patraic," *

to be the fifth century O'Lugair's, or

" Leathaid folt fada fraich,
Forbrid canach fann firm," *

to be Finn mac CumhaiPs.

Of the many poems — as distinguished from sagas, which are
a mixture of poetry and prose — said to have been produced
from pagan times down to the eighth century, none can be
properly called epics or even epopees. There are few continued
efforts, and the majority of the pieces though interesting for
a great many reasons to students, would hardly interest an
English reader when translated. Unfortunately, such a great
amount of our early literature being lost, we can only judge of
what it was like through the shorter pieces which have been
preserved, and even these short pieces read rather jejune and
barren in English, partly because of the great condensation of
the original, a condensation which was largely brought about
by the necessity of versification in difficult metres. In order
to see beauty in the most ancient Irish verse it is absolutely
necessary to read it in the original so as to perceive and appreciate
the alliteration and other tours de force which appear in every
line. These verses, for instance, which Meve, daughter or
Conan, is said to have pronounced over Cuchorb, her hus-

1 In more modern Irish : —

" Dubhthach mise, mac do Lughaidh

Laoi-each lan-traith
Me rug an bhreith idir Laoghaire
Agus Padraig."

I.e., " I am Dubhthach, son of Lewy the lay-full, full-wise. It is I who
delivered judgment between Leary and Patrick." Traith is the only obso-
lete word here.

2 In modern Irish, " Leathnuighidh folt fada fraoch," i.e., " Leathnuighidh
fraoch folt fada, foirbridh (fasaidh) canach (ceannabhan) fann fionn," i.e.,
" Spreads heath its long hair, flourishes the feeble, fair cotton-grass."

s

274 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

band, in the first century, appear bald enough in a literal
translation : —

" Moghcorb's son whom fame conceals [covers]
Well sheds he blood by his spears,
A stone over his grave — 'tis a pity —
Who carried battle over Cliu Mail.

My noble king, he spoke not falsehood,
His success was certain in every danger,
As black as a raven was his brow,
As sharp was his spear as a razor," etc.

One might read this kind of thing for ever in a translation
without being struck by anything more than some occasional
curiosa fellcitas of phrase or picturesque expression, and one
would never suspect that the original was so polished and com-
plicated as it really is. Here are these two verses done into
the exact versification of the original, in which interlinear
vowel-rhymes, alliterations, and all the other requirements of
the Irish are preserved and marked : —

" Mochorb's son of Fiercest FAME,

KNown his NAME for bloody toil,
To his Gory Grave is GONE,

He who SHONE o'er Snouting Moyle.

Kindly King, who Liked not LIES,

Rash to RISE to Fields of Fame,
Raven-Black his Brows of FEAR,

Razor-Sharp his SPEAR of flame," etc.1

This specimen of Irish metre may help to place much of oui
poetry in another light, for its beauty depends less upon the
intrinsic substance of the thought than the external elegance

1 Here is the first verse of this in the original. The Old Irish is nearly
unintelligible to a modern. I have here modernised the spelling : —

" Mac Mogachoirb Cheileas CLU
Cun fearas CRU thar a ghaibh
Ail uas a Ligi — budh LIACH —
Baslaide CHLIATH thar Cliu Mail."

The rhyming words do not make perfect rhyme as in English, but pretty
nearly so — clu cm, liath cliath, gdibh mail.

THE OLDEST. BOOKS AND POEMS 275

of the framework. We must understand this in order to do
justice to our versified literature, for the student must not
imagine that he will find long-sustained epics or interesting
narrative poems after the manner of the Iliad or Odyssey,
or even the Nibelungenlied, or the " Song of Roland ;" none
such now exist : if they did exist they are lost. The early poems
consist rather of eulogies, elegies, historical pieces, and lyrics,
few of them of any great length, and still fewer capable of
interesting an English reader in a translation. Occasionally we
meet with touches of nature poetry of which the Gael has
always been supremely fond. Here is a tentative translation
made by O'Donovan of a part of the first poem which Finn
mac Cumhail is said to have composed after his eating of
the salmon of knowledge : —

"May-Day, delightful time! How beautiful the colour; the
blackbirds sing their full lay ; would that Laighaig were here ! The
cuckoos sing in constant strains. How welcome is ever the noble
brilliance of the seasons ! On the margin of the branching woods
the summer swallows skim the stream. The swift horses seek the
pool. The heath spreads out its long hair, the weak, fair bog-down
grows. Sudden consternation attacks the signs, the planets, in their
courses running, exert an influence ; the sea is lulled to rest, flowers
cover the earth."

The language of this poem is so old as to be in parts unin-
telligible, and the broken metre points to the difficulties of
transmission over a long period of time, yet he would be a bold
man who would ascribe with certainty the authorship of it to
Finn mac Cumhail in the third century, or the elegy on Cuchorb
to Meve, daughter of Conan, a contemporary of Virgil and
Horace. And yet all the history of these people is known
and recorded with much apparent plausibility and many
collateral circumstances connecting them with the men of
their time. How much of this is genuine historical tradition ?
How much is later invention ? It is difficult to decide at
present.

CHAPTER XXII

EARLY SAGA AND ROMANCE

DURING the golden period of the Greek and Roman genius
no one ever wrote a romance. Epics they left behind
them, and history, but the romance, the Danish saga, the
Irish sgeul or ursgeul was unknown. It was in time of
decadence that a body of Greek prose romance appeared,
and with the exception of Petronius' semi-prose "Satyri-
con," and Apuleius' " Golden Ass," the Latin language pro-
duced in this line little of a higher character than such works
as the Gesta Romanorum. In Greece and Italy where the
genial climate favoured all kinds of open-air representations,
the great development of the drama took the place of novelistic
literature, as it did for a long time amongst the English after
the Elizabethan revival. In Ireland, on the other hand, the
dramatic stage was never reached at all, but the development
of the ursgeul, romance, or novel, was quite abnormally great.
I have seen it more than once asserted, if I mistake not, that
the dramatic is an inevitable and an early development in the
history of every literature, but this is to generalise from insuf-
ficient instances. The Irish literature which kept on develop-
ing— to some extent at least — for over a thousand years, and of
which hundreds of volumes still exist, never evolved a drama, nor
so much, as far as I know, as even a miracle play, although
these are found in Welsh and even Cornish. What Ireland

tted
> to
did

EARLY SAGA AND ROMANCE 277

did produce, and produce nobly and well, was romance ; from
the first to the last, from the seventh to the seventeenth
century, Irishmen, without distinction of class, alike delighted
in the ursgeul.

When this form of literature first came into vogue we have no
means of ascertaining, but the narrative prose probably developed
at a very early period as a supplement to defective narrative
verse. Not that verse or prose were then and there committed
to writing, for it is said that the business of the bards was
learn their stories by heart. I take it, however, that they
not actually do this, but merely learned the incidents of a story
in their regular sequence, and that their training enabled them
to fill these up and clothe them on the spur of the moment in
the most effective garments, decking them out with passages
of gaudy description, with rattling alliterative lines and "runs"
and abundance of adjectival declamation. The bards, no
matter from what quarter of the island, had all to know the
same story or novel, provided it was a renowned one, but with
each the sequence of incidents, and the incidents themselves
were probably for a long time the same ; but the language in }
which they were tricked out and the length to which they ;
were spun depended probably upon the genius or bent of each
particular bard. Of course in process of time divergences
began to arise, and hence different versions of the same story.
That, at least, is how I account for such passages as " but others
say that it was not there he was killed, but in," etc., " but some
of the books say that it was not on this wise it happened, but,"
and so on.

It is probable that very many novels were in existence before
the coming of St. Patrick, but highly unlikely that they were
at that time written down at full length. It was probably only
after the country had become Christianised and full of schools
and learning that the bards experienced the desire of writing
down their sagas, with as much as they could recapture of the
ancient poetry upon which they were built. In the Book of.

278 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Leinster, a manuscript of the twelfth century, we find an
extraordinary- list of no less than 187 of those romances with
THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY of which an ollamh had to be
acquainted. The ollamh was the highest dignitary amongst
the bards, and it took him from nine to twelve years' training
to learn the two hundred and fifty prime stories and the one
hundred secondary ones along with the other things which
were required of him. The prime stories — combinations of
epic and novel, prose and poetry — are divided in the manu-
scripts into the following romantic catalogue : — Destruc-
tions of fortified places, Cow spoils (z.^., cattle-raiding
expeditions), Courtships or wooings, Battles, Cave-stories,
Navigations, Tragical deaths, Feasts, Sieges, Adventures,
Elopements, Slaughters, Water-eruptions, Expeditions, Pro-
gresses, and Visions. " He is no poet," says the Book of
Leinster, "who does not synchronise and harmonise all the
stories." We possess, as I have said, the names of 187 such
stories in the Book of Leinster, and the names of many more
are given in the tenth- or eleventh-century tale of Mac
Coise ; and all the known ones, with the exception of one tale
added later on, and one which, evidently through an error in
transcription, refers to Arthur instead of Aithirne, are about
events prior to the year 650 or thereabouts. We may take it,
then, that this list was drawn up in the seventh century.

Now, who were the authors of these couple of hundred
romances ? It is a natural question, but one which cannot be
answered. There is not a trace of their authorship remaining,
if authorship be the right word for what I suspect to have been
the gradual growth of race, tribal, and family history, and of
Celtic mythology, told and retold, and polished up, and added
to ; some of them, especially such as are the descendants of a
pagan mythology, must have been handed down for perhaps
countless generations, others recounted historical, tribal, or
family doings, magnified during the course of time, others again
of more recent date, are perhaps fairly accurate accounts of actual

EARLY SAGA AND ROMANCE 279

events, but all PRIOR TO ABOUT THE YEAR 650. I take it that
so soon as bardic schools and colleges began to be formed, there
was no class of learning more popular than that which taught
the great traditionary stories of the various tribes and families
of the great Gaelic race, and the intercommunication between
the bardic colleges propagated local tradition throughout all
Ireland.

The very essence of the national life of Erin was embodied
in these stories, but, unfortunately, few out of the enormous
mass have survived to our day, and these mostly mutilated or
in mere digests. Some, however, exist at nearly full length,
quite sufficient to show us what the romances were like, and
to cause us to regret the irreparable loss inflicted upon our race
by the ravages of Danes, Normans, and English. Even as it
is O'Curry asserts that the contents of the strictly historical
tales known to him would be sufficient to fill up four thousand
of the large pages of the " Four Masters." He computed that
the tales about Finn, Ossian, and the Fenians alone would fill
another three thousand pages. In addition to these we have a
considerable number of imaginative stories, neither historical nor
Fenian, such as the tc Three Sorrows of Story-telling " and
the like, sufficient to fill five thousand pages more, not to speak
of the more recent novel-like productions of the later Irish.1

It is this very great fecundity of the very early Irish in the
production of saga and romance, in poetry and prose, which
best enables us to judge of their early-developed genius, and
considerable primitive culture. The introduction of Chris-
tianity neither inspired these romances nor helped to produce
them ; they are nearly all anterior to it, and had they been
preserved to us we should now have the most remarkable body
of primitive myth and saga in the whole western world. It is
probably this consideration which makes M. Darmesteter say

1 O'Curry was no doubt accurate, as he ever is, in this computation, but
there would probably be some repetition in the stories, with lists of names
and openings common to more than one, and many late poor ones.

280 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of Irish literature : " real historical documents we have none
until the beginning of the decadence — a decadence so glorious,
that we almost mistake it for a renaissance since the old epic
sap dries up only to make place for a new budding and
bourgeoning, a growth less original certainly, but scarcely less
wonderful if we consider the condition of continental Europe
at that date." The decadence that M. Darmesteter alludes to
is the rise of the Christian schools of the fifth and sixth
centuries, which put to some extent an end to the epic period
by turning men's thoughts into a different channel.

It is this " decadence," however, which I have preferred to
examine first, just because it does rest upon real historical
documents, and can be proved. We may now, however,
proceed to the mass of saga, the bulk of which in its earliest
forms is pagan, and the spirit of which, even in the latest
texts, has been seldom quite distorted by Christian influence.
This saga centres around several periods and individuals : some
of these, like Tuathal and the Boru tribute, Conaire the
Great and his death, have only one or two stories pertaining to
them. But there are three cycles which stand out pre-
eminently, and have been celebrated in more stories and sagas
than the rest, and of which more remains have been preserved
to us than of any of the others. These are the Mythological
Cycle concerning the Tuatha De Danann and the Pre-
Milesians ; the Heroic, Ultonian, or Red-Branch Cycle,1 in
which Cuchulain is the dominating figure; and the Cycle of
Finn mac Cumhail, Ossian, Oscar, and the High-kings of
Ireland who were their contemporaries — this cycle may be
denominated the Fenian or Ossianic.

1 M. d'Arbois de Jubainville calls this the Ulster, and calls the Ossianic

the Leinster Cycle.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE'

THE cycle of the mythological stories which group themselves
round the early invasions of Erin is sparsely represented in
Irish manuscripts. Not only is their number less, but their \
substance is more confused than that of the other cycles. To f
the comparative mythologist and the folk-lorist, however, they
are perhaps the most interesting of all, as throwing more light
than any of the others upon the early religious ideas of the
race. Most ' of the sagas connected with this pre-Milesian
cycle are now to be found only in brief digests preserved
in the Leabhar Gabhala,1 or Book of Invasions of Ireland, of — -
which large fragments exist in the Books of Leinster and
Bally mote, and which Michael O'Clery (collecting from all —
the ancient sources which he could find in his day) rewrote
about the year 1630.

This tells us all the early history of Ireland and of the races
that inhabited it before our forefathers landed. It tells us of
how first a man called Partholan made a settlement in Ireland,
but how in time he and his people all died of the plague,
leaving the land deserted ; and how after that the Nemedians,
or children of Nemed, colonised the island and multiplied in it,

1 " L'yowar (rhyming to hour) gow-awla," the " book of the takings or
holdings of Ireland."

282 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

until they began to be oppressed by the Fomorians, who are
usually described as African sea-robbers, but the etymology of
whose name seems to point to a mythological origin " men
from under sea." x A number of battles took place between the
rival hosts, and the Fomorians were defeated in three battles,
but after the death of Nemed, who, like Partholan, died of a
plague, the Fomorians oppressed his people again, and, led by
a chief called Conaing, built a great tower upon Tory, /.<?.,
Tower Island, off the north-west coast of Donegal. On the
eve of every Samhain [Sou-an, or All Hallow's] the wretched
Nemedians had to deliver up to these masters two-thirds of
their children, corn, and cattle. Driven to desperation by these
exactions they rose in arms, stormed the tower, and slew
Conaing, all which the Book of Invasions describes at length.
The Fomorians being reinforced, the Nemedians fought
them a second time in the same place, but in this battle most
of them were killed or drowned, the tide having come in and
washed over them and their foes alike. The crew of one ship,
however, escaped, and these, after a further sojourn of seven
years in Ireland, led out of it the surviving remnants of their
race with the exception of a very few who remained behind
subject to the Fomorians. Those who left Ireland divided
into three bands : one sought refuge in Greece, where they
again fell into slavery ; the second went — some say — to the
north of Europe ; and the third, headed by a chief called
Briton Mael — hence, say the Irish, the name of Great Britain
— found refuge in Scotland, where their descendants remained
until the Cruithni, or Picts, overcame them.

After a couple of hundred years the Nemedians who had
fled to Greece came back again, calling themselves Fir-
bolg,2 /.*., " sack " or " bag " men, and held Ireland for

1 Keating derives it from foghla, " spoil," and muir, " sea," which is an
impossible derivation, or from/o muirib, as if " along the seas," but it really
means "under seas."

2 Also Fir Domnan and Fir Galeoin, two tribes of the same race.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 283

about thirty-five years in peace, when another tribe of invaders
appeared upon the scene. These were no less than the cele-
brated Tuatha De Danann, who turned out to be, in fact,
the descendants of the second band of Nemedians who had
fled to the north of Europe, and who returned about thirty-six
years later than their kinsmen, the Firbolg.

The Tuatha De Danann soon overcame the Firbolg, and '
drove them, after the Battle of North Moytura,1 into the
islands along the coast, to Aran, Islay, Rachlin, and the
Hebrides,2 after which they assumed the sovereignty of the
island to themselves.

This sovereignty they maintained for about two hundred

1 When the oldest list of current Irish sagas was drawn up, probably in
the seventh century, only one battle of Moytura was mentioned ; this was
evidently what is now known as the second battle. In the more recent list
contained in the introduction to the Senchus Mor there is mention made of
both battles. There is only a single copy of each of these sagas known to
exist. Of most of the other sagas of this cycle even the last copy has
perished.

2 Long afterwards, at the time that Ireland was divided into five pro-
vinces, the Cruithnigh, or Picts, drove the Firbolg out of the islands again,
and they were forced to come back to Cairbre Niafer, king of Leinster,
who allotted them a territory, but placed such a rack-rent upon them that
they were glad to fly into Connacht, where Oilioll and Meve — the king
and queen who made the Tain Bo Chuailgne — gave them a free grant of
land, and there Duald Mac Firbis, over two hundred and fifty years ago,
found their descendants in plenty. According to some accounts, they were
never driven wholly out of Connacht, and if they are a real race — as,
despite their connection with the obviously mythical Tuatha De Danann,
they appear to be — they probably still form the basis of population there.
Maine Mor, the ancestor of the O'Kellys, is said to have wrested from them
the territory of Ui Maine (part of Roscommon and Galway) in the sixth
century. Their name and that of their fellow tribe, the Fir Domnan,
appear to be the same as the Belgae, and the Damnonii of Gaul and
Britain, who are said to have given its name to Devonshire. Despite their
close connection in the Book of Invasions and early history of Ireland, the
Firbolg stand on a completely different footing from the De Danann
tribes. Their history is recorded consecutively from that day to this ;
many families trace their pedigree to them, and they never wholly dis-
appeared. No family traces its connection to the De Danann people ;
they wholly disappear, and are in later times regarded as gods, or demons,
or fairies.

284 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

years, until the ancestors of the present Irish, the Scots, or Gaels,
or Milesians, as they are variously called, landed and beat the
Tuatha De Danann, and reigned in their stead until they, too,
in their turn were conquered by the English. The Book of
Conquests is largely concerned with their landing and first
: settlements and their battles with the De Danann people
[ whom they ended in completely overcoming, after which the
\ Tuatha De assume a very obscure position. They appear to
have for the most part retired off the surface of the country
into the green hills and mounds, and lived in these, often
appearing amongst the Milesian population, and sometimes
giving their daughters in marriage to them. From this out
they are confounded with the Sidhe [Shee], or spirits, now called
fairies, and to this very day I have heard old men, when
speaking of the fairies who inhabit ancient raths and interfere
occasionally in mortal concerns either for good or evil, call
them by the name of the Tuatha De Danann.

The first battle of Moytura was fought between the Tuatha
De Danann and the Firbolg, who were utterly routed, but
Nuada, the king of the Tuatha De, lost his hand in the
battle. As he was thus suffering from a personal blemish, he
could be no longer king, and the people accordingly decided
to bestow the sovereignty on Breas [Bras], * whose mother was
a De Danann, but whose father was a king of the Fomorians,
a people who had apparently never lost sight of or wholly left
Ireland since the time of their battles with the Nemedians
over two hundred years before. The mother of Breas, Eiriu,2
was a person of authority, and her son was elected to the
sovereignty on the understanding that if his reign was found
unsatisfactory he should resign. He gave seven pledges of his
intention of doing so. At this time the Fomorians again

1 Bress in the older form.

3 When the Milesians landed they found a Tuatha De Danann queen,
called Eiriu, the old form of Eire or Erin, from whom the island was
believed to take its name. John Scotus is called in old authorities Eriu-
gena, not Erigena.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 285

smote Ireland heavily with their imposts and taxes, as they had
done before when the Nemedians inhabited it. The unfortu-
nate De Dannan people were reduced to a state of misery.
Ogma * was obliged to carry wood, and the Dagda himself to
build raths for their masters, and they were so far reduced as
to be weak with hunger.

In the meantime the kingship of Breas was not successful.
He was hard and niggardly. As the saga of the second battle
of Moytura puts it —

" The chiefs of the Tuatha De Danann were dissatisfied, for Breas
did not grease their knives ; in vain came they to visit Breas ; their
breaths did not smell of ale. Neither their poets, nor bards, nor
druids, nor harpers, nor flute-players, nor musicians, nor jugglers,
nor fools appeared before them, nor came into the palace to amuse
them."

Matters reached a crisis when the poet Coirpne came to
demand hospitality and was shown " into a little house, small,
narrow, black, dark, where was neither fire nor furniture nor
bed. He was given three little dry loaves on a little plate.
When he rose in the morning he was not thankful." He
gave vent then to the first satire ever uttered in Ireland, which
is still preserved in eight lines which would be absolutely
unintelligible except for the ancient glosses.

After this the people of the De Danann race demanded the
abdication of Breas, which he had promised in case his reign did
not please them. He acknowledged his obligation to them, but
requested a delay of seven years, which they allowed him, on
condition that he gave them guarantees to touch nothing
belonging to them during that time, " neither our houses nor
our lands, nor our gold, nor our silver, nor our cattle, nor
anything eatable, we shall pay thee neither rent nor fine to the
end of seven years." This was agreed to.

But the intention of Breas in demanding a delay of seven
years was a treacherous one ; he meant to approach his father's

1 For him sec above, pp. 113-15.

286 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

kindred the Fomorians, and move them to reinstate him at the
point of the sword. He goes to his mother who tells him
who his father is, for up to that time he had remained in
ignorance of it ; and she gives him a ring whereby his father
Elatha, a king of the Fomorians, may recognise him. He
departs to the Fomorians, discovers his father and appeals to
him for succour. By his father he is sent to Balor, a king of
the Fomorians of the Isles of Norway — a locality probably
ascribed to the Fomorians after the invasions of the North-
men— and there gathered together an immense army to subdue
the Tuatha De Danann and give the island to their relation
Breas.

In the meantime Nuada, whose hand had been replaced by
a silver one, reascends the throne and is joined by Lugh of the
Long-hand, the " Ildana " or "man of various arts." This Lugh
was a brother of the Dagda and of Ogma, and is perhaps the
best-known figure among the De Danann personalities. Lugh
and the Dagda and Ogma and Goibniu the smith and Dian-
cecht the leech met secretly every day at a place in Meath for
a whole year, and deliberated how best to shake off the yoke
of the Fomorians. Then they held a general meeting of the
Tuatha De and spoke with each one in secret.

"'How wilt thou show thy power?' said Lugh, to the sorcerer
Mathgen.

" ' By my art,' answered Mathgen, ' I shall throw down the moun-
tains of Ireland upon the Fomorians, and they shall fall with their
heads to the earth ; ' then told he to Lugh the names of the twelve
principal mountains of Ireland which were ready to do the bidding
of the goddess Dana ' and to smite their enemies on every side.

1 Jubainville translates Tuatha De Danann by " tribes of the goddess
Dana." Danann is the genitive of Dana, and Dana is called the '• mother
of the gods," but she is not a mother of the bulk of the De Danann
race, so that Jubainville's translation is a rather venturesome one, and
the Old Irish themselves did not take the word in this meaning ; they
explained it as "the men of science who were as it were gods." "Tuatha
de Danann, i.e., Dee in taes dana acus ande an taes trebtha," i.e., " the men
of science were (as it were) gods and the laymen no-gods."

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 287

" Lugh asked the cup-bearer : ' In what way wilt thou show thy
power ? '

" ' I shall place/ answered the cup-bearer, ' the twelve principal
lakes of Ireland under the eyes of the Fomorians, but they shall find
no water in them, however great the thirst which they may feel ; '
and he enumerated the lakes, ' from the Fomorians the water shall
hide itself, they shall not be able to take a drop of it ; but the same
lakes will furnish the Tuatha De Danann with water to drink during
the whole war, though it should last seven years.'

" The Druid Figal, the son of Mamos, said, ' I shall make three
rains of fire fall on the faces of the Fomorian warriors ; I shall take
from them two-thirds of their valour and courage, but so often as
the warriors of the De Danann shall breathe out the air from their
breasts, so often shall they feel their courage and valour and strength
increase. Even though the war should last seven years it shall not
fatigue them.'

" The Dagda answered, ' All the feats which you three, sorcerer,
cup-bearer, druid, say you can do, I myself alone shall do them.'

" ' It is you then are the Dagda/1 said those present, whence came
the name of the Dagda which he afterwards bore."

Lugh then went in search of the three gods of Dana —
Brian, luchar, and lucharba (whom he afterwards put to
death for slaying his father, as is recorded at length in the
saga of the u Fate of the Children of Tuireann " 2) and
with these and his other allies he spent the next seven years
in making preparations for the great struggle with the
Fomorians.

This saga and the whole story of the Tuatha De Danann
contending with the Fomorians, who are in one place in the
saga actually called sidhe, or spirits, is all obviously mytho-
logical, and has usually been explained, by D'Arbois de Jubain-
ville and others, as the struggle between the gods or good
spirits and the evil deities.

1 Whitley Stokes translates this by "good hand." It is explained
as — Dago-devo-s, " the good god." The "Dagda, i.e., daigh de, i.e., dea
sainemail ag na geinntib e," i.e., " Dagda ie ignis Dei," for " with the
heathen he was a special god," MS. 16, Advocates' Library, Edinburgh.

2 Paraphrased by me in English verse in the " Three Sorrows of
Story-telling."

288 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The following episode also shows the wild mythological
character of the whole.

" Dagda," says the saga, " had a habitation at Glenn-Etin in the north.
He had arranged to meet a woman at Glenn-Etin on the day of
Samhan [November day] just a year, day for day, before the battle
of Moytura. The Unius, a river of Connacht, flows close beside
Glenn-Etin, to the south. Dagda saw the woman bathe herself in the
Unius at [Kesri] Coran. One of the woman's feet in the water
touched Allod Eche, that is to say Echumech to the south, the
other foot also in the water touched Lescuin in the north. Nine
tresses floated loose around her head. Dagda approached and
accosted her. From thenceforth the place has been named the
Couple's Bed. The woman was the goddess Mor-rigu" —

the goddess of war, of whom we shall hear more in connection
with Cuchulain.

As for the Dagda himself, his character appears somewhat
contradictory. Just as the most opposite accounts of Zeus are
met with in Greek mythology, some glorifying him as thron-
ing in Olympus supreme over gods and men, others as playing
low and indecent tricks disguised as a cuckoo or a bull ; so we
find the Dagda — his real name was Eochaidh the Ollamh
— at one time a king of the De Danann race and organiser
of victory, but at another in a less dignified but more clearly
mythological position.^ He is sent by Lugh to the Fomorian
camp to put them off with talk and cause them to lose time
until the De Danann armaments should be more fully ready.
The following account exhibits him, like Zeus at times, in a
very unprepossessing character : —

" When the Dagda had come to the camp of the Fomorians he
demanded a truce, and he obtained it. The Fomorians prepared
a porridge for him ; it was to ridicule him they did this, for he
greatly loved porridge. They filled for him the king's cauldron
which was five handbreadths in depth. They threw into it eighty
pots of milk and a proportionate quantity of meal and fat, with goats
and sheep and swine which they got cooked along with the rest.
Then they poured the broth into a hole dug in the ground. ' Unless
you eat all that's there,' said Indech to him, 'you shall be put to

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 289

death ; we do not want you to be reproaching us, and we must
satisfy you.' The Dagda took the spoon ; it was so great that in the
hollow of it a man and a woman might be contained. The pieces
that went into that spoon were halves of salted pigs and quarters of
bacon. The Dagda said, ' Here is good eating, if the broth be as
good as its odour,' and as he carried the spoonful to his mouth, he
said, ' The proverb is true that good cooking is not spoiled by a
bad pot.' *

" When he had finished he scraped the ground with his finger to
the very bottom of the hole to take what remained of it, and after
that he went to sleep to digest his soup. His stomach was greater
than the greatest cauldrons in large houses, and the Fomorians
mocked at him.

" He went away and came to the bank of the Eba. He did not
walk with ease, so large was his stomach. He was dressed in very
bad guise. He had a cape which scarcely reached below his
shoulders. Beneath that cloak was seen a brown mantle which
descended no lower than his hips. It was cut away above and very
large in the breast. His two shoes were of horses' skin with the
hair outside. He held a wheeled fork, which would have been
heavy enough for eight men, and he let it trail behind him. It dug
a furrow deep enough and large enough to become the frontier
mearn between two provinces. Therefore is it called the ' track of
the Dagda's club.'"

When the fighting began, after the skirmishing of the first
days, the De Danann warriors owed their victory to their
superior preparations. The great leech Diancecht cured the
wounded, and the smith Goibniu and his assistants kept the
warriors supplied with constant relays of fresh lances. The
Fomorians could not understand it, and sent one of their
warriors, apparently in disguise, to find out. He was Ruadan,
a son of Breas by a daughter of Dagda.

"On his return he told the Fomorians what the smith, the carpenter,
the worker in bronze, and the four leeches who were round the
spring, did. They sent him back again with orders to kill the smith
Goibniu. He asked a spear of Goibniu, rivets of Credne the bronze-
worker, a shaft of Luchtaine the carpenter, and they gave him
what he asked. There was a woman there busy in sharpening the

1 Thus perilously translated by Jubainville ; Stokes does not attempt it.

T

290 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

weapons. She was Cron, mother of Fianlug. She sharpened the
spear for Ruadan. It was a chief who handed Ruadan the spear,
and thence the name of chief-spear given to this day to the
weaver's beam in Erin.

"When he had got the spear Ruadan turned on Goibniu and smote
him with the weapon. But Goibniu drew the javelin from the
wound and hurled it at Ruadan ; who was pierced from side to side,
and escaped to die among the Fomorians in presence of his father.
Brig [his mother, the Dagda's daughter] came and bewailed her
son. First she uttered a piercing cry, and thereafter she made
moan. It was then that for the first time in Ireland were heard
moans and cries of sorrow. It was that same Brig who invented
the whistle used at night to give alarm signals" —

the mythological genesis of the saga is thus obviously marked
by the first satire, first cry of sorrow, and first whistle being
ascribed to the actors in it.

In the end the whole Fomorian army moved to battle in
their solid battalions, " and it was to strike one's hand against
a rock, or thrust one's hand into a nest of serpents, or put
one's head into the fire, to attack the Fomorians that day."
The battle is described at length. Nuada the king of the De
Danann is killed oy Balor. Lugh, whose counsel was con-
sidered so valuable by the De Danann people that they put an
escort of nine round him to prevent him from taking part in
the fighting, breaks away, and attacks Balor the Fomorian
king.

" Balor had an evil eye, that eye only opened itself upon the
plain of battle. Four men had to lift up the eyelid by placing
under it an instrument. The warriors, whom Balor scanned
with that eye once opened,1 could not — no matter how numerous
— resist their enemies."

When Lugh had met and exchanged some mystical and

1 A legend well known to the old men of Gal way and Roscommon, who
have often related it to me, tells us that when Conan (Finn mac Cumhail's
Thersites) looked through his fingers at the enemy, they were always
defeated. He himself did not know this, nor any one except Finn, who
tried to make use of it without letting Conan know his own power.

THE MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE 291

unintelligible language with him, Balor said, " Raise my
eyelid that I may see the braggart who speaks with me."

" His people raise Balor's eyelid. Lugh from his sling lets
fly a stone at Balor which passes through his head, carrying
with it the venomous eye. Balor's army looked on." The
Mor-rigu, the goddess of war, arrives, and assists the Tuatha De
Danann and encourages them. Ogma slays one of the
Fomorian kings and is slain himself. The battle is broken
at last on the Fomorians ; they fly, and Breas is taken
prisoner, but his life is spared.

" It was," says the saga, " at the battle of Moytura that Ogma,
the strong man, found the sword of Tethra, the King of the
Fomorians. Ogma drew that sword from the sheath and cleaned
it. It was then that it related to him all the high deeds that it had
accomplished, for at this time the custom was when swords were
drawn from the sheath they used to recite the exploits T they had
themselves been the cause of. And thence comes the right which
swords have, to be cleaned when they are drawn from the sheath ;
thence also the magic power which swords have preserved ever
since " —

to which curious piece of pagan superstition an evidently
later Christian redactor adds, " weapons were the organs of
the demon to speak to men. At that time men used to
worship weapons, and they were a magic safeguard."

The saga ends in the episode of the recovery of the Dagda's
harp, and in the cry of triumph uttered by the Mor-ngu and
by Bodb, her fellow-goddess of war, as they visited the various
heights of Ireland, the banks of streams, and the mouths of
floods and great rivers, to proclaim aloud their triumph and
the defeat of the Fomorians.

M. d'Arbois de Jubainville sees in the successive colonisations
of Partholan, the Nemedians, and the Tuatha De Danann, an
Irish version of the Greek legend of the three successive ages

1 There is a somewhat similar passage ascribing sensation to swords in
the Saga of Cuchulain's sickness.

292 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of gold, silver, and brass. The Greek legend of the Chimaera,
otherwise Bellerus, the monster slain by Bellerophon, he
equates with the Irish Balor of the evil eye ; the fire from the
throat of Bellerus, and the evil beam shot from Balor's eye may
originally have typified the lightning.1

1 The First Battle of Moytura, the Second Battle of Moytura, and the
Death of the Children of Tuireann are three sagas belonging to this cycle.
Others, now preserved in the digest of the Book of Invasions, are, the Pro-
gress of Partholan to Erin, the Progress of Nemed to Erin, the Progress of
the Firbolg, the Progress of the Tuatha De Danann, the Journey of Mile-
son of Bile to Spain, the Journey of the Sons of Mile from Spain to Erin,
the Progress of the Cruithnigh (Picts) from Thrace to Erin and thence
into Alba.

CHAPTER XXIV

THE HEROIC OR RED BRANCH CYCLE CUCHULAIN ^

THE mythological tales that we have been glancing at deal
with the folk who are fabled as having first colonised Erin ;
they treat of peoples, races, dynasties, the struggle between
good and evil principles. The whole of their creations are
thrown back, even by the Irish annalists themselves, into the
dim cloud-land of an unplumbed past, ages before the dawn
of the first Olympiad, or the birth of the wolf-suckled twins
who founded Rome. There is over it all a shadowy sense of
vagueness, vastness, uncertainty.

The Heroic Cycle, on the other hand, deals with the history
of the Milesians themselves, the present Irish race, within a _
well-defined space of time, upon their own ground, and though
it does not exactly fall within the historical period, yet it does
not come so far short of it that it can be with any certainty
rejected as pure work of imagination or poetic fiction. It is
certainly the finest of the three greater saga-cycles, and the —
epics that belong to it are sharply drawn, numerous, clear cut,
and ancient, and for the first time we seem, at least, to find
ourselves upon historical ground, although a good deal of this
seeming may turn out to be illusory. Yet the figures of
Cuchulain, Conor mac Nessa, Naoise, and Deirdre, Meve,

293

294 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Oilioll, and Conall Cearnach, have about them a great deal of
the circumstantiality that is entirely lacking to the dim, mist-
magnified, and distorted figures of the Dagda, Nuada, Lugh
the Long-handed, and their fellows.

The gods come and go as in the Iliad, and according to
some accounts leave their posterity behind them. Cuchulain
himself, the incarnation of Irish apicrriiuy is according to
certain authorities the son of the god Lugh the Long-handed.1
He himself, like another Anchises, is beloved of a goddess and
descends into the Gaelic Elysium,2 and the most important
epic of the cycle is largely conditioned by an occurrence
caused by the curse of a goddess, an occurrence wholly im-
possible and supernatural.3 Yet these are for the most part
excrescences no more affecting the conduct of the history
than the actions of the gods affect the war round Troy.
Events, upon the whole, are motivated upon fairly reasonable
human grounds, and there is a certain air of probability
about them. The characters who now make their appearance
upon the scene are not long prior to, or are contemporaneous

1 See " Compert Conculaind," by Windisch in " Irische Texte," t. i. p.
134, and Jubainville's " Epopee Celtique en Irlande," p. 22.

2 See the story of Cuchulain's sick-bed, translated by O'Curry in the first
volume of the " Atlantis," and by Mr. O'Looney in Sir J. Gilbert's " Fac-
similes of the National MSS. of Ireland," and by Windisch in " Irische
Texte," vol. i., pp. 195-234, and by M. de Jubainville in his " Epopee
Celtique," p. 174, and lastly, Mr. Nutt's " Voyage of Bran," vol. ii., p. 38.

3 This is the periodic curse which overtook the Ulstermen at certain
periods, rendering them feeble as a woman in child-bed, in consequence
of the malediction of the goddess Macha, who was, just before the birth of
her children, inhumanly obliged by the Ultonians to run against the king's
horses. The only people of the northern province free from this curse
were the children born before the curse was uttered, the women, arid the
hero Cuchulain. It transmitted itself from father to son for nine genera-
tions, and is said to have lasted five nights and four days, or four nights
and five days. But one would think from the Tain Bo Chuailgne that it
must have lasted much longer. For this curse see Jubainville's " Epopee
Celtique," p. 320. I was, not long ago, told a story by a peasant in the
county Galway not unlike it, only it was related of the mother of the
celebrated boxer Donnelly.

THE RED BRANCH CYCLE— CUCHULAIN 295

with, the birth of Christ ; and the wars of the Tuatha De
Danann, Nemedians, and Fomorians, are left some seventeen
hundred years behind.

This cycle, which I have called the " Heroic " or " Red
Branch," might also be named the " Ultonian," because it
deals chiefly with the heroes of the northern province. One
saga relates the birth of Conor mac Nessa. His mother was
Ness and his father was Fachtna Fathach, king of Ulster, but
according to what is probably the oldest account, his father
was Cathba the Druid. This saga relates how, through the
stratagem of his mother Ness, Conor slipped into the kingship
of Ulster, displacing Fergus mac Roigh [Roy], the former king,
who is here represented as a good-natured giant, but who appears
human enough in the other sagas.1 Conor's palace is described
with its three buildings ; that of the Red Branch, where were
kept the heads and arms of vanquished enemies ; that of the
Royal Branch, where the kings lodged ; and that of the
Speckled House, where were laid up the shields and spears
and swords of the warriors of Ulster. It was called the
Speckled or Variegated House from the gold and silver of the
shields, and gleaming of the spears, and shining of the goblets,
and all arms were kept in it, in order that at the banquet
when quarrels arose the warriors might not have wherewith
to slay each other.

Conor's palace at Emania contained, according to the Book
of Leinster, one hundred and fifty rooms, each large enough
for three couples to sleep in, constructed of red oak, and
bordered with copper. Conor's own chamber was decorated
with bronze and silver, and ornamented with golden birds, in
whose eyes were precious stones, and was large enough for thirty

1 Except in one place in the Tain Bo Chuailgne, where his sword is
spoken of, which was like a thread in his hand, but which when he smote
with it extended itself to the size of a rainbow, with three blows of which
upon the ground he raised three hills. The description of Fergus in the
Conor story preserved in the Book of Leinster, is simply and frankly
that of a giant many times the size of an ordinary man.

296 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

warriors to drink together in it. Above the king's head hung
his silver wand with three golden apples, and when he shook
it silence reigned throughout the palace, so that even the fall
of a pin might be heard. A large vat, always full of good
drink, stood ever on the palace floor.

Another story tells of Cuchulain's mysterious parentage.
His mother was a sister of King Conor ; consequently he was
the king's nephew.

Another again relates the wooing of Cuchulain, and how
; he won Emer for his wife.

Another is called Cuchulain's "Up-bringing," or teaching, part
of which, however, is found in the piece called the " Wooing
of Emer." This saga relates how he, with two other of the
Ultonians, went abroad to Alba to perfect their warlike
accomplishments, and how they placed themselves under the
tuition of different female-warriors,1 who taught them various
and extraordinary feats of arms. He traverses the plain ot
Misfortune by the aid of a wheel and of an apple given him
by an unknown friend, and reaches the great female instructress
Scathach, whose daughter falls in love with him.

An admirable example occurs to me here, of showing in the
concrete that which I have elsewhere laid stress upon, namely,
the great elaboration which in many instances we find in the
modern versions of sagas, compared with the antique vellum
texts. It does not at all follow that because a story is written
down with brevity in ancient Irish, it was also told with
brevity. The oldest form of the saga of Cuchulain's " Wooing
of Emer" contains traces of a pre-Danish or seventh-century
text, but the condensed and shortened relation of the saga
found in the oldest manuscript of it, is almost certainly not
the form in which the bards and ollavs related it. On the
contrary, I believe that the stories now epitomised in ancient
vellum texts were even then told, though not written down,

1 The female warrior and war-teacher was not uncommon among the
Celts, as the examples of Boadicea and of Meve of Connacht show.

THE RED BRANCH CYCLE— CUCHULAIN 297

at full length, and with many flourishes by the bards and
professed story-tellers, and that the skeletons merely, or as
Keating calls it, the " bones of the history," * were in most
instances all that was committed to the rare and expensive
parchments. It is more than likely that the longer modern
paper redactions, though some of the ancient pagan traits,
especially those most incomprehensible to the moderns, may
be missing, yet represent more nearly the manner of the
original bardic telling, than the abridgments of twelfth or
thirteenth-century vellums.

In this case the ancient recension,2 founded on a pre-Danish
text, merely mentions that Scathach's house, at which Cuchulain
arrives, after leaving the plain of Misfortune,

"was built upon a rock of appalling height. Cuchulain followed
the road pointed out to him. He reached the castle of Scathach.
He knocked at the door with the handle of his spear and entered.
Uathach, the daughter of Scathach, meets him. She looked at him,
but she spoke not, so much did the hero's beauty make her love
him. She went to her mother and told her of the beauty of the man
who had newly come. ' That man has pleased you,' said her mother.
' He shall come to my couch/ answered the girl, ' and I shall sleep
at his side this night.' ' Thy intention displeases me not,' said her
mother."

One can see at a glance how bald and brief is all this, because
it is a precis, and vellum was scarce. I venture to say that no
bard ever told it in this way. The scribes who first committed
this to parchment, say in the seventh or eighth century, probably
wrote down only the leading incidents as they remembered
them. They may not have been themselves either bards,
ollavs, or story-tellers. It is chiefly in the later centuries,
after the introduction of paper, when the economising of
space ceased to be a matter of importance, that we find our
sagas told with all the redundancy of description, epithet, and
incident with which I suspect the very earliest bards em-
bellished all those sagas of which we have now only little more
1 " Cnamha an tseanchusa." 3 Rawlinson, B. 512.

298 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

\

than the skeletons. Compare, for instance, the ancient version
which I have just given, with the longer modern versions which
have come down to us in several paper manuscripts, of which I
here use one in my own possession, copied about the beginning
of the century by a scribe named O'Mahon, upon one of the
islands on the Shannon.

In the first place this version tells us that on his arrival at
Scathach's mansion he finds a number of her scholars and other
warriors engaged in hurling outside the door of her fortress.
He joins in the game and defeats them — this is a true folk-lore
introduction. He finds there Naoise, Ardan, and Ainnle, the
three sons of Usnach, celebrated in perhaps the most touching
saga of this whole cycle, and another son of Erin with them.
This is a literary touch, by one who knew his literature.1
Learning that he is come from Erin, they ask news of their native
country, and salute him with kisses. They then bring him to
the Bridge of the Cliffs, and show him what their work is
during the first year, which was learning to pass this bridge.

" Wonderful," says the saga, " was the sight that bridge afforded
when any one would leap upon it, for it narrowed until it became as
narrow as the hair of one's head, and the second time it shortened
until it became as short as an inch, and the third time it grew
slippery until it was as slippery as an eel of the river, and the
fourth time it rose up on high against you until it was as tall as the
mast of a ship."

All the warriors and people on the lawn came down to see
Cuchulain attempting to cross this bridge. In the meantime
Scathach's grianan or sunny house is described : " It had seven
great doors, and seven great windows between every two doors
of them, and thrice fifty couches between every two windows
of them, and thrice fifty handsome marriageable girls, in scarlet
cloaks, and in beautiful and blue attire, attending and waiting
upon Scathach."

1 For Deirdre in her lament over the three does call them " three
pupils of Scathach."

THE RED BRANCH CYCLE— CUCHULAIN 299

Then Scathach's lovely daughter, looking from the windows
of the grianan, perceives the stranger attempting the feat of
the bridge, and she falls in love with him upon the spot. Her
emotions are thus described : " Her face and colour constantly
changed, so that now she would be as white as a little white
flowret, and again she would become scarlet," and in the work
she was embroidering she put the gold thread where the silver
thread should be, and the silver thread into the place where
the gold thread should go ; and when her mother notices it,
she excuses herself by saying beautifully, "I would greatly
grieve should he not return alive to his own people, in what-
ever part of the world they may be, for I know that there
is some one to whom it would be anguish to know that he
is thus."

This refined reflection of the girl we may with certainty
ascribe to the growth of modern sentiment, and it is extremely
instructive to compare it with the ancient, and no doubt really
pagan version ; but I strongly suspect that the bridge over the
cliffs is no modern embellishment at all, but part of the original
saga, though omitted from the pre-Norse text which only tells us
that Scathach's house was on the top of a rock of appalling
height.

It was during this sojourn of Cuchulain in foreign lands
that he overcame the heroine Aoife,1 and forced her into a
marriage with himself. He returned home afterwards, having
left instructions with her to keep the child she should bear
him, if it were a daughter, " for with every mother goes the
daughter," but if it were a son she was to rear him until he
should be able to perform certain hero-feats, and until his
finger should be large enough to fill a ring which Cuchulain
left with her for him. Then she was to send him into
Erin, and bid him tell no man who he was ; also he desired

1 Pronounced " Eefa." The triphthong aoi has always the sound of ce
in English. The stepmother of the Children of Lir was also called
Aoife.

300 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

her not to teach him the feat of the Gae-Bulg, "but,
however," says the saga, " it was ill that command turned
out, for it was of that it came to pass that Conlaoch [the son]
fell by Cuchulain." *

I know of no prose saga of the touching story of the death
of this son, slain by his own father, except the resume given of
it by Keating,2 but there exists a poem or Epopee upon the
subject which was always a great favourite with the Irish
scribes, and of which numerous but not ancient copies exist.
This is the Irish Sohrab and Rustum, the Celtic Hildebrand
and Hadubrand. The son comes into Ireland, but in con-
sequence of his mother's command, refuses to tell his name.
This is looked upon as indicating hostility, and many of the
Ultonians fight with him, but he overcomes them all, even the
great Conall Cearnach. Conor in despair sends for Cuchulain,
who with difficulty slays him by the feat of the Gae-Bolg,
and then finds out when too late that the dying champion is
his own son. So familiar to the modern Irish scribes was this
piece that in my copy, in the last verse, which ends with
Cuchulain's lament over his son —

" I am the bark (buffeted) from wave to wave,
I am the ship after the losing of its rudder,

1 I quote this from my paper version. The oldest text only says that
" Cuchulain told her that she should bear him a son, and that upon a
certain day in seven years' time that son should go to him ; he told her what
name she should give him, and then he went away."

2 P. 279 of John O'Mahony's edition, translated also by M. de Jubain-
ville in his " Epopee Celtique," who comparing the Irish story with its
Germanic counterpart expresses himself strongly on their relative merits :
" Tout est puissant, logique, primitif, dans la piece irlandaise ; sa concord-
ance avec la piece persanne atteste une haute antiquite. Elle peut remonter
aux epoques celtiques les plus anciennes, et avoir ete du nombre des
carmina chantes par les Gaulois a la bataille de Clusium en 295 av. J. — C.
Le poeme allemand dont on a une copie du huitieme siecle est une
imitation inintelligente et affaiblie du chant celtique qui a du retentir sur
les rives du Danube et du Mein mille ans plus tot, et dont la redaction
germanique est 1'ceuvre de quelque naif Macpherson, predecesseur
honnetement inhabile de celui du dix-huitieme siecle."

THE RED BRANCH CYCLE— CUCHULAIN 301

I am the apple upon the top of the tree
That little thought of its falling." *

instead of the text of the third line stands a rough picture of a
tree with a large apple on the top !

Another saga2 tells of Cuchulain's geasa [gassa] or restric-
tions. It was gels or tabu to him to narrate his genealogy
to one champion, as it was also to his son Conlaoch, to refuse
combat to any one man, to look upon the exposed bosom of
a woman, to come into a company without a second invita-
tion, to accept the hospitality of virgins, to boast to a woman,
to let the sun rise before him in E mania, he must when there
rise before it, etc. There is in this saga a graphic description
of the pagan king's retinue journeying with him to be fed in
the house of a retainer.

" All the Ultonian nobles set out ; a great train of provincials, sons
of kings and chiefs, young lords and men-at-arms, the curled and
rosy youth of the kingdom, and the maidens and fair ringleted
ladies of Ulster. Handsome virgins, accomplished damsels, and
splendid, fully-developed women were there. Satirists and scholars
were there, and the companies of singers and musicians, poets who
composed songs and reproofs, and praising-poems for the men of
Ulster. There came also with them from Emania historians, judges,
horse-riders, buffoons, tumblers, fools, and performers on horseback.
They all went by the same way, behind the king." 3

Dismissing Cuchulain for the present, we pass on now to
another personality of the Red Branch saga — the Lady
D&rdre.

1 " Is me an bare o thuinn go tuinn,
Is me an long iar ndul d'a stiur.
Is me an t-ubhall i mbarr an chroinn
Is beag do shaoil a thuitim."

See Miss Brooke's "Reliquesof Ancient Irish Poetry," 2nd ed. p. 393.
See also Kuno Meyer's note at p. xv of his edition of Cath Finntragha, in
which he bears further evidence to the antiquity and persistence of this
story.

2 See the Book of Leinster, 107-111, a MS. copied about the year 1150.

3 Thus translated by my late lamented friend and accomplished scholar
Father James Keegan of St. Louis.

CHAPTER XXV

DEIRDRE

ONE of the key-stone stories of the Red Branch Cycle is
D&rdre, or the Fate of the Children of Usnach. Cuchulain,
though he appears in this saga, is not a prominent figure in it.
This piece is perhaps the finest, most pathetic, and best-
conceived of any in the whole range of our literature. But
like much of that literature it exists in the most various
recensions, and there are different accounts given of the death
of all the principal characters.

This saga commences with the birth of D£irdre. King
Conor and his Ultonians had gone to drink and feast in the
house of Felim, Conor's chief story-teller, and during their
stay there Felim's wife gives birth to a daughter. Cathba the
Druid prophesies concerning the infant, and foretells that much
woe and great calamities shall yet come upon Ulster because
of her. He names her Deirdre.1 The Ultonians are smitten
with horror at his prophecies, and order her to be instantly put
to death. The most ancient text, that of the twelfth-century
Book of Leinster, tells the beginning of this saga exceedingly
tersely.

1 Pronounced " Dare-dra," said to mean " alarm." Jubainville translates it
1 ' Celle-qui-se-debat."

DblRDRE 303

" ' Let the girl be slain/ cried the warriors. ' Not so,' said King
Conor, ' but bring ye her to me to-morrow ; she shall be brought up
as I shall order, and she shall be the woman whom I shall marry.'
The Ultonians ventured not to contradict the King ; they did as he
commanded.

" Deirdre was brought up in Conor's house. She became the
handsomest maiden in Ireland. She was reared in a house apart : no
man was allowed to see her until she should become Conor's wife.
No one was permitted to enter the house except her tutor, her nurse,
and Lavarcam,1 whom they ventured not to keep out, for she was a
druidess magician whose incantations they feared.

" One winter day Deirdre' s tutor slew a young tender calf upon
the snow outside the house, which he was to cook for his pupil.
She beheld a raven drinking the blood upon the snow. She said to
Lavarcam, ' The only man I could love would be one who should
have those three colours, hair black as the raven, cheeks red as the
blood, body white as the snow.' 'Thou hast an opportunity,'
answered Lavarcam, ' the man whom thou desirest is not far off,
he is close to thee in the palace itself ; he is Naesi, son of Usnach.'
' I shall not be happy,' answered Deirdre, ' until I have seen him.' "

This famous story " which is known," as Dr. Cameron puts
it, "over all the lands of the Gael", both in Ireland and
Scotland,"2 has been more fortunate than any other in the
whole range of Irish literature, for it has engaged the attention
of, and been edited from different texts by, nearly every great
Celtic scholar of this century.3 Yet I luckily discovered last

1 In the older form Leborcham. She is generally described as Conor's
messenger ; in one place she is called his bean-cainte or "talking-woman " ;
this is the only passage I know of in which she is credited with any higher
powers. She is said elsewhere to have been the daughter of two slaves of
Conor's household, Oa or Aue and Adarc.

2 Yet when in Trinity College Dublin, a few years ago, the subject — the
first Irish subject for twenty-seven years — set for the Vice-Chancellor's
Prize in English verse was " Deirdre," it was found that the students did
not know what that word meant, or what Deirdre was, whether animal,
vegetable, or mineral. So true it is that, despite all the efforts of Davis
and his fellows, there are yet two nations in Ireland. Trinity College
might to some extent bridge the gap if she would, but she has carefully
refrained from attempting it.

3 O' Flanagan first printed two versions of it in the solitary volume
which comprises the 4< Transactions of the Gaelic Society," as early as

304 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

year in the museum in Belfast by far the amplest and most
graphic version of them all, bound up with some other pieces
of different dates. It was copied at the end of the last or the
beginning of the present century by a northern scribe, from
a copy which must have been fairly old to judge from the
language and from the glosses in the margin. I give here a
literal translation of the opening of the story from this manu-
script, and it is an admirable example of the later extension anc
embellishment of the ancient texts.
THE OPENING OF THE FATE OF THE SONS OF USNACH,

FROM A MS. IN THE BELFAST MUSEUM.
« Once upon a time Conor, son of Fachtna, and the nobles of the
Red Branch, went to a feast to the house of Feidhlim, the son

1808. The older of these two versions agrees closely with thai -contained
in « E^erton 1782," of the British Museum, but neither of the MSS. which
he ufed is now known to exist. Eugene O' Curry edited the story from
the text in the Yellow Book of Lecan, with a translation in the Atlant s,
a lonf defunct Irish periodical. Windisch edited the oldest existing
version that of the Book of Leinster, in the first volume of « Insche Texte
None of these three versions differ appreciably. In the second volume o
the same Dr. Whitley Stokes edited a consecutive text from 56 and
of the MSS. in the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, the latter of whic
a vellum of the fifteenth century. Finally, the text of both these MSS.
was published in full in vol. ii. of Dr. Cameron's « Reliquiae Celt,
where he also gives a translation of the first. Keating, too in his history
retefls the story at considerable length. Windisch's, O Curry s and
Organ's texts were reprinted in 1883 in the •• Gaelic Journal/' In
addition to all these Mr. Carmichael published in Gaelic in 1887 an
adm able folk-lore version of the story from the Isles of Scotland in the
thirteenth volume of the " Transactions of the Inverness Gaelic Society
and the tale is retold in English, chiefly from this version, by Mr Jacobs
L the first series of his - Celtic Fairy Tales." M. d'Arbois de Jubamville
has given a French translation of the entire story from the Book of
Le nSer the older Edinburgh MS, and the Highland Folktale, the latter
two being translated by M. Georges Dottin. Macpherson made this story
he foundation of his "Darthula." Dr. Dwyer Joyce published the story m
America as an English poem. Sir Samuel Ferguson, Dr. Todhunter, and
fhTpresent writer have all published adaptations of it in English verse,
andMr Rolkstonmade it the subject of the Prize Cantata at the Feis
CeoiHn Dublin in 1897. Hence I may print here this new and full open-
ing of a piece so celebrated. For text see Zat. /. Celt. Phil. II. i, p. 142.

DEIRDRE 305

Doll, the king's principal story-teller ; and the King and people were
merry and light hearted, eating that feast in the house of the prin-
cipal story-teller, with gentle music of the musicians, and with the
melody of the voices of the bards and the ollavs, with the delight of
the speech and ancient tales of the sages, and of those who read the
keenes (?) (written on) flags and books ; (listening) to the prognosti-
cations of the druids and of those who numbered the moon and
stars. And at the time when the assembly were merry and pleasant
in general it chanced that Feidhlim's wife bore a beautiful, well-
shaped daughter, during the feast. Up rises expeditiously the gentle
Cathfaidh, the Head-druid of Erin, who chanced to be present in the
assembly at that time, and a bundle of his ancient . . . ? fairy books
in his left hand with him, and out he goes on the border of the rath
to minutely observe and closely scrutinise the clouds of the air, the
position of the stars and the age of the moon, to gain a prognos-
tication and a knowledge of the fate that was in store for the child
who was born there. Cathfaidh then returns quickly to all in
presence of the King and told them an omen and prophecy, that
many hurts and losses should come to the province of Ulster on
account of the girl that was born there. On the nobles of Ulster
receiving this prophecy they resolved on the plan of destroying the
infant, and the heroes of the Red Branch bade slay her without
delay.

" ' Let it not be so done,' says the King ; ' it is not laudable to fight
against fate, and woe to him who would destroy an innocent infant,
for agreeable is the appearance and the laugh of the child ; alas ! it
were a pity to quench her (life). Observe, O ye Nobles of Ulster,
and listen to me, O ye valiant heroes of the Red Branch, and under-
stand that I still submit to the omen of the prophecies and fore-
tellings of the seers, but yet I do not submit to, nor do I praise, the
committing of a base deed, or a deed of treachery, in the hope of
quenching the anger of the power of the elements. If it be a fate
which it is not possible to avoid, give ye, each of you, death to
himself, but do not shed the blood of the innocent infant, for it were
not (our) due (to have) prosperity thereafter. I proclaim to you,
moreover, O ye nobles of Emania, that I take the girl under my
own protection from henceforth, and if I and she live and last, it
may be that I shall have her as my one- wife and gentle consort.
Therefore, I assure the men of Erin by the securities of the moon
and sun, that any one who would venture to destroy her either now
or again, shall neither live nor last, if I survive her.'

" The nobles of Ulster, and every one in general listened silent and
mute, until Conall Cearnach, Fergus mac Roigh, and the heroes of
the Red Branch rose up together, and 'twas what they said, ' O High-
er

306 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

king of Ulster, right is thy judgment, and it is (our) due to observe
it, and let it be thy will that is done.'

" As for the girl, Conor took her under his own protection, and
placed her in a moat apart, to be brought up by his nurse, whose
name was Lavarcam, in a fortress of the Red Branch, and Conor
and Cathfaidh the druid gave her the name of Deirdre. Afterwards
Deirdre was being generously nurtured under Lavarcam and (other)
ladies, perfecting her in every science that was fitting for the
daughter of a high prince, until she grew up a blossom-bearing
sapling, and until her beauty was beyond every degree surpassing.
Moreover, she was nurtured with excessive luxury of meat and drink
that her stature and ripeness might be the greater for it, and that
she might be the sooner marriageable. This is how Deirdre's abode
was (situated, namely) in a fortress of the Branch, according to the
King's command, every (aperture for) light closed in the front of the
dun, and the windows of the back (ordered) to be open. A beautiful
orchard full of fruit (lay) at the back of the fort, in which Deirdre
might be walking for a while under the eye of her tutor at the
beginning and the end of the day ; under the shade of the fresh
boughs and branches, and by the side of a running, meandering
stream that was winding softly through the middle of the walled
garden. A high, tremendous difficult wall, not easy to surmount,
(was) surrounding that spacious habitation, and four savage man-
hounds (sent) from Conor (were) on constant guard there, and his
life were in peril for the man who would venture to approach it.
For it was not permitted to any male to come next nor near Deirdre,
nor even to look at her, but (only) to her tutor, whose name was
Cailcin, and to King Conor himself. Prosperous was Conor's sway,
and valiant was the fame (i.e., famous was the valour) of the Red
Branch, defending the province of Ulster against foreigners and
against every other province in Erin in his time, and there were no
three in the household of Emania or throughout all Banba [Ireland]
more brilliant than the sons of Uisneach, nor heroes of higher fame
than they, Naoise [Neesha], Ainle, and Ardan.

" As for Deirdre, when she was fourteen years of age she was
found marriageable and Conor designed to take her to his own royal <

couch. About this time a sadness and a heavy flood of melancholy
lay upon the young queen, without gentle sleep, without sufficient
food, without sprightliness — as had been her wont.

" Until it chanced of a day, while snow lay (on the ground),
in the winter, that Cailcin, Deirdre's tutor, went to kill a
calf to get ready food for her, and after shedding the blood of
the calf out upon the snow, a raven stoops upon it to drink it, and
as Deirdre perceives that, and she watching through a window of

DEIRDRE 307

the fortress, she heaved a heavy sigh so that Cailcin heard her.
' Wherefore thy melancholy, girl ? ' said he. ' Alas that I have not
yon thing as I see it,' said she. 'Thou shalt have that if it be
possible,' said he, drawing his hand dexterously so that he gave an
unerring cast of his knife at the raven, so that he cut one foot off it.
And after that he takes up the bird and throws it over near Deirdrc.
The girl starts at once, and fell into a faint, until Lavarcam came up
to help her. * Why art thou as I see thee, dear girl,' said she, ' for
thy countenance is pitiable ever since yesterday ? ' 'A desire that
came to me,' said Deirdre. ' What is that desire ? ' said Lavarcam.
' Three colours that I saw,' said Deirdre, ' namely, the blackness of
the raven, the redness of the blood, and the whiteness of the snow.'
' It is easy to get that for thee now,' said Lavarcam, and arose (and
went) out without delay, and she gathered the full of a vessel of
snow, and half the full of a cup of the calf's blood, and she pulls
three feathers out of the wing of the raven. And she laid them
down on the table before the girl. Deirdre began as though she
were eating the snow and lazily tasting the blood with the top of the
raven's feather, and her nurse closely scrutinising her, until Deirdre
asked Lavarcam to leave her alone by herself for a while. Lavarcam
departs, and again returns, and this is how she found Deirdre —
shaping a ball of snow in the likeness of a man's head and mottling
it with the top of the raven's feather out of the blood of the calf,
and putting the small black plumage as hair upon it, and she never
perceived her nurse examining her until she had finished. ' Whose
likeness is that ? ' said Lavarcam. Deirdre starts and she said, ' It is
a work easily destroyed.' ' That work is a great wonder to me, girl,'
said Lavarcam, ' because it was not thy wont to draw pictures of a
man, (and) it was not permitted to the women of Emania to teach
thee any similitude but that of Conor only.' ' I saw a face in my
dream,' said Deirdre, 'that was of brighter countenance than the
King's face, or Cailcin's, and it was in it that I saw the three colours
that pained me, namely, the whiteness of the snow on his skin, the
blackness of the raven on his hair, and the redness of the blood
upon his countenance, and oh woe ! my life will not last, unless I
get my desire.' ' Alas for thy desire, my darling,' said Lavarcam.
' My desire, O gentle nurse,' said Deirdre. ' Alas ! 'tis a pity thy
desire, it is difficult to get it,' said Lavarcam, ' for fast and close is
the fortress of the Branch, and high and difficult is the enclosure
round about, and [there is] the sharp watch of the fierce man-
hounds in it.' 'The hounds are no danger to us,' said Deirdre.
' Where did you behold that face ? ' said Lavarcam. ' In a dream
yesterday/ said Deirdre, and she weeping, after hiding her face in
her nurse's bosom, and shedding tears plentifully. ' Rise up from

308 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

me, dear pupil/ said Lavarcam, 'and restrain thy tears henceforth
till thou eatest food and takest a drink, and after Cailcin's eating his
meal we shall talk together about the dream.' Her nurse raises
Deirdre' s head, ' Take courage, daughter,' said she, ' and be patient,
for I am certain that thou shalt get thy desire, for according to
human age and life, Conor's time beside thee is not (to be) long or
lasting.'

" After Lavarcam's departing from her, she [Lavarcam] perceived
a green mantle hung in the front of a closed-up window on the
head of a brass club and the point of a spear thrust through the
wall of the mansion. Lavarcam puts her hand to it so that it readily
came away with her, and stones and moss fell down after it, so that
the light of day, and the grassy lawn, and the Champion's Plain in
front of the mansion, and the heroes at their feats of activity became
visible. ' I understand, now, my pupil,' said Lavarcam, ' that it was
here you saw that dream.' But Deirdre did not answer her. Her
nurse left food and ale on the table before Deirdre, and departed
from her without speaking, for the boring-through of the window
did not please Lavarcam, for fear of Conor or of Cailcin coming to
the knowledge of it. As for Deirdre, she ate not her food, but she
quenched her thirst out of a goblet of ale, and she takes with her
the flesh of the calf, after covering it under a corner of her mantle,
and she went to her tutor and asks leave of him to go out for a while
(and walk) at the back of the mansion. ' The day is cold, and there
is snow darkening in (the air) daughter,' said Cailcin, ' but you can
walk for a while under the shelter of the walls of the mansion, but
mind the house of the hounds.'

" Deirdre went out, and no stop was made by her until she passed
down through the middle of the snow to where the den of the man-
hounds was, and as soon as the hounds recognised her and the smell
of the meat they did not touch her, and they made no barking till
she divided her food amongst them, and she returns into the house
afterwards. Thereupon came Lavarcam, and found Deirdre lying
upon one side of her couch, and she sighing heavily and shedding
tears. Her nurse stood silent for a while observing her, till her heart
was softened to compassion and her anger departed from her. She
stretched out her hand, and 'twas what she said, ' Rise up, modest
daughter, that we may be talking about the dream, and tell me did
you ever see that black hero before yesterday ? ' ' White hero, gentle
nurse, hero of the pleasant crimson cheeks,' said Deirdre. 'Tell
me without falsehood,' said Lavarcam, ' did you ever see that warrior
before yesterday, or before you bored through the window-work
with the head of a spear and with a brass club, and till you looked
out through it on the warriors of the Branch when they were at

DblRDRE 309

their feats of activity on the Champion Plain, and till you saw all the
dreams you spoke of ? ' Deirdre hides her head in her nurse's
bosom, weeping, till she said, ' Oh, gentle mother and nurturer of
my heart, do not tell that to my tutor ; and I shall not conceal from
thee that I saw him on the lawn of Emania, playing games with the
boys, and learning feats of valour, and och ! he had the beautiful
countenance at that time, and very lovely was it yesterday (too).'
' Daughter,' said Lavarcam, ' you did not see the boys on the green
of Emania from the time you were seven years of age, and that is
seven years ago.' ' Seven bitter years,' said Deirdre, ' since I beheld
the delight of the green and the playing of the boys, and surely, too,
Naoise surpassed all the youths of Emania.' 'Naoise, the son of
Uisneach ? ' said Lavarcam. ' Naoise is his name, as he told me,' said
Deirdre, ' but I did not ask whose son he was.' ' As he told you ! ' said
Lavarcam. ' As he told me/ said Deirdre, ' when he made a throw of
a ball, by a miss-cast, backwards transversely over the heads of the
band of maidens that were standing on the edge of the green, and
I rose from amongst them all, till I lifted the ball, and I delivered
it to him, and he pressed my hand joyously.' ' He pressed your hand,
girl!' said Lavarcam. 'He pressed it lovingly, and said that he
would see me again, but it was difficult for him, and I did not see
him since until yesterday, and oh, gentle nurse, if you wish me to
be alive take a message to him from me, and tell him to come to
visit me and talk with me secretly to-night without the knowledge
of Cailcin or any other person.' ' Oh, girl,' said Lavarcam, • it is a
very dangerous attempt to gain the quenching of thy desire [being
in peril] from the anger of the King, and under the sharp watch of
Cailcin, considering the fierceness of the savage man-hounds, and
considering the difficulty of (scaling) the enclosure round about/
' The hounds are no danger to us,' said Deirdre. ' Then, too,' said
Lavarcam, ' great is Conor's love for the children of Uisneach, and
there is not in the Red Branch a hero dearer to him than Naoise.'
' If he be the son of Uisneach,' said Deirdre, ' I heard the report of
him from the women of Emania, and that great are his own terri-
tories in the West of Alba, outside of Conor's sway, and, gentle
nurse, go to find Naoise, and you can tell him how I am, and how
much greater my love for him is than for Conor.' ' Tell him that
yourself if you can,' said Lavarcam, and she went out thereupon to
seek Naoise till he was found, and till he came with her to Deirdre's
dwelling in the beginning of the night, without Cailcin's knowledge.
When Naoise beheld the splendour of the girl's countenance he is
filled with a flood of love, and Deirdre beseeches him to take her and
escape to Alba. But Naoise thought that too hazardous, for fear of
Conor. But in the course (?) of the night Deirdre won him over, so

3io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

that he consented to her, and they determined to depart on the night
of the morrow.

" Deirdre escaped in the middle of the night without the know-
ledge of her tutor or her nurse, for Naoise came at that time and his
two brothers along with him, so that he bored a gap at the back of
the hounds" den, for the dogs were dead already through poison from
Deirdre.

" They lifted the girl over the walls, through every rough impedi-
ment, so that her mantle and the extremity of her dress were all
tattered, and he set her upon the back of a steed, and no stop was
made by them till (they reached) Sliabh Fuaid and Finn-charn of
the watch, till they came to the harbour and went aboard a ship and
were driven by a south wind across the ocean-waters and over the
back-ridges of the deep sea to Loch n-Eathaigh in the west of
Alba, and thrice fifty valiant champions [sailed] along with them,
namely, fifty with each of the three brothers, Naoise, Ainle, and
Ardan."

The three brothers and Deirdre lived for a long time happily
in Scotland and rose to great favour and power with the King,
until he discovered the existence of the beautiful Deirdre,
whom they had carefully kept concealed lest he should desire
her for his wife. This discovery drives them forth again, and
they live by hunting in the highlands and islands.

It is only at this point that most of the modern copies, such
as that published by O'Flanagan in 1808, begin, namely,
with a feast of King Conor's, in which he asks his household
and all the warriors of Ulster who are present, whether they
are aware of anything lacking to his palace in Emania. They
all reply that to them it seems perfect. "Not so to me,"
answers Conor, " I know of a great want which presseth upon
you, namely, three renowned youths, the three luminaries of
the valour of the Gaels, the three beautiful, noble sons of
Usnach, to be wanting to you on account of any woman in
the world." " Dared we say that," said they, " long since
would we have said it."

Conor thereupon proposes to send ambassadors to them to
solicit their return. He takes Conall Cearnach apart and asks
him if he will go, and what would he do should the sons of

D BIRD RE 311

Usnach be slain while under his protection. Conall answers
that he would slay without mercy any Ultonian who dared to
touch one of them. So does Cuchulain. Fergus mac Roigh
alone promises not to injure the King himself should he touch
them, but any other Ultonian who should wrong them must
die. Fergus and his two sons sailed to Alba, commissioned to
proclaim peace to the sons of Usnach and bring them home.
Having landed, Fergus gives forth the cry of a " mighty man
of chace." Naoise and Deirdre were sitting together in their
hunting booth playing at chess. Naoise heard the cry and said,
"I hear the call of a man of Erin." "That was not the call
of a man of Erin," said D&rdre, " but the call of a man of
Alba." Twice again did Fergus shout, and twice did Deirdre
insist that it was not the cry of a man of Erin. At last Naoise
recognises the voice of Fergus, and sends his brother to meet
him. Then Deirdre confesses that she had recognised the call
of Fergus from the beginning. " Why didst thou conceal it
then, my queen ? " said Naoise. " A vision I had last night,"
said Deirdre, " for three birds came to us from Emania having
three sups of honey in their beaks, and they left them with
us, but they took with them three sups of our blood." " And
how readest thou that, my queen," said Naoise. " It is," said
Deirdre, " the coming of Fergus to us with a peaceful message
from Conor, for honey is not more sweet than the peaceful
message of the false man."

But all is of no avail. Fergus and his sons arrive and spend the
night with the children of Usnach, and despite of all that Deirdre
can do, she sees them slowly win her husband round to their
side, and inspire him with a desire to return once more to Erin.

Next morning they embark. Deirdre weeps and utters
lamentations ; she sings her bitter regret at leaving the scenes
where she had been so happy.

" Delightful land," she sang, " yon eastern land, Alba, with its
wonders. I had never come hither out of it had I not come with
Naoise. .

312 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" The Vale of Laidh, Oh in the Vale of Laidh, I used to sleep
under soft coverlet ; fish and venison and the fat of the badger were
my repast in the Vale of Laidh.

" The Vale of Masan, oh the Vale of Masan, high its harts-tongue,
fair its stalks, we used to enjoy a rocking sleep above the grassy
verge of Masan.1

" The vale of Eiti, oh the vale of Eiti ! In it I raised my first
house, lovely was its wood (when seen) on rising, the milking-house
of the sun was the vale of Eiti.

" Glendarua, oh Glendarua ! my love to every one who enjoys it ;
sweet the voice of the cuckoo upon bending bough upon the cliff
above Glendarua.

" Dear is Droighin over the strong shore. Dear are its waters
over pure sand ; I would never have come from it had I not come
with my love."

She ceased to sing, the vessel approached the shore, and the
fugitives are landed once more in Erin. But dangers thicken
round them. Through a strategy of King Conor's Fergus is
placed under geasa or tabu by a man called Barach to stay
and partake of a feast with him, and thus detached from the
sons of Usnach, who are left alone with his two sons instead.
Then Deirdre again uses all her influence with her husband
and his brothers to sail to Rathlin and wait there until they
can be rejoined by Fergus, but she does not prevail. After
that she has a terrifying dream, and tells it to them, but
Naoise answered lightly in verse —

" Thy mouth pronounceth not but evil,
O maiden, beautiful, incomparable ;
The venom of thy delicate ruby mouth
Fall on the hateful furious foreigners."

Thereafter, as they advanced farther upon their way towards
King Conor's palace at Emania, the omens of evil grow

Gleann Masain, on Gleann Masain,
Ard a chneamh, geal a ghasain,
Do ghnidhmis codladh corrach
Os inbhear mongach Masain."

D BIRD RE 313

thicker still, and all Deirdre's terrors are re-awakened by the
rising of a blood-red cloud.

" ' O Naoise, view the cloud
That I see here on the sky,
I see over Emania green
A chilling cloud of blood-tinged red.

I have caught alarm from the cloud
I see here in the sky,
It is like a gore-clot of blood,
The cloud terrific very-thin.' "

And she urged them to turn aside to Cuchulain's palace at
Dundalgan, and remain under that hero's safeguard till Fergus
could rejoin them. But she cannot persuade the others that
the treachery which she herself sees so clearly is really intended.
Her last despairing attempt is made as they come in sight of
the royal city ; she tells them that if, when they arrrive, they
are admitted into the mansion in which King Conor is
feasting with the nobles of Ulster round him, they are safe, but
if they are on any pretext quartered by the King in the
House of the Red Branch, they may be certain of treachery.
They are sent to the House of the Red Branch, and not
admitted among the King's revellers, on the pretended grounds
that the Red Branch is better prepared for strangers, and that
its larder and its cellar are better provided with food and drink
than the King's mansion. All now begin to feel that the net
is closing over them. Late in the night King Conor, fired
with drink and jealousy, called for some one to go for him and
bring him word how Deirdre looked, <c for if her own form live
upon her, there is not in the world a woman more beautiful
than she." Lavarcam, the nurse, undertakes to go. She, of
course, discloses to Deirdre and Naoise the treachery that is
being plotted against them, and returning to Conor she tells
him that Deirdre has wholly lost her beauty, whereat, " much
of his jealousy abated, and he continued to indulge in feasting
and enjoyment a long while, until he thought of Ddirdre a

3H LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

second time." This time he does not trust Lavarcam, but
sends one of his retainers, first reminding him that his
father and his three brothers had been slain by Naoise. But
in the mean time the entrances and windows of the Red
Branch had been shut and barred and the doors barricaded by
the sons of Usnach. One small window, however, had been
left open at the back and the spy climbed upon a ladder and
looked through it and saw Naoise and Deirdre sitting together
and playing at chess. Deirdre called Naoise's attention to the
face looking at them, and Naoise, who was lifting a chessman
off the board, hurled it at the head and broke the eye that
looked at them. The man ran back and told the King that
it was worth losing an eye to have beheld a woman so lovely.
Then Conor, fired with fury and jealousy, led his troops to the
assault, and all night long there is fighting and shouting round
the Red Branch House, and Naoise's brothers, helped by the
two sons of Fergus, pass the night in repelling attack, and in
quenching the fires that break out all round the house. At
length one of Fergus's sons is slain and the other is bought off
by a bribe of land and a promise of power from King Conor,
and now the morning begins to dawn, but the sons of Usnach
are still living, and D&rdre is still untaken. At last Conor's
druid, Cathba, consents to work a spell against them it
Conor will plight his faithful word that having once taken
Deirdre he will not touch or harm the sons of Usnach. Conor
plights his word and troth, and the spell is set at work. The
sons of Usnach had left the half-burnt house and were
escaping in the morning light with Deirdre between them
when they met, as they thought, a sea of thick viscid waves,
and they cast down their weapons and spread abroad their arms
and tried to swim, and Conor's soldiers came and took them
without a blow. They were brought to Conor and he caused
them to be at once beheaded. It was then the druid cursed
E mania, for Conor had broken his plighted word, and that
curse was fulfilled in the misery that fell upon the province

D BIRD RE 315

during the wars with Meve. He cursed also the house of
Conor, and prophesied that none of his descendants should
possess Emania for ever, "and that," adds the saga, "has been
verified, for neither Conor nor any of his race possessed Emania
from that time to this." *

As for Deirdre, she was as one distracted ; she fell upon the
ground and drank their blood, she tore her hair and rent her
dishevelled tresses, and the lament she broke forth into has long
been a favourite of Irish scribes. She calls aloud upon the
dead, " the three falcons of the mount of Culan, the three
lions of wood of the cave, the three sons of the breast of the
Ultonians, the three props of the battalion of Chuailgne, the
three dragons of the fort of Monadh."

" The High King of Ulster, my first husband,
I forsook him for the love of Naoise.
• ••••(

That I shall live after Naoise
Let no man on earth imagine.

Their three shields and their three spears
Have often been my bed.

I never was one day alone

Until the day of the making of the grave,

Although both I and ye

Were often in solitude.

My sight has gone from me
At seeing the grave of Naoise."

1 We have seen that none of the race of Ir claim descent from Conor ;
all their great families O'Mores, O'Farrells, etc., descend from Fergus mac
Roigh [Roy] or Conall Cearnach (see p. 69 note) ; yet Conor had twenty-
one sons, all of whom, says Keating, died without issue except three —
" Benna, from whom descended the Benntraidhe ; Lamha, from whom
came the Lamhraidhe ; and Glasni, whose descendants were the Glas-
naide ; but even of these," adds Keating, " there is not at this day a single
descendant alive in Ireland." Sec O'Mahony's translation, p. 278.

3i6 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

She remembers now in her own agony another woman who
would lament with her could she but know that Naoise had
died.

" On a day that the nobles of Alba [Scotland] were feasting,
And the sons of Usnach, deserving of love,
To the daughter of the lord of Duntrone
Naoise gave a secret kiss.

He sent to her a frisking doe,

A deer of the forest with a fawn at its foot,

And he went aside to her on a visit

While returning from the host of Inverness.

But when I heard that

My head filled full of jealousy,

I launched my little skiff upon the waves,

I did not care whether I died or lived.

They followed me, swimming,

Ainnle and Ardan, who never uttered falsehood,

And they turned me in to land again,

Two who would subdue a hundred.

Naoise pledged me his word of truth,
And he swore in presence of his weapons three times,
That he would never cloud my countenance again
Till he should go from me to the army of the dead.

Alas ! if she were to hear this night
That Naoise was under cover in the clay,
She would weep most certainly,
And I, I would weep with her sevenfold." *

After her lay of lamentation she falls into the grave where the
three are being buried, and dies above them. "Their flag
was raised over their tomb, and their names were written in
Ogam, and their funeral games were celebrated. Thus far
the tragedy of the sons of Usnach."

The oldest and briefest version of this fine saga, that pre-
served in the Book of Leinster, ends differently, and even more

* " Och ! da gcluinfeadh sise anocht
Naoise bheith fa bhrat i gcre,
Do ghoilfeadh sise go^beacht,
Acht do ghoilfinn-se fa seacht 16."

D BIRD RE 317

tragically. On the death of Naoise, who is slain the moment
he appears on the lawn of Emania, Deirdre is taken, her
hands are bound behind her back and she is given over to
Conor.

" Deirdre was for a year in Conor's couch, and during that year
she neither smiled nor laughed nor took sufficiency of food, drink,
or sleep, nor did she raise her head from her knee. When they
used to bring the musicians to her house she would utter rhapsody —

" ' Lament ye the mighty warriors

Assassinated in Emania on coming,' etc.

When Conor would be endeavouring to sooth her, it was then she
would utter this dirge —

" ' That which was most beauteous to me beneath the sky,
And which was most lovely to me,
Thou hast taken from me — great the anguish —
I shall not get healed of it to my death,' etc.

" ' What is it you see that you hate most ? ' said Conor.

" ' Thou thyself and Eoghan [Owen] son of Duthrecht,' * said she.

" ' Thou shalt be a year in Owen's couch then,' said Conor. Conor
then gave her over to Owen.

" They drove the next day to the assembly at Muirtheimhne. She
was behind Owen in a chariot. She looked towards the earth that
she might not see her two gallants.

" ' Well, Deirdre/ said Conor, ' it is the glance of a ewe between
two rams you cast between me and Owen.'

" There was a large rock near. She hurled her head at the stone,
so that she broke her skull and was dead.

" This is the exile of the sons of Usnach and the cause of the exile
of Fergus and of the death of Deirdre."

It was in consequence of Conor's treachery in slaying the
sons of Usnach while under Fergus's protection that this
warrior turned against his king, burnt Emania, and then seceded
into Connacht to Oilioll [Ulyul] and Meve, king and queen
of that province, where he took service with about fifteen
hundred Ultonians who, indignant at Conor, seceded along with
him. " It was he," says Keating, summing up the substance of

1 Who had slain Naoise at Conor's bidding, in the older version.

318 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the sagas, " who carried off the great spoils from Ulster whence
came so many wars and enmities between the people of Con-
nacht and Ulster, so that the exiles who went from Ulster
into banishment with Fergus continued seven, or as some say,
ten years in Connacht, during which time they kept constantly
spoiling, destroying and plundering the Ultonians, on account
of the murder of the sons of Usnach. And the Ultonians in
like manner wreaked vengeance upon them, and upon the
people of Connacht, and made reprisals for the booty which
Fergus had carried off, and for every other evil inflicted upon
them by the exiles and by the Connacht men, insomuch that
the losses and injuries sustained on both sides were so numerous
that whole volumes have been written upon them, which
would be too long to mention or take notice of at present."

It was with the assistance of Fergus and the other exiles
that Meve undertook her famous expedition into Ulster, of
which we must now speak.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE

THE greatest of the heroic sagas and the longest is that which
is called the Tain Bo Chuailgne,1 or "Cattle-Raid of Cooley,"
a district of Ulster contained in the present county of Louth,
into which Oilioll and Meadhbh [Meve], the king and queen of
Connacht, led an enormous army composed of men from the
four other provinces, to carry off the celebrated Dun Bull of
Cooley.

Although there is a great deal of verbiage and piling-up of
rather barren names in this piece, nevertheless there are also
several finely conceived and well-executed incidents. The
saga which, according to Zimmer, was probably first committed
to writing in the seventh or eighth century, is partially pre-
served in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a manuscript made about
the year uoo, and there is a complete copy of it in the Book
of Leinster made about fifty years later. I have chiefly trans-
lated from a more modern text in my own possession, which
differs very slightly from the ancient ones.

The story opens with a conversation between Meve, queen
of Connacht, and Oilioll her husband, which ends in a dispute
as to which of them is the richest. There was no modern
Married Women's Property Act in force, but Irish ladies

1 Pronounced "Taun Bo Hooiln'ya."

319

320 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

seem to have been at all times much more sympathetically?
treated by the Celtic tribes than by the harder and more stern
races of Teutonic and Northern blood, and Irish damsels seem
to have been free to enjoy their own property and dowries.1
The story, then, begins with this dispute as to which, husband
or wife, is the richer in this world's goods, and the argument
at last becomes so heated that the pair decide to have all their
possessions brought together to compare them one with another
and judge by actual observation which is the most valuable.
They collected accordingly jewels, bracelets, metal, gold, silver,
flocks, herds, ornaments, etc., and found that in point of wealth
they were much the same, but that there was one great bull called
Finn-bheannach or White-horned, who was really calved by one
of Meve's cows, but being endowed with a certain amount of
intelligence considered it disgraceful to be under a woman, and
so had gone over to Oilioll's herds. With him Meve had
nothing that could compare. She made inquiry, however, and
found out from her chief courier that there was in the district
of Cuailgne in Louth (Meve lived at Rathcroghan in Ros-
common) a most celebrated bull called the Dun Bull of Cuailgne
belonging to a chieftain of the name of Dare. To him
accordingly she sends an embassy requesting the loan of the
bull for one year, and promising fifty heifers in return. Dare
was quite willing, and promised to lend the animal. He was
in fact pleased, and treated the embassy generously, giving them
good lodgings with plenty of food and drink — too much drink
in fact. The fate of nations is said to often hang upon a
thread. On this occasion that of Ulster and Connacht de-
pended upon a drop more or less, absorbed by one of the ten
men who constituted Meve's embassy. This man un-
fortunately passed the just limit, and Dare's steward coming in
at the moment heard him say that it was small thanks to his

1 Yet in the Brehon law a woman is valued at only the seventh part
of a man, three cows instead of twenty-one ; but if she is young and hand-
some she has her additional " honour price."

THE TAlN BO CHUAILGNE 321

master to give his bull " for if he hadn't given it we'd have
taken it." That word decided the fate of provinces. The
steward, indignant at such an outrage, ran and told his master,
and Dare swore that now he would lend no bull, and what
was more, but that the ten men were envoys he swore he
would hang them. With indignity they were dismissed, and
returned empty-handed to Meve's boundless indignation. She
in her turn swore she would have the bull in spite of Dare.
She immediately sent out to collect her armies, and invited
Leinster and Munster to join her. She was in fact able
to muster most of the three provinces to march against
Ulster to take the bull from Dare, and in addition she had
Fergus mac Roy and about fifteen hundred Ulster warriors
who had never returned to their homes nor forgiven Conor for
the murder of the sons of Usnach. She crossed the Shannon
at Athlone, and marched on to Kells, within a few miles of
Ulster, and there she pitched her standing camp. She was
accompanied by her husband and her daughter who was the
fairest among women. Her mother had secretly promised her
hand to every leader in her army in order to nerve them to do
their utmost.

At the very beginning Meve is forewarned by a mysterious
female of the slaughter which is to come. She had driven
round in her chariot to visit her druid and to inquire of him
what would come of her expedition, and is returning somewhat
reassured in her mind by the druid's promise which was —

" ' Whosoever returneth or returneth not, thou shalt return,' and,"
says the saga, " as Meve returned again upon her track she beheld a
thing which caused her to wonder, a single woman (riding) beside
her, upon the pole of her chariot. And this is how that maiden was.
She was weaving a border with a sword of bright bronze * in
her right hand with its seven rings of red gold, and, about her, a
spotted speckled mantle of green, and a fastening brooch in the

1 " Findruini." See Book of Leinster, f. 42, for the old text of this, but
I am here using a modern copy, not trusting myself to translate accurately
from the old text.

322 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

mantle over her bosom. A bright red gentle generous countenance,
a grey eye visible in her head, a thin red mouth, young pearly teeth
she had. You would think that her teeth were a shower of white
pearls flung into her head. Her mouth was like fresh coral ? \_par-
laing] . The melodious address of her voice and her speaking tones
were sweeter than the strings of curved harp being played. Brighter
than the snow of one night was the splendour of her skin showing
through her garments, her feet long, fairy-like, with (well) turned
nails. Fair yellow hair very golden on her. Three tresses of her
hair round her head* one tress behind falling after her to the extre
mities of her ankles.

" Meve looks at her. ' What makest thou there, O maiden ? ' said
Meve.

"'Foreseeing thy future for thee, and thy grief, thou who art
gathering the four great provinces of Ireland with thee to the land of
Ulster, to carry out the Tain Bo Chuailgne.'

" ' And wherefore doest thou me this ? " said Meve.

" ' Great reason have I for it/ said the maiden. ' A handmaid of
thy people (am I)/ said she.

" ' Who of my people art thou ?' said Meve.

" ' Feithlinn, fairy-prophetess of Rathcroghan, am I,' said she.

" ' It is well, O Feithlinn, prophetess,' said Meve, ' and how seest
thou our hosts ? '

" ' I see crimson over them, I see red,' said she.

" ' Conor is in his sickness * in Emania,' said Meve, ' and messengers
have reached me from him, and there is nothing that I dread from
the Ultonians, but speak thou the truth, O Feithlinn, prophetess/ said
Meve.

" ' I see crimson, I see red/ said she.

" ' Comhsgraidh Meann ... is in Innis Comhsgraidh in his sick-
ness, and my messengers have reached me, and there is nothing that
I fear from the Ultonians, but speak me truth, O Feithlinn, pro-
phetess, how seest thou our host ? '

" ' I see crimson, I see red.'

" ' Celtchar, son of Uitheachar, is in his sickness/ said Meve, ' and
there is nothing I dread from the Ultonians, but speak truth, O
Feithlinn, prophetess.'

" ' I see crimson, I see red/ said she.

" ' . . . ? ' said Meve, 'for since the men of Erin will be in one place
there will be disputes and fightings and irruptions amongst them,

1 This is the mysterious sickness which seizes upon all the Ultonians at
intervals except Cuchulain. See p. 294, note 3.

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 323

about reaching the beginnings or endings of fords or rivers, and
about the first woundings of boars and stags, of venison, or matter of
venery, speak true, O Feithlinn, prophetess, how seest thou our host ?
said Meve.
" ' I see crimson I see red,' said she."

After this follows a long poem, wherein "she foretold
Cuchulain to the men of Erin."

The march of M eve's army is told with much apparent
exactness. The names of fifty-nine places through which it
passed are given ; and many incidents are recorded, one of
which shows the furious, jealous, and vindictive disposition of
the amazon queen herself. She, who seems to have taken upon
herself the entire charge of the hosting, had made in her chariot
the full round of the army at their encamping for the night, to
see that everything was in order. After that she returned to
her own tent and sat beside her husband Olioill at their meal,
and he asks her how fared the troops. Meve then said something
laudatory about the Gaileoin,1 or ancient Leinstermen, who were
not of Gaelic race, but appear to have belonged to some early
non-Gaelic tribe, cognate with the Firbolg.

" ' What excellence perform they beyond all others that they be
thus praised ? ' said Oilioll.

" ' They give cause for praise,' said Meve, ' for while others were
choosing their camping-ground, they had made their booths and
shelters ; and while others were making their booths and shelters,
they had their feast of meat and ale laid out ; and while others were
laying out their feasts of bread and ale, these had finished their food
and fare ; and while others were finishing their food and fare, these
were asleep. Even as their slaves and servants have excelled the
slaves and servants of the men of Erin, so will their good heroes and
youths excel the good heroes and youths of the men of Erin in this
hosting.'

" ' I am the better pleased at that,' said Oilioll, ' because it was
with me they came, and they are my helpers.' 2

1 For more about the Gaileoin see p. 598 of Rhys's Hibbert Lectures,
and O Curry, " M. and C.," vol. ii. p. 260.

2 They were countrymen of Oilioll's.

324 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" ' They shall not march with thee, then,' said Meve, ' and it is not
before me, nor to me, they shall be boasted of.'

" ' Then let them remain in camp/ said Oilioll.

" ' They shall not do that either,' said Meve.

" ' What sb>ill they do, then ? ' said Findabar, daughter of Oilioll
and Meve, ' if they shall neither march nor yet remain in camp.'

" ' My will is to inflict death and fate and destruction on them/
said Meve."

It is with the greatest difficulty that Fergus is enabled to
calm the furious queen, and she is only satisfied when the
three thousand Gaileoins have been broken up and scattered
throughout the other battalions, so that no five men of them
remained together.

Thereafter the army came to plains so thickly wooded, in
the neighbourhood of the present Kells, that they were obliged
to cut down the wood with their swords to make a way for
their chariots, and the next night they suffered intolerably
from a fall of snow.

" The snow that fell that night reached to men's legs and to the
wheels of chariots, so that the snow made one plain of the five
provinces of Erin, and the men of Ireland never suffered so much
before in camp, none knew throughout the whole night whether it
was his friend or his enemy who was next him, until the rise early
on the morrow of the clear-shining sun, glancing on the snow that
covered the country."

They are now on the borders of Ulster, and Cuchulain is
hovering on their flank, but no one has yet seen him. He
lops a gnarled tree, writes an Ogam on it, sticks upon it the
heads of three warriors he had slain, and sets it up on the brink
of a ford. That night Oilioll and Meve inquire from the
Ultonians who were in her army more particulars about this
new enemy, and nearly a sixth part of the whole Tain is
taken up by the stories which are then and there related
about Cuchulain's earliest history and exploits, first by
Fergus, and, when he is done relating, by Cormac Conlingeas,

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 325

and when he has finished, by Fiacha, another Ultonian.
This long digression, which is one of the most interesting
parts of the whole saga, being over, we return to the direct
story.

Cuchulain, who knows every tree and every bush of the
country, still hangs upon Meve's flank, and without showing
himself during the day, he slays a hundred men with his sling *
every night.

Meve, through an envoy, asks for a meeting with him, and
is astonished to find him, as she thinks, a mere boy. She offers
him great rewards in the hope of buying him off, but he will
have none of her gold. The only conditions upon which he
will cease his night-slaying is if Meve will promise to let
him fight with some warrior every day at the ford, and will
promise to keep her army in its camp while these single
combats last, and this Meve consents to, since she says it is
better to lose one warrior every day than one hundred every
night.

A great number of single combats then take place, each of
which is described at length. One curious incident is that
of the war-goddess, whom he had previously offended, the
Mor-rigu,2 or "great queen," attacking him while fighting
with the warrior Loich. She came against him, not in her
own figure, but as a great black eel in the water, who wound
itself around his legs, and as he stooped to disengage himself
Loich wounded him severely in the breast. Again she came
against him in the form of a great grey wolf-bitch, and as
Cuchulain turned to drive her off he was again wounded. A
third time she came against him as a heifer with fifty other
heifers round her, but Cuchulain struck her and broke one of
her eyes, just as Diomede in the Iliad wounds the goddess

1 Crann-tabhail ; it is doubtful what kind of missile weapon this really
was. It was certainly of the nature of a sling, but was partly composed
of wood.

3 See above, p. 54 and 291. Rig-it is the old form of rioghan.

326 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Cypris when she appears against him.1 Cuchulain, thus
embarrassed, only rids himself of Loich by having recourse to
the mysterious feat of the Gae-Bolg, about which we shall
hear more later on. His opponent, feeling himself mortally
hurt, cries out —

" ' By thy love of generosity I crave a boon.'

" ' What boon is that ?' said Cuchulain.

" ' It is not to spare me I ask,' said Loich, ' but let me fall forwards
to the east, and not backward to the west, that none of the men of
Erin may say that I fell in panic or in flight before thee.'

" ' I grant it,' said Cuchulain, ' for surely it is a warrior's request.' "

After this encounter Cuchulain grew terribly despondent,
and urged his charioteer Laeg again to hasten the men of
Ulster to his assistance, but their pains were still upon them,
and he is left alone to bear the brunt of the attack as best he
may. Meve also breaks her compact by sending six men
against him, but them he overcomes, and in revenge begins
again to slay at night.

Thereafter follows the episode known in Irish saga as the
Great Breach of Moy Muirtheimhne. Cuchulain, driven to
despair and enfeebled by wounds, fatigue, and watching, was
in the act of ascending his chariot to advance alone against the
men of the four provinces, moving to certain death, when the

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Tlpvfivov vTTtp QkvapoQ' p'se d' dn(3poTov aijjia Ofolo
'I^WjO, oiog Trip re pzei naicdptffai Qtolcriv."

Iliad, v. 330.

A better instance except for the sex is where he afterwards wounds
Ares. (See v. 855.)

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 327

eye of his charioteer is arrested by the figure of a tall stranger
moving through the camp of the enemy, saluting none as he
moved, and by none saluted.

" That man," said Cuchulain, " must be one of my super-
natural friends of the shee * folk, and they salute him not
because he is not seen."

The stranger approaches, and, addressing Cuchulain, desires
him to sleep for three days and three nights, and instantly
Cuchulain fell asleep, for he had been from before the feast
of Samhain till after F&l Bhrighde2 without sleep, "unless
it were that he might sleep a little while beside his spear,
in the middle of the day, his head on his hand, and his hand
on his spear, and his spear on his knee, but all the while
slaughtering, slaying, preying on, and destroying, the four
great provinces."

It was after this long sleep of Cuchulain's that, awaking
fresh and strong, the Berserk rage fell upon him. He hurled
himself against the men of Erin, he drove round their flank,
he u gave his chariot the heavy turn, so that the iron wheels
of the chariot sank into the earth, so that the track of the
iron wheels was (in itself) a sufficient fortification, for like a
fortification the stones and pillars and flags and sands of the
earth rose back high on every side round the wheels." All
that day, refreshed by his three days' sleep, he slaughtered the
men of Erin.

Other single combats take place after this, in one of which
the druid Cailitin and his twenty sons would have slain him
had he not been rescued by his countryman Fiacha, one of
those Ultonians who with Fergus had turned against their king
and country when the children of Usnach were slain.

It was only at the last that his own friend Ferdiad was
despatched against him, through the wiles of Meve. Ferdiad

1 In Irish, sidh. The stranger is really Cuchulain's divine father.

2 This is incredible, for the sickness of the Ultonians could not have
endured so long.

328 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

was not a Gael, but of the Firbolg or Firdomhnan race,1 yet
he proved very nearly a match for Cuchulain. Knowing what
Meve wanted with him, he positively refused to come to her
tent when sent for, and in the end he is only persuaded by her
sending her druids and ollavs against him, who threatened
" to criticise, satirise, and blemish him, so that they would
raise three blisters2 on his face unless he came with them." At
last he went with them in despair, " because he thought it
easier to fall by valour and championship and weapons than to
fall by [druids'] wisdom and by reproach."

The fight with Ferdiad is perhaps the finest episode in the
Tain. The following is a description of the conduct of the
warriors after the first day's conflict.

THE FIGHT AT THE FORD.3

" They ceased fighting and threw their weapons away from them
into the hands of their charioteers. Each of them approached the
other forthwith and each put his hand round the other's neck and
gave him three kisses. Their horses were in the same paddock that
night, and their charioteers at the same fire ; and their charioteers
spread beds of green rushes for them with wounded men's pillows

1 The prominence given to and the laudatory comments on the non-
Gaelic or non-Milesian races, such as the Gaileoins and Firbolg in this
saga is very remarkable. It seems to me a proof of antiquity, because in
later times these races were not prominent.

2 These are the three blisters mentioned in Cormac's Glossary under
the word gaire. Nede satirises — wrongfully — his uncle Caier, king of
Connacht ; " Caier arose next morning early and went to the well. He
put his hand over his countenance, he found on his face three blisters
which the satire had caused, namely, Stain, Blemish, and Defect [on,
anim, eusbaidh'}, to wit, red and green and white."

3 I give here, for the most part, the translation given by Sullivan in his
Addenda to O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," but it is an exceedingly
faulty and defective one from a linguistic point of view. However, even
though some words may be mistranslated or their sense mistaken, it is
immaterial here. Windisch is said to have finished a complete translation
of the Tain, but it has not as yet appeared anywhere. Max Netlau has
studied the texts of the Ferdiad episode in vols. x. and xi. of the " Revue
Celtique."

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 329

to them. The professors of healing and curing came to heal and
cure them, and they applied herbs and plants of healing and curing
to their stabs, and their cuts, and their gashes, and to all their
wounds. Of every herb and of every healing and curing plant that
was put to the stabs and cuts and gashes, and to all the wounds of
Cuchulain, he would send an equal portion from him, westward
over the ford to Ferdiad, so that the men of Erin might not be able
to say, should Ferdiad fall by him, that it was by better means of
cure that he was enabled to kill him.

" Of each kind of food and of palatable pleasant intoxicating
drink that was sent by the men of Erin to Ferdiad, he would send a
fair moiety over the ford northwards to Cuchulain, because the
purveyors of Ferdiad were more numerous than the purveyors of
Cuchulain. All the men of Erin were purveyors to Ferdiad for
beating off Cuchulain from them, but the Bregians only were
purveyors to Cuchulain, and they used to come to converse with
him at dusk every night. They rested there that night."

The narrator goes on to describe the next day's righting,
which was carried on from their chariots " with their great
broad spears," and which left them both in such evil plight
that the professors of healing and curing " could do nothing
more for them, because of the dangerous severity of their
stabs and their cuts and their gashes and their numerous
wounds, than to apply witchcraft and incantations and charms
to them to staunch their blood and their bleeding and their
gory wounds."

Their meeting on the next day follows thus : —

"They arose early the next morning and came forward to the
ford of battle, and Cuchulain perceived an ill-visaged and a greatly
lowering cloud on Ferdiad that day.

" ' Badly dost thou appear to-day, O Ferdiad/ said Cuchulain,
'thy hair has become dark this day and thine eye has become
drowsy, and thine own form and features and appearance have
departed from thee.'

" ' It is not from fear or terror of thee that I am so this day,' said
Ferdiad, ' for there is not in Erin this day a champion that I could
not subdue.'

" And Cuchulain was complaining and bemoaning and he spake
these words, and Ferdiad answered :

330 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

CUCHULAIN.

Oh, Ferdiad, is it thou ?
Wretched man thou art I trow,
By a guileful woman won
To hurt thine old companion.

FERDIAD.

O Cuchulain, fierce of fight,
Man of wounds and man of might,
Fate compelleth each to stir
Moving towards his sepulchre." x

The lay is then given, each of the heroes reciting a verse in
turn, and it is very possibly upon these lays that the prose
narrative is built up. The third day's fighting is then
described in which the warriors use their " heavy hand-
smiting swords," or rather swords that gave "blows of
size. " 2 The story then continues —

"They cast away their weapons from them into the hands of
their charioteers, and though it had been the meeting pleasant and
happy, griefless and spirited of two men that morning, it was the
separation, mournful, sorrowful, dispirited, of the two men that
night.

" Their horses were not in the same enclosure that night. Their
charioteers were not at the same fire. They rested that night
there.

" Then Ferdiad arose early next morning and went forwards alone
to the ford of battle, for knew that that day would decide the battle
and the fight, and he knew that one of them would fall on that day
there or that they both would fall.

" Ferdiad displayed many noble, wonderful, varied feats on high
that day, which he never learned with any other person, neither
with Scathach, nor with Uathach, nor with Aife, but which were
invented by himself that day against Cuchulain.

"Cuchulain came to the ford and he saw the noble, varied,
wonderful, numerous feats which Ferdiad displays on high.

1 This is the metre of the original. The last lines are literally, " A man
is constrained to come unto the sod where his final grave shall be." The
metre of the last line is wrong in the Book of Leinster,

2 Tortbullech = toirt-bhuilleach.

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 331

" ' I perceive these, my friend, Laeg ' [said Cuchulain to his
charioteer], ' the noble, varied, wonderful, numerous feats which
Ferdiad displays on high, and all these feats will be tried on me in
succession, and, therefore, it is that if it be I who shall begin to
yield this day thou art to excite, reproach, and speak evil to me, so
that the ire of my rage and anger shall grow the more on me. If it
be I who prevail, then thou shalt laud me, and praise me, and speak
good words to me that my courage may be greater.' T

" ' It shall so be done indeed, O Cuchulain,' said Laeg.

" And it was then Cuchulain put his battle-suit of conflict and of
combat and of fight on him, and he displayed noble, varied, wonder-
ful, numerous feats on high on that day, that he never learned from
anybody else, neither with Scathach, nor with Uathach, nor with
Aife. Ferdiad saw those feats and he knew they would be plied
against him in succession.

" ' What weapons shall we resort to, O Ferdiad ? ' said Cuchulain.

" ' To thee belongs thy choice of weapons till night,' said Ferdiad.

" ' Let us try the Ford Feat then,' said Cuchulain.

" ' Let us indeed,' said Ferdiad. Although Ferdiad thus spoke his
consent it was a cause of grief to him to speak so, because he knew
that Cuchulain was used to destroy every hero and every champion
who contended with him in the Feat of the Ford.

" Great was the deed, now, that was performed on that day at the
ford — the two heroes, the two warriors, the two champions of
Western Europe, the two gift and present and stipend bestowing
hands of the north-west of the world ; the two beloved pillars of the
valour of the Gaels, and the two keys of the bravery of the Gaels to
be brought to fight from afar through the instigation and inter-
meddling of Oilioll and Meve.

" Each of them began to shoot at other with their missive weapons
from the dawn of early morning till the middle of midday. And
when midday came the ire of the men waxed more furious, and
each of them drew nearer to the other. And then it was that Cuchu-
lain on one occasion sprang from the brink of the ford and came on
the boss of the shield of Ferdiad, son of Daman, for the purpose of
striking his head over the rim of his shield from above. And it was
then that Ferdiad gave the shield a blow of his left elbow and cast

1 A common trait even in the modern Gaelic tales, as in the story of
lollan, son of the king of Spain, whose sweetheart urges him to the battle
by chanting his pedigree ; and in Campbell's story of Conall Gulban,
where the daughter of the King of Lochlann urges her bard to exhort
her champion in the light lest he may be defeated, and to give him
" Brosnachadh file fir-ghlic," i.e., the urging of a truly wise poet.

332 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Cuchulain from him like a bird on the brink of the ford. Cuchulain
sprang from the brink of the ford again till he came on the boss of
the shield of Ferdiad, son of Daman, for the purpose of striking his
head over the rim of the shield from above. Ferdiad gave the shield
a stroke of his left knee and cast Cuchulain from him like a little
child on the brink of the ford.

" Laeg [his charioteer] perceived that act. ' Alas, indeed/ said
Laeg, ' the warrior who is against thee casts thee away as a lewd
woman would cast her child. He throws thee as foam is thrown by
the river. He grinds thee as a mill would grind fresh malt. He
pierces thee as the felling axe would pierce the oak. He binds thee
as the woodbine binds the tree. He darts on thee as the hawk darts
on small birds, so that henceforth thou hast nor call nor right nor
claim to valour or bravery to the end of time and life, thou little
fairy phantom/ said Laeg.

" Then up sprang Cuchulain with the rapidity of the wind and with
the readiness of the swallow, and with the fierceness of the dragon
and the strength of the lion into the troubled clouds of the air the
third time, and he alighted on the boss of the shield of Ferdiad, son
of Daman to endeavour to strike his head over the rim of his shield
from above. And then it was the warrior gave the shield a shake,
and cast Cuchulain from him into the middle of the ford, the same
as if he had never been cast off at all.

" And it was then that Cuchulain's first distortion came on, and he
was filled with swelling and great fulness, like breath in a bladder,
until he became a terrible, fearful, many-coloured, wonderful Tuaig,
and he became as big as a Fomor, or a man of the sea, the great and
valiant champion, in perfect height over Ferdiad.1

" So close was the fight they made now that their heads met above
and their feet below and their arms in the middle over the rims and
bosses of their shields. So close was the fight they made that they
cleft and loosened their shields from their rims to their centres. So
close was the fight which they made that they turned and bent and
shivered their spears from their points to their hafts. Such was the
closeness of the fight which they made that the Bocanachs and
Bananachs, and wild people of the glens, and demons of the air
screamed from the rims of their shields and from the hilts of their
swords and from the hafts of their spears. Such was the closeness of
the fight which they made that they cast the river out of its bed and
out of its course, so that it might have been a reclining and reposing
couch for a king or for a queen in the middle of the ford, so that

1 Compare this with the Berserker rage of the Northmen.

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 333

there was not a drop of water * in it unless it dropped into it by the
trampling and the hewing which the two champions and the two
heroes made in the middle of the ford. Such was the intensity of
the fight which they made that the stud of the Gaels darted away in
fright and shyness, with fury and madness, breaking their chains and
their yokes, their ropes and their traces, and that the women and
youths, and small people, and camp followers, and non-combatants of
the men of Erin broke out of tue camp south-westwards.

" They were at the edge-feat of swords during the time. And it
was then that Ferdiad found an unguarded moment upon Cuchulain,
and he gave him a stroke of the straight-edged sword, and buried it
in his body until his blood fell into his girdle, until the ford became
reddened with the gore from the body of the battle- warrior.
Cuchulain would not endure this, for Ferdiad continued his
unguarded stout strokes, and his quick strokes and his tremendous
great blows at him. And he asked Laeg, son of Riangabhra, for the
Gae Bulg. The manner of that was this : it used to be set down the
stream and cast from between the toes [lit. in the cleft of the foot],
it made the wound of one spear in entering the body, but it had
thirty barbs to open, and could not be drawn out of a person's
body until it was cut open. And when Ferdiad heard the Gae Bulg
mentioned he made a stroke of the shield down to protect his lower
body. Cuchulain thrust the unerring thorny spear off the centre of
his palm over the rim of the shield, and through the breast of the
skin-protecting armour, so that its further half was visible after
piercing his heart in his body. Ferdiad gave a stroke of his shield
up to protect the upper part of his body, though it was ' the relief
after the danger.' The servant set the Gae Bulg down the stream
and Cuchulain caught it between the toes of his foot, and he threw
an unerring cast of it at Ferdiad till it passed through the firm deep
iron waistpiece of wrought iron and broke the great stone which
was as large as a millstone in three, and passed through the protec-
tions of his body into him, so that every crevice and every cavity of
him was filled with its barbs.

"'That is enough now, indeed,' said Ferdiad, 'I fall of that.
Now indeed may I say that I am sickly after thee, and not by thy
hand should I have fallen,' and he said [here follow some verses] ....

" Cuchulain ran towards him after that, and clasped his two arms
about him and lifted him with his arms and his armour and his
clothes across the ford northward, in order that the slain should lie

1 Cf. the common Gaelic folk-lore formula, " they would make soft of
the hard and hard of the soft, and bring cold springs of fresh water out of
the hard rock with their wrestling."

334 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

by the ford on the north, and not by the ford on the west with the
men of Erin.

" Cuchulain laid Ferdiad down there, and a trance and a faint and
a weakness fell then on Cuchulain over Ferdiad.

" ' Good, O Cuchulain,' said Laeg, ' rise up now for the men of
Erin are coming upon us, and it is not single combat they will give
thee since Ferdiad, son of Daman, son of Dare, has fallen by thee.'

" ' Servant/ said he, ' what availeth me to arise after him that hath
fallen by me.' "

Cuchulain is carried away swooning after this fight and is
brought by the two sons of Geadh to the streams and rivers to
be cured of his stabs and wounds, by plunging him in the
waters and facing him against the currents, " for the Tuatha
De Danann sent plants of grace and herbs of healing (floating)
down the streams and rivers of Muirtheimhne, to comfort and
help Cuchulain, so that the streams were speckled and green
overhead with them." The Finglas, the Bush, the Douglas,
and eighteen other rivers are mentioned as aiding to cure
him.

During the period of Cuchulain's leeching many events were
happening in Meve's camp, amongst others the tragic death of
her beautiful daughter, Finnabra.1 Isolated bands of the men
of Ulster were now beginning to at last muster in front of
Meve, and amongst them came a certain northern chief, who
was, as her daughter secretly confessed to Meve, her own love
and sweetheart beyond all the men of Erin.

The prudent Meve immediately desires her to go to him, if
he is her lover, and do everything in her power to make him
draw off his warriors. This design, however, got abroad, and
came to the ears of the twelve Munster princes who led the
forces of the southern province in Meve's army. These
gradually make the discovery that the astute queen had
secretly promised her daughter's hand to each one of the
twelve, as an inducement to him to take part in her expedition.
Infuriated at being thus trifled with and at Meve's treachery
1 Or Findabar, the fair-eyebrowed one.

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 335

in now sending her daughter to the Ultonian, they fall with
all their forces upon the queen's battalion and the whole camp
becomes a scene of blood and confusion. The warrior Fergus
at last succeeds in separating the combatants, not before seven
hundred men have fallen. But when Finnabra saw the
slaughter that was raging, of which she herself was cause,
"a blood-torrent burst from her heart in her bosom through
(mingled) shame and generosity," and she was taken up dead.
In the meantime Cuchulain is joined by another great
Ultonian warrior, who is also being leeched. He had fallen
upon the men of Erin single-handed, and received many
wounds, one from Meve herself, who fought, like Boadicea,
at the head of her troops. He describes the amazon who
wounded him to Cuchulain —

"A largely-nurtured, white-faced, long-cheeked woman, with a
yellow mane on the top of her two shoulders, with a shirt of royal
silk over her white skin, and a speckled spear red-flaming in her
hand ; it was she who gave me this wound, and I gave her another
small wound in exchange.

" ' I know that woman,' said Cuchulain, ' that woman was Meve,
and it had been glory and exultation to her had you fallen by her
hand.' "

Afterwards Sualtach, father of Cuchulain, heard the groans
of his son as he was being cured, and said, " Is it heaven that
is bursting, or the sea that is retiring, or the land that is
loosening, or is it the groan of my son in his extremity that I
hear ? " said he. Cuchulain despatches him to urge the
Ultonians to his assistance. " Tell them how you found me,"
he said ; " there is not the place of the point of a needle in
me from head to foot without a wound, there is not a hair
upon my body without a dew of crimson blood upon the top
of every point, except my left hand alone that was holding my
shield.""

And now the Ultonians begin to rally and face the men of
Erin. Troops are seen to pour in from every quarter of

336 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Ulster, gathering upon the plains of Meath for the great battle
that was impending. Meve sends out her trusted messenger
to bring word of what is going on amongst the hostile bands.
His first report is that the noise of the Ultonians hewing down
the woods before their chariots with the edge of their swords
was cc like nothing but as it were the solid firmament falling
upon the surface-face of the earth, or as it were the sky-blue
sea pouring over the superficies of the plain, as it were the
earth being rent asunder, or the forests falling [each tree] into
the grasp and fork of the other."

Mac Roth, the chief messenger, is again sent out to observe
the gathering of the hosts and to bring word of what bands are
coming in to the hill where Conor, king of Ulster, has set up
his standard. On his return at nightfall there follows a long,
minute, and tedious account, something like the list of ships in
the Iliad, only broken by the questions of Meve and Oilioll,
and the answers of Fergus. It contains, however, some pas-
sages of interest. The scout describes the arrival of twenty-
nine different armaments around their respective chiefs at the
hill where King Conor is encamping. Incidentally he gives
us descriptions of characters of interest in the Saga-cycle. As
he ends his description of each band and its leaders, Oilioll
turns to Fergus, and Fergus from Mac Roth's description
recognises and tells him who the various leaders are. In this
way we get a glimpse at Sencha, the wise man, the Nestor of
the Red Branch, whose counsel was ever good. " That man,"
said Fergus, " is the speaker and peace-maker of the host of
Ulster, and I pledge my word that it is no cowardly or
unheroic counsel which that man will give to his lord this day,
but counsel of vigour and valour and fight." We see the
arrival of Feirceirtne, the arch-ollav of the Ultonians, of
Cathbadh the Druid, he who had prophesied of D6irdre at her
birth, who was supposed, according to the earliest accounts, to
have been the real father of King Conor, he who weakened
the children of Usnach by his spells ; and we see also Aithirne,

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 337

the infamous and overbearing poet of the Ultonians, about
whom much is related in other tales. " The lakes and rivers,"
said Fergus, " recede before him when he satirises them, and
rise up before him when he praises them." " There are not
many men in life more handsome or more golden-locked than
he," said Mac Roth, "he bears a gleaming ivory [-hiked]
sword in his right hand." With this sword he amuses him-
self, something like the Norman trouvere Taillefer at the battle
of Hastings, by casting it aloft and letting it fall almost on the
heads of his companions but without hurting them. The
arch-druid is described as having scattered whitish-grey hair,
and wearing a purple-blue mantle with a large gleaming
shield and bosses of red brass, and a long iron sword of foreign
look. Conor's leech, Finghin, led a band of physicians to the
field ; " that man could tell," said Fergus, " what a person's
sickness is by looking at the smoke of the house in which he
is." Another hero whom we catch a glimpse of is the mighty
Conall Cearnach, the greatest champion of the north, whose
name was till lately a household word around Dunsevrick, he
who afterwards so bloodily avenged Cuchulain's death, " the
sea over seas, the bursting rock, the furious troubler of hosts,"
as Fergus calls him.

We also see the youth Ere, son of Cairbre Niafer the
High-king, who comes from Tara to assist his grandfather
King Conor. It is curious, however, that in this catalogue
of the Ultonians quite as much space is given to the description
of men whose names are now — so far, at least, as I know —
unknown to us, as to those who often and prominently figure
in our yet remaining stories.

At last the great battle of the Tain comes off, when the men
of Ulster meet the men of Ireland fairly and face to face.
Prodigies of valour are performed on both sides, and Fergus —
who after Cuchulain is certainly the hero of the Tain —
seconded by Oilioll, by Meve, by the Seven Maines, and by
the sons of Magach, drives the Ultonians back on his side of

I

338 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the battle three times. Conor, who is on the other flank,
perceives that the men of his far wing are being broken, and
loudly

" he shouts to the Household of the Red Branch, ' hold ye the place
in the battle where I am, till I go find who it is who has thrice
inclined the battle against us on the north.'

" ' We take that upon ourselves/ said they, ' for heaven is over us,
and earth is under us, and unless the firmament fall down upon the
wave-face of the earth, or the ocean encircle us, or the ground give
way under us, or the ridgy blue-bordered sea rise over the expanse *
of life, we shall give not one inch of ground before the men of Erin
till thou come to us again, or till we be slain/ "

Conor hastens northward and finds himself confronted by
the man he had so bitterly wronged, whose hand had lain
heavy on his province and himself, Fergus, who now comes
face to face with him after so many years. Tremendous are
the strokes of Fergus.

"He smote his three enemy blows upon Conor's shield ' Eochain'
so that the shield screamed thrice upon him, and the three leading
waves of Erin answered it.

" ' Who,' cries Fergus, ' holds his shield against me in this battle ? ' 2
" ' O Fergus/ cried Conor, ' one who is greater and younger and
handsomer, and more perfect than thyself is here, and whose father
and whose mother were better than thine ; one who slew the three
great candles of the valour of the Gaels, the three prosperous sons
of Usnach, in spite of thy guarantee and thy protection, the man
who banished thee out of thy own land and country, the man who
made of it a dwelling-place for the deer and the roe and the foxes,
the man who never left thee as much as the breadth of thy foot of
territory in Ulster, the man who drove thee to the entertainment of
women,3 and the man who will drive thee back this day in the
presence of the men of Erin, [I] Conor, son of Fachtna Fathach,
High-king of Ulster, and son of the High-king of Ireland."

Despite this boasting he would certainly have been slain by
his great opponent had not one of his sons clasped his arms in

r " Tulmuing." See p. 7.

2 I do not think this is rightly translated, but the passage is obscure to me.

3 Alluding to Fergus serving with Queen Meve,

THE TAIN BO CHUAILGNE 339

supplication around Fergus's knees and conjured him not to
destroy Ulster, and Fergus, melted by these entreaties, con-
sented to remain passive if Conor retired to the other wing of
the battle, which he did.

In the meantime Meve had sent away the Dun Bull with
fifty heifers round him and eight men, to drive him to her
palace in Connacht, " so that whoever reached Cruachan
alive, or did not reach it, the Dun Bull of Cuailgne should
reach it as she had promised."

Cuchulain, who had joined the Ultonians, and whose arms
had been taken from him, lest in his enfeebled condition he
should injure himself by taking part in the fray, unable to
bear any longer the look of the battle, the shouting and the
war-cries, rushes into the fight with part of his broken chariot
for a weapon, and performs mighty feats. At length he ceases
to slay at Meve's solicitation, whose life he spares, and the
shattered remnants of her host begin slowly to withdraw
across the ford. " Oilioll draws his shield of protection behind
the host [/.£., covers the rear], Meve draws her shield of
protection in her own place, Fergus draws his shield of pro-
tection, the Maines draw their shield of protection, the sons
of Magach draw their shield of protection behind the host ;
and in this manner they brought with them the men of Erin
across the great ford westward," nor did they cease their retreat
till Meve and her army found themselves at Cruachan in
Connacht, whence they had set out.

The long saga ends with a decided anti-climax, the encounter
between the Dun Bull, whom Meve had carried oflF, and her
own bull, the White-Horned.1 These bulls, according to one

1 The Finnbheannach, pronounced " Fin-van-ach." Both the bulls were
endowed with intelligence. One of the virtues of the Dun Bull was that
neither Bocanachs nor Bananachs nor demons of the glens could come
into one cantred to him. There emanated from him, too, when returning
home every evening, a mysterious music, so that the men of the cantred
where he was, required no other music. The war-goddess herself, the
Mor-rigu, speaks to him.

340 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of the most curious of the short auxiliary sagas to the Tain,
were really rebirths of two men who hated each other during
life, and now fought it out in the form of bulls. When they
caught sight of each other they pawed the earth so furiously
that they sent the sods flying across their shoulders, "they
rolled the eyes in their heads like flames of fiery lightning."
All day long they charged, and thrust, and struggled, and
bellowed, while the men of Ireland looked on, " but when the
night came they could do nothing but be listening to the noises
and the sounds." The two bulls traversed much of Ireland
during that night.1 Next morning the people of Cruachan
saw the Dun Bull coming with the remains of his enemy upon
his horns. The men of Connacht would have intercepted
him, but Fergus, ever generous, swore with a great oath that
all that had been done in the pursuit of the Tain was nothing
to what he would do if the Dun Bull were not allowed to
return to his own country with his kill. The Dun made
straight for his home at Cuailgne in Louth. He drank of the
Shannon at Athlone, and as he stooped one of his enemy's loins
fell off from his horn, hence Ath-luain, the Ford of the Loin.
After that he rushed, mad with passion, towards his home,
killing every one who crossed his way. Arrived there, he set
his back to a hill and uttered wild bellowings of triumph,
until " his heart in his breast burst, and he poured his heart in
black mountains of brown blood out across his mouth."
Thus far the Tain Bo Chuailgne.

1 Every place in Ireland, says the saga, that is called Cluain-na-dtarbh,
Magh-na-dtarbh, Bearna-na-dtarbh, Druim-na-dtarbh, Loch-na-dtarbh, i.e.,
the Bull's meadow, plain, gap, ridge, lake, etc., has its name from them !

CHAPTER XXVII

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN

ALTHOUGH Cuchulain won for himself in this war an imperish-
able fame, yet he was not destined to enjoy it long, for he
perished before arriving at middle age.1 The account of his
death is preserved in the Book of Leinster, a manuscript of
the middle of the twelfth century, which quotes incidentally
from an Irish poet 2 of the seventh century, thus showing that
Cuchulain was at this early age the hero of the poets. Un-
fortunately the opening of the story in the Book of Leinster
is lost, but many modern extensions of the saga still exist, from
one of which in my possession I shall supply what is missing.3

Cuchulain had three formidable enemies, who were bent
upon his life, these were Lughaidh [Lewy] the son of the

1 He died at the age of twenty-seven years, according to the Annals of
Tighearnach, and also according to a note in the Book of Ballymote,
which Charles O'Conor of Belinagare identifies as an extract from the
Synchronisms of Flann of Monasterboice, who died in 1056. But an
account in a MS. H. 3. 17, in Trinity College, Dublin, which was copied
)ut the year 1460, asserts that Cuchulain died in his fifty-ninth year.
>ee O'Curry's MS. Mat., p. 507.)

Cennfaelad, son of Ailill.
3 This MS., which contains many of the Cuchulain sagas, was copied
)ut a hundred years ago by a scribe named Seaghain O'Mathghamhna
an island in the Shannon,

342 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Momonian king Curigh,1 whom Cuchulain had slain, Ere, the
son of Cairbre Niafer king of all Ireland, who was slain in
the battle of Rosnaree,2 and the descendants of the wizard
Calatin, who with his twenty sons and his son-in-law fell by
Cuchulain in one of the combats at the Ford, during the raid of
the Tain. His wife, however, brought into the world three
posthumous children, daughters.3 These unhappy creatures
Meve mutilated by cutting off their right legs and left arms,
so that they might be odious and horrible, and all the fitter
for the dread profession she proposed for them — evil wizardry.
She reared them carefully, and so soon as they were of a
fitting age she sent them into the world to gain a knowledge
of charms and spells, and druidism, and witchcraft, and incanta-
tions. In pursuit of this knowledge they roamed throughout
the world, and at last returned to the queen as perfect adepts
as might be.

Thereupon she convened a second muster of the men of the
four provinces, and joined by Lewy the son of Curigh, and
Ere the son of Cairbre Niafer, both of whose parents had
fallen by Cuchulain, and having with her the odious but
powerful children of Calatin, eager to avenge the death of
their father and their family, she again marched upon Ulster

1 The older form of this name is Curoi. A detailed account of this saga
is given by Keating. See p. 282 of O'Mahony's edition. The saga is
also told under the title of Aided Conrut, in Egerton 88, British Museum.

2 The saga of the battle of Rosnaree has recently been published with a
translation by Rev. Ed. Hogan, SJ.

3 Some say six children — three daughters and three sons. The MS.
H. i. 8, in Trinity College, which dates from about 1460, according to
O'Curry, relates thus : " And the sons of Cailitin were eight years after
the Tain before they went to pursue their learning, for they were but
infants in cradles at the time their father was killed. Nine years for them
after that pursuing their learning. Seven years after finishing their
learning was spent in making their weapons, because there could be
found but one day in the year to make their spears. And three years
after that did the sons of Cailitin spend in assembling and marching
the men of Erin to Belach Mic Uilc in Magh Muirtheimhne (Cuchulain 's
patrimony)."

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 343

during the sickness of their warriors, and began to plunder
and to burn and to drive away a mighty prey. King Conor
immediately surmised that it was against Cuchulain the
expedition was prepared, and without a moment's delay he
depatched Lavarcam his female messenger, to desire him
instantly to leave his palace and his patrimony at Dundealgan *
in the plain of Muirtheimhne, and come to himself at Emania,
there to be under the King's immediate orders. This command
he gave, thinking to rescue Cuchulain from the possible effects
of his own valour and rashness, for there was scarcely a man
of distinction in any of the four provinces of Erin some of
whose relatives had not been slain by him.

Lavarcam found the hero upon the shore, between sea and
land, intent upon the slaying of sea-fowl with his sling, but
though birds many flew over him and past him, not one could
he bring down — they all escaped him. And this was to him
the first bad omen. Very reluctantly did he obey the call of
Conor, and sorely loath was he to leave his patrimony. He
accompanied Lavarcam, however, to Emania, and abode there
in his own bright-lighted crystal grianan. Then Conor con-
sulted with his druids as to how best to keep him there, and
they sent the bright ladies of Emania, and his wife Emer, and
the poets and the musicians, and the men of science, to sur-
round and distract and amuse him, with conversation and
music and banquets.

In the meantime, however, Meve's army had advanced upon
and burned Dundealgan, and the children of Calatin had
promised that within three days and three nights they would
bring Cuchulain to his doom.

And now ensues what is to my mind one of the most
powerful incidents in all this saga — the malignant ghoulish
efforts of the children of Calatin to draw forth Cuchulain
from his place of safety, and on the other side the anxiety of
the druids and ladies, and the frenzied heart-sick efforts of his
1 Now Dundalk in the County Louth.

344 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

wife, and his mistress, to detain him. The loathsome wizards
flew through the air and stationed themselves upon the plain
outside Emania —

"They smote the soil and beat and tore it up around them, so that
they made of fuz-balls, and of stalks of sanna, and of the fine foliage
of the oaks, as it were ordered battalions, and hosts, and multitudes
of men, and the confused shoutings of the battalions and of the war-
bands, and the battle array, were heard on all sides, as it were
striking and attacking the fortress."

Geanan the druid, the son of old Cathbadh, was watching
Cuchulain this day. As soon as the sounds of war and shout-
ing reached him Cuchulain rose and "looked forth, and he saw
the battalions smiting each other unsparingly," as he thought,
and he burned at once with fury and shame ; but the druid
cast his two arms round him in time to prevent him from
bursting forth to relieve the apparently foe-beleaguered town.
Over and over again must the druid assure him that all he saw
was blind-work and magic, and unreal phantoms, employed by
the clan Calatin to lure him forth to his destruction.1 It was
impossible, however, to keep Cuchulain from at least looking,
and, the next time he looked forth,

" he thought he beheld the battalions drawn up upon the plains,
and the next time he looked after that he thought he saw Gradh
son of Lir upon the plain, and it was a gets (tabu) to him to see that,
and then he thought moreover that he heard the harp of the son of
Mangur playing musically, ever-sweetly, and it was a gets to him to
listen to those pleasing fairy sounds, and he recognised from these
things that his virtue was indeed overcome, and that his geasa
(tabus) were broken, and that the end of his career had arrived,
and that his valour and prowess were destroyed by the children of
Calatin."

After that one of the daughters of the wizard Calatin,

1 " Ni bhfuil acht saobh-lucht siabhartha arm sud, sian-sgarrtha duaibh-
siocha draoidheachta do dhealbhadar clann cuirpthe Chailitin go claon-
mhillteach fad' chomhair-se, dod' chealgadh, agus dod' chomh-bhuaidh-
readh, a churaidh chalma chath-bhuadhaigh."

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 345

assuming the form of a crow, came flying over him and
incited him with taunts to go and rescue his homestead and
his patrimony from the hands of his enemies. And although
Cuchulain now understood that these were enchantments that
were working against him, yet was he none the less anxious
to rush forth and oppose them, for he felt moved and troubled
in himself at the shouting of the imaginary hosts, and his
memory, and his senses, and his right mind were afflicted by
the sounds of that ever-thrilling harp.

Then the druid used all his influence, explaining to him
that if he would only remain for three days more in E mania
the spells would have no power, and he would go forth again,
" and the whole world would be full of his victories and his
lasting renown," and thereafter the ladies of Emania and the
musicians closed round him, and they sang sweet melodies,
and they distracted his mind, and the day drew to a close : —
the clan Calatin retired baffled, and Cuchulain was himself
once more.

During that night the ladies and the druids took council
together and determined to carry him away to a glen so remote
and lonely that it was called the Deaf Valley, and to hide him
there, preparing for him a splendid banquet, with music, and
poets, and delights of every kind.

Next morning came the accursed wizards and inspected the
city, and they marvelled that they saw not Cuchulain, and
that he was neither beside his wife, nor yet amongst the other
heroes of the Red Branch. Then they understood that he
had been hidden away by Cathbadh the druid, "and they
raised themselves aloft, lightly and airily, upon a blast of
enchanted wind, which they created to lift them," and went
soaring over the entire province of Ulster to discover his
retreat. This they do by perceiving Cuchulain's grey steed,
the Liath Macha, standing outside at the entrance to the
glen. Then the three begin their wizardry anew, and made,
as it were, battalions of warriors to appear round the glen,

346 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and they raised anew the sounds of arms and the shouts of war
and conflict, as they had done at Emania.

The instant the ladies round Cuchulain heard it they also
shouted, and the musicians struck up — but in vain ; Cuchulain
had caught the sound. They succeeded, however, in calming
his mind, and in inducing him to pay no heed to the false
witcheries of the clan Calatin. These continued for a long
time waiting and filling the air with their unreal battle tumult,
but Cuchulain did not appear. Then they understood that
the druids had been more powerful than they. Mad with
impotent fury one of them enters the glen, and pushes her way
right into the very fortress where Cuchulain was feasting.
Once there she changes herself into the form of the beautiful
Niamh [Nee-av], Cuchulain's love and sweetheart. First she
stood at the door in the likeness of an attendant damsel, and
beckoned to the lady to come to her outside. Niamh, think-
ing she has something to communicate, follows her through
the door and out into the valley, and the other ladies follow
Niamh. Instantly she raises an enchanted fog between them
and the dun, so that they wander astray, and their minds are
troubled. But she, assuming the form of the lady Niamh her-
self, slips back into the fortress, comes to Cuchulain, and cries
to him : " Up, O Cuchulain, and meet the men of Erin, or
thy fame shall be lost for ever, and the province shall be
destroyed." At this speech Cuchulain is astounded, for Niamh
had bound him by an oath that he would not go forth or take
arms until she herself should give him leave, and this leave he
never thought to receive or her until the fatal time was over.
" I shall go," said Cuchulain, "and that is a pity, O Niamh,"
said he, " and after that it is difficult to trust to woman, for
I had thought thou hadst not given me that leave for the gold
of the world, but since it is thou who dost let me go to face
the men of Erin, I shall go." After that he rose and left the
dun. " I have no reason for preserving my life longer," said
Cuchulain, " for the end of my time is come, and all my

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 347

geasa (tabus) are lost, and Niamh has let me go to face the
men of Erin ; and since she has let me, I shall go."

Afterwards the real Niamh overtakes him at the entrance to
the glen, and assured him with torrents of tears, and wild sobs,
that it was not she who had given him leave, but the vile
enchantress who had assumed her form, and she conjured him
with prayers and piteous entreaties to remain with her. But
Cuchulain would not believe her, and urged Laeg to catch his
steeds and yoke them, for he thought that he beheld —

"The great battle-battalions ranged upon the green of Emania,
and the whole plain filled up and crowded with broad bands of
hundreds of men, with champions, and steeds, and arms, and
armour, and he thought he heard the awful shoutings, and [saw]
the burnings extending, widely-let-loose through the buildings
of Conor's city, and him-seemed that there was nor hill nor
rising ground about Emania that was not full of spoils, and it
appeared to him that Emer's sunny-house was overthrown and had
fallen out over the ramparts of Emania, and that the House of the
Red Branch was in one blaze, and that all Emania was one meeting-
place of fire, and of black, dark, spacious, brown-red smoke." x

Then Cuchulain's brooch fell from his hand and pierced his
foot, another omen of ill. Nor would his noble grey war-horse
allow himself to be caught. It was only when Cuchulain
addressed him with persuasive words of verse that he consented
to let himself be harnessed to the chariot, and even then " he

1 Up to this I have followed the version of my own modern manuscript.
From this out, however, the version in the twelfth-century Book of Leinster
is used. Monsieur d' Arbois de Jubainville, in his introduction to the fragment
of the saga in the Book of Leinster, seems to think that Emania was really
besieged, and women and children slaughtered round its walls by the
men of Erin, whereas it would appear that the lost part of the saga refers
to some such version as I have given from my manuscript, and that it was
only the wizardry and sorcery of the children of Calatin, who raised these
phantasms. This is the more evident because Cuchulain, when he issues
forth, meets no enemy until he has arrived at the plain of Muirtheimhne.
Jubainville's words are, " Cependant les cris de douleur des femmes et
des enfants qu'on massacrait jusqu'au pied des remparts d'Emain macha
[Emania] parvinrent a son oreille : on en verra un peu plus bas les conse-
quences, dont la derniere fut la mort du heros."

348 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

lets fall upon his fore feet, from his eyes, two large tears of
blood." In vain did the ladies of Emania try to bar his
passage, in vain did fifty queens uncover their bosoms before
him in supplication. " He is the first," says the saga, " of
whom it is recounted that women uncovered before him their
bosoms." J

Thereafter another evil omen overtook him, for as he pursued
the high road leading to the south,

" and had passed the plain of Mogna, he perceived something, three
hags of the half -blind race,2 who were on the track before him cook-
ing a poisoned dog's flesh upon spits of holly. Now it was a gets
(tabu) to Cuchulain to pass a cooking-fire without visiting it and
accepting food. It was another geis to eat of his own name " [i.e., a
hound, he is Cu-Chulain or Culan's hound], "so he pauses not, but
passes the three hags. Then one of them cries to him —

" ' Come, visit us, Cuchulain.'

" ' I shall not visit you,' said Cuchulain.

" ' There is something to eat here/ replied the hag ; ' we have a
dog to offer thee. If our cooking-place were great,' said she, ' thou
wouldst come, but because it is small thou comest not ; a great man
who despises the small, deserves no honour.'

"Cuchulain then moved over to the hag, and she with her left
hand offered him half the dog. Cuchulain ate, and it was with his
left hand he took the piece, and he placed part of it under his left
thigh, and his left hand and his left thigh were cursed, and the curse
reached all his left side, which from his head to his feet lost a great
part of its power."

At last Cuchulain meets the enemy on his ancestral patri-
mony of Moy Muirtheimhne, drawn up in battle array, with
shield to shield as though it were one solid plank that was
around them. Cuchulain displays his feats from his chariot,
especially " his three thunder-feats — the thunder of an hundred,
the thunder of three hundred, the thunder of thrice nine

1 It was geis, or tabu, to him to behold the exposed breast of a woman.
See above, p. 301.
z These are in my version the three daughters of Calatin.

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 349

"He played equally with spear, shield, and sword, he performed
all the feats of a warrior. As many as there are of grains of sand in
the sea, of stars in the heaven, of dewdrops in May, of snowflakes
in winter, of hailstones in a storm, of leaves in a forest, of ears of corn
in the plains of Bregia, of sods beneath the feet of the steeds of Erin
on a summer's day, so many halves of heads, and halves of shields, and
halves of hands and halves of feet, so many red bones were scattered
by him throughout the plain of Muirtheimhne, it became grey with
the brains of his enemies, so fierce and furious was Cuchulain's
onslaught."

The plan which Ere, son of the late High-king Cairbre
Niafer had adopted was to place two men pretending to fight
with one another upon each flank of the army and a druid
standing near who should first make Cuchulain separate the
combatants, and should then demand from him his spear, since
there ran a prophecy to the effect that Cuchulain's spear should
kill a king, but if they could get the spear from him they at
least would be safe from the prophecy ; it would not be one of
them who should be slain by it.

Cuchulain separates the fighters as the druid asks him, by
killing each of them with a blow.

" ' You have separated them/ said the druid, * they shall do each
other no more harm.'

" * They would not be so silenced,' said Cuchulain, ' hadst thou not
prayed me to interfere between them.'

" ' Give me thy spear, O Cuchulain,' said the druid.

" ' I swear by the oath which my nation swears,' said Cuchulain,
'you have no greater need of the spear than I. All the warriors
of Erin are come together against me, and I must defend myself.'

" ' If thou refuse me/ said the druid, ' I shall solemnly utter against
thee a magic curse.'

" ' Up to this time/ replied Cuchulain, ' no curse has ever been
levelled against me for any act of refusal on my part.' "

And with that he reversed his spear and threw it at the druid
butt foremost, killing him and nine more. Lewy, the son of
Curigh, immediately picked it up.

" ' Whom,' said he to the children of Calatin, ' is this to
overthrow ? '

350 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" ' It is a king whom that spear shall slay,' said they.

Lewy hurled it at Cuchulain's chariot, and it pierced Laeg,
his charioteer.

Cuchulain bade his charioteer farewell.

" c To-day,' said Cuchulain, * I shall be both warrior and
charioteer.' "

The same incident happens again. Cuchulain kills the second
druid in the same way, and his spear is picked up by Ere.

" ' Children of Calatin,' said Ere, ' what exploit shall this spear
perform ? '

" ' It shall overthrow a king,' said they.

" ' You said this spear would overthrow a king when Lewy hurled
it some time ago/ said Ere.

" ' Nor were we deceived,' said they, ' that spear has brought down
the king of the charioteers of Ireland, Laeg, the son of Riangabhra,
Cuchulain's charioteer.' "

Ere hurls the spear and it passes through the side of Cuchu-
lain's noble steed, the Liath Macha. Cuchulain took a fond
farewell of the animal who galloped with half the yoke around
its neck to the lake from whence he had first taken it, on the
mountain of Fuad in far-off Armagh.

The third time a druid demands his spear, and is killed by
Cuchulain, who throws it to him handle foremost. The spear
is picked up this time by Lewy son of Curigh.

" ' What feat shall this spear perform, ye children of Calatin ? '
said Lewy.

" ' It shall overthrow a king,' said they.

" ' Ye said as much when Ere hurled it this morning,' answered
Lewy.

" ' Yes,' answered the children of Calatin, ' and our word was true.
The spear which Ere hurled has wounded mortally the king of the
steeds of Ireland, the Liath Macha.'

" ' I swear then/ said Lewy, ' by the oath which my nation swears,
that Erc's blow smote not the king which this spear is to slay.' "

Then Lewy hurls the spear, and this time pierces Cuchulain
through the body, and Cuchulain's other steed burst the yoke

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 351

and rushed off and never ceased till he, too, had plunged into the
lake from which Cuchulain had taken him in far-off Munster.1
Cuchulain remained behind, dying in his chariot. With difficulty
and holding in his entrails with one hand, he advanced to a
little lake hard by, and drank from it, and washed off his blood.
Then he propped himself against a high stone a few yards from
the lake, and tied himself to it with his girdle. " He did not
wish to die either sitting or lying, it was standing," says the
saga, " that he wished to meet death."

But his grey steed, the Liath Macha,2 returned once more to
defend his lord, and made three terrible charges, scattering with
tooth and hoof all who would approach the stone where Cuchu-
lain was dying. At last a bird was seen to alight upon his
shoulder. " Yon pillar used not to be a settling place for birds,"
said Ere. They knew then that he was dead. Lewy, the son
of Curigh, seized him by the back hair and severed his head
from his body.

But Cuchulain was too important an epic hero to thus finish
with him. Another very celebrated, but probably later Epopee
tells of how his friend Conall Cearnach pursued the retreating
army and exacted vengeance for his death. A brief digest of
Conall's revenge is contained in the Book of Leinster, but modern
copies of much longer and more literary versions exist, and there
was no more celebrated poem amongst the later Gael than that

1 The belief in water-horses is quite common even still amongst the old
people in all parts of Connacht, and, I think, over the most of Ireland.

2 With the Liath Macha so renowned throughout the whole Cuchulain
saga compare Areion, the celebrated steed of Adrastus, who saved his
master at the rout of the Argeian chiefs round Thebes. The Liath Macha
returns to the water from whence it came, and Areion, too, was believed
to have been the offspring of Poseidon. He is alluded to by Nestor in the
Iliad xxiii. 346 :

OVK ea9' og KB ff'eXyat fJaraX^voQ ovdt irapeXQy,
ovd' et Kev /uer67rt<£<r0ei> 'Apeiova <hov eXavvoi,
'ASprjarov ra^vv 'ITTTTOV og «K Qtofyiv y'tvog ijev.

He appears, however, to have been black not grey. Hesiod alludes to him

as p.kyav ITTTTOV Aptiova Kvavo^aiTtiv.

352 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

called the Lay of the Heads in which Conall Cearnach returns to
Emer, Cuchulain's wife, to Emania, with a large bundle of heads
strung upon a gad, or withy-wand, thrust through their mouths
from cheek to cheek, and there explains in a lay to Emer who
they were.

In the ancient version in the Book of Leinster it is only
Lewy who is slain by Conall. In my more modern recension
he slays Ere and the children of Calatin as well, and recovers
the head of Cuchulain, which he found being used as a football
by two men near Tara. " If this city," said he of Tara,
"were Erc's own lordship and patrimony I would burn it
down, but since it is the very navel and meeting-point of the
men of Ireland, I shall affront it no more."

Emer's joy and her grief on recovering her husband's head are
touchingly described.

"She washed clean the head and she joined it on to its body, and
she pressed it to her heart and her bosom, and fell to lamenting and
heavily sorrowing over it, and began to suck in its blood and to drink
it,1 and she placed around the head a lovely satin cloth. ' Ochone ! '
said she, ' good was the beauty of this head, although it is low this
day, and it is many of the kings and princes of the world would be
keening it if they thought it was like this ; and the men who demand
gold and treasure, and ask petitions of the men of Erin and Alba
[i.e., the poets and druids] thou wast their one love and their one
choice of the men of the earth, and woe for me that I remain behind
this day ; for there was not of the women of Erin, nor in the whole
great world, a woman mated with a husband, or unmated, not a single
one, who, until this day, was not envious of me ; for many were the
goods and jewels and rents and tributes from the countries of the world
that thou broughtest to me, with the valour and strength of thy
hand,' and she took his hand in hers and fell to making lamentations
over it, and to telling of its fame and its exploits, and 't was what
she said, 'Alas !' said she, ' it is many of the kings and of the chieftains
and of the strong men of the world that fell by this hand, and it is

1 " Do rinne an ceann do niamhghlanadh agus do chuir ar a chollain fein e,
agus do dhruid re na h-ucht agus n-a h-urbhruinne e, agus do ghaibh ag
tuirse agus ag trom-mheala os a chionn, agus do ghaibh ag sughadh a
choda fola agus ag a h-6l," etc. This was to express affection. Deirdre
does the same when her husband is slain, she laps his blood.

THE DEATH OF CUCHULAIN 353

many of the goods and treasures of this world that were scattered
by it upon poets and men of knowledge,' and she spake the lay,

" ' Ochone O head, Ochone O head,' " etc.

Afterwards Conall Cearnach arrives with his pile of heads
and planted them carefully "all round about the wide grass-
green lawn " upon pointed sticks, and relates to Emer who they
were and how they fell.1

"Thereafter," says the saga, "Emer desired Conall to make
a wide very deep tomb for Cuchulain," and she laid herself
down in it along with her gentle mate, and she set her mouth
to his mouth, and she spake —

" ' Love of my soul,' she said, ' O friend, O gentle sweetheart, and
O thou one choice of the men of the earth, many is the woman
envied me thee until now, and I shall not live after thee ; ' and her
soul departed out of her, and she herself and Cuchulain were laid in
the one grave by Conall, and he raised their stone over their tomb,
and he wrote their names in Ogam, and their funeral games were
performed by him and by the Ultonians.

"THUS FAR THE RED ROUT OF CONALL CEARNACH."

1 This is the celebrated Laoi na gceann, or Lay of the Heads, which
begins by Emer asking —

" A Chonaill cia h-iad na cinn ?

Is dearbh linn gar dheargais h-airm,
Na cinn o tharla ar an ngad
Slointear leat na fir d'ar baineadh."

It was popular in the Highlands also. There is a copy in the book of the
Dean of Lismore, published by Cameron in his " Reliquiae Celticae," vol. i.
p. 66. Also in the Edinburgh MSS. 36 and 38. See ibid. pp. 113 and 115.
The piece consists of n6 lines. The oldest form of Emer's lament over
Cuchulain, " Nuallguba Emire," is in the Book of Leinster, p. 123, a. 20.
It is a kind of unrhymed chant. The lament I have given is from my
own modern manuscript.

CHAPTER XXVIII

OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH

ANOTHER saga belonging to this cycle affords so curious a
picture of pagan customs that it is worth while to give here
some extracts from it. This is the story of Mac Datho's Pig
and Hound, which is contained in the Book of Leinster, a
MS. copied about the year 1150. It was first published with-
out a translation by Windisch in his " Irische Texte," from the
Book of Leinster copy collated with two others. It has since
been translated by Kuno Meyer from a fifteenth-century
vellum.1 The story runs as follows.

Mac Datho was a famous landholder in Leinster, and he
possessed a hound so extraordinarily strong and swift that it
could run round Leinster in a day. All Ireland was full of
the fame of that hound, and every one desired to have it. It
struck Meve and Oilioll, king and queen of Connacht, to
send an embassy to Mac Datho to ask him for his hound, at
the same time that the notion came to Conor, king of Ulster,
that he also would like to possess it. Two embassies reach
Mac Datho's house at the same time, the one from Connacht
and the other from Ulster, and both ask for the hound for their
respective masters. Mac Datho's house was one of those open

1 " Hibernica Minora," p. 57, from Rawlinson B. 512, in the Bodleian
Library. I have followed his excellent translation nearly verbatim.
354

OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH 355

hostelries T of which there were five at that time in Ireland.

" Seven doors," says the saga, " there were in each hostelry, seven
roads through it, and seven fireplaces therein. Seven caldrons in
the seven fireplaces. An ox and a salted pig would go into each of
these caldrons, and the man that came along the road would (i.e.,
any traveller who passed the way was entitled to) thrust the flesh
fork into the caldron, and whatever he brought up with the first
thrust, that he would eat, and if nothing were brought up with the
first thrust there was no other for him."

The messengers are brought before Mac Datho to his bed,
and questioned as to the cause of their coming.

"'To ask for the hound are we come,' said the messengers of
Connacht, ' from Oilioll and from Meve, and in exchange for it there
shall be given three score hundred milch cows at once, and a chariot
with the two horses that are best in Connacht under it, and as much
again at 'the end of the year besides all that.'

" ' We, too, have come to ask for it,' said the messengers of Ulster,
' and Conor is no worse a friend than Oilioll and Meve, and the same
amount shall be given from the north (i.e., from the Ultonians) and
be added to, and there will be good friendship from it continually.'

" Mac Datho fell into a great silence, and was three days and
nights without sleeping, nor could he eat food for the greatness
of his trouble, but was moving about from one side to another. It
was then his wife addressed him and said, ' Long is the fast in
which thou art,' said she; 'there is plenty of food by thee, though
thou dost not eat it.'

" And then she said —

" Sleeplessness was brought
To Mac Datho into his house.
There was something on which he deliberated
Though he speaks to none.3

He turns away from me to the wall,
The Hero of the Fene of fierce valour,
His prudent wife observes
That her mate is without sleep."

A dialogue in verse follows. The wife advises her husband

1 In Old Irish, Bruiden ; in modern, Bruidhean (Bree-an).

2 " TucacHurbaid chotulta / do Mac Datho co a thech.

Ros boi ni no chomairled / cen co labradar fri nech."

356 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

to promise the hound to both sets of messengers. In his
perplexity he weakly decides to do this. After the messengers
had stayed with him for three nights and days, feasting, he
called to him first the envoys of Connacht and said to them —

" ' I was in great doubt and perplexity, and this is what is grown
out of it, that I have given the hound to Oilioll and Meve, and let
them come for it splendidly and proudly, with as many warriors
and nobles as they can get, and they shall have drink and food and
many gifts besides, and shall take the hound and be welcome/

" He also went with the messengers of Ulster and said to them,
' After much doubting I have given the hound to Conor, and let him
and the flower of the province come for it proudly, and they shall
have many other gifts and you shall be welcome/ But for one and
the same day he made his tryst with them all."

Accordingly on the appointed day the warriors and men of
each province arrive at his hostelry in great state and pomp.

"He himself went to meet them and bade them welcome. "Tis
welcome ye are, O warriors,' said he, ' come within into the close/

" Then they went over, and into the hostelry ; one half of the
house for the men of Connacht and the other half for the men of
Ulster. That house was not a small one. Seven doors in it and
fifty beds between (every) two doors. Those were not faces of
friends at a feast, the people who were in that house, for many of
them had injured other. For three hundred years before the
birth of Christ there had been war between them.1

" ' Let the pig be killed for them/ said Mac Datho."

This celebrated pig had been fed for seven years on the
milk of three score milch cows, and it was so huge that it took
sixty men to draw it when slain. Its tail alone was a load for
nine men.

" < The pig is good,' " said Conor, king of Ulster.

" c It is good/ " said Oilioll, king of Connacht.

Then there arose a difficulty about the dividing of the pig.
As in the case of the " heroes bit " the best warrior was to

1 But especially since Fergus mac Roigh or Roy had deserted Ulster
and gone over to Connacht on the death of Deirdre.

OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH 357

divide it. King Oilioll asked King Conor what they should
do about it, when suddenly the mischievous, ill-minded Bricriu
spoke from a chamber overhead and asked, " How should it
be divided except by a contest of arms seeing that all the
valorous warriors of Connacht were there."

" ' Let it be so/ said Oilioll.

" ' We like it well,' said Conor, ' for we have lads in the house
who have many a time gone round the border.'

" ' There will be need of thy lads to-night, O Conor,' said a famous
old warrior from Cruachna Conalath in the west. ' The roads of
Luachra Dedad have often had their backs turned to them (as they
fled). Many, too, the fat beeves they left with me.'

""Twas a fat beef thou leftest with me,' said Munremar
mac Gerrcind, ' even thine own brother, Cruithne mac Ruaidlinde
from Cruachna Conalath of Connacht.'

"'He was no better,' said Lewy mac Conroi, 'than Irloth, son of
Fergus, son of Leite, who was left dead by Echbel, son of Dedad,
at Tara Luachra.'

" ' What sort of man do ye think,' said Celtchair mac Uthechair,
'was Conganchnes, son of (that same) Dedad, who was slain by
myself, and me to strike the head off him ? '

" Each of them brought up his exploits in the face of the other,
till at last it came to one man who beat every one, even Get
mac Magach of Connacht.1

" He raised his prowess over the host, and took his knife in his
hand, and sat down by the pig. ' Now let there be found/ said he,
' among the men of Ireland one man to abide contest with me, or
let me divide the pig.'

" There was not at that time found a warrior of Ulster to stand up
to him, and great silence fell upon them.

" ' Stop that for me, O Laeghaire [Leary] / said Conor, [King of
Ulster, i.e., ' Delay, if you can, Cet's dividing the pig '] .

He is well known in the Ultonian saga. Keating describes him in
history as a " mighty warrior of the Connachtmen, and a fierce wolf
evil to the men of Ulster." It was he who gave King Conor the wound
which, after nine years, he died. He was eventually slain by Conall
irnach as he was returning in a heavy fall of snow from a plundering
ccursion in Ulster, carrying three heads with him. See O'Mahony's
iting, p. 274, and Conall Cearnach was taken up for dead and brought
iway by the Connacht men after the fight, but recovered. This evidently
formed the plot of another saga now I think lost.

358 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" Said Leary, ' It shall not be — Get to divide the pig before the
face of us all ! '

"'Wait a little, Leary,' said Get, 'that thou mayest speak with
me. For it is a custom with you men of Ulster that every youth
among you who takes arms makes us his first goal.1 Thou, too,
didst come to the border, and thus leftest charioteer and chariot
and horses with me, and thou didst then escape with a lance
through thee. Thou shalt not get at the pig in that manner ! '

" Leary sat down upon his couch.

" ' It shall not be,' said a tall, fair warrior of Ulster, coming out of
his chamber above, ' that Get divide the pig.'

"' Who is this?' said Get.

" ' A better warrior than thou,' say all, 'even Angus, son of Hand-
wail of Ulster.'

" ' Why is his father called Hand-wail ? ' said Get.

" ' We know not indeed,' say all.

" ' But I know,' said Get ; ' once I went eastward (i.e., crossed the
border into Ulster), an alarm-cry is raised around me, and Hand-
wail came up with me, like every one else. He makes a cast of a
large lance at me. I make a cast at him with the same lance, which
struck off his hand, so that it was (i.e., fell) on the field before him.
What brings the son of that man to stand up to me ? ' said Get.

" Then Angus goes to his couch.

" ' Still keep up the contest,' said Get, ' or let me divide the

Pig-'

" ' It is not right that thou divide it, O Get,' said another tall, fair

warrior of Ulster.

"'Who is this?' said Get.

" ' Owen Mor, son of Durthacht,' say all, ' king of Fernmag.' *

" ' I have seen him before/ said Get.

" ' Where hast thou seen me,' said Owen.

" ' In front of thine own house when I took a drove of cattle from
thee ; the alarm cry was raised in the land around me, and thou
didst meet me and didst cast a spear at me, so that it stood out of
my shield. I cast the same spear at thee, which passed through thy

1 This is what Cuchulain also does the day he assumes arms for the
first time. The story of his doings on that day and his foray into
Connacht as recited by Fergus to Oilioll and Meve forms one of the most
interesting episodes of the Tain Bo Chuailgne. Every young Ultonian
on assuming arms made a raid into Connacht.

a It was he who, in the oldest version of the Deirdre saga, slew Naoise,
and it was to him Conor made Deirdre over at the end of a year. See
above p. 317.

OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH 359

head and struck thine eye out of thy head, and the men of Ireland
see thee with one eye ever since.'

"He sat down in his seat after that.

" ' Still keep up the contest, men of Ulster/ said Cet, ' or let me
divide the pig.'

" ' Thou shalt not divide it/ said Munremar, son of Gerrcend.

" ' Is that Munremar ? ' said Cet.

" ' It is he/ say the men of Ireland.

"'It was I who last cleaned my hands in thee, O Munremar/
said Cet; 'it is not three days yet since out of thine own land I
carried off three warriors' heads from thee, together with the head
of thy first son.'

" Munremar sat down on his seat.

"'Still the contest/ said Cet, 'or I shall divide the pig.'

" ' Verily thou shalt have it/ said a tall, grey, very terrible warrior
of the men of Ulster.

"'Who is this?' said Cet.

'"That is Celtchair, son of Uithechar/ say all.

" ' Wait a little, Celtchair/ said Cet, ' unless thou comest to strike
me. I came, O Celtchair, to the front of thy house. The alarm was
raised around me. Every one went after me. Thou comest like
every one else, and going into a gap before me didst throw a spear
at me. I threw another spear at thee, which went through thy
loins, nor has either son or daughter been born to thee since."

" After that Celtchair sat down on his seat.

" ' Still the contest/ said Cet, ' or I shall divide the pig.'

" ' Thou shalt have it/ said Mend, son of Sword-heel.

"'Who is this?' said Cet.

" ' Mend/ say all.

" ' What ! deem you/ said Cet, ' that the sons of churls with
nicknames should come to contend with me ? for it was I was the
priest, x who christened thy father by that name, since it is I that
cut off his heel, so that he carried but one heel away with him.
What should bring the son of that man to contend with me ? '

" Mend sat down in his seat.

" ' Still the contest/ said Cet, ' or I shall divide the pig.'

" ' Thou shalt have it/ said Cumscraidh, the stammerer of Macha,
son of Conor.

"'Who is this?'

" ' That is Cumscraidh/ say all.

" He is the makings of a king, so far as his figure goes. ...

This phrase, introduced by a Christian reciter or copyist, need not in
least take away from the genuine pagan character of the whole.

360 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" t Well/ said Get, ' thou madest thy first raid on us. We met on
the border. Thou didst leave a third of thy people with me, and
earnest away with a spear through thy throat, so that no word comes
rightly over thy lips, since the sinews of thy throat were wounded,
so that Cumscraidh, the stammerer of Macha, is thy name ever since.'

" In that way he laid disgrace and a blow on the whole province.

"While he made ready with the pig and had his knife in his
hand, they see Conall Cedrnach [the Victorious], coming towards
them into the house. He sprang on to the floor of the house.
The men of Ulster gave him great welcome. 'Twas then [King]
Conor threw his helmet from his head and shook himself [for
joy] in his own place. 'We are glad/ said Conall, 'that our
portion is ready for us, and who divides for you ? ' said Conall.

"One man of the men of Ireland has obtained by contest the
dividing of it, to wit, Get mac Magach.

" ' Is that true, Get ?' said Conall, ' art thou dividing the pig ?'

There follows here an obscure dialogue in verse between
the warriors.

" ' Get up from the pig, Get/ said Conall.

" ' What brings thee to it ? ' said Get.

"'Truly [for you] to seek contest from me,' said Conall, 'and I
shall give you contest ; I swear what my people swear since I
[first] took spear and weapons, I have never been a day without
having slain a Connachtman, nor a night without plundering, nor
have I ever slept without the head of a Connachtman under my
knee/

" ' It is true,' said Get, ' thou art even a better warrior than I, but if
Anluan mac Magach [my brother] were in the house/ said Get, ' he
would match thee contest for contest, and it is a pity that he is not
in the house this night.'

" ' Aye, is he, though/ said Conall, taking the head of Anluan from
his belt and throwing it at Cet's chest, so that a gush of blood broke
over his lips. After that Conall sat down by the pig and Cet went
from it.

" ' Now let them come to the contest/ said Conall.

" Truly there was not then found among the men of Connacht a
warrior to stand up to him in contest, for they were loath to be slain
on the spot. The men of Ulster made a cover around him with
their shields, for there was an evil custom in the house, the people
of one side throwing stones at the other side. Then Conall pro-
ceeded to divide the pig, and he took the end of the tail in his
mouth until he had finished dividing the pig."

OTHER SAGAS OF THE RED BRANCH 361

The men of Connacht, as might be expected, were not
pleased with their share. The rest of the piece recounts the
battle that ensued both in the hostelry, whence " seven streams
of blood burst through its seven doors," and outside in the
close or liss after the hosts had burst through the doors, the
death of the hound, the flight of Oilioll and Meve into
Connacht, and the curious adventures of their charioteer.

The Conception of Cuchulain,1 the Conception of Conor,2
the Wooing of Emer, 3 the Death of Conlaoch, 4 the
Siege of Howth,S the Intoxication of the Ultonians,6
Bricriu's Banquet,7 Emer's Jealousy and Cuchulain's Pining,8
the Battle of Rosnaree,9 Bricriu's Feast and the Exile
of the Sons of Dael Dermuit,10 Macha's Curse on the

1 Windisch's "Irische Texte," Erste Serie, 134, and D'Arbois de
Jubainville's " L'epopee Celtique en Irlande," p. 22.
3 D'Arbois de Jubainville's " Epopee Celtique," p. 3.

3 Translated by Kuno Meyer in " Revue Celtique," vol. xi., and " The
Archaeological Review," vol. i., and Jubainvilles' " Epopee Celtique," p. 39.

4 A poem published by Miss Brooke in her " Reliques of Irish Poetry,"
p. 393 of the 2nd Edition of 1816. There are fragmentary versions of it
in the Edinburgh MSS. 65 and 62, published in Cameron's " Reliquiae
Celticae," vol. i. pp. 112 and 161, and in the Sage Pope Collection from the
recitation of a peasant about a hundred years ago, p. 393. The oldest
form of the story is in the Yellow Book of Lecan, and it has been studied
in Jubainville's " Epopee Celtique," p. 52.

s Edited and translated by Stokes in the " Revue Celtique," vol. viii.
p. 49.

6 Translated by Hennessy for Royal Irish Academy, Todd Lecture, Ser. I.

7 The text published by Windisch, " Irische Texte," I. p. 235, and
translated by Jubainville in " Epopee Celtique," p. 81.

8 The text published by Windisch, " Irische Texte,' I. p. 197, and by
O'Curry in " Atlantis," vol. i. p. 362, with translation, and by Gilbert and
O'Looney in " Facsimiles of National MSS. of Ireland." Translated into
French by MM. Dottin, and Jubainville in "Epopee Celtique en Irlande,"
p. 174.

9 Translated and edited by Rev. Edward Hogan, S.J., for the Royal
Irish Academy, Todd, Lecture Series, vol. iv.

10 The text edited by Windisch, " Irische Texte, Serie II., i. Heft, p.
164, and translated by M. Maurice Grammont, in Jubainville's " Epopee
Celtique en Irlande," p. 150.

362 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Ultonians,1 the Death of King Conor,2 the Wooing of
Ferb,3 the Cattle Spoil of Dartaid,4 the Cattle Spoil of
Flidais,4 the Cattle Spoil of Regamon,4 the Tain be Aingen,
the Tain Bo Regamna^ the Conception of the two Swine-
herds,5 the Deaths of Oilioll (King of Connacht) and Conall
Cearnach,6 the Demoniac Chariot of Cuchulain,7 the Cattle
Spoil of Fraich,8 are some of the most available of the
many remaining sagas belonging to this cycle.

1 Translated and edited by Windisch, "Dans les comptes rendus de la
classe de philosophic et d' histoire de 1' Academic royale des sciences de
Saxe," says M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, who gives a translation from
Windisch's text at p. 320 of his " Epopee Celtique."

2 Edited and translated by O'Curry in Lectures on the MS. Mat. p.
637, and again by D'Arbois de Jubainville.

3 Edited and translated by Windisch in " Irische Texte," Dritte Serie,
Heft II., p. 445.

* These are short introductory stories to the Tain Bo Chuailgne ;
they have been edited and translated by Windisch in " Irische Texte,"
Zweite Serie, Heft II., p. 185-255.

s Edited and translated by Windisch, " Irische Texte," Dritte Serie,
Heft I., p. 230, and translated into English by Alfred Nutt, in his " Voyage
of Bran," vol. ii. p. 58.

6 Translated and edited by Kuno Meyer in the " Zeitschrift fiir Celtische
Philologie," I Band, Heft I., p. 102.

7 Edited by O'Beirne Crowe in the "Journal of the Royal Historical
and Archaeological Association of Ireland," Jan., 1870.

8 Edited by O'Beirne Crowe in " Proceedings of the Royal Irish
Academy," 1871.

CHAPTER XXIX

THE FENIAN CYCLE

CUCHULAIN'S life and love and death entranced the ears of
the great for many centuries, and into hundreds of bright eyes
tears of pity had for a thousand years been conjured up by the
pathetic tones of bards reciting the fate of her who perished
for the son of Usnach. The wars of Meve and of Conor
mac Nessa were household words in the hall of Muirchertach
of the leather cloaks, and in the palace at the head of the weir
— Brian Boru's Kincora. Whosoever loved what was great
in conception, and admired the broad sweep of the epic called
upon his bards to recite the loves, the wars, the valour, and
the deaths of the Red Branch knights.1

But there was yet another era consecrated in story-telling,
another age of history peopled by other characters, in which
the households of many chieftains and some even of the chiefs
themselves delighted. These are pictured in the romances that
were woven around Conn of the Hundred Battles, his son Art

1 Moore's genius has stereotyped amongst us the term Red Branch
knight, which, however, has too much flavour of the mediaeval about it.
The Irish is curadh, "hero." The Irish for " Knight " in the appellations
White Knight, Knight of the Glen, etc., is Ridire (pronounced " Rid-ir-yS,"
in Connacht sometimes corruptly " Rud-ir-ya "), which is evidently the
mediaeval "Ritter," i.e., Rider.

364 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the Lonely, his grandson Cormac mac Art, and his great-
grandson Cairbre of the Liffey. This cycle of romance may
be called the " Fenian " Cycle, as dealing to some extent with
Finn mac Cumhail and his Fenian1 militia, or the " Ossianic "
Cycle since Ossian, Finn's son, is supposed to have been the
author of many of the poems which belong to it.

In point of time — as reckoned by the Irish annalists and
historians — the men of the Fenian Cycle lived something over
two hundred years later than those of the Cuchulain era2 and
in none of the romances do we see even the faintest confusion
or sign of intermingling the characters belonging to the
different cycles. One of the surest proofs — if proof were
needed — that Macpherson's brilliant " Ossian " had no Gaelic

1 Moore helped to bring this word into common use under the form of
Finnian in his melody, " The wine-cup is circling in Alvin's hall." It is
probable that he derived the word from Finn, and meant by it " followers
of Finn mac Cool." The Irish word is Fiann (pronounced " Fee-an ") and
has nothing to do with Finn mac Cumhail. In the genitive it is na Feine
(na Fayna). It is a noun of multitude, and means the Fenian body in
general. The individual Fenian was called Feinnidhe, i.en a member of
the Fenian force. The bands of militia were called Fianna [Fee-an-a],
The word is declined An Fhiann, na Fcinnc, do'n Fheinn [In Eean, na
Fayn-a, don Aen] and fts resemblance to the proper name Finn is only
accidental. The English translation of Keating made early in the last
century, by Dermot O'Conor, does not use the term " Fenian" at all, but
translates the word by "Irish Militia." Nor does O'Halloran, in 1778-
when he published his history, seem to have known the term. The first
person who appears to have used it is Miss Brooke, as early as 1796 : in
her translation of some Ossianic pieces, I find the lines —

" He cursed in rage the Fenian chief
And all the Fenian race."

I have been told that Macpherson had already used the word, but I have
looked carefully through his Ossian and have not been able to find it.
Halliday in his edition of Keating, in 1808, talks in a foot-note of " Fenian
heroes." It was John O'Mahony the head-centre of the Irish Republican
Brotherhood, a brilliant Irish scholar and translator of Keating, who
succeeded in perpetuating the ancient historic memory by christening the
" men of '68 " the " Fenians."

3 Cormac mac Art came to the throne, A.D. 227, according to the " Four
Masters " ; A.D. 213, according to Keating.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 365

original, is the way in which the men and events of the two
separate cycles are jumbled together.

As the war between Ulster and Connacht, which followed
the death of the children of Usnach, is the great historic event
which serves as basis to so many of the Red Branch romances,
so the principal thread of history round which many of the
Fenian stories are woven, is the gradual and slowly increasing
enmity which proclaimed itself between the High-kings of
Erin and their Fenian cohorts, resulting at last in the battle of
Gabhra, the fall of the High-king, and the destruction of the
Fenians.

Thus in the battle of Cnucha is related how Cumhail x
[Cool], the father of Finn, made war upon Conn of the
Hundred Battles because he had raised Criomhthan of the
Yellow Hair to the throne of Leinster, and how he obtained
the aid of the Munster princes in the war. At the battle of
Cnucha or Castleknock, near Cool's rath — now Rathcoole
some ten miles from Dublin — Cool was routed and slain by
the celebrated Connacht champion Aedh mac Morna, who
lost an eye in the battle and was thenceforth called Goll
(or the blind)2 mac Morna. Many of the Munster Fenians
followed Cool in this battle, and we find here the broadening
rift between the Fenians of Munster and of Connacht which
ultimately tended to bring about the dissolution of the whole
body.

Again we find in the fine tale called the Battle of Moy
Muchruime how Finn, through spite at his father Cool being
thus killed by Conn of the Hundred Battles, kept out of the
way when Conn's son Art was fighting the great battle of
Moy Muchruime and gave him no assistance.

And again it was partly because Finn kept out of the way
on that occasion that Conn's great-grandson fought the battle

1 See p. 258, note i.

a The word is long obsolete. Goll is a stock character in Fenian
folk-lore, a kind of Ajax.

366 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of Gabhra against Finn's son Ossian and his grandson Oscar, a
battle which put an end to Fenian power for ever.

Of many of these tales we find two redactions, that of the
old vellum MSS. and that of the modern paper ones, the latter
being as a rule much longer and more decorative. Here, for
instance, is the later version of one passage out of many which
is slurred over or disregarded in the old one1 ; it is the sailing of
Cumhail, Finn's father, to Ireland to take the throne of Leinster.
I translate this from a modern manuscript of the battle of
Cnucha, in my own possession, as a good instance of the
decorative, and in places inflated style of the later redactions
of many of the Fenian sagas.

THE SAILING OF CUMHAIL.

" Now the place where Cumhail chanced to be at that time was
between the islands of Alba and the deserts of Fionn-Lochlan, for
he was hunting and deer-stalking there. And the number of those
who were with the over-throwing hero Cumhail in that place, was thrice
fifty champions of his own near men. And he heard at that time
that his country was left without any good king to defend it, and that
Cathaoir Mor [king of Leinster] had fallen in the pen of battle, and
that there was no hero to keep the country. Thereupon, those
chieftains were of a mind to proceed unto the isolated green isle of
Erin, there to maintain with valour and might the red-hand province
of Leinster. And joyfully they proceeded straight forwards towards
their ship.2

" And there they quickly and expeditiously launched the towering,

1 Contained in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, a volume copied about the
year noo, and printed in "Revue Celtique," vol. ii. p. 86.

2 With this thunderous description, all sound and fury, and signifying
very little, compare the Homeric description of a like scene, clear, accurate,
cut like a gem :

rolcriv d'iKfj,£vov ofipov t« e«ca£pyo

ol d'iarbv arrjaavT', ava 9' iaria XSVKU

kv d'dvep.0£ irprjaev (Jisaov iariov, afityi fit KVfJia

CTttpy Tt'opQvptov fieydX' ta%e, vrjog iovar\Q'

'TJ d' tOezv Kara Kyjua, diaTrpfjGcrovaa KsXevOa.

ILIAD I., p. 480.

But the Irish passage, though quoted here to exemplify a common
feature of the Fenian tales, really dates from a time of decadence.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 367

wide-wombed, broad-sailed bark, the freighted full-wide, fair-broad,
firm-roped vessel, and they grasped their shapely well-formed broad-
bladed, well-prepared oars, and they made a powerful sea-great,
dashing, dry-quick rowing over the broad hollow-deep, full-foamed,
pools [of the sea], and over the vast-billowed, vehement, hollow-
broken rollers, so that they shot their shapely ships under the
penthouse of each fair rock in the shallows nigh to the rough-
bordered margin of the Eastern lands, over the unsmooth, great-
forming, lively-waved arms of the sea, so that each fierce, broad,
constant-foaming, bright-spotted, white-broken drop that the heroes
left upon the sea-pool with that rapid rowing, formed [themselves]
like great torrents upon soft mountains.

" When that valiant powerful company perceived the moaning of
the loud billow-waves and the breaking forth of the ocean from her
barriers, and the swelling of the abyss from her places, and the loud
convulsion of the sea from her smooth streams, it was then they
hoisted the variegated, tough-cordaged, sharp-pointed mast with
much speed. And when the great foundation-blasts of the angry
wind touched the even upright-standing, sword-straight masts, and
when the huge-flying, loud-voiced, broad-bordered sails swallowed
the wind attacking them suddenly with sharp voice, that stout,
strong, active, powerful crew rose up promptly and quickly, and
every one went straight to his work with speed and promptitude, and
they stretched forth their ready courageous, white-coloured, brown-
nailed hands most valiantly to the tackling, till they let the wind in
loud, sharp, fast, voice-bursts into the shrouds of the mast, so that
the ship gave an eager, very quick, vigorous leap forward, right
straight into the salt-ocean, till they arrived in the delightfully-clear,
cold-pooled, querulously- whistling, joyfully-calling reaches of the
sea, and the dark sea rose speedily around them in desperate-daring
floodful doisleana, in hardly-separated ridges and in rough-grey,
proud-tongued, gloomy-grim, blue-capacious valleys, and in im-
petuous shower-topped wombs [of water] ; and the great merriment
of the cold wind was answered by the chieftains, strong-workingly,
stout-enduringly, truly-powerfully, and they proceeded to manage
and attend the high-ocean, until at last the strong and powerful sea
overcame the intention of the high wind, and the murmur and giddy
voice of the deep was humbled by that great rowing, till the sea became
restful, smooth, and very calm behind them, until they took port and
harbour at Inver Cholpa, which is at this time called Drogheda."

The stories about Cormac mac Art, his grandfather Conn
of the Hundred Battles, and his son Cairbre of the Liffey,

368 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

which are numerous, are mostly more or less connected with
the Fenians, and may, as they deal with the same era and the
same characters, be conveniently classed along with the Fenian
sagas. One of the best known of these sagas is the Battle of
Moy Leana1 in which Conn of the Hundred Battles slew his
rival Owen, who had forced from him half his kingdom.
Owen had lived for six years in Spain, and had married a
daughter of the Spanish king. At the end of this time he
was seized with great home-sickness and he proposed to
return to Ireland. When his father-in-law heard this, he said
to him : —

" If that Erin of which you speak, Owen, were a thing easily
moved, we would deem it easier to send the soldiers and
warriors of Spain with you thither to cut it from its foundation
and lay it on wheels and carry it after our ships and place it a
one angle of Spain " — a grandiloquent speech which Owen did
not relish ; " He did not receive it with satisfaction, and it was
not sweet to him," says the saga.

The King perceived this however, and offered him just what
he wanted, two thousand warriors to help him and his exiles in
acquiring the kingdom. The account of their embarcation
and voyage is perhaps as good a specimen of exaggerated
verbosity and of the rhetoric of the professed story-teller as
any other in these sagas, which abound with such things,
and it is perhaps worth while to give it at length. It will
be seen that the story-teller or prose-poet, passes everything
through the prism of his imagination, and aided by an extra-
ordinary exuberance of vocabulary and unbounded wealth ot
alliterative adjectives, wraps the commonest objects in a hur-
ricane of — to use his own phrase — " misty-dripping " epithet.
The Battle of Moy Leana is recorded in the Annals of Ulster,
by Flann in the eleventh century, and by the Book of Leinster,
and no doubt the essence of the saga is very ancient, but the

1 Published by Eugene O'Curry for the Celtic Society. I adhere to his
admirable, and at the same time perfectly literal, translation.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 369

dressing-up of it, and especially the passage I am about to quote,
is, in its style — not to speak of the language which is modern —
almost certainly post-Norman.

THE SAILING OF OWEN MOR.

"Then that vindictive unmerciful host went forward to the
harbours and ports where their vessels and their sailing ships
awaited them ; and they launched their terrible wonderful mon-
sters ; their black, dangerous, many-coloured ships ; their smooth,
proper-sided, steady, powerful scuds, and their cunningly-stitched
Laoidheangs from their beds and from their capacious, full-smooth
places, out of the cool clear-winding creeks of the coast, and from the
calm, quiet, well-shaped, broad-headed harbours, and there were
placed upon every swift-going ship of them free and accurately
arranged tiers of fully-smoothed, long-bladed oars, and they made a
harmonious, united, co-operating, thick-framed, eager-springing,
unhesitating, constant-going rowing against currents and wild
tempests, so that loud, haughty, proud-minded, were the responses
of the stout, fierce-fronted, sportive-topped billows in conversing
with the scuds and beautiful prows."

"The dark, impetuous, proud, ardent waters became as white-
streaked, fierce-rolling, languid-fatigued Leibhiona, upon which to
cast the white-flanked, slippery, thick, straight-swimming salmon,
among the dark-prowling, foamy-tracked heads [of sea monsters]
from off the brown oars.

" And upon that fleet, sweeping with sharp rapidity from the sides
and borders of the territories, and from the shelter of the lands, and
from the calm quiet of the shores, they could see nothing of the
globe on their border near them, but the high, proud, tempestuous
waves of the abyss, and the rough, roaring shore, shaking and
quivering, and the very-quick, swift motion of the great wind
coming upon them, and long-swelling, gross-springing, great billows
rising over the swelling sides of the [sea] valleys, and the savage,
dangerous, shower-crested sea, maintaining its strength against the
rapid course of the vessels over the expanse, until at last it became
exhausted, subdued, drizzling and misty, from the conflict of the
I waves and fierce winds.

" The labouring crews derived increased spirits from the bounding
i of the swift ships over the wide expanse, and the wind coming from
; the rear, directly fair for the brave men, they arose manfully and
t vigorously to their work, and lashed the tough, new masts to the

t< u-™,., o — ,otj^ ample, commodious bulwarks, without weakness,

370 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

without spraining, without overstraining. Those ardent, expert
crews put their hands to the long linen [sails] without shrinking,
without mistake, from Eibhil to Achtuaim, and the swift-going, long,
capacious ships, passed from the hand-force of the warriors, and over
the deep, wet, murmuring pools of the sea, and past the winding,
bending, fierce-showery points of the harbours, and over the high-
torrented, ever-great mountains of the brine, and over the heavy,
listless walls of the great waves, and past the dark, misty-dripping
hollows of the shores, and past the saucy, thick-flanked, spreading,
white-crested currents of the streams, and over the spring-tide, con-
tentions, furious, wet, overwhelming fragments of the cold ocean, until
the sea became rocking like a soft, fragrant, proud-bearing plain, swell-
ing and heaving to the force of the anger and fury of the cold winds.
" The upper elements quickly perceived the anger and fury of the
sea growing and increasing. Woe indeed was it to have stood
between those two powers, the sea and the great wind when mutually
attacking each other, and contending at the sides of strong ships and
stout-built vessels and beautiful scuds. So that the sea was in
showery-tempestuous, growling, wet, fierce, loud, clamorous, dan-
gerous stages after them, whilst the excitement of the murmuring
dark-deeded wind continued in the face and in the sluices of the
ocean from its bottom to its surface. And tremulous, listless, long-
disjointed, quick-shattering, ship-breaking, was the effect of the dis-
turbance, and treacherous the shivering of the winds and the rolling
billows upon the swift barks, for the tempest did not leave them a
plank unshaken, nor a hatch unstarted, nor a rope unsnapped, nor a
nail unstrained, nor a bulwark unendangered, nor a bed unshattered,
nor a lifting uncast-down, nor a mast unshivered, nor a yard untwisted,
nor a sail untorn, nor a warrior unhurt, nor a soldier unterrified, nor
a noble unstunned — excepting the ardour and sailorship of the brave
men who attended to the attacks and howlings of the fierce wind.

" However, now, when the wind had exhausted its valour and had
not received reverence nor honour from the sea, it went forward,
stupid and crestfallen, to the uppermost regions of its residence;
and the sea was fatigued from its roarings and drunken murmurings,
and the wild billows ceased their motions, so that spirit returned to

he nobles and strength to the hosts, and activity to the warriors, and
strength to the champions. And they sailed onwards in that order
without delay or accident until they reached the sheltered smooth

harbour of Cealga and the shore of the island of Greagraidhe."

Who or what the Fenians were, has given rise to the greatest
diversity of opinion. The school of Mr. Nutt and Professor

THE FENIAN CYCLE 371

Rhys would, I fancy, recognise in them nothing but tribal
deities, euhemerised or regarded as men.1 Dr. Skene and Mr.
Mac Ritchie believed that they were an altogether separate
race of men from the Gaels, probably allied to, or identical with,
the Picts of history ; and the latter holds that they are the sidhe
[shee] or fairy folk of the Gaels. The native Irish, on the
other hand, who were perfectly acquainted with the Picts, and
tell us much about them, have always regarded the Fenians as
being nothing more or less than a body of janissaries or standing
troops of Gaelic and Firbolg families, maintained during several
reigns by the Irish kings, a body which tended to become
hereditary. Nor is there in this account anything inherently
impossible or improbable, especially as the Fenian regime
synchronises with a time when the Irish were probably
aggressively warlike. Keating, writing in Irish about the year
1630, gives the traditional account of them as he gathered it
from ancient books and other authorities now lost, and this
certainly preserves some ancient and unique traits. He begins

1 Mr. Nutt seems to believe that the whole groundwork of the Fenian
tales is mythical. His position with regard to them is fairly summed up
in this extract from -his note on Mac Innes' Gaelic stories. " Every Celtic
tribe," he writes, " possessed traditions both mythical and historical, the
former of substantially the same character, the latter necessarily varying.
Myth and history acted and reacted upon each other, and produced heroic
saga which may be defined as myth tinged and distorted by history. The
largest element is as a rule suggested by myth, so that the varying heroic
sagas of the various portions of a race, have always a great deal in common.
These heroic sagas, together with the official or semi-official mythologies
of the pre-Christian Irish are the subject-matter of the Annals. They were
thrown into a purely artificial chronological shape by men familiar with
biblical and classical history. A framework was thus created into which
the entire mass of native legend was gradually fitted, whilst the genealogies
of the race were modelled, or it may be remodelled in accord with it. In
studying the Irish sagas we may banish entirely from our mind all ques-
tions as to the truth of the early portions of the Annals. The subject
matter of the latter is mainly mythical, the mode in which it has been
treated is literary. What residuum of historic truth may still survive can
be but infinitesimal." (See Mr. Nutt's valuable essay on Ossianic or
Fenian Saga in " Waifs and Strays of Celtic Tradition," vol. ii. p. 399.)

372 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

by rejecting the ridiculous stories told about them, such as the
battle of Ventry and the like, as well as the remarks of
Campion and of Buchanan, who in his history of Scotland
had called Finn a giant.

"It is proved," writes Keating, "that their persons were of no
extraordinary size compared with the men that lived in their own
times, and moreover that they were nothing more than members of
a body of buanadha or retained soldiers, maintained by the 1
kings for the purpose of guarding their territories and of upholding
their authority therein. It is thus that captains and soldiers are at
present maintained by all modern kings for the purpose of defending
their rule and guarding their countries.

"The members of the Fenian Body lived in the following manne
They were quartered on the people from November Day till May
Day, and their duty was to uphold justice and to put down injustice
on the part of the kings and lords of Ireland, and also to guard the
harbours of the country from the oppression of foreign invaders
After that, from May till November, they lived by hunting and the
chase, and by performing the duties demanded of them by the kings
of Ireland, such as preventing robberies, exacting fines and tributes,
putting down public enemies, and every other kind of evil that might
afflict the country. In performing these duties they rec
certain fixed pay. . . .

" However, from May till November the Fenians had to contei
themselves with game, the product of their own hunting, as this
fright to hunt] was their maintenance and pay from the kings
of Ireland. That is, the warriors had the flesh of the wild animals
for their food, and the skins for wages. During the whole day, f ror
morning till night they used to eat but one meal, and of this
their wont to partake towards evening. About noon they i
to send whatever game they had killed in the morning by then
attendants to some appointed hill where there were wood and moor
land close by. There they used to light immense fires, into win
they put a large quantity of round sandstones. They next dug two
pits in the yellow clay of the moor, and having set part of the venison
upon spits to be roasted before the fire they bound up the remamdei
with sugans— ropes of straw or rushes— in bundles of sedge, and then
placed them to be cooked in one of the pits they had previously dug.
There they set the stones which they had before this heated in tl
fire round about them, and kept heaping them upon the bundles
meat until they had made them seethe freely, and the meat 1
become thoroughly cooked. From the greatness of these fires it

THE FENIAN CYCLE 373

resulted that their sites are still to be recognised in many parts of
Ireland by their burnt blackness. It is they that are commonly
called Fualachta na bhFiann, or the Fenians' cooking-spots.

" As to the warriors of the Fenians, when they were assembled at
he place where their fires had been lighted, they used to gather
round the second of those pits of which we have spoken above, and
there every man stripped himself to his skin, tied his tunic round his
waist, and then set to dressing his hair and cleansing his limbs, thus
ridding himself of the sweat and soil of the day's hunt. Then they
began to supple their thews and muscles by gentle exercise, loosening
them by friction, until they had relieved themselves of all sense
of stiffness and fatigue. When they had finished doing this they sat
down and ate their meal. That being over, they set about con-
structing their fiann-bhotha or hunting-booths, and preparing their
beds, and so put themselves in train for sleep. Of the following three
materials did each man construct his bed, of the brushwood of the
forest, of moss, and of fresh rushes. The brushwood was laid next
the ground, over it was placed the moss, and lastly fresh rushes were
spread over all. It is these three materials that are designated in our
old romances as the tri Cuilcedha na bhFiann — the three Beddings of
the Fenians."

Every man who entered the Fenian ranks had four geasa
[gassa, i.e., tabus] laid upon him,

" The first, never to receive a portion with a wife, but to choose
er for good manners and virtues ; the second, never to offer violence
any woman ; the third, never to refuse any one for anything he
might possess ; the fourth, that no single warrior should ever flee
before nine [i.e., before less than ten] champions."

There was a curious condition attached to entrance into the
rotherhood which rendered it necessary that

"Both his father and mother, his tribe, and his relatives should
first give guarantees that they should never make any charge against
any person for his death. This was in order that the duty of aveng-
ing his own blood [wounds] should rest with no man other than
himself, and in order that his friends should have nothing to claim
with respect to him however great the evils inflicted upon him."

All the Fenians were obliged to know the rules of poetry,1

1 " Of all these," says, with true Celtic hyperbole, the fifteenth-century
sllum in the British Museum, marked " Egerton, 1782," " not a man was

374 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

for no figure in Irish antiquity, layman or cleric, could ever
arrive at the rank of a popular hero unless he could compose,
or at least appreciate a poem.

The Fenian tales and poems are extraordinarily numerous,
but their conception and characteristics are in general distinctly
different from those relating to the Red Branch. They have
not the same sweep, the same vastness and stature, the same
weirdness, as the older cycle. The majority of them are more
modern in conception and surroundings. There is little or no
mention of the war chariot which is so important a factor in
the older cycle. The Fenians fought on foot or horseback,
and we meet, too, frequent mention of helmets and mail-coats,
which are post-Danish touches. Things are on a smaller
scale. Exaggeration does not run all through the stories, but
is confined to small parts of them, and it is set off by much
that is trivial or humorous.

The Fenian stories became in later times the distinctly
popular ones. They were far more of the people and for the

taken until he was a prime poet versed in the twelve books of poetry. No
man was taken till in the ground a large hole had been made such as to
reach the fold of his belt, and he put into it with his shield and a forearm's
length of a hazel stick. Then must nine warriors having nine spears,
with a ten furrows' width between them and him, assail him, and in
concert let fly at him. If he were then hurt past that guard of his, he was
not received into the Fian-ship. Not a man of them was taken until his
hair had been interwoven into braids on him, and he started at a run
through Ireland's woods, while they seeking to wound him followed in his
wake, there having been between him and them but one forest bough by
way of interval at first. Should he be overtaken he was wounded and not
received into the Fian-ship after. If his weapons had quivered in his
hand he was not taken. Should a branch in the wood have disturbed
anything of his hair out of its braiding he was not taken. If he had
cracked a dry stick under his foot [as he ran] he was not accepted.
Unless that [at full speed] he had both jumped a stick level with his
brow, and stooped to pass under one on a level with his knee, he was not
taken. Unless also without slackening his pace he could with his nail
extract a thorn from his foot he was not taken into the Fian-ship. But if
he performed all this he was of Finn's people." (See " Silva Gadelica,"
p. 100 of English vol.)

THE FENIAN CYCLE 375

people than those of the Red Branch. They were most
intimately bound up with the life and thought and feelings of
the whole Gaelic race, high and low, both in Ireland and
Scotland, and the development of Fenian saga, for a period of
1,200 or 1,500 years, is one of the most remarkable examples
in the world of continuous literary evolution. I use the word
evolution advisedly, for there was probably not a century from
the seventh to the eighteenth in which new stories, poems, and
redactions of sagas concerning Finn and the Fenians were not
invented and put in circulation, while to this very day many
stories never committed to manuscript are current about them
amongst the Irish and Scotch Gaelic-speaking populations.
We have found no such steady interest evinced by the people
in the Red Branch romances, and in attempting to collect
Irish folk-lore I have found next to nothing about Cuchulain
and his contemporaries, but great quantities about Finn,
Ossian, Oscar, Goll, and Conan. The one cycle, then, antique
in tone, language, and surroundings, was, I suspect, that of the
chiefs, the great men, and the bards ; the other — at least in later
times — more that of the un-bardic classes and of the people.

I do not mean to say that many of the Cuchulain stories
were not copied into modern MSS. and circulated freely among
the people all over Ireland during the eighteenth century
and the beginning of this, especially Cuchulain's training,
Conlaoch's (his son's) death, the Fight at the Ford, and others,
but these appear never to have put out shoots and blossoms
from themselves and to have generated new and yet again new
stories as did the ever-youthful Fenian tales ; nor do they
appear to have equally entwined themselves at this day round
the popular imagination.

A striking instance of how the Ossianic tale continued to
develop down to the eighteenth century was supplied me the
other day when examining the Reeves Collection.1 I there

1 These MSS. volumes, fifty-four in number, had most of them belonged
to Mr. MacAdam, editor of the " Ulster Journal of Archaeology," from

376 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

came upon a story in a Louth MS., written, I think, in the
last century, which seemed to me to contain one of the latest
developments of Ossianic saga. It is called " The Adventures
of Dubh mac Deaghla," and tells us of how a prophet was
born of the race of Eiremoin, "and all say," adds the writer,
"that it was he was the druid who prophesied to Fiacha
Sreabhtainne that he should fall in the battle of Dubh-Cumair
by the three brothers, Cairioll, Muircath, and Aodh." He
also "prophesied to the race of Tuathal that Cairbre" of the
Liffey was that far- branching tree which was to spread round
about through the great circuit of Erin, around which smote
the powerful wind from the south-west, overthrowing it wholly
to the ground — which wind meant the Fenians, as had been
announced by the smith's daughter."1 The Fenians it seems
heard that this Torna had prophesied about them and intended
to kill him, and he and his family had to emigrate to Britain.
From there he sends a letter in true epistolary style to an old
friend of his, one Conor son of Dathach, beginning " Dear
Friend " — an evident mark of seventeenth or possibly eighteenth
century authorship, for there are no letters written in this
style in the older literature, and this piece evidently follows a

whom Bishop Reeves bought them. On the lamented death of that great
scholar they were put up to auction, when the Royal Irish Academy
bought some thirty volumes, the rest unfortunately were allowed to be
scattered again to the four winds of heaven. For his exertions and
generosity in securing even so many of these MSS., especially those which
at first sight looked least important, but which contained treasures of
folk-lore and folk-song, the Hon. Treasurer, the Rev. Maxwell Close, has
placed Irish-speaking Ireland under yet another debt of gratitude to him.
It is not always that which is most ancient which is most valuable from a
literary or a national point of view. The pity of it is that any Irish MS.
that comes into the market should not be bought up for the nation with
the money assigned by the Government and confided to the Royal Irish
Academy for Irish studies, unless a special search should show that
the Academy already •possesses a copy of each piece in it. I am convinced
that many hundreds or thousands of pieces have been through neglect to
do this irreparably lost to the nation. Oh the pity of it !

1 This is in allusion to the romance of Moy Muchruime, where we read
of the prophecy and what followed. For Cairbre see above, p. 32.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 377

Latin or a Spanish, or possibly an English model. However
this may be, Torna's letter asks Conor for news of the situation,
and in time receives the following answer :

" To Torna son of Dubh, our dear friend in Glen Fuinnse in
Britain in Saxony.

" Thy affectionate missive was read by me as soon as it arrived,
and it had been a cause of joy to me, were it not for the way we are
in at Tara at this moment.

" For we never felt until the Munster Fenians came and encamped
at the marsh of Old Raphoe and Treibhe to the south-west; the
warriors of Leinster also and Baoisgnidh, together with Clan Ditribh
and Clan Boirchne, were to the south of them, towards the bottom
of the stream of Gabhra and on the west towards the old fort of
Meve ; and that same evening the King having received an account
of the encamping of the Fenians urges messengers secretly to
Connacht to the Clan of Conal Cruachna that they might come,
along with all the king's friends from the western border of Erin ;
and other messengers he despatches to Scotland for the Clan of
Garaidh Glunmhar, desiring Oscar of the blue Javelin, Aodh, Argal,
and Airtre to come from abroad without delay, and that secretly.
" On the early morning of the morrow, before the stars of the air
ired, the King urged the druids of Tara against the Fenians to
ue with them, and ask what was the cause of their rebelling in
guise, or who it was with whom they had now come to do
battle, because they appeared not in habiliments of peace or friend-
p, but a flush of anger appeared in the face and countenance of
ry several man of them.

" ' And there is another unlawful thing of which ye are guilty,'
the druids, ' which shows that ye have broken the vow of
allegiance and obedience to your king, in that ye have come in array
and garb of battle to the door of his fortress without receiving his
leave or advice, without giving him notice or warning. To what
point of the compass do ye travel, or on what have ye set your
mind [that ye act not] as is the right and due of a prince's subjects,
as was always before this the habitude of the bands that came
ore ye ; and as shall last with honest people till the end of the
rid.'

" However, now the druids are a-preaching to them and casting at
them bold storm-showers of reproofs by way of retarding them till
the coming back of the messengers who went abroad, for Mac Cool
i is not amongst them to excite them against us, and we hope that

I

378 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

they will remain thus until help come to us. For this is the eleventh
day since the druids went from us, and our watchmen who observe
what approaches and what goes, disclose all tidings to us, and they
are ever a-listening to the loud argument of the druids and the
captains against one another. Moreover, the desire of the Fenians
to make a rapid assault upon Tara is the less from their having heard
that Cairbre was gone on his royal round to Dun Sreabhtainne to
visit Fiacha,1 though he is really not gone there, but to a certain
place under cover of night with his women and the royal jewels of
Tara. And it was lucky for him that he did not go to Dun Sreabh-
tainne, for the Fenians had sent Cairioll and nine mighty men with
him to plunder Dun Sreabhtainne. In that, however, they mis-
carried, for his tutor was gone off before that with Fiacha, by order
of the King, to the same place where the women were. That, how-
ever, we shall pursue no further at present.

" But it is easy for you who are knowledgeable to form a judgment
upon the state in which the inhabitants of a country must be, over
which such a whelming calamity is about to fall. Let me leave off.
And here we send our affectionate greeting to you, and to you all,
with the hope of some time seeing you in full health, but I have
small hope of it.

" From your faithful friend till death, Conor, son of Dathach in
Tara, the royal fortress of Erin. Written the 2oth day of the
month of March in the year of the age of the world . . .
[The figures in the MS. are not legible].

The romance, which is a long one, is chiefly occupied
with events relating to the family of Dubh mac Deaghla in
Britain. But later on in the book the Conor who despatched
this letter turns up and gives in person a most vivid description of
the Battle of Gowra, and the events which followed his letter.

I have only instanced and quoted from this comparatively
unimportant story, as showing one of the very latest develop-
ments of Fenian literature, and as proving how thoroughly even
the seventeenth and eighteenth century Gaels were imbued

1 Fiacha was the King's son, and succeeded him in the sovereignty. He
was finally slain by his nephews, the celebrated Three Collas — they who
afterwards burned E mania and caused the Ultonian dynasty and the Red
Branch knights, after a duration of more than seven hundred years, to set
in blood and flame, never to rise again.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 379

with, and realised the spirit of, the Fenian Cycle, and also as a
peculiar specimen of what rarely happens in literature, but is
always of great interest when it does happen — a specimen of
unconscious saga developing into semi-conscious romance.

There are comparatively few ancient texts belonging to the
Finn saga, compared with the wealth of old vellum books that
contain the Red Branch stories. There is, however, quite
enough of documentary proof to show that so early as the
seventh century Finn was looked on as a popular hero.

The actual data that we have to go upon in estimating
the genesis and development of the Fenian tales have been
lucidly collected by Mr. Nutt. They are, as far as is known
at present, as follows. Gilla Caemhain, the poet who died in
1072, says that it was fifty-seven years after the battle of Moy
Muchruime that Finn was treacherously killed " by the spear
points of Urgriu's three sons."1 This would make Finn's

There were many among the Fenians," says Keating, " who were
more remarkable for their personal prowess, their valour, and their
corporeal stature than Finn. The reason why he was made king of the
Fiann, and set over the warriors, was simply because his father and grand-
father had held that position before him. Another reason also why he had
been made king of the Fiann was because he excelled his contemporaries
in intellect and learning, in wisdom and in subtlety, and in experience and
hardihood in battlefields. It was for these qualities that he was made
ig of the Fiann, and not for his personal prowess or for the great size
strength of his body."

Warrior better than Finn," says an old vellum MS. in the British
Museum, " never struck his hand into chiefs, inasmuch as for service he
was a soldier, a hospitaller for hospitality, and in heroism a hero. In
fighting functions he was a fighting man, and in strength a champion
worthy of a king, so that ever since and from that until this, it is with
Finn that every such is co-ordinated."

And in another place the same vellum says, " A good man verily was he
who had those Fianna, for he was the seventh king ruling Ireland, that is
say, there were five kings of the provinces, and the King of Ireland, he
;ing himself the seventh conjointly with the King of all Ireland."
In a MS. saga in my own possession, called "The Pursuit of Sadhbh
(Sive)," there is an amusing account of the truculence of the Fenians
about their exclusive right of hunting, and the way they terrorised the
people they were quartered on, but I have not space for this extract.

380 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

death take place in 252, for Moy Muchruime was fought
according to the "Four Masters" in A.D. 195. Tighearnach
the Annalist, who died in 1088, writes that Finn was killed in
A.D. 283, " by Aichleach, son of Duibhdrean, and the sons of
Urgriu of the Luaighni of Tara, at Ath-Brea upon the Boyne."
The poet Cinaeth O Hartagain, who died in A.D. 985, wrote :
" By the Fiann of Luagne was the death of Finn at Ath-Brea
upon the Boyne." All these men in the tenth and eleventh
centuries certainly believed in Finn as implicitly as they did in
King Cormac.

The two oldest miscellaneous Irish MSS. which we have,
are the Leabhar na h-Uidhre and the Book of Leinster. The
Leabhar na h-Uidhre was compiled from older MSS. towards
the close of the eleventh century, and the Book of Leinster
some fifty years later. The oldest of them contains a copy of
the famous poem ascribed to Dalian Forgaill in praise of St.
Columcille, which was so obscure in the middle of the eleventh
century that it required to be glossed. In this gloss, made
perhaps in the eleventh century, perhaps long before, there is
an explanatory poem on winter, ascribed to Finn, grandson of
Baoisgne, that is our Finn mac Cool, and in the same com-
mentary we find an explanation of the words "diu"— long, and
"derc"=eye, in proof of which this verse is quoted, " As
Grainne," says the commentator, " daughter of Cormac, said to
Finn."

" There lives a man
On whom I would love to gaze long,
For whom I would give the whole world,
O Son of Mary ! though a privation ! "

This verse, quoted as containing two words which required
explanation in or before the eleventh century, pre-supposes the
story of Diarmuid and Grainne. In addition to this we have
the apparently historical story of the " Cause of the Battle of
Cnucha." We have also the story of the Mongan, an Ulster
king of the seventh century, according to the annalists who

THE FENIAN CYCLE 381

declared that he was not what men took him to be, the son of
the mortal Fiachna, but of the god Mananan mac Lir, and a
re-incarnation of the great Finn, and calls back from the grave
the famous Fenian, Caoilte, who proves it. This account is
strongly relied upon by Mr. Nutt to prove the wild mytho-
logical nature of the Finn story, but it is by no means unique
in Irish literature, for we find the celebrated Tuan mac Cairrill
had a second birth also, and the great Cuchulain too has his
parentage ascribed to the god Lugh, not to Sualtach, his
ited father. Consequently, supposing Finn to have been
real historical character of the third century, there would be
thing absolutely extraordinary in the story arising in half
pagan times that Mongan, also an historical character, was a
•incarnation of Finn.

In the second oldest miscellaneous manuscript, the Book of
inster, the references to Finn and the Fenians are much
lore numerous, containing three poems ascribed to Ossian,
Finn's son, five poems ascribed to Finn himself, two poems
ascribed to Caoilte the Fenian poet, a poem ascribed to one of
'inn's followers, allusions to Finn in poems by one Gilla in
lomded and another, passages from the Dinnsenchas or
jographical tract about Finn, the account of the battle of
lamhross, in which Finn helps the Leinstermen against King
irbre, the genealogy of Finn, and the genealogy of Diarmuid
''Duibhne.

Again, in the Glossary ascribed, and probably truly, to
>rmac, King-Bishop of Cashel, A.D. 837-903, there are two
iions to Finn, one of which refers to the unfaithfulness of
lis wife. This, indeed, is not contained in the oldest copy,
tt Whitley Stokes, than whom there can be no better
:hority, believes these allusions to belong to the older
portion of the Glossary, a work which is probably much
interpolated.

But there is yet another proof of the antiquity of the Finn
stories which Mr. Nutt does not note, and in some respects it is

382 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the most important and conclusive of all. For if, as D'Arbois
de Jubainville has, I think, proved, the list of 187 historic tales
contained in the Book of Leinster was really drawn up at the
end of the seventh or beginning of the eighth century, we
find that even then Finn or his contemporaries were the
subjects of, or figure in, several of them, as in the story
of " The Courtship of Ailbhe, daughter of King Cormac
mac Art, by Finn," "The Battle of Moy Muchruime,"
where King Art, Cormac's father, was slain ; " The Cave
of Bin Edair," where Diarmuid and Grainne took shelter
when pursued by Finn ; " The Adventures of Finn in
Derc Fearna (the cave of Dunmore)," a lost tale; "The
Elopement of Grainne with Diarmuid," and perhaps one or
two more.

Thus Finn is sandwiched in as a real person along with his
other contemporaries, not only in tenth and eleventh century
annalists and poets, but is also made the hero of historic
romance as early as the seventh or eighth century. Side by
side in our list with the battle of Moy Muchruime we have
the battle of Moy Rath. Copies of both, coloured with the
same literary pigments, exist. The last we know to be his-
torical, it can be proved ; why should not the first be also ?
It is true that the one took place 438 years before the other,
but the treatment of both is absolutely identical, and it is the
merest accident that we happen to have external evidence
for the latter and not for the former. I can see, then, no
sufficiently cogent reasons for viewing Finn mac Cumhail with
different eyes from those with which we regard his king.
Cormac mac Art is usually acknowledged to have been a real
king of flesh and blood, whose buildings are yet seen on the site
of Tara, after whose daughter Grainne one of them is named,
why should Finn, his chief captain, who married that Grainne,
be a deity euhemerised ? I do not see any arguments sufficient
to differentiate this case of Finn, to whom no particular super-
natural qualities (except the knowledge he got when he

THE FENIAN CYCLE 383

chewed his thumb) are attributed, from that of Cormac and
other kings and heroes who were the subjects of bardic stories,
and whose deaths were recorded in the Annals, except the acci-
dent that the creative imagination of the later Gaels happened
to seize upon him and make him and his contemporaries the
nucleus of a vast literature instead of some earlier or later
group of perhaps equally deserving champions. Finn has long
since become to all ears a pan-Gaelic champion just as Arthur
has become a Brythonic one.

Of the Fenian sagas the longest — though it is only
fragmentary — is that known as the Dialogue or Colloquy
of the Ancients, which is preserved in the Book of Lismore,
and would fill about 250 of these pages. The plot of
it is simple enough. Caoilte [Cweeltya] the poet and
Ossian, almost sole survivors of the Fenians — who had lived
on after the battle of Gabhra, where Cairbre, the High-
king, broke their power for ever — meet in their very old age
St. Patrick and the new preachers of the gospel. Patrick
is most desirous of learning the past history of the island from
them, and the legends connected with streams and hills and
raths and so forth, and these are willingly recounted to him,
and were all written1 down by Brogan Patrick's scribe for
posterity to read hereafter. The saga describes their wan-
derings along with the saint, the stories they relate to
him, and the verses — over a couple of thousand — sung or
repeated by them to the clerics and others.2 Some of these
pieces are exceedingly beautiful. Here is a specimen, the
lament which Crede made over her husband who was
drowned at the battle ot Ventry. Caoilte repeats the verses
Patrick :

The haven roars, and O the haven roars, over the rushing race of
m-da-bharc. The drowning of the warrior of Loch-da-chonn, that

See above, p. 116.

This has been edited by Standish Hayes O'Grady in his "Silva
Gadelica," from the Book of Lismore.

384 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

is what the wave impinging on the strand laments.1 Melodious is
the crane, and O melodious is the crane, in the marshlands of Druim-
dd-thren. Tis she who may not save her brood alive. The wild dog
of two colours is intent upon her nestlings. A woful note, and O a
woful note is that which the thrush in Drumqueen emits, but not
more cheerful is the wail which the blackbird makes in Letterlee. A
woful sound, and O a woful sound, is that the deer utters in Drumda-
leish. Dead lies the doe of Drumsheelin,2 the mighty stag bells
after her. Sore suffering, and O suffering sore, is the hero's death,
his death, who used to lie by me. . . . Sore suffering to me is Gael, and
O Gael is a suffering sore, that by my side he is in dead man's form ;
that the wave should have swept over his white body, that is what
hath distracted me, so great was his delightfulness. A dismal roar,
and O a dismal roar, is that the shore's surf makes upon the strand.
... A woful booming, and O a boom of woe, is that which the wave
makes upon the northward beach, butting as it does against the
polished rock, lamenting for Gael now that he is gone. A woful
fight, and O a fight of woe, is that the wave wages with the southern

1 " Geisid cuan, on geisid cuan

Os buinne ruad rinn^da bharc,
Badad laeich locha dha chonn
Is ed chainios tonn re tracht."

" Silva Gadelica," p. 113 of Gaelic volume, p. 122 of English volume,
have not altered Dr. O'Grady's beautiful translation.

2 This passage and that about the crane are not explained in the
" Colloquy," but curiously enough I find the same passage in the saga
called the Battle of Ventry, which Kuno Meyer published in " Anecdota
Oxoniensia" from a fifteenth-century vellum in the Bodleian. The lady is
there called Gelges [white swan], and as she sought for Cael among the
slain " she saw the crane of the meadow and her two birds and the wily
beast yclept the fox a-watching of her birds, and when she covered one
of the birds to save it he would make a rush at the other bird, so that the
crane had to stretch herself out between them both, so that she would
rather have found and suffered death by the wild beast than that her birds
should be killed by him. And Gelges mused on this greatly and said, " I
wonder not that I so love my fair sweetheart, since this little bird is in such
distress about its birdlets. She heard, moreover, a wild stag on Drum
Reelin above the harbour, and it was vehemently bewailing the hind from
one pass to the other, for they had been nine years together and had
dwelt in the wood that was at the foot of the harbour, the wood of Feedesh,
and the hind had been killed by Finn, and the stag was nineteen days
without tasting grass or water, mourning for the hind. " It is no shame
for me," said Gelges, " to find death with grief for Cael, as the stag is
shortening his life for grief of the hind," etc.

THE FENIAN CYCLE 385

shore. A woful melody, and O a melody of woe, is that which the
heavy surge of Tullacleish emits. As for me the calamity which has
fallen upon me having shattered me, for me prosperity exists no
more."

Perhaps the Fenian saga, next in length and certainly in
merit, is the well-known " Pursuit of Diarmuid and Grainne."1
Diarmuid of the Love-spot unwittingly causes Grainne, daughter
of Cormac mac Art, the High-king, to fall in love with him,
just on the eve of her marriage with his captain, Finn mac
Cool. He is driven to elope with her, and is pursued round
Ireland by the vengeful Finn, who succeeds after many years in
compassing the death of the generous and handsome Diarmuid
by a wild boar, and then winning back to himself the love of
the fickle Grainne.

The Enchanted Fort of the Quicken Tree, the Enchanted
Fort of C&s Corann,2 the Little Brawl at Allen,2 the Enchanted
Fort of Eochaidh Beag the Red,3 the Pursuit of Sive, daughter
of Owen Og, the Pursuit of the Giolla Deacar,2 the Death
of the Great Youth the King of Spain's son,4 The Feast in
the House of Conan,S the Legend of Lomnochtan of Slieve
Rifle",*5 the Legend of Ceadach the Great,? the Battle of

1 Pronounced " Graan-ya." This story has been edited and translated in
the third volume of the Ossianic Society by Standish H. O'Grady, and has
been since reprinted from his text. Dr. Joyce also translated it into
English in his Old Celtic romances, but omits the cynical but most
characteristic conclusion. The story was only known to exist in quite
modern MSS., but I find an excellent copy written about the year 1660 in
the newly-acquired Reeves Collection in the Royal Irish Academy. This
saga was in existence in the seventh century, for it is mentioned in the
list in the Book of Leinster. It is the subject of a recent cantata by the
Marquis of Lome and Mr. Hamish Mac Cunn.
Published by O'Grady in his "Silva Gadelica."

3 The Irish text published without a translation by Patrick O'Brien in
Blditkfleasg.

4 I published in a periodical a translation of this from a MS. in my own
ession.

5 Published in vol. ii. of Ossianic Society.

6 Is being published in the " Gaelic Joarnal '' by the editor.

7 Mentioned by Standish H. O'Grady, but I have met no copies of it,
! though 1 have heard a story of this name told orally.

386 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Tulach na n-each,1 the Battle of Ventry,2 the Battle of
Cnucha, the Battle of Moy Muchruime,3 the Battle of Moy
I <fana,4 the youthful Exploits of Finn mac Cool,5 the
Battle of Gabhra,6 the Birth of King Cormac,? the Battle of
Crinna,7 the Cause of the Battle of Cnucha,8 the Invitation
of Maol grandson of Manannan to the Fenians of Erin,9 the
Legend of the Clown in the Drab Coat,10 the Lamenta-
tion of Oilioll after his children,11 Cormac's Adventure in the
Land of Promise,12 the Decision about Cormac's Sword,T3 an
ancient fragment about Finn and Grainne,x4 an ancient frag-
ment on the Death of Finn XS — are some of the remaining prose
sagas of this cycle.

1 Mentioned by Standish H. O'Grady.

2 Published from a fifteenth-century vellum in the Bodleian by Kuno
Meyer in a volume of the " Anecdota Oxoniensia."

s Published by Standish H. O'Grady in " Silva Gadelica " from the Book
of Leinster. I have a seventeenth-century paper copy of the same saga
which is completely different.

* Published by O'Curry for the Celtic Society.

5 Edited by O'Donovan for the Ossianic Society and by Mr. David Comyn
with a translation into modern Irish for the Gaelic League.

6 Edited by O'Kearney for the Ossianic Society, vol. i.

7 Published in " Silva Gadelica."

8 A brief tale in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, published in " Revue
Celtique," vol. ii.

9 Mentioned by Standish H. O'Grady in his preface to Diarmuid and
Grainne, but unknown to me.

10 Published without a translation by O'Daly of Anglesea Street in " Irish
Self-taught," and with a translation in the " Silva Gadelica."

11 Usually joined on to the modern version of the Battle of Mochruime.

12 Published by Standish H. O'Grady for the Ossianic Society, vol. iii. p.
212, from a modern MS. ; and by Whitley Stokes in " Irische Texte," iii.
Serie, Heft. i. p. 203, from the Book of Ballymote and Yellow Book of
Lecan.

J3 Published by Stokes in the same place as the last.
*< " Zeitschrift fur Celt. Phil.," Band I. Heft. 3, p. 458, translated by Kuno
Meyer.

*s Ibid., and O'Grady, " Silva Gadelica."

CHAPTER XXX

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE

IN addition to the stories that centre round Cuchulain and
round Finn there are a number of miscellaneous ones dealing
rith episodes or characters in Irish history ; some are in
lort groups or minor cycles, but others are completely inde-
mdent tales. All are built upon lines similar to those which
have been considering, and they are composed for the most
in a mixture of both verse and prose. Some of these sagas
d with pre-Christian times, and others with the early
icdiaeval period. Very few, if any, deal with post-Danish
id still fewer with post-Norman subjects. The seventh
jntury was the golden era of the Irish saga, and nothing that
the race did in later times improved on it. Out of the hundred
and eighty-seven stories whose names are preserved in the Book
of Leinster, in a list which must have been, as D'Arbois de
Jubainville points out, drawn up in the seventh century, about one
hundred and twenty seem to have utterly perished. Of the others
— many of which, however, are preserved only in the baldest
and most condensed form — some four or five relate to the Fenian
Cycle, some eighteen are Red Branch stories, and some eight or
nine, mostly preserved in the colourless digests of the Book of
Invasions, are mythological. About twenty-one of the others

388 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

belong to minor groups, or are miscellaneous single tales. Some
of them are of the highest interest and antiquity. Of these the
storming of the Bruidhean [Bree-an] or Court of Da Derga
is, after the Tain Bo Chuailgne, probably the oldest and most
important saga in the whole range of Irish literature.

These two stories substantially dating from the seventh
century, and perhaps formed into shape long before that time,
are preserved in the oldest miscellaneous MSS. which we possess,
and throw more light upon pagan manners, customs, and
institutions than perhaps any other.1

The period in which the Court-of-Da-Derga story is laid
is about coincident with that of the Red Branch Cycle,
only it does not deal with Emania, and the Red Branch, but
with Leinster, Tara, and the High-king of Erin, who was
there resident. The High-king at this time was the cele-
brated Conaire the " Great," and rightly, if we may believe our
Annals, was he so called, for he had been a just, magnanimous, and
above all fortunate ruler of all Ireland for fifty years.2 So just
was he, and so strict, that he had sent into banishment a
number of lawless and unworthy persons who troubled his

1 There is an almost complete copy of this saga in the Leabhar na
h-Uidhre. Like the Tain Bo Chuailgne, it has never been published in
a translation. The language is much harder and more archaic than that
of the Tain. I have principally drawn upon O'Curry's description of it,
for I can only guess at the meaning of a great part of the original.
Were all Europe searched the scholars who could give an adequate
translation of it might be counted on the fingers of both hands — if not
of one.

3 According to the " Four Masters " he was slain in AM. 5161 [*'.£., 43
B.C.], after a reign of seventy years. " It was in the reign of Conaire," the
" Four Masters " add, "that the Boyne annually cast its produce ashore at
Inver Colpa. Great abundance of nuts were annually found upon the
Boyne and the Buais. The cattle were without keeping in Ireland in his
reign on account of the greatness of the peace and concord. His reign
was not thunder-producing nor stormy. It was little but the trees bent
under the greatness of their fruit." It is from Conaire the Ernaan tribes
were descended. They were driven by the Rudricians, i.e., the Ultonians
of the Red Branch, into Munster, and from thence they were driven by the
race of Eber [the Mac Carthys, etc. of Munster], into the western islands.

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 389

kingdom. Among these were his own five foster brothers
whom he was reluctantly compelled to send into exile along
with the others. These people all turned to piracy, and
plundered the coasts of England, Scotland, and even Ireland,
wherever they found an opportunity of making a successful
raid upon the unarmed inhabitants.1 It so happened that the
son of the King of Britain, one Ingcel, also of Irish extraction,
had been banished by his father for his crimes, and was now
making his living in much the same way as the predatory
Irishmen. These two parties having met, being drawn
together by a fellow-feeling and their common lawlessness,
struck up a friendship, and made a league with one another,
thus doubling the strength of each. Soon after this the High-
king found himself in Clare, called thither to settle, according
to his wont, some dispute between rival chiefs. His business
ended, he was leisurely taking his way with his retinue back
to his royal seat at Tara, when on entering the borders of
Meath he beheld the whole country in the direction of his city
a sheet of flame and rolling smoke. Terrified at this, and
divining that the banished pirates had made a descent on his
capital during his absence, he turned aside and took the great
road that, leading from Tara to Dublin, passed thence into the
eart of Leinster. Pursuing this road the King crossed the
iffey in safety and made for the Bruighean [Bree-an] or Court
of Da Derg on the road close to the river Dothar or Dodder,
called ever since Boher-na-breena,2 the " road of the Court,"
close to Tallacht, not far from Dublin. This was one of the

:six great courts of universal hospitalityS in Erin, and Da Derg,
its master, was delighted and honoured by the visit from the
High-king.

1 It appears to have been partly in order to check raids like this, that
the High-kings maintained the Fenians a couple of centuries later, for
their chief duty was " to watch the harbours."

2 A constant rendezvous for pedestrians and bicyclists from Dublin, not

|)ne in ten thousand of whom knows the origin of the name or its history
3 For a description of another of these courts see above p. 355.

I

390 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The pirates having plundered Tara, took to their vessels,
and having laden them with their spoils were now under a
favourable breeze running along the sea coast towards the Hill
of Howth, when they perceived from afar the King's company
making in their chariots for Dublin along the great high road.
One of his own foster brothers was the first to recognise that it
was the High-king who was there. He was kept in view and
seen at last to enter Da Derg's great court of hospitality.
The pirates ran their ships ashore to the south of the Liffey,
and Ingcel the Briton set off as a spy to examine the court and
the number of armed men about it ; to see if it might not be
possible to surprise and plunder it during the night. On his
return he is questioned by his companions as to what he saw,
and by this simple device — familiar to all poets from Homer
down — we are introduced to the principal characters of his
court, and are shown what the retinue of a High-king con-
sisted of in the sixth or seventh century, about which time the
saga probably took definite shape on parchment, or in the
second or third century if we are to suppose the traits to be more
archaic than the composition of the tale. We have here a
minute account of the King and the court and the company,
with their costumes, insignia, and appearance. We see the
King and his sons, his nine pipers or wind-instrument players,
his cupbearers, his chief druid-juggler, his three principal
charioteers, their nine apprentice charioteers, his hostages the
Saxon princes, his equerries and outriders, his three judges,
his nine harpers, his three ordinary jugglers, his three cooks,
his three poets, his nine guardsmen, and his two private table
attendants. We see Da Derg, the lord of the court, his three
doorkeepers, the British outlaws, and the king's private drink-
bearers. Here is the description of the King himself —

" ' I saw there a couch,'1 continued Ingcel, ' and its ornamentation
was more beautiful than all the other couches of the Court, it is cur-

1 Here is the original as given by O'Curry, <l Manners and Customs,"
vol. iii. p. 141. This will show the exceeding difficulty of the language

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 391

tained round with silver cloth, and the couch itself is richly
ornamented. I saw three persons on it. The outside two of them
were fair both hair and eyebrows, and their skin whiter than snow.
Upon the cheek of each was a beautiful ruddiness. Between them
in the middle was a noble champion. He has in his visage the
ardour and action of a sovereign, and the wisdom of an historian.
The cloak which I saw upon him can be likened only to the mist of
a May morning. A different colour and complexion are seen on it
each moment, more splendid than the other is each hue. I saw in
the cloak in front of him a wheel broach of gold, that reaches from
his chin to his waist. Like unto the sheen of burnished gold is the
colour of his hair. Of all the human forms of the world that I have
seen his is the most splendid.1 I saw his gold-hilted sword laid
down near him. There was the breadth of a man's hand of the sword

posed out of the scabbard. From that hand's breadth the man who
its at the far end of the house could see even the smallest object by

e light of that sword.2 More melodious is the melodious sound of
that sword than the melodious sounds of the golden pipes which
play music in the royal house. . . . The noble warrior was asleep

ith his legs upon the lap of one of the men, and his head in the

p of the other. He awoke up afterwards out of his sleep and spake

ese words —

" ' " I have dreamed of danger-crowding phantoms,
A host of creeping treacherous enemies,
A combat of men beside the Dodder,
And early and alone the King of Tara was killed." '

This man whom Ingcel had seen was no other than the
[igh-king.
The account of the juggler is also curious —

" ' I saw there,' continued Ingcel, 'a large champion in the middle of

the house. The blemish of baldness was upon him. Whiter than

ic cotton of the mountains is every hair that grows upon his head.

p,

:

d(

" Atcondarc and imdae acas bacaimiu acomthach oldata imdada in tigi

olchena. Seolbrat nairgdidi impe acas cumtaige isin dimdae. Atcondarc

triar ninni," etc.

1 Keating says that according to some Conaire reigned only 30 years.
The allusion appears to be to a bright steel sword in an age of bronze.

Perhaps the music referred to means the vibration of the steel when struck,
he " Sword of light " is a common feature in Gaelic folk-lore. Of course
•on was common in Ireland centuries before this time, but the primitive

description of Sword of light, transmitted itself from age to age.

392 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

He had ear-clasps of gold in his ears and a speckled white cloak
upon him. He had nine swords in his hand and nine silvery shields
and nine balls of gold. He throws every one of them up into the
air and not one falls to the ground, and there is but one of them at a
time upon his palm, and like the buzzing of bees on a beautiful day
was the motion of each passing the other.'

"'Yes/ said Ferrogain [the foster brother], ' I recognise him, he
is Tulchinne, the Royal druid of the King of Tara ; he is Conaire's
juggler,1 a man of great power is that man.' "

Da Derg himself is thus described —

" ' I saw another couch there and one man on it, with two pages in
front of him, one fair, the other black-haired. The champion himself
had red hair and had a red cloak near him. He had crimson cheeks
and beautiful deep blue eyes, and had on him a green cloak. He
wore also a white under-mantle and collar beautifully interwoven,
and a sword with an ivory hilt was in his hand, and he supplies every
couch in the Court with ale and food, and he is incessant in attend-
ing upon the whole company. Identify that man.'

" ' I know that man,' said he, ' that is Da Derg himself. It was by
him the Court was built, and since he has taken up residence in it, its
doors have never been closed except on the side to which the wind
blows ; it is to that side only that a door is put. Since he has taken
to house-keeping his boiler has never been taken off the fire, but
continues ever to boil food for the men of Erin. And the two who
are in front of him are two boys, foster sons of his, they are the two
sons of the King of Leinster.' "

Not less interesting is the true Celtic hyperbole in Ingcel's
description of the jesters : " I saw then three jesters at the
fire. They wore three dark grey cloaks, and if all the men
of Erin were in one place and though the body of the mother
or the father of each man of them were lying dead before him,
not one of them could refrain from laughing at them."

In the end the pirates decide on making their attack. They
marched swiftly and silently across the Dublin mountains,
surrounded and surprised the court, slew the High-king
caught there, as in a trap, and butchered most of his atten-
dants.

1 " Cleasamhnach," from cleas, " a trick," a living word still.

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 393

After this tale of Da Derg come a host of sagas, all calling
for a recognition, which with our limited space it is impossible
to grant them. Of these one of the most important, though
neither the longest nor the most interesting, is the account
of the Boromean or Boru tribute, a large fragment of which
is preserved in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of about the year
1150.

When Tuathal or Toole, called Techtmhar, or the Possessor,
was High-king of Ireland, at the close of the first century,
had two handsome daughters, and the King of Leinster

iked one of them in marriage and took and brought home to
his palace the elder as his wife. This was as it should be, for
that time it was not customary for the younger to be married

before the face of the elder." The Leinster men, however,

id to their king that he had left behind the better girl of the
Nettled at this the King went again to Tara and told

'uathal that his daughter was dead and asked for the other,
ic High-king then gave him his second daughter, with the
courteous assurance " had I one and fifty daughters they were
thine." When he brought back the second daughter to his
palace in Leinster she, like another Philomela, discovered her
sister alive and before her. Both died, one of shame the other
of grief. When news of this reached Tara steps were taken
to punish the King of Leinster. Connacht and Ulster led a
great hosting with 12,000 men into Leinster to plunder it.
The High-king too marched from Tara through Maynooth

Ii to Naas and encamped there. The Leinstermen were at first
! successful ; they beat the Ultonians and killed their prince ; but
at last all the invading forces having combined defeated them
I and slew the bigamist king. They then levied the blood-tax,
! which was as follows : — Fifteen thousand cows, fifteen thou-
sand swine, fifteen thousand wethers, the same number of
mantles, silver chains, and copper cauldrons, together with one
i great copper reservoir to be set up in Tara's house itself, in
; which would fit twelve pigs and twelve kine. In addition to

394 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

this they had to pay thirty red-eared cows with calves of the
same colour, with halters and spancels of bronze and bosses of
gold.

The consequences of this unfortunate tribute were to the
last degree disastrous for Ireland. The High-kings of Ireland
continued for ages to levy it off Leinster, and the Leinster-
men continued to resist. The Fenians took part in the
conflict, for they followed Finn mac Cumhail in behalf of the
men of Leinster against their own master the High-king.
The tribute continued to be levied, off and on, during the
reigns of forty kings, whenever Leinster seemed too weak to
resist, or whenever the High-king deemed himself strong
enough to raise it : until King Finnachta at last remitted it
at the close of the seventh century, at the request of St.
Moiling.1

" It is beyond the testimony of angels,

It is beyond the word of recording saints,

All the kings of the Gaels

That make attack upon Leinster." 2

Of course the unfortunate province, thus plundered during
generations, lost in some measure its nationality, and no doubt
it was partly owing to this that it seemed more ready than any
other district to ally itself with the Danes. The great Brian
is said to have gained his title of Borumha or Boru through
his having reimposed the tribute on Leinster, but though he
conquered that province and plundered it, I am aware of no
good authority for his actually re-imposing the Boru tribute.

Some of the early saints' lives, too, may be considered as
belonging almost as much to historico-romantic as to hagiolo-
gical literature. From one of these, at least, we must give an
extract, so that this voluminous side of Irish literature may
not remain unrepresented. Here is a fragment of the life of
St. Ceallach [Kal-lach] which is preserved in that ample repo-

1 Sec above p. 236.

2 Broccan's poem in the Book of Leinster translated by O'Neill Russell,
in an American periodical.

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 395

sitory of ecclesiastical lore the Leabhar Breac, a great vellum
manuscript written shortly after the year 1400. The story T
deals with the dispute between Guaire [Goo-a"r-ya], a well-
known king of Connacht, and St. Ceallach, the latter of
whom had during his student life left St. Ciaran and his
studies, and thus drawn down upon himself the prediction of
that great saint that he would die by point of weapon.

Guaire having banished Ceallach, against whom his mind
had been poisoned by lying tongues, the fugitive took refuge in
an island in Loch Con, where he remained for a long time.
Guaire, still excited against him through the lies of go-
betweens, invited him to a feast with intent to kill him. He
refuses however to go. The King's messengers then requested
him to at least allow his four condisciples, the only ones who
had remained with him in his solitude, to go with them to the
feast, saying that they would bear the king's messages to him
when they returned. "I will neither prevent them from
going nor yet constrain them to go," answered Ceallach, the
result of which was that the four condisciples returned along
with the envoys, and the king was greatly pleased to see them
come, and meat and drink, with good welcome, were provided
for them. After this the saga proceeds,

DEATH OF CEALLACH.

Then a banqueting-house apart was set in order for them, and
lither for their use the fort's best liquor was conveyed. On
Guaire's either side were set two of them, and — with an eye to win
them that they might leave Ceallach — great gifts were promised to
them ; all the country of Tirawley, four unmarried women such as
themselves should choose out of the province, and, with these,
horses and kine, sufficient marriage dowry for their wives (such
gifts by covenant to be secured to them), and an adequate equip-
ment of arms to be furnished to each one.

" That night they abode there, but, at the morning's meal, with

le accord they consented to kill Ceallach.

Translated by Standish Hayes O'Grady in " Silva Gadelica," whose
vigorous rendering I have closely followed.

396 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

11 Thence they departed to Loch Con, and where they had left the
boat they found it, and pulling off they reached Ceallach. They
found him with his psalter spread out before him, as he said the
psalms, nor did he speak to them. When he had made an end of
his psalmody he looked at them, and marked their eyes unsteady in
their heads, and clouded with the hue of parricide.

" ' Young men/ said Ceallach, ' ye have an evil aspect, since ye
went from me your natures ye have changed, and I perceive in you
that for King Guaire's sake ye have agreed to murder me.'

" Never a tittle they denied, and he went on, ' An ill design it is,
but follow now no longer your own detriment, and from me shall
be had gifts, which far beyond all Guaire's promises shall profit you.'

" They rejoined, ' By no means shall we do as thou wouldst have
us, Ceallach, seeing that if we acted so, not in all Ireland might we
harbour anywhere.' And, even as they spoke, at Ceallach they
drave with their spears in unison ; yet he made shift to thrust his
psalter in between him and his frock. They stowed him then in the
boat amidships, two of themselves in the bow, and so gained a
landing-place. Thence they carried him into the great forest and
into the dark recesses of the wood.

" Ceallach said : ' This that ye would do I count a wicked work
indeed, for in Clonmacnois [if ye spared me] ye might find shelter
for ever, or should it please you to resort rather to Blathmac and to
Dermot, sons of Aedh Slaine, who is now King of Ireland [ye would
be secure].'

[Then Ceallach utters a poem of twenty-four lines.]

" ' To advise us further in the matter is but idle,' they retorted,
' we will not do it for thee.'

" ' Well then/ he pleaded, ' this one night's respite grant to me
for God's sake.'

" ' Loath though we be to concede it, we will yield thee that/ they
said. Then they raised their swords which in their clothes they
carried hidden, and at the sight of them a mighty fear took Ceallach.
They ransacked the wood until they found a hollow oak having one
narrow entrance, and to this Ceallach was committed, they sitting
at the hole to watch him till the morning. They were so to the
hour of night's waning end, when drowsy longing came to them,
and deep sleep fell on them then.

" Ceallach, in trouble for his violent death, slept not at all, at
which time it was in his power to have fled had it so pleased him,
but 'in his heart he said that it were misbelief in him to moot evasion
of the living God's designs. Moreover, he reflected that even were
he so to flee they must overtake him, he being but emaciated and
feeble, after the Lent. Morning shone on them now, and he (for

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 397

fear to see it and in terror of his death) shut to the door, yet he said :
' to shirk God's judgment is in me a lack of faith, Ciaran, my tutor,
having promised me that I must meet this end, and as he spoke he
flung open the tree's door. The Raven called then, and the Scall-
crow, the Wren, and all the other birds. The Kite of Cluain-Eo's
yew tree came, and the red Wolf of Drum-mic-dar, the deceiver
whose lair was by the island's landing-place.

" ' My dream of Wednesday's night last past was true/ said
Ceallach, ' that four wild dogs rent me and dragged me through the
bracken, and that down a precipice I then fell, nor evermore
came up,' and he uttered this lay : —

" ' HAIL to the Morning, that as a flame falls on the ground ; hail
to Him, too, that sends her, the Morning many-virtued, ever-new ! x
" ' O Morning fair, so full of pride, O sister of the brilliant Sun,
hail to the beauteous morning that lightest for me my little book !

" ' Thou seest the guest in every dwelling, and shinest on every
tribe and kin ; hail O thou white-necked beautiful one, here with us
now, golden-fair, wonderful !

' My little book with chequered page tells me that my life has not
m right. Maelcroin, 't is he whom I do well to fear ; he it is
/ho comes to smite me at the last.

" ' O Scallcrow, and O Scallcrow, small grey-coated, sharp-beaked
/I, the intent of thy desire is apparent to me, no friend art thou
Ceallach.

" ' O Raven that makest croaking, if hungry thou art now, O bird,
;part not from this same homestead until thou eatest a surfeit of
flesh!

: ' Fiercely the Kite of Cluain-Eo's yew tree will take part in the
ramble, the full of his grey talons he will carry off, he will not
rt from me in kindness.

1 To the blow [that fells me] the fox that is in the darkling wood
ill make response at speed, he too in cold and trackless confines
lall devour a portion of my flesh and blood.

" ' The wolf that is in the rath upon the eastern side of Drum-mic-
r, he on a passing visit comes to me, that he may rank as chieftain
the meaner pack.

" ' Upon Wednesday's night last past I beheld a dream, I saw the
ild dogs dragging me together eastward and westward through
le russet ferns.

Is mochean in maiten ban
No taed for lar, mar lasan,
Is mochean do'n te rusfoi
In maiten buadach bithnoi

398 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" ' I beheld a dream, that into a green glen they took me, four
there were that bore me thither, but methought, ne'er brought me
out again.

" ' I beheld a dream, that to their house my condisciples brought
me, for me they poured out a drink, and to me did they a drink
quaff.

" ' O tiny Wren most scant of tail, dolefully hast thou piped
prophetic lay, surely thou art come to betray me and to curtail my
gift of life ! '

" ' O Maelcroin and O Maelcroin, thou hast resolved upon an un-
righteous deed, for ten hundred golden ingots Owen's son2 had ne'er
consented into thy death !

" ' O Maelcroin and O Maelcroin, pelf it is that thou hast taken to
betray me ; for this world's sake thou hast accepted it, accepted it
for the sake of hell !

" ' All precious things that ever I had, all sleek-coated grey horses,
on Maelcroin I would have bestowed them, that he should not do
me this treason.

" ' But Mary's great Son up above me, thus addresses speech to me,
' Thou must leave earth, thou shalt have heaven ; welcome awaits
thee, Ceallach.' "

The saint is then, as soon as the morning had fully risen,
taken out of the tree by the four traitors, and put to death.
The kite and the wolf and the scallcrow tear his flesh. The
remainder of what is really a fine saga describes the hunt for
the murderers and their final death at the hands of Ceallach's
brother, who wrested for himself all the territory that Guaire
had given them, marries Guaire's daughter, and is, like Ceallach
his brother, finally himself put to death by Guaire's treachery.

It would be quite impossible within the limits of a volume
like this to give any adequate study of the evolution of Irish
saga. All Irish romances are compositions upon which more
or less care had evidently been bestowed, in ancient times, as
is evidenced by their being all shot through and through with
verse. These verses amount to a considerable portion of the

1 Compare the legend of the wren's having betrayed the Irish to the
English, whence the universal pursuit of him made by boys on St.
Stephen's day.

9 Ceallach himself.

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 399

saga, often to nearly a quarter or even a third of the whole,
and Irish versification is usually very elaborate, and not the
work of any mere inventor or story-teller, but of a highly-
trained technical poet. Very few pieces indeed, and these
mostly of the more modern Fenian tales, are written in pure
prose. It may be that the reciter of the ancient sagas actually
sang these verses, or certainly gave them in a different tone
from the prose narrative with which he filled up the gap
between them. Whether the same man was both the
composer of the verse and the framer of the prose narrative, in
each particular story, is a difficult question to answer, but I
should think that in most cases, at least in the older saga,
incidents had been taken up by the bards and poets as themes
for their verses, for perhaps ages before they were brought
together by somebody and woven into one complete e'popee
with a prose intermixture. Dr. Sullivan thought that the
Tain Bo Chuailgne was all originally written in verse, and
has his own interpretation for the account given in the curious
tale, the " Proceedings of the Great Bardic Institution," which
tells us that the story was at one time lost, and that the Bardic
Association was commanded to search for and recover it.
This, according to him, meant that the verses had been lost,
and that only a fragmentary form of it had been saved, the
gaps being filled with prose. I do not quite know how far this
is a probable suggestion, because it would appear to be rever-
sing the processes which produce epic poetry in other
literatures. The complete versified epic, the Iliad, the Odyssey,
the Mahabharata, are indeed " the hatch and brood of time,"
embodying not the first but the last results of a long series of
national poetry. But to this last result, so close to them, so
[easily attainable, the Irish never arrived, and hence the various
ballads that compose the books of their Red Branch Iliad, or
Fenian Odyssey, remains separate to this day, and find their
unity, if at all, only by means of a bridge of prose thrown
across from poem to poem, by men who were not poets. Had

400 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the internal development of the Irish not been so rudely
arrested by the Northmen towards the close of the eighth and
the beginning of the ninth century, there is every reason to
believe that both the Red Branch and the Fenian Cycle would
have undergone a further development and appeared in poems
of continuous verse.

The poems with which these sagas are intermixed are
mostly of two kinds, one kind, speeches in the form of lays,
placed in the mouths of the actors, prefaced by such words as
"and he sang," "so that he spake the lay," or the like, and
the other kind, which occurs less often, is as it were a resume
in verse of what had been just told in prose. In almost every
case I should imagine that the narrative poems are the oldest,
and of them the prose is not unfrequently, as it were, an
explanation and an extension.

That the Irish had already made some approach to the
construction of a great epic is evident from the way in which
they attempted, from a very early date, to group a number of
minor sagas, which were evidently independent in their origin,
round their great saga the Tain Bo Chuailgne. There are
twelve minor tales which the Irish called preface-stories to the
Tain and which they worked into it by links, some of which,
at least, were evidently forged long after the story which they
were wanted to connect. Especially remarkable in this way
is the story of the metempsychosis of the two swineherds,
whose souls passed into the two bulls who occasioned the great
war of the Tain, — a story which is of a distinctly independent
origin, and which was forced to do duty as an outlying book,
as it were, of the Tain Bo Chuailgne.

How very great the number of Irish sagas must have been
can be conjectured from the fact that out of the list of one
hundred and eighty-seven contained in the Book of Leinster,
at least one hundred and twenty have completely disappeared,
and of the majority of the remainder we have only brief
digests, whilst very many of the ones still preserved, are not

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 401

mentioned in the Book of Leinster at all, thus proving that
the list given in that manuscript is an imperfect one. A perfect
one would have contained at the very least two hundred and
fifty prime stories and one hundred secondary ones, for this was
the number which every ollamh or chief poet was obliged,
by law, to know. The following are some of the best known
and most accessible of the earlier sagas which we have not yet
mentioned, and which do not belong to any of the greater cycles.
This list is drawn up, not according to the age of the texts
or the manuscripts which contain them, but according to the
date of the events to which they refer, and round which they
are constructed.

SIXTH CENTURY B.C. — The destruction of Dinn Righ, otherwise
called the exile of Labhraidh [Lowry] the Mariner. This appears to
have been one of a group of lost romances which centred round the
children of Ugony the Great,1 of some of which Keating has given a
resume in his history.2

SECOND CENTURY B.C. — The King of the Leprechanes' journey to
Emania, and how the death of Fergus mac Leide, King of Ulster,
was brought about.3

The triumphs of Congal Claringneach, which deals with a revolu-
tion in the province of Ulster, the death of the King of Tara, and acces-
sion of Congal to the throne. 4

The Courtship of Etain by Eochaidh Aireach, King of Ireland,
who came to the throne 134 years B.C., according to the " Four
sters."

For him, see above, p. 25.

Some account of this saga is given in O'Curry's MS. Materials, p. 256,
and by Keating, p. 253, of O'Mahony's translation. The entire saga is
preserved in the Yellow Book of Lecan. My friend, the late Father James
Keegan, made me a translation of another version, which he afterwards
published in a St. Louis paper.

Translated and edited by Standish Hayes O'Grady, p. 269 of his " Silva
•adelica."

4 Only one copy of this tale was known to O'Curry in 205, Hodges
nd Smith, R. I. A.

s Edited without a translation by Windisch, in his " Irische Texte," i. p.
7, and referred to at length by O'Curry, " Manners and Customs,"
1. ii. pp. 192-4 ; and summarised and examined by Alfred Nutt, in his
Voyage of Bran." See for this saga, p. 102, above.

2 C

402 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

FIRST CENTURY B.C. — The Courtship of Crunn's wife.1 To this
century belong the Red Branch tales.

FIRST CENTURY A.D. — The Battle of Ath Comair, fought by the
three Finns, brothers of Meve, Queen of Connacht.2

The Destruction of the Bruidhean [Bree-an] Da Choga, in West
Meath, where Cormac Conloingeas, the celebrated son of King Conor
mac Nessa, was killed about the year 33.3

The Revolution of the Aitheach Tuatha, and the Death of Cairbre
Cinn-cait by the free clans of Ireland.4

SECOND CENTURY A.D.— The Death of Eochaidh [Yohy], son of
Mairid.s

The progress of the Deisi from Tara.6

The Courtship of Momera, by Owen Mor.7 (The Fenian tales
and tales of Conn of the Hundred Battles, and Cormac mac Art,
relate to this and the following century.)

THIRD CENTURY. — The Adventures of Teig, son of Cian [Kee-an],
son of Oilioll Olum.8

The Siege of Drom Damhgaire, where Cormac mac Art attempted
to lay a double tribute on the two provinces of Munster.9

FOURTH CENTURY. — The History of the Sons of Eochaidh
Muighmheadhon [Mwee-va-on] father of Niall of the Nine
Hostages.10

Death of King Criomhthann [Criv-han or Criffan] and of Eochaidh
Muighmheadhon's three sons."

1 This was Macha who pronounced the curse on the Ultonians. See above,
p. 294 note 3. The story is preserved in the Harleian MS. 5280, British
Museum.

2 There is a long extract from this battle given by O'Curry in his
" Manners and Customs," vol. ii. pp. 261-3.

3 Preserved in the Leabhar na h-Uidhre. See O'Curry, " Manners and
Customs," vol. iii. p. 254. There is a full copy in H. 3. 18, T. C., D.

* In H. 3. 18, T. C., D. See above, p. 27.

5 Edited from the Leabhar na h-Uidhre by O'Beirne Crowe, in the
" Journal of the Royal Irish Historical and Archaeological Association, 1870,"
and by Standish Hayes O'Grady, " Silva Gadelica," p. 265.

6 See O'Curry, " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 205. I think Kuno
Meyer has translated this saga somewhere. See p. 40.

7 Published by O'Curry for the Celtic Society as an appendage to the
Battle of Moy Leana. See above, p. 368.

8 Translated by O'Grady, " Silva Gadelica," p. 385, and studied at length
by Alfred Nutt, in his "Voyage of Bran," vol. i. p. 201.

9 See O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 212, and MS. Materials
p. 271. This saga is contained at length in the Book of Lismore.

10 Translated in O'Grady's "Silva Gadelica," p. 368.
» Ibid., p. 373-

MISCELLANEOUS ROMANCE 403

FIFTH CENTURY. — The Expedition or Hosting of Daithi, the last
pagan king of Ireland, who was killed by lightning at the foot of
the Alps.1

SIXTH CENTURY.— Death of Aedh Baclamh.3

Death of King Diarmuid — he who was cursed by St. Ruadhan.3

The birth of Aedh [Ae] Slaine,4 the son of Diarmuid, who came to
the throne in 595, according to the " Four Masters."

The Wooing of Becfola, in the reign of Aedh Slaine's son.5

The Voyage of the Sons of Ua Corra.6

SEVENTH CENTURY.— The Proceedings of the Great Bardic
Institution.7

The Battle of Moyrath.8

Suibhne's Madness, a sequel to the last.9

The Feast of Dun na ngedh,8 a preface tale to the Battle of
Moyrath.

The Voyage of Snedgus and Mac Riaghla.10

The Love of Dubhlacha for Mongan."
"he Death of Maelfathartaigh, son of Ronan,'2 who was King of

jinster about the year 610.

This is one of the tales in the Book of Leinster list. Modern versions

common.

See above, p. 228, note, translated in " Silva Gadelica," p. 70.
3 Ibid., p. 76. 4/6zW., p.88.

A short tale, translated in "Silva Gadelica," p. 91.

Translated in the "Revue Celtique."

Published by Professor Connellan for the Ossianic Society in 1860, vol . v.

Published by O'Donovan in 1842 for the Irish Archaeological Society.

MS. 60, Hodges and Smith, R. I. A.

Edited, with English translation, by Whitley Stokes, in "Revue
Celtique," vol. ix., and translated into modern Irish by Father O'Growney
in the " Gaelic Journal," vol. iv. p. 85, from the Yellow Book of Lecan.
Edited by Kuno Meyer in " Voyage of Bran," vol. i. p. 58, from the
of Fermoy. This version seems to have escaped the notice of
D'Arbois de Jubainville, who says in his " Essai d'un Catalogue," " Cette
piece parait perdue." I have in my own possession a copy in a MS.
written by a scribe named O'Mahon in the last century, which is at least
twice as long as that published by Kuno Meyer.

12 The story of an Irish Hippolytus, whose death at his father's hands is
compassed by his step-mother, spretce injuria formce. O' Curry mentions
this tale, MS. Materials, p. 277. It is one of the stories in the catalogue of
the Book of Leinster, under the head of Tragedies. Another Hippolytus
story is that of the death of Comgan, son of the King of the Decies,
quoted by O'Curry, " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 204, but I do not
know from what MS.

404 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND
EIGHTH CENTURY. — The Voyage of Maelduin.1

There are very few sagas, indeed, which deal with events
posterior to the eighth century, and among those which do
(like the stories about Callaghan of Cashel and the Danes, or
the Leeching of Cian's leg, which relates to the reign of Brian
Boru, or O'Donnell's Kerne, which seems as late as the
sixteenth century) there are not many whose literary merits
stand high. It is evident from this, that, apart from the poets,
almost all the genuine literary activity of Ireland centred
around the days of her freedom, and embraced a vast range of
time, from the mythical De Danann period down to the
birth of Christ, and from that to the eighth century, and that
after this period and the invasions of the Northmen and
Normans, Irish national history produced few subjects stimu-
lating to the national muse ; so that the literary production'
which still continued, though in narrower channels and in
feebler volume, looked for inspiration not to contem-
poraneous history, but to the glories of Tara, the exploits of
Finn mac Cumhail, and the past ages of Irish greatness.

The number of sagas still surviving, though many of them
are mere skeletons, may be conjectured from the fact that
O'Curry, in his manuscript lectures on Irish history, quotes
from or alludes to ninety different tales, all of considerable
antiquity, whilst M. d'Arbois de Jubainville, in his u Essai d'un
Catalogue de la litterature epique de Tlrlande," gives the
names of no less than about 540 different pieces.

'Translated, but not very literally, by Joyce in his " Early f Celtic
Romances," and by M. Lot in D'Arbois de Jubainville's " Epopee
Celtique," critically edited by Whitley Stokes in the " Revue Celtique,"
t. ix. p. 446, and x. pp. 50-95.

CHAPTER XXXI

PRE-DANISH POETS

'HE sagas and historic tales, and the poetry that is mingled
ith them, are of far greater importance from a purely literary
int of view than any of the other known productions
uring the pre-Norman period. Although in almost every
tance, I may say, their authorship is unknown, they are or
infinitely greater interest than those pieces whose authorship
been carefully preserved. One of the first poets of renown
r St. Patrick's time was Eochaidh [Yohy], better known as
allan Forgaill. It is to him the celebrated " Amra," or elegy
Columcille, whose contemporary he was, is ascribed,1 and
is poem in the Bearla Feni, or Fenian dialect, has come
own to us so heavily annotated that the text preserved is
the oldest miscellaneous manuscript we have, the Leabhar
na h-Uidhre, is almost smothered in glosses and explana-
tions, and indeed would be perfectly unintelligible without them.
The gloss and commentary is really far more interesting than
| the poem, which indeed, considering the fame of Dalian,

1 Mr. Strachan, however, has lately cast doubts upon its genuineness and
i ascribes it in its present form to a later date.

406 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

is very disappointing ; but no doubt it derived half its impor-
tance from being in the Fenian dialect, and hence incompre-
hensible to the ordinary reader. " He wrote," says the learned
Colgan, who published at Louvain the lives of the saints which
O'Clery collected for him at the beginning of the seventeenth
century, " in the native speech, and in ancient style, several
little works which cannot in later ages be easily penetrated by
many otherwise well versed in the old native idiom and
antiquity, and hence they are illustrated by our more learned
antiquaries with scattered commentaries, and as rare monu-
ments of our ancient language and antiquity it is customary to
lecture on them and expound them in the schools of anti-
quaries of our nation. Among these is one panegyric or
poem always held in great esteem on the praises of St.
Colomb, and entitled cAmra Choluim cille,'" etc. Colgan
adds in a note, " I have in my possession one copy of this
work, but putting aside a few scattered commentaries which
it contains, it is penetrable to-day to only a few, and these the
most learned."

This obscure poem is not, so far as I can see, composed in
any metre or rhythm. It, with its gloss, is divided into seven
chapters and an introduction. Here is the comment on the
first words Diay tD/#, which will show better than anything
that could be written, the very high state of independent
development which the Irish poets had early attained in the
technique of their art. We must remember that the manu-
script in which we find this was copied about the year
noo, and the commentary may be much older. Irish
is indeed the only vernacular language of western Europe
where poetic technique had reached so high a perfection in the
eleventh century. Fully to see the significance of this one
must remember that the English language had not at this time
even begun to emerge. Compare this highly- developed critical
commentary with anything of the same age that Germany,
France, or Italy has to show.

P RE-DANISH POETS 407

" Dia, Dia,* God, God, etc.," says the commentator, " it is why he
doubles the first word on account of the rapidity 3 and avidity of the
praising, as Deus, Deus meus, etc. But the name of that with the
Gael is ' Return-to-a-usual-sound,' for there be three similar standards
of expression with the poets of the Gaels, that is re-return to a usual
sound, and renarration mode and reduplication, and this is the mark
of each of them. The return indeed is a doubling of one word in
one place in the round, without adhering to it from that forth. The
renarration mode again is renarrating from a like mode ; that means
the one word — to say it frequently in the round, with an intervention
of other words between them, as this —

' Came the foam which the plain filters,3

Came the ox through fifty warriors ;
So came the keen active lad
Whom brown Cu Dinisc left.'

Jut ' reduplication ' is, namely ' refolding/ that is ' bi-geminating,' as

" I fear fear / after long long /

Pains strong strong / without peace peace /
Like each each / until doom doom /
For gloom gloom / will not cease cease." *

1 I follow here O'Beirne Crowe's imperfect rendering. If he trans-
tes some words of this difficult piece inaccurately it does not much matter

my purpose.

3 Ar abela no ar lainni an molta. This word Abel for " quick," " rapid,"
lough neither in O'Reilly's nor Windisch's nor the Scotch Gaelic
lictionaries, is a common one in the spoken language of West Connacht.
[t occurs twice in the "Three Shafts of Death," where it is mistrans-
jd by "awful," but it must be carefully distinguished from M. I. Abdul,
Beating's Adhbhal. The word is not known in Waterford, and my friend
the late Mr. Fleming, who was the chief authority in the Royal Irish
Academy on the spoken language, and who hailed from that county, was,
I believe, unacquainted with it.

3 This translation is evident nonsense, but I cannot better it. The
original is " Ric in sithbe sitlas mag."

4 Is e immoro adz'abul, i.e., afhillind, i.e., doemnad, ut est hoc, *.«.,

" Agur agur iar cein chein

Bith i pein, phein ni sith sith,
Amail each each, co brath brath,
In cech tram trath, cid scith scith."

My translation is in the exact metre of the original, and conveys in
English the manner in which the heptasyllabic Irish lines were pro-
nounced, in which, despite of what some continental scholars have

408 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

"There are two divisions of these in this fore-speech [to the

Amra] ; that is, we have the ' Return-to-a- usual-sound ' and the

'renarration-mode/ but in the body of the hymn we have the
' renarration-mode ' only."

Here is another passage which will show the difficulty that
was found so early as the eleventh century in explaining this
Fenian dialect.

"IT IS A HARP WITHOUT A Ceis, IT IS A CHURCH WITHOUT AN

ABBOT — i.e., ceis is a name for a small harp which is used as an
accompaniment to a large harp in co-playing ; or it is a name for
the small pin which holds the cord in the wood of the harp ; or for
the tacklings, or for the heavy cord. Or the ceis in the harp is what
holds the side part with its chords in it, as the poet said — it was
Ros x mac Find who sang it, or Ferceirtne 2 the poet,

The base-chord concealed not music from the harp of Crabtene,
Until it dropped sleep-deaths upon hosts.

Sweeter than any music, the harp

Which delighted Labhraidh [Lowry] Lore the Mariner,

Though sullen about his secrets was the King,

The ceis, or base-chord of Craftine concealed it not."

This poem is an allusion to the sagas which grouped them-
selves round the sons of Ugony the great and Lowry the
Manner, who reigned about 530 years B.C.

In another place he quotes a poem of Finn mac Ciimhairs.

" ' AND SEA-COURSE '—i.e., he was skilful in the art of renis* that is
' of the sea,' or it may be rian that would be right in it, as Finn,
grandson of Baoisgne [Bweesgna] said —

" ' A tale I have for you. Ox murmurs,
Winter roars, summer is gone.
Wind high cold, sun low,
Cry is attacking, sea resounding.

advanced, there is, I believe, no alternation of beat or stress at all, and neither
trochee nor iambus. O'Beirne Crowe mistranslates dgur by " I ask."

1 Ros was chief poet of Erin in the time of St. Patrick, and is said to
have helped him in redacting the Brehon Law.

2 Ferceirtne was the poet at Conor mac Nessa's Court in the first century
B.C., who contended in the " Dialogue of the Two Sages," see above p. 240.

3 See above for rein being used for sea, p. 10.

PRE-DANISH POETS 409

Very red raying has concealed form.
Voice of geese [Barnacles] has become usual,
Cold has caught the wings of birds,
Ice-frost time ; wretched, very wretched.1
A tale I have for you.' "

Another verse quoted alludes to the chess-board of Crimh-
thann Nianair, who came to the throne eleven years before the
birth of Christ.2

" FECHT AFOR NIA NEM — i.e., the time when the champion would
come, that is Columcille, for nia means a champion, as is said —

" ' The chessboard of Crimhthann, brave champion,
A small child carries it not on his arm (?)

tHalf of its chessmen are of yellow gold.
The other half of white bronze.
One man of its chessmen alone
Would purchase six married couples.' "
The ancient commentator quotes, thirty-five times in all,
m various poems, in explanation of his text, including poems
:ribed to Columcille himself, and to Grainne, the daughter
Cormac mac Art, who eloped from Finn mac Cumhail. He
quotes the satire made on Breas in the time of the Tuatha De
Danann, and a verse of St. Patrick (some of whose Irish
poetry is also quoted by the " Four Masters "), and a poet called
Colman mac Lenene, who was first a poet, but afterwards
became a saint, and founded the great school of Cloyne.

1 The translation is doubtful. Dr. Sigerson has well versified it in his
"Bards of the Gael and Gaul," p. 116. The original has a curious metrical
effect not unlike that other piece attributed to Finn, quoted above p. 275.
It might be printed thus —

Seel lem duib Roruad rath

Dordaid dam Rocleth cruth,

Snigid gaim Rogab gnath

Rofaith sam. Giugrand guth.

Gaeth ard huar, Rogab uacht

Isel grian Ete en,

Gair arrith Aigre re

Ruthach rian. E, moscle.

3 See above p. 27 for Crimhthann's chess-board.

4io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Dalian wrote two other Amras, one on Senan of Inn is
Cathaigh, " which," remarks Colgan, " on account of antique-
ness of style and gracefulness is amongst those fond of
antiquity, always held in great esteem," and another in praise
of Conall of Inskeel in Donegal, in one grave with whom he
was buried. There has also come down to us in the same
inscrutable Fenian dialect a poem of his consisting of eighty-
four lines on the shield of Hugh, King of Oriel, which, unlike
his Amra, is in perfect rhyme and metre.1

It was he who headed the bardic body when they were so
nearly banished from the kingdom, and were only saved by the
intervention of St. Columcille at the Synod of Drom Ceat
[Cat], of which more hereafter. There is a curious specimen
of his overbearing truculence in a story preserved in the same
manuscript (of about the year noo) that has preserved his
Amra ; it is headed " A Story from which it is inferred that
Mongan was Finn mac Cumhail." The poet was stopping with
Mongan, King of Ulster.

1 Published by Professor Connellan, but without a translation, at p. 258
of Vol. V. of Ossianic Society's publications. It, too, is in the Feni dialect.
The first verse, in honour of Dubh-Giolla, " the Black Attendant," which
was the name of the King's shield will show its abstruseness.

" Dub gilla dub, arm naise,
Eo Rosa raon slegh snaise,
Adeardius daib diupla gainde
d'Aodh do cinn lainne glaise."

It would appear that Dalian could write Irish as well as Bearla Feni
from this verse, which is ascribed to him by the " Four Masters." " Dalian
Forgaill," they say, " dixit hoc do bhas Choluim Cille."

" Is leigheas legha gan les
Is dedhail smeara re smuais
Is abhran re cruit gan cheis
Sinne deis ar nargain uais."

It is the healing of a leech without light [i.e., in the dark] ; it is a dividing
of the marrow from the bone ; it is the song of a harp without a base-
string that we are, after being deprived of our noble." This verse does
not occur in the Amra, though the expression a " harp without a base-
string " does.

PRE-DANISPI POETS 411

" Every night the poet would recite a story to Mongan. So great
was his lore that they were thus from Halloweve till May-day.
He had gifts and food from Mongan. One day Mongan asked his
poet what was the death of Fothad Airgdech. Forgoll said he was
slain at Duffry in Leinster. Mongan said it was false. The poet
[on hearing that] said he would satirise him with his lampoons, and
he would satirise his father and his mother and his grandfather, and
he would sing [spells] upon their waters, so that fish should not be
caught in their river-mouths. He would sing upon their woods so
that they should not give fruit, upon their plains so that they should
be barren for ever of any produce.

"Mongan [thereupon] promised him his fill of precious things,
so far as [the value of] seven bondmaids, or twice seven bondmaids,
or three times seven. At last he offers him one-third, or one-half of
his land, or his whole land ; at last [everything] save only his own
liberty with that of his wife Breothigernd, unless he were redeemed
before the end of three days.

" The poet refused all except as regards his wife. For the sake of
lis honour Mongan consented. Thereat his wife was sorrowful,

le tear was not taken from her cheek. Mongan told her not to be
>wful, help would certainly come to them."

Eventually the poet is very dramatically shown to be in the

Tong.1
Dalian Forgaill was succeeded in the Head Ollamhship of all

le Irish bards by his pupil Senchan Torpeist, who was equally

'erbearing, and whose intolerable insolence is admirably
tirised in the story called the " Proceedings of the Great
rdic Association." Only two poems of his have come down
us, one being his elegy on the death of his master Dalian

''orgaill.

See the whole story, carefully edited by Kuno Meyer, in " The Voyage
of Bran," p. 45, where the poet is called Forgoll, but this is evidently the
same as our Dalian Forgaill, though Kuno Meyer appears not to think so,
for he has the following note : " Forgoll seems to have been an overbear-
ing and exacting yz/e' of the type of Athirne and Dalian Forgaill." But as
story synchronises with the life of Dalian Forgaill, and there is, so far
I know, no second poet known as Forgoll, it is evidently the same
irson. The " Dalian," i.e., the " blind man " (for he lost his eyesight
irough overstudy), being prefixed to Forgaill appears to inflect it in the
snitive case, as An Tighearna easbuig, " the Lord Bishop," i.e., the lord
a bishop, "the blind man of a Forgall."

412 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The next great lay poet of importance seems to have been
Cennfaeladh, who died in 678, whose verses are constantly cited
by the " Four Masters." He was originally an Ulster warrior who
was wounded in the battle of Moyrath, which was fought when
Adamnan, Columcille's biographer, was eleven years old, and
he was brought to be cured to the house of one Brian in
Tuaim Drecain, where there were three schools, one of classics,1
one of law, and one of poetry. He used to attend — apparently
during his convalescence — these various schools, and what he
heard in the day he would repeat to himself at night, so that
cc his brain of forgetfulness was extracted from his head after
its having been cloven in the battle of Moyrath." " And he
put a clear thread of poetry through them, and wrote them on
flags and on tables, and he put them into a vellum book."
Hence he became a great lawyer as well as a poet, and a
considerable part of the celebrated Brehon Law Book, called
the Book 'of Acaill, is ascribed to him.2

Angus Ceile De 3 [Kail-a Day], or the Culdee, is the next
poet of note who claims our attention. He flourished about
the year 800, and is the author of the well-known Feilire, or
Calendar. In this work one stanza in rlnn alrd metre is

1 Scoil"legind."

8 See one of the poems ascribed to him printed by Professor Connellan
from the Book of Ballymote, Ossianic Society, vol. v. p. 268. If it is
Cennfealadh's it has been greatly altered during the course of transcrip-
tion.

3 Ceile De, or Culdee, i.e., " Servus Dei," was a phrase used with much
latitude, and in general denoted an ascetic, but occasionally also a mis-
sionary, monk. We find the Dominicans of Sligo called Culdees in a MS.
of the year 1600. They seem to have arisen in the seventh or early eighth
century. The Scottish Culdees, becoming lax in later times, married and
established a spurious hereditary order. There is, of course, no truth in
the fable that they were the pre-Patrician or early Scottish Christians, a
notion which Campbell has propagated in his fine poem " Reulura," i.e.,
" reull-ur " : —

" Peace to their souls, the pure Culdees

Were Albyn's earliest priests of God,
Ere yet an island of her seas
By foot of Saxon monk was trod ! "

PRE-DANISH POETS 413

devoted to each day of the year, in connection with the name
of some saint — an Irish one wherever possible. The Feilire is
followed by a poem of five or six hundred lines, which with its
glosses and commentaries is probably the most extensive piece
of Old Irish poetry that we have. Whitley Stokes, who edited
it with great care, considers it to be of the tenth rather than
the late eighth or early ninth century. If so, this would leave
its authorship doubtful, but it has been shown, I think by Kuno
Meyer, that the number of deponental forms contained in it
might point to a higher antiquity than that which Whitley
Stokes allows. It has certainly been always hitherto accepted
as the work of Angus, and as it cannot well, in any case, be
more than a century or so later, we may let it stand here,
as it has always done, under his name. In the ancient and
curious Irish notes and commentary on the Feilire we find a
great number of verses quoted from the poet-saints, and these
include St. Patrick, St. Ciaran the elder, St. Comgall with St.
/olumcille his friend, St. Ite the virgin, St. Kevin of Glen-
loch, St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois, St. Molaise [Moleesha]
Devenish (who sent Columcille to banishment), St. Mo-
mda of Lismore, St. Moiling, St. Fechin of Fore, St.
lireran of Clonard, Maelruan of Tallaght, Adamnan (Colum-
lle's biographer), and Angus the Culdee himself, a goodly
>mpany of priests and poets ; but no one seems to have
anything esteemed in ancient Erin unless he either
is or was reputed to be a poet ! Of true poetic spirit
contains not much, but it is a wonderful example of
technical difficulties overcome. The metre is one of the most
difficult, a six-syllable one, with dissyllabic endings. The
first stanzas, translated into the metre of the original, run
as follows : —

" Bless, O Christ, my speaking,

King of heavens seven,
Strength and wealth and POWER
In this HOUR be given.

414 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Given,1 O thou brightest,

Destined chains to sever,
King of Angels GLORIOUS,

And victORious ever.

Ever o'er us shining,

Light to mortals given,
Beaming daily, NIGHTLY,

BRIGHTLY out of heaven."

The Saltair na Rann has also been usually ascribed to
Angus, but it can hardly be, as Dr. Whitley Stokes has shown,
earlier than the year iooo,2 for it mentions apparently as con-
temporaries Brian king of Munster, and Dub-da-lethe arch-
bishop of Armagh, appointed in 988. It is a collection of one
hundred and sixty-two poems in early Middle Irish containing
between eight and nine thousand lines, mostly composed in
Deibhidh [D'yevvee] metre. These poems are all of a more
or less religious cast, and most of them are based (like the
Saxon Caedmon's) on Old Testament history, but they also
contain a prodigious deal of curious matter. The opening
poem begins —

" Mo ri-se ri nime nair." 3
(" My king is the King of noble Heaven.")

1 This tour deforce, which consists of laying stress in the beginning of
each succeeding stanza upon the word which ended the last, is common in
Irish and is called conachlonn. It is much used by Angus. It seems to be
self-evolved in Irish, whose prosody is full of original terms unborrowed
from the Latin, which, to my mind, tells strongly in favour of pre-Christian
culture. It is curious that Horace who falls into conachlonn in his second
ode, never returned to a form so well adapted to lyric purposes : —

" Dextera sacras jaculatus arces

Terruit urbem.
Terruit gentes," etc.

2 He has edited the text without a translation from the only MS. that
contains it — Rawlinson, B 502, in the Bodleian, in the " Anecdota Ox-
oniensia " Series. Oxford deserves splendidly of Celtic scholars. If only
Dublin would follow her example !

3 " Mo ri-se ri nime nair

Cen huabur cen immarbaig,

Dorosat domun dualach,

Mo ri bith-beo bith-buadach."

PRE-DANISH POETS 415

It tells of the creation of the world, of the sun, of heaven
and earth, light and darkness, day and night, of how the earth
separated from the primal material, and was surrounded by the
firmament, the world being " like an apple, goodly and round " ;
then the king created the mists, the current of the cold watery
air, the four chief winds, and the eight sub-winds, with their
colours, " the white, the clear purple, the blue, the great green,
the yellow, the red truly-bold, . . . the black, the grey,
the speckled (?), the dark (?), the dull-black, the dun-
coloured." * The poet then discusses the distance from the
earth to the firmament, the seven planets, the distance from the
earth to the moon, from moon to sun, the windless ethereal
heaven, the distance between the firmament and the sun, the
motionless Olympus or third heaven, the distance from the
firmament to heaven and from the earth to the depths of hell,
the five zones, the firmament round the earth, like its shell
>und an egg, the seventy-two windows of the firmament,
rith a shutter on each, the seventh heaven revolving like a
wheel, with the seven planets from the creation, the signs of
zodiac,2 the time (30 days loj hours) that the sun is in
:h, the day of the month on which it enters each, the month
which it is in each, the division of the firmament into twelve

1 " In gel in corcarda glan,
In glass ind uaine allmar,
In buidi in derg, derb diina,
Nisgaib fergg frisodala,
In dub, ind liath ind alad,
In t-emen in chiar chalad,
Ind odar doirchi datha
Nidat soirchi sogabtha."

e hundred and fifty-second poem, which is a beautiful one, again asks
what are the colours of the winds. Line 7,948.

2 A good example of how Irish assimilates foreign words by cutting
off their endings : —

" Aquair, Pise, Ariel, Tauir, Treb,
Geimin choir, ocus Cancer,
Leo Uirgo, Libru, Scoirp scrus,
Sagitair, Capricornus."

; Leo is pronounced Uyo as a monosyllable.

416 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

parts, and the five things which every intelligent man should
know — the day of the month, age of the moon, height of the
tide, day of the week, and saints' festivals ! r

The attribution of colours to the winds in this poem is
curious and appears to be Irish. I have met traces of this
fancy even amongst the modern peasantry. There is a strange
entry in the Great Brehon Law Book, the Seanchas Mor,
which quotes the colours of the winds in the same order.

" The colour of each," says this strange passage, " differs from the
other, namely, the white and the crimson, the blue 2 and the green,
the yellow and the red, the black and the grey, the speckled and the
dark, the ciar (dull black) and the grisly. From the east comes the
crimson wind, from the south the white, from the north the black,
from the west the dun. The red and the yellow winds are produced
between the white and the crimson, the green and the grey between
the grisly and the white, the grey and the ciar between the grisly
and the jet-black, the dark and the mottled between the black and
the crimson. And those are all the sub-winds contained in each and
all the cardinal winds."

After thus describing the creation of the world in the first
poem, we are introduced in subsequent ones to heaven and the
angels, who are named for us, and then shown hell and
Lucifer's abode, the description of which, except that it is in
verse, reminds us of that given by St. Brendan. Next we are
introduced to Adam and Eve, and it is stated that Adam had
spent a thousand years in the Garden of Eden. The jealousy
of Lucifer is described, and his temptation of Eve, whom he
persuades to open the door and let him into the garden.
Then he makes her eat the apple, and Adam takes half from

1 See Whitley Stokes' introduction for the analysis of the 1st, the nth,
and the I2th poem.

2 " Glas " must be here translated " blue." It is a colour used by the Irish
with great latitude, and apparently means yellowish, or light blue, or
greenish grey. To this day a grey eye is suil ghlas and green grass is feur
glas, yet the colour of grass is not that of a grey or even of a grey-green
eye. We want a study on colours and their shades as at present used by
the Irish and the Scotch Highlanders.

PRE-DANISH POETS

her and eats also. The eleventh poem describes the evil
result, and is quite Miltonic and imaginative. It tells us
how for a week, after being driven out, Adam and his wife
remain without fire, house, drink, food, or clothing. He then
begins to lament to Eve over all his lost blessings and admits
that he has done wrong. Thereupon Eve asks Adam to kill
her, so that God may pity him the more. Adam refuses.
He goes forth in his starvation to seek food, and finds nothing
but herbs, the food of the lawless beasts. He proposes then to
Eve to do penance and adore God in silence, Eve in the
Tigris for thirty days, and Adam in the Jordan for forty-seven
days, a flagstone under their feet and the water up to their
necks. Eve's hair fell dishevelled round her and her eyes were
directed to heaven in silent prayer for forgiveness. Then
Adam prays the river Jordan " to fast with him against God,
with all its many beasts, that pardon may be granted to him."
Then the stream ceased to flow, and gathered together every
iving creature that was in it, and they all supplicate the
ingelic host to join with them in beseeching God to forgive
Adam. They obtain their request, and forgiveness is granted
:o Adam and to all his seed except the unrighteous. When
he devil, however, hears this, he, " like a man in the shape of
i white angel," goes to Eve as she stands in the Tigris, and
rets her to leave her penance, saying that he had been sent by
They then go to Adam, who at once recognises the
llevil, and shows Eve how she has been deceived. Eve falls
iialf dead to the ground and reproaches Lucifer. He, however,
efends himself, and repeats to them at length the story of his
xpulsion from heaven for refusing to worship Adam. He
oncludes by threatening vengeance on him and his descen-
ants. Adam and his wife then live alone for a year on grass,
ithout fire, house, music, or raiment, drinking water from
eir palms, and eating green herbs in the shadows of trees and
caverns. Eve brings forth a beautiful boy, who at once
eeds to cut grass for his father, who calls him Cain. God
2 D

4i 8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

at last pities Adam and sends Michael to him with various
seeds, and Michael teaches him husbandry and the use of
animals. Seven years afterwards Eve brings forth Abel. In
a vision she sees Cain drinking the blood of Abel.

In this manner, with a free play of the imagination, the
writer runs through both Old and New Testaments, down to
the denial of Peter and the death of Christ, in 150 poems, to
which are appended twelve more, eleven of them in a different
and more melodious metre, " rannaigheacht mhor," on the resur-
rection.

There were a number of other pre-Danish poets, but only
occasional pieces of theirs have been preserved. Their obits are
often mentioned by the annalists, but the few longer pieces of
theirs that have survived to our day being mostly historical or
genealogical, and as such devoid of much literary interest, we
may neglect them.

CHAPTER XXXII

THE DANISH PERIOD

THE first onfall of the Danes seems to have been made about
the year 795, and for considerably over two centuries Erin was
shaken from shore to shore with ever-recurring alarms, and for
many years every centre of population lived in a state of terror,
not knowing what a day might bring forth. Monasteries and
colleges were burnt again and again, and built again and
again, only to be reburnt. Numbers of invaluable books were
destroyed, gold and silver work was carried off in quantities,
and a state of unrest produced, which must have made learning
in many parts of the island well-nigh impossible.

Strange to say, despite the troubled condition of Ireland
during these two or three centuries, she produced a large
number of poets and scholars, the impulse given by the
ithusiasm of the sixth and seventh centuries being still strong
her. Unquestionably the greatest name amongst her
ten of learning during this period is that of the statesman,
xlesiastic, poet and scholar, Cormac mac Culinan, who
at once king and bishop of Cashel,1 and one of the most

It was not he, however, who built Cormac's Chapel at Cashel, but
>rmac Mac Carthy, in the twelfth century. I am not sure whether
shel had been formed into an archiepiscopal see at this time, but he is
rtainly called bishop of Cashel.

420 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

striking figures in both the literary and political history of
these centuries.

To him we owe that valuable compilation, so often quoted
already under the title of " Cormac's Glossary," which is by
far the oldest attempt at a comparative vernacular dictionary
made in any language of modern Europe.1 Of course it has
been enlarged by subsequent writers, but the idea and much
of the matter remains Cormac's. In its original conception, it
was meant to explain and interpret words and phrases which
in the ninth century had become obscure to Irish scholars,
and as might be expected, it throws light on many pagan
customs, on history, law, romance, and mythology. Cormac's
other literary effort was the compilation of the Saltair of Cashel,
now most unhappily lost, but it appears to have been a great
work. In it was contained the Book of Rights,2 drawn up
for the readjustment of the relations existing between princes
and tribes, and still preserved. St. Benignus was said to have
originally composed in verse a complete statement of the
various rights, privileges, and duties of the High-king, the
provincial kings, and the local chieftains. This, like so much
of ancient and primitive law, was drawn up in verse so as to
be thus stereotyped for the future, and easily remembered at
a time when books were scarce. Cormac seems to have
enlarged, modified, and brought it up to date to suit the
changing times, and it was subsequently redacted again in
Brian Boru's day in a sense favourable to Munster.3 The
king-bishop was a most remarkable man and an excellent
scholar. He appears to have known Latin, Greek, Hebrew,
and Danish, and to have been one of the finest Old Gaelic
scholars of his day, and withal an accomplished poet, though
his verses are now lost. He was slain in battle in the year

1 The celebrated Vocabularius S. Galli was, according to Zimmer, the
work of an Irish monk.

8 Leabhar na gCeart.

3 It has been most carefully edited and translated in a large volume by
O'Donovan for the Celtic Society, in 1847.

THE DANISH PERIOD 421

908,* under circumstances so curiously described in the
fragmentary annals edited by O'Donovan that it may be worth
repeating here. He was, as we know from other sources,
betrothed to the Princess Gormfhlaith or Gormly, daughter of
Flann Sionna [Shinna], king of Meath and High-king of
Ireland, but determining to enter the Church he returned her
with her dowry to her father without consummating the
marriage ; after this he took orders, and rose in time to be
archbishop of Cashel as well as king of Munster. Gormly,
however, was married against her will to Cearbhall [Caroll],
king of Leinster. It was in the year 908 that Flann, the
High-king, with Caroll king of Leinster, now his son-in-law,
prepared to meet Munster and to assert by arms his right to
the presentation of the ancient church of Monasterevan, but it
seems probable that he also bore the king-archbishop a grudge
for his treatment of his daughter Gormly. Here is the
annalistic account of the sequel : —

DEATH OF CORMAC MAC CULINAN."

"The great host of Munster was assembled by the same two, that
is, Flaherty,3 [abbot of Scattery Island, in the Shannon], and Cormac
[mac Culinan], to demand hostages of Leinster and Ossory, and all
the men of Munster were in the same camp. . . . And noble am-
bassadors came from Leinster from Caroll, son of Muirigan [king
of that province] , to Cormac first, and they delivered a message of
peace from the Leinstermen, i.e., one peace to be in all Erin until
May following (it being then the second week in autumn), and to
give hostages into the keeping of Maenach, a holy, wise, and pious
man, and of other pious men, and to give jewels and much property
to Cormac and Flaherty.

" Cormac was much rejoiced at being offered this peace, and he
terward went to tell it to Flaherty and how he was offered it from

903 according to the " Four Masters."
2 From the fragment copied by Duald Mac Firbis in 1643 from a vellum
MS. of Mac Egan of Ormond, a chief professor of the old Brehon Law,
a MS. which was so worn as to be in places illegible at the time Mac
Firbis copied it ; published by O' Donovan for the Archaeological Society.

ive altered O'Donovan's translation very slightly.

In Irish, " Flaithbheartach ."

422 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Leinster. When Flaherty heard this he was greatly horrified, and
't was what he said, ' This shows,' said he, ' the littleness of thy mind
and the feebleness of thy nature, for thou art the son of a plebeian/
and he said many other bitter and insulting words, which it would
be too long to repeat.

" The answer which Cormac made him was, ' I am certain,' Cormac
said, ' of what the result of this [obstinacy of yours] will be, a battle
will be fought, O holy man,' said he, 'and [I] Cormac shall be
under a curse for it, and it is likely that it will be the cause of death
to thee [also].' And when he had said this he came into his own
tent, afflicted and sorrowful. And when he sat down he took a
basketful of apples and proceeded to divide them amongst his
people and said, ' My dear people,' he said, ' I shall never give you
apples again from this out for ever.' ' Is it so, O dear earthly lord ? '
said his people ; ' why art thou sorrowful and melancholy with us ;
it is often thou hast boded evil for us ? ' 'It is,' [said Cormac,] ' as
I say, and yet, dear people, what melancholy thing have I said, for
though I should not distribute apples to you with my own hand, yet
there shall be some one of you in my place who will.' He after-
wards ordered a watch to be set, and he called to him the holy,
pious, and wise man, Maenach, son of Siadhal [Shiel], the chief co-arb
or successor of Comhghall, and he made his confession and will in his
presence, and he took the body of Christ from his hand, and he
resigned the world in the presence of Maenach, for he knew that
he would be killed in battle, but he did not wish that many others
should know it. He also ordered that his body should be brought
to Cloyne if convenient, but if not to convey it to the cemetery of
Diarmuid, [grand] son of Aedh Roin, where he had studied for a long
time. He was very desirous, however, of being interred at Cloyne
cf Mac Lenin. Maenach, however, was better pleased to have him
interred at Disert Diarmada, for that was one of [Saint] Comhghall's
towns, and Maenach was ComhghaH's successor. This Maenach,
son of Shiel, was the wisest man of his time, and he now exerted
himself much to make peace, if it were possible, between the men of
Leinster and Munster.

"Many of the forces of Munster deserted unrestrained. There
was great noise, too, and dissension in the camp of the men of Mun-
ster at this time, for they heard that Flann, son of Malachy [High-
king of Ireland], was in the camp of the Leinster men [helping
them] with great forces of foot and horse. It was -then Maenach
said, ' Good men of Munster/ said he, ' you ought to accept of the
good hostages I have offered you to be placed in the custody of pious
men till May next, namely, the son of Caroll, king of Leinster, and
the son of the king of Ossory.' All the men of Munster were saying

THE DANISH PERIOD 423

that it was Flaherty [the abbot], son of Inmainen alone who com-
pelled them to go [to fight] into Leinster.

" After this great complaint which they made, they came over Slieve
Mairge from the west to Leithglinn Bridge. But Tibraide,
successor of Ailbhe [of Emly] , and many of the clergy along with
him tarried at Leithglinn, and also the servants of the army and the
horses which carried the provisions.

"After this trumpets were blown and signals for battle were given
by the men of Munster, and they went forward till they came to Moy-
Ailbhe.1 Here they remained with their back to a thick wood awaiting
their enemies. The men of Munster divided themselves into
three equally large battalions, Flaherty, son of Inmainen, and
Ceallach, son of Caroll, king of Ossory, over the first division;
Cormac mac Culinan, king of Munster, over the middle division ;
Cormac, son of Mothla, King of the Deisi, and the King of Kerry,
and the kings of many other tribes of West Munster, over the third
division. They afterwards came on in this order to Moy-Ailbhe.
They were querulous on account of the numbers of the enemy and
their own fewness. Those who were knowledgable, that is those
who were amongst themselves, state that the Leinstermen and their
forces amounted to three times or four times the number of the men
of Munster or more. Unsteady was the order in which the men of
Munster came to the battle. Very pitiful was the wailing which was
in the battle — as the learned who were in the battle relate — the
shrieks of the one host in the act of being slaughtered and the
shouts of the other host exulting over that slaughter. There were
two causes for which the men of Munster suffered so sudden a de-
feat ; for Ceileachar, the brother of Cingegan, suddenly mounted his
horse and said, ' Nobles of Munster,' said he, ' fly suddenly from this
abominable battle, and leave it between the clergy themselves who
could not be quiet without coming to battle,' and afterwards he
suddenly fled accompanied by great hosts. The other cause of the
defeat was : When Ceallach, son of Caroll, saw the battalion in
rhich were the chieftains of the King of Erin cutting down his own

ittalion he mounted his horse and said to his own people, ' Mount

»ur horses and drive the enemy before you.' And though he said
this, it was not to really fight he said so but to fly. Howsoever it
resulted from these causes that the Munster battalion fled together.
Alas ! pitiful and great was the slaughter throughout Moy-Ailbhe
afterwards. A cleric was not spared more than a layman, there

1 The plain where this battle of Bealach Mughna or Ballaghmoon was
fought is in the very south of the county Kildare, about 2\ miles to the
north of the town of Carlow,

424 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

they were all equally killed. When a layman or a clergyman was
spared it was not out of mercy, it was done but out of covetousness,
to obtain a ransom from them, or to bring them into servitude.
King Cormac, however, escaped in the van of the first battalion, but
the horse leaped into a trench and he fell off it. When a party
of his people who were flying perceived this, they came to the King
and put him up on his horse again. It was then he saw a foster son
of his own, a noble of the Eoghanachts, Aedh by name, who was an
adept in wisdom and jurisprudence and history and Latin ; and the
King said to him, 'Beloved son,' said he, 'do not cling by me,
but take thyself out of it as well as thou canst ; I told thee
that I should be killed in this battle.' A few remained along
with Cormac, and he came forward along the way on horse-
back, and the way was besmeared throughout with much blood of
men and horses. The hind feet of his horse slipped on the slippery
way in the track of blood, and the horse fell right back and [Cor-
mac's] back and neck were both broken, and he said, when falling,
' In manus tuas, Domine, commendo spiritum meum,' and he gave
up the ghost ; and the impious sons of malediction came and thrust
spears through his body, and cut off his head.

"Although much was the slaying on Moy-Ailbhe to the east of the
Barrow, yet the prowess of Leinster was not satiated with it, but
they followed up the rout westwards across Slieve Mairge, and slew
many noblemen in that pursuit.

" In the very beginning of the battle Ceallach, son of Caroll, king
of Ossory, and his son were killed at once. Dispersedly, however,
others were killed from that out, both laity and clergy. There were
many good clergymen killed in this battle, as were also many kings
and chieftains. In it was slain Fogartach, son of Suibhne [Sweeny],
an adept in philosophy and divinity, King of Kerry, and Ailell, son of
Owen, the distinguished young sage and high-born nobleman, and
Colman, Abbot of Cenn-Etigh, Chief Ollav of the judicature of Erin,
and hosts of others also, quos longum est scribere. . . .

" Then a party came up to Flann, having the head of Cormac with
them, and 't was what they said to Flann, ' Life and health, O power-
ful victorious king, and Cormac's head to thee from us ; and as is
customary with kings raise thy thigh and put this head under it and
press it with thy thigh.' Howsoever Flann spoke evil to them, it
was not thanks he gave them. ' It was an enormous act,' said he,
' to have taken off the head of the holy bishop, but, however, I shall
honour it instead of crushing it.' Flann took the head into his hand
and kissed it, and carried thrice round him the consecrated head of
the holy bishop and martyr. The head was afterwards honourably
carried away from him to the body where Meaenach, son of Shiel,

THE DANISH PERIOD 425

successor of Comhghall, was, and he carried the body of Cormac to
Castledermot, where it was honourably interred, and where it per-
forms signs and miracles.

" Why should not the heart repine and the mind sicken at this enor-
mous deed ; the killing and the mangling with horrid arms of this
holy man, the most learned of all who came or shall come of the men
of Erin for ever ? The complete master in Gaedhlic and Latin, the
archbishop most pious, most pure, miraculous in chastity and prayer,
a proficient in law and in every wisdom, knowledge, and science, a
paragon of poetry and learning, a head of charity and every virtue,
a sage of education, and head-king of the whole of the two Munster
provinces in his time ! "

Gormly, the betrothed, but afterwards repudiated wife of
Cormac, was also a poet, and there are many pieces ascribed to
her. She was, as I mentioned, married to Caroll king of
Leinster, who was severely wounded in this battle. He was
carried home to be cured in his palace at Naas, and Gormly
the queen was constant in her attendance on him. One day,
however, as Caroll was becoming convalescent he fell to
exulting over the mutilation of Cormac at which he had been
present. The queen, who was sitting at the foot of his bed,
rebuked him for it, and said that the body of a good man had
been most unworthily desecrated. At this Caroll, who was
still confined to bed, became angry and kicked her over with
I his foot in the presence of all her attendants and ladies.

As her father, the High-king, would do nothing for her
|when she besought him to wipe out the insult, and procure her
[separation from so unworthy a husband, her young kinsman
iNiall Glun-dubh, or the Black-Kneed, took up her cause,

d obtained for her a separation from her husband and restora-
ion of her dowry. When her husband was killed, the year
jafter this, by the Danes, she married Niall, who in time suc-
fceeded to the throne as High-king of all Ireland, and who
was one of the noblest of her monarchs. He was slain in the
•*nd by the Danes, and the monarchy passed away from the
bouses both of her father and her husband, and she, the
:er of one High-king, the wife of another, bewails in

426 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

her old age the poverty and neglect into which she had fallen.
She dreamt one night that King Niall stood beside her, and
she made a leap forwards to clasp him in her arms, but struck
herself against the bed-post, and received a wound from which
she never recovered.1 Many of her poems are lamentations on
her kinsman and husband Niall. They seem to have been
current amongst the Highland as well as the Irish Gaels, for
here is a specimen jotted down in phonetic spelling by the
Scotch Dean Macgregor about the year 1512 :

" Take, grey monk, thy foot away,

Lift it off the grave of Neill !
Too long thou heapest up the clay
On him who cannot feel;2

Monk, why must thou pile the earth

O'er the couch of noble Neill ?
Above my friend of gentle birth

Thou strik'st a churlish heel.

Let him be, at least to-night,
Mournful monk of croaking voice,

Beneath thee lies my heart's delight,
Who made me to rejoice.

1 So it is stated in Mac Echagain's Annals of Clonmacnois, but O'Curry
thinks this is a mistake and that she did recover.

2 The first verse runs thus in modern Gaelic :

" Beir a mhanaigh leat do chos
Tog anois i de thaoibh Neill
Is ro mhor chuiris de chre
Ar an te le' luidhinn fein."

See p. 75 of the Gaelic part of the book of the Dean of Lismore.

Literally : " Monk, remove thy foot, lift it off the grave of Niall, too long
heapest thou the earth on him by whom I fain would lie !

" Too long dost thou, O monk there, heap the earth on noble Niall.
Go gently, brown friend, press not the earth with thy sole.

" Do not firmly close the grave ; ^sorrowful, cleric, is thy office ; lift [thy
foot] off the bright Niall Black-knee ; monk, remove thy foot !

"The son of the descendant of Niall of the white gold, 'tis not of my
will that he is bound [in the grave] ; let his grave and stone be left :
monk, remove thy foot !

" I am Gormly, who compose the verse ; daughter of hardy Flann.
Stand not upon his grave ! Monk, remove thy foot ! "

THE DANISH PERIOD 427

Monk, remove thy foot, I say !

Tread not on the sacred ground
Where he is shut from me away,

In cold and narrow bound !

I am Gormly — king of men

Was my father, Flann the brave.
I charge thee, stand thou not again,

Bald monk, upon his grave."

Another poet of the ninth century was Flanagan, son of
Ceallach, king of Bregia. He is quoted by the "Four Masters."1
One poem of his, of 112 lines, on the deaths of the kings of
Ireland, is preserved in the Yellow Book of Lecan.

Mailmura, of Fahan, whom the "Four Masters" call a great
poet, was a contemporary of his, and wrote a poem on the
Milesian Migrations.2

Several other poets lived in the ninth century, the chief
of whom was probably Flann mac Lonain, for the " Four
Masters " in recording his death style him " the Virgil of
the Scottic race, the chief ollamh of all the Gaels, the
best poet that was in Ireland in his time." Eight of
his poems, containing about one thousand lines, have sur-
vived. He was from the neighbourhood of Slieve Echtge,
or Aughty, in South Connacht. One of his poems records
how Ilbrechtach the harper was travelling over these barren

1 One of his pieces, quoted by the " Four Masters," shows he was a true
poet. It is on the death of the king, Aedh Finnliath, who died in 877, and

runs thus :-

1 See O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 96, and " Four Masters "
sub anno.

2 Published by the Irish Archaeological Society in the " Irish Nennius,"
in 1847.

" Long is the wintry night,
With fierce gusts of wind,
Under pressing grief we have to encounter it,
Since the red-speared king of the noble house lives no longer.

It is awful to observe

The waves from the bottom heaving,

To these may be compared

All those who with us lament him."

428 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

mountains along with the celebrated poet Mac Liag, and,
as they paused to rest on Croghan Head, Mac Liag sur-
veyed the prospect beneath him, and said, " Many a hill
and lake and fastness is in this range ; it were a great topo-
graphical knowledge to know them all." "If Mac Lonain
were here," said the harper, "he could name them all, and
give the origin of their names as well." " Let this fellow be
taken and hanged," said Mac Liag. The harper begged
respite till next day, and in the meantime Mac Lonain comes
up and recites a poem of one hundred and thirty-two lines
beginning — Aoibhinn aoibhinn Echtge ard.

Amongst other things, he relates that he met a Dalcassian
— /.*., one of Brian Boru's people from Clare — at Moy Fine
in Galway, who had just finished serving twelve months with
a man in that place, from whom he had received a cow and
a cloak for payment. On his way home to the Dalcassians
with his cloak and his cow he met the poet, and said to him —

" ' Sing to me the history of my country,
It is sweet to my soul to hear it.

Thereupon I sang for him the poem,

Nor did he show himself the least loath :

All that he had earned — not mean nor meagre —

To me he gave it without deduction.

The upright Dalcassians heard of this,

They received him with honour in their assembly ;

They gave to him — the noble race —

Ten cows for every quarter of his own cow.' "

Mac Lonain was the contemporary of Cormac mac Culinan,
whom he eulogises.

Some other poets of great note flourished during the Danish
period, such as Cormac "an Eigeas," who composed the
celebrated poem to Muircheartach, or Murtagh of the Leather
Cloaks,1 son of the Niall so bitterly lamented by Gormly, on
the occasion of his marching round Ireland, when he set out
1 Na gcochal croicinn.

THE DANISH PERIOD 429

from his palace at ancient Aileach near Derry, and returned
to it again after levying tribute and receiving hostages from
every king and sub-king in Ireland. This great O'Neill well
deserved a poet's praise, for having taken Sitric, the Danish
lord of Dublin, Ceallachan of Munster, the king of Leinster,
and the royal heir of Connacht as hostages, he, understanding
well that in the interests of Ireland the High-kingship should
be upheld, positively refused to follow the advice of his own
clan and march on Tara, as they urged, to take hostages from
Donagh the High-king. On the contrary, he actually sent
of his own accord all those that had been given him during
his circuit to this Donagh as supreme governor of Ireland.
Donagh, on his part, not to be out-done in magnanimity, returned
them again to Murtagh with the message that he, into whose
hands they had been delivered, was the proper person to keep
them. It was to commemorate this that Cormac wrote his
poem of two hundred and fifty-six lines : —

" A Mhuircheartaigh Mheic Neill nair
Ro ghabhais giallu Inse-Fdil." x

ut the names of the poets Cinaeth or Kenneth O'Harti-
gan, and Eochaidh O'Flynn, are the most celebrated amongst
those of the tenth century. Allusions to and quotations from
the first, who died in 975, are frequent, and nine or ten of his
poems, containing some eight hundred lines, have been pre-
served perfect for us. Of O'Flynn's pieces, fourteen are
lenumerated by O'Reilly, containing in the aggregate between
{seventeen and eighteen hundred lines. In them we find in
verse the whole early and mythical history of Ireland. We
;have, for instance, one poem on the invasion of Partholan ;
|one on the invasion of the Fomorians ; another on the division
of Ireland between the sons of Partholan ; another on the
ruction of the tower of Conaing and the battles between

" O Muircheartach, son of noble Niall,
Thou hast taken hostages of Inisfail."

430 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the Fomorians and the Nemedians ; another on the journey
of the Nemedians from Scithia and how some emigrated
to Greece and others to Britain after the destruction of
Conaire's tower ; another on the invasion of the sons of
Milesius ; another on the history of Emania built by Cimbaeth
some three hundred years before Christ, up to its destruction
by the Three Collas in the year 331. This poet in especial
may be said to have crystallised into verse the mythic history
of Ireland with the names and reigns of the Irish kings, and
to have thrown them into the form of real history. O'Clery^
in his celebrated Book of Invasions, has drawn upon him very
largely, quoting, often at full length, no less than twelve of
his poems. Hence many people believe that he was one
of the first to collect the floating tribe-legends of very early
Irish kings, and the race-myths of the Tuatha De Danann and
their contemporaries, and that he cast them into that historical
shape in which the later annalists record them, by fitting them
into a complete scheme of genealogical history like that of the
Old Testament. But whether all these things had taken solid
shape and form before he versified them anew we cannot now
decide. According to O'Reilly and O'Curry this poet died
in 984, nine years after O'Hartigan ; but M. d'Arbois de
Jubainville remarks that he has been unable to find out any
evidence for fixing upon this date.

A little later lived Mac Liag, whom Brian Boru elevated
to the rank of Arch-Ollamh of Erin, and who lived at his
court at Kincora in the closest relationship to him and his sons.
He has been credited — erroneously according to O'Curry—
with the authorship of a Life of Brian Boru, which un-
fortunately has perished, only a single ancient leaf, in the
hand-writing of the great antiquary Mac Firbis, surviving.
Several of his poems, however, are preserved,1 containing

1 The " Four Masters " thought so highly of Mac Liag's poetry that they
actually go out of their way to record both the first verse he ever com-
posed and the last. An extraordinary compliment !

THE DANISH PERIOD 431

between twelve and thirteen hundred lines in all, and are of
the highest value as throwing light both on the social state
and the policy of Ireland under Brian. One of his poems
gives a graphic description of the tribute of Ireland being
driven to Brian at his palace in Kincora in the present county
of Clare. The poet went out from the court to have a look
at the flocks and herds, and when he returned he said to the
King, " Here comes Erin's tribute of cows to thee, many a fat
cow and fat hog on the plain before thee." "Be they ever so
many," said the King, " they shall be all thine, thou noble
poet." Amongst the other part of the tribute which the
poet describes as coming in to Brian were one hundred and
fifty butts of wine from the Danes of Dublin, and a tun
of wine for every day in the year from the Danes of Limerick.
He describes Brian as sitting at the head of the great hall
of Kincora,1 the king of Connacht sat on his right hand and
the king of Ulster on his left ; the king of Tir-E6ghain
[Tyrone] sat opposite to him. At the door-post nearest
to Brian sat the king of Leinster, and at the other post
of the open door sat Donough, son of Brian, and Malachy,2
king of Meath. Murrough, the king's eldest son who died
so valiantly at Clontarf, sat in front of his father with his back
turned to him, with Angus, a prince of Meath, and the king

i of Tirconnell on his left. One of his poems ends with two
complimentary stanzas to Brian Boru, his son Murrough, his

I nephew Conaing, and Tadhg [Teig] O'Kelly, the king of
Ui Maine — all four of whom a short time afterwards were left
stiff and stark upon the field of Clontarf.

The shadow of the bloody tragedy there enacted hangs
eavily over all Mac Liag's later poems and those of his con-
poraries, and there are few more pathetic pieces in the
guage than his wail over Kincora left desolate by the death

1 Or Kancora, in Irish Ceann Coradh — i.e., " the head of the weir."
In Irish " Maelsheachlainn," often contracted into the sound of
['louglinn," and now always Anglicised Malachy.

432 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of almost every chieftain who had gone forth from it to meet
the Danes.

" Oh where, Kincora, is Brian the great !

Oh, where is the beauty that once was thine !
Oh, where are the princes and nobles that sate
At the feast in thy halls, and drank the red wine.1
Where, oh, Kincora ?

And where is the youth of majestic height,
The faith-keeping prince of the Scots ? Even he

As wide as his fame was, as great as his might,
Was tributary, oh, Kincora, to me !
Me, oh, Kincora.

They are gone, those heroes of royal birth,

Who plundered no churches, who broke no trust ;

Tis weary for me to be living on earth
When they, oh, Kincora, lie low in the dust !
Low, oh, Kincora.8

In the same strain does Mac Gilla Keefe,3 another contem-
porary poet, lament, in a piece which, according to a
manuscript quoted by Hardiman, called the " Leabhar Oiris,"

x Thus Mangan ; in the original —

" A Chinn-Choradh, caidhi Brian,
No caidhi an sciamh do bhi ort ;
Caidhi maithe no meic righ
Ga n-ibhmis fin ad port ? "

2 Literally : " O Kincora, where is Brian ? or where is the splendour that
was upon thee ? Where are the nobles and the sons of kings with whom
we used to drink wine in thy halls. . . . Where is the man most striking
of size, the son of the king of Alba who never forsook us ? Although
great were his valour and his deeds, he used to pay tribute to me (the
poet), O Kincora. . . . They have gone, side by side, the sons of kings
who never plundered church ; there shall never be their like in the world
again, so in my wisdom I testify, O Kincora."

See Hardiman's " Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 196, where the text of this
poem is published, with a fearful metrical translation which, under the
influence of Macpherson, calls the Dalcassian princes "the flower of
Temora " ! which, however, is advantageously used to rhyme with
Kincora !

3 In Irish : " Mac Giolla Caoimh."

THE DANISH PERIOD 433

he composed when in the north of Greece, whither he had
travelled in the itinerant Milesian manner on his way to try
if he could find the site of Paradise. The poem begins : —

" Mournful night ! and mournful WE !

Men we BE who know no peace.
We no GOLD for STRAINS of PRIDE

HOLD this SIDE the PLAINS of Greece." *

" ' I remember my setting my face to pay a visit to Brian (Boru)
and he at that time feasting with Cian, the son of Mulloy,2 and he
thought it long my being absent from him.'

" ' God welcome you back to us,' cried Cian, ' O learned one, who
comest [back from the north] from the House of O'Neill. Poet, your
wife is saying that you have almost altogether forsaken your own
house.'

" ' You have been away for three quarters of year, except from
yesterday to to-day.' ' Why that,' said Murrough, son of Brian,
' is the message of the raven from the ark ! '

' [Come now] tell us all the wealth you have brought from the
th,' said Brian, the High-king of the host of Carn i Neid, ' tell
the nobles of the men of Innisfail, and swear by my hand that you
no lie.'

< By the King who is above me,' [said I], ' this is what I brought
the north, twenty steeds, ten ounces of gold, and ten score
cows of cattle.'

" ' [Why] we, the two of us, shall give him more steeds and more
e [than that] without speaking of what Brian will give,' said
, the son of Mulloy.

' [And] by the King of Heaven who has brought me into silence
this night, and who has darkened my brightness, I got ten times as
much as that at the banquet before Brian lay down.

1 This verse is an imitation of the original, which runs —

"Uathmhar [i] an oidhche anocht

A chuideacht [fhior-]bhocht gan bhreig,
Crodh ni SA[O]ILTI dh[ao]ibh air DHUAN
Air an TTAOIBHSI THUAIDH do'n nGreig."

1 See Hardiman's " Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 202, where a poetical
i version of this lyric is given in the metre of Campbell's " Exile of Erin " !
He does not say from what MS. he has taken this poem. O'Curry is silent
on Mac Gilla Keefe, but O'Reilly mentions another poem of his on the
provinces of Munster.

h, " Maolmhuadh."

2B

434 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" ' I got seven town-lands, Oh, King of the Kings, who hast sent me
from the west, and a half town-land [besides] near every palace in
which Brian used to be.'

"Said Murrough, good son of Brian, 'To-morrow' — and it was
scarce sensible for him — 'as much as you have got last night you shall
get from me myself, and get it with my love.' " r

Mag Liag was not at Clontarf himself, but his friend and
fellow-poet, Errard mac Coise [Cusha] was in the train of
Malachy, king of Meath, to whom he was then attached.
This poet gave Mac Liag a minute account of the battle, and
Mac Liag himself visited the spot before the slain had been
interred, as we see from another of his poems. In a kind of
dialogue between him and Mac Coise he makes the latter relate
to him the names of the fallen, and describe the positions in
which their dead bodies were found upon the battle-field.
It is exceedingly probable that it was Mac Liag, perhaps with
Mac Coise's aid, who compiled that most valuable chronicle
called the "Wars of the Gael with the Gaill," /.*., of the Irish
with the Northmen.2 This narrative bears both external and
internal evidence of its antiquity, for there is a portion of it pre-
served in the Book of Leinster, a MS of about the year 1150.
"The author," says Dr. Todd, who has edited it,3 "was either

1 I am not sure that I have translated this correctly.

" Do radh Murchadh deagh-mhac Bhriain
Air na mharach, 's nior chiall uaidh
Uiriod a bhfuairis areir
Geabhair uaim fein 's ni air th-fhuath."

2 Charles O'Conor ascribes it to him, but neither Keating, the "Four
Masters," nor Colgan, who all make use of it, mention a word about the
author.

3 In the " Master of the Rolls " Series, in 1867. " That the work was
compiled from contemporary materials," says Dr. Todd, "may be proved
by curious incidental evidence. It is stated in the account given of the
Battle of Clontarf that the full tide in Dublin Bay on the day of the battle
(23rd April, 1014) coincided with sunrise, and that the returning tide at even-
ing aided considerably in the defeat of the enemy. It occurred to the editor,
on considering this passage, that a criterion might be derived from it to
test the truth of the narrative and of the date assigned by the Irish Annals
to the Battle of Clontarf. He therefore proposed to the Rev. Samuel
Haughton, M.D., Fellow of Trinity College, and Professor of Geology in

THE DANISH PERIOD 435

himself an eye-witness of the battle of Clontarf, or else compiled
his narrative from the testimony of eye-witnesses." It is edited
in 121 chapters, and is sufficiently long to fill over a hundred of
these pages. Beginning with the earliest Danish invasion at the
close of the eighth century, it traces the progress of the North-
men in forty chapters up to the time when Mathgamhain [Mahon]
and Brian were ruling over the Dalcassians. After that the
book concerns itself chiefly with the history of Brian, describing
the deaths of his brother Mahon, and the revenge he took, and
his gradual but irregular attainment of the High-kingship, he
being the first of the race of Eber who had reached this dignity
for hundreds of years. The distress suffered by the Irish at the
hands of the white foreigners (the Norwegians) and the black
foreigners (the Danes) — who, by the way, were bitter enemies
and often fought with each other, even on Irish soil — is graphi-
cally described. The Northmen put, says the writer,

" a king [of their own] over every territory, and a chief over every
chieftaincy, and an abbot over every church, and a steward over every
village, and a soldier in every house, so that none of the men of Erin
had power to give even the milk of his cow, or as much as the clutch

the University of Dublin, to solve for him this problem : ' What was the
hour of high water at the shore of Clontarf in Dublin Bay on the 23rd of
April, 1014.' The editor did not make known to Dr. Haughton the object
the had in view in this question, and the coincidence of the result obtained
'with the ancient narrative is therefore the more valuable and curious."

Dr. Haughton read a paper on the mathematics of this complex and
jdifficult question before the Royal Irish Academy, in May, 1861, in which
the proved that the tide — a neap tide — was full along the Clontarf shore at
about 5h . som. a.m., and that the evening tide was full in about 5h. 55m. p.m.
r'The truth of the narrative," says Dr. Todd, " is thus most strikingly estab-
lished. In the month of April the sun rises at from 5h. som. to 4h. 3001.
The full tide in the morning therefore coincided nearly with sunrise ; a
[act which holds a most important place in the history of the battle, and
proves that our author if not himself an eye-witness, must have derived his
information from those who were. 'None others,' as Dr. Haughton
jibserves, ' would have invented the fact that the battle began at sunrise and
hat the tide was then full in. The importance of the time of tide became
vident at the close of the day, when the returned tide prevented the escape
the Danes from the Clontarf shore to the north bank of the Liffey."

436 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of eggs of one hen in succour or in kindness to an aged man or to a
friend, but was forced to preserve them for this foreign steward or
bailiff or soldier. And though there were but one milk-giving cow
in the house, she durst not be milked for an infant of one night, nor
for a sick person, but must be kept for the steward or bailiff or soldier
of the foreigners. And however long he might be absent from the
house his share or his supply durst not be lessened : although there
were in the house but one cow, it must be killed for the meal of one
night, if the means of supply could not be otherwise procured. . . .

"In a word," continues the writer in a strain of characteristic
hyperbole, "although there were an hundred sharp, ready, cool,
never-resting, brazen tongues in each head, and a hundred garrulous,
loud-unceasing voices from each tongue, they could not recount nor
narrate, nor enumerate, nor tell, what all the Gael suffered in
common, both men and women, laity and clergy, old and young, noble
and ignoble, of hardship and of injury, and of oppression in every
house, from these valiant, wrathful, foreign, purely-pagan people.

" And though numerous were the oft-victorious clans of the many-
familied Erin," yet could they do nothing against the "untamed,
implacable hordes by whom that oppression was inflicted, because of
the excellence of their polished, ample, treble-heavy, trusty, glittering
corslets, and their hard, strong, valiant swords, and well-rivetted long
spears, and ready brilliant arms of valour, besides ; and because of
the greatness of their achievements and of their deeds, their bravery,
their valour, their strength, their venom, and their ferocity, and
because of the excess of their thirst and their hunger for the brave,
fruitful, nobly-inhabited, smooth-plained, sweet-grassy land of Erin,
full of cataracts, rivers, bays."

The book ends with the battle of Clontarf and the " return
from Fingall," /.*., the march of the Dalcassians to their homes
in Munster. The death of Brian in this great battle fought on
Good Friday, the 23rd of April,1 1014, is thus described : —

1 An ancient Irish missal preserved in the Bodleian contains this petition
for the Irish king and his army, in its Litany for Easter Eve : " Ut regem
Hibernensium et exercitum ejus conservare digneris — ut eis vitam et
sanctitatem atque victoriam dones." If this missal is posterior to 1014 it
must have been the reminiscence of Clontarf which inspired the prayer for
the day following the battle. If the missal is older than the battle, then the
coincidence is curious. The prayer was just a day late. The same missal
mentions in its Litanies the names Patrick, Brendan, Brigit, Columba,
Finnian, Ciaran, and St. Fursa, and contains collect, secret and post com-
munion pro rege [for the Irish king].

THE DANISH PERIOD 437

DEATH OF BRIAN BORUMHA AT CLONTARF.

" As for Brian, son of Cenneidigh [Kennedy], when the battalions
joined arms in the battle, his skin was spread for him, and he opened
his psalter and joined his hands, and began to pray after the battle
had commenced, and there was no one with him but his own atten-
dant, whose name was Latean (from whom are the O'Lateans still in
Munster.)1 Brian said to the attendant, ' Look thou at the battalions
and the combat whilst I sing the psalms.' He sang fifty psalms and
fifty prayers and fifty paternosters, and after that he asked the atten-
dant how were the battalions. And the attendant answered, ' Mixed
and closely confronted are the battalions, and each of them has
come within the grasp of the other, and not louder on my ears would
be the echo of blows from Tomar's wood if seven battalions were
cutting it down, than the thud-blows on heads and bones and sculls
between them.' And he asked how was Murchadh's [Murrough's son's]
standard, and the attendant said, ' It stands, and many of the banners
of the Dal Cais [North Munster, i.e., Brian's own men] around it,
and many heads thrown to it, and a multitude of trophies and spoils
with heads of foreigners are along with it.' ' That is good news
indeed,' said Brian.

"His skin cushion was readjusted beneath him, and he sang the
psalms and the prayers and the paters as before, and he again asked
the attendant how the battalions were, and the attendant answered
and said, ' There is not living on earth the man who could distinguish
one from the other, for the greater part of the hosts on each side are
fallen, and those who are alive are so covered with spatterings of
crimson blood and armour, that a man could not know his own son
— they are so intermingled.' He then asked how was Murchadh's
standard. The attendant said it was far from him, and that it passed
through the battalions westward, and was still standing. Brian said,
' The men of Erin will be well,' said he, ' so long as that standard
stands, for their courage and valour shall remain in them all, so long
as they can see that standard."

" His cushion was readjusted under Brian, and he sang fifty psalms
and fifty prayers and fifty paters, and all that time the fighting con-
tinued. After that he again asked the attendant how went the
battalions, and the attendant answered, ' It is like as if Tomar's
wood were after burning its undergrowth and young trees, and that
seven battalions had been for six weeks cutting them down, and it
with its stately trees and huge oaks still standing, just so are the
battalions on both sides, after the greater part of them have fallen leav-
but a few valiant heroes and great chieftains still standing. So are

1 Evidently the interpolation of a copyist.

438 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the battalions on both sides pierced and wounded and scattered, and
they are disorganised all round like the grindings of a mill turning
the wrong way ; and the foreigners are now defeated, and Mur-
chadh's standard is fallen.' ' That is piteous news,' said Brian ; ' by my
word, said he, ' the generosity and valour of Erin fell when that stan-
dard fell ; and truly Erin has fallen of that, for there shall never come
after him a champion like him. And what the better were I though
I should escape this, and though it were the sovereignty of the world
I should attain, after the fall of Murchadh and Conaing and the other
nobles of the Dal Cais.'

" ' Woe is me,' said the attendant, ' if thou wouldst take my advice
thou wouldst get thee to thy horse, and we would go to the camp and
remain there amongst the gillies, and every one who comes out
of the battle will come to us, and round us they will rally, for the
battalions are now mixed in confusion, and a party of the foreigners
have rejected the idea of retreating to the sea, and we know not who
shall come to us where we now are.'

" ' Oh God ; boy,' said Brian, ' flight becomes me not, and I myself
know that I shall not go from here alive, and what should it profit
me though I did, for Aoibheall [Eevil]1 of Craig Liath [Lee-a],came
to me last night,' said he, ' and she told me that the first of my sons
whom I should see this day would be he who should succeed me in
the sovereignty, and that is Donough,2 and go thou OLatean,' said he,
' and take these steeds with thee, and receive my blessing and carry
out my will after me, that is to say, my body and soul to God and to
St. Patrick, and that I am to be carried to Armagh, and my blessing
to Donough for discharging my last bequests after me, that is to say,
twelve score cows to be given to the co-arb of Patrick and the Society
of Armagh, and their own proper dues to Killaloe and the Churches of
Munster, and he knows that I have not wealth of gold or silver, but
he is to pay them in return for my blessing and for his succeeding
me. Go this night to Sord [Swords] and desire them to come to-
morrow early for my body, and to convey it thence to Damhliag of
Cianan, and then let them carry it to Lughmhagh [Loo-wa, i.e., Louth],
and let Maelmuire mac Eochadha, the co-arb of Patrick and the
Society of Armagh come to meet me at Lughmhagh.'

" While they were engaged in this conversation the attendant per-
ceived a party of the foreigners approaching them. The Earl
Brodar was there and two warriors along with him.

" ' There are people coming towards us here,' said the attendant.

1 The family banshee of the Royal house of Munster.

2 In Irish, Donnchadh, pronounced " Dunn&xa," as Murchadh is pro-
nounced " Murr&xa," in English Murrough

THE DANISH PERIOD

439

" ' What kind of people ? ' said Brian.

" ' Blue stark-naked people/ said the attendant.

" ' My woe/ said Brian, ' they are the foreigners of the armour, and
it is not for good they come.'

"While he was saying this he arose and stepped off his cushion
and unsheathed his sword. Brodar passed him by and noticed him
not. One of the three who were there and who had been in Brian's
service said ' Cing, Cingl' said he, that is, ' This is the king.' 'No, no !
but prist prist,' says Brodar, 'not he,' said he, 'but a noble priest.'
' By no means/ said the soldier, ' but it is the great king Brian.'
Brodar then turned round and appeared with a bright gleaming
battle-axe in his hand, with the handle set in the middle [of the head].
When Brian saw him he looked intently at him, and gave him a
sword-blow that cut off the left leg at the knee and the right leg at
the foot. The foreigner gave Brian a stroke which crushed his head
utterly, and Brian killed the second man that was with Brodar, and
they fell mutually by each other.

" There was not done in Erin, since Christianity— except the behead-
ing of Cormac mac Culinan — any greater deed than this. He was,
in sooth, one of the three best that ever were born in Erin, and one of
the three men who most caused Erin to prosper,namely,Lugh the Long-
handed, and Finn mac Cumhail [Cool], and Brian, son of Kennedy ;
for it was he that released the men of Erin and its women from the
bondage and iniquity of the foreigners and the pirates. It was he
that gained five-and-twenty battles over the foreigners, and who
killed them and banished them. . . In short, Erin fell by the
ith of Brian."

The "War of the Gael with the Gaill" appears to me to be
book which throws a strong light upon the genesis and value
of the historical saga of Ireland. Here is a real historical
narrative of unquestionable authority, and of the very highest
value for the history of these countries, which is contempo-
icous,1 or almost so, with the events which it relates. Its
:uracy on matters of fact have been abundantly proved from
Danish as well as from Irish sources. And yet the whole

1 It is edited from the Book of Leinster, a MS. which was copied about
[50, which contains the first 28 chapters, from a vellum of about two
centuries later, which wants five chapters at the beginning and eight at
the end, and from a perfect transcript made by the indefatigable Brother
Michael O'Clery in 1635 " out of the book of Cuconnacht O'Daly," who
died according to the " Four Masters," in 1139.

440 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

account is dressed up and bedizened in that peculiarly Irish garb
which had become stereotyped as the dress of Irish history.
It contains the exaggeration, the necessary touch of the
marvellous, and above all the poetry, without which no Irish
composition could hope for a welcome.

First as to the exaggeration : the whole piece is full of it.
A good example is the description of the armies meeting on
Clontarf :—

"It will be one of the wonders of the day of judgment to relate
the description of this tremendous onset. There arose a wild,
impetuous, precipitate, furious, dark, frightful, voracious, merciless,
combative, contentious vulture, screaming and fluttering over their
heads. There arose also the Bocanachs and the Bananachs and the
wild people of the glens, and the witches and the goblins and the
ancient birds, and the destroying demons of the air and firmament,
and the feeble demoniac phantom host, and they were screaming
and comparing the valour and combat of both parties."

The reader expected some traditional flourish such as this,
and the essential truth of the narrative is no whit impaired by it.

Nor does the miraculous episode of Dunlang O'Hartigan,
fresh from the embraces of the fairy queen, foretelling to
Murrough that he must fall, detract from the truth that he
does fall. Dunlang had promised Murrough not to abandon
him, and he appears beside him on the very eve of the battle.
Murrough gently reproaches him and says : —

" ' Great must be the love and attachment of some woman for thee
which has induced thee to abandon me.' ' Alas, O King,' answered
Dunlang, ' the delight which I have abandoned for thee is greater, if
thou didst but know it, namely, life without death,1 without cold,

1 I.e., Beside his fairy lover. This incident is greatly expanded in the
modern MS. story of the Battle of Clontarf, of which there exist numerous
copies ; in these the gliding of history into romance is very apparent. In
the modern version the fairy Aoibheall is introduced begging O'Hartigan
not to fight and promising him life and happiness for two hundred years
if he will put off fighting for only one day.

" A Dhunlaing seachain an cath
Gus an mhaidin amarach.
Geobhair da chead bliadhan de re
Agus seachain cath aon-lae. "

THE DANISH PERIOD 441

without thirst, without hunger, without decay, beyond any delight of
the delights of the earth to me, until the judgment, and heaven after
the judgment, and if I had not pledged my word to thee I would not
have come here, and, moreover, it is fated for me to die on the day
that thou shalt die.'

" ' Shall I receive death this day then ? ' said Murrough.

" ' Thou shalt, indeed,' said Dunlang, 'and Brian and Conaing shall
receive it, and almost all the nobles of Erin, and Turlough thy son.'

"'That is no good encouragement to fight,' said Murrough, 'and if
we had had such news we would not have told it to thee, and moreover,'
said Murrough, ' often was I offered in hills, and in fairy mansions,
this world and these gifts, but I never abandoned for one night my
country nor mine inheritance for them.' "

me such touch as this, of the weird and the miraculous,
the reader also expected.

As for poetry, the whole piece is full of it. It contains over
five hundred lines of verse, in poems attributed to Brian Boru
himself and his brother Mahon, to Maelmhuadh or Molloy, who
so treacherously slew Mahon, to the sister of Aedh Finnliath
[Finleea], king of Ireland in 869 ; * to Cormac mac Culinan,
the king-bishop ; to Cuan O'Lochain, a great poet who died in
1024 5 to Beg mac E)e the prophet, and to Columcille, his
contemporary ; to Colman mac Lenin, the poet-saint ; to Gilla
Mududa O'Cassidy, a poet contemporaneous with Mac Liag ;
to Mac Liag himself; to Gilla Comgaill O'Slevin, inciting
O'Neill against Brian ; to a poet called Mahon 's blind man ;
to St. Bercan the prophet ; to an unnamed cleric, and to at
least six anonymous poets.

I have dwelt at some length upon these peculiarities of
composition, because I wish to lay stress on the fact that the
narrative form and the romantic dress in which the early history
of Ireland is preserved (through the medium of sagas) need not

1 This is genuine, and is also quoted by the " Four Masters" and O'Clery

in his Book of Invasions. Probably all the poems are genuine except the

; prophecies and the pieces put into the mouths of the actors, that is of

Brian, Mahon, Molloy, and the cleric. These were probably composed by

the writer of the history.

442 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

detract from its substantial veracity. We can prove the minute
accuracy of the Clontarf story and there seems scarcely more
reason to doubt that of the battle of Moyrath, fought in
Adamnan's time, or possibly the substantial accuracy of the
battles of Cnoca, or of Moy Leana ; we must, however,
remember that with each fresh redaction, fresh miraculous
agencies, and fresh verbiage were added.

The battle of Clontarf put an end to the dream of a Danish
kingdom in Ireland, and though numerous bodies of the
Northmen remained in their sea-coast settlements, and con-
tinued for many years after this to give much trouble, yet it
put a stop to all further invasion from their mother country,
and once more the centres of Irish learning and civilisation
could breathe freely.

CHAPTER XXXIII

FROM CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST

LIAN, semi-usurper though he was, was in every sense a great
itesman as well as a great warrior. He found almost every
it of learning in ruins, and every town and palace in Ireland
shattered wreck. Before he died he had gone far towards
restoring them. He rebuilt the monasteries, re-erected the
lurches, refounded the schools. " He sent professors and
>ters to teach wisdom and knowledge," says the history
which we have been quoting ; but the schools had been
hopelessly broken up, the scribes had perished, the books —
" the countless hosts of the illuminated books of the men of
Erin " — had been burned and " drowned." Hence he found
iself obliged to despatch his emissaries and the few men of
irning who had survived that awful time, "to buy books
beyond the sea and the great ocean, because," says the history,

icir writings and their books in every church and in every sanc-
where they were, were burnt and thrown into water by the
plunderers from beginning to end [of their invasions], and Brian
himself gave the price of learning, and the price of books, to every
one separately who went on this service." " By him were erected
also noble churches and sanctuaries in Erin . . . many works also,
id repairs were made by him. By him were erected the church
Cell Dalua * and the church of Inis Cealtra, and the round tower

Killaloe, Inniscaltra, and Tomgraney.

443

444 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of Tuam Greine, and many other works in like manner. By him
were made bridges and causeways and high roads. By him were
strengthened also the duns and fortresses and islands and celebrated
royal forts of Munster. . . . The peace of Erin was proclaimed by him,
both of churches and people, so that peace throughout all Erin was
made in his time. He fined and imprisoned the perpetrators of mur-
ders, trespass, robbery, and war. He hanged and killed and de-
stroyed the robbers and thieves and plunderers of Erin. . . . After
the banishment of the foreigners out of all Erin and after Erin
was reduced to a state of peace, a single woman came from Torach
in the north of Erin to Cliodhna in the south of Erin, carrying a ring
of gold on a horse-rod, and she was neither robbed nor insulted." l

The bardic schools began to revive again, for the bards too
had felt the full pressure of the invasion, their colleges had been
broken up, and many of themselves been slain. One aim of
the Norsemen was to destroy all learning. " It was not
allowed," writes Keating, " to give instruction in letters."
..." No scholars, no clerics, no books, no holy relics, were
left in church or monastery through dread of them. Neither
bard nor philosopher nor musician pursued his wonted profession
in the land."

The eleventh and twelfth centuries, however, witnessed a
great revival of art and learning. Indeed, from the reign of
Brian until the coming of the Normans, Irish metal- work,
architecture, and letters flourished wonderfully. It is from
this brief period of comparative rest that the three most
important relics of Celtic literature now in the world
date, the Leabhar na h-Uidhre, the Book of Leinster, and
the Book of Hymns. The eleventh and twelfth centuries
produced also many men of literature, including the annalist
Tighearnach who was Abbot of Clonmacnois and died in

1 On this episode Moore wrote his melody, " Rich and rare were the
gems she wore." An Irish poet contemporaneous with this event
celebrated it less poetically —

" O Thoraigh co Cliodna cais
Is fail oir aice re a h-ais
I re Bhriain taoibh-ghil nar thim
Do thimchil aoin-bhen Eirinn."

CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 445

1088 ; and Dubdaleithe, Archbishop of Armagh, who died in
1065, who wrote Annals of Ireland which are now lost, but
which are quoted both in the Annals of Ulster and in the
" Four Masters." The greatest scholar, chronologist, and poet
of this period is unquestionably Flann, the fear-Ulghinn or
head-teacher of the school of Monasterboice, who died in
1056. Though he is called Flann Mainstreach^ or Flann of
the Monastery, he was really a layman — one proof out of
many, that the schools and colleges which grew up round
religious institutions were as much secular as theological. He
composed a valuable series of synchronisms, in which he
synchronised the kings of the Assyrians, Medes, Persians,
Greeks, and the Roman emperors, with the kings of Ireland,
in parallel columns century by century, and sums up the most
important portions of his teaching in a poem of some twelve
hundred lines intended evidently as a class-book for his pupils.
A piece of more value is one which synchronises the reigns of
the Irish monarchs with those of the Irish provincial kings and
the kings of Scotland, from the time of King Laeghaire who
received St. Patrick, down to the death of Murtough O'Brien
in 1119, these later years having been completed by some
other hand.

No fewer than two thousand lines of Flann's poetry were
copied into the Book of Leinster less than a hundred years
after his own death, and there are nearly as many more in
other manuscripts. They are, however, though composed in
elaborate metres, anything but creative and imaginative poems.
!The most of them consist of annals or history versified,
i evidently with the intention of being committed to memory,
because the great ollamhs like Flann were really rather histo-
Irians and philosophers than what we call poets, and they used
[their metrical art, very often though not always, to enshrine
their knowledge. There is, however — except to the historian —
nothing particularly inspiriting in a poem of 204 lines on the
monarchs of Erin and kings of Meath who are descended from

446 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Niall of the Nine Hostages, giving the names, length of
reign, and manner of death of each, despite the undoubted
skill with which the technical difficulties of a thorny metre
are overcome.1 Some of his pieces, however, are of more
living interest, as his poem on the history of Oileach or Ailech,
the palace of the O'Neills near Derry, in which he takes us
to the time of the Tuatha De Danann, and in his poem on
the battles fought by the Kinel Owen. Indeed as O'Curry
well puts it,

" Many a name lying dead in our genealogical tracts and which has
found its way into our evidently condensed chronicles and annals,
will be found in these poems connected with the death or associated
with the brilliant deeds of some hero whose story we would not
willingly lose ; while, on the other hand, many an obscure historical
allusion will be illustrated and many an historical spot as yet un-
known to the topographer will be identified, when a proper investi-
gation of these and other great historical poems preserved in the
Book of Leinster, shall be undertaken as part of the serious study of
the history and antiquities of our country." 2

This summing-up of O'Curry's as to the poems of Flann, is
one which may be also applied to several of his contemporaries
and successors, such as Coleman O'Seasnan who died in 1050,
one of whose poems on the kings of Emania and of Ulster
contains 328 lines; Giolla Caomhghin [Gilla Keevin], who
died in 1072, some thirteen or fourteen hundred lines of whose
poetry has been preserved ; Tanaidhe O'Mulconry, who died in
1136; Giolla Moduda O'Cassidy, who died in 1143, and whose
poems, still extant, amount to nearly nine hundred lines ; and

1 Compare the first verse in Deibhidh metre —

<l Midhe Maigen Chlainne Cuind,
Cain-fhorod Clainne Neill Neart-luind,
Cride [Cain] Banba Bricce,
Hide Magh na Mor-chipe."

/.c., "Meath, the place of the children of Conn, beautiful house of the
children of Niall, strength-renowned. The heart of celebrated Erin,
Meath, the place of the great battalions."

2 O'Curry's " Manners and Customs," vol. ii. p. 156.

CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 447

Giolla-na-naomh O'Dunn who died in 1160, and of whom we
still possess fourteen hundred verses.1

The compositions of two rather earlier poets, Erard mac
Coise [Cusha] and Cuan O'Lochain possess more interest.
They died in 1023 and 1024 respectively. Mac Coise's four
surviving poems and his prose allegory are all of great interest.
As for Cuan O'Lochain, he was chief poet of Erin in his
day, and according to Mac Echagain's " Annals of Clonmac-
nois " and an entry in the Book of Leinster, he and a cleric
named Corcran were elected to govern Ireland during the
interregnum which succeeded the death of King Malachy,
who quietly reassumed, after the death of Brian Boru, the
High-kingship of which that monarch had deprived him.
This is a convincing proof of the honour attached to the office
of " ollamh of all Ireland."

One of O'Lochain's pieces is of special value, because it
describes and names every chief building, monument, rath,
and remarkable spot in and around Tara, both those erected
in Cormac mac Art's time and those added afterwards ; both
those which were in ruins when the poet wrote, and those
which had been described by former authors from the time of
Cormac till his own.2 Another poem of his is on the geasa
[gassa] or tabus of the king of Ireland, and on his prerogatives.
It was tabu for him to let the sun rise on him when in bed in
the plains of Tara, or for him to alight on a Wednesday on
the plain of Bregia, or to traverse the plain of Cuillenn after
sunset, or to launch his ship on the first Monday after May
Day, etc. Another is a beautiful poem on the origin of the
river Shannon, called from a lady Sinann, who ventured near
Connla's well, a thing tabu to a female — to steal the nuts of
knowledge. There grew nine splendid mystical hazel trees

1 There are a great number of other poets of whom only one or two
poems survive, and others are mentioned as great poets by the annalists,
of whom not a line has come down to us.

2 This piece has been published at full length in Petrie's " History and
Antiquities of Tara."

448 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

around this well, and they produced the most beautiful nuts of
rich crimson colour, and as these lovely nuts, filled full with
all that was loveliest and most refined in literature, poetry, and
art, dropped ofF their branches into the well, they raised a
succession of red shining bubbles. The salmon at the sound
of the falling nuts darted forward to eat them and afterwards
made their way down the river, their lower side covered with
beautiful crimson spots from the effect of the crimson nuts.
Whoever could catch and eat these salmon were in their turn
filled with the knowledge of literature and art, for the power
of the nuts had to some extent passed into the fish that eat
them. These were the celebrated " eo feasa " [yo fassa], or
salmon of knowledge, so frequently alluded to by the poets.
To approach this well was tabu to a woman, but Sinann
attempted it, when the well rose up and drowned her, and
carried her body down in a torrent of water to the river which
was after her called Shannon.

Altogether about 1,200 lines of Cuan O'Lochain's poetry
have been preserved.1 It would be useless for our purpose to go
more minutely into the history of those pre-Norman poets.
It is not the known poetry of early Irish poets which, as a
rule, is of most interest to the purely literary student, but
rather the unknown and the traditional.

We must now take a glance at the Irish of this later
period upon the Continent.

Those brilliant names in the history of European scholarship
who distinguished themselves under Charlemagne, his son, and
his grandsons, Clemens, Dicuil, and Scotus Erigena, who
all taught in the Court schools, Dungal who taught in Pavia,
Sedulius who worked in Liittich, Fergal, or Virgil who ruled
in Salzburg, and Moengal, the teacher of St. Gall, were

1 There are two different etymologies of the name in a poem on the
river Shannon of several hundred verses, made by a native of the county
Roscommon in the eventful year 1798. There is also a different version
of the origin of the river in a folk tale which I recovered this year from a
native of the same county.

CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 449

not altogether without successors. It is true that Ireland's
great mission of instruction and conversion came to a close
with the eleventh century, yet for two centuries more, driven
by that innate instinct for travel and adventure which was
so strong within them, that it resembled a second nature,
we find Irish monks creating new foundations on the Con-
tinent, especially in Germany. One of the most noteworthy
of these was a monk from the present Donegal, Muiredach mac
Robertaigh, who assumed the Latin name of Marianus Scotus,
or Marian the Irishman. In 1076 he had succeeded in estab-
lishing an Irish monastery at Ratisbon, or, as the Germans
call it, Regensburg, the fame of which rapidly spread, and
attracted to it many of his countrymen from Ulster, so many,
that the parent monastery failed to accommodate them ; and a
branch house, that of St. Jacob, was completed in mi.
From these points Irish monks penetrated in all directions.
Frederick Barbarossa, in 1189, on his way from the Crusades,
founded even at Skribentium, in what is now Bulgaria, a
monastery with an Irish abbot. About the same time the
Irish abbots of Ratisbon are found writing to King Wratislaw
of Bohemia to facilitate the passage of their emissaries into
Poland. Under the influence of these two Irish houses, St.
James of Ratisbon and St. Jacob, quite a number of other
(Irish monasteries were founded, that of Wiirzburg in 1 1 34,
JNurnberg in 1140, Constanz in 1142, St. George in Vienna
Jin 1155, Eichstadt in 1183, St. Maria in Vienna in 1200.

These Irish monks who, in the eleventh, twelfth, and
(thirteenth centuries left the north of Ireland and thus planted
jthemselves in Germany, were, says Zimmer, worthy successors
bf those apostles and scholars who laboured from the seventh
f:o the tenth century in France, Switzerland, and Burgundy,
r' full of religious zeal, piety, sobriety, and a genuine love of
[earning." * A chronicle of the monastery of Ratisbon,

" Sie waren noch wiirdige Epigonen jener Glaubensboten und
pdehrten des 7-10 Jahrhunderts, die wir im Frankreich kennen lernten ;

2 F

450 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

written in 1185, states that the greater part of all the existing
documents belonging to the different Irish monasteries which
sprang from it had been written by Marianus Scotus himself.
A specimen, writes Zimmer, of his beautiful script and the
remarkable rapidity of his work may be seen at the Court
Library of Vienna, where is preserved a copy of St. Paul's
Epistles in 160 sheets, written by him in 10/9, between
March 23rd and May lyth. Very many of the monks —
Malachias, Patricius, Maclan, Finnian, and others — who came
to these monasteries from Ireland brought books with them
which they presented to the German monasteries. The
century which succeeded the Battle of Clontarf was the most
flourishing period of the Irish monks in Germany. In the
thirteenth century their influence visibly declines. Once the
English had commenced the conquest of Ireland the mona-
steries ceased to be recruited by men of sanctity and learning,
but were resorted to by men who sought rather material
comfort and a life of worldly freedom.1 The result was
that towards the end of the thirteenth and the beginning
of the fourteenth century most of the Irish establishments
in Germany came to an end, being either made over to
Germans, like of those of Vienna and Wiirzburg, or else
altogether losing their monastic character like that of Nurem-
berg.

As for the parent monastery, that of St. James of Ratisbon,
its fate was most extraordinary, and deserves to be told at
greater length. It had, of course, always been from its
foundation inhabited by Irish monks alone, and was known
as the Monasterium Scotorum, or Monastery of the Irish-
men. But when in process of time the word Scotus became
ambiguous, or, rather, had come to be almost exclusively

voll Glaubenseifer, Frommigkeit, Enthaltsamkeit und Sinn fur Studien"
(" Preussisches Jahrbuch," January, 1887).

1 "Propter abundantiam et propter liberam voluntatem vivendi," quotes
Zimmer.

CLONTARF TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST 451

applied to what we now call Scotchmen,1 the Scotch prudently
took advantage of it, and claimed that they, and not the Irish,
were the real founders of Ratisbon and its kindred institu-
tions, and that the designation mona sterium Scotorum proved
it, but that the Irish had gradually and unlawfully intruded
themselves into all these institutions which did not belong
to them. Accordingly it came to pass by the very irony
of fate — analogous to that which made English writers of
the last century claim Irish books and Irish script as Anglo-
Saxon — that the great parent monastery of St. James of
Ratisbon was actually given up to the Scotch by Leo X.
in 1515, and all the unfortunate Irish monks there living
were driven out ! The Scotch, however, do not seem to
have made much of their new abode, for though the
monastery contained some able men during the first century
of its occupation by them —

"It exercised," says Zimmcr, "no influence worth mentioning
upon the general cultivation of the German people of that region,
and may be considered but a small contributor towards mediaeval
culture in general, for the only share the Scotch monks can really
claim in a monument like that of the Church of St. James of
Ratisbon, is the fact of their having collected the gold for its
erection from the pockets of the Germans. In comparison with
these how noble appear to us those apostles from Ireland, of
whom we find so many traces in different parts of the kingdom,
of the monks from the beginning of the seventh to the end of
the tenth century" !

IThis monastery was finally secularised in 1860.
j T F. F. Warren, quoted by Miss Stokes in her "Six Months in the
LAppenines," gives a list of twenty-nine Irish monasteries in France, and
(eighteen in Germany and Switzerland, with many more in the Netherlands
ind in Italy. Numberless others founded by the Irish passed into foreign

CHAPTER XXXIV

SUDDEN ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT

THE semi-usurpation of Brian Boru, which broke through
the old prescriptional usage (according to which the High-
kings of Ireland had, for the preceding five hundred
years, been elected only from amongst the northern or
southern Ui Neill, that is, from the descendants of Niall of
the Nine Hostages), produced no evil effects, but much
good so long as Brian himself lived ; yet his action was
destined to have the worst possible influence upon the
future of Ireland, an evil influence comparable only to that
caused by the desertion of Tara four centuries and a half
before. The High-kingship being thus thrown open, as
it were, to any Irish chief sufficiently powerful to wrest it
from the others, became an object of constant dispute and
warfare, the O'Neills kings of Ulster, the O'Conors of
Connacht, the O'Briens of Munster, and the princes of
Leinster, all contended for it, so that from the death of
Malachy, Brian Boru's successor, there was scarcely a single
High-king who was not, as the Irish annali^s call it, "a
king with opposition." J Hence despite the immediate

1 After Malachy reigned Donough O'Brien, son of Brian Boru ; after
him Diarmuid of Leinster, of the race of Cathaoir Mor ; after him two

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 453

revival of art and literature which followed the defeat of the
Northmen, the country was in many ways politically
weakened, the inherent defects of the clan system accen-
tuated, and the land, already much exhausted by the Danish
wars,1 was left open to the invasion of the Normans.

It was in May, 1169, that the first force of these new
invaders landed, and, aided by the incompetence of a par-
ticularly feeble High-king, they had so thoroughly estab-
lished themselves in Ireland by the close of the century,
that they succeeded in putting an end to the Irish High-
kingship, under which Ireland had subsisted for over a
thousand years. Then began that permanent war — very
different, indeed, from what the Irish tribes waged among
themselves — which, almost from its very commencement,
thoroughly arrested Irish development, and disintegrated Irish

nfe.

It is not too much to say that for three centuries after
the Norman Conquest Ireland produced nothing in art,
literature, or scholarship, even faintly comparable to what
she had achieved before. With the Normans came collapse ;

" Red ruin and the breaking up of laws,"

and all the horrors of chronic and remorseless warfare.

We must now examine the history of Irish art, as dis-
played in metal-work, buildings, and illuminated manuscripts.

That peculiar class of design which Irish artists developed
so successfully in " the countless hosts of the illuminated
books of the men of Erin," is not really of Irish origin at

)ther O'Briens, then an O'Lochlainn king of Ulster, then O'Conor of
iConnacht, then another O'Lochlainn, arid then another O'Conor, King
{Roderick, in whose time the Normans landed.

! x Although the backbone of the Danish power was broken at Clontarf,
[desultory warfare with them did not cease for long after. Even so late as
1021 they were able to penetrate into the city of Armagh for the seventeenth
'time during two hundred years, and burnt the whole city to the ground,
Iwith its churches and books. Within two years of the battle of Clontarf
burned Glendalough and Clonard.

454 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

all. It is not even Celtic. The late researches of M.
Solomon Reinach and others into the genuine remains of the
Celts of Gaul and the Continent have discovered in their orna-
mentation scarcely a trace at all of the so-called Irish patterns.
They are in truth not Irish, but Eastern. They seem to
have started from Byzantium, spread over Dalmatia and
North Italy, and finally found their way into Ireland.
The early forms of pre-Christian Irish art show no trace
whatsoever of those peculiar interlaced patterns and con-
voluted figures which are usually associated with the name
of Celtic design. The engraved patterns on the tumulus
of New Grange, dating from probably about 800 * years
before the Christian era, and the similar scribings upon
sepulchral chambers at Louchcrew, Telltown, and other places,
do not show a particle of interlaced work, but consist for the
most part of circles with rays, arrangements of concentric
circles, patterns of double and triple spirals, and lozenges.
Indeed, it is the spiral, in countless forms and applications,
which seems to have been really indigenous to the earliest
inhabitants of Ireland, and with it the interlaced and con-
voluted figures of non-Irish post-Christian art became blended,
gradually driving it out. These in their turn perished, degraded
and abased by admixture with Gothic forms introduced by the
Normans, whose invasion soon put an end to the development
of all art in Ireland save that of architecture.

The so-called Celtic design of Ireland, with its interlaced
bands, its convolutions, its knots, its triquetras, is really a
survival of what once, starting from the East, spread over a
large portion of western and northern Europe, but which
soon died out there overwhelmed by Gothic and other
influences ; whilst in Ireland, where it was applied with
far truer artistic feeling and far finer elaboration than else-
where, it has been preserved in countless works of stone,

1 This is the minimum date assigned them by Mr. George Coffey in his
admirable monograph upon the subject.

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 455

bronze, and parchment. A scrutiny of early Scandinavian art
and of the architectural styles of Italy known as the Latino-
Barbaro and Italo-Bizantino, with portions of the art of other
countries, have revealed traces of the so-called Celtic designs
in places and under circumstances which prove that they can-
not be — as used to be generally supposed — the work of exiled
Irishmen. Nevertheless, there is a certain individuality in the
working out of these designs when brought to perfection by
Irish hands, which sufficiently distinguishes Irish art from that
of other countries. For in Ireland the interlaced decoration
was grafted on to the more archaic and pre-Christian style.

"The peculiar spirals found on these bronzes of that [pre-
Christian] time," says Miss Stokes,1 " the trumpet pattern, the even
more archaic single-line spirals, zigzags, lozenges, circles, dots, arc
all woven in with interlaced designs, with marvellous skill and sense
of beauty and charm of varied surface, added to which is an un-
surpassed feeling for colour where the style admits of colour, as in
els and illumination. Besides all this, the interlacings, taken
themselves, gradually undergo a change in character under the
d of an Irish artist. They become more inextricable, 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 work, so far as my experience goes."

:

The original pre-Christian art of the Irish Celts, that known
Cuchulain and Conor mac Nessa and the heroes of the Red
ranch, survives only upon a few bronzes and upon the stones
of a few sepulchral mounds. The tracings upon the sepulchral
mounds are rude — though we find in some instances evidences
of designs deliberately worked out to cover a given surface — •
and they mostly consist of recognisable symbols of Sun and
Fire worship. The bronze sword-sheaths of Lisnacroghera,
which are magnificent specimens of early Irish art, are a
development of these patterns, but bear no trace of that inter-
laced work which was introduced with Christianity. There
several other bronze ornaments, evidently pre-Christian,

1 " Six Months in the Apennines," Introductory Letter.

456 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

which exhibit the same kind of designs, notably what appear
to be two horns of a radiated crown exquisitely decorated by
spiral lines in relief, and which, said Mr. Kemble, " for beauty
of design and execution may challenge comparison with any
specimen of cast bronze-work that it has ever been my
fortune to see." Miss Stokes, however, has shown that these
pieces were not cast, but repousse, and consequently, she
writes —

" If not the finest pieces of casting ever seen, yet as specimens of
design and workmanship they are perhaps unsurpassed. The surface
is here overspread with no vague lawlessness, but the ornament is
treated with fine reserve, and the design carried out with the pre-
cision and delicacy of a master's touch. The ornament on the cone
flows round and upwards in lines gradual and harmonious as the
curves in ocean surf, meeting and parting only to meet again in
lovelier forms of flowing motion. In the centre of the circular
plate below — just at the point or hollow whence all these lines flow
round and upwards, at the very heart, as it might seem, of the whole
work — a crimson drop of clear enamel may be seen."

These beautiful fragments are almost certainly pre-Christian,
and may even have been worn by Conaire" the Great or Conor
mac Nessa. They represent a variety of design which stands
midway between the stone engravings and the art of the early
Christians. It is a remarkable fact, amply proven and univer-
sally acknowledged, that the bronze-work of the pre-Christian
Irish was never surpassed by their post-Christian metal-work.
Indeed, while the pagan Irish are proved to have attained great
skill in the art of design, in working of metals, and especially
in the art of enamelling by various processes, the specimens of
the earliest Christian metal-work, such as St. Patrick's bell,
are exceedingly rude and barbarous — possibly because the
skilled pagan workmen did not turn their hands to such
business, and the Christian converts had themselves to do
the best they could.

Many of the monks, however, appear to have given them-
selves up to metal-work, and reached a very high pitch of

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 457

excellence in it, as may be seen at a glance by the inspection
of such master works as the two-handed Ardagh chalice, the
cross of Cong, and numerous shrines, cumhdachs [coodachs],
or book-cases, and croziers. The ornamental designs upon the
later Christian metal-work reached their highest perfection in
the tenth and eleventh centuries, and the work of this period
exhibits about forty different varieties of design, in which
animal forms are only sparingly used, and in which there is no
trace of foliate pattern. Indeed, these are not found in Irish
metal-work before the period of decadence in the thirteenth
century. Although the best specimens of Christian art in
metal-work belong to the tenth and eleventh centuries, we
are not to assume from this that the metal-work of the earlier
Christian artists did not keep pace with the work of the early
Christian scribes, who produced such magnificent specimens of
penmanship and colour in the seventh and eighth centuries.
They may have done so, but no relics of their work are left.
According to Dr. Petrie, few, if any, of the more distin-
guished churches of Ireland were destitute of beautiful metal-
work in the shape of costly shrines at the coming of the
Norseman, as the frequent allusions in the Irish annals show ;
but scarcely one of these escaped their destructive raids, and
hence the finest surviving specimens are of a much later
date than the finest surviving manuscripts,1 which were
only destroyed whenever met with, but were not, like the
costly metal -work, an object of eager and unremitting
pursuit.

In sculpture the Irish never produced anything finer than
j their tall, shapely, richly but not over-richly ornamented

1 The earliest surviving book-shrine, that of Molaise's Gospels, was
I made between the year 1001 and 1025 ; the earliest dated crozier is 967 ;
! the earliest bell-shrine may be assigned to 954. The Cross of Cong dates
1 from about 1123. That the earlier Christian craftsmen must have made
: good work, if only it had survived, may be inferred from the fine silver
! chalice of Kremsmiinster, in Lower Austria, dating from between the years
757 and 781.

458 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Celtic crosses. The Ogam-inscribed stones, of which over
a couple of hundred remain, are perfectly plain and un-
decorative. Some of the later inscribed tombstones (of which
some two hundred and fifty remain), contain, it is true, fine
chisel-work, but the numerous high Celtic crosses, covered
many of them with elaborate sculpture in relief, with under-
cutting, and orncmented with the divergent and interlaced
spiral pattern, show the finest artistic instinct. Most of these
beautiful works of art are later than the year 900, but hardly
one is posterior to the Norman invasion, which soon put a stop
to such artistic luxuries.

The Irish were not a nation of builders. Most of the early
Irish houses, even at Tara, were, as we have seen, of wood. The
ordinary dwelling-house was either a cylindrical hut of wicker-
work with a cup-shaped roof, plastered with clay and thatched
with reeds, or else a quadrilateral house built of logs or of clay.
The so-called city of Royal Tara was, in fact, a vast enclosure,
containing quite a number of different raths, and houses inside
the raths. The buildings seem to have been constructed of
the timbers of lofty trees planted side by side, probably carved
into fantastic shapes upon the outside, while the inside walls
were closely interwoven with slender rods, over which a putty
or plaster of loam was smoothly spread, which, when even and
dry, was painted in bright colours, chiefly red, yellow, and
blue. The roofs were formed of smooth joists and cross-beams,
and probably thatched with rods and rushes, much in the same
manner as the houses of the peasantry to-day. The floors
appear to have been of earth, carefully hardened and beaten
down, and then covered with a coat of some kind of hard and
shiny mortar. No doubt some very fine barbaric effects were
realised in these buildings, some of which, as is evidenced by
the description of Cormac's Teach Midhchuarta, must have
been immense. There were as many as seven duns, or raths,
round Tara, each containing within it many houses, and each
surrounded by a mound, or vallum, planted with a stockade

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 459

like a Maori pah.1 The finest house of all, painted in the
gayest colours, planted in the sunniest spot, and provided over-
head with a balcony, was reserved for the ladies of the place,
and was called the grianan [greeanawn], or sunny house.

Stone, however, was used in places, at a very early date,
long before the first century, as may be seen from the stone
forts of western and south-western Ireland, huge structures of
which one of the best known is Dun-Angus, in the Isle of
Arran, but there was no knowledge of mortar. Masonry was
also used occasionally by the early monks in constructing their
little clochans, or beehive cells, and their oratories, with rounded
roofs, built without a vestige of an arch, the whole surrounded
by an uncemented stone wall, or cashel.

The Irish do not seem to have done much in stone-work
until the Danish invasions forced them to construct the round
rers in which to take shelter when the enemy was upon
lem, saving thus their jewels, books, and shrines. The
Danes, who made rapid marches across the country, could
burn these towers nor throw them down, nor could they

;nd the time necessary to reduce them by famine, lest the
country should be roused behind them, and their retreat to
their ships cut off. The idea and form of the round tower
the Irish almost certainly derived from the East. In Lord
Dunraven's "Notes on Irish Architecture" the path of these
buildings from Ravenna across Europe and into Ireland is
distinctly shown ; but while only about a score of examples
survive in the rest of Europe, Ireland alone possesses a hundred
and eighteen of these curious structures. There are three
well-marked styles of towers. The doors and windows of
the earlier ones are primitive and horizontal, but in the later
ones the rude entablature of the earlier towers has given way

This was the case with most of those earthen circumvallations, called
in different parts of Ireland raths and lisses, and in Hibernian English
forts or forths. The houses were inside the embankment, which was in
most cases protected by a wall of stakes planted round its summit.

460 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

to the decorated Romanesque arch, and the beauty and number
of the arched windows is greatly increased.

The transition from the horizontal to the round-arched style
is shown in the Church of Iniscaltra, erected two years after
the battle of Clontarf, and many years before the true
Romanesque appeared in England. From that time till the
coming of the Normans, Irish ecclesiastical architecture — the
only kind practised, for the Irish did not live in or build castles
— progressed enormously, and several fine specimens belonging
to the twelfth century still survive.

" The remains," writes Miss Stokes, " of a great number of monu-
ments belonging to the period between the fifth and twelfth centuries
of the Christian era, have survived untouched by the hand either of
the restorer or of the destroyer, and in them, when arranged in con-
secutive series, we can trace the development from an early and
rude beginning to a very beautiful result, and watch the dovetailing,
as it were, of one style into another, till an Irish form of Romanesque
architecture grew into perfection. The form of the Irish Church
points to an original type which has almost disappeared elsewhere
— that of the Shrine or Ark, not of the Basilica."

The Norman invasion, however, put a complete stop to the
natural development of Irish Romanesque, and changed the
building of churches into that of castles, in which the Irish
only copied, so far as they built at all, the pattern of the
invader.

The art, however, in which the Irish earliest excelled, and
in which they have really no rivals in Europe, was in that of
writing and illuminating manuscripts. The most recent
authority on the subject, Johan Adolf Brunn in his " Inquiry
into the Art of Illuminated MSS. of the Middle Ages,"
acknowledges that the fame of the Celtic school, "dating
from the darker centuries of the Middle Ages, excels that of
any of its rivals." Westwood, the great British authority,
declares that were it not for Irishmen these islands would
contain no primitive works of art worth mentioning, and
asserts that the Book of Kells is " unquestionably the most

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 461

elaborately executed manuscript of so early a date, now in
existence." Even Giraldus Cambrensis, who came in with
the early Normans, was struck dumb with admiration of the
exquisite book shown him at Kildare, which of all the miracles
with which Kildare was credited was to him the greatest.
Here, he writes, " you may see the visage of majesty divinely
impressed, on one side the mystic forms of the evangelists
having now six, now four, now two wings, on one side the
eagle, on another the calf, on one side the face of a man, on
the other of a lion, and an almost infinite quantity of other
figures. ... A careless glance at the whole," he goes on to say,
" reveals no particular excellence, but if, looking closer at it, the
spectator examined the work in detail he would see how extra-
ordinarily subtle and delicate were the knots and lines, how
bright and fresh the colours remained, how interlaced and
bound together was the whole, so that we would feel inclined
to believe that it could hardly be a human composition but the
works of angels. In fact," writes Cambrensis, " the oftener
and closer I inspect it,1 the more certain I am to be struck with
something new, with something ever more and more wonder-
ful." Indeed, the story ran, that such figures and such
colouring were due to no mere mortal invention, but that an

1 The whole passage is worth transcribing in the original. "Inter
numerosa Kildariae miracula nihil mihi miraculosius occurrit quam liber
ille mirandus, tempore Virginis [he means St. Brigit] ut aiunt, angelo
dictante, consumptus. Hie Majestatis vultum videas divinitus imprassum,
hinc mysticas Evangelistarum formas, nunc senas, nunc quaternas, nunc
binas alas habentes : hinc aquilam, inde vitulum, hinc hominis faciem,
inde leonis, aliasque figures fere infinitas. Quas si superficialiter et usuali
more minus acute conspexeris, litura potius videbitur quam ligatura, nee
ullam prorsus attendes subtilitatem. Sin autem ad perspicacius intuendum
oculorum aciem invitaveris, et longe penitius ad artis arcana et transpene-
traveris, tarn delicatas et subtiles tarn arctas et artitas, tarn nodosas et
vinculatim colligatas, tarn que recentibus adhuc coloribus illustratas, notare
poteris intricaturas, ut vere haec omnia potius angelica quam humana
diligentia jam asseveraveris esse composita. Hagc equidem quanto
frequentius et diligentius intueor semper quasi novis obstupeo semper
magis ac magis admiranda conspicio." Master of the Rolls series,
v., p. 123.

462 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

angel had appeared to the scribe in his sleep and taught him
how to make these wondrous drawings, "and thus," adds
Cambrensis, " through the revelation of the angel, the prayer of
Brigit, and the imitation of the scribe, that book was written."

Now Giraldus Cambrensis, as Johan Adolf Brunn observes,
" knew to perfection the master-achievements of the non-Celtic
schools of art of contemporary date," and " although referring
to a particular work of especial merit," says Brunn, " the testi-
mony of this mediaeval writer may well be placed at the head
of an inquiry into the art in general of the Celtic illuminated
manuscripts, emphasising as it does the salient characteristics
of the style followed by this distinguished school of illumi-
nation, its minute and delicate drawing, its brilliancy of
colouring, and, above all, that amazing amount of devoted and
patient labour, which underlies its intricate composition, and
creates the despair of any one who tries to copy them."

Between six and seven centuries later Westwood expresses
himself in terms not unlike those of Cambrensis, of the now
scanty remains of ancient Irish illumination —

"Especially deserving of notice," he writes, "is the extreme
delicacy and wonderful precision, united with an extraordinary
minuteness of detail with which many of these ancient manu-
scripts were ornamented. I have examined with a magnifying
glass the pages of the Gospel of Lindisfarne, and the Book of Kells,
for hours together, without ever detecting a false line or an irregular
interlacement ; and when it is considered that many of these details
consist of spiral lines, and are so minute as to be impossible to have
been executed without a pair of compasses, it really seems a problem
not only with what eyes but also with what instruments they could
have been executed. ... I counted in a small space, measuring
scarcely three quarters of an inch by less than half an inch in width,
in the Book of Armagh, not fewer than one hundred and fifty-eight
interlacements of a slender ribbon pattern formed in white lines
edged with black ones upon a black ground."*

The Book of Armagh, as we have seen, was written in 807,
or perhaps, as the " Four Masters " antedate at this period, in 8 1 2,
1 " The Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish MSS."

ARREST OF IRISH DEVELOPMENT 463

while the Book of Kells is ascribed, according to the best
judges, to the close of the seventh century.

The seventh and eight centuries, before the island was
disturbed by the Danes, were the most flourishing period
of the Irish illuminator and scribe. But their schools
continued to turn out very fine work as late as the twelfth
century, and Gilbert, in his " Facsimiles of the National
Manuscripts of Ireland," states that there are perhaps no
finer specimens of minute old writing extant than those in
the margins and interlineations of a copy of the Gospels
written by Maelbrigte Ua Maelruanaigh [Mulroony], in
Armagh, in 1138, that is, seventeen years after that city
had for the last time been burnt and plundered by the
Danes.

Like all the other arts of civilised life, that of the illumi-
nator and decorative scribe was brought to a standstill by the
Norman warriors, nor do the Irish appear after this period to
have produced a single page worth the reproduction of the
artistic palaeographer. The reason of this, no doubt, was that
the Irish artist in former days could — no matter how septs
fell out or warring tribes harried one another — count upon the
sympathy of his fellow countrymen even when they were
hostile. Under the new conditions caused by the Norman
settlements in each of the four provinces, he could count on
nothing, not even on his own life. All confidence was shaken,
all peace of mind was gone, the very name of so-called govern-
ment produced a universal terror, and Ireland became, to use a
raphic expression of the Four Masters, a " trembling sod."
'No words," writes Mrs. Sophie Bryant, with perfect truth,
c could describe that arrest of development so eloquently or so
ucidly as the facts of Irish art-history." " Since then " [/.*., since
Ithe Norman invasion], writes Miss Stokes, one of the highest
living authorities upon this subject, " the native character of
jTreland has best found expression in her music. No work of
purely Celtic art, whether in illumination of the sacred writings,

464 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

or in gold, or bronze, or stone, was wrought by Irish hands after
that century ;" and as we shall now see this decay of Irish art
is reflected in the falling off of Irish literature, which continued
languishing until the great revival which took place about the
year 1600.

CHAPTER XXXV

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY

"OR four centuries after the Anglo-Norman, or more properly
he Cambro-Norman invasion, the literature of Ireland seems
o have been chiefly confined to the schools of the bards, and
he bards themselves seem to have continued on the rather cut-
nd-dry lines of tribal genealogy, religious meditations, personal
ulogium, clan history, and elegies for the dead. There reigns
luring this period a lack of imagination and of initiative in
iterature ; no new ground is broken, no fresh paths entered
m, no new saga-stuff unearthed, no new metres discovered.
There is great technical skill exhibited, but little robust
originality ; great cleverness of execution, but little boldness of
onception. How closely the bards ran in the groove of their
predecessors is evident from the number of poems of doubtful
juthorship, ascribed by some authorities to bards of the pre-
orman or even Danish period, and by others to poets of the
ihirteenth, fourteenth, or even fifteenth centuries, the work of
e later period being so very often both in style and language
rcely distinguishable from the earlier which it imitates.
Another characteristic of these four centuries is the number
hereditary bards of the same name and family which we find
eration after generation, each one imitating his predecessor,

2G 465

466 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and producing his inauguration odes, his eulogies, and his elegies,
for each succeeding race of chiefs and patrons.

This period is the post-epic, post-saga period. Probably not
one of the Red Branch stories was even materially altered
during it. Stories of the Fenian cycle, however, continued to
be propagated and improved upon, and no doubt many new
ones were invented. But there is little or no trace of the com-
position of fresh miscellaneous saga, and the only poetry that
seems to have flourished beside the classic metres of the bards is
the so-called " Ossianic," a good deal of which may, perhaps,
have assumed something of its present form during this period.

Some attempt there was at the careful keeping of annals, but
scarcely any at writing regular history, though the fifteenth
century produced McCraith's " Exploits of Torlough," to be
noticed further on. We shall now briefly glance at this period
age by age.

The thirteenth century, that succeeding the coming of the
Normans, is far more barren in literature than the one which
preceded them. Only five or six poets are mentioned as
belonging to it, and their surviving poems amount to only a
few hundred lines, with the exception of those of the great
religious bard Donogha Mor O'Daly, who died in 1244 "a
poet," record the " Four Masters," " who never was and never
shall be surpassed." All his poems extant are of a religious
character. He was buried in the abbey of Boyle, in the
county of Roscommon, in which county I have heard, up to a
few years ago, verses ascribed to him repeated by more than
one old peasant. It is usually believed that he was a cleric and
abbot of the beautiful monastery of Boyle, but there is no
evidence for this, and he may have been in fact a layman.
Thirty-one poems of his, containing in all some four thousand
two hundred lines, have been preserved, and for their great
smoothness have earned for their author the not very happy
title of the Ovid of Ireland. Here is a specimen of 'one of his
shorter pieces, written on his unexpectedly finding himself

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY 467

unable to shed a tear after his arriving at Loch Derg on a
pilgrimage :

" Alas, for my journey to Loch Derg, O King of the churches and
the bells ; ' I have come ' to weep thy bruises and thy wound, and yet
from my eye there cometh not a tear.1

" With an eye that moistens not its pupil, after doing every evil, no
matter how great, with a heart that seeketh only (its own) peace,
alas ! O king, what shall I do ?

" Without sorrowfulness of heart, without softening, without con-
trition, or weeping for my faults, — Patrick head of the clergy, he
never thought that he could gain God in this way.

" The one son of Calphurn, since we are speaking of him, ' alas ! O
Virgin, sad my state ! ' he was never seen whilst alive without the
trace of tears in his eye.

" In (this) hard, narrow stone-walled (cell), after all the evil I have
done, all the pride I have felt. Alas ! my pity ! that I find no tear,
and I buried alive in the grave.

" O one-Son, by whom all were created, and who didst not shun
the death of the three thorns, with a heart than which stone is not
more hard, 'tis pity my journey to Loch Derg."

Here is another specimen, a good deal of which I once
heard from a poor beggarman in the County Mayo, but it is
j also preserved in numerous manuscripts :

" My son, remember what I say,

That on the Day of Judgment's shock,
When men go stumbling down the Mount,
The sheep may count thee of their flock.3

And narrow though thou find the path
To Heaven's high rath, and hard to gain,

I warn thee shun yon broad white road
That leads to the abode of pain.

1 " Truagh mo thuras ar Loch Dearg
A righ na gceall a's na gclog,
Do chaoineadh do chneadh 's do chreacht
'S nach dtig dear thar mo rosg."
Gaelic Journal," vol. iv. p. 190.

8 " Na treig mo theagasg a mhic

Cidh baogh'lach la an chirt do chach
Ag sgaoileadh dhoib 6 an tsliabh
Rachaidh tu le Dia na ngras."

" Religious Songs of Corinacht," p. 28.

468 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

For us is many a snare designed,
To fill our mind with doubts and fears.

Far from the land where lurks no sin,
We dwell within our Vale of Tears.

Not on the world thy love bestow,
Passing as flowers that blow and die ;

Follow not thou the specious track
That turns the back on God most high.

But oh ! let faith, let hope, let love,
Soar far above this cold world's way,

Patience, humility, and awe —
Make them thy law from day to day.

And love thy neighbour as thyself,

(Not for his pelf thy love should be),
But a greater love than every love

Give God above who loveth thee.
• • • « •

The seven shafts wherewith the Unjust

Shoots hard to thrust us from our home,
Canst thou avoid their fiery path,

Dread not the wrath that is to come.

Shun sloth, shun greed, shun sensual fires,

(Eager desires of men enslaved)
Anger and pride and hatred shun,

Till heaven be won, till man be saved.

To Him, our King, to Mary's son

Who did not shun the evil death,
Since He our hope is, He alone,

Commit thy body, soul, and breath.

Since Hell each man pursues each day,

Cleric and lay, till life be done,
Be not deceived as others may,

Remember what I say, my son." r

1 Literally : " Do not forsake my teaching, my son, and although danger-
ous be the Day of Right for all, on their scattering from the Mount, thou
shalt go with God of the graces.

"The road to heaven of the saints though to thee it seem narrow,
slender, hard, yet shun the road of the house of the pains, many a one has
journeyed to it away from us.

" Against us was treachery designed, to bring us down from the artificer

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY 469

The fourteenth century possesses exactly the same charac-
teristics as the thirteenth, only the poets are more numerous.
O'Reilly mentions over a score of them whose verses amount
to nearly seven thousand lines. Of these the best known is
probably John Mor O'Diigan of whom about 2,600 lines
survive — important rather for the information they convey than
for their poetry. His greatest, or at least his most valuable
piece, is about the tribes and territories of the various districts in
Meath, Ulster, and Connacht, on the arrival of the Normans,
and the names of the chiefs who ruled them.1 In this poem
he devotes 152 lines to Meath, 354 to Ulster, 328 to
Connacht, and only 56 to Leinster, death having apparently
carried him off (in the year 1372) before he had finished his
researches into the tribes and territories of that district. But
luckily for us his younger contemporary — Gilla-na-naomh
O'Huidhrin [Heerin] — took it up and completed it,2 so that
the two poems, usually copied together, form a single piece of
1, 660 lines in deibhidh [d'yevee] metre, which has thrown

of the elements, in banishment from the land of the living in a Valley of
Tears art thou.

"To the world give not love, is it not transient the blossom of the
branches ? do not follow the track of those who are journeying to hell from
God of the Saints.

" Hope, faith, and love, let thee have in God forever, humility, and
patience without anger, truth without deception in thy walk," etc.

1 It begins —

" Triallam timchioll na Fodhla,
Gluaisid fir ar furfhogra,
As na foidibh a bhfuileam
Na Coigeadha cuartuigheam."

The whole has been most ably edited by Dr. O'Donovan for the Irish
Archaeological Society.

2 His poem in continuation begins —

" Tuille feasa ar Erinn oigh,
Ni maith seanchaidh nach seanpir,
Seanchas coir uaim don feadhain
Na sloigh 6'n Boinn bainealaigh."

"More knowledge on virgin Ireland, not good is an historian unless he
be an elder, proper history from me to the tribe, the hosts from Boyne of
the white cattle."

470 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

more light upon names and territories than perhaps any other
of the same extent. It is, despite the difficult and recondite
verse, a work mainly of research and not of poetry. The same
may be said of nearly all O'Dugan's poems, another of which
called the " Forus Focal," is really a vocabulary in verse of ob-
solete words, which though of similar orthography have different
or even contrary meanings. It was in this century the great mis-
cellaneous collection called the Book of Ballymote was compiled.
The fifteenth century differs very little in character from the
preceding one. We find about the same number of poets with
about the same amount of verses — between six and seven thou-
sand lines, according to O'Reilly — still surviving, or as O'Reilly
underrates the number, probably about ten thousand lines.
The poets were now beginning to feel the rude weight of the
prosaic Saxon, and Fergal O'Daly chief poet of Corcamroe,
Maurice O'Dalv a poet of Breffny, Dermot O'Daly of
Meath, Hugh Og Mac Curtin, and Dubhthach [Dufiach]
son of Eochaidh [Yohee] " the learned," with several more,
are mentioned as having been cruelly plundered and oppressed
by Lord Furnival and the English. It was in this cen-
tury that those most valuable annals usually called the Annals
of Ulster were compiled from ancient books now lost,
by Cathal Maguire who was born in 1438. The great
collection called the Book of Lecan was copied at the
beginning of this century, and another most important work
the "Caithreim, or warlike exploits of Turlough O'Brien,"
was written about the year 1459 by John Mac Craith, chief
historian of North Munster. This though composed in a far
more exaggerated and inflated style than even the " War of
the Gael with the Gaill," which it resembles, yet gives the
most accurate account we have of the struggles of the Irish
against the English in Munster from the landing of Henry II.
till the death of Lord de Clare in 1318. It was at the very
beginning of this century the hagiographical collection called
the Leabhar Breac was made.

FOUR CENTURIES OF DEC A Y 471

The sixteenth century cannot properly be said to mark a
transition period in Irish literature, as it does in the literature
of so many other European countries. It has, indeed, left
far more numerous documents behind it than the preceding
one, but this is mainly due to the fact that less time has
elapsed during which they could be lost. Their style and
general contents differ little, until the very close of the
century, from those of their predecessors. O'Reilly chronicles
the names of about forty poets whose surviving pieces amount
to over ten thousand lines. But so many MSS. which were
in O'Reilly's time in private hands, or which, like the Stowe
MSS., were unapproachable by students, have since been
deposited in public libraries or become otherwise accessible,
that it would, I think, be safe to add at least half as much
again to O'Reilly's computation. I have even in my own
possession poems by nearly a dozen writers belonging to the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries whose names are not
mentioned at all by O'Reilly ; and the O'Conor Don has
shown me a manuscript copied at Ostend, in Belgium, in
1631, for one Captain Alexander Mac Donnell, from which
O'Curry transcribed a thousand pages of poems " of which
with a very few exceptions," he writes, " no copies are known
to me elsewhere in Ireland." A considerable number of these
ms, nearly all of them unknown to O'Reilly, were com-
d in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, so
at this one manuscript alone would largely swell O'Reilly's
estimate for this period.

Enormous quantities of books however, belonging to the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, have been lost, and are

still being lost every day. It is an accident that Friar

j O'Gara's x and the O'Conor Don's collection — both compiled

! abroad — have escaped. If, during the middle of the sixteenth

1 Made in the Low Countries by an exiled friar of the County Galway,
a great collection of poetry in the classical metres. See "Transactions
of the Gaelic Society," 1808, p. 29.

472 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

century, a collector of poetry had gone round transcribing the
classical poems of that age, he would have found large
collections preserved in the houses of almost every scion of the
old Gaelic nobility, with scarcely an exception. On the
break-up of the houses of the Irish chiefs the archives of their
families and their manuscript libraries were lost or carried
abroad. An excellent example of what may be called tribal
poetry, such as every great Gaelic house possessed, is contained
in a manuscript in Trinity College, which a Fellow of the
last century, called O'Sullivan, luckily got transcribed for him-
self, and which is now in the college library.1 The collection
thus made, from about 1570 to 1615, goes under the title of
the " Book of the O'Byrnes," and contains sixty or seventy
poems made by their own family bards and by several of the
leading bards of Ireland, for the various members of the
O'Byrnes of Ranelagh near Dublin, and of the O'Byrnes
of Wicklow, who for three generations maintained their
struggle with the English, only succumbing in the beginning
of the seventeenth century.

Other family records of this nature, which were once
possessed in every county by the bardic families and by the
chiefs, have perished by the score. A glance at a few typical
poems belonging to the O'Byrnes will give a good idea of the
functions of the sixteenth-century bards, and the nature of
their poems. They are composed on all kinds of subjects

1 H. i. 14, in Trinity College. It is copied unfortunately by one of the
most incompetent of scribes, and is full of mistakes of all kinds. The
poets who wrote for the O'Byrnes were Rory Mac Craith, Owen O'Coffey,
Mahon O'Higinn, Donal Mac Keogh, Niall O'Rooney, Angus O'Daly,
John O'Higinn, Eochaidh O'Hussey, Maoileachlainn O'Coffey, T.
O'Mulconry, Donogha Mac Keogh, and others. A copy of the " Book of
the O'Byrnes" was in possession of the O'Byrnes of Cabinteely, near
Dublin, in the beginning of the century. Hardiman and O'Reilly each
had a copy, but as I have seen the scribe employed by the Royal Irish
Academy engaged for days in writing out of the wretched copy in Trinity
College, it is to be presumed that the Council of that body has assured
itself that these copies have since perished.

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY 473

connected with the wars, genealogy, and history of the tribe
land its chiefs. Many are eulogiums, some warnings, some
political poems, some elegies. Here are two or three
[specimens ; the first a poem of fifty-six lines, by Angus
[O'Daly, on the head of one of the chiefs of the clan spiked
Jon the battlements of Dublin.

" O body which I see without a head,
It is the sight of thee which has withered up my strength,
Divided and impaled in Ath-cliath [Dublin],
The learned of Banba [Ireland] will feel its loss." *

" Who will relieve the wants of the poor ?
Who will bestow cattle on the learned ?
O body, since thou art without a head
It is not life which we care to choose after thee."

nother poem, by John O'Higinn asks who2 will buy nine
erses from him. By his hand he swears, though high the
me of the men of Leinster, they are all cowed now.
he O'Tooles of the once heavy gifts have consented to
he peace of the English, and till they revoke it they will
ot give one white groat for twenty-marks-worth of a
The Cavanaghs are as bad, the Fitzgeralds and the
'Mores, too, are afraid of the foreigners to buy a poem,
ne man alone is not obedient to foreign English custom,
odh [O'Byrne] son of John, the true sweetheart of the bardic
ols of the race of the plain of Conn. Except him, the
dson of Redmond alone, the poet sees not one who

1 " A cholann do chim gun ceann

Sibh d' fhaicsin, do shearg mo bhrigh,
Rannta ar sparra a n-Athcliath,
D'eigsi Bhanba bhias a dhith."

(H. i. 14, T. C., D., fol. 84 a.

2 " Cia cheannchas adhmad naoi rann,

Da bhfaghadh connra ar sud ?
Ar Laighnibh cidh 'r b'ard a dteisd
Do m' aithne is cruaidh an cheisd ud.

474 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

will buy his nine stanzas — or if such exist, he knows them
not.1

Another poem of 180 lines by Eochaidh [Yohee] O'Hussey
is on the extreme winsomeness and beauty of a certain lady of
the O'Byrnes, Rose by name, probably the famous wife of Fiach
O'Byrne, who, poor thing, was afterwards captured by the
English in 1595 and by them burned alive in the yard of
Dublin Castle. The English statesmen who record this piece
of work in the State Papers, did not in the least understand the
civilisation or customs of Lady Rose, her bards and her clan,
and it is only at the present day that it is possible for the
scholar through the medium of the State Papers on one side
and native Irish documents on the other, to put himself en rapport
with both parties ; it is a process both absorbing and painful.
" What is troubling the ladies of the Gael ? " asks the poet,
"is it want of gold or lack of jewels, wherefore is the dear
troop downcast ? Why are the queens of princely race
disquieted ? Why rise they up heavy at heart ? Why lie they
down discomfited ? Why are their spirits troubled ? It is
because one lady so excels them all, she is the troubler of the
hosts of the men of Inisfail, the one cause of the sorrow of
our ladies. Let me," adds the poet gallantly, " have the
singing of her."2

Another is by Maoilsheachlainn [Malachy in English]
O'Coffey, on seeing one of the O'Byrnes' strongholds,
probably Ballinacor, occupied by a stranger.3 Another by one

1 " Acht ua Reamainn thuilleas bladh,
Ni h-aithne dham shoir no shiar,
Neach le ceannach [mo] naoi rann,
Ma ta ann, ni fheadar c' iad."

a " Creud ag buaidhreadh ban ngaoidheal
An dith oir no iol-mhaoineadh,
Cuis aith-mheillte an diorma dil,
Rioghna flaith-freimhe fuinnidh."

(H. i. 14, T. C., D., fol. 126 a.)

3 <( Ni bhfuair me 'na n-aitibh ann,
Acht lucht gan aithne orom [orm],
Mo chreach geur, mo chradh croidhe,
An sgeul fa ttaim troithlidhe."

I

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY 475

f the O'Mulconrys warns Fiach O'Byrne, that whether he
ilces to hear it or not, the axe of the English is raised above
lis head to strike him down.1 The poet points to the
Leinster septs who had been exterminated or escaped destruc-
ion by making submission, and how is Fiach to escape, and
especially how to escape treachery ?

Another poem composed by Donough Mac Eochaidh, or

Ceogh, with high political intent, is intended to bring about a

loser feeling of friendship between the sons of Fiach O'Byrne

nd John son of Redmond O'Byrne, who had been alienated,

Jesignedly, as he intimates, by a lying story propagated by a

foreigner, whereas the O 'Byrnes of Ranelagh ever sought to

avoid giving offence, and no evil story calculated to increase

enmity should be believed about one by the other.2

Another poet of the Mac Eochaidhs, the household bards
f the O'Byrnes, sings the generosity of Torlagh, son of
iacha, "their fame is the wealth of the tribe of Ranelagh,
hat is the saying of every one who knows them, 3 the
towal of their jewels, that is the treasure of the tribe of
anelagh, of the numerous incursions." " Small is their desire
amass treasures, nobler is the thing for which they conceive

1 " Fuath gach fir fuighioll a thuaidhe,

Tuig a Fhiacha, duit is dual,

Ma ta nach binn libh mo^labhra,

Os cionn do chirm do tharla an tuath."

O'Donovan, in his manuscript catalogue, quotes the last two lines of the
rerse in note 3, and translates them, " My bitter woe my heart's oppres-
ision is the news for which I grieve." Afterwards he erased the words
j"for which I grieve " and wrote instead " it wastes my vigour," thus show-
ling that he did not understand the original, for one translation is as bad
pis the other. The difficult word troithlidhe which perplexed him, is a
[common one in Roscommon, I have frequently heard it in the sense of
chilly." The translation is, "the news which chills me."

2 " Freamh Raghnaill ni rabhadar

Acht ag seachnadh inbheime
Sgeul meuduighthe faltanais
Doibh nior chreidte ar a cheile."

3 " A gclu is ionmhus d'fhuil Raghnaill

Radh gach eolaigh is e sin."

476 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

a wish ; every single man of the blood of Fiach O'Bryne has
taken upon himself to distribute his riches for Fiach ! " *

Another poem is a splendid war-song by Angus O'Daly on
a victory of the O'Byrnes over the English. " I rejoice that
not one was left of the remnant of the slaughter but the
captive who is in hand in bondage : " 2 " the blaze of the
burning country makes day out of midnight for them."

A remarkable poet of the end of this century was another
Angus O'Daly, the Red Bard, or Angus of the Satires, as he
was called. He seems to have been employed by the English
statesmen, Lord Mountjoy and Sir George Carew, for the
deliberate purpose of satirising all the Gaelic families in the
kingdom, and those Anglo-Normans who sympathised with
them. Angus travelled the island up and down on this sinister
mission. It was indeed an evil time. The awful massacres of
Rathlin and Clanaboy in Ulster, the hideous treachery of
Mullaghmast in Leinster, the revolting deeds of Bingham in
the west, and the unspeakable horrors that followed on the
Geraldines rebellion in the south, had reduced the Irish nobles
to a condition of the direst poverty. This poverty and the
inhospitality which he connected with it — points on which the
Irish were particularly sore — were the mark at which Angus
aimed his arrows. He usually polished off each house or clan
in a single rann or quatrain. His Irish rhymes are peculiarly
happy. Here are some specimens of his satire. He says of
Thomas Fitzgerald, Knight of Glynn, that he looked so grudg-
ingly at him as he ate his supper that the piece half-chewed

1 " Beag a nduil a ndeanamh ionmhais
Uaisle an nidh da dtabhraid toil,
Do ghabh gach aon-fhear d'fhuil Fhiacha
Sgaoileadh a chruidh d'Fiacha, air."

2 " Thug garda laidir mhic Aodha mhic Sheain
Dochur ar barda(?)^a n-aoil-chaislean,
'S baidh liom nar fagadh neach d'fhuighioll an air
Acht an braighe ata fa dhaoirse a[r] laimh."

The second line of this is quite incomprehensible, and runs in the MS.
do chur ar ar barda.

FOUR CENTURIES OF DECAY 477

stuck in his throat at the very sight of the other's eyes. Of
Limerick he says the only thing he was thankful for was the
bad roads which would prevent him from ever seeing it again.
,Of the Fitzmaurices he says that he will neither praise them
nor satirise them, for they are just poor gentlemen — admir-
able satire, and it cannot be doubted that they keenly felt
the point of it ! Often, however, Angus is only abusive
— thus of Maguire of Enniskillen he says that "he is a
j badger for roughness and greyness, an ape for stature and
ugliness, a lobster for the sharpness of his two eyes, a fox for
the foulness of his breath," * a verse in which the happiness
of the Irish rhyming carries off the poverty of the sentiment.
He harps on the blindness of the Mac Ternans,2 the misan-
jthropy of the Mac Gillycuddy, the inborn evil of the Fitz-
gibbons,3 the poverty of the O'Callaghans, the bad wines of
the O'Sullivans, the decrepitude of the O'Reillys, and so on.

The Red Bard went on with his satires on the men of the
four provinces, with none to say him nay, until he came to
Tipperary, where he was misguided enough to satirise the
chief of the O'Meaghers, whose servant, stung out of all con-
trol, forgot that the person of a bard was sacred, and instantly
thrust a knife into his throat, thus putting an end to him and
his satires. Angus, however, even as he died, uttered one rann
in which, for the good of his soul, he revoked all his former

1 " Broc ar ghairbhe 's ar ghlaise,
Apa ar mhead 's ar mhiojmhaise,
Gliomach ar gheire a dha shuil,
Sionnach ar bhreine, an Barun."

3 " Caoch an inghean, caoch an mhathair,
Caoch an t-athair, caoch an mac,
Caoch an capall bhios fa 'n tsrathair,
Leath-chaoch an cu, caoch an cat."

3 " Ni fhuil fearg nach dteid ar gciil
Acht fearg Chriost le cloinn Ghiobun
Beag an t-iongnadh a mbeith mar ta
Ag fas i n-olc gach aon la."

This rann was often quoted in after days about Fitzgibbon, Lord Clare,
who passed the Union.

478 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

verses : "All the false judgments I have passed upon the men
of Munster I recant them ; the meagre servant of the grey
Meagher has passed as much of a false judgment upon me."

So greatly had the literary production of Ireland passed into
the hands of the bards during the period we are now consider-
ing, that it will be well to study the evolution of the bardic
body down to the close of the sixteenth century, in a separate
chapter.

CHAPTER XXXVI

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY

SOME of the very earliest Irish poems — of which we have
specimens in the verses attributed to Amergin, son of Milesius,
and in the first satire ever uttered in Ireland, and in many
more pieces of a like character I — appear to have been un-
rhymed, and to have depended for their effect partly upon
rapidity of utterance, partly on a tendency towards alliteration,

This is a kind of rhetoric ; some of these unrhymed outbursts were
rosg by the Irish. Irish literature is full of such pieces. Some of
the Brehon Law though printed in prose seems to have been composed in
it. Other examples are the cry of the Mor-rigan, or war-goddess, in the
end of the Battle of Moytura.

1 Peace to heav'n " Sith go neim

Heav'n to earth Neamh go domhan,

Earth neath heav'n Domhan fa neim

Strength in each," etc. Neart i gcach," etc.

Rhe description of the Dun Bull of Cuailgne in the Tain Bo, or part of the
: poem attributed to Finn mac Cool, or the well-known eulogy on Goll
, the Fenian, or Mac Mhurighs incitement at the battle of Harlaw, or some
j of the verses in the preface to the Amra. About the last specimen of
unrhymed poetry, in a species of Droighneach metre, I find in the Annals
of Loch Ce on the death of Mac Dermot as late as 1568.

" Geg iothmar fhineamhna na n-eigeas ocus na n-ollaman,
Craobh cumra cnuais na gcliar ocus na gcerbach,
Doss diona na ndamh ocus na ndeoraidh

Bile buadha buan fhoscaidh na mbrughaidh ocus na mbiattach."

479

48o LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and in some cases on a strongly-marked leaning towards dis-
syllabic words.

Soon after the time of St. Patrick and the first Christian
missionaries, the Irish are found for certain using rhyme — how
far they had evolved it before the coming of the Latin mis-
sionaries is a moot question. The Book of Hymns has pre-
served genuine specimens of the Latin verses of Columcille and
other early saints, which either rhyme, or have a strong tendency
towards rhyme, though few of these early verses are found wholly
chiming on the accented syllables.1 It is a tremendous claim
to make for the Celt that he taught Europe to rhyme ; it is a
claim in comparison with which, if it could be substantiated,
everything else that he has done in literature pales into insig-
nificance. Yet it has been made for him by some of the fore-
most European scholars. The great Zeuss himself is emphatic
on the point ; " the form of Celtic poetry," 2 he writes, " to
judge both from the older and the more recent examples
adduced, appears to be more ornate than the poetic form of any
other nation, and even more ornate in the older poems than in
the modern ones ; from the fact of which greater ornateness it
undoubtedly came to pass that at the very time the Roman
Empire was hastening to its ruin, the Celtic poems — at first
entire, afterwards in part — passed over not only into the song
of the Latins, but also into those of other nations and remained

1 Thus the nearest approach that Columcille makes to Latin rhyme is
in the final unaccented syllable. See his " Altus " beginning

" Altus prosator vetustus Sed et erit in saecula

Dierum et ingenitus Saeculorum infinita

Erat absque origine Cui est unigenitus

Primorclii et crepidine. Christus et sanctus spiritus," etc.

2 " Formam poesis celticae, exemplis allatis, tarn vetustioribus quam recen-
tioribus vel hodiernis, magis ornatum esse apparet quam ullius gentis
formam poeticam, ac magis ornatam in vetustioribus carminibus ipsis,
quam in recentioribus. Quo majore ornatu, haud dubie effectum est, ut
jam inde ab illis temporibus quibus ad interitum ruebat Romanum im-
perium, celtica forma, primum integra, d^inde ex parte, non solum in
latina sed etiam (aliarum) linguarum csrmina transferretur atque in iis
permanserit " (" Grammatica Celtica," Ebel's edition, p. 977).

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 481

in them." In another place he remarks the advance towards
rhyme made in the Latin poetry of the Anglo-Saxons, and
unhesitatingly ascribes it to Irish influence. "We must
believe," he writes, " that this form was introduced among
them by the Irish, as were the arts of writing and of painting
and of ornamenting manuscripts, since they themselves in
common with the other Germanic nations made use in their
poetry of nothing but alliteration." * Constantine Nigra
expresses himself even more strongly in his edition of the
glosses in the Codex Taurinensis. He says —

"The idea that rhyme originated amongst the Arabs must be
absolutely rejected as fabulous. . . . Rhyme, too, could not in any
possible way have evolved itself from the natural progress of the
Latin language. Amongst the Latins neither the thing nor the name
existed. We first meet with final assonance or rhyme at the close of
the fourth or beginning of the fifth century in the Latin hymns of
the Milanese Church, which are attributed to St. Ambrose and St.
Augustine. The first certain examples of rhyme, then, are found on
Celtic soil and amongst Celtic nations, in songs made by poets who
are either of Celtic origin themselves or had long resided amongst
Celtic races. It is most probable that these hymns of Middle Latin
were composed according to the form of Celtic poetry which was
then flourishing, and which exhibits final assonance in all the ancient
remains of it hitherto discovered. It is true that the more ancient
Irish and British poems which have come down to us do not appear
to be of older date than the seventh or eighth century [Nigra means,
in their present form] , but it must not be rashly inferred that the

jltic races, who were always tenacious of the manners and customs

" Magis progressa consonantia, cum frequentiore allitteratione, amplior
is saepius trissyllaba invenitur in Anglo-Saxorum carminibus latinis ;
ad quos, cum ipsi principio cum ceteris Germanis non usi sint nizi
allitteratione, ab Hibernis hanc formam esse transgressam putandum
j est, ut transiit scriptura atque ars pingendi codices et ornandi " (Ibid.,
' r- 946).

In another passage he expresses himself even more strongly ; for of

! rhyme he says : " Hanc formam orationis poeticae quis credat esse ortam

! primum apud poetas Christianos finientis imperil Romani et transisse ad

bardos Cambrorum et in carmina gentilia Scandinavorum " (Editio Ebel,

P- 948).

2H

482 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of their ancestors, had not employed the same poetic forms already,
long before, say in the earliest centuries of our era." x

After arguing that the Irish rule of " Slender-with-Slender
and Broad-with-Broad," a rule which was peculiar to the Celts
alone of all the Aryan races, contained in itself the germ of
rhyme, he sums up his argument thus positively : " We must
conclude, then, that this late Latin [Romanic] verse, made up
of accent, and of an equal number of syllables, may have arisen ,
in a twofold way, first by the natural evolution of the Latin j
language itself ; or secondly, by the equally efficacious example
of neighbouring Celtic peoples, but we conclude that final
assonance, or rhyme, can have been derived only from the laws of
Celtic phonology" 2

Thurneysen, on the other hand, who has done such good
service for the study of Irish metric by his publication of the I
text of the fragmentary Irish poets' books,3 is of opinion that I
the Irish derived their regular metres with a given number of

1 " Origo enim rimae arabica inter fabulas omnino rejicienda est. . . . 1
Porro rima ex solo naturali processu latinae linguae explicari nullo modo |
potesi Apud Latinos nee res extitit nee nomen. . . . Assonantia finalis
vel rima, saeculo quarto abeunte et quinto incipiente vulgaris aevi, primus
occurrit in hymnis latinis ecclesiae mediolanensis qui sancto Ambrosio et
Sancto Augustino tribuuntur. Prima itaque rimae certa exempla inveni-
untur in solo celtico, apud celticas gentes, in carminibus conditis a poetis,
qui vel celticae originis sunt, vel apud celticas gentes diu commora-
verunt. Verosimile ut hosce hymnos mediae latinitatis constructos esse
juxta formam celticae poesis quae tune vigebat, et quae jam assonantiam
finalem praebet in antiquis ejus reliquiis hue-usque detectis. Profecto car-
mina hibernica et brittanica vetustiora quae ad nos pervenerunt saeculum
octavum vel septimum superare non videntur. Sed temere non est affir-
mare celticas gentes quae moris consuetudinisque majorum tertaces semper
fuerunt, jam multo antea, primis nempe vulgaris aevi saeculis, eamdem
poeticam formam adhibuisse " (" Glossae Hibernicae Veteres Codicis Taur-
inensis." Lutetiae. 1869. p. xxxi.).

2 " Concludendum est igitur versum romanicum, accentu legatum et par
syllabarum numero, oriri potuisse ex duplicis causae concursu, nempe a
naturali explicatione latinae linguae, et ab exemplo pariter efficaci affinii
celticorum populorum ; sed rimam seu assonantiam finalem, a solis celtic
phonologiae legibus derivatam esse" (Ibid., p. xxxii.).

3 " Mittelirische Verslehren," " Irische Texte," iii. p. i.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 483

syllables in each line, from the Latins ; * and Windisch agrees
with him in saying that the Irish verse-forms were influenced
by Latin,2 though he thinks that Thurneysen presses his theory
too far. The latter, in opposition to Zimmer,3 will not for
instance allow the genuineness of St. Fiacc's metrical life of St.
Patrick because it is in a rhymed and fairly regular metre, a
thing which, according to him, the Irish had not developed at that
early period. It seems necessary to me, however, to take into
account the peculiar prosody of the Irish, especially the tour de
force called aird-rinn used in Delbhidh [d'yevvee] metre, which
we find firmly established in their oldest poems,4 and which
makes the rhyming word ending the second line contain a
syllable more than the rhyming word which ends the first,
while if the accent fall in the first line on the ultimate syllable
it mostly falls in the second line on the penultimate, if it falls
on the penultimate in the first line it generally falls on the
antepenultimate in the second, as —

" Though men owe respect to them,
Presage of woe — a poem.

The slender free palms of her
Than gull on sea are whiter.

1 See his article in " Revue Celtique," vi., p. 336.

2 " Dass die irische Versform von der lateinischen Versform beeinflusst
worden ist, scheint mir zweifellos zu sein. Es fragt sich nur was die
irischen Harden schon hatten als dieser Einfluss begann. Das was

! Thurneysen ihnen zugestehen will ist mir etwas zu wenig" ("Irische
Texte," iii. 2, p. 448).

3 " Wir haben," says Zimmer, of this hymn, " ein altes einfaches und
ehrwiirdiges Monument vor uns, an das eine jiingere Zeit mit verandertem
Geschmack, passend und unpassend, an — und eingebaut hat."

4 Deibhidh, in Old Irish Debidc, a neuter word, which Thurneysen trans-
; latcs " cut in two," is not really a rhyme but a generic name for a metre,
I containing twenty-four species. The essence of the principal Deibhidh,
| however, is the peculiar manner of rhyming with words of a different

length, so that this system has sometimes been loosely called Deibhidh
• rhyme. In the oldest poetry a trisyllable instead of a dissyllable rhyme
: could be used as the end word, of the second line when the first line ended

with a monosyllable, but in the strictness of later times this was disallowed.

484 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

A far greater than any

Man has killed my Company." x

This peculiarly Irish feature was not borrowed from the
Latins, but is purely indigenous. The oldest books of
glosses on the Continent contain verses formed on this model.2
According to Thurneysen's theory the Irish learned how to
write rhymed verse with lines of equal syllables sometime
between, say, the year 500 and 700, but the Deibhidh metre
with aird-rinn is found in their oldest verses, bound up with
rhyme in their accurate seven-syllable lines. Why should two
of these ingredients, the rhyme and the stated number of verses
have come from the Romans when the Deibhidh aird-rinn
(which apparently implies rhyme) did not ? Besides is i
credible, on the supposition that the pre-Christian Irish
neither counted their syllables nor rhymed, that within
less than a couple of hundred years after coming in contac

1 " Tus onora cidh dual di,
Tuar anshogha an eigsi.

Glac barr-lag mar chubhair tonn
Do sharaigh dath na bhfaoilionn.

Gniomh follus fath na h-eachtra
Fa'r ciorrbadh mo chuideachta."

These specimens are taken from unedited manuscripts in my own
possession, copied by O'Curry from I know not what originals.
Thus in the Codex St. Pauli we find these verses : —

" Messe ocus Pangur ban
Cechtar nathar fria saindan
Bith a menma-sunn fri seilgg
Mu menma cein im sain-ceirdd.

Caraim-se fos ferr gach clu
Oc mo lebran leir ingnu
Ni foirmtech frimm Pangur ban
Caraid sesin a mace-dan."

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 485

with the rude Latin verse of Augustin and Ambrose, they had
brought rhyming verses to such a pitch of perfection as we see,
in, say, the " Voyage of Bran," which according to both Kuno
Meyer and Professor Zimmer, was written in the seventh
century, the very first verse of which runs —

" Croib dind abaill a h-Emain
Dofed samaill do gndthaib
Gesci findarggait fora
Abrait glano co m-bldthaib " ?

The whole of this poem, too, is shot through with verses of
Deibhidh) and the rhymes are extraordinarily perfect.1 This
at least is clear, that already in the seventh century the Irish
not only rhymed but made intricate Deibhidh and other
rhyming metres,2 when for many centuries after this period

1 The end rhyming words in verses 6-10 for example are as follows —
foe noe, bdtha \n\bldtha, blathaib thrathaib, gnath trath, datho moithgretho,
cheul Arggutwe'w/, mrath eiargnath, cruais cluais, has indgds, n-Emne
comamre.

2 Compare, too, the verses that the monk wrote in the margin of the St.
Gall MS. which he was copying, on hearing the blackbird sing —

" Dom farcai fidbaidae/a/

Fomchain loid lain luad nad eel
Huas mo lebran mdlinech
Fomchain trirech inna nen ;"

the language of which is so ancient as to be nearly unintelligible to a
modern, though the metre is common from that day to this. " A thicket
of bushes surrounds me, a lively blackbird sings to me his lay, I shall not
conceal it, above my many-lined book he sings to me the trill of the
birds," etc. Commenting on these verses Nigra says feelingly, " Mentre
traduco questi versi amo figurarmi il povero monaco che, or fa piu di
mille anni, stava copiando il manoscritto, e distratto un istante dal canto
dei merli contemplava dalla finestra della sua cella la verde corona di
boscaglie che circondava il suo monastero nell Ulster o nel Connaught, e
dopo avere ascoltato 1'agile trillo degli uccelli, recitava questi strofe, e
ipigliava poi piu allegro 1'interrotto lavoro."

It has often been alleged that the word rhyme is derived from the Irish
rim, " number," rimaire, " a reckoner," and rimiin, "I count;" but in Anglo-
Saxon rim has the same meaning, so that unless the Anglo-Saxons borrowed
the word, as they certainly did the thing, from the Irish, this is inconclusive.

In fol. 8a of the " Liber Hymnorum " we read in the preface to the very
indent hymn " In Trinitate spes mea," the following note : " Incertum

486 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

the Germanic nations could only alliterate — a thing which
though sometimes used in Irish verse is in no way fundamental
to it. In England so late as the beginning of the fifteenth
century, the virile author of the book of Piers Ploughman
used alliteration in preference to rhyme, and, indeed, down to
the first half of the sixteenth century English poets, for the
most part, exhibit a disregard for fineness of execution and
technique of which not the meanest Irish bard attached to the
pettiest chief could have been guilty. After the seventh
century the Irish brought their rhyming system to a pitch
of perfection undreamt of, even at this day, by other
nations. Perhaps by no people in the globe, at any period
of the world's history, was poetry so cultivated and, better
still, so remunerated, as in Ireland. The elaborateness of
the system they evolved, the prodigious complexity of the
rules, the subtlety and intricacy of their poetical code are
astounding.

The real poet of the early Gaels was the file [filla]. The
bard was nothing thought of in comparison with him, and the
legal price of his poems was quite small compared with the
remuneration of the file. It was the bard who seems to have
been most affected by Latin influence, and the metres which
he used seem to have been of relatively new importation.
Where the file received his three milch cows for a poem the
bard only bore away a calf. The bards were divided into
two classes, the Saor and Daor bards, or the patrician and

est hautem in quo tempore factus est, Trerithim dana doronadh ocus xi.
caiptell deac ann, ocus dalini in cech caiptiull, ocus se sillaba dec
cechai. Is foi is rithim doreir in omine dobit ann., i.e., "in rhyme it was
made and eleven chapters thereon and two lines in every chapter, and
sixteen syllables in each. It is on i the rhyme is because of the ' omine '
that is in it." In the preface to the hymn, " Christus in nostra insula,"
the scholiast writes, "Trerithim dana dorigned," which Whitley Stokes
translates by "in rhythm moreover it was made," but rithim evidently
means the same in both passages, namely, rhyme not rhythm, at least if
the first passage is rightly translated by Dr. Stokes himself. I doubt,
however, if rim or rithim ever meant " rhyme " in Irish.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 487

plebeian.1 There were eight grades in each class, one of the
many examples of the love of the Irish for minute classification,
a quality with which they are not usually credited, at least, not
in modern times. Each of these sixteen classes of bard has his
own peculiar metre or framework for his verses, and the lower
bard was not allowed to encroach on the metres sacred to the
bard next in rank.2

The files [fillas] were, as we have said, the highest class of
poets. There were seven grades of File,3 the most exalted

1 The various Saor bands were called the Anshruth-bairdne (great
stream of poetry ?), the Sruth di aill (stream down two cliffs ?), the
Tighearn-bhard (lord bard), the Adhmhall, the Tuath-bhard (lay bard),
the bo-bhard (cow-bard) and the Bard dine. The highest of the Daor
bards was called the cul-bhard (back bard), and after him came the Sruth-
bhard (stream-bard), the Drisiuc, the cromluatha, the Sirti-ui, the
Rindhaidh, the Long-bhard, and the bard Loirrge.

2 Thus the head of the patrician bards was entitled to make use of the
metres called nath, metres in which the end of each line makes a vowel
rhyme or an alliteration with the beginning of the next, the number of
syllables in the line and of lines in the verse being irregular. There were
six kinds of ndth metres, called Deachna. All these the first bard
practised with two honourable metres besides, called the great and little
Seadna. The ANSHRUTH used the two kinds of metres called Ollbhairdne,
the SRUTH DI AILL used Casbhairdne, the TIGHEARN-BHARD used Duan-
bhairdnc, a generic metre of which there were six species called Duan
faidesin, duau cendlach, fordhnan, taebh-chasadh, tul-chasadh, and sreth-
bhairdnc. All the metres which these five employed were honourable ones,
and went under the generic name of prlomhfodhla. Then came the
ADHMHALL with seven measures for himself, bairdne faidessin, blogh-
bhairdne, brac-bJiairdne, snedh-bhairdnc, sem-bhatrdne, imard-bhairdne,
and rathnuall. The TUATH-BHARD had all the Rannaigheacht metres and
the BO-BARD all the Dcibhidh metres, and these two, Rannaigheacht and
Deibhidh, though thus lowly thought of in early — probably pre-Danish —
days, were destined in later times, like the cuckoo birds, to oust their

allows and reign in the forefront for many hundred years. The Tuath-
?hard had also two other metres Seaghdha and Treochair, and the Bo-
)hard in addition to Deibhidh had long and short deachubhaidh.

The classification of the Daor bards and their metres is just as

linute.

3 The lowest grade of file was called the fucluc (word maker ?). In
iis first year he had to learn fifty ogams and straight ogams amongst

icm. He had to learn the grammar called Uraice.pt na n-eigsine, and
preface to it, and that part of the book called rcimcanna, or courses,

488 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

being called an ollamh [ollav], a name that has frequently
occurred throughout this book. They were so highly esteemed
that the annalists give the obituaries of the head-ollamhs as ir
they were so many princes. The course of study was origin-
ally perhaps one of seven years. Afterwards it lasted for twelve
years or more.1 When a poet had worked his way up after at
least twelve but perhaps sometimes twenty years of study,
through all the lower degrees, and had at last attained the rank
of ollamh, he knew, in addition to all his other knowledge,
over three hundred and fifty different kinds of versification,
and was able to recite two hundred and fifty prime stories and
one hundred secondary ones. The ancient and fragmentary
manuscripts from which these details are taken, not only give
the names of the metres but have actually preserved examples
of between two and three hundred of them taken from different
ancient poems, almost all of which have perished to a line, but
they give a hint of what once existed. Nearly all the text
books used in the career of the poet during his twelve years'
course are lost, and with them have gone the particulars of a
civilisation probably the most unique and interesting in
Europe.

The bardic schools were at no time an unmixed blessing to
Ireland. They were non-productive in an economic sense,
and as early as the seventh century the working classes felt that
these idle multitudes constituted an intolerable drain upon the
nation's resources. Keating in his history says that at this
time the bardic order contained a third of the men of Ireland,
by which he means a third of the free clans or patricians.
These quartered themselves from November to May upon the
chiefs and farmers. They had also reached an intolerable
pitch of insolence. According to the account in the Leabhar

with twenty dreachts (stories ?), six metres and other things. The six
metres were the six dians called air-sheang, midh-shcang, iar-sheang, air-
throm, midh-throm, and iar-throm.

1 Each of the twelve years had its own course of the same nature as
the above.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 489

Breac they went about the country in bands carrying with
them a silver pot, which the populace named the " pot of
avarice," which was attached by nine chains of bronze hung
on golden hooks, and which was suspended on the spears of
nine poets, thrust through the links at the end of the chains.
They then selected some unfortunate victim, and approached
in state his homestead, having carefully composed a poem in
his laudation. The head poet entering chanted the first verse,
and the last poet took it up, until each of the nine had recited
his part, whilst all the time the nine best musicians played their
sweetest music in unison with the verses, round the pot, into
which the unfortunate listener was obliged to throw an ample
guerdon of gold and silver. Woe to him indeed, if he refused ;
a scathing satire would be the result, and sooner than endure
the disgrace of this, every one parted to them with a share of
his wealth. Aedh mac Ainmirech, the High-king of Ireland,
who reigned at the end of the seventh century — the same who
afterwards lost his life in the battle of Bolgdun in raising the
thrice cursed Boru tribute — "considering them," as Keating
puts it, " to be too heavy a burden upon the land of Ireland,"
determined to banish the whole profession. This was the
third attempt to put down the poets, who had always before
found a refuge in the northern province when expelled from
the others. But now King Aedh [Ae] summoned a great
convention of all Ireland at Drum Ceat [Cat] near Lima-
vaddy in the north of Ireland, to deliberate upon several
matters of national interest, of which the expulsion of the
bards was not the least important. The fate of the Bardic
istitution was trembling in the balance, when Columcille, an
:complished bard himself as we have seen, crossed over from
[ona with a retinue of 140 clerics, and by his eloquence and
reat influence succeeded in checking the fury of the exaspe-
ited chieftains : the issue of the great convention which lasted
>r a year and one month, was — so far as the bards were con-
nrned — that their numbers were indeed reduced, but it was

490 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

agreed that the High-king should retain in his service one chief
ollamh, and that the kings of the five provinces, the chiefs of
each territory, and the lords of each sub-district should all
retain an ollamh of their own. No other poets except those
especially sanctioned were to pursue the poetic calling.

If the bards lost severely in numbers and prestige on this
occasion they were in the long run amply compensated for it
by their acquiring a new and recognised status in the state.
Their unchartered freedom and licentious wanderings were
indeed checked, but, on the other hand, they became for the
first time the possessors of fixed property and of local stability.
Distinct public estates in land were set apart for their mainte-
nance,1 and they were obliged in return to give public instruction
to all comers in the learning of the day, after the manner of
university professors. Rathkenry in Meath, and Masree in
Cavan are particularly mentioned as bardic colleges then founded,
where any of the youth of Ireland could acquire a knowledge of
history and of the sciences.2 The High-king, the provincial
kings, and the sub-kings were all obliged by law to set apart a
certain portion of land for the poet of the territory, to be held
by him and his successors free of rent, and a law was passed
making the persons and the property of poets sacred, and
giving them right of sanctuary in their own land from all the
men of Ireland. At the same time the amount of reward
which they were allowed to receive for their poems was legally
settled. From this time forward for nearly a thousand years
the bardic colleges, as distinct from the ecclesiastical ones,
taught poetry, law, and history, and it was they who educated
the lawyers, judges, and poets of Ireland.

As far as we can judge the bards continued to flourish in
equal power and position with the dignitaries of the Church,

1 I have seen it stated, but I do not know on what authority, that their
income derived from land, in what is the present county of Donegal, was
equal to £2,000 a year.

2 Sec Keating's " Forus Feasa" under the reign of Aedh mac Ainmireach.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 491

and their colleges must have been nearly as important institu-
tions as the foundations of the religious orders, until the
onslaught of the Northmen reduced the country to such a state
that " neither bard, nor philosopher, nor musician," as Keating
says, <c pursued their wonted profession in the land." It was
probably at this time that the carefully observed distinction
between the bard and the file broke down, for in later times
the words seem to have been regarded as synonymous.

For some time after the Norman conquest the bardic colleges
seem to have again suffered eclipse ; and, as we have seen, the
century that succeeded that invasion appears to have produced
fewer poets than any other. But the great Anglo-Norman
houses soon became Irishised and adopted Irish bards of their
own. There are many incidents recorded in the Irish annals and
many stories gathered from other sources which go to show that
the importance of the bards as individuals could not have been
much diminished during the Anglo-Norman regime. One of
them is worth recording. In the beginning of the thirteenth
century the steward of the O'Donnell went to Lisadill,1 near
Sligo, to collect rents, and some words passed between him
and the great poet Murrough O'Daly, who, unaccustomed
to be thwarted in anything, clove the head of the steward with
an axe. Then, fearing O'Donnell's vengeance, he fled to
Clanrickard and the Norman De Bourgos, and at once ad-
dressed a poem to Richard De Burgo, son of William Fitz-
adelm, in which he states that he, the bard, was used to visit
the courts of the English, and to drink wine at the hands of
kings and knights, and bishops and abbots. He tells De

Jourgo that he has now a chance of making himself illus-
•ious by protecting him, O'Daly of Meath, who now

throws himself on his generosity and whose poems demand

mention. As for O'Donnell, he had given him small

)ffence.

1 Lios-an-doill i.e., the " blind man's fort." See the preface to O'Dono-
ran's " Satires of Angus," for this story.

492 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" Trifling our quarrel with the man,
A clown to be abusing me,
Me to kill the churl,
Dear God ! Is this a cause for enmity ? "

De Bourgo accordingly received and protected him, until
O'Donnell, coming in furious pursuit, laid waste his country
with fire and sword. Fitzadelm submitted, but passed on the
poet to the O'Briens of North Munster. But O'Donnell
again pursuing with fury, these also submitted, and secretly
dispatched the poet to the people of Limerick who received
him. O'Donnell hurried on and laid siege to the city, and its
inhabitants in terror expelled the poet once more, who was
passed on from hand to hand until he came to Dublin. But
the people of Dublin, terrified at O'DonnelFs threats, sent
him away ; and he crossed over into Scotland where his fame
rose higher than before, and where his poems remained so
popular that when the Dean of Lismore in Argyle jotted down
nearly four hundred years ago in phonetic spelling a number
of poems just as he heard them, they included a dispropor-
tionately large number of this O'Daly's,1 who was afterward
known as Murrough the Scotchman. At last in return for
some fine laudatory verses upon O'Donnell he was graciously
pardoned by that chieftain and returned to his native country.

The Anglo-Normans not only kept bards of their own, but
some of themselves also became poets. The story of Silken
Thomas and his bard whose verses urged him on to rebellion,
is well known. It is curious, too, to find one of the Norman
Nugents of Delvin in the sixteenth century making the most
perfect classical Irish verses, lamenting his exile from Ireland,
the home of his ancestors, the Land of Fintan, the old Plain
of Ir, the country of Inisfail.

"Loth to Leave, my fain eyes swim,
I Part in Pain from Erinn.

1 He preserved eight pieces of O'Daly, who is called Muireach Albanach,
and in one place Muireach Lessin Dall (i.e., Lios-an-Doill) O'Daly.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 493

Land of the L,oud sea-rollers,
PBide of PRoud steed-controllers." x

After a few generations the Anglo-Normans had completely
forgotten Norman-French, and as they never, with few
exceptions, learned English, they identified themselves com-
pletely with the Irish past, so that amongst the Irish poets we
find numbers of Nugents, Englishes, Condons, Cusacks,
Keatings, Comyns, and other foreign names.

It was only after the Anglo-Norman government had
developed into an English one that the bards began to feel
its weight. The slaying of the Welsh bards by Edward is
now generally regarded as a political fiction. There is no
fiction, however, about the treatment meted out to the Irish
ones. The severest acts were passed against them over and
over again. The nobles were forbidden to entertain them, in
the hope that they might die out or starve, and the Act of
Elizabeth alleges one of the usual lying excuses of the Eliza-
bethan period : " Item," it says, " for that those rhymours by
their ditties and rhymes made to divers lords and gentlemen
in Ireland to the commendation and high praise of extortion,
rebellion, rape, ravin, and other injustice, encourage those lords
and gentlemen rather to follow those vices than to leave them,
and for making of the said rhymes rewards are given by the
said lords and gentlemen, (let) for abolishing of so heinous an
abuse, orders be taken." Orders were taken, and taken so
thoroughly that O'Brien, Earl of Thomond, obliged to
enforce them against the bards, hanged three distinguished poets,
" for which abominable, treacherous act," say the " Four
Masters," "the earl was satirised and denounced." I find
a northern bard about this time, the close of the sixteenth

1 " Diombuaidh Triall,o Thulchaibh Fail
Diombuaidh lath Eireann d'fhagbhail,
lath mhilis na Mseann MBeachach,
Inis na N-Eang N-6ig-eachach."

Deibhidh metre. See Hardiman, vol. ii. p. 226.

494 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

century, thus lamenting the absence of his patron, Aedh [ Ae]
Mac Aonghasa : —

" If a Sage of Song should be

In the wage of Court or King.
HA ! the Gallows Guards the WAY.
AH ! since AE from port took wing." r

Spenser the poet was not slow in finding out what a power
his Irish rivals were in the land, and he at once set himself to
malign and blacken them. " There are," he writes, "amongst
the Irish a certain kind of people called bards, which are to
them instead of poets," — the insinuation is that the bards are
not real poets ! — " the which are had in so high regard and
estimation among them, that none dare displease them for
fear to run into reproach through their offence, and to be
made infamous in the mouths of all men." On which,
Eudoxus, his friend, is made to remark innocently that he
had always thought that poets were to be rather encouraged
than put down. " Yes," answers Spenser, " they should be
encouraged when they desire honour and virtue, but," he goes
on, " these Irish bards are for the most part of another mind,
and so far from instructing young men in moral discipline,
that whomsoever they find to be most licentious of life, most
bold and lawlesse in his doings, most dangerous and desperate
in all parts of disobedience and rebellious disposition, him they
set up and glorify in their rhythmes, him they praise to the
people and to young men make an example to follow."

The allegation that the bards praised what was licentious
is an untruth on the part of the great poet. Few English
Elizabethans, once they passed over into Ireland, seem to have
been able to either keep faith or tell truth ; there was never

* " Da ndimghiodh duine re dan
Fa chiniodh don chuire riogh
Do bhiadh crock roimhe ar gach raon
Och! gan Aodh Doire dar ndion."

Rannaigheacht Mor metre. From a MS. poem.

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 495

such a thoroughly dishonourable race, or one so utterly devoid
of all moral sense, as the Irish " statesmen " of that period.
The real reason why Spenser, as an undertaker, blackens the
character of the Irish poets is not because their poems were
licentious — which they were not — but because, as he confesses
later on, they are " tending for the most part to the hurt of
the English or [the] maintenance of their owne lewde libertie,
they being most desirous thereof."

Spenser's ignorant and self-contradictory criticism on the
merits of the Irish bards has often been quoted as if it con-
stituted a kind of hall-mark for them ! " Tell me, I pray you,"
said his friend, " have they any art in their compositions, or be
they anything wittie or wellmannered as poems should be ? "

" Yea, truly," says Spenser, " I have caused divers of them
to be translated unto me, that I might understand them, and
surely they savoured of sweet art and good invention, but
skilled not in the goodly ornaments of poesie, yet were they
sprinkled with some pretty flowers of their natural device,
which gave good grace and comeliness unto them ; the which
it is a great pity to see abused to the gracing of wickedness
and vice, which with good usage would serve to adorn and
beautify virtue."

The gentle poet is here almost copying the words of the
Act, which perhaps he himself helped to inspire, according to
which the bardic poems are in praise of " extortion, rebellion,
rape, ravin, and other injustice." I have, however, read
hundreds of the poems of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries, but have never come across a single syllable in
laudation of either "extortion, rape, ravin, or other injustice,"
but numerous poems inciting to what the Act calls "rebellion,"
and what Spenser terms "the hurt of the English and the

lintenance of their owne lewde libertie."

It would be difficult to overrate the importance of the
)lleges of the hereditary bards and the influence they exer-

496 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

cised in the life of the sixteenth century. They fairly
reflected public opinion, and they also helped to make it what
it was. There is a great difference between their poems and
the memoria technicha verses of the ancient ollamhs, whose
historical and genealogical poems, which they composed in
their official capacity, are crowded with inorganic phrases
and "chevilles" of all kinds. The sixteenth-century poet
was a man of wit and learning, and frequently a better
and more clear-seeing statesman than his chief, who was in
matters of policy frequently directed by his bard's advice.
They certainly had more national feeling than any other class
in Ireland, and were less the slaves of circumstances or of mere
local accidents, for they traversed the island from end to end,
were equally welcome north, south, east, and west, and had
unrivalled opportunities for becoming acquainted with the
trend of public affairs, and with political movements.

Most people, owing to their comparative neglect of Irish
history, seem to be of opinion that the bards were harpers, or
at least musicians of some sort. But they were nothing of
the kind. The popular conception of the bard with the long
white beard and the big harp is grotesquely wrong. The
bards were verse-makers, pure and simple, and they were no
more musicians than the poet laureate of England. Their
business was to construct their poems after the wonderful and
complex models of the schools, and when — as only sometimes
happened — they wrote a eulogy or panegyric on a patron,
and brought it to him, they introduced along with themselves
a harper and possibly a singer to whom they had taught their
poem, and in the presence of their patron to the sound of the
harp, the only instrument allowed to be touched on such
occasions, the poem was solemnly recited or sung. The real
name of the musician was not bard — the bard was a verse-
maker — but olrfideadh [errh-fid-ya], and the musicians, though
a numerous and honourable class, were absolutely distinct
from the bards and files. It was only after the complete

DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH POETRY 497

break-up of the Gaelic polity, after the wars of Cromwell and
of William, that the verse-maker merges in the musician, and
the harper and the bard become fused in one, as was the case
with Carolan, commonly called the last of the bards, but
whom his patron, O'Conor of Belanagare, calls in his obituary
of him, not a bard^ but an oirfideadh.

Down to the close of the sixteenth century and during the
greater part of the seventeenth, verse, with few exceptions,
continued to be made in the classical metres of Ireland, by
specially trained poets, who did not go outside these metres.
In the ensuing century the classical metres began to be dis-
carded and a wonderful and far-reaching change took place,
which shall be made the subject of a future chapter. We
must now proceed to examine a species of popular poetry
which flourished during all this period side by side with the
bardic schools, although no trace remains to-day of its origin
or its authors. This is the so-called Ossianic poetry.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE OSSIANIC POEMS

SIDE by side with the numerous prose sagas which fall under
the title of " Fenian," and which we have already examined in
Chapter XXIX., there exists an enormous mass of poems,
chiefly narrative, of a minor epic type, or else semi-dramatic
epopees, usually introduced by a dialogue between St. Patrick
and the poet Ossian. Ossian T was the son of Finn mac Cum-
hail, vulgarly " Cool," and he was fabled to have lived in Tir
na n-6g [T'yeer na nogue], the country of the ever-young,
the Irish Elysium, for three hundred years, thus surviving all
his Fenian contemporaries, and living to hold colloquy with St.
Patrick. The so-called Ossianic poems are extraordinarily
numerous, and were they all collected would probably (between
those preserved in Scotch-Gaelic and in Irish) amount to some
80,000 lines. My friend, the late Father James Keegan, of St.
Louis, once estimated them at 100,000. The most of them,
in the form in which they have come down to us at the present
day, seem to have been composed in rather loose metres, chiefly
imitations of Deibhidh and Rannaigheacht mor, and they were

1 In Irish Oisin, pronounced " Esheen," or "Ussheen." However, the
Scotch Gaelic form has, thanks to the genius of Macpherson, so over-
shadowed the Irish one that it may be allowed to remain.
498

THE OSSIANIC POEMS

499

even down to our fathers' time exceedingly popular both in
Ireland and the Scotch Highlands, in which latter country
Iain Campbell, the great folk-lorist, made the huge collection
which he called Leabhar na F&nrie, or the Book of the
Fenians.

Some of the Ossianic poems relate the exploits of the
Fenians, others describe conflicts between members of that
body and worms, wild beasts and dragons, others fights with
monsters and with strangers come from across the sea ; others
detail how Finn and his companions suffered from the en-
chantments of wizards and the efforts made to release them,
one enumerates the Fenians who fell at Cnoc-an-air, another
gives the names of about three hundred of the Fenian hounds,
another gives Ossian's account of his three hundred years in the
Land of the Young and his return, many more consist largely
of semi-humorous dialogues between the saint and the old
warrior ; another is called Ossian's madness ; another is Ossian's
account of the battle of Gabhra, which made an end of the
Fenians, and so on.1

The Lochlannachs, or Norsemen, figure very largely in
these poems, and it is quite evident that most of them — at
least in the modern form in which we now have them — are
post-Norse productions. The fact that the language in which
they have for the most part come down to us is popular and
modern, does not prove much one way or the other, for these
small epics which, more than any other part of Irish literature,
rere handed down from father to son and propagated orally,
ive had their language unconsciously adjusted from age to
?, so as to leave them intelligible to their hearers. As a
msequence the metres have in many places also suffered, and
old Irish system, which required a certain number of

1 Standish Hayes O'Grady, in the third vol. of the Ossianic Society,
res the names of thirty-five of these poems, amounting to nearly 11,000
The Ossianic Society printed about 6,000 lines. The Franciscans
ive shown me a MS. with over 10,000 lines, none of which has been printed.

5oo LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

syllables in each line, has shown signs of fusing gradually with
the new Irish system, which only requires so many accented
syllables.

It is, however, perfectly possible — as has been supposed by,
I think, Mr. Nutt and others — that after the terrible shock
given to the island by the Northmen, this people usurped in
our ballads the place of some older mythical race ; and Professor
Rhys was, I believe, at one time of opinion that Lochlann, as
spoken of in these ballads, originally meant merely the country
of lochs and seas, and that the Lochlanners were a submarine
mythical people, like the Fomorians.

The spirit of banter with which St. Patrick and the Church
are treated, and in which the fun just stops short of irreverence,
is a mediaeval, not a primitive, trait, more characteristic, thinks
Mr. Nutt, of the twelfth than of any succeeding century.
We may remember the inimitable felicity with which that great
English-speaking Gael, Sir Walter Scott, has caught this
Ossianic tone in the lines which Hector Mclntyre repeats for
Oldbuck—

" Patrick the psalm-singer,
Since you will not listen to one of my stories,
Though you have never heard it before,
I am sorry to tell you
You are little better than an ass ; "

to which the saint, to the infinite contempt of the unbelieving
antiquary, is made to respond —

" Upon my word, son of Fingal,
While I am warbling the psalms,
The clamour of your old woman's tales
Disturbs my devotional exercises."

Whereat the heated Ossian replies —

" Dare you compare your psalms
To the tales of the bare-armed Fenians,
I shall think it no great harm
To wring your bald head from your shoulders."

THE OSSIANIC POEMS 501

Here, however, is a real specimen from the Irish, which will
give some idea of the style of dialogue between the pair. St.
Patrick, with exaggerated episcopal severity, having Ossian
three-quarters starved, blind, and wholly at his mercy, desires
him to speak no more of Finn or of the Fenians.

" OSSIAN.

"Alas, O Patrick, I did think that God would not be angered thereat ;
I think long, and it is a great woe to me, not to speak of the way of
Finn of the Deeds.

" PATRICK.

" Speak not of Finn nor of the Fenians, for the Son of God will be
angry with thee for it, he would never let thee into his court and he
would not send thee the bread of each day.

" OSSIAN.

" Were I to speak of Finn and of the Fenians, between us two, O
Patrick the new, but only not to speak loud, he would never hear us
mentioning him.

" PATRICK.

" Let nothing whatever be mentioned by thee excepting the offering
of God, or if thou talkest continually of others, thou, indeed, shalt
not go to the house of the saints.

" OSSIAN.

I will, O Patrick, do His will. Of Finn or of the Fenians I will
>t talk, for fear of bringing anger upon them, O Cleric, if it is God's
mt to be angry."

In another poem St. Patrick denounces with all the rigour

>f a nqw reformer.

" PATRICK.

" Finn is in hell in bonds, ' the pleasant man who used to bestow
*olcl,' in penalty of his disobedience to God, he is now in the house

pain in sorrow. . . .

" Because of the amusement [he had with] the hounds and for
ittending the (bardic) schools each day, and because he took no heed
)f God, Finn of the Fenians is in bonds. . . .

" Misery attend thee, old man, who speakest words of madness ;
rod is better for one hour than all the Fenians of Erin.

502 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

"OSSIAN.

" O Patrick of the crooked crozier, who makest me that impertinent
answer, thy crozier would be in atoms were Oscar present.

" Were my son Oscar and God hand to hand on Knock-na-veen, if
I saw my son down it is then I would say that God was a strong man.

" How could it be that God and his clerics could be better men than
Finn, the chief King of the Fenians, the generous one who was
without blemish ?

"All the qualities that you and your clerics say are according to the
rule of the King of the Stars, Finn's Fenians had them all, and they
must be now stoutly seated in God's heaven.

" Were there a place above or below better than heaven, 'tis there
Finn would go, and all the Fenians he had. . . .

" Patrick, inquire of God whether he recollects when the Fenians
were alive, or hath he seen east or west, men their equal in the time
of fight.

" Or hath he seen in his own country, though high it be above our
heads, in conflict, in battle, or in might, a man who was equal to
Finn?

" PATRICK.

(Exhausted with controversy and curious for Ossian's story.)

" Ossian sweet to me thy voice,

Now blessings choice on the soul of Finn !
But tell to us how many deer

Were slain at Slieve-na-man finn.

" OSSIAN.

" We the Fenians never used to tell untruth, a lie was never attri-
buted to us ; by truth and the strength of our hands we used to come
safe out of every danger.

" There never sat cleric in church, though melodiously ye may think
they chant psalms, more true to his word than the Fenians, the men
who shrank never from fierce conflicts.

" O Patrick, where was thy God the day the two came across the
sea who carried off the queen of the King of Lochlann in ships, by
whom many fell here in conflict.

" Or when Tailc mac Treoin arrived, the man who put great slaughter
on the Fenians ; 'twas not by God the hero fell, but by Oscar in the
presence of all.

" Many a battle victory and contest were celebrated by the Fenians
of Innisfail. I never heard that any feat was performed by the king
of saints, or that he reddened his hand.

THE OSSIANIC POEMS 503

" PATRICK.

" Let us cease disputing on both sides, thou withered old man who
art devoid of sense ; understand that God dwells in heaven of the
orders, and Finn and his hosts arc all in pain.

" OSSIAN.

" Great, then, would be the shame for God not to release Finn from
the shackles of pain ; for if God Himself were in bonds my chief
would tight on his behalf.

" Finn never suffered in his day any one to be in pain or difficulty
without redeeming him by silver or gold or by battle and fight, until
he was victorious.

" It is a good claim I have against your God, me to be amongst
these clerics as I am, without food, without clothing or music, with-
out bestowing gold on bards,

" Without battling, without hunting, without Finn, without courting
generous women, without sport, without sitting in my place as was
my due, without learning feats of agility and conflict, etc."

Many of these poems contain lyrical passages of great beauty.
Here, as a specimen, is Ossian's description of the things in
which Finn used to take delight. It is a truly lyrical passage,
in the very best style, rhyme, rhythm and assonance are all
combined with a most rich vocabulary of words expressive of
sounds nearly impossible to translate into English. It might
be thus attempted in verse, though not quite in the metre of
the original. Finn's pursuits as depicted here by Ossian show
him to have been a lover of nature, and are quite in keeping
with his poem on Spring ; his are the tastes of one of Matthew
Arnold's "Barbarians" glorified.

"FINN'S PASTIMES.
" Oh, croaking Patrick, I curse your tale.

Is the King of the Fenians in hell this night ?
The heart that never was seen to quail,
That feared no danger and felt no spite.1

1 In the original Ossian asks —

" An eagcoir nar mhaith le Dia

Or a's biadh do thabhairt do neach ?
Nior dhiultaigh Fionn treun na truagh
Ifrionn fuar ma 's e a theach."

504 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

What kind of a God can be yours, to grudge
Bestowing of food on him, giving of gold ?

Finn never refused either prince or drudge ;
Can his doom be in hell in the house of cold.1

The desire of my hero who feared no foe
Was to listen all day to Drumderrig's sound,

To sleep by the roar of the Assaroe,
And to follow the dun deer round and round.

The warbling of blackbirds in Letter Lee,
The strand where the billows of Ruree fall,

The bellowing ox upon wild Moy-mee,
The lowing of calves upon Glen-da-vaul.

The blast of a horn around Slieve Grot,

The bleat of a fawn upon Cua's plain,
The sea-birds scream in a lonely spot,

The croak of the raven above the slain,

The wash of the waves on his bark afar,
The yelp of the pack as they round Drumliss,

The baying of Bran upon Knock-in-ar,
The murmur of fountains below Slieve Mis.

The call of Oscar upon the chase,2
The tongue of the hounds on the Fenians' plain,

Then a seat with the men of the bardic race,
— Of these delights was my hero fain.

But generous Oscar's supreme desire,
Was the maddening clashing of shield on shield,

1 Irish writers always describe Hell as cold, not hot. This is so even in
Keating. The " cold flag of hell."
3 In the original —

" Glaodh Oscair ag dul do sheilg

Gotha gadhar ar leirg na bh Fiann
Bheith 'na shuidhe ameasg na ndamh
Ba h-e sin de ghnath a mhian.

Mian de mhianaibh Oscair fheil
Bheith ag eisteacht re beim sgiath,

Bheith i gcath ag cosgar cnamh
Ba h-e sin de ghnath a mhian."

THE OS SI A NIC POEMS

505

And the hewing of bones in the battle ire,
And the crash and the joy of the stricken field." *~"~

In entire accordance with this enthusiastic love of nature
is Ossian's delightful address to the blackbird of Derrycarn, a
piece which was a great favourite with the scribes of the last
century. 2 Interpenetrated with the same almost sensuous

1 Literally : " O Patrick, woful is the tale that the Fenian king should be in
bonds, a heart devoid of spite or hatred, a heart stern in maintaining battles.

" Is it an injustice at which God is not pleased to bestow gold and food
on any one ? Finn never refused either the strong or the wretched,
although cold Hell is his house.

" It was the desire of the son of Cumhal of the noble mien to listen to
the sound of Drumderg, to sleep by the stream of the Assaroe, and to
chase the deer of Galway of the bays.

"The warbling of the blackbird of Letter Lee, the wave of Ruree
[Dundrum Bay in the County Down] lashing the shore, the bellowing of
the ox of Moy Meen, the lowing of the calf of Glendavaul.

" The cry of the hunting of Slieve Grot, the noise of the fawns around
Slieve Cua, the scream of the seagulls over yonder Irris, the cry of the
ravens over the host.

" The tossing of the hulls of the barks by the waves, the yell of the
hounds at Drumlish, the voice of Bran at Knockinar, the murmur of the
streams around Slieve Mis.

" The call of Oscar, going to the chase, the cry of the hounds at Lerg-na-

jen— (then) to be sitting amongst the bards : that was his desire constantly.

" A desire of the desires of generous Oscar, was to be listening to the

ishing of shields, to be in the battle at the hewing of bones : that was
his desire." (See Ossianic Society, vol. iv. The Colloquy between
sian and Patrick.)
Printed by O'Flanagan in the " Transactions of the Gaelic Society," 1808,

id translated by Dr. Sigerson in his " Bards of the Gael and Gall." I

mnot refrain from the pleasure of quoting the following verses from his
mtiful translation : —

"The tuneful tumult of that bird,

The belling deer on ferny steep :
This welcome in the dawn he heard,
These soothed at eve his sleep.

Dear to him the wind-loved heath,
The whirr of wings, the rustling brake ;

Dear the murmuring glens beneath,
And sob of Droma's lake.

The cry of hounds at early morn,
The pattering deer, the pebbly creek,

The cuckoo's call, the sounding horn,
The swooping eagle's shriek."

506 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

delight at the sights and sounds of nature, are the following
verses which the Scotsman, Dean Macgregor, wrote down —
probably from the recitation of a wandering harper or poet —
some three hundred and eighty years ago.

" Sweet is the voice in the land of gold,1

And sweeter the music of birds that soar,
When the cry of the heron is heard on the wold,
And the waves break softly on Bundatrore.

Down floats on the murmuring of the breeze

The call of the cuckoo from Cossahun,
The blackbird is warbling amongst the trees,

And soft is the kiss of the warming sun.

The cry of the eagle at Assaroe

O'er the court of Mac Morne to me is sweet ;

And sweet is the cry of the bird below,

Where the wave and the wind and the tall cliff meet.

Finn mac Cool is the father of me,

Whom seven battalions of Fenians fear,
When he launches his hounds on the open lea,

Grand is their cry as they rouse the deer."

Caoilte [Cweeltya] too, the third great Fenian poet, was as
impressionable to the moods of nature as his friends Ossian
and Finn. Compare with the foregoing poems his lay on the
Isle of Arran, in Scotland.2

THE ISLE OF ARRAN.

"Arran of the many stags, the sea inpinges upon her very
shoulders ! An isle in which whole companies were fed, and with
ridges among which blue spears are reddened.

" Skittish deer are on her pinnacles, soft blackberries on her

1 See p. 59 of the Gaelic part of the book of the Dean of Lismore. The
first verse runs thus in modern Gaelic : —

" Binn guth duine i dtir an oir,

Binn an glor chanaid na h-eoin,
Binn an nuallan a gnidh an chorr,
Binn an tonn i mBun-da-treoir."

2 See " Silva Gadelica," p. 109 of the English, p. 102 of the Irish volume.
I retain Mr. O'Grady's beautiful translation of this and the following piece.

THE OSSIANIC POEMS

507

waving heather ; cool water there is in her rivers, and musk upon
her russet oaks.1

"Greyhounds there were in her and beagles, blackberries and
sloes of the dark blackthorn, dwellings with their backs set close
against her woods, while the deer fed scattered by her oaken thickets.

" A crimson crop grew on her rocks, in all her glades a faultless
grass ; over her crags affording friendly refuge leaping went on, and
fawns were skipping.

" Smooth were her level spots, fat her wild swine, cheerful her
fields. . . . her nuts hung on the boughs of her forest hazels, and
there was sailing of long galleys past her.

" Right pleasant their condition, all, when the fair weather set in.
Under her river-banks trouts lie ; the seagulls wheeling round her
grand cliff answer one the other — at every fitting time delectable is
Arran !"

In another poem that Caoilte is fabled to have made after he^
met and consorted with St. Patrick is a vivid description of a
freezing night as it appeared to a hunter. A great frost and
heavy snow had fallen upon the whole country, so that the
russet branches of the forest were twisted together, and men
could no longer travel. " A fitting time it is now," said
Caoilte, "for wild stags and for does to seek the topmost
points of hills and rocks ; a timely season for salmons to betake
them into cavities of the banks," and he uttered a lay.

" Cold the winter is, the wind is risen, the high-couraged unquelled
ig is on foot, bitter cold to-night the whole mountain is, yet for all
it the ungovernable stag is belling.2

1 " Oighe baetha ar a bennaib

Monainn maetha ar a mongaib,
Uisce fuar ina h-aibhnib,

Mes ar a dairghib donnaib."
lote the exquisite metre of this poem of which the above verse is a
icimen.

2 This, like most of the couple of thousand verses scattered throughout
ic " Colloquy of the Ancients," is in Deibhidh metre, which would thus
m in English : —

" Cold the Winter, coldUhe Wind,
The Raging stag is Ravin'd,
Though in one Flag the Floodgates cling,
The Steaming Stag is belling."

5o8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

" The deer of Slievecarn of the gatherings commits not his side to
the ground ; no less than he, the stag of frigid Echtge's summit who
catches the chorus of the wolves.

" I, Caoilte, with Brown Diarmuid,1 and with keen, light-footed
Oscar ; we too in the nipping nights' waning end, would listen to the
music of the [wolf] pack.

" But well the red deer sleeps that with his hide to the bulging
rock lies stretched, hidden as though beneath the country's surface,
all in the latter end of chilly night.

" To-day I am an aged ancient, and but a scant few men I know ;
once on time, though, on a cold and icebound morning I used to
vibrate a sharp javelin hardily.

"To Heaven's King I offer thanks, to Mary Virgin's Son as well ;
often and often I imposed silence on [daunted] a whole host, whose
plight to-night is very cold \i.e.t who are all dead now]."

It is curious that in the more modern Ossianic pieces, such
as the scribes of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
delighted in transcribing, there is little mention made or
Caoilte, and the complaints about surviving the Fenians and
being vexed by the clerics are more usually put into the
mouth of Ossian.

Here is one of the moans of Ossian in his old age, when
fallen on evil times, and thwarted at every turn by St. Patrick
and his monks.

" Long was last night in cold Elphin,2

More long is to-night on its weary way,
Though yesterday seemed to me long and ill,
Yet longer still was this dreary day.

1 This was Diarmuid of the Love-spot, who eloped with Grainne, and
was killed by the wild boar, from whom the Campbells of Scotland claim
descent, as is alluded to in Flora Mac Ivor's song in " Waverley " : —

" Ye sons of Brown Diarmuid who slew the wild boar."

3 " Is fada anocht i n-Ailfinn,

Is fada linn an oidhche areir,
An la andhiu cidh fada dham,
Ba leor-fhad an la ande.

See p. 208 of my " Religious Songs of Connacht " for the original of this
poem, which I copied from a MS. in the Belfast Museum. The Dean of
Lismore in Argyle jotted this poem down in phonetic spelling nearly

I

THE OSSIANIC POEMS 509

And long for me is each hour new born,

Stricken, forlorn, and smit with grief
For the hunting lands and the Fenian bands,

And the long-haired, generous, Fenian chief.

I hear no music, I find no feast,

I slay no beast from a bounding steed,
I bestow no gold, I am poor and old,

I am sick and cold, without wine or mead.

I court no more, and I hunt no more,

These were before my strong delight,
I cannot slay, and I take no prey :

Weary the day and long the night.

No heroes come in their war array,

No game I play, there is nought to win ;
I swim no stream with my men of might,

Long is the night in cold Elphin.

Ask, O Patrick, thy God of grace,

To tell me the place he will place me in,
And save my soul from the 111 One's might,

For long is to-night in cold Elphin."

There is a considerable thread of narrative running through
these poems and connecting them in a kind of series, so that
several of them might be divided into the various books of
a Gaelic epic of the Odyssic type, containing instead of the
wanderings and final restoration of Ulysses, the adventures and
final destruction of the Fenians, except that the books would
be rather more disjointed. There is, moreover, splendid

four hundred years ago, but the name of Elphin, being strange to him, he
took the words to be na ncullafum, "the clouds round me," ni nelli fiym
he spells it. Elphin is an episcopal seat in the county Roscommon, where
St. Patrick abode for a while when in Connacht. I often heard in that
county the story of Ossian meeting St. Patrick when drawing stones in
Elphin, but always thought that the people of Roscommon localised the
legend in their own county. But the discovery of the Belfast copy — and
I believe there is another one in the British Museum — shows that this
was not so, and the Dean of Lismore's book proves the antiquity of the
legend. That Ailfinn (Elphin) was the original word is proved by
rhyming to linn, sinn and Finn, which Fiym (= fum) could not do.

5io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

material for an ample epic in the division between the Fenians
of Munster and Connacht and the gradual estrangement of the
High-king, leading up to the fatal battle of Gabhra ; but the
material for this last exists chiefly in prose texts, not in the
Ossianic lays. It is very strange and very unfortunate that
notwithstanding the literary activity of Gaelic Ireland before
and during the penal times, no Keating, or Comyn, or Curtin
ever attempted to redact the Ossianic poems and throw them
into that epic form into which they would so easily and
naturally have fitted. These pieces appear to me of even
greater value than the Red Branch sagas, as elucidating the
natural growth and genesis of an epic, for the Irish progressed
just up to the point of possessing a large quantity of stray
material, minor episodes versified by anonymous long-forgotten
folk-poets ; but they never produced a mind critical enough
to reduce this mass to order, coherence, and stability, and at the
same time creative enough to itself supply the necessary lacunae.
Were it not that so much light has by this time been thrown
upon the natural genesis of ancient national epics, one might
be inclined to lay down the theory that the Irish had evolved
a scheme of their own, peculiar to themselves, and different
altogether from the epic, a scheme in which the same
characters figure in a group of allied poems and romances,
each of which, like one of Tennyson's idylls, is perfect in
itself, and not dependent upon the rest, a system which might
be taken to be a natural result of the impatient Celtic
temperament which could not brook the restraints of an epic.

The Ossianic lays are almost the only narrative poems
which exist in the language, for although lyrical, elegiac, and
didactic poetry abounds, the Irish never produced, except in
the case of the Ossianic epopees, anything of importance in a
narrative and ballad form, anything, for instance, of the nature
of the glorious ballad poetry of the Scotch Lowlands.

The Ossianic metres, too, are the eminently epic ones of
Ireland. It was a great pity, and to my thinking a great

THE OSSIANIC POEMS 511

mistake, for' Archbishop Mac Hale not to have used them in
his translation of Homer, instead of attempting it in the metre
of Pope's Iliad — one utterly unknown to native Ireland.

I have already observed that great producers of literature as
the Irish always were — until this century — they never developed
a drama. The nearest approach to such a thing is in these
Ossianic poems. The dialogue between St. Patrick and Ossian
—of which there is, in most of the poems, either more or less —
is quite dramatic in its form. Even the reciters of the present
day appear to feel this, and I have heard the censorious self-
satisfied tone of Patrick, and the querulous vindictive whine of
the half-starved old man, reproduced with considerable humour
by a reciter. But I think it nearly certain — though I cannot
prove it T — that in former days there was real acting and a
dialogue between two persons, one representing the saint and
the other the old pagan. It was from a less promising
beginning than this that the drama of ^schylus developed.
But nothing could develope in later Ireland. Everything,
time after time, was arrested in its growth. Again and again
the tree of Irish literature put forth fresh blossoms, and before
they could fully expand they were nipped off. The conception
of bringing the spirit of Paganism and of Christianity together
in the persons of the last great poet and warrior of the one,
and the first great saint of the other, was truly dramatic in its
conception, and the spirit and humour with which it has been
carried out in the pieces which have come down to us are a
I strong presumption that under happier circumstances something
j great would have developed from it. If any one is still found
to repeat Macaulay's hackneyed taunt about the Irish race
1 never having produced a great poem, let him ask himself if it
is likely that a country, where, for a hundred years after
hrim and the Boyne, teachers who for long before that

I once saw a letter in an Irish-American paper by some one whose
ic I forget, in which he alleged that in his youth he had actually
the Ossianic lays thus acted.

512 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

had been in danger, were systematically knocked on the head,
or sent to a jail for teaching ; where children were seen learning
their letters with chalk on their father's tombstones — other
means being denied them ; where the possession of a manu-
script might lead to the owner's death or imprisonment, so that
many valuable books were buried in the ground, or hidden to
rot in walls x — whether such a country were a soil on which an
epic or anything else could flourish. How, in the face of all
this, the men of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
preserved in manuscript so much of the Ossianic poetry as they
did, and even rewrote or redacted portions of it, as Michael
Comyn is said to have done to " Ossian in the Land of the
Ever- Young," is to me nothing short of amazing.

Of the authorship of the Ossianic poems nothing is known.
In the Book of Leinster are three short pieces ascribed to
Ossian himself, and five to Finn, and other old MSS. contain
poems ascribed to Caoilte, Ossian's companion and fellow
survivor, and to Fergus, another son of Finn ; but of the great
mass of the many thousand lines which we have in seventeenth
and eighteenth century MSS. there is not much which is
placed in Ossian's mouth as first hand, the pieces as I have said
generally beginning with a dialogue, from which Ossian
proceeds to recount his tale. But this dramatic form of the
lay shows that no pretence was kept up of Ossian's being the
singer of his own exploits.2 From the paucity of the pieces
attributed to him in the oldest MSS. it is probable that the
Gaelic race only gradually singled him out as their typical
pagan poet, instead of Fergus or Caoilte or any other of his

1 Like the Book of Lismore and others. See Sullivan's preface to
O'Curry's " Manners and Customs."

2 " Ich vermuthe," says Windisch (" Irische Texte," I. i. p. 63), "dass Ossin
(Ossian) auf dieser Wege zu einer Dichtergestalt geworden ist. Die
Gedichte die ihm in der Sage in den Mund gelegt werden, galten als sein
Werk und wurden allmahlig zum Typus einer ganzen Literaturgattung."
But the same should hold equally true of Caoilte, in whose mouth an
equal number of poems are placed.

THE OS SI AN 1C POEMS 513

alleged contemporaries, just as they singled out his father Finn,
as the typical pagan leader of their race ; and it is likely that a
large part of our Ossianic lay and literature is post-Danish,
while the great mass of the Red Branch saga is in its birth
many centuries anterior to the Norsemen's invasion.1

1 The following Ossianic poems have been published in the "Trans-
actions of the Ossianic Society." In vol. iii., 1857, " The Lamentation of
Ossian after the Fenians," 852 lines. In vol. iv., 1859, "The Dialogue
between Ossian and Patrick," 684 lines ; " The Battle of Cnoc an Air,"
336 lines ; " The Lay of Meargach," 904 lines ; "The Lay of Meargach's
Wife," 388 lines ; " The names of those fallen at Cnoc an Air," 76 lines ;
" The Chase of Loch Lein," 328 lines ; "The Lay of Ossian in the Land of
the Ever- Young," 636 lines ; and some smaller pieces. Vol. vi., 1861,
contains: "The Chase of Slieve Guilleann," 228 lines; "The Chase of
Slieve Fuaid," 788 lines ; "The Chase of Glennasmoil," 364 lines ; "The
Hunt of the Fenians on Sleive Truim," 316 lines ; " The Chase of Slieve -
na-mon," 64 lines ; " The Chase of the Enchanted Pigs of Angus of the
Boyne " [son of the Dagda], 280 lines ; " The Hunt on the borders of
Loch Derg," 80 lines ; " The Adventures of the Great Fool " [which,
however, is not an Ossianic poem], 632 lines.

I have in my own possession copies of several other Ossianic poems,
one of which, " The Lay of Dearg," in Deibhidh metre, consisting of 300
lines, is ascribed to Fergus, Finn's poet, not to Ossian.

" Is me Feargus, file Fhinn
De gnaith-fheinn Fhinn mhic Cumhail,
O thasg na bhfear sin nar lag
Trian a ngaisge ni inneosad."

the library of the Franciscans' Convent in Dublin there is a
nteenth-century collection of Ossianic poems, all in regular classical
metres, containing, as I have computed, not less than 10,000 lines. Not
one of these poems has been, so far as I know, ever published. The
poems printed by the Ossianic Society are not in the classical metres,
though I suspect many of them were originally so composed, but they
have become corrupted passing from mouth to mouth.

2K

CHAPTER XXXVIII

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS

THE first half of the seventeenth century saw an extraordinary
re-awakening of the Irish literary spirit. This was the more
curious because it was precisely at this period that the old
Gaelic polity with its tribal system, brehon law, hereditary
bards, and all its other supports, was being upheaved by main
force and already beginning to totter to its ruin. This was the
period when to aggravate what was already to the last degree
bitter — the struggle for the soil and racial feuds — a third dis-
astrous ingredient, polemics, stept in, and inflamed the minds
of the opposing parties, with the additional fanaticism of
religious hatred. Yet whether it is that their works have
been better preserved to us than those of any other century,
or whether the very nearness of the end inspired them to
double exertions, certain it is that the seventeenth century,
and especially the first half of it, produced amongst the Irish
a number of most gifted men of letters. Of these the so-
called Four Masters, Seathrun or Geoffrey Keating, Father
Francis O'Mulloy, Lughaidh [Lewy] O'Clery, and Duald
Mac Firbis were the most important of the purely Irish prose
writers, whilst Phillip O'Sullivan Beare, Father Ward, and
Father Colgan, John Lynch (Bishop of Killala), Luke Wadding,

514

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 515

and Peter Lombard (Archbishop of Armagh), reflected credit
upon their native country by their scholarship, and elucidated
its history chiefly through the medium of Latin, as did Ussher
and Sir James Ware, two great scholars of the same period
produced by the Pale.

The century opened with an outburst of unexpected vigour
on the part of the old school of Irish classical bards, over whose
head the sword was then suspended, and whose utter de-
struction, though they knew it not, was now rapidly approaching.
This outburst was occasioned by Teig mac Daire,1 the ollamh
or chief poet of Donough O'Brien, fourth Earl of Thomond,
(whose star, thanks to English influence, was at that time in
the ascendant), making little of and disparaging in elaborate
verse the line of Eremon,2 and the reigning families of Meath,
Connacht, Leinster, and Ulster, whilst exalting the kings of
the line of Eber, of whom the O'Briens were at that time the
greatest family. The form this poem took was an attack upon
the poems of Torna Eigeas, a poet who flourished soon after
the year 400, and who was tutor to Niall of the Nine Hostages,
but whose alleged poems I have not noticed, not believing those
attributed to him to be genuine, as they contain distinct Chris-
tian allusions, and as the language does not seem particularly
antique. The bards, however, accepted these pieces as the real
work of Torna, and Teig mac Daire now attacks him on
account of his partiality for the Eremonian Niall one thousand
two hundred years before, and argues that he had done
wrong, and that Eber, as the elder son of Milesius,
should have had the precedency over Ir and Eremon,
the younger children, and that consequently the princes
of Munster, who were Eberians, should take precedency
of the O'Nialls, O'Conors, and other Eremonians of the
Northern provinces, and of Leinster. Teig asserts that it

His real name was Mac Brodin, " Dare " or Daire being his father's
ic.
2 Sec above, p. 64.

516 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

was Eber or Heber, son of Milesius, from whom Ireland was
called Hiber-nia. This poem, which contained about one
hundred and fifty lines, began with the words Olc do thagrais a
Thorna, "111 hast thou argued, O Torna,"and was immediately
taken up and answered by Lughaidh [Lewy] O'Clery, the
ollamh of the O'Donnells, in a poem containing three hundred
and forty lines, beginning " O Teig, revile not Torna." To
this Teig replied in a piece of six hundred and eighty-eight
lines, beginning Eist-se a Lughaidh rent labhradh, " Listen to
my speech, O Lewy," and was again immediately answered in
a poem of about a thousand lines by O'Clery, beginning, Do
chuala ar thagrais a Thaidhg, " I have heard all that thou
hast argued, O Teig." In this poem O'Clery collects such
facts as he can find in history and in ancient authors, to prove
that the Eremonians had always been considered superior to
the Eberians in past ages. This called forth another rejoinder
from his opponent of one hundred and twenty-four lines, begin-
ning A Lughaidh labhram go seimh^ " Let us speak courteously,
O Lewy," which was in its turn answered by O'Clery in a poem
beginning Na broisd mise a Mhic Dhaire, " Provoke me not, O
son of Daire."

By this time the attention of the whole Irish literary world
had been centred upon this curious dispute, and on the attacks
and rejoinders of these leading poets representing the two great
races of Northern and Southern Ireland respectively. Soon the
hereditary poets of the other great Gaelic houses joined in, as
their own descent or inclination prompted. Fearfeasa O'Cainte,
Torlough O'Brien, and Art Og O'Keefe were the principal
supporters of Teig mac Daire and the Southern Eberians,
while Hugh O'Donnell, Robert Mac Arthur, Baoghalach ruadh
Mac Egan, Anluan Mac Egan, John O'Clery, and Mac
Dermot of Moylurg, defended Lewy and the Northern
Eremonians. For many years the conflict raged, and the verses
of both parties collected into a volume of about seven thousand
lines, is known to this day as " The Contention of the Poets."

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 517

There is something highly pathetic in this last flickering up
of the spirit of the hereditary classical bards, who conducted
this dispute in precisely the same metre, language, tone, and style,
as their forefathers of hundreds of years before would have done
it, and who chose for the subject-matter of dispute an hereditary
quarrel of twelve hundred years' standing. Just as the ancient
history of the Irish began with the distinction between the
descendants of the sons of Milesius, of which we read so much
at the beginning of this volume, soon the self-same subject does
the literary spirit of the ancient time which had lasted with
little alteration from the days of St. Patrick, flare up into light
for a brief moment at the opening of the seventeenth century, ere
it expired for ever under the sword of Cromwell and of William.

It is altogether probable, however, that under the appearance
of literary zeal and genealogical fury, the bards who took part
in this contest were really actuated by the less apparent motive
of rousing the ardour of their respective chiefs, their pride of
blood, and their hatred of the intruder. If this, as I strongly
suspect, were the underlying cause of the " Contention," their
expiring effort to effect the impossible by the force of poetry—
the only force at their command — is none the less pathetic,
than would have been on the very brink of universal ruin, their

irrelling, in the face of their common enemy, upon the foolish
genealogies of a powerless past.

We know a good deal, however, about this Teig, son of

tire, the ollamh of the O'Briens, of whose poetry, all
written in elaborate and highly-wrought classical metres, we
have still about three thousand four hundred lines. He possessed
down even to the middle of the seventeenth century a fine
estate and the castle of Dunogan with its appurtenances, which
belonged to him by right of his office, as the hereditary ollamh
of Thomond. He was hurled over a clifF in his old age by a
soldier of Cromwell, who is said to have yelled after him with
ivage exultation as he fell, "Say your rann now, little man."1
See O' Flanagan's " Transactions of the Gaelic Society, 1808," p. 29.

Si8 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

A beautiful inauguration ode to the English-bred Donogh
O'Brien, fourth Earl of Thomond, proclaims him a bard of no
ordinary good sense and merit.

" Bring thy case before Him (God) every day, beseech diligently
Him from whom nothing may be concealed, concerning everything
of which thou art in care, Him from whom thou shalt receive relief.

" Run not according to thine own desire, O Prince of the Boru
tribute, let the cause of the people be thy anxiety, and that is not the
anxiety of an idle man.

" Be not thou negligent in the concerns of each : since it is thy due
to decide between the people, O smooth countenance, be easy of
access, and diligent in thine own interests.

" Give not thyself up to play nor wine nor feast nor the delight of
music nor the caresses of maidens ; measure thou the ill-deeds of
each with their due reward, without listening to the intervention
of thy council.

" For love, for terror, for hatred, do not pass (be thou a not-hasty
judge) a judgment misbecoming thee, O Donough — no not for bribes
of gold and silver." x

In another poem, Mac Daire warns the O'Briens to be advised
by him, and not plunge the province into war, and to take care
how they draw down upon themselves his animosity. Here
are a few of these verses, translated into the exact equivalent
of the Deibhidh metre in which they are written. They will
give a fair idea of a poet's arrogance.

" Tis not War we Want to Wage
With THomond THinned by outrage.
SLIGHT not Poets' Poignant spur
Of RIGHT ye Owe it honour.

Can there Cope a Man with Me
In Burning hearts Bitterly,

1 " Ar ghradh ar uamhan, na ar fhuath

Na beir (bi ad' bhreitheamh neamh-luath)

Breith nar choir, a Dhonchadh, dhuit,
Ar chomhthaibh oir na arguit."

This fine poem, containing in all 220 lines, was published by
O' Flanagan in 1808.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 519

At my BLows men BLUSH I wis,
Bright FLUSH their Furious Faces.1

Store of blister-Raising Banns
These are my Weighty Weapons,
Poisoned, STriking STRONG through men,
They Live not LONG so stricken.

SHelter from my SHafts or rest
Is not in Furthest Forest,
Far they FALL, words Softjis Snow,
No WALL can Ward my arrow. *

To QUench in Quarrels good deeds,
To Raise up WRongs in hundreds,
To NAIL a NAME on a man,
I FAIL not — FAME my weapon."

The men who most distinguished themselves in the extra-
I ordinary outburst of classical poetry that characterised tfye early
seventeenth century were Teig Ball O'Higinn, a poet of the
county Sligo, brother to the Archbishop of Tuam, and
Eochaidh [Yohy] O'Hussey, the chief bard of the Maguire of
Fermanagh. Teig Ball O'Higinn has left behind him at least
three thousand lines, all in polished classical metres, and

1 " Tig diom da ndearntaoi m'fioghal

Griosadh bhur ngruadh lasamhail,
Fios bhur gniomh a's gniomh bhur scan
Tig a sgrios diom no a ndidean."
>m a MS. of my own ; this poem contains a hundred lines.

2 " Ni bhi dion i ndiamhraibh gleann

Na i bhfiodh dhluith uaignach fhairseang,
Na i mur caomh cneas-aolta cuir,
Ag fear m'easaonta 6'm armuibh.

Muchadh deigh-ghniomh, deargadh gruadh,
Toirmeasg ratha re diombuan,
Cur anma a's eachta ar fhear
Creachta ar n-airm-ne re n-aireamh."

520 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

O'Hussey nearly four thousand. Teig Dall was the author of
the celebrated poem addressed to Brian O'Rorke, urging him
to take up arms against Elizabeth on the principle "si vis
pacem para bellum : " it begins D'fhior cogaidh comhailtear
siothchain " to a man of war peace is assured," and it had the
desired effect. The verses of these bards throw a great deal of
light upon the manners customs and politics of the age.
There is a curious poem extant by this Teig Dall, in which
he gives a graphic account of a night he spent in the house of
Maolmordha Mac Sweeny, a night which the poet says he
will remember for ever.1 He met on that memorable night
in that hospitable house Brian mac Angus Mac Namee, the
poet in chief to Torlogh Luineach O'Neill, Brian mac Owen
O'Donnellan, the poet of Mac William of Clanrickard, and
Conor O'Higinn, the bard of Mac William-Burke. Not only
did the chieftain himself, Mac Sweeny, pay him homage, but
he received presents — acknowledgment evidently of his
admitted genius — from the poets as well. Mac Sweeny gave
to him a dappled horse, one of the best steeds in Ireland, Brian
mac Angus gave him a wolf-dog that might be matched
against any ; while from Brian mac Owen he received a book
— " a full well of the true stream of knowledge," — in which
were writ " the cattle-spoils, courtships, and sieges of the
world, an explanation of their battles and progress, it was the
flower of the King-books of Erin."2 Where, he asks, are all
those chiefs gone now ? Alas ! "the like of the men I found
before me in that perfect rath of glistening splendour, ranged
along the coloured sides of the purple-hung mansion, no eye

1 " Tanac oidhche go h-Eas-Caoile

Budh cuimhin Horn go la an bhraith,
Mairfidh choidhche ar ndol do'n dun-sa
Cor na h-oidhche a's cursa chaich."

Metre Seadna.

a " Tana, Tochmairc, Toghla an bheatha,

Do bhi 'san aiscidh fuair me,
Mineachadh a gcath, 's a gceimeann
Sgath n-lcabhar Eireann e."

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 521

ver saw before," J but they are scattered and gone, and the
eath of four of them in especial seemed a loss from which
Janba [Ireland] thought she could never recover. This great
loet, in my opinion by far the finest of his contemporaries,
ame to a tragical end. Six of the O'Haras of Sligo calling
t his house, ate up his provisions, and in return he issued
gainst them a special satire. This satire, consisting of twelve
anns in Deibhidh [D'yevvee] metre,2 stung them to such a
itch that they returned and cut out the tongue that could
iflict such exquisite pain, and poor O'Higinn died of their
arbarous ill-treatment some time prior to the year 1617.
jJone of the bardic race had ever thought that such an end could
vertake the great poet at the hands of the Gael themselves.

was only a short time before that, when some bard envying
im his position at Coolavin in the west, far from the inroads

the murdering foreigner, had sung :—

" Would I Were in Cool-O-vinn
Where Haunteth Teig O Higinn

1 " Samhail na bhfear fuaireas romham
'San rath foirththe do b'ur niamh
Ar sleasaibh daiha an duin chorcra

Wifliaca suit romp a riamh."
See Catalogue of Irish MSS. in British Museum,
commences : —

" Sluagh seisir thainig do m' thigh,
Bearfad uaim iul an tseisir,
Tearc do lacht me ar na mharach
O thart na re selanach (i.e., bitheamhnach) ;'

id the last verse runs : —

" Guidhim Dia do dhoirt a fhuil
O se a mbas bheith na mbeathaidh,
(Ni mhairid gar marthain sin !)
Nar marbhthar an sluagh seisir."

ly to God who poured his blood, since it is their death to be in
j, — they do not live whose living is that of theirs ! — may that crew of
be never slain " ! This last poem of the unfortunate Teig Dall is
j-eserved in H. I. 17 T.C.D. f. 116, 6, whence I copied it, but it has lately
|;en printed in the brilliantly descriptive Catalogue of the Irish MSS. in
British Museum.

522 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

There my LEASE of LIFE were free
From STRIFE in PEACE and Plenty." x

We find the poet O'Gnive, the- author of the well-known
poem, " The Stepping-down of the Gael," 2 bitterly lamenting
in Deibhidh metre, the death of O'Higinn, and that breaking-
up of the Bardic schools which was even then beginning.

" Fallen the LAND of Learned men,
The Bardic BAND is fallen ;
None now LEARN true SONG to Sing,
How LONG our FERN is Fading !

Fearful your Fates O'Higinn,

And Yohy Mac Melaughlinn,

Dark was the DAY through FEUD Fell

The GOOD, the GAY, the 'GENTLE, s

1 I found this poem in a MS. in Trinity College, Dublin, written by one
of the Maguires about the year 1700, but I forget its numbering. I quote
the verse from memory : —

" Och gan me i g Cul O fhFinn
Mar a bhfuil Tadhg O h-Uiginn,
Dfheudfainn suan go seasgar ann
Gan uamhain easgair orom."

2 Sec Hardiman's " Irish Minstrelsy," vol. ii. p. 102. But it may not have
been the same O'Gneev or O'Gnive, who laments Teig Dall, or if it was, he
must have been a very old man, seeing he accompanied Shane O'Neill to
London in 1562. His poem on the " Stepping-down of the Gael " has been
spiritedly translated by Sir Samuel Ferguson, beginning —

" My heart is in woe,

And my soul is in trouble,
For the mighty are low,
And abased are the noble."

But the metre is the favourite and dignified Deibhidh.

3 " Oighidh Thaidhg dhuan-sgagtha Dhoill,
Eag Eochaigh mhic Mhaoilsheachlainn,
Tug draoithe Eireann fa oil,
Geibheann maoithe fa mhenmoin."

From a manuscript of my own. i.e., " The tragic-fate of Teig Dall, the
Strainer-of-lays, the death of Eochaidh Mac Mclaughlin has brought the
druids (i.e., learned poets) of Ireland under reproach, and fetters of weak-
ness on [their] spirits."

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 523

Ye were Masters Made to please
O'Higinnses, O'Dalys ;

GLOOMY ROCKS have WRought your fates,
Ye PLUMY FLOCKS of Poets."

O'Hussey, probably the greatest contemporary rival of Teig
11, is best known through Mangan's translation of his noble
to Cuchonnacht Maguire, lord of Fermanagh,1 who was
ught by the elements on some warlike expedition and in
jdanger of being frozen and drowned.

' Where is my chief, my master, this black night ? movrone !
Oh, cold, cold, miserably cold is this black night for Hugh,
ts showery, arrowy, speary sleet pierceth one through and through,
ierceth one to the very bone.

k.n awful, a tremendous night is this, meseems,
"he floodgates of the rivers of heaven I think have been burst wide,
)wn from the overcharged clouds, like unto headlong ocean's tide,
jnds grey rain in roaring streams.

"hough he were even a wolf ranging the round green woods,
Fhough he were even a pleasant salmon in the unchainable sea,
"hough he were a wild mountain eagle, he could scarce bear, he,
"his sharp sore sleet, these howling floods." 2

lis prince had also been eulogised by Teig Dall O'Higinn in a poem
lines, beginning Mairgfheuchas ar Inis Ceithlind, " Alas for him
l.vho beholds Enniskillen."
the original —

" Fuar liom an oidhche-se d'Aodh !
Cuis tuirse troime a cith-bhraon !
Mo thruaighe sin d'ar seise [i.e., caraid !]
Nimh fuaire na h-oidhche-se.

Anocht is nimh lem' chridhe,
Fearthar frasa teinntidhe,
I gcomhdhail na gcla seacta
Mar ta is orgrain aigeanta."

te literal meaning of this last verse, which may be profitably corn-
id with Mangan's translation, is, " This night it is venom to my heart
Siery showers are rained down, in the company of the frozen

S24 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

When it is remembered that O'Hussey composed this poei
in that most difficult and artificial of metres, the Deibhidh,
which we have just given specimens, it will be seen how mucl
Mangan has gained by his free and untrammelled metre,
what technical difficulties fettered O'Hussey's art, and lei
glory to his triumph over them.

Both these great poets and their contemporaries had been
reared in the bardic colleges, which continued to exist, though
with gradually diminishing prestige, until near the close of the
seventeenth century. I doubt if a single college survived into
the eighteenth, to come under the cruel law which made it
penal for a Catholic to teach a school. In the seventeenth
century, however, several famous colleges of poetry are still
found. They are frequently alluded to by the poets of that
century^ both in Ireland and Scotland, and always under the
generic name of " the schools," by which they mean the bardic
institutions. Few or none of those persons who did not them-
selves come of a bardic tribe were admitted into them, which
accounts for the prevalence of the same surnames among the
poets for several centuries, O'Dalys, O'Higinnses, O'Coffeys,
Macgraiths, Conmees, Wards, O'Mulconrys,1 etc. None of
the students were allowed to come from the neighbourhood of
the college, but only from far-away parts of Ireland, so as not
to be distracted by the propinquity of friends and relations.

spikes ; how it is, is a horror to the mind." The next verse is also worth
giving.

" Do h-osgladh as ochtuibh neoil

Doirse uisgidhe an aidheoir.

Tug se minlinnte ann a muir,

Do sgeith an firmimint a hurbhuidh."

" There has been thrown open, out of the bosom of the clouds, the doors
of the waters of the air. It has made of little linns a sea ; the firmament
has belched forth her destructiveness." The metre of the last line in this
verse is wrong, for it contains nine not seven syllables.

1 O'Reilly mentions eight Mac-an-bhairds or Wards, eleven O'Clerys,
seven O'Coffeys, eight O'Higinnses, nine O'Mulconrys and no less than
twenty-eight O'Dalys, who were by far the most numerous and perhaps
the ablest bardic tribe in all Ireland.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 525

his produced a certain unity of feeling among the bardic

ce, and to a great extent broke down all class prejudice, so

uch so, that the bards were almost the only people in later

reland who belonged to their country rather than to their

ord, or tribe, or territory. It may very well be, however, that

he bardic race was not in the long run an advantage to Ireland,

nd that the elaborate system of pedigrees which they pre-

erved, and their eulogies upon their particular patrons tended

o keep the clan spirit alive to the detriment of the idea of

unified nationality, and to the exclusion of new political modes

f thought.

However this may be, it is absolutely necessary to study the
•>oets of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries if one would
:ome to a right understanding of the great transformation scene
hen being enacted. The feelings, aspirations, and politics of
he Irish themselves are faithfully reflected in them, and though

10 Irish historian, except perhaps O'Halloran, has ever read
hem, yet no historian can afford to utterly neglect them. It
as become common of late years to deny that there was any real
ational struggle of Ireland against England in the seventeenth
entury, and my friend Mr. Standish O'Grady,in particular, from

perusal of the English State Papers and other documents, has
triven with eloquence and brilliancy to prove that the fight
vas a social and an economic one, a conflict between the
mailer gentry and the great upper lords. But such a view of
he case is flatly contradicted, indeed absolutely disproved, by
. study of the Irish bards. The names of Erin, Banba, Fodhla,
he Plain of Conn, the Land of the Children of Ir and Eber,
re in their mouths at every moment, and to the very last they
persisted in their efforts to combine the Gael against the Gall.

ere, for instance, is a poem, one specimen out of scores, by an
nknown poet of the sixteenth century, exhorting the Irish of

11 the provinces to resistance, and it would be impossible to
11 to what tribe or even to what province the poet belonged,
translate the poem here into a modification of the Irish metre,

526 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and one which, it seems to me, could be very well taken over
and adapted with a fairly good effect into English.1

" Fooboon upon you, ye hosts of the Gael,
For your own Innisfail has been taken,
And the Gall is dividing the emerald lands
By your treacherous bands forsaken.2

Clan Carthy of Munster from first unto last

Have forsaken the past of their sires,
And they honour no longer the men that are gone,

Or the song of the God-sent lyres.

The O'Briens of Banba whom Murrough led on,
They are gone with the Saxon aggressor,

1 The metre of the original is hepta-syllabic, each line ending in a dis
syllable, and there is no regular beat or accentuation in the verse, which
though printed as a four-line stanza, would really run some way thus —

" Foobon on ye,
Cringe cowards,
Are your powers
Departed ?

Galls your country
Are tearing,
Overbearing,
Flint-hearted."

The Irish themselves, either through the influence of English verse or
through the natural evolution of the Irish language, changed this metre in
the next century into one not unlike my English verses above.

z This piece is taken from a manuscript of my own ; I have never met
this fine poem elsewhere. The worclfooboon, upon which the changes are so
rung, is new to me, and is not contained in any Irish or Scotch-Gaelic dic-
tionary, the nearest approach to it is O'Reilly's fubta, "humiliation" ; but
I find the words fubub fubub in the sense of "shame," "fy," in the
Turner MS., " Reliquiae Celtics," vol. ii. p. 325. The metre of this poem
is Little Rannaigheacht, and the first verse runs thus —

" Fubun fuibh a shluagh Gaoidheal

Ni mhair aoin-neach agaibh
Goill ag comh-roinn bhur gcriche
Re sluagh sithe mar [i.e. bhur] samhail."

Literally : " Fooboon to you, O host of the Gaels, not a man of you is alive :
the Galls are together-dividing your lands, while ye are [unsubstantial]
like a fairy host. The Clan Carthy of Leath Mogha [«'.&, Southern Ireland],
and to call them out down to one man, there is not — and sad is the
disgrace— one person of them imitating the [old] Gaels," etc.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 527

They have bartered the heirloom of ages away
And forgotten to slay the oppressor.

The old race of Brian mac Yohy x the stern,

With gallowglass kerne and bonnacht,2
They are down on their knees, they are cringing to-day,

'Tis the way through the province of Connacht.

In the valleys of Leinster the valorous band
Who lightened the land with their daring,

In Erin's dark hour now shift for themselves,
The wolves are upon them and tearing.

And O'Neill, who is throned in Emania afar,

And gave kings unto Tara for ages,
For the earldom of Ulster has bartered, through fear,

The kingdom of heroes and sages.3

Alas for the sight ! the O'Carrolls of Birr

Swear homage in terror, sore fearing,
Not a man one may know for a man, can be found

On the emerald ground of Erin.

And O'Donnell 4 the chieftain, the lion in fight,

Who defended the right of Tirconnell,
(Ah ! now may green EIrin indeed go and droop !)

He stoops with them— Manus O'Donnell !

Yohy is the pronunciation of the Irish Eochaidh, genitive Eochach, or
en Eathach. The Eochaidh here alluded to Js Eochaidh Muigh-mhea-
[Mwee-va-on], father of Niall of the Nine Hostages. He came
the throne in 356, and from his son Brian the O'Conors, O'Rorkes,
Reillys, MacDermots, etc., of Connacht are descended, who all went
r the generic name of the Ui Briain, as the families descended from
s other son, Niall of the Nine Hostages are the Ui Neill. See above,
. 33 and 34.
2 Bonnacht is a " mercenary soldier."

3 " O Neill Oiligh a's Eamhna

Ri Teamhrach agus Tailltean,
Tugsad ar iarlacht Uladh

Rtoghacht go h-umhal aimhghlic."

" O'Neill of Aileach and of Emania, King of Tara and of Tailtinn,
have given away for the earldom of Ulster, a kingdom submissively

wisely."

4 Manus O'Donnell died in 1563, so that this poem must have been corn-
somewhat earlier.

528 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Fooboon for the court where no English was spoke,

Fooboon for the yoke of the stranger,
Fooboon for the gun in the foreigner's train,

Fooboon for the chain of danger.

Ye faltering madmen, God pity your case !

In the flame of disgrace ye are singeing.
Fooboon is the word of the bard and the saint,

Fooboon for the faint and cringing."

The session of the bardic schools began about Michaelmas,1
and the youthful aspirants to bardic glory came trooping, about
that season, from all quarters of the four provinces to offer with
trembling hearts their gifts to the ollamh of the bardic college,
and to take possession of their new quarters. Very extra-
ordinary these quarters were ; for the college usually consisted
of a long low group of whitewashed buildings, excessively
warmly thatched, and lying in the hollow of some secluded
valley, or shut in by a sheltering wood, far removed from noise
of human traffic and from the bustle of the great world. But
what most struck the curious beholder was the entire absence
of windows or partitions over the greater portion of the house.

According as each student arrived he was assigned a
windowless room to himself, with no other furniture in it
than a couple of chairs, a clothes rail, and a bed. When
all the students had arrived, a general examination of them
was held by the professors and ollamhs, and all who could
not read and write Irish well, or who appeared to have an
indifferent memory, were usually sent away. The others
were divided into classes, and the mode of procedure was as
follows : The students were called together into the great
hall or sitting-room, amply illuminated by candles and bog-
torches, and we may imagine the head ollamh, perhaps the
venerable and patriotic O'Gnive himself, addressing them
upon their chosen profession, and finally proposing some

1 This account of the later bardic schools is chiefly derived from a
curious book, the " Memoirs of Clanrickard," printed in London in 1722.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 529

burning topic such as O'Neill's abrogation of the title of
O'Neill, for the higher class to compose a poem on, in
perhaps the Great or Little Rannaigheacht [Ran-ee-acht]
metre, while for the second class he sets one more common-
place, to be done into Deibhidh [D'yevvee] or Seadna
[Shayna], or some other classic measure, and any student
who does not know all about the syllabification, quartans,
concord, correspondence, termination, and union, which go
to the various metres, is turned over to an inferior professor.

The students retired after their breakfasts, to their own
warm but perfectly dark compartments, to throw themselves
each upon his bed,1 and there think and compose till
supper-hour, when a servant came round to all the rooms
with candles, for each to write down what he had com-
posed. They were then called together into the great hall,
and handed in their written compositions to the professors,
after which they chatted and amused themselves till bed-time.

On every Saturday and the eve of every holiday the schools
broke up, and the students dispersed themselves over the
country. They were always gladly received by the land-
owners of the neighbourhood, and treated hospitably until
their return on Monday morning. The people of the
district never failed to send in, each in turn, large supplies
the college, so that, what between this and the presents
rought by the students at the beginning of the year, the
rofessors are said to have been fairly rich.

The schools always broke up on the 25th of March, and
le holidays lasted for six months, it not being considered
idicious to spend the warm half of the year in the close

liege, from which all light and air-draughts had been so
irefully excluded.

I can hardly believe, however, that the students of law,

>tory, and classics — all the educated classes could speak

1 Hence the bardic expression, " luidhe i leabaibh sgol," i.e., "to lie in the
is of the schools," equivalent to becoming a poet.

2L

530 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Latin, which was their means of communication with the
English x — were treated as here described, or enjoyed such
long holidays. It was probably only a special class of
candidates for bardic degrees who were thus dealt with, and
the account above given may be somewhat exaggerated ; the
students probably composed in their dark compartments only
on certain days.

In the seventeenth century we find that the three or four
hundred metres taught in the schools of the tenth century
had been practically restricted to a couple of dozen, and
these nearly all heptasyllabic. It is quite probable, as
Thurneysen asserts, that the metres of the early Roman
hymns — themselves probably largely affected by Celtic
models — exercised in their turn a reflex influence upon
Irish poetry, and especially on that of the bards, in con-
tradistinction to that of the files. Indeed, it is pretty certain
that if the Roman metres had not before existed in Irish the
bards would have made no scruple about copying them ; and
they may thus have come by these octosyllabic and hepta-
syllabic lines about which they were in after times so
particular. Of the metres chiefly in vogue in the schools
of the later centuries, the most popular was the Deibhidh,
of which I have already given so many examples.2 It was,
as it were, the official metre — the hexameter of the Gael.
All the seven thousand and odd lines of the " Contention of
the Bards," for instance, are written in it. Great Rannai-;
gheachts [Ran-ee-acht] was another prime heptasyllabic
favourite. It ran thus —

1 Campion, who wrote in 1574, says of the Irish of his day : " They
speake Latine like a vulgar language learned in their schooles of Leach-:
craft and law, whereat they begin children and holde on sixteene on
twentie yeares." After the Battle of the Curlew Mountains, MacDermot, ,
anxious to let the Governor know where the body of Sir Conyers Clifford
lay, wrote a note to him in Latin.

2 Sec above, pp. 518-523.

3 Of Little Rannaigheacht I gave an example a few pages back in the

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 531

" To Hear Handsome Women WEEP,

In DEEP distress Sobbing Sore,
Or Gangs of Geese scream for FAR,
They sweeter ARE than ARTS snore."1

I may observe here that there has been on the part of

poem " Fooboon." Seadna [Shayna] was another great favourite, built
on the model of the following verse, with or without alliteration —

" Teig of herds the Gallant Giver,

Right receiver of our love,
Teig thy Name shall KNOW no ending,
Branch un-Bending, Erin's glove."

This verse runs rhythmically, but that it does so is only an accident. The
Irish could always have got their Seadna verses, at least, of eight and seven
syllables, to run smoothly if they had wished, but they did not. Here is
a more Irish-like stanza in the same metre —

" Of / lowliness / came a / daughter,

And / he who / brought her / was / God,
Noble / her / son and / stately,
Ennobling / greatly / this / sod."

Great Seadna is the same metre as this, except that every verse ends with
a word of three syllables. In Middle Seadna the first and third lines end
in trisyllables, the second and fourth in dissyllables. Ae-fri-Slighe is like
Middle Seadna, except that instead of the first and third lines being octo-
syllabic, they all have seven syllables, as —

" Ye who bring to slavery

Men of mind and reading,
God bring down your bravery,
Leave you vexed and bleeding."

Little Deachna is a pretty metre with five syllables to each line, as —

" God gives me three things,
Them he brings all three
When the soul is born
Like a corn in me."

Great Deachna contained eight and six syllables, each line ending in dis-
syllables—

" I believe this wafer holy,
Which is safer surely,
Flesh, blood, Godhead strangely mingled,
In bread bodied purely."

The above metres are a few of the most favourite.

1 " Mna modhach' go ngoimh ag gul,

Gan arach ar sgur d'a mbron,

Caoi chadhain an oidhche fhuar

Is binne 'na fuaim do shron."

From a manuscript of my own, a comic poem by an anonymous bard, on a
I snoring companion.

532 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Irish Continental scholars an extraordinary amount of dis-
cordant theories as to the scansion of the Irish classical metres.
None of them seem to be agreed as to how to scan them.
Zimmer insists that the word-accent and the metrical accent
in Irish are identical, which, as Kuno Meyer has shown, is
plainly not the case. He would probably scan —

" Or wild geese that scream from far,"
while Kuno Meyer again would insist on reading —
" Or wild geese that scream from far,"

because, as he says, all heptasyllabic lines are to be read as
trochaic, a theory which may apply very well to some lines, as
to the above, but which is almost certain to break down after a
line or two, as in the very next line of this verse which I
have taken for a model —

" They sweet / er are / than Arts / snore,"

a scansion which does extraordinary violence to the natural
pronunciation of the words. I, for my part, do not believe
that there was ever any real metrical accent, that is, any real
alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables in the classical
Irish metres.1 The one thing certain about them is the fixed
number of syllables and the rhyme, but each verse was, as it
were, separately scanned, if one may use such a term, on its

1 Windisch appears to me to have come closest to the truth : " If we
suppose," he says, "that the accented syllable coincides with the natural
accent of the word, if we consider that polysyllabic words, besides having
an accented syllable, can also have a semi-accented one (neben den
Hauptton auch einen Nebenton haben konnen), finally, if we take it for
granted that the syllables in which rhyme or alliteration appear must also
bear the accent or up-beat of the voice (in der Hebung stehen mussen), we
then at once come to the conclusion that each half-verse contains a
specified number of accented syllables, without, however, any regular
interchange of up and down beats of accented and unaccented syllables."
— Sec "Irische Texte,J> I. i. p. 157.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 533

own merits. Thus the verse just quoted would be read some
way thus —

" To hear handsome

Women weep
In deep distress,
Sobbing sore,
Or gangs of geese

Scream from far,
They sweeter are

tThan Arts snore."
I have frequently heard preserved in ranns or proverbs, even
to this day, isolated quatrains in these classic metres pro-
nounced by the people,1 and they never dream of pronouncing
them otherwise than according to the natural stress of the
voice upon the words themselves, as if they were talking prose,
—they never attempt to transform the seven-syllable lines into
trochees, as Kuno Meyer would, nor the eight-syllable lines
into iambics. Of this old Gaelic prosody there appears to be a

1 Thus when O'Carolan, in the last century, made the extempore response
the butler who prohibited his entering the cellar

" Mo chreach a Dhiarmuid Ui Fhloinn
Gan tu ar dorus ifrinn,
'S tu nach leigfeadh neach ad' cho'r
'San ait bheithea do dhoirseoir."

fe spoke (perhaps unwittingly) an excellent Deibhidh stanza, but he never
mned it,

" Mo chreach / a Dhiar / muid Ui / Fhloinn

Gan tu / ar dor / us if / rinn."
He said,

" Mo chreach / a Dhiarmuid / Ui / Fhloinn
Gan tu / ar dorus / ifrinn."

So, too, in a rann I heard from a friend in the county Mayo, and printed
in my " Religious Songs of Connacht," p. 232 : —

" Ni meisge is miste Horn
Acht leisg a feicsint orom [orm],
Gan digh meisge 's miste an greann
Acht ni gnath meisge gan mi-greann,

lich is not spoken as —

" Ni meis / ge is / miste Horn,"
but as —

" Ni / meisge / is miste / liom,"

534 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

distinct reminiscence in Burns. Take this Verse of his for
example —

" Blythe, blythe, and merry was she,

Blythe was she but and ben,
Blythe by the banks of Ern,
And blythe in Glenturit glen."

This, supplying, say the syllable " and," in the second and third
lines makes a good Rannaigheacht mor quatrain, which the
poet evidently pronounced exactly as an old Irish bard would

have done.

" Blythe, blythe,

And merry was she,
And blythe was she

But and ben,
Blythe by

The banks of Ern,
And blythe in
Glenturit glen."

Bonaventura O'Hussey was another fine classical poet of the
beginning of the seventeenth century. He was educated for a
bard, but afterwards became a Franciscan in Louvain, where
he wrote and published an Irish work on Christian Doctrine
in 1608, which was reprinted in Antwerp three years later.
The Irish, having no press of their own in Ireland (though they
had some outside it), were obliged to print and set up all their
books abroad, chiefly at Louvain, Antwerp, Rome, and Paris.
Any attempt to introduce founts of Irish type in the teeth of
the English Government would, I think, have been futile, so
that except for the works she was able to print in Irish type
abroad, and afterwards to smuggle in, Ireland during the seven-
teenth century was thrown nearly a couple of hundred years
out of the world's course, by having to use manuscripts instead
of printed books. It is curious to find O'Hussey compressing
the Christian doctrine into two hundred and forty lines of the
most accurate Deibhidh metre. When leaving for his foreign
home he bade farewell to Erin in a poem of great beauty.

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 535

" Slowly pass my Aching Eye,
Her Holy Hills of beauty
Neath me TOSSING To and fro,
Hoarse CEies the CROSSING billow. ' x

[n another poem he laments sorely at leaving the poets and
the schools " to try another trade," that of a cleric, which he
says he does, not because he thinks less of poetry, or because
the glory that was once to be had from it was departing
amongst the people of Erin, but from religious motives alone.

" Now I stand to Try a Trade
Mid Bardic Band less famed
Than the Part of Poet is
Hacked is my Heart in pieces.

"Tis not that I Veer from Verse
So Followed by my Fathers,
Lest the fame it Once did Win
In vain be Asked in Erin." 2

Fearfeasa O'Cainti was another well-known poet of this
period who attempted to rouse the Irish to action. Here
are a few of his verses to the O'Driscoll —

" Many a Mulct — requite their sin —
Fetch from them heir of Finnin ;

1 " Do chuadar as rinn mo ruisg
Do tholcha is aluinn eaguisg,
Is tuar orcra da n-eisi
Dromlafhuar na h-aibheisi.'

From a manuscript of my own.

- " Ni fuath d'ealadhain m* aithreach
Thug fum aigneadh aithrigheach,
No an ghloir do gheibhthi da chionn
Ar neimhnidh 6 phor Eirionn."

From a manuscript of my own. This poem appears not to have been
< known to O'Reilly.

536 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

SPARE not to SPURN the brute Gall
To BURN the BEAR and jackal.1

Ruthless Rapine leads them on
Slaying CHief CHild CHampion !
BLood they BLINDLY spilt, no law
BINDING their guilt in Banba.

Pour their BLood to BLEND with blood,
Conor HAND of Hardihood,
CALL for ransom not my King ;
Slay ALL, be Untransacting.

Lies they Lie ! their Love is one
With TReachery and TReason,
Nay ! thou Needest NOT my spur ;
Revenge is HOT, Remember ! "

The quantity of verse composed in these classic metres all
through the seventeenth century was enormous, and amounts
to at least twenty thousand lines of the known poets not to
speak of the anonymous ones. Not more than a dozen of
them have ever been published,2 and yet no one can pretend

1 " lomdha eiric nach i sin
Agad a oighre Fhinghin,
Gan seana ar garbh-amhsaibh Gall
Media an t-amhgar-soin d'fhulang."

I.e., " Many an eric that is not that, [be] to thee, O heir of Finneen, with-
out refusing [to inflict loss] on the coarse-monsters of Galls : a grief to
endure that affliction ! " From a manuscript of my own. This poem
was also unknown to O'Reilly. It consists of 180 lines, and begins Leo
fein cuirid clann lotha, i.e., " By themselves go the children of the
Ithians," of whom the O'Driscolls were the chief tribe. For an account
of the little band of Ithians, the fourth division of the Gaelic family see
above, p. 67.

2 Since writing the above a German Celticist, Ludwig Christian Stern,
has written a most interesting account of a collection of bardic poems,
chiefly of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, now preserved in the Royal
Library at Copenhagen. This interesting collection is chiefly dedicated
to the praises of the Maguires of Fermanagh, and is the work of a number
of accomplished poets, most of whom are unknown to O'Reilly, even by

THE LAST OF THE CLASSIC POETS 537

understand the inner history of Ireland at that period with-
out a reference to them. Their chief characteristic is an
intense compression which produces an air of weighty sen-
tentiousness. This was necessitated by the laws of their
composition, which required at the end of every second line
a break or suspension of the sense (such as in English would
be usually expressed by a semi-colon or colon), and which
absolutely forbade any carrying over of the sense from one
stanza into another. Hence the thought of the poet had
with each fresh quatrain to be concentrated into twenty-
eight syllables (thirty syllables in Seadna metre), with a
break or pause at the end of the fourteenth (or fifteenth).
Accordingly O'Gnive calls the poets the "schoolmen of
condensed speech," * and the Scotch bard Mac Muirich in the
Red Book of Clanranald speaks of Teig Dall O'Higinn as
putting into less than a half-rann what others would take
a whole crooked stanza to express.2 The classical metres
went, in Irish, under the generic name of Dan Dlreach^ or
" straight verse ; " and O'Molloy, who wrote an Irish prosody
in Latin in the seventeenth century, carried away by a con-
templation of its difficulties, exclaims that it is " Omnium quae
unquam vidi vel audivi, ausim dicere quae sub sole reperiuntur,
difficilimum."

name. The whole collection contains 5,576 lines, of which Herr Julius
Stern has printed about a thousand, thus having the honour of being the
first to render accessible a fair specimen of the work of the current poetry
of the schools in the sixteenth century. The characteristics of this poetry
he appraises, very justly as I think, in the following words, " The lan-
guage is choice and difficult, the poetry is of the traditional type, poor
in facts, but elevated, stately, learned, and very artistic." See for this inte-
1 resting article the " Zeitschrift fur Celtische Philologie," II. Band, 2 Heft.,
Lt>p. 323-373, " Eine Sammlung irischer Gedichte in Kopenhagen."

1 " Ni mhair sgoluidhe sgeil teinn

D'uibh nDalaigh na d'uibh n-Uiginn."

From a manuscript of my own.

" Reliquiae Celticae," vol. ii. p. 297. Last stanza.

538 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

It was during the seventeenth century that the greatest
change in the whole poetical system of the Irish and Scotch
Gaels was accomplished, and that a new school of versification
arose with new ideals, new principles, and new methods, which
we shall briefly glance at in the following chapter.

CHAPTER XXXIX

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL

IN poetry the external form, or framework, or setting of the
poetic thought — the word-building in which the thought is en-
shrined— has varied vastly from age to age and from nation to
nation. There is the system of the Greeks and Romans, ac-
cording to which every syllable of every word is, as it were,
hall-marked with its own " quantity," counted, that is, (often
almost independently of the pronunciation) to be in itselr
either short or long, and their verse was made by special
collocations of these short or long syllables — a form highly
jartistic and beautiful.

Then there is the principle of the Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic,
id Teutonic peoples, which prevailed in England even down
:o the time of Chaucer, in which verse is marked only by accent
d staff-rhyme, in other words is alliterative as in the " Book
f Piers Ploughman."

tly, there is the rhymed poetry of the later Middle Ages,
hich outside of Wales and Ireland there probably exists
o example in a European vernacular language older than the
<iinth century. This system, apparently invented by the Celts,
umed in Ireland a most extraordinary and artificial form of
n, the essence of which was that they divided the conso-

540 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

nants into groups J- and any consonant belonging to a particular
group was allowed to rhyme with any other consonant belonging
to the same. Thus a word ending in t could rhyme with
a word ending in p or <:, but with no other ; a word ending in
b could rhyme with one ending in g or d, but with no other,
and so on. Thus " rap " would have been considered by the
Irish to make perfect rhyme with "sat" or "mac" but not
with " rag " ; and " rag " to make perfect rhyme with " slab "
or "mad," but not with "cap," "sat" or "mac."

This classification of the consonants which was taught in the
Irish schools for very many hundred years, and which forms the
basis of the classical poetry which we spoke of in the last
chapter, is to a considerable extent — I do not quite know how
far — founded upon really sound phonological principles,2 and
the ear of the Irishman was so finely attuned to it that no
mistake was ever made, for while such rhymes as " Flann "
and " ram " fell agreeably on his ear, any Irish poet for a thou-
sand years would have shuddered to hear " Flann " rhymed
with " raff." This accurate ear for the classification of con-
sonants is now almost a lost sense, but even still traces of it may
be found in the barbarous English rhymes of the Irish peasantry,
as in such rude verses as this from the County Cavan —

" By loving of a maiD,
One Catherine Mac CaBe,
My life it was betrayeD,
She's a dear maid on me."

Their classification was as follows : —

S stood by itself because of the peculiar phonetic laws which it obeys.

P.C.T. called soft consonants [really hard not soft].

B.G.D. called hard consonants [these are in fact rather soft than hard],

F. CH. TH. called rough consonants.

LL. M. NN. NG. RR. called strong consonants.

Bh. Dh. Ch. Mh. L.N.R. called light consonants.

2 " Diese Klasseneinteilung bekundet einen feinen Sinn fiir das Wesen
der Laute," says Herr Stern, in the article I have just quoted from. See
also the prosody in O' Donovan's grammar.

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL 541

Or this—

" I courted lovely Mary at the age of sixteeN
Slender was her waist and her carriage gentecL.''

Or this from the County Dublin —

" When you were an acorn on the tree toP
Then was I an aigle x coCK,
Now that you are a withered ould bloCK
Still am I an aigle cock."

this from the County Cork —

" Sir Henry kissed behind the bush

Sir Henry kissed the QuaKer ;
Well and what if he did
Sure he didn't aTe her ! "

Upon the whole, however, that keen perception for the nuances
f sound, and that fine ear which insisted upon a liquid
hyming only with a fellow liquid, and so on of the other
lasses, may be considered as almost wholly lost.

We now come to the great breaking up and total disruption
f the Irish prosody as employed for a thousand years by
tiousands of poets in the bardic schools and colleges. The
rinciples of this great change may be summed up in two
entences; first, the adoption of vowel rhyme in place of
onsonantal rhyme ; second, the adoption of a certain number
f accents in each line in place of a certain number of
yllables. These were two of the most far-reaching
hanges that could overtake the poetry of any country, and
hey completely metamorphosed that of Ireland.

It was only on the destruction of the great Milesian and
Gorman families in the seventeenth century, that the rules of
Doetry, so long and so carefully guarded in the bardic schools,
eased to be taught ; and it was the break up of these
chools which rendered the success of the new principles

1 " Eagle." This English rann dramatically denotes the longevity of
hat bird, as does also a well-known Irish one.

542 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

possible. A brilliant success they had. Almost in the twink-
ling of an eye Irish poetry completely changed its form and
complexion, and from being, as it were, so bound up and
swathed around with rules that none who had not spent years
over its technicalities could move about in it with vigour, its
spirit suddenly burst forth in all the freedom of the elements,
and clothed itself, so to speak, in the colours of the rainbow.
Now indeed for the first time poetry became the handmaid of
the many, not the mistress of the few ; and through every nook
and corner of the island the populace, neglecting all bardic
training, burst forth into the most passionate song. Now, too,
the remnant of the bards — the great houses being fallen —
turned instinctively to the general public, and threw behind
them the intricate metres of the schools, and dropped too, at a
stroke, several thousand words, which no one except the great
chiefs and those trained by the poets understood, whilst they
broke out into beautiful, and at the same time intelligible verse,
which no Gael of Ireland and Scotland who has ever heard or
learned it is likely ever to forget. This is to my mind perhaps
the sweetest creation of all Irish literature, the real glory of the
modern Irish nation, and of the Scottish Highlands, this is the
truest note of the enchanting Celtic siren, and he who has
once heard it and remains deaf to its charm can have little heart
for song or soul for music. The Gaelic poetry of the last two
centuries both in Ireland and in the Highlands is probably the
most sensuous attempt to convey music in words, ever made by
man. It is absolutely impossible to convey the lusciousness of
sound, richness of rhythm, and perfection of harmony, in another
language. Scores upon scores of new and brilliant metres made
their appearance, and the common Irish of the four provinces
deprived of almost everything else, clung all the closer to the
Muse. Of it indeed they might have said in the words of
Moore —

" Through grief and through danger thy smile has cheered my way
Till hope seemed to bud from each thorn that round about me lay."

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL 543

It is impossible to convey any idea of this new outburst
of Irish melody in another language. Suffice it to say that the
principle of it was a wonderful arrangement of vowel sounds, so
placed that in every accented syllable, first one vowel and then
another fell upon the ear in all possible kinds of harmonious
modifications. Some verses are made wholly on the A sound,
others on the 6, t;, E, or f sounds, but the majority on a wonderful
and fascinating intermixture of two, three, or more. The
consonants which played so very prominent a part under the old
bardic system were utterly neglected now, and vowel sounds
alone were sought for.

The Scottish Gaels, if I am not mistaken, led the way in
this great change, which metamorphosed the poetry of an
entire people in both islands. The bardic system, outside of
the kingdom of the Lord of the Isles, had apparently scarcely
taken the same hold upon the nobles, in Scotland as in Ireland,
and the first modern Scotch Gaelic poet to start upon the new
system seems to have been Mary, daughter of Alaster Rua Mac-
Leod, who was born in Harris in 1569, and who appears to
have possessed no higher social standing than that of a kind of
lady nurse in the chief's family. If the nine poems in free
vowel metres, which are attributed to her by Mackenzie in his
great collection,1 be genuine, then I should consider her as the

1 See for her poems " Sar-obair na mbard Gaelach," by Mackenzie, p. 22.
Unfortunately he gives us no full account of where the poems were
collected, all he says is, " We have the authority of several persons of high
respectability, and on whose testimony we can rely, that Mary McLeod
was the veritable authoress of the poems attributed to her in this work."
This is, in an important matter of the kind, very unsatisfactory, but Mary's
poem, " An talla 'm bu ghnd le MacLeod," seems to bear internal evidence
of its own antiquity in its allusions to the chief's bow —

" Si do lamb, nach robh tuisleach,
Dol a chaitheadh a chuspair
Led' bhogha cruaidh ruiteach deagh-neoil,"

to which she alludes again in the line —

" Nuair leumadh an tsaighead 6 do mheoir."
(" When the arrow wrould leap from your fingers.")

544 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

pioneer of the new school. Certainly no Irishman nor Irish-
woman of the sixteenth century has left anything like Mary's
metres behind them, and indeed I have not met more than one
or two of them used in Ireland during that century.1 No one,
for instance, would have dreamt of vowel-rhyming thus, as she
does over the drowning of Mac'Illachallun :

" My grief ray pain,
Relief was vain
The seething wave
Did leap and rave,
And reeve in twain,
Both sheet and sail,
And leave us bare

And FOUNDERING.

Alas, indeed,
For her you leave
Your brothers grief
To them will cleave.
It was on faster
Monday's feast
The branch of peace

Went DOWN WITH YOU."

The earliest intimations of the new school in Ireland
which I have been able to come across, occur towards the very
close of the sixteenth century, one being a war ode on a!
victory of the O'Byrnes,2 and the other being an abhran or

1 There are some poems in the Book of Ballymote in almost the same
metre as the well-known " Seaghan O'Duibhir an Ghleanna." This
metre was technically called, " Ocht-foclach Corranach beag." O'Curry
gives a specimen in " Manners and Customs," vol. iii. p. 393, from the
Book of Ballymote which has an astonishingly modern air, and may well
give pause to those who claim that Irish accentual poetry is derived from
an English source.

2 This poem, which like O'Daly's war-song, is entirely accentual and
vowel-rhyming, begins thus —

" A Bhratach ar a bhfaicim-se in gruaim ag fas
Dob' annamh leat in eaglais do 6/maw-choimhead,

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL 545

song addressed by a bard unknown to me, one John
Mac C&bhfmn to O'Conor Sligo, apparently on his being
blockaded by Red Hugh in the country of the Clan Donogh
in 1599.

As for the classical metres of the schools they w ere already
completely lost by the middle of the eighteenth century, and
the last specimen which I have found composed in Connacht
is one by Father Patrick O'Curneen,1 to the house of the
O'Conors, of Belanagare, in 1734, which is in perfect
Deibhidh metre.

" She who Rules the Race is one
sprung from the sparring Ternon,

MARY MILD of MIEN O'Rorke,

Our FAIRY CHILD QUEEN bulwark.2

Da mairfeadh [sin] fear-seasta na gcruadh-throdan
Feadh t'amhairc do bhiadh agat do'n tuaith 'na h-ait.

" O Flag, upon whom I see the melancholy growing,
Seldom was it thy lot to constantly guard the church (shut up

there) ;

If there lived the man-who-withstood the hard conflicts
Far-as-thy-eye-could-see thou wouldst have of the country in place

of it " [*.£., the church.]

(See Catalogue of the MSS. in the British Museum.)
1 The O'Curneens were, according to Mac Firbis's great Book of
mealogies, the hereditary poets and ollamhs of the O'Rorkes, with
/horn the O'Conors were closely related. The O'Conors' ollamh was
'Mulchonry.
This poem begins —

" Togha teaghlaigh tar gach tir
Beul atha na gcarr gclaidh-mhin
Mur is failteach re file
An dun dailteach deigh-inigh."

., " A choice hearth beyond every country, is the mouth of the ford of
cars [Belanagare] , the smooth-ditched. A fortress welcome-giving to
>et, the bestowing homestead of good generosity." The accented system
had now been in vogue for nearly a century and a half, and if O'Curneen
id wished to preserve an even rise and fall of accent in his verses (which
does do in his first line) he might have done so. That he did not do so,
that none of the straight-verse or classical poets attempted it, long
2 M

546 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Let me Pray the Puissant one
To Mark them in their Mansion,
Guard from FEAR their FAME and wed
Each YEAR their NAME and homestead."

In Munster I find the poet Andrew Mac Curtin some time
between the year 1718 and 1743,* complaining to James
Mac Donnell, of Kilkee, that he had to frame " a left-handed
awkward ditty of a thing," meaning a poem of the new
school ; " but I have had to do it," he says, " to fit myself in
with the evil fashion that was never practised in Erin before,
since it is a thing that I see, that greater is the respect and
honour every dry scant-educated boor, or every clumsy baogaire
of little learning, who has no clear view of either alliteration
or poetry,2 gets from the noblemen of the country, than the
courteous very-educated shanachy or man of song, if he
compose a well-made lay or poem." Nevertheless, he insists
that he will make a true poem, "although wealthy men of
herds, or people of riches think that I am a fool if I compose a
lay or poem in good taste, that is not my belief. Although
rich men of herds, merchants, or people who put out money to
grow, think that great is the blindness and want of sense to

after they had become acquainted with the other system, seems to me a
strong proof that they did not intend it, and that they really possessed no
system of " metrical accent " at all.

It is noticeable that O'Curneen wrote this poem in the difficult bardic
dialect, so that Charles O'Conor of Belanagare, whose native language
was Irish, was obliged in his copy to gloss over twenty words of it with
more familiar ones of his own. These uncommon bardic terms were
wholly thrown aside by the new school.

1 His poem with its prose Irish preface is addressed to Sorley Mac Donnell,
and Isabel, his wife, who was an O'Brien. They were married in 1718,
and Mac Donnell died in 1743. See a collection of poems written by the
Clare bards in honour of the Mac Donnells of Kilkee and Killone, in the
County of Clare, collected and edited by Brian O'Looney for Major
Mac Donnell, for private circulation in 1863.

2"Nach leir do uaim no aisde."

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL 547

compose a duan or a poem, they being well satisfied if only they
can speak the Saxon dialect, and are able to have stock of
bullocks or sheep, and to put redness [/.*., of cultivation] on
hills — nevertheless, it is by me understood that they are very
greatly deceived, because their herds and their heavy riches shall
go by like a summer fog, but the scientific work shall be there
to be seen for ever," etc. The poem which he composed on
that occasion was, perhaps, the last in Deibhidh metre composed
in the province of Munster.1

In Scotland the Deibhidh was not forgotten until after
SherifFmuir, in 1715. There is an admirable elegy of 220
lines in the Book of Clanranald on Allan of Clanranald, who
was there slain.2 It is in no way distinguishable from an
Irish poem of the same period. There are other poems in this
book in perfect classical metres, for in the kingdom of the
Lord of the Isles the bards and their schools may be said to
have almost found a last asylum. Indeed, up to this period, so
far as I can see, — whatever may have been the case with the
spoken language — the written language of the two countries
was absolutely identical, and Irish bards and harpers found a
second home in North Scotland and the Isles, where such
poems as those of Gerald, fourth Earl of Desmond, appear to
have been as popular as they were in Munster. We may,

len, place the generation that lived between SherifFmuir and
illoden as that which witnessed the end of the classical

letres in both countries, over all Ireland and Gaelic-speaking
Scotland, from Sutherland in the North, to the County Kerry
in the South, so that, from that day to this, vowel-rhyming

:cented metres which had been making their way in both

1 I have since, however, found a poem by Micheal 6g O'Longain, written
late as 1800, which goes somewhat close to real Deibhidh. It begins —

" Tagraim libh a Chlann Eibhir,
Leath bhur luith nach Ian leir libh
Meala dhaoibh thar aoin eile
A dul d'eag do'n gaoidheilge."

* Cameron's " Reliquiae Celticse," vol. ii. p. 248.

548 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

countries from a little before the year 1600, have reigned
without any rival.

Wonderful metres these were. Here is an example of one
made on the vowels e [ae] and 6, but while the arrangement in
the first half of the verse is 0/6, e/o, e/o, o ; the arrangement
in the second half is o 6, o e, o e, e. I have translated it in
such a way as to mark the vowel rhymes, and this will show
better than anything else the plan of Irish poetry during the
last 250 years. To understand the scheme thoroughly the
vowels must not be slurred over, but be dwelt upon and
accentuated as they are in Irish.

" The poets with lAys are uprAising their notes

In amAze, and they knOw how their tones will delight,
For the golden-hair lAdy so grAceful, so pOseful,

So gAElic, so glorious enthroned in our sight.
Unfolding a tAle, how the sOul of a f Ay must

Be clothed in the frAme of a lAdy so bright,
Untold are her grAces, a rOse in her f Ace is

And nO man so stAid is but f Aints at her sight." x

Here is another verse of a different character, in which three
words follow each other in each line, all making a different
vowel-rhyme.

" O swan BRIGHTLY GLEAMING o'er ponds WHITELY BEAMING, <

Swim on LIGHTLY CLEAVING and flashing through sea,
The wan NIGHT is LEAVING my fond SPRITE in GRIEVING
Beyond SIGHT, or SEEING thou'rt passing f rom me."

1 This is a poem by the Cork bard, Tadhg Gaolach O'Sullivan, who
died in 1800. He wrote this poem in his youth, before his muse gave
itself up, as it did in later days, to wholly religious subjects. In the
original the rhymes are on e and u.

" Taid Eigse 'gus ughdair go trupach ag plfiireacht

So stigach, go sglEipeach 's a ndrEachta da snigheam
Ar SpEir-bhruinnioll mhuinte do phlur-sgoth na h-Eireann

Do ur-chriostal ^gAolach a's rEiltion na righeacht ;
Ta fiunn-lil ag plEireacht mar dhubha ar an Eclips,

Go cludaighthe ag PhoEbus, le Aon-ghile gnaoi,
'Sgur'na^gntiis mhilis lEightear do thuirling Cupid caEmh-ghlic

Ag muchadh 'sag milleadh lAochra le trEan-neart a shaoighid."

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL 549

Here is another typical verse of a metre in which many
poems were made to the air of Moreen ni [nee] Cullenain. It
is made on the sounds of o, ee, ar — o, ar — o, repeated in the
same order four times in every verse, the second and third o's
being dissyllables. It is a beautiful and intricate metre.

" AlOne with mE a bARd roving

On guARd going ere the dawn,
Was bold to SEE af AR rOaming

The stAR Moreen ni Cullenaun.
The Only shE the ARch-gOing

The dARk-flOwing fairy fawn,
With soulful glEE the lARks soaring

Like spARks O'er her lit the lawn." *

Here is another metre from a beautiful Scotch Gaelic
>em. The Scotch Gaels, like the Irish, produced about
le same time a wonderful outburst of lyric poetry worthy
take a place in the national literature beside the spirited
illads of the Lowlands. Unlike the Lowlands, however,
leither they nor the Irish can be said to have at all
icceeded with the ballad.

" To a f AR mountain hARbour
Prince ChARlie came flYing,
The winds from the Highlands

Wailed wild in the air,
On his breast was no stAR,
And no guARd was beside him,
But a girl by him gliding
Who guided him there.

1 "D' easgadh an pheacaidh, forior,

Do sheol sinn faoi dhlighthibh namhad,
Gan flathas Airt, ag por Gaoidheal^

Gan seoid puinn, gan cion gan aird,
'Sgach bathlach bracach beol-bhuidhe

De'nchoip chrion do rith thar sail
I gceannas flaith 's i gcoimh-thigheas
Le Moirin ni Chuillionain."

This is a verse from the same poem, but not the one above translated.

550 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Like a rAy went the mAiden
Still f Aithful, but mourning,
For ChARlie was pARting
From heARts that adored him,
And sighing beside him
She spied over Ocean
The Oarsmen before them
Approaching their lair." *

These beautiful and recondite measures were meant appa-
rently to imitate music, and many of them are wedded to
well-known airs. They did not all come into vogue at the
same time, but reached their highest pitch of perfection and
melody — melody at times exaggerated, too luscious, almost
cloying — about the middle of the eighteenth century, at
a time when the Irish, deprived by the Penal laws of all
possibility of bettering their condition or of educating them-
selves, could do nothing but sing, which they did in every
county of Ireland, with all the sweetness of the dying
swan.

Dr. Geoffrey Keating, the historian, himself said to have
been a casual habitue of the schools of the bards, and a close
friend of many of the bardic professors, was nevertheless one

1 See " Eachtraidh a' Phrionnsa le Iain Mac Coinnich," p. 270. The
poem is by D. B. Mac Leoid. It looks like a later production, but will
exemplify a not uncommon metre.

Gu cladach a' chuhin
Ri/war-ghaoth an Anmoich
Thriall TeAdach gan deAllradh

Air Allaban 's e sgith,
Gun reull air a bhroilleach
No freiceadan a f Albh leis
Ach ainnir nan gorm-shul

Bu dealbhaiche lith.
Mar dhaoimean 'san oidhche
Bha(n) mhaighdean fu thursa
Si craiteach mu Thearlach
Bhifagail a dhiithcha ;
Bu trom air a h-osnat
S bu ghoirl deoir a suilean
Nuair chonnaic i 'n iubhrach

A ' dluthadh re tir."

RISE OF A NEW SCHOOL

551

of the first to wring himself free from the fetters of the
classical metres, and to adopt an accented instead of a syllabic
standard of verse. We must now go back and give some
account of this remarkable man, and of some of his contem-
poraries of the seventeenth century.

CHAPTER XL

PROSE WRITERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

DURING the first half of the seventeeth century, the Irish,
heavily handicapped as they were, and deprived of the power
of printing, nevertheless made tremendous efforts to keep
abreast of the rest of Europe in science and literature. It was
indeed an age of national scholarship which has never since
been equalled. It was this half century that produced in rapid
succession Geoffrey Keating, the Four Masters, and DualdMac
Firbis, men of whom any age or country might be proud,
men who amid the war, rapine, and conflagration, that rolled
through the country at the heels of the English soldiers, still
strove to save from the general wreck those records of their
country which to-day make the name of Ireland honourable
for her antiquities, traditions, and history, in the eyes of the
scholars of Europe.

Of these men, Keating, as a prose writer, was the greatest.
He was a man of literature, a poet, professor, theologian, and
historian, in one. He brought the art of writing limpid Irish
to its highest perfection, and ever since the publication of his
history of Ireland some two hundred and fifty years ago, the
modern language may be said to have been stereotyped.

Born in Tipperary, not of a native Irish, but of an ancient

552

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 553

Norman family, as he takes care to inform us, he was at an
early age sent to the Continent to be educated for the priest-
hood. There in the cloisters of some foreign seminary his
young heart was early rent with accounts of robbery, plunder,
and confiscation, as chieftain after chieftain was driven from
his home and patrimony, and compelled to seek asylum and
shelter from the magnanimous Spaniard. " The same to me,"
cries, in the hexameter of the Gael, some unhappy wanderer
contemporaneous with Keating, driven to find refuge where he
could, " the same to me are mountain or ocean, Ireland or
the West of Spain, I have shut and made fast the gates of
sorrow over my heart." r And there was scarcely a noble
family in any corner of the island whose members might not
have repeated the same. At this particular period there were
few priests of note who had not received a foreign education,
and few of the great houses who had not the most intimate
relations with France and Spain : indeed in the succeeding
century these two countries, especially France, stood to the
Irish Celts in nearly the same familiar relation as England
does at present.

After his return from Spain, Keating, now a doctor of
divinity, was appointed to a church in Tipperary, where his
fame as a preacher soon drew crowds together. Amongst
these arrived one day — unluckily for Keating, but luckily for
Ireland — a damsel whose relations with the English Lord
President of Munster were said not to bear the strictest
investigation, and it so chanced that the preacher's subject that
day was the very one which, for good reasons, least commended
itself to the lady. All eyes were directed against her, and she,
returning aggrieved and furious, instigated Carew to at once
put the anti-Popery laws in execution against Keating.

1 " lonann dam sliabh a's saile
Eire a's iarthar Easpaine,
Do chuireas dunta go deas
Geata dluth ris an doilgheas."

Copied from a MS. in Trinity College. I forget its number.

554 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

The difficulties which the learned men of Ireland had to
fight their way through, even from the first quarter of the
seventeenth century, have scarcely been sufficiently understood
or appreciated, but they are well illustrated in the case of
Keating. It is usually assumed that the Penal laws did not
begin to operate to the intellectual ruin of the Irish until the
eighteenth century. But, in truth, the paths of learning and
progress were largely barred by them after the first quarter of the
seventeenth century. Already, as early as 1615, King James
had issued a commission to inquire into the state of education
in Ireland, and the celebrated Ussher, then Chancellor of St.
Patrick's, was placed at the head ot it. Ussher was far and
away the greatest scholar of the Pale in the seventeenth century,
and his efforts in the cause of Irish antiquities have received
deserved recognition from all native writers, and yet even
Ussher appears to have shut up remorselessly the native schools
wherever he found them, on the ground that the teachers
did not conform to the established religion. Here is how
he acted towards the father of the celebrated John Lynch,
the learned antiquarian and author of the " Cambrensis
Eversus,"1 who was at the head of a native college in
Galway.

" We found," says Ussher, " at Galway a publique schoolmaster,
named Lynch, placed there by the cittizens, who had great numbers
of schollers not only out of the province [of Connacht] but (even)
out of the 'Pale' and other partes resorting to him. Wee had
proofe during our continuance in that citty, how his schollers
proffitted under him by the verses and orations which they presented
us. Wee sent for that schoolemaster before us, and seriously
advised him to conform to the religion established ; and not prevail-
ing with our advices, we enjoyned him to forbear teaching ; and I,
the Chancellour, did take recognizance of him and some others of
his relatives in that citty, in the sum of 400 li sterling [at that time,
fully equal to ^2,000] to his Majesty's use, that from thenceforth he

1 Published by the Celtic Society in 1848, in 3 vols., with a translation
and copious notes.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 555

should forbeare to teach any more, without the speciall license of
the Lord Deputy."1

Twelve years later we find this enlightened and really great
scholar lending all his authority to a pronouncement headed :
" The judgment of divers of the Archbishops and Bishops
of Ireland concerning toleration of Religion," in which he thus
delivers himself : —

" The religion of the Papists is superstitious and idolatrous, their
faith and doctrine erroneous and heretical ; their church in respect
of both apostatical. To give them therefore a toleration is to
consent that they may freely exercise their religion and profess their
faith and doctrine, and is a grievous sin, and that in two respects :

:i. It is to make ourselves accessory not only to their superstitious
idolatries and heresies, and in a word to all the abominations of
Popery, but also (which is a consequent of the former) to the
perdition of the seduced people which perish in the deluge of the
Catholick apostacy.

2. To grant them toleration in respect of any money to be given
or contribution to be made by them, is to set religion at sale, and
with it the souls of the people whom Christ our Saviour hath
redeemed with His most precious blood," etc.

This document was signed by James Ussher, of Armagh,
Primate, with eleven other bishops, and promulgated on the
23rd of April, 1627.2

It may have been in consequence of the fresh fillip thus given
, > to a policy which had till then been largely in abeyance — for
fear of provoking physical resistance — that Carew, already
incited against Keating by his lady friend, sent out a force

1 Regal Visitation Book, A.D. 1622, MS. in Marsh's Library, Dublin,
I quoted by D'Arcy McGee in his " Irish Writers of the Seventeenth Century,"

p. 85 ; but Hardiman, in his " West Connaught," no doubt rightly gives the
date of this visitation as 1615. A writer in the " Dublin Penny Journal,"
[identified this schoolmaster with the author of the " Cambrensis Eversus,"
but Hardiman shows that it must have been his father. See " West
[Connaught," p. 420 note.

2 Elrington's great edition of Ussher's works in 17 vols., but I have not
loted volume or page.

556 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of soldiers to seize him and bring him a prisoner into Cork.
Keating, however, received information of the design, and fled
into the famous Glen of Aherlow, where he remained for some
years effectually hidden. It was at this time, that finding
himself unable to continue his priestly labours, he conceived
the ambitious design of writing a history of Ireland from the
earliest times down to the Norman Conquest. In pursuance
of this intention he is said to have travelled in disguise up and
down through the island to consult the ancient vellum books,
at that time still preserved in the families of the hereditary
brehons or in the neighbourhood of the ancient monasteries,
which are said to have been everywhere gladly shown to him
except in the province of Connacht and parts of Ulster, where
some of the old families refused to allow him to inspect their
books because he was a Norman by race and not a Gael !

"I conceive," says Keating, in his preface, "that my testimony
ought the more readily to be admitted from the fact that I treat
therein more particularly of the Gaels, and if any man deem that I
give them too much credit, let him not imagine that I do so through
partiality, praising them more than is just through love of my own
kindred, for I belong, according to my own extraction, to the Old
Galls or the Anglo-Norman race. I have seen that the natives of
Ireland are maligned by every modern Englishman who speaks of
the country. For this reason, being much grieved at the unfairness
those writers have shown to Irishmen, I have felt urged to write a
history of Ireland myself."

The value of Keating's history is very great to the student
of Irish antiquity, not because of any critical faculty on the
part of Keating himself, for (perhaps luckily) this was a gift
he was not endowed with, but on account of the very lack
of it. What Keating found in the old vellums of the monas-
teries and the brehons, as they existed about the year i6^
they have, many of them, perished since — he rewrote and
redacted in his own language like another Herodotus. H<
invents nothing, embroiders little. What he does not fine
before him, he does not relate, ouSe yap ovv Alyerm, as is the

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 557

formula of Herodotus. He composed his history in the south
of Ireland, at nearly the same time that the Four Masters in
the north of Ireland were collecting the materials for their
annals, and though he wrote currents calamo^ and is in matters
of fact less accurate than they are, yet his history is an inde-
pendent compilation made from the same class of ancient
vellums, often from the very same books from which they
also derived their information, and it must ever remain a
co-ordinate authority to be consulted by historians along with
them and the other annalists.1

The opening words of his history may serve as a specimen
of his style. It begins thus —

" Whoever sets before him the task of inquiring into and investi-
gating the history and antiquity of any country, ought to adopt the
mode that most clearly explains its true state, and gives the most
correct account of its inhabitants. And because I have undertaken
to write and publish a history of Ireland, I deem myself obliged to
complain of some of the wrongs and acts of injustice practised
towards its inhabitants, as well towards the Old Galls [Anglo-
Normans], who have been in possession of the country for more
than four centuries since the English invasion, as towards the Gaels
themselves, who have owned it for three thousand years. For there
is no historian who has written upon Ireland since the English
invasion, who does not strive to vilify and calumniate both Anglo-
Irish colonists and the Gaelic natives. We have proofs of this in the
accounts of the country given by Cambrensis, Spenser, Stanihurst,

1 The books of ancient authority which Keating quotes as still existing
n his own day, are the Psalter of Cashel, compiled by Cormac mac Culinan ;
he Book of Armagh, apparently a different book from that now so-called ;
he Book of Cluain-Aidnech-Fintan in Leix, the Book of Glendaloch, the
Book of Rights, the [now fragmentary] Leabhar na h-Uidhre, the Yellow
Book of Moling, the Black Book of Molaga. He also mentions the Book of
Conquests, the Book of the Provinces [a book of the genealogies of the
Gaelic tribes of each province], the Book of Reigns [said to have been
written by Gilla Kevin, a bard of the eleventh century], the Book of Epochs,
:he Book of Synchronisms [by Flann of the Monastery] , the Dinnseanchus
[a book of the etymologies, and history of names and places, published
from various MSS. by Whitley Stokes, in the " Folklore Review"], the Book

the Pedigrees of Women, and a number of others.

558 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Hanmer, Camden, Barclay, Morrison, Davis, Campion, and all the
writers of the New Galls [i.e., later English settlers] who have
treated of this country. So much so that when they speak of the
Irish one would imagine that these men were actuated by the
instinct of the beetle x ; for it is the nature of this animal, when it
raises its head in the summer, to flutter about without stooping to
the fair flowers of the meadow or to the blossoms of the garden —
not though they be all roses and lilies — but it bustles hurriedly
around until it meets with some disgusting ordure, and it buries
itself therein. So it is with the above-named writers. They never
allude to the virtues and the good customs of the old Anglo-Irish
and Gaelic nobility who dwelt in Ireland in their time. They write
not of their piety or their valour, or of what monasteries they
founded, what lands and endowments they gave to the Church, what
immunities they granted to the ollamhs, their bounty to the ecclesi-
astics and prelates of the Church, the relief they afforded to orphans
and to the poor, their munificence to men of learning, and their
hospitality to strangers, which was so great that it may be said, in
truth, that they were not at any time surpassed by any nation of
Europe in generosity and hospitality, in proportion to the abilities
they possessed. Witness the meetings of the learned which they
used to convene, a custom unheard of amongst other nations of
Europe. And yet nothing of all this can be found in the English
writers of the time, but they dwell upon the customs of the vulgar,
and upon the stories of ignorant old women, neglecting the illus-
trious action of the nobility, and all that relates to the ancient Gaels
that inhabited this island before the invasion of the Anglo-Normans."

Keating's history 2 was perhaps the most popular book ever
written in Irish, and, as it could not be printed, it was propa-

1 " Innus gur ab e nos, beagnach, an phrimpollain do ghm'd, ag scriobhadh
ar Eirionchaibh."

2 The first volume of Keating's History was published in Dublin by
Halliday, in 1811, but that brilliant young scholar did not live to complete
it. John O'Mahoney, the Fenian Head Centre, published a splendid
translation of the whole work from the best MSS. which in his exile he
was able to procure, in New York in 1866, but its introduction into the
United Kingdom was prohibited on the grounds that it infringed copy-
right. Dr. Todd remarks on this translation, " notwithstanding the
extravagant and very mischievous political opinions avowed by Mr.
O'Mahoney, his translation of Keating is a great improvement upon the
ignorant and dishonest one published by Mr. Dermod O'Connor more
than a century ago," — a foolish remark of Dr. Todd's, who must have

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 559

gated by hundreds of manuscript copies all over the island.
He is the author of two other voluminous books of a theolo-
gical and moral nature, called the " Key to the Shield of the
Mass," and the " Three Shafts of Death." Keating was witty,
and very fond of a good story. Here is a specimen which I
translate from his latter work. Pirates were a familiar feature
in the life of Keating's day, and he tells the following amusing
tale of one engaged in this trade, probably an O'Driscoll.
Talking of the fruit of this world Keating remarks that
though it tastes sweet it ends bitterly.

THE STORY OF MAC RAICIN.

" I think it happens to many a one in this world as it did to the
wild and ignorant Kerne from the west of Munster who went aboard
a warship to seek spoils on the ocean. And he put ashore in
England, and at the first town that they met on land the towns-
people came to welcome them and bring them to their houses to
entertain them, for the people of the town were mostly innkeepers.
And the Kerne wondered at their inviting himself, considering that
he did not know any of them. But he himself and some of the
people who were with him went to the house of one of them, to the
inn, and the people of the house were very kind to them for a week,
Iso that what between the cleanliness of the abode, and the excellence
of his bed, food, and drink, the Kerne thought his position a delight-
ful one.

" However, when he and his company were taking their leave the
[innkeeper called the accountant he had, saying, ' make reckoning!
that means in Irish, 'pay your bill,' and with that the accountant
:ame, and he commenced to strip the people so that they were
)bliged to give full payment for everything they had had in the
while there, and they were left bare when they went away.

iderstood that most readers of Keating are to be found amongst men to
/horn his own political opinions thus unnecessarily vented, were equally
\ mischievous." Dr. Robert Atkinson published the Text of the *' Three
Shafts of Death " without a translation, but with a most carefully-compiled
;.nd admirable glossary in 1890. Keating's third work has never been
Imblished, but I printed some extracts from a good MS. of it lent me by
lie O'Conor Don in an American paper. My friend Mr. John Mac Neill
las pointed me out what is apparently a fourth work of Keating's on the
iilessed Virgin.

560 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

And, moreover, the Kerne wondered what was the cause of himself
and the others being plundered like that, for before this he had
never known food to be bought or sold.

" And when he came to Erin his friends began asking him to give
an account of England. He began to tell them, and said that he
never did see a land that was better off for food and drink, fire and
bedding, or more pleasant people, and I don't know a single fault
about it, says he, except that when strangers are taking leave of the
people who entertain them, there comes down on them an infernal
horrid wretch that they call Mac Rakeen1 (make reckoning) who
handles strangers rudely, and strips and spoils them."

Keating then draws the moral in his own way, " that land
of England is the world ; the innkeepers, the world, the flesh,
and the devil ; the Kerne, people in general ; and Mac Rakeen
the Death."

During the time when Keating was in hiding he is said to
have visited Cork and to have transcribed manuscripts which
he required for the purposes of his history almost under the very
eyes of the Lord President himself, and to have visited Dublin
in the same manner. After the departure of Carew he re-
appeared, and seems to have died quietly as parish priest of
Tubrid in Tipperary about the year 1650.

Almost every native scholar produced by Ireland during the
seventeenth century seems to have been hampered by persecution
in the same way as Keating, and loud and bitter were the com-
plaints of the Irish at the policy of the English Government in
cutting them off from education. Peter Lombard, the Catholic
Archbishop of Armagh, who died in 1625, and who wrote in
Latin and published — of course abroad, he would not well do it at
home — a "Commentary on the Kingdom of Ireland," assures his
countrymen and all Europe that it had been the steady plan
of the English Government to cut off education from the Irish,
and to prevent them having a university of their own, despite the

1 From the Kerne's, who was of course utterly ignorant of
mistaking " make " for the Irish " Mac," it is plain that the ancient prom
ciation of this word (Anglo-Saxon macian) had not then been lost.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 561

keen longing which his countrymen had for liberal studies, and
the way in which they had always hitherto distinguished them-
selves in them. Even, he asserts, whilst England was still
Catholic, her policy had been the same, and when the question
of an Irish university was being debated in the English Council
it had no bitterer enemy than a celebrated Catholic bishop.
When some one afterwards remonstrated with this dignitary
for opposing a work at once so holy and so salutary as the
establishment of a Catholic university in Ireland, the answer
made him was that it was not as a Catholic bishop he opposed
it, but as an English senator.1 " Well for him," remarks
Lombard grimly, " if in the council of God and his saints, when
the severe sentence of the Deity is passed upon the bishop,
the senator by a like display of nimble wit may escape it."

When the university, so long and so anxiously sought for,
was actually founded, cc most capacious, most splendid," as
Lombard puts it, at their expense^ in the shape of Trinity
College, Dublin, and they found themselves excluded from its
benefits, their indignation, as expressed by Lombard and others,
knew no bounds.2 But their indignation was of little use,

1 " Cum Hiberni et bene sint affecti, et insigniter idonei ad studia
literarum et liberalium artium, utpote ingeniis bonis et acutis passim
praediti, non potuit hactenus obtineri unquam a praefectis Anglis ut in
Hibernia Universitas studiorum erigeretur. Imo dum aliquando de ea
re etiam, Catholico tempore, in Concilio Angliae propositio fieret, obstitit
acerrime unus e primariis Senatoribus, et ipse quidem Celebris episcopus,
quern cum postea alius quidam admoneret, mirari se quod is utpote
episcopus Catholicus tarn sanctum atque salutare opus impediret.
Respondit ille se non ut Episcopum Catholicae Ecclesiae sed ut Senatorem
regni Angliae sententiam istam in concilio protulisse, qua opus istud
impediretur.

" Quod bene forte se haberet si in Concilio Dei et Sanctorum ejus quando
de Episcopo severior daretur sententia, ab ea, pari posset acumine Senator
liberari " (" De Hibernia Commentarius." Louvain, 1632).

~ " Toties requisita studiorum Universitas ante annos aliquot erectum fuit
decreto Reginse (tametsi sumptibus Indigenarum) juxta civitatem
Dubliniensem, capacissimum et splendidissimum collegium, in quo ordi-
natum est ut disciplinae omnes liberates traderentur, sed ab hsereticis
magistris, quales cum Hibernia nequaquam subministraret ex Anglia

2N

I

562 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

because they could not back it by their arms, and when they
did so, they were beaten by Cromwell, and their last state
rendered twenty times worse than their first.

Mac Firbis was another native Irish author of great learning
who wrote in Irish contemporaneously with Keating. He was
himself descended from Dathi, the last pagan monarch of
Ireland, and his family had been for time out of mind the
hereditary historians of North Connacht. The great Book of
Lecan was compiled by one of his ancestors. His own greatest
surviving work is his Book of Genealogies which contains
enough to fill thirteen hundred pages of O'Donovan's edition of
the " Four Masters." This he compiled during the horrors of
the Cromwellian war, simply as a labour of love, and in the
hope that at least the names and genealogies of the nation
might be saved to posterity out of what then seemed the ruin
of all things. Another book of his was a catalogue of Irish
writers.1 Mac Firbis mentions that even in his own day he
had known Irish chieftains who governed their clans accord-
ing to the " words of Fithal and the Royal Precepts,"
that is, according to the books of the Brehon law. He also
compiled or wrote out the ct Chronicon Scotorum," apparently
from old manuscripts preserved in his family. He compiled, too,
a glossary of the ancients laws, of which only a fragment exists,
and made copies of five other ancient glossaries and law tracts.
He says himself, in his Book of Genealogies, that he had
compiled a dictionary of the Brehon laws in which he had given

submissi sunt. Qui pro sua etiam propaganda et confirmanda religione,
insuper acceperunt, et munus praedicandi doctrinam suam Evangelicam
in civitate Dublinensi et mandatum exigendi juramentum, supremae
potestatis Reginae in rebus ecclesiasticis, ab adolescentibus quos in literis
instituebant," etc.

These extracts show the light in which the native Irish regarded the
foundation of Trinity College.

1 The late Mr. Hennessy I believe discovered and made a transcript of
a portion of this book, which is in the Royal Irish Academy, but I have
been unable to lay my hands on it.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 563

extensive explanations of them. His genealogical volume is
divided into nine books. The first treats of Partholan, the
second of the Nemedians, the third of the Firbolg, the fourth
of the Tuatha De Danann, the fifth of the Milesians, chiefly
the Eremonians, the sixth of the Irians and the Eremonian
tribes that went under the generic name of the Dal Fiatach,
the seventh of the Eberians and of the Ithians of Munster, the
eighth of the Saints of Ireland, and the ninth and last treats ot
the families descended from the Fomorians, Danes, Saxons,
and Anglo-Normans.

" Here," says Mac Firbis, " is the distinction which the profound
historians draw between the three different races which are in Erin.
Every one who is white of skin, brown of hair, bold, honourable,
daring, prosperous, bountiful in the bestowal of property wealth and
rings, and who is not afraid of battle or combats, they are the
descendants of the sons of Milesius in Erin.

" Every one who is fair-haired, vengeful, large, and every plunderer,
every musical person, the professors of musical and entertaining
performances, who are adepts in all druidical and magical arts, they
are the descendants of the Tuatha De Danann in Erin.1

" Every one who is black-haired, who is a tattler, guileful, tale-
telling, noisy, contemptible, every wretched, mean, strolling, unsteady,
harsh, and inhospitable person, every slave, every mean thief, every
churl, every one who loves not to listen to music and entertainment,
the disturbers of every council and every assembly, and the pro-
moters of discord among people, these are of the descendants of the
Firbolg, of the Gailiuns,2 of Liogairne, and of the Fir Domhnann in
Erin. But, however, the descendants of the Firbolg are the most
numerous of all these.

" This is taken from an old book. And, indeed, that it is possible to
identify a race by their personal appearance and dispositions I do
not take upon myself positively to say, for it may have been true in
the ancient times, until the race became repeatedly intermixed. For
we daily see even in our own time, and we often hear it from our old
men, that there is a similitude of people, a similitude of form, cha-
racter, and names in some families of Erin compared with others."

1 It must be observed that no Irish family is traced to a Tuatha De
Danann ancestry.

2 O'Curry. MS. Mat. p. 224. For a very different estimate of the
Gailiuns or Gaileoins, see above p. 323.

564 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Mac Firbis's book, which is an enlarged continuation down
to the year 1650 or so, of the genealogical trees contained in
the Books of Leinster, Ballymote, and Lecan, is as O'Curry
remarks, perhaps the greatest national genealogical compilation
in the world, and it is sad to think that almost every tribe and
family of the many thousands mentioned in this great work
has either been utterly rooted out and exterminated, or else
been dispersed to the four winds of heaven, and the entire
genealogical system and tribal polity, kept with such care for
fifteen hundred years, has disappeared off the face of the earth
with the men who kept it.

Lughaidh [Lewy] O'Clery, the great northern poet, ollamh
and historian of the O'Donnells, who, in the " Contention of
the Bards " opposed Mac Daire, lived somewhat earlier than
Keating and Mac Firbis. He has left behind him, written in the
difficult archaic Irish of the professional ollamhs, an interesting
life of Red Hugh O'Donnell, giving the history of the time
from 1586 to i6o2,J with a full account of his hero's birth, his
treacherous capture and confinement in Dublin Castle, his
escape and recapture, his second escape, and the hardships he
underwent in returning to his people in Donegal, his inaugu-
ration as the O'Donnell, and his " crowded hour of glorious
life," until his death at Simancas in 1608, poisoned as we now
know almost to a certainty, from the publication of the State
Papers, by an emissary of Mountjoy the Lord Deputy, and
Carew the President of Munster. Of this, however, Lughaidh
O'Clery had no suspicion, he only tells of the sudden and un-

1 It is a mere accident that this valuable work has survived. The only
known copy of it is in the handwriting of Lughaidh's son Cucogry, and
the book was unknown to O'Reilly when he compiled his " Irish Writers."
It was handed down in the O'Clery family until it came to Patrick O'Clery
who lent it to O'Reilly, the lexicographer, some time after 1817, and,
O'Reilly dying, the book was sold at his auction in spite of the protests
of poor O'Clery. It is now in the Royal Irish Academy and has been
edited by the late Father Denis Murphy, S.J., in 1893, whose translation
I have for the most part followed. The text of this biography would fill
about 150 pages of this book.

SEVENTEENTH CENTURA PROSE 565

expected sickness which overtook O'Donnell and killed him
after sixteen days, to the utter ruin of the cause of Ireland.
Here is his account, which I give as a specimen of his style,
of O'DonnelPs preparations before the Battle of the Curlews :

"The occupation of O'Donnell's forces during the time that he
was in this monastery was exercising themselves and preparing for
the fight and for the encounter which they were called to engage in.
They were cleaning and getting ready their guns, and drying and
exposing to the sun their grain powder, and filling their pouches, and
casting their leaden bullets and heavy spherical balls, sharpening
their strong-handled spears and their war-pikes, polishing their long
broadswords and their bright-shining axes, and preparing their arms
and armour and implements of war."

O'Donnell's address to his soldiers is quite differently re-
corded from the way in which O'Sullivan Beare relates it ; it is
much less ornate and eloquent, but is probably far more nearly
correct, for Lughaidh O'Clery may very well have heard it
delivered himself, and it had not passed with him through the
disfiguring medium of the Latin language.

" We, though a small number," said O'Donnell, " are on the side of
the right as it seems to us, and the English whose number is large
are on the side of robbery, in order to rob you of your native land
and your means of living, and it is far easier for you to make a brave,
stout, strong fight for your native land and your lives whilst you are
your own masters and your weapons are in your hands, then when
you are put into prison and in chains after being despoiled of your
weapons, and when your limbs are bound with hard, tough cords of
hemp, after being broken and torn, some of you half dead, after you
are chained and taken in crowds on waggons and carts through the
streets of the English towns through contempt and mockery of you.
My blessing upon you, true men. Bear in your minds the firm re-
solution that you had when such insults and violence were offered to
you (as was done to many of your race) that this day is the day of
battle which you have needed to make a vigorous fight in defence of
your liberty by the strength of your arms and by the courage of your
hearts, while you have your bodies under your own control and your
weapons in your hands. Have no dread nor fear of the great
numbers of the soldiers of London, nor of the strangeness of their

566 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

weapons and arms, but put your hope and confidence in the God of
glory. I am certain if ye take to heart what I say the foreigner must
be defeated and ye victorious."

O'Clery's summing up of the effects of the fatal battle of
Kinsale, almost the only battle in which the Irish were de-
feated throughout the whole war, is pathetic.

" Though there fell," he writes, " but so small a number of the
Irish in that battle of Kinsale, that they would not perceive their
absence after a time, and, moreover, that they did not perceive
it themselves then, yet there was not lost in one battle fought in the
latter times in Ireland so much as was lost then.

" There was lost there, first, that one island which was the richest
and most productive, the heat and cold of which were more tempe-
rate than in the greater part of Europe, in which there was much
honey and corn and fish, many rivers, cataracts, and waterfalls, in
which were calm productive harbours, qualities which the first man
of the race of Gaedhal Glas, son of Niall, who came to Ireland be-
held in it. . . There were lost, too, those who escaped from it of the
free, generous, noble-born descendants of the sons of Milesius and
of the prosperous, impetuous chiefs, of the lords of territories and
tribes, and of the chieftains of districts and cantreds, for it is absolutely
certain that there were never in Erin at any time together men who
were better and more famous than the chiefs who were then, and who
died afterwards in other countries one after the other, after their
being robbed of their fatherland and their noble possessions which
they left to their enemies on that battle-field. Then were lost besides,
nobility and honour, generosity and great deeds, hospitality and
goodness, courtesy and noble birth, polish and bravery, strength
and courage, valour and constancy, the authority and the sovereignty
of the Irish of Erin to the end of time."

An interesting prose work, evidently written by an eye-
witness, exists of the wanderings of O'Neill and O'Donnell
upon the Continent after they had fled from Ireland in 1607.
It describes how they were driven by a storm past Sligo
harbour and past the Arran islands, where they were unable to
land for fear of the king's shipping then in Galway bay. For
thirteen days they were hurried along by a tremendous storm.
The narrator notes a curious incident which took place during

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 567

the rough weather at open sea : two merlin falcons descended
and alit upon the ship, which were caught by the sailors who
kept and fed them ; they were ultimately given by O'Neill to
the governor of a French town. After long buffeting by the
storm and after hopelessly losing their way they fell in with three
Danish ships who informed them that they were in Flemish
waters. They were afterwards nearly wrecked on the coast of
Guernsey, and finally, after twenty-one days at sea, they
managed with the utmost difficulty to put in at " Harboure de
Grace," on the French coast, just as their provisions had run
out. Their reception by the French king, the machinations of
the English ambassador against them, and their journey into
Spain x are minutely described, evidently by some one who had
been in their own company, probably a Franciscan friar.
Their life and adventures in Spain are minutely recounted
down to the period of O'Donnell's death, who was
treacherously poisoned by an emissary from Carew, the Presi-
dent of Munster, with the sanction of Mountjoy, the Lord
Deputy. It is noticeable that the Irish biographer enter-
tained no suspicion of this foul crime, which has, as we have
said, only come to light through the publication of the State
Papers during the last few years.2

Another curious piece of historical narrative by a re-
ligious is the account given of the Irish wars from

1 This interesting work, though drawn on by Father Meehan, seems to
be unknown to Irish scholars. It contains 135 closely written pages. It
was discovered in Colgan's cell at Louvain after his death, and is now
amongst the uncatalogued manuscripts in the Franciscan's Monastery in
Dublin, where it escaped the research of the late Sir John Gilbert, who
catalogued their books for the Government, and of M. de Jubainville, who
also spent some days in examining their MSS. I owe its discovery to the
courtesy of the learned librarian, Father O'Reilly, who has permitted me
to make a transcript of it for future publication.

2 Here is a specimen of the language of this book : " Do rala ambasadoir
rig Saxan sa gcathra^/* in tan sin. Bui ag denomh a landithill aidhmhillte
ocus urchoide do na maithip dia madh eidir leiss. Teid sin a ndimhaoi-
neass ocus a mitharbha, oir ni thug in Ri audiens no eisteacht go feadh tri
la do acht ag dhol dfiadhach gach laithe."

568 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

November, 1641, to January, 1647, by a northern friar called
O'Mellon, who was an eye-witness of much of what he
relates.1

Of a somewhat similar nature is the interesting account of
Montrose's wars in the Book of Clanranald, a manuscript
written in pure Irish and in Irish characters, by a Gael from
the Islands, Niall Mac Vurich, the hereditary bard and
historian of the Clanranald.2 The Mac Vurichs, who are
descended from a celebrated bard, Muireach O'Daly,3 who fled
into Scotland from O'Donnell about the year 1200, enjoyed
the farm of Stailgarry and the "four pennies of Drimsdale,
in South Uist, down to the middle of the last century, by
virtue of their hereditary office." The object of Mac Vurich
in writing the history of Montrose's campaign is to vindicate
and extol the career of Alaster Mac Donald and the Gael.
" Nothing," says the writer, " is here written except of the
people whom I have seen myself and with a part of whose
deeds I am acquainted from my own recollection." He gives
detailed accounts of several of Montrose's battles in which the
Gael, Irish and Scottish, were engaged. His account of the
fight of Auldearn is an interesting specimen of his style. He
tells us how Alaster Mac Donald, son of Coll Ciotach, son of
Gillespie,4 commanded on the right of the army that day, and
was in the act of marshalling his foot when

1 Here is a specimen of the language of this work which is much
shorter than the account of O'Neill's and O'Donnell's wanderings ; there
is a fine copy of it made by O' Curry from the original in the Royal Irish
Academy, which fills one hundred pages : " Fagbadh na croidheachta
[what the English called creaghts'] bochta, rugadar leo a ttoil fein diobh,
an chuid do imthigh dona croidheachtaibh sios suas sair siar. Ann do
marbhadh Cormac Ua Hagan mac Eoghain, oc oc as bocht ! S do bhi
Sior Feidhlinn a Cill Cainnigh an tan so. Do cuaidh cuid dinn don
Breifni, cuid dinn go Conndae Arda Macha, co Conndae Tir Eoghain, co
condae Luth," etc.

2 Published in " Reliquiae Celticse," vol ii. p. 149, with an interesting
introduction, but a most inaccurate translation.

3 See pp 491-2 for an account of this O'Daly.

4 These are the names alluded to by Milton in his famous sonnet, on

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 569

" a gentleman from Lord Gordon came with a message to him
and spoke in this manner : * Mac Donald, we have heard that there
was an agreement and a friendship between our ancestors, and that
they did not strike a blow against one another, whatever strife might
have been between the other Scots and them ; neither was the fame
of any other tribe for valour greater than theirs ; therefore, by way
of renewing the agreement, I would wish to receive a favour from
you, namely, an exchange of foot on the first day of my service to
my earthly king, that is, you taking my foot forces and you sending
me your own.

" That (arrangement) was promptly carried out by Alaster, son of
Colla. He sent four score and ten of the veteran soldiers who had
often been tested in great dangers in many places ; and there came
in their stead three hundred foot of the men of the Bog of Gight,
Strathbogey, and the Braes,1 who were not accustomed to skirmish-
ing, hard conflict, or the loud, harsh noise of battle. Although that
was a bad exchange for Alaster it was good for his men, for they were
never in any battle or skirmish from which they came safer — it
seemed to them that the cavalry of the Gordons had no duty to
perform but to defend the foot from every danger !

"Alaster drew up his men in a garden which they had come to,
and he found that there remained with him of his own men but two
score and ten of his gentlemen. He put five and twenty of these
in the first rank, and five and twenty of them in the rear rank, and
drew up his three hundred foot of the Gordons in their midst and
marched before them. The men who opposed him were the
regiment of the laird of Lawers, well-trained men, and the gentlemen
of Lewis along with them. The clamour of the fight began as is
usual in every field of battle, which the foot who were behind Alaster
son of Colla, could not well endure, for some of them would not hear
the sough of an arrow or the whistling of a ball without ducking
their heads or starting aside. Alaster's defence was to go backwards,

his Tetrachordon, which name, he says, the public could not under-
stand.

" Cries the stall-reader, 'Bless us ! what a word on
A title-page is this ! ' and some in file
Stand spelling false while one might walk to Mile-
End Green. Why it is harder, sirs, than Gordon,
Colkitto or Macdonnel or Galasp ! "

"Colkitto" is for Colla Ciotach, "left-handed Coll or Colla," and
1 Galasp " is Giolla-easpuig, now Gillespie. Alaster Mac Donald was killed
the battle of Cnoc na ndos by the renegade Murough O'Brien in 1647.
" Do mhuinntir bhug na gaoithe, agus srathabhalgaidh agus bhraighe
mhachuire."

570 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

beckoning to his party with his hand to be of good courage and
march on quickly while his gentlemen were entirely engaged in
keeping their companies in order, but they failed to do it ; and I
knew men who killed some of the Gordons' foot in order to prevent
them from flying. And when the enemy perceived this they pre-
pared to attack them and charge. Alaster ordered his men then to
gain the garden which they had forsaken before, but they were
attacked with pikes and arrows and many of them were slain on
every side of the garden before the party got into it. Alaster's sword
broke, and he got another sword into his hand, and he did not him-
self remember who gave it to him, but some persons supposed it was
his brother-in-law, Mac Caidh [Davidson] of Ardnacross, who gave
him his own sword. Davidson [himself], Feardorcha Mackay, and
other good gentlemen fell at that time at the entrance of the garden
who were waiting to have Alaster in before them."

Mac Vurich goes on to describe what happened to one of
Alaster's gentlemen, Ranald Mac Ceanain of Mull, who
found himself assailed by numbers of the enemy on the
outside of this garden.

" He turned his face to his enemy, his sword was round his neck, his
shield on his left arm, and a hand-gun in his right hand. He pointed
the gun at them, and a party of pikemen who were after him halted.
There happened to be a narrow passage before them, and on that
account there was not one of his own party that had been after him
but went before him. There was a great slaughter made of the
Gordons' foot by the bowmen.1 It happened at that moment that a
bowman was running past Ranald, and he shooting at the Gordons.
The bowman looked over his shoulder and saw the halt to which
Ranald had brought the pikemen, and he turned his hand from the
man that was before him, and aimed his arrow at Ranald, which
struck him on the cheek, and he sent a handbreadth of it through
the other cheek. Then Ranald fired the shot, but not at the bow-
man. He threw the gun away and put the hand to his sword, whilst
his shield-arm was stretched far out from him in front, to defend
himself against the pikes. He made an effort to get the sword, but
it would not draw, for the belt turned round, and the sword did not

1 " Do bhi marbhadh tiugh ag lucht boghadh ga dhenamh ar na coisi-
dhibh Gordonac[ha]." Readers of the " Legend of Montrose " will recollect
the surprise and scorn with which Major Dugald Dalgetty learns that
some of the Highlanders carried bows, but here we see the execution they
wrought even in the hands of the Covenanters."

SEVENTEENTH CENTURY PROSE 571

come out. He tried it the second time by laying the shield-hand
under his [other] armpit against the scabbard of the sword, and he
drew it out, but five pikes were driven into him between the breast
and chin on his thus exposing (?) himself. However, not one of the
wounds they gave him was an inch deep. He was for a while at this
work, cutting at the pikes, and at all that were stuck in the boss of
the shield. He set his back against the garden to defend himself,
and was with difficulty working his way towards the door. The
pikemen were getting daunted by all that were being cut, except one
man who was striking at him desperately and fiercely. That man
thought that he would keep his pike from being cut, and that his
opponent would fall by him. Ranald was listening all the time to
Alaster (inside the wall) rating the Gordons for the bad efforts they
were making to relieve himself from the position where he was, and
he was all the time step by step making for the door of the garden.
At last when he thought that he was near the door he gave a high
ready spring away from the pikeman, turning his back to him and
his face to the door, stooping his head. The pikeman followed him
and stooped his own head under the door, but Alaster was watching
them and he gave the pikeman a blow, so that though he turned
quickly to get back, his head struck against Ranald's thigh, from the
blow Alaster gave him, and his body falls in the doorway and his
head in the garden, and when Ranald straightened his back and
looked behind him to the door, it was thus he beheld his adversary.
The arrow that was stuck in Ranald was cut, and it was taken out of
him, and he got it drawn away, and he found the use of his tongue all
right, and power of speech — a thing he never thought to get again."

This book, which is in pure Irish, was meant to be read not
only by the Highland Gaels, but by Irishmen as well, and indeed
the Black Book of Clanranald was picked up on a second-hand
bookstall in Dublin.

5;2 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

at Brussels in 1639, a " Book of Christian Doctrine," one
side Latin and the other Irish ; Anthony Gernon published at
Louvain in 1645, a book called "The Paradise of the Soul " * ;
Richard Mac Gilla Cody printed in 1667, a book on Miracles in
Irish and English ; Father Francis O'Mulloy published a long
book called "The Lamp of the Faithful"2 in Irish at Louvain
in 1676, and in the following year his rare and valuable Irish
Grammar in Latin and Irish, one half of which is dedicated to
the subject of prosody, and is the fullest, most competent, and
most interesting account which we have of the Irish classical
metres as practised in the later schools, by one who was fully
acquainted both with them and their methods.

Several minor romantic stories, mostly fabulous creations un-
connected with Irish history, seem to have been written during
this century, and many more were translated from French,
Spanish, Latin, and possibly English. 3 Of the more important
works of Michael O'Clery, we shall speak in the next chapter.

1 " Parrthas an Anma." 2 " Loch ran na gcreidhmheach."

3 In the MS. marked H. 2. 7. in Trinity College there is a story of Sir
Guy, Earl of Warwick and Bocigam [Buckingham], and p. 348 of the
same MS. another about Bibus, son of Sir Guy of Hamtuir. These must
have been taken from English sources. Of the same nature, but of
different dates, are Irish redactions of Marco Polo's travels, the Adventures
of Hercules, the Quest of the Holy Grail, Maundeville's Travels, the Adven-
tures of the Bald Dog, Teglach an bhuird Chruinn, i.e., the Household of the
Round Table, the Chanson de geste of Fierabras, Barlaam and Josaphat,
the History of Octavian, Orlando and Melora, Meralino Maligno, Richard
and Lisarda, the Story of the Theban War, Turpin's Chronicle, the
Triumphs of Charlemagne, the History of King Arthur, the Adventures of
Menalippa and Alchimenes, and probably many others.

CHAPTER XLI

TH E IRISH ANNALS

WE have already at the beginning of this book had occasion
to discuss the reliability of the Irish annals,1 and have seen
that from the fifth century onward they record with great
accuracy the few events for which we happen to have external
evidence, drawn either from astronomical discovery or from the
works of foreign authors. We shall here enumerate the most
important of these works, for though the documents from
which they are taken were evidently of great antiquity, yet
they themselves are only comparatively modern compilations
mostly made from the now lost sources of the ancient vellum
chronicles which the early Christian monks kept in their
religious houses, probably from the very first introduction of
Christianity and the use of Roman letters.

The greatest — though almost the youngest — of them all is
much-renowned "Annals of the Four Masters." This
lighty work is chiefly due to the herculean labours of the
irned Franciscan Brother, Michael O'Clery, a native of
megal, born about the year 1580, who was himself descended
a long line of scholars.2 He and another scion of

Sec above pp. 38-43.
2 For an account of how these O'Clerys came to Donegal see the
interesting preface to Father Murphy's edition of the '' Life of Red Hugh
O'Donnell."

574 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Donegal, Aedh Mac an Bhaird, then guardian of St. Anthony's
in Louvain, contemplated the compilation and publication of
a great collection of the lives of the Irish saints.

In furtherance of this idea Michael O'Clery, with the leave
and approbation of his superiors, set out from Louvain, and,
coming to Ireland, travelled through the whole length and
breadth of it, from abbey to abbey and priory to priory. Up
and down, high and low, he hunted for the ancient vellum
books and time-stained manuscripts whose safety was even then
threatened by the ever-thickening political shocks and spasms
of that most destructive age. These, whenever he found, he
copied in an accurate and beautiful handwriting, and trans-
mitted safely to Louvain to his friend Mac an Bhaird, or
" Ward " as the name is now in English. Ward unfortunately
died before he could make use of the material thus collected by
O'Clery, but it was taken up by another great Franciscan,
Father John Colgan, who utilised the work of his friend
O'Clery by producing, in 1645, the two enormous Latin
quartos, to which we have already frequently alluded, the
first called the " Trias Thaumaturga," containing the lives
of Saints Patrick, Brigit, and Columcille ; the second con-
taining all the lives which could be found of all the Irish
saints whose festivals fell between the first of January and the
last of March. Several of the works thus collected by O'Clery
and Colgan still happily survive.1 On the break-up of the

1 Copies of the lives of the following saints are still preserved in the
Burgundian Library at Brussels, copied by Michael O'Clery, no doubt from
vellum MSS. preserved at that time in Ireland. The Life of Mochua of
Balla, the Life of St. Baithin (fragmentary), the Life of St. Donatus (frag-
mentary), the Life of St. Finchua of Bri.Gabhan, the Life of St. Finnbharr
of Cork, the Life of St. Creunata the Virgin, the Life of St. Moling (see above
p. 210), the Life of St. Finian (see p. 196), the Life of St. Ailbhe, the Life
of St Abbanus, the Life of St. Carthach (p. 211), the Life of St. Fursa (see
above p. 198), the Life of St. Ruadhan (who cursed Tara, see p. 229), the
Life of St. Ccallach (see p. 395), the Life of St. Maodhog or Mogue, the Life
of St. Colman, the Life of St. Senanus (see p. 213), the Miracles of St. Senanus
after his death, the Life of St. Caimin (see p. 214) in verse, the Life of St.

THE IRISH ANNALS 575

Convent of Louvain, they were transferred to St. Isidore's, in
Rome, and in 1872 were restored to Ireland and are now in
the Convent of the Franciscans, on Merchant's Quay, Dublin,
a restoration which prompted the fine lines of the late poet
John Francis O'Donnell.

From Ireland of the four bright seas

In troublous days these treasures came,
Through clouds, through fires, through darknesses,

To Rome of immemorial name,

Rome of immeasurable fame :
The reddened hands of foes would rive

Each lovely growth of cloister — crypt —

Dim folio, yellow manuscript,
Where yet the glowing pigments live ;

But a clear voice cried from Louvain
" Give them to me for they are mine,"

And so they sped across the main
The saints their guard, the ship their shrine.

Before O'Clery ever entered the Franciscan Order he had
been by profession an historian or antiquary, and now in his
eager quest for ecclesiastical writings and the lives of saints,
his trained eye fell upon many other documents which he
could not neglect. These were the ancient books and secular
annals of the nation, and the historical poems of the ancient

Kevin in prose, another Life of St. Kevin in verse, a third and different
Life of St Kevin, the Life of St. Mochaomhog, the Life of St. Caillin, his
poems and prophecies, the Poems of St. Senanus, St. Brendan, St.
Columcille, and others, the Life of St. Brigid, the Life of St. Adamnan,
the Life of St. Berchan, the Life of St. Grellan, the Life of St. Molaise,
who banished St. Columcille (see above, p. 177), the Life of St. Lassara the
Virgin, the Life of St. Uanlus, the Life of St. Ciaran of Clonmacnois and
of St. Ciaran of Saighir, the Life of St. Declan, the Life of St. Benin, the
Life of St. Aileran (see p. 197) the Life of St. Brendan. The lives of those
saints which I have printed in italics are preserved on vellum elsewhere.
Many more lives of saints doubtless exist. The father of the present
Mac Dermot, the Prince of Coolavin, who was a good and fluent Irish
speaker, had a voluminous Life of St. Atracta, or Athracht, and I believe of
other saints' lives, on vellum, but on inquiring for it recently at Coolavin, I
found it had been lent and lost. Many other old vellums have doubtless
shared its fate.

576 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

bards. He indulged himself to the full in this unique oppor-
tunity to become acquainted with so much valuable material,
and the results of his labours were two voluminous books, first
the " Reim Rioghraidhe," or Succession of Kings in Ireland,
which gives the name, succession, and genealogy of the kings of
Ireland from the earliest times down to the death of Malachy
the Great in 1022, and which gives at the same time the
genealogies of the early saints of Ireland down to the eighth
century, and secondly the " Leabhar Gabhala," or Book of
Invasions,1 which contains an ample account of the successive
colonisations of Ireland which were made by Partholan, the
Nemedians, and the Tuatha De Danann, down to the death of
Malachy, all drawn from ancient books — for the most part now
lost — digested and put together by the friar.

It was probably while engaged on this work that the great
scheme of compiling the annals of Ireland occurred to him.
He found a patron and protector in Fergal O'Gara, lord of
Moy Gara and Coolavin, and with the assistance of five or
six other antiquaries, he set about his task in the secluded
convent of Donegal, at that time governed by his own
brother, on the 22nd of January, 1632, and finished it on the
loth of August, 1636, having had, during all this time, his
expenses and the expenses of his fellow-labourers defrayed by
the patriotic lord of Moy Gara.

It was Father Colgan, at Louvain, who first gave this great
work the title under which it is now always spoken of, that is,
" The Annals of the Four Masters." Father Colgan in the
preface to his " Acta Sanctorum Hiberniae," 2 after recounting

1 There are several large fragments of other "Books of Invasions "in
the Book of Leinster and other old vellum MSS., but when the Book of
Invasions is now referred to, O'Clery's compilation is the one usually I
meant. It contains (i) the invasion of Ceasair before the flood ; (2) the
invasion of Partholan after it ; (3) the invasion of Nemedh ; (4) the invasion
of the Firbolg ; (5) that of the Tuatha De Danann ; (6) that of the Milesians
and the history of the Milesian race down to the reign of Malachy Mor.

2 This great work was not the only one of the indefatigable Colgan. At
his death, which occurred at the convent of his order in Louvain in 1658,

THE IRISH ANNALS 577

O'Clery's labours and his previous books goes on to give an
account of this last one also, and adds :

" As in the three works before mentioned so in this fourth one,
three [helpers of his] are eminently to be praised, namely, Farfassa
O'Mulchonry, Perigrine x O'Clery, and Peregrine O'Duigenan, men
of consummate learning in the antiquities of the country and of
approved faith. And to these was subsequently added the co-
operation of other distinguished antiquarians, as Maurice
O'Mulconry who for one month, and Conary O'Clery who for
many months, laboured in its promotion. But since those annals
which we shall very frequently have occasion to quote in this
volume and in the others following, have been collected and
compiled by the assistance and separate study of so many
authors, neither the desire of brevity would permit us always
to quote them individually, nor would justice permit us to attribute
the labour of many to one, hence it sometimes seemed best to call
them the Annals of Donegal, for in our convent of Donegal they
were commenced and concluded. But afterwards for other reasons,
chiefly for the sake of the compilers themselves who were four most
eminent masters in antiquarian lore, we have been led to call them
the ANNALS OF THE FOUR MASTERS. Yet we said just now that
more than four assisted in their preparation ; however, as their
meeting was irregular, and but two of them during a short time
laboured in the unimportant and later part of the work, while the
other four were engaged on the entire production, at least up to
the year 1267 (from which the first part and the most necessary
one for us is closed), we quote it under their name."

he left behind him the materials of three great unpublished works which
are described by Harris. The first was " De apostulatu Hibernorum inter
exteras gentes, cum indice alphabetico de exteris sanctis," consisting of
852 pages of manuscript. The next was " De Sanctis in Anglia in
Britannia, Aremorica, in reliqua Gallia, in Belgio," and contained 1,068
pages. The last was " De Sanctis in Lotharingia et Burgundia, in Ger-
mania ad sinistrum et dextrum Rheni, in Italia," and contained 920 pages.
None of these with the exception of a page or two have found their way
back to the Franciscans' establishment in Dublin, nor are they — where
many of the books used by Colgan lie — in the Burgundian Library in
Brussels. It is to be feared that they have perished.

1 In Irish Cucoigcriche, which, meaning a " stranger," has been latinised
jregrinus by Ward. I remember one of the 1'Estrange family telling
le how one of the O'Cucoigrys had once come to her father and asked
if he had any objection to his translating his name for the future into
Estrange, both names being identical in meaning !

20

578 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Michael O'Clery writes in his dedication to Fergal O'Gara,
after explaining the scope of the work —

" I explained to you that I thought I could get the assistance of
the chroniclers for whom I had most esteem in writing a book of
annals in which these matters might be put on record, and that
should the writing of them be neglected at present they would not
again be bound to be put on record or commemorated even to
the end of the world. All the best and most copious books of annals
that I could find throughout all Ireland were collected by me —
though it was difficult for me to collect them into one place — to
write this book in your name and to your honour, for it was you
who gave the reward of their labour to the chroniclers by whom
it was written, and it was the friars of Donegal who supplied them
with food and attendance."

The book is also provided with a kind of testimonium from
the Franciscan fathers of the monastery where it was written,
stating who the compilers were, and how long they had
worked under their own eyes, and what old books they had
seen with them, etc. In addition to this, Michael O'Clery
carried it to the two historians of greatest eminence in the
south of Ireland, Flann Mac Egan, of Ballymacegan, in the
Co. Tipperary, and Conor mac Brody of the Co. Clare, and
obtained their written approbation and signature, as well as
those of the Primate of Ireland and some others, and thus
provided he launched his book upon the world.

It has been published, at least in part, three times ; first
down to the year 1171 — the year of the Norman Invasion —
by the Rev. Charles O'Conor, grandson of Charles O'Conor,
of Belanagare, Carolan's patron, with a Latin translation,
and secondly in English by Owen Connellan from the year
1171 to the end. But the third publication of it — that by
O'Donovan — was the greatest work that any modern Irish
scholar ever accomplished. In it the Irish text with accurate
English translation, and an enormous quantity of notes, topo-
graphical, genealogical, and historical, are given, and the whole
is contained in seven great quarto volumes — a work of which

THE IRISH ANNALS 579

any age or country might be proud. So long as Irish history
exists, the "Annals of the Four Masters" will be read in
O'Donovan's translation, and the name of O'Donovan be in-
separably connected with that of the O'Clerys.

As to the contents of these annals, suffice it to say that like
so many other compilations of the same kind, they begin with
the Deluge: they end in the year 1616. They give, from
the old books, the reigns, deaths, genealogies, etc., not only of
the high-kings but also of the provincial kings, chiefs, and
heads of distinguished families, men of science and poets, with
their respective dates, going as near to them as they can go.
They record the deaths and successions of saints, abbots,
bishops, and ecclesiastical dignitaries. They tell of the founda-
tion and occasionally of the overthrow of countless churches,
castles, abbeys, convents, and religious institutions. They
give meagre details of battles and political changes, and not
unfrequently quote ancient verses in proof of facts, but none
prior to the second century.1 Towards the end the dry sum-
mary of events become more garnished, and in parts elaborate
detail takes the place of meagre facts. There is no event of
Irish history from the birth of Christ to the beginning of the
seventeenth century that the first inquiry of the student will
not be, "What do the 'Four Masters' say about it? " for the
great value of the work consists in this, that we have here in
condensed form the pith and substance of the old books of

1 It is noteworthy that no poem is quoted previous to the reign of
Tuathal Teachtmhar in the second century. After that onward we find
verses quoted at the year 226 on the Ferguses, A.D. 284 on the death
of Finn, A.D. 432 a poem by Flann on St. Patrick, at 448 another poem on
Patrick, at 458 a poem on the death of King Laoghaire, in 465 a poem
on the death of the son of Niall of the Nine Hostages, at 478 on the
Battle of Ocha, which gave for five hundred years their supremacy to
the House of Niall, and then more verses under the years 489, 493,
501, 503, 504, 506, 507, and so on. The poet-saint Beg mac De [see p.
232] is frequently quoted, as is Cennfaeladh, [p. 412] but the usual formula
used in introducing verses is "of which the poet said," or "of which the
rann was spoken," or " as this verse tells."

58o LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Ireland which were then in existence but which — as the Four
Masters foresaw — have long since perished. The facts and
dates of the Four Masters are not their own facts and dates.
From confused masses of very ancient matter, they, with
labour and much sifting, drew forth their dates and synchro-
nisms and harmonised their facts.

As if to emphasise the truth that they were only redacting
the Annals of Ireland from the most ancient sources at their
command, the Masters wrote in an ancient bardic dialect
full at once of such idioms and words as were unintelligible
even to the men of their own day unless they had received a
bardic training. In fact, they were learned men writing for
the learned, and this work was one of the last efforts of the
esprit de corps of the school-bred shanachy which always
prompted him to keep bardic and historical learning a close
monopoly amongst his own class. Keating was Michael
O'Clery's contemporary, but he wrote — and I consider him
the first Irish historian and trained scholar who did so — for
the masses not the classes, and he had his reward in the
thousands of copies of his popular History made and read
throughout all Ireland, while the copies made of the Annals
were quite few in comparison, and after the end of the
seventeenth century little read.

The valuable but meagre Annals of Tighearnach^ published by
the Rev. Charles O'Conor with a rather inaccurate Latin trans-
lation, and now in process of publication by Dr. Whitley
Stokes, were compiled in the eleventh century. Clonmacnois
of which Tighearnach was abbot was founded in 544, and the
Annals had probably for their basis, as M. d'Arbois de
Jubainville remarks, some book in which from the very
foundation of the monastery the monks briefly noted remark-
able events from year to year. Tighearnach declares that all
Irish history prior to the founding of Emania is uncertain.1
Tighearnach himself died in 1088.

1 See above, p. 42.

THE IRISH ANNALS 581

Another valuable book of Annals is the Chronicon Scotorum,
of uncertain origin, edited for the Master of the Rolls in one
volume by the late Mr. Hennessy, from a manuscript in the
handwriting of the celebrated Duald Mac Firbis. It begins
briefly with the legended Fenius Farsa, who is said to have
composed the Gaelic language, "out of seventy-two languages."
It then jumps to the year 353 A.D., merely remarking "I pass
to another time and he who is will bless it, in this year 353
Patrick was born." At the year 432 we meet the curious
record, "a morte Concculaind [Cuchulain] herois usque ad hunc
annum 431, a morte Concupair [Conor] mic Nessa 412

582 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

1215, but according to O'Curry were commenced at least two
centuries before that period.

The Annah of Clonmacnois were a valuable compilation con-
tinued down to the year 1408. The original of these annals
is lost, but an English translation of them made by one
Connla Mac Echagan, or Mageoghegan, of West Meath, for
his friend and kinsman Torlough Mac Cochlan, lord of Delvin,
in 1627, still exists, and was recently edited by the late Father
Denis Murphy, SJ.

These form the principal books of the annals of Ireland,
and though of completely different and independent origin
they agree marvellously with each other in matters of fact,
and contain the materials for a complete, though not an
exhaustive, history of Ireland as derived from internal sources.

It is very much to be regretted that no Irish writer before
Keating ever attempted, with these and the many lost books of
annals before him, to throw their contents into a regular and
continuous history. But this was never done, and the com-
paratively dry chronicles remain still the sources from which
must be drawn the hard facts of the nation's past, with the
exception of those brief periods which have engaged the pens
of particular writers, such as the history of the wars of
Thomond, compiled about 1459 by Rory Mac Craith, or
the Life of Red Hugh written a century and a half later by
Lughaidh O'Clery, and the many historical sagas and " lives"
dealing with particular periods, which are really history
romanticised.

CHAPTER XLII

THE BREHON LAWS

ALTHOUGH treatises on law are not literature in the true
sense of the word, yet those of Ireland are too numerous and
valuable not to claim at least some short notice. When it
was determined by the Government, in 1852, to appoint a
Royal Commission to publish the Ancient Laws and Institu-
tions of Ireland, those great native scholars O'Donovan and
O'Curry (the only men who had arisen since the death of
Mac Firbis who were competent to undertake the task) set
about transcribing such volumes of the Irish law code as had
escaped the vicissitudes of time, and before they died — which
they did, unhappily, not long after they had begun this work — •
O'Donovan had transcribed 2,491 pages of text, of which he
had accomplished a preliminary translation in twelve manu-
script volumes, while his fellow labourer O'Curry had tran-
scribed 2,906 pages more, and had accomplished a tentative
translation of them which filled thirteen volumes. Four
large volumes of these laws have been already published, and
two more have been these very many years in preparation, but
have not as yet seen the light.

The first two of the published volumes I contain the
1 Published in 1865 and 1869.

584 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Seanchus Mor [Shana^us more], which includes a preface
to the text, in which we are told how and where it was put
together and purified, and the law of Athgabhail or Distress.
The second volume contains the law of hostage-sureties, of
fosterage, of Saer-stock tenure and Daer-stock tenure, and the
law of social connexions. The third volume contains the
so-called Book of Acaill, which is chiefly concerned with the
law relating to torts and injuries. It professes to be a compila-
tion of the dicta and opinions of King Cormac mac Art, who
lived in the third century, and of Cennfaeladh, who lived in
the seventh.1 The fourth volume of the Brehon law consists
of isolated law-tracts such as that on "Taking possession,"
that containing judgments on co-tenancy, right of water,
divisions of land, and the celebrated Crith Gabhlach which
treats of social ranks and organisation.

The text itself of the Seanchus Mor, which is comprised in
the first two published volumes, is comparatively brief, but
what swells it to such a size is the great amount of commen-
tary in small print written upon the brief text, and the great
amount of additional annotations upon this commentary itself.
Whatever may have been the date of the original laws, the
bulk of the text is much later, for it consists of the com-
mentaries added by repeated generations of early Irish lawyers
piled up as it were one upon the other.

Most of the Brehon law tracts derive their titles not from
individuals who promulgated them, but either from the subjects
treated of or else from some particular locality connected with
the composition of the work. They are essentially digests
rather than codes, compilations, in fact, of learned lawyers.
The essential idea of modern law is entirely absent from them,
if by law is understood a command given by some one pos-
sessing authority to do or to forbear doing, under pains and
penalties. There appears to be, in fact, no sanction laid down
in the Brehon law against those who violated its maxims, nor
1 For him see above p. 412.

THE BREHON LA WS 585

did the State provide any such. This was in truth the great
inherent weakness of Irish jurisprudence, and it was one
inseparable from a tribal organisation, which lacked the con-
trolling hand of a strong central government, and in which
the idea of the State as distinguished from the tribe had
scarcely emerged. If a litigant chose to disregard the bre-
hon's ruling there was no machinery of the law set in motion to
force him to accept it. The only executive authority in
ancient Ireland which lay behind the decision of the judge
was the traditional obedience and good sense of the people,
and it does not appear that, with the full force of public
opinion behind them, the brehons had any trouble in getting
their decisions accepted by the common people. Not that this
was any part of their duty. On the contrary, their business
was over so soon as they had pronounced their decision, and
given judgment between the contending parties. If one of
these parties refused to abide by this decision, it was no affair of
the brehon's, it was the concern of the public, and the public
appear to have seen to it that the brehon's decision was always
carried out. This seems to have been indeed the very essence of
democratic government with no executive authority behind it
but the will of the people, and it appears to have trained a
law-abiding and intelligent public, for the Elizabethan states-
man, Sir John Davies, confesses frankly in his admirable
essay on the true causes why Ireland was never subdued, that
" there is no nation or people under the sunne that doth love
equall and indifferent justice better than the Irish ; or will rest
better satisfied with the execution thereof although it be against
themselves, so that they may have the protection and benefit
of the law, when uppon just cause they do desire it."

The Irish appear to have had professional advocates, a court
appeal, and regular methods of procedure for carrying the
before it, and if a brehon could be shown to have
slivered a false or unjust judgment he himself was liable to
images. The brehonship was not elective ; it seems indeed

586 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

in later times to have been almost hereditary, but the brehon
had to pass through a long and tedious course before he was
permitted to practise ; he was obliged to be " qualified in every
department of legal science," says the text ; and the Brehon
law was remarkable for its copiousness, furnishing, as Sir
Samuel Ferguson remarks, " a striking example of the length
to which moral and metaphysical refinements may be carried
under rude social conditions." As a makeweight against the
privileges which are always the concomitant of riches, the
penalties for misdeeds and omissions of all kinds were carefully
graduated in the interests of the poor, and crime or breach of
contract might reduce a man from the highest to the lowest
grade.

There is little intimation in the laws as to their own origin.
Like the Common Law of England, to which they bear a
certain resemblance, they appear to have been in great part
handed down from time immemorial, probably without under-
going any substantial change. It is curious to observe how
some of the typical test-cases carry us back as far as the second
century. Thus the very first paragraph in the Law of Dis-
tress— one of the most important institutions among the Irish,
for Distress was the procedure by which most civil claims
were made good — runs thus : *

" Three white cows were taken by Asal from Mogh, son of Nuada,
by an immediate seizure. And they lay down a night at Lerta on
the Boyne. They escaped from him and they left their calves, and
their white milk flowed upon the ground. He went in pursuit of
them, and seized six milch cows at the house at daybreak. Pledges
were given for them afterwards by Cairpre Gnathchoir for the
seizure, for the distress, for the acknowledgment, for triple acknow-
ledgment, for acknowledgment by one chief, for double acknowledg-
ment."

Buit these things are supposed to have happened in the days

1 This passage was already so old in the time of Cormac mac Cuilen-
nain or Culinan, who died in 907, that it required a gloss, for Cormac in
his Glossary refers to the gloss on the passage.

THE BREHON LA WS 587

of Conn of the Hundred Battles, yet the case remained a
leading one till the sixteenth century.

The Brehon laws probably embody a large share of primi-
tive Aryan custom. Thus it is curious to meet the Indian
practice of sitting "dharna" or fasting on a debtor in full
force amongst the Irish as one of the legal forms by which
a creditor should proceed to recover his debt.1 " Notice,"
says the text of the Irish law,

"precedes every distress in the case of inferior grades, except it
be by persons of distinction or upon persons of distinction ; fasting
precedes distress in their case. He who 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. He who refuses to cede what should be
accorded to fasting, the judgment upon him according to the Feini
[brehon] is that he pay double the thing for which he was fasted
upon, [but] he who fasts notwithstanding the offer of what should be
accorded to him, forfeits his legal right to anything according to
the decision of the Feini."

There were, according to Irish history, four periods at which
special laws were enacted by legislative authority, first during
the reign of Cormac mac Art in the third century, secondly
when St. Patrick came, thirdly by Cormac mac Culinan the
king-bishop of Cashel, who died in 903, and lastly by Brian
Boru about a century later. But the great mass of the Brehon
Code appears to have been traditionary, or to have grown with
the slow growth of custom. None of the Brehon Law books
so far as they have as yet been given to the public, shows any
attempt to grapple with the nature of law in the abstract, or to
deal with the general fundamental principles which underlie the
conception of jurisprudence. A great number of the cases,
too, which are raised for discussion in the law-books, appear to
be rather possible than real, rather problematical cases proposed
by a teacher to his students to be argued upon according to
general principles, than as actual serious subjects for legal dis-

1 See p. 229 for a case of fasting on a person.

588 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

cussion. This is particularly the case with a great part of the
Book of Acaill.

The part of the Brehon Law called the Seanchus Mor was
redacted in the year 438, according to the Four Masters, " the
age of Christ 438, the tenth year of Laeghaire, the Seanchus
and Feineachus of Ireland were purified and written." Here
is how the book itself treats of its own origin :

" The Seanchus of the men of Erin — what has preserved it ? The
joint memory of two seniors ; the tradition from one ear to another ;
the composition of poets ; the addition from the law of the letter ;
strength from the law of nature ; for these are the three rocks by
which the judgments of the world are supported."

The commentary says that the Seanchus was preserved by
Ross, a doctor of the Bearla Feini or Legal dialect, by Dubh-
thach [Duffach], a doctor of literature, and by Fergus, a
doctor of poetry.

" Whoever the poet was that connected it by a thread of poetry
before Patrick, it lived until it was exhibited to Patrick. The pre-
serving shrine is the poetry, and the Seanchus is what is preserved
therein." x

Dubhthach exhibited to Patrick —

" The judgments and all the poetry of Erin, and every law which
prevailed among the men of Erin through the law of nature and the
law of the seers, and in the judgments of the island of Erin and in
the poets. . . . The judgments of true nature,' it tells us, 'which
the Holy Ghost had spoken through the mouths of the brehons and
just poets of the men of Erin from the first occupation of this
island down to the reception of the faith, were all exhibited by
Dubhthach to Patrick. What did not clash with the Word of God
in the written law and in the New Testament and with the consensus
of the believers, was confirmed in the laws of the brehons by Patrick
and by the ecclesiastics and the chieftains of Erin ; for the law of
nature had been quite right, except the faith and its obligations, and
the harmony of the church and the people —and this is the Seanchus
Mor."

1 Vol. i. p. 31.

THE BREHON LA WS 589

M. d'Arbois de Jubainville,1 however, has shown that the
Seanchus M6r is really made up of treatises belonging to
different periods, of which that upon Immediate Seizure is the
oldest. While some of the other treatises must be of much
later date, this tract, he has proved, cannot in its present form
be later than the close of the sixth century, because it contains
no trace of the right of succession accorded to women by an
Irish council of about the year 600, while at the same time it
cannot be anterior to the introduction of Christianity, because
it contains mention of altar furniture amongst things seizable,
and contains two Latin words, altoir (altar) and cts (cinsus=
census).2 This, however, does not wholly discredit the tradition
that St. Patrick had a hand in the final redaction of at least a
part of the Seanchus Mor, for altars were certainly known in
Ireland before Patrick, and the insertion of the clause about
altar furniture may even have been due to the apostle himself.
How far certain parts of the law may have reached back into
antiquity and become stereotyped by custom before they became
stereotyped by writing there is no means of saying. But, as
M. d'Arbois de Jubainville has pointed out, the Seanchus Mor
is closely related to the Cycle of Conor and Cuchulain, as the
various allusions to King Conor, and to his arch-brehon Sencha,
and to Morann the Judge, and to Ailill, and to the custom of
the Heroes' Bit, show, while the cycle of Finn and Ossian is
passed over.

There are many allusions to the Seanchus Mor in Cormac's
Glossary, always referring to the glossed text, which must have
been in existence before the year 900.3 Again the text of the
Seanchus Mor relies upon judgments delivered by ancient brehons

1 " Cours de Litterature celtique," tome vii. " Etudes sur le droit Celtique,"
II. partie, chap. 2.

2 Modern cios, "rent." " Census," according to M d'Arbois de Jubainville,
was pronounced " kesus," and had a variant cinsus in Low Latin pronounced
"cisus," whence Irish as and German Zins.

3 See under the words Athgabail, Flaith, Kerb, Ness, as Jubainville has
)inted out.

590 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

such as Sencha, in the time of King Conor mac Nessa, but there
is no allusion in its text to books or treatises. The gloss, on the
other hand, is full of such allusions, and it is evident that in
early times the names of the Irish Law Books were legion.
Fourteen different books of civil law are alluded to by name in
the glosses on the Seanchus, and Cormac in his Glossary gives
quotations from five such books. It is remarkable that only
one of the five quoted by Cormac is among the fourteen men-
tioned in the glosses on the Seanchus Mor, and this alone goes
to show the number of books upon law which were in use
amongst the ancient Irish, most of which have long since
perished.

CHAPTER XLIII

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

THE Irish of the eighteenth century being almost wholly
deprived by law of all possibilities of bettering their condition,
and having the necessary means of education rigidly denied
them, turned for solace to poetry, and in it they vented their
wrongs and bitter grief. I have met nothing more painful
in literature than the constant, the almost unvarying cry of
agony sent out by every one of the Irish writers during the
latter half of the seventeenth and the first half of the eighteenth
century.

There seems to have been very great literary activity
amongst the natives in almost every county of Ireland during
this period, and the poets it produced were countless ; during
this period, too, the Irish appear to have translated many
religious books from French and Latin into Irish. In one way
the work of the eighteenth century is of even more value to us
than that of any earlier age, because it gives us the thoughts
and feelings of men who, being less removed from ourselves
in point of time, have probably more fully transmitted their
own nature to their descendants — the Irish of the present day.
Unhappily, however, though many volumes of the work of the
eighteenth century have survived, yet countless others have

591

592 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

been lost during the last fifty years, and the only body in
Ireland competent to secure Irish manuscripts by purchase,
takes unfortunately not the slightest heed of any modern Irish
writings, which are daily perishing in numbers.

Of the poets of what I have called the New School,
towards the end of the seventeenth century, the most noted
was certainly David O'Bruadar, or Broder, whose extant
poems would fill a volume. They are in the most various
forms of the new metres, but their vocabulary and word-forms
are rather those of the more ancient bards, which renders his
poetry by no means easy of translation. He appears to have
been the bard par excellence of the Williamite wars, and bitter
is his cry of woe after the Boyne and Aughrim.

"One single foot of land there is not left to us, even as alms
from the State ; no, not what one may make his bed upon, but the
State will accord us the grace — strange ! of letting us go safe to
Spain to seek adventures !

" They [the English] will be in our places, thick-hipped, mocking,
after beating us from the flower of our towns, full of pewter, brass,
plates, packages — English-speaking, shaven, cosy, tasteful.1
-^" There will be a beaver cape on each of their hags, and a silk
gown from crown to foot ; bands of churls will have our fortresses,
full of Archys (?), cheeses and pottage.

" These are the people — though it is painful to relate it — who are
living in our white moats, 'Goody Hook' and 'Mother Hammer/
' Robin/ ' Saul/ and ' Father Salome ' !

<( The men of the breeches a-selling the salt,8 ' Gammer/ ' Ruth/
and ' Goodman Cabbage/ ' Mistress Capon/ ' Kate and Anna/
' Russell Rank/ and ' Master Gadder ' !

" [They are now] where Deirdre, that fair bright scion used to
roam, where Emer 3 and the Liath Macha 4 used to be, where Eevil 5

1 " Beidhid fein 'n ar n-ait go masach magaidh
D'eis ar saruighthe, i mblath ar mbailteadh,
Go peatrach, prasach, platach, pacach,
Go bearla, bearrtha, badhach (?) blasta."

2 I.e., Refusing hospitality except for payment. 3 Cuchulain's wife.

4 Cuchulain's grey steed. See p. 351, note.

s Aoibhioll [Eevil] of the Grey Crag, a queen of the Munster fairies. a
See p. 438, note, and p. 440, note.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 593

used to be beside the Crag, and the elegant ladies of the Tuatha
De Danann.

" Where the poet-schools, the bards, and the damsels were, with
sporting, dance, wine and feasts, with pastime of kings and active
champions."

For a moment, after the accession of James II. and during
the viceroyalty of Tyrconnel, courage and hope returned to
the natives. Their poetry, wherever preserved, is a veritable
mirror wherein to read their transitions of feeling.

" Thanks be to God, this sod of misery
Is changed as though by a blow of wizardry ;
James can pass to Mass in livery,
With priests in white and knights and chivalry." *

"Where goes John [i.e., John Bull], he has no red coat on him
[now], and no 'who goes there' beside the gate, seeking a way
[to enrich himself], contentiously, in the teeth of law, putting me
under rent in the night of misfortune.2

" Where goes Ralph and his cursed bodyguard, devilish prentices,
the rulers of the city, who tore down on every side the blessed
chapels, banishing and plundering the clergy of God.

" They do not venture [now] to say to us, * You Popish rogue ; '
but our watchword is, ' Cromwellian Dog.'

" The cheese-eating clowns are sorrowful, returning every greasy
lout of them to their trades, without gun, or sword, or arm exercise ;•
their strength is gone, their hearts are beating. . . .

" After transplanting us, and every conceivable treachery, after
transporting us over-sea to the country of Jamaica, after all whom
they scattered to France and Spain.

" All who did not submit to their demands, how they placed their
heads and hearts on stakes ! and all of our race who were valiant
in spirit, how they put them to death, foully, disgustingly !

"After all belonging to our church that the Plot hanged, and after
the hundreds that have died in fetters from it, and all whom they

1 This is the metre of the poem, a very common one among the New
School. The poet is one Diarmuid Mac Carthy. I forget whence I
transcribed his poem.

2 " Ca ngabhann Seon ? ni'l cota dearg air,

Na " who goes there " re taebh an gheata 'ge,

Ag iarraidh slighe anaghaidh dlighe go spairneach,

Dom' chur fa chios i n-oidhche an acarainn."

2P

594 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

had deep down in the jail of every town, and all who were bound in
the tower of London.

" After all their disregard for right, full of might and injustice,
without a word [for us] in the law, who would not even write your
name, but ever said of us ' Teigs and Diarmuids,' disrespectfully.

" There is many a Diarmuid now, both sensible and powerful ! and
many a Teig, too, both merry and jubilant ! in the county of Eber,
who is strong on the battlefield — the foreigners all everlastingly
hated that name. . . .

" Friends of my heart, after all the thousands we lost, I cry
impetuously to God in the heavens, giving thanks every day without
forgetting, that it is in the time of this king1 we have lived. . . .

" Having the fear of God, be ye full of almsgiving and friendliness,
and forgetting nothing do ye according to the commandments ;
shun ye drunkenness and oaths and cursing, and do not say till
death ' God damn ' from your mouths," etc.

But Aughrim and the Boyne put an end to the dream that
the Irish would ever again bear sway in their own land, and
the carefully-devised Penal laws proceeded to crush all remain-
ing independence of spirit out of them, and to grind away their
very life-blood. Once more their poets fell back into lamenta-
tions over the past and impotent prophecies of the return of
the Stuarts and the resurrection of Erin. Despite their senti-
mental affection for the paltry Stuarts, who ever used them as
their tools, many of the poets were perfectly clear-sighted about
them.

" It is the coming of King James that took Ireland from us,

With his one shoe English and his one shoe Irish.

He would neither strike a blow nor would he come to terms,

And that has left, so long as they shall exist, misfortune upon the Gaels."2

" Our case," says another poet, " is like the plague of Egypt ; who-
ever chooses to break your lease, breaks it, and there is no good for
you to go arguing your right."

James II.

" 'Se tigheacht Righ Seamas do bhain dinn Eire
Le n-a leath-bhroig gallda 's a leath-bhroig gaedhealach.
Ni thiubhradh se buille uaidh na reidhteacht
'S d'fag sin, fhad's mairid, an donas ar Ghaedhealaibh."

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 595

" King's rent, country's rent, clergy's rent, rent for your nose, rent
for your back, rent for warming yourself, head-money at the head
of every festival, hearth money, and money for readying roads ! x

" His goods are not taken from any one all at once, at one time ;
he must pay for being allowed to keep them first, and be forced to
sell them afterwards.

" If you happen to be alive, then you are the ' Irish rogue,' if you
happen to be dead, then there's no more about you, except that your
soul is [of course] in the fetters of pain, like the bird-flock that is
among the clouds.

" It is the King of Kings — and King James, the Pope, the friars,
and the fasting, and King Louis, who put Christendom under a
settlement, that sent this ban upon the children of Milesius."

Every poet describes the condition of the native Irish in
almost the same strains.

" Their warriors are no better off than their clergy ; they are
being cut down and plundered by them [the English] every day.
See all that are without a bed except the furze of the mountains,
the bent of the curragh, and the bog-myrtle beneath their bodies.

" Under frost, under snow, under rain, under blasts of wind, without
.a morsel to eat but watercress, green grass, sorrel of the mountain,
or clover of the hills. Och ! my pity to see their nobles forsaken !

" Their estates were estimated for, and are now in the hands of
robbers, their towns are under the control of English-speaking
bastards, their title deeds which were firm for a while, are now in
the hands of foreigners, whose qualities are not mild.

"Their forts are under the sway of tradespeople; none of their
fortresses is to be seen remaining for them, but black prisons and
the houses of the fetters, and some of their heads parted from their
tender bodies.

" And some of them in the clutch of famine so that they die, and
some of them hunted to Connacht of the slaughter, [shut in], under
the lock of the Shannon, not easy to open, and without provision to
feed their mouths there — their warm dwellings under the control
of the perjurers."

The feelings of the native Irish, smarting under the

1 " Cios righ, cios tire, eios cleire,
Cios srona, cios tona, cios teighte
Airgiod ceann i gceann gach feile
Airgiod teallaigli as bealaigh do reightiughadh."

I forget whence I copied this, but such pieces are innumerable

596 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

cowardice, selfishness, and incompetence of James II., were
but moderately excited by the rather feeble attempt of his
son to regain his father's kingdom by the sword. One or
two stray bards, however, saluted his undertaking with poems :-

" Long in misery were we,

No man free from English gall,
Now our James is on the sea
We shall see revenge for all.1

Flowering branch of royal blood,

Soon his bud shall burst to flame,
James our friend is on the flood,

Learned and good and first in fame.

Luther's louts, and Calvin's clan,

Every man who loved to lie,
Boar-hounds of the bloody fang

We shall see them hang on high.

But this and its fellows were only spasmodic rhapsodies,.
The Irish kept their real enthusiasm for the gallant attempt
of Charles Edward, and the Jacobite poems of Ireland would,
if collected, fill a large-sized volume.2 So popular did Jacobite
poetry become that it gave rise to a conventional form of its
own,3 which became almost stereotyped, and which seems to^
have been adopted as a test subject in bardic contests, and by
all new aspirants to the title of poet. This form introduces
the poet as wandering in a wood or by the banks of a river,,

1 " Fada sinn i ngalar buan

Faoi smacht cruaidh measg na nGall

O ta Seamas 6g ar cuan

Bhearfaid uatha diol d'a cheann," etc.

From a manuscript of my own.

2 Hardiman printed about fifteen Jacobite poems in the second volume
of his " Irish Minstrelsy," and O'Daly about twenty-five more in his " Irish ,
Jacobite Poetry," 2nd edition.

3 Or rather to the resurrection of an ancient theme long lost, for as Dr.
Sigerson has shown, one of the Monks of St. Gall had already treated it:
in Latin nine hundred years before. See Constantine Nigra's " Reliquiae-
Celticae," and Dr. Sigerson's " Bards of the Gael and Gall," p. 413.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

S97

where he is astonished to perceive a beautiful lady approaching
him. He addresses her, and she answers. The charms of her
voice, mien, and bearing are portrayed by the poet. He in-
quires who and whence she is, and how comes she to be thus
wandering. She replies that she is Erin, who is flying from
the insults of foreign suitors and in search of her real mate.
Upon this theme the changes are rung in every conceivable
metre and with every conceivable variation, by the poets of the
-eighteenth century. Some of the best of these allegorical
pieces are distinctly poetic, but they soon degenerated into
conventionalism, so much so that I verily believe they con~
tinued to be written even after the death of the last Stuart.
The possibility of a Jacobite rebellion gave rise to some fine war-
songs also, calling upon the Irish to break their slumbers, but
they were too exhausted and too thoroughly broken to stir,
even in the eventful '45.

One of the earliest writers of Jacobite poetry, and perhaps
the most voluminous man of letters of his day amongst the
native Irish, was JOHN O'NEAGHTAN of the county Meath, who
was still alive in 1715. One of his early poems was written
immediately after the battle of the Boyne, when the English
soldiery stripped him of everything he possessed in the world,
except one small Irish book. Between forty and fifty of his
pieces are enumerated by O'Reilly, and I have seen others in
.a manuscript in private hands.1 These included a poem in
imitation of those called " Ossianic," of 1296 lines, and a tale
written about 1717 in imitation of the so-called Fenian tales,
an amusing allegoric story called the "Adventures of Edmund
O'Clery," and a curious but extravagant tale called the "Strong-
. armed Wrestler." Hardiman had in his possession a closely-
written Irish treatise by O'Neaghtan of five hundred pages on
general geography, containing many interesting particulars
.concerning Ireland, and a volume of Annals of Ireland from

1 Bought by my friend Mr. David Comyn at the sale of the late Bishop
Reeves's MSS.

598 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

1167 to about 1 700.* He also translated a great many
church hymns and, I believe, prose books from Latin. His
elegy on Mary D'Este, widow of James II., is one of the
most musical pieces I have ever seen, even in Irish —

" SLOW cause of my fear
NO pause to my tear.
The brightest and whitest
LOW lies on her bier.

FAIR Islets of green,
RARE sights to be seen,
Both highlands and Islands
THERE sigh for the Queen."

TORLOUGH O'CAROLAN, born in 1670, and usually called
" the last of the bards," was one of the best known poets of the
first half of the eighteenth century. He was really a musician,
not a bard, and his advent marked the complete break-down
of the old Gaelic polity, according to which bard and harper
were different persons. Carolan was born in Meath, but
usually resided in Connacht, and having become blind from
small-pox in his twenty-second 2 year he was educated as a
harper, and achieved in his day an enormous renown. He
composed over two hundred airs, many of them very lively,
and usually addressed to his patrons, chiefly to those of the old
Irish families. He composed his own words to suit his music,
and these have given him the reputation of a poet. They are
full of curious turns and twists of metre to suit his airs, to
which they are admirably wed, and very few are in regular
stanzas. They are mostly of a Pindaric nature, addressed to
patrons or to fair ladies ; there are some exceptions, however,

1 In a MS. note by Hardiman in my copy of O'Reilly, he attributes to
him a piece called " Jacobidis and Carina," and the " Battle of the Gap of
the Cross of Brigit," which are unknown to me.

- In his fifteenth year, according to O'Reilly ; his eighteenth, according
to Hardiman's " Irish Minstrelsy," but Hardiman seems to have changed
his opinion, for I have a note in his handwriting in which he states that
Carolan was twenty-two years old when he became blind.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY $99

such as his celebrated ode to whiskey, one of the finest
bacchanalian songs in any language, and his much more famed
but immeasurably inferior " Receipt for Drinking." Very
many of his airs and nearly all his poetry with the exception
of about thirty pieces are lost.1 He died in 1737 at Alderford,
the house of the Mac Dermot Roe.

"When his death was known," says Hardiman, "it is related that
upwards of sixty clergymen of different denominations, a number of
gentlemen from the surrounding counties, and a vast concourse of
country people, assembled to pay the last mark of respect to their
favourite bard. All the houses in Ballyfarnon2 were occupied by
the former, and the people erected tents in the fields round Alder-
ford House. The harp was heard in every direction. The wake
lasted four days. On each side of the hall was placed a keg of
whiskey, which was replenished as often as emptied. Old Mrs. Mac
Dermot herself joined the female mourners who attended, ' to weep,'
as she expressed herself, ' over her poor gentleman, the head of all
Irish music.' On the fifth day his remains were brought forth, and
the funeral was one of the greatest that for many years had taken
place in Connacht."

Another good poet was TEIG O'NAGHTEN, who lived in
Dublin, and is well known for a voluminous manuscript Irish-
English dictionary, at which he worked from 1734 to 1749.
Some twenty or thirty of his poems remain. Another
learned poet and lexicographer was HUGH MAC CURTIN of the
County Clare. With the assistance of his friend, a priest
called Conor O'Begley, he produced a great English-Irish
dictionary in Paris in 1732. He had previously published a
grammar at Louvain in small octavo in 1728. This was no
work to commend him to the powers that were, and he

1 Hardiman has printed twenty-four of his poems in his " Ancient Irish
Minstrelsy," and I printed about twelve more, mostly from manuscripts
in my own possession. The late bookseller, John O'Daly, of Ang'.esea
Street, had, I believe, a number of poems of Carolan in his possession,
but the Royal Irish Academy did not buy them— or indeed any other of
his unique stock of manuscripts — at his sale, and I fear they are now
hopelessly lost.

a A small village on the border of the County Sligo.

6oo LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

appears to have been cast into prison, for in a touching note
at p. 64 of the last edition of his grammar he asks the reader's
pardon for confounding an example of the imperative with
the potential mood, which he was caused to do " by the great
bother of the brawling company that is round about me in
this prison."1 What became of him eventually I do not
know. x

Contemporaneous with him lived O'GALLAGHER, bishop of
Raphoe, who had the unique distinction of publishing a book
— a volume of Irish sermons — which went through over
twenty editions. He, also, pursued letters in the midst of
difficulties, at one time escaping from the English soldiers who
were sent out to take him by the start of only a few minutes,
the parish priest O'Hegarty of Killygarvan being captured in
his stead, and promptly shot dead by the officer in command
•so soon as a rescue was attempted. His Irish is remarkable
for its simplicity and its careless use of English and foreign
words, carefully eschewed by men like Mac Curtin and
O'Neaghtan.

Amongst the Southerns JOHN " CLARACH " MAC DONNELL
was perhaps the finest poet of the first half of the eighteenth
century, but his pieces have never been collected. It was in his
house, near Charleville in the County Cork, that the poets of
the south used to meet in bardic session to exercise their
genius in public. He wrote part of a history of Ireland in
Irish and translated a portion of Homer into Irish verse, but
these are probably lost. He, too, cultivated letters under
difficulty, and had, according to Hardiman, " on more occa-
sions than one to save his life by hasty retreats from his
enemies the bard-hunters." Some of his poems give dreadful

1 O'Curtin's note runs — " As tre shiothbhuaireadh na cuideachtan
culloidighe ata timchioll orm annsa gcarcairse, do chuir me an sompla
deigheanach so do bheanas ris an Modh gcomhachtach so ionar ndiaigh,
annso, san Modh folairimh." This note was pointed out to me by my
friend, Father Ed. Hogan, S.J., who has also been unable to trace the
cause of Curtin's imprisonment, or his subsequent fate.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 601

-descriptions of the state of the Irish and the savage cruelty of
their new masters. Here is how he describes one of them : —

" Plentiful is his costly living in the high-gabled lighted-up man-
sion of Brian, but tight-closed is his door, and his churlishness shut
up inside with him, in Aherlow of the fawns, in an opening between
two mountains, until famine cleaves to the people, putting them
under its sway.

" His gate he never opens to the moan of the unhappy wretches,
he never answers their groans nor provides food for their bodies ; if
they were to take so much as a little faggot or a scollop or a crooked
rod, he would beat streams of blood out of their shoulders.

" The laws of the world, he used to tear them constantly to pieces,
the ravening, stubborn, shameless hound, ever putting in fast fetters
the church of God, and Oh ! may heaven of the saints be a red-
wilderness for James Dawson ! " z

It would be impossible to enumerate here all the admirable
and melodious poets produced — chiefly by the province of
Munster — during the latter half of the eighteenth century and
the beginning of this. A few of them, however, I must notice.

MICHAEL COMYN, of the County Clare, was the author
of the prose story called " The Adventures of Torlogh, son of
Starn, and the Adventures of his Three Sons,"2 and he revived
the Ossianic muse by his exquisite version — evidently based
upon traditional matter — of "Ossian in the Land of the
Young." 3

BRIAN MAC GIOLLA MEIDHRE, or Merriman, whose poem
•of the "Midnight Court," contains about a thousand lines
with four rhymes in each line, was another native of the
County Clare. This amusing and witty poem, one certainly

1 I printed the whole of this ferocious poem in the Cork Archaeological
Journal.

2 Recently printed without a translation by Patrick O'Brien, of 46, Cuffe
Street, Dublin.

3 First printed nearly forty years ago by the Ossianic Society, and since
then by my friend Mr. David Comyn, with a prose translation and glossary,
.and recently by my friend Mr. O'Flannghaoile, with translations in verse
.and prose.

602 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

not intended "virginibus puerisque," is a vision of Aoibhill
[Eevil], queen of the Fairies of Munster, holding a courtr
where, when the poet sees it, a handsome girl is in the act
of complaining to the queen that in spite of her beauty and
fine figure and accomplishments she is in danger of dying
unwed, and asking for relief. She is opposed by an old man,
who argues against her. She answers him again, and the
court finally pronounces judgment. Standish Hayes O'Grady
once characterised this poem as being u with all its defects,
perhaps the most tasteful piece in the language," I and it is
certainly a wonderful example of sustained rhythm and vowel-
rhyme. It was written in 1781.

TADHG [TEIG] GAOLACH O'SULLIVAN, of the County Cork,
was another of the most popular poets in his day. His earlier
poems contained certain indiscretions for which, in later life, he
made ample amends by devoting himself solely to religious poetry,
and attempting to turn the force of public opinion against vice in
every shape, especially drunkenness and immorality. A small
volume of his religious poems, probably the best of the kind
produced by any of the New School, was printed during his own
lifetime in Limerick, and repeatedly afterwards, at Cappoquin,
and I believe elsewhere, in Roman letters, and finally by
O'Daly, of Anglesea Street, in Dublin, 1868. His poems are
very musical and mellifluous, but abound in " Munster isms,"
which make them difficult to readers from other provinces.
He died in 1800.

Another fine poet of the County Clare was DONOUGH MAC

1 See Ossianic Society, vol. iii. p. 36. It was printed with the following
curious title-page, " Mediae noctis consilium, auctore Briano Mac-Gilla-
Meidhre, de comitatu Clarensi, in Momonia, A.D. MDCCLXXX. Poema
heroico-comicum, quo nihil aut magis graciie aut poeticum aut magis
abundans in hodierno Hiberniae idiomati exolescit. Curtha a gclodh le
Tomas mhic Lopuis ag Loch an chonblaigh Oghair, MDCCC." But both
place and date are fictitious. It was almost certainly printed by O'Daly of
Anglesea Street, for after his death I found amongst some papers of his the
proof-sheets corrected with his own hand ! My friend, Mr. Patrick O'Brien,,
of Cuffe Street, has since printed another edition with a brief vocabulary.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

603

CONMARA, or Macnamara, as he is usually called in English.
He was educated at Rome for the priesthood, but being of a
wild disposition he was expelled from the ecclesiastical college
there, and returning to Ireland, made his way to a famous
school in the county Waterford at Slieve Gua, in the
neighbourhood of which the people of the surrounding districts
had for over a hundred years been accustomed to support
"poor scholars" free of charge. He himself also opened a
successful school, but a young woman of the neighbourhood,
whom he had satirised, put a coal in the thatch and burnt him
out. He led a rambling existence after that. He went to
America and spent two summers and a winter in Newfound-
land, which was then largely planted by the Irish. He appears
to have also wandered a good deal about the Continent. The
longest of his poems is a kind of mock Aeneid, describing his
voyage to America and how the ship was chased by a French
cruiser. Eevil, the fairy queen of Munster, brings him away
in a dream to Elysium, where instead of Charon he finds " bald
cursing Conan" the Fenian acting as ferryman. But he is best
known by his beautiful lyric, " The Fair Hills of Holy
Ireland," which he composed apparently when on the
Continent. He led a ranting, roving, wild life, changed his
religion a couple of times with unparalleled effrontery, but
becoming blind in his old age, he repented of his sins and his
misspent life, and died some time about the beginning of this
century.1 He was, like all these poets, a good scholar, as a
Latin epitaph of fourteen verses, which he wrote over the
pious Teig Gaolach proves —

" Plangite Pierides, vester decessit alumnus,
Eochades 2 non est, cuncta-que rura silent."

His " Eachtra Giolla an Amarain" was published in 1853 by " S.
," and recently with a number of his other poems translated into
iglish, and republished with the late John Fleming's Irish life of the
t, by my friend Tomas O'Flannghaoile.

I.e., the descendant of Eochaidh Muighmheadhoin, father of Niall of
Nine Hostages. See above, p. 33.

LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

Perhaps the best known at the present day of all the Minister
poets is the witty, wicked OWEN ROE O'SULLIVAN from
Slieve Luachra, in Kerry, whose sayings and songs have been
proverbial for three generations, and whose fame has penetrated
/into many counties besides his own. All the poets I have
mentioned hitherto, except perhaps the pious Teig Gaolach,
were almost professional wits, but Owen Roe, to judge from
the number of his bom mots that are still preserved, must have
surpassed them all. All the poets I have mentioned were also
Jacobite poets, but in elaboration of the usual Jacobite theme
of the Lady Erin, Owen Roe is easily first. His denuncia-
tions of the foreigner were incessant. He was originally a
working man, and laboured hard with plough and spade. His
-poem called the " Mower " is well known. His explanation
of a Greek passage, which puzzled his employer's son fresh
from a French college,1 first brought him into repute, and he
-opened a school in the neighbourhood of Charleville as a
teacher of Latin and Greek. As was the case with very many
of the Munster bards, his passion for the frail sex was the
undoing of him. He was denounced from the altar, and his
school was given up. He died, still young, about the year
1784.

WILLIAM DALL O'HEFFERNAN, JOHN O'TooMY "the
Gay," ANDREW MAC GRATH (surnamed the Mangaire Sugach,
or Merry Merchant, the frailest and wildest of all the bards),
EGAN O'RAHILLY, of Slieve Luachra in Kerry, OWEN
O'KEEFE, parish priest of Doneraile, and JOHN MURPHY, of
Rathaoineach, are a few of the names that instantly suggest
themselves to all readers of the Irish manuscripts of Munster.2

The north of Ireland produced a great number of poets also

1 All the Irish of the eighteenth century had, when not secretly educated
at home, to go abroad in pursuit of knowledge.

2 Specimens of their poetry may be found in O* Daly's two excellent
volumes, " The Poetry of Mnnster," and in his " Jacobite Relics " and in
Walsh's "Popular Songs," but most of them are still in manuscript.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

605.

during the eighteenth century, of whom PATRICK LINDON and
ART MAC CUMHAIDH, both of the County Armagh, PHILLIP
BRADY, of the County Cavan, and JAMES MAC CUAIRT, of the
County Louth, a friend of Carolan's, were some of the best
known, but owing to the fatal loss of Irish manuscripts, chiefly
those of the northern half of Ireland, and the apparent deter-
mination of the Royal Irish Academy not to use any of the
funds (granted by Government for the prosecution of Irish
studies) in the preservation of any modern texts, it is to be
feared that a great portion of their works and of those of at
least a hundred other writers of the eighteenth century is now
lost for ever.

It would be interesting to take a retrospect of the splendid
lyrical outburst produced by our brothers of the Scotch High-
lands contemporaneously with that of the poets I have just
mentioned, but it would extend the scope of this work too
much. There seems to me to be perhaps more substance and
more simplicity and straightforward diction in the poems of
the Scotch Gaels, and more melody and word play, purchased
at the expense of a good deal of nebulousness and unmeaning
sound, in those of the Irish Gaels ; both, though they utterly
fail in the ballad, have brought the lyric to a very high pitch
of perfection.

In Connacht during the eighteenth century the conditions
of life were less favourable to poetry, the people were much
poorer, and there was no influential class of native school-
masters and scribes to perpetuate and copy Irish manuscripts,
as there was all over Munster, consequently the greater part of
the minstrelsy of that province is hopelessly lost, and even the
very names of its poets with the exception of CAROLAN,
NETTERVILLE, MAC CABE, MAC GOVERN, and a few more
of the last century, and MAC SWEENY, BARRETT, and
RAFTERY of this century, have been lost. That there existed,
however, amongst the natives of the province a most wide-
spread love of song and poetry, even though most of their

606 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

manuscripts have perished, is certain, for I have collected
among them, not to speak of Ossianic lays and other things,
a volume of love poems and two volumes of religious poems,1
almost wholly taken from the mouths of the peasantry. This
love of poetry and passion for song, which seems to be the
indigenous birthright of every one born in an Irish-speaking
district promises to soon be a thing of the past, thanks, perhaps
partly, to the apathy of the clergy, who in Connacht almost
always preach in English, and partly to the dislike of the gentry
to hear Irish spoken, but chiefly owing to the far-reaching and
deliberate efforts of the National Board of Education to extirpate
the national language.

Upon the present century I need not touch. Its early
years, during which Irish was the general language of the
nation, witnessed little or no attempts at its literary cultivation,
except amongst the people themselves, who, too poor to call
the press to their aid, kept on copying and re-copying their
beautiful manuscripts with a religious zeal, and producing
poetry — but of no very high order — over the greater part of
the country. Then came the famine, and with it collapse.
In the sauve-qui-peut that followed, everything went by the
board, thousands of manuscripts were lost, and the old literary
life of Ireland may be said to have come to a close amidst the
horrors of famine, fever, and emigration.

The advent of Eugene O'Curry and John O'Donovan,
however, gave a great impetus to the work begun by O'Reilly
and Hardiman, and men arose like Petrie and Todd to take a
literary interest in the nation's past, and in the language that
enshrined it. ^Meanwhile that language was fast dying as a
living tongue without one effort being made to save it. It is
only the last few years that have seen a real re-awakening of

1 These are my " Religious Songs of Connacht," quoted more than once
in this book as though published. They were meant to have been
published simultaneously with it, but unfortunately the plates of both
volumes were melted down, while I was revising these proofs, in the great
fire at Sealy, Dryers and Walker's, Dublin.

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY

607

interest amongst the people in their hereditary language, and the
establishment of a monthly and a weekly paper, chiefly written
in Irish.1 The question whether the national language is to
become wholly extinct like the Cornish, is one which must be
decided within the next ten years. There are probably a L
hundred and fifty thousand households in Ireland at this
moment where the parents speak Irish amongst themselves,
and the children answer them in English. If a current of
popular feeling can be aroused amongst these, the great cause
— for great it appears even now to foreigners, and greater it
will appear to the future generations of the Irish themselves —
of the preservation of the oldest and most cultured vernacular
in Europe, except Greek alone, is assured of success, and Irish
literature, the production of which — though long dribbling in
a narrow channel — has never actually ceased, may again, as it
is even now promising to do, burst forth into life and vigour,
and once more give that expression which in English seems
impossible, to the best thoughts and aspirations of the Gaelic

race.

Conducted by the Gaelic League.

CHAPTER XLIV

THE HISTORY OF IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE

WE must now follow the fortunes of the Irish language as a
spoken tongue, " questo linguaggio difficile e davvero stupendo,""
as Ascoli calls it,1 which after imposing itself upon both
Dane and Norman, was brought face to face as early as-
the fourteenth century with its great competitor English,.
before which, despite its early victory in the contest, it has at
last nearly but not quite gone down, after an unremitting
struggle of nearly five centuries.

As early as the year 1360, the English appear to have taken
the alarm at the inroads which the Irish language — at that
time a much more highly-cultured form of speech than their
own — had made upon the colonists, and we find King Edward
issuing orders to the Sheriff of the Cross and Seneschal of the-
Liberty of Kilkenny in these terms 2 —

"As many of the English nation in the Marches and elsewhere
have again become like Irishmen, and refuse to obey our laws and

1 Preface to " Glossarium Palaeo-Hibernicmn."

2 Red Book in Archives of Diocese of Ossory. The statute is in the
barbarous law-French of the period, " et si nul Engleys ou Irroies con-
versant entre Engleys use la lang Irroies entre eux-mesmes encontre cest
ordinance, et de ceo soit attient, soint sez terrez," etc.

608

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 609

customs, and hold parliaments after the Irish fashion, and learn to
speak the Irish tongue, and send their children among the Irish to
be nursed and taught the Irish tongue, so that the people of English
race have for the greater part become Irish ; now we order (i) that
no Englishman of any state or condition shall . . . [under forfeiture of
life, limbs, and everything else] follow these Irish customs, laws, and
parliaments ; (2) that any one of English race shall forfeit English
liberty, if after the next feast of St. John the Baptist he shall speak
Irish with other Englishmen and meantime every Englishman must
learn English and must not have his children at nurse amongst the
Irish."

In 1367, the last year of the administration of the Duke of
Clarence, third son of Edward III, a parliament held at
Kilkenny passed the famous act that inter-marriage with the
Irish should be punished as high treason, and that any man of
English race using the Irish language should forfeit all his land
and tenements to the Crown, and forbidding also the enter-
tainment of bards, ministrels, and rhymers.

These first attacks upon the language cannot possibly have
produced much effect, for we find the English power within
a hundred years after their passing, reduced to the lowest point,
and there was scarcely an English or Norman noble in Ireland
who had not adopted an Irish name, Irish speech, and Irish
manners. The De Bourgo had became Mac William, and
minor branches of the same stem had become Mac Philpins,
Mac Gibbons, and Mac Raymonds ; the Birminghams had
became Mac Feoiris, the Stauntons Mac Aveeleys, the Nangles
Mac Costellos, the Prendergasts Mac Maurices, the De
Courcys Mac Patricks, the Bissetts of Antrim Mac Keons, etc.

A hundred years after the Statute of Kilkenny, the English,
driven back into the Pale, which then consisted of less than
four counties, passed a law in 1465, enjoining all men of Irish
names within the Pale to take an English name, "of one
towne as Sutton, Chester, Trym, Skryne, Corke, Kinsale ; or
colour as White, Black, Brown ; or art or science as Cooke,
Butler," and he and his issue were ordered to use these names

6io LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

or forfeit all their goods. This, however, the parliament was
unable to carry through, none of the great Irish names within
or alongside the Pale, Mac Murroughs, O'Tooles, O'Byrnes,
O'Mores, O'Ryans, O'Conor Falys, O'Kellys, etc., seem to
have been in the least influenced by it.

Next an attempt was made to maintain English in at least
the seaports and borough towns, for we find an enactment of
the year 1492-93 amongst the Archives of the Urbs Intacta,
commanding that in Waterford, " no manner of man, freeman
or foreign, of the city or suburb's dwellers, shall emplead nor
defend in Irish tongue against any man in the court, but all
they that any matters shall have in court to be administered,
shall have a man that can speak English to declare his matter,
except one party be of the country [i.e., of Irish race] then
every such dweller shall be at liberty to speak Irish."1 Galway
followed suit in 1520, and enacted that "no Irish judge or
lawyer shall plead in no man's cause nor matter within this our
court, for it agreeth not with the king's laws."2

How far these petty attempts were successful may be judged
from the fact that Captain Ap Harry, a Welsh officer, describ-
ing in October, 1535, Lord Butler's march for the recovery of
Dungarvan Castle, says, " We were met by his lordship's
brother-in-law, Gerald Mac Shane, (Fitzgerald) Lord of the
Decies, who, though a very strong man in his country, could
speak never a word of English, but made the troops good cheer
after the gentilest fashion that could be. All this journey from
Dungarvan forth there is none alive that can remember that
English man of war was ever in these parts." Still more
striking is the statement that in the Dublin parliament of
1541, all the peers except Mac Gillapatric were of Norman or
English descent, and yet not one except the Earl of Ormond
could understand English.3 A letter to the English Privy

1 Municipal Archives of Waterford. Hist. MSS. Commission, loth
report. Appendix v. p. 323.
s Galway Archives. 3 " Ulster Journal of Archaeology."

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 611

Council, written in 1569, by Dominicke Linche, of Galway,
confirms this. " Even they of the best houses," he writes,
"the brothers of the Erie of Clanrickarde, yea and one of his
uncles, and he a bysshop, can neither speak nor understand
in manner any thinge of their Prince's language, which
language by the old Statutes of Galway, every man ought to
learn and must speak before he can be admitted to any office
within the Corporation."1

Nor had the extirpating policy succeeded even in the Pale,
for we read in the State Papers that in the county of Kildare
in 1534, "there is not one husbandman in effect that speaketh
English nor useth any English sort nor manner, and their
gentlemen be after the same sort." 2

The great Earl of Kildare had nearly as many volumes or
Irish as he had of English in his library. A catalogue of his
books was drawn up in 1518. Amongst the Irish manuscripts
were St. Berachan's book,3 the Speech of Oyncheaghis (?)
Cuchuland's Acts, the History of Clone Lyre, etc. Murchadh
O'Brien, king of Thomond, promised Henry VIII. as early as
1547, wnen in London, that he and his heirs should use the
English habit and manner, and to their knowledge the English
language, and to their power bring up their children in the
same.4 And indeed that family seems to have been always the
greatest prop of the English power in the South of Ireland.
Thomas Moore, settling in Ireland in 1575, got his lands in
King's County on the condition that his sons and servants
" should use for the most the English tongue, habit, and
government," and make no appeals to the Brehon law. Three
years after this, in 1578, we find Lord Chancellor Gerard
affirming that all the English, and the most part with delight,

1 See " Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland," 1897,
p. 192.

2 State Papers, part iii. vol. ii. p. 502.

3 One of the four prophets of Ireland, see p. 210, note.

4 Archdale ii, 27.

612 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

even in Dublin speak Irish, and greatly are spotted in manners,
habit, and conditions with Irish stains.1

In the Vatican Library my friend Father Hogan found a
MS. of about the year 1580 with a memorandum concerning
certain Franciscan friars, three of whom spoke Irish only,
including the Provincial who preached all over Ireland, five
more knew Irish better than English, while five are entered as
knowing English better than Irish, none are entered as knowing
English only.

In 1585 the Irish chieftains of Hy Many, the O'Kellys
country, agreed that " Teige mac William O 'Kelly and Conor
Oge O'Kelly shall henceforth behave themselves like good
subjects and shall bring up their children after the English
fashions and in the use of the English tongue." 3 Of course
such enforced promises had no effect. We find in the State
Papers that at St. Douay in 1600 were sixty young gentlemen,
eldest sons of the principal gentlemen of the Pale, and that they
all spoke Irish.4

In 1608 it was found that the superior of the Irish Jesuits,
apparently a Pales-man, Father Christopher Holywood or
Artane, near Dublin, could speak no Irish, and a document
was sent at once to the General of the Jesuits, pointing out
how this destroyed his usefulness in the Irish mission. Care
was taken that the same mistake should not be made in
appointing his successor, Robert Nugent. 5

In 1609 we find Richard Con way, a Jesuit, writing that the
English in Ireland took care that all [their own] children are
taught English and chastise them if they speak their own
native tongue6 (sic). Five or six years later Father Stephen

1 Cal. of State Papers, p. 130.

3 « Tribes of Hy Many," p. 20.

< State Papers, Dom. Eliz. an. 1600, p. 496.

5 This was that Father Nugent who improved and developed the powers
of the Irish harp. A letter in Irish to him from Maelbrighte O'Hussey is
printed by Father Hogan, S.J., in " Ibernia Ignatiana," p. 167.

6 Father Hogan's " Distinguished Irishmen of the Sixteenth Century," p. 38.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 613

White writes, " Scarcely one in a thousand of the old Irish
know even three words of any tongue except Irish, the
modern Irish learn to speak Irish and English."1

Nevertheless the cause of the English language cannot have
much progressed during the next fifty years, for we find in
1657 a petition presented to the Municipal Council of Dublin
to the effect that " whereas by the laws all persons ought to
speak and use the English tongue and habit, — contrary where-
unto and in open contempt thereof, there is Irish commonly
and usually spoken and the Irish habit worn not only in the
streets and by such as live in the country and come to this city
on market days, but also by and in several families in this city,
to the scandalising of the inhabitants and magistrates of this
city. And whereas there is much of swearing and cursing
used and practised (as in the English tongue too much, so also
in the Irish tongue)," etc. Irish, indeed, seems to have been
the commonest language in Dublin at this time. James
Howel in a letter written August 9, in 1630, says :

" Some curious in the comparisons of tongues, say Irish is a dialect
of the ancient British, and the learnedest of that nation in a private
discourse I happened to have with him seemed to incline to this
opinion, but I can assure your Lordship I found a great multitude of
their radical words the same with the Welsh, both for sense and
sound. The tone also of both nations is consonant, for when I first
walked up and down the Dublin markets methought I was in Wales
when I listened to their speech. I found the Irish tone a little more
querulous and whining than the British, which I conjecture pro-
ceeded from their often being subjugated by the English."

During the Cromwellian wars most of the members of the
Confederation of Kilkenny who took the side of the Nuncio
Rinuccini knew little if anything of the English language,
" qui," says Rinuccini in his MSS., " boni publici zelo flag-
rarent, plerique linguam quidem Ibernicam quia vernaculam,

1 MS. in Royal Library of Brussels of Stephen White's " Vindiciae,"
fo. 62. Consulted by Father Hogan, S.J.

614 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

bene, sed Anglicam male vel nullo modo callerent." When
an order was issued by the Supreme Council for the new oath
of association to be translated from English into Irish by each
bishop for his diocese, it was found upon inquiry that some
of the bishops did not understand a word of English. The
Nuncio appears to have been very much impressed by the
sweetness of the Irish language, but he had not leisure to
devote himself to the study of it. Some of the Italian
members of his household, however, became complete masters
of it. Numbers of the poor people who had been plundered
by the soldiery came to complain to him of their losses, and he
notes in his diary that their wail and lamentation in Irish was
far more plaintive and expressive than any music of the great
masters which he had ever heard among the more favoured
nations of the Continent.1

Irish was at this time the usual " vehicle of business and of
negociation with the natives, even amongst the learned," as we
see in Carte's life of the Duke of Ormond, who was born in
England in 1607 and educated as a Protestant by the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury.

" The Duke," says Carte, " when about twenty or twenty-four years
of age learned the Irish language by conversing with such Irish
gentlemen as spoke it in London ; he understood it perfectly well
and could express himself well enough in familiar conversation, but
considered himself not so well qualified as to discourse about serious
matters ; he afterwards on many occasions found himself at a great
loss, as he had to negociate business of national importance with
gentlemen who were far less intelligent in the English language than
he was in the Irish. On such occasions he would use the same
methods which he took with the titular bishop of Clogher, the great
favourite of Owen O'Neil, and successor to that general in the
command of the Ulster forces. This bishop he brought over to the
king's interest, and gained his entire confidence by a conversation
carried on between both parties in private. The Duke always spoke
in English and the bishop in Irish, as neither understood the language

1 " Transactions of the Ossory Arch. Society,' vol. ii. p. 350.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 615

of the other so as to venture upon communicating his sentiments in
it with any degree of accuracy or precision." *

The Irish themselves never neglected literature, and when-
ever their political star was in the ascendant the fortunes of
their bards and learned men rose with it. Thus we find Rory
O'More, the close friend of Owen Roe O'Neill, and the chief
of the O'Mores of Leix, engaged in 1642 in an attempt to
re-establish Irish schools and learning, and writing on the 2Oth
of September, 1642, to Father Hugh de Bourgo at Brussels,
" If we may, before Flan Mac Egan dies, we will see an Irish
school opened, and therefore would wish heartily that these
learned and religious fathers in Louvain would come over in
haste with their monuments (?) and an Irish and Latin press."
The Mac Egan here alluded to was the eminent Brehon and
Irish antiquarian who lived at Bally-mac-Egan in the county
Tipperary in Lower Ormond, whose imprimatur was con-
sidered so valuable that the Four Masters procured for their
work his written approbation.2 Seven years after this letter,
the town of Wexford, from which O'More wrote in the
interests of humanity and learning, sank in fire and ruin and
its inhabitants both men and women were put to the sword in
one universal massacre.

There were in the year 1650, forty-seven Jesuit priests in
Ireland, according to a memorandum given me by Father
Hogan, S.J., of these two — one from Meath the other from
Kerry — spoke Irish only : and four from Dublin, all of course
of English extraction, spoke English only, while the remaining
forty-one spoke both languages. Seven of these bi-linguists
were from Dublin and ten from Meath.

1 Preface to Halliday's edition of Keating's " Forus Feasa," p. xi. The
fine poet, David Bruadar (p. 592), wrote a satiric poem on the haste the
Irish made to speak English when the Duke of Ormond was in power,
two lines of which I quote from memory :

" Is mairg aid gan B earl a binn
Ar dteacht an larla go h-Eirinn.

2 See above p. 578.

616 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

These instances show that Irish was the usual spoken
language of the country, even in Dublin, but there are indica-
tions that the ardour with which it had been cultivated and the
respect with which its professors had been regarded was dying
out. Even as early as 1627 we find one Connla Mac Echagan
of West Meath, translating the " Annals of Clonmacnois "
into English,1 and in his dedication to his friend and kinsman
Torlogh Mac Cochlan, lord of Delvin, he says that formerly
many septs lived in Ireland whose profession it was to chronicle
and keep in memory the state of the kingdom, but, he adds,
" now as they cannot enjoy that respect and gain by their
profession, as heretofore they and their ancestors received, they
set nought by the said knowledge, neglect their books, and
choose rather to put their children to learn English than their
own native language, insomuch that some of them suffer
tailors to cut the leaves of the said books (which their ances-
tors held in great account) and sew them in long pieces to
make their measures of, [so] that the posterities are like to fall
into more ignorance of many things which happened before
their time."

A little later, in 1639, Father Stapleton, in his " Doctrina
Christiana," published in Irish and Latin — the first Irish book
ever printed in Roman characters — throws the blame for the
neglect of Irish literature first upon the Irish antiquarians "who
have placed it under difficulties and hard words,2 writing it in
mysterious ways, and in dark difficult language," and secondly
upon the upper classes " who bring their native natural language
(which is powerful, perfect, honourable, learned, and sharply-
exact in itself) into contempt and disrespect, and spend their
time cultivating and learning other foreign tongues." 3

1 Published by the late Father Denis Murphy, S.J., for the Irish
Antiquarian Society.

2 I fear many of our moderns are also more or less open to this
reproach.

3 " Ar an adhbhar sin as coir agus as iommochuibhe duinne na Herenaig
bheith ceanamhail gradhach onorach an ar dteangain nduchais nadurtha

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 617

Peter Lombard, Archbishop of Armagh, in his book printed
at Louvain in 1632, says that Irish is the language of the whole
of Hibernia, but there were some differences of pronunciation
in the various provinces, and between the learned and the
common people, the universal opinion being that the people
of Connacht spoke it best, they having both power of expres-
sion and propriety of phrase, while the men of Munster had
the power of expression without the propriety, and the people
of Ulster the propriety without the power of expression. The
people of Leinster were considered deficient in both.1

O'Molloy in his " Lochrann na gCreidmheach," published
in 1675, says that "no language is well understood by the
common people of the island except Irish alone."2 The
students of the Irish College at Rome were at this time bound
by rule to speak Irish, and an Irish book was to be read in the

fein, an ghaoilag, noch ata chomhfuelethach chomhmuchta soin, nach mor
na deacha si as coimhne na nduine ; a mhilean so as feidir a chur ar an
aois ealathain noch as udair don teangain, do chuir i fa fordhoreatheacht
agus cruos focal, da scribha a modaibh agus fhocalaibh deamhaire doracha,
dothuicseanta, agus ni fhoilid saor moran d'ar nduinibh uaisle dobheir a
tteanga dhuchais nadurtha (noch ata fortill fuirithe onorach folamtha
gearchuiseach inti fein) a ttarcuisne agus a neamhchionn, agus chaitheas a
n-aimsir a saorthudh agus a foghlaim teangtha coimhtheach ele " (pp. 10
and n, preface).

1 "Tertio notandum quod hoc ipsum idioma sit vernaculum toti in
primis Hibernias, tamsetsi cum aliquo discrimine turn quoad dialectum
nonnihil variantem inter diversas provincias, turn quoad artificii observa-
tionem inter doctos et vulgares. . . . Et dialecti quidem variatio ita se

labere passim asstimatur, ut cum sint quatuor Hibernice provinciae
[omonia Ultonia Lagenia Conactia, penes Conactes sit et potestas rectae
ronunciationis et phraseos vera proprietas, penes Moinonienses potestas
ine proprietate, penes Ultones proprietas sine potestate, penes Lagenos
ice potestas pronunciationis nee phraseos proprietas." — "De Hibernia
Dmmentarius," p. 7. Louvain, 1632. This shows the antiquity of the
[rish saying, " ta ceart gan bias ag an Ulltach, ta bias gan ceart ag an
[uimhneach, ni'l bias na ceart ag an Laighneach, ta bias agus ceart ag an
mnachtach."

2 " Ni maith tuigthear leis an bpobal gcoitcheann einteangadh acht an
jhaoidhealg amhain " (see p. n). See also a mandate of the " Sacra Con-

jgatio Visitationis."

618 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

refectory during dinner and supper,1 and all candidates for the
priesthood were directed by the Synod of Tuam, in 1660, to
learn to read and write Irish well.

Sir William Petty, writing in 1672, has an interesting pas-
sage on the people of Wexford and of Fingal : " The language
of Ireland is like that of the North of Scotland, in many
things like the Welsh and Manques, but in Ireland the Fin-
gallians " [the dwellers along the coast some miles north of
Dublin] " speak neither English, Irish, nor Welsh, and the
people about Wexford, though they speak in a language differ-
ing from English, Welsh, and Irish, yet it is not the same with
that of the Fingallians near Dublin. Both these sorts of people
are honest and laborious members of the kingdom." Petty's
strictures upon the Irish language, of which he was utterly
ignorant, and which he ludicrously asserts " to have few
words," need not here be noticed. He appears to show, how-
ever, that the Irish had already begun to borrow some words
from English, and expressed many of the "names of artificial
things" in "the language of their conquerors by altering the
termination and language only."

It need hardly be said that once the English Government
got the upper hand in the seventeenth century, and placed
bishops and clergy of its own in the sees and dioceses through-
out Ireland, they made it a kind of understood bargain with
their nominees that they should have no dealings and make
no terms with the national Irish language. Bedell, who
was an Englishman and had been created an Irish bishop,
neglected this unwritten compact far enough to learn Irish
himself and to translate, with the help of a couple of Irish-
men, the Bible into Irish, and he also circulated a catechism in

1 " Quando aderit Rector Hibernicus val alius linguae peritus, legantur ad
mensam ter in hebdomada, libri spirituals, in idiomati Hibernico com-
positi, ne alumni ejus obliviscantur." — Extracted from the " Archiv. Coll.
Hib. Romae.," lib. xxiii., by Father Hogan, S.J.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 619

English and Irish amongst the natives. He reaped his reward
in the undying gratitude of the Irish and the equally bitter
animosity of his own colleagues. Ussher, then primate, in
answer to a pathetic letter of Bedell's asking what were the
charges against him, said in his reply, " the course which you
took with the Papists was generally cried out against, neither
do I remember in all my life that anything was done here by
any of us, at which the professors of the gospel did take more
offense, or by which the adversaries were more confirmed in
their superstitions and idolatry, whereas I wish you had advised
with your brethren before you would aventure to pull down
that which they have been so long a building," x meaning the
discrediting and destruction of the Irish language. The Irish,
however, did not forget the efforts Bedell had made in behalf
of their tongue, for, having taken him prisoner in the war of
1648, they treated him with every courtesy in their power, and
when he died their troops fired a volley over his grave, crying
out, Requiescat ultimus Anglorum^ while a priest who was
present was heard to exclaim with fervour, "5/V anima mea cum
Bedello."

Indeed, the attitude adopted by the Government and the
bishops who were its loyal henchmen, placed the defenders of
the Established Church in a very awkward and embarrassing
position. They wanted to make Protestants of the people,
but they could not talk to them nor preach to them. The
only possible course for the bishops to pursue, supposing them
to have been in earnest, and to have been ecclesiastics and not

>vernment place-men, would have been to appoint Irish-
iking clergy under them, a thing which with scarcely an
cception they utterly and obstinately refused to do. So that
a hundred and fifty years the native inhabitants of Ireland
rere obliged to pay a tenth of their produce to a foreign
lergy whom they could not understand and who never

mbled themselves to understand them. How gentlemen
1 Elrington's " Life and Writings of Ussher."

620 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and scholars like Ussher could take up the position they did,
is marvellous. He declares with one breath that " the religion
of the Papists is superstitious and idolatrous, their faith and
doctrines erroneous and heretical, their church in respect of
both apostatical, to give them therefore a toleration, or to con-
sent that they may freely exercise their religion and profess
their faith and doctrine is a grievous sin," J and with the next
breath he tells Bedell when he circulated books in the Irish
language meant to convert these same Papists, that nothing
was ever done "at which the professors of the gospel did take
more offense." This can only be accounted for, so far as I
can see, by strong social prejudice and race hatred. The
desire to see the Irish and their language crushed and in
extremis was stronger than the desire to make Protestants
of them, and this feeling continued for at least a hundred and
fifty years.2 Even so late as the latter half of the eighteenth
century we find Dr. Woodward, Protestant bishop of Cloyne,
stating that " the difference of language is a very general (and
where it obtains an insurmountable] object to any intercourse
with the people," on the part of the Protestant clergy, but, he
adds coolly, " if it be asked why the clergy do not learn the
Irish language, I answer that it should be the object of
Government rather to take measures to bring it into entire
disuse," 3 one of the most cynical avowals I can remember on
the part of an Irish prelate as to what he was there for — not
for the spiritual good of the people who paid him tithes,

1 See above, p. 555.

2 It was not, I think, until the tithe war took place, that the established
clergy began to see anything irrational in their attitude. In 1834, how-
ever, the Hon. Power Trench, Archbishop of Tuam, wrote to Phillip
Barren, of Waterford, editor of Ancient Ireland, a weekly magazine for the
cultivation of the Irish language, regretting that in the whole of his
diocese (where probably not one in twenty at that period understood a
word of English) he had not outside of his own brother, a single clergy-
man who had " acquired a proficiency in the Irish language."

s " Present State of the Irish Church," seventh edition, 1787, p. 43, quoted
by Anderson, in his " Native Irish."

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 621

but as the official tool of the Government to crush their
nationality.

Even Dean Swift, so clear-sighted a politician where
Ireland's financial wrongs were concerned, was in his policy
towards the people's language quite at one with men like
Ussher and Woodward. Yet he knew perfectly well that over
three-fourths of the island he and his confreres were, so far as
polemical arguments or conversion went, powerless either for
good or evil. He was, like the other Protestant dignitaries
of his day, a declared enemy of the Gaelic speech, which he
considered prevented " the Irish from being tamed," and at
one time he said he had a scheme by which their language
" might easily be abolished and become a dead one in half an
age, with little expense and less trouble." In another place he
says, " it would be a noble achievement to abolish the Irish
language in the kingdom, so far at least as to oblige all the
natives to speak only English on every occasion of business, in
shops, markets, fairs, and other places of dealing : yet I am
wholly deceived if this might not be effectually done in less
than half an age and at a very trifling expense ; for such I look
upon a tax to be, of only six thousand pounds to accomplish
so great a work." Whatever the Dean's plan was, he did not
further enlighten the public upon it, and the scheme appears to
ive died with him.

The absorbing power of Irish nationality continued so
rong all through the seventeenth century that according to
'rendergast many of the children of Oliver Cromwell's
>ldiers who had settled in Ireland could not speak a word of
English.1 It was the same all over the country. In 1760
•ish was so universally spoken in the regiments of the Irish
(rigade that Dick Hennessy, Edmund Burke's cousin, learnt

1 Robert Molesworth's " True Way to Make Ireland Happy," printed in
)7, is also quoted as an authority for this statement, but I have not
jen able to discover a copy of this book even in the Library of Trinity
)llege.

622 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

it on foreign service.1 Still later, during the Peninsular War,
the English officers in one of the Highland regiments
attempted to abolish the speaking of Gaelic at the mess table,
but the Gaelic-speaking officers completely outvoted them.
Irish was spoken at this time by all the Milesian families of
high rank) except when they wished to deliberately Anglicise
themselves. Michael Kelly, the musical composer and
vocalist, who was born in Dublin in 1764, tells us in his
" Reminiscences : " 2 —

" I procured an audience of the Emperor of Germany at Schoen-
brunn, and found him with a half-dozen of general officers, among
whom were Generals O'Donnell and Kavanagh, my gallant country-
men. The latter [he was from Borris in the Queen's County] said
something to me in Irish which I did not understand, consequently
made him no answer. The Emperor turned quickly on me and
said, ' What ! O' Kelly, don't you speak the language of your own
country ' ? I replied, ' Please, your Majesty, none but the lower
orders of the Irish people speak Irish.' The Emperor laughed
loudly. The impropriety of the remark made before two Milesian
Generals flashed into my mind in an instant, and I could have bitten
off my tongue. They luckily did not, or pretended not to hear."

It is from the middle of the eighteenth century onward that
the Irish language begins to die out. I doubt whether before
that period any Milesian family either in Ireland or the Scotch
Highlands spoke English in its own home or to its own
children.

I have been at much pains to trace the decay of the language,
and the extent to which it has been spoken at various periods
from that day to this, and have consulted all the volumes of
travellers and statisticians upon which I have been able to lay
hands. The result, however, has not been very satisfactory
so far as information goes. It is simply amazing that most
Irish and many English writers, who have had to deal with
Ireland from that day to this, have in their sketchy and

1 Roche's " Memoirs of an Octogenarian."
a Vol. i. p. 263.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 623

generally unreliable accounts of the island, its people, and its
social conditions, simply ignored the fact that any other
language than English was spoken in it at all. Perhaps the
most trustworthy accounts of the anomalous condition of the
Irish-speaking race in their own island are by foreigners who
have recorded what they saw without prejudice one way or
the other, whereas one cannot help thinking that English and
Irish writers who, while going over the same ground, have
yet absolutely ignored x all allusion to the question of language,
did so because they found it a difficult and awkward question
to deal with.

The first authorities I know of who speak of Irish as dying
out are Dr. Samuel Madden, who, writing in 1738, states
that not one in twenty was ignorant of English, and Harris,
who, in his description of the county Down six years later,
says that Irish prevailed only amongst the poorer Catholics.
Both these statements, however, are preposterously exaggerated.
In the very year that Madden wrote died O'Neill of Clanaboy,
one of the best-known and most influential men of the county
Down, and I found in the Belfast Museum the Irish manuscript
of the funeral oration pronounced over his body,2 and any
O'Neill would probably at that period have turned in his
grave had his funeral discourse been spoken in English.

Madden's statement that in 1738 nineteenth-twentieths of
the population knew English is an incredible one and so utterly
disproved by all the other evidence, that it is astonishing that
so sound and careful a historian as Mr. Lecky should have
accepted it as substantially true. The evidence upon the other
side is overwhelming. Forty-seven years after Madden wrote
this the German, Kiittner, travelling through Ireland, wrote

624 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

a series of letters in which he distinctly says that he found the
common people either did not understand English at all or
understood it imperfectly.1

More than two generations had passed away after Madden's
statement that nineteen-twentieths of the population knew
English, when we find a Scotchman, Daniel Dewar, in a book
entitled " Observations on the Character, Customs and Super-
stitions of the Irish," writing thus in 1812 : —

" The number of people who speak this language [Irish] is much
greater than is generally supposed. It is spoken throughout the
province of Connaught by all the lower orders, a great part of whom
scarcely understand any English, and some of those who do, under-
stand it only so as to conduct business. They are incapable of
receiving moral or religious instruction through its medium. The
Irish is spoken very generally through the other three provinces
except amongst the descendants of the Scotch in the north. It
cannot be supposed that calculations on this subject should be
perfectly accurate, but it has been concluded on good grounds that
there are about two millions of people in Ireland [out of about six
millions] who are incapable of understanding a continued discourse
in English."

" I have always found," says Dewar, with much shrewdness,
" that in places where gentlemen hostile to this tongue assured
me there was not a word of it spoken, in these very districts
I heard very little English." He gives an amusing account
of the various contradictory objections that he found at that
time urged against it.

"Some of the Anglo-Hibernians at that time (1808) strongly main-
tained that this dialect is so barbarous that it cannot answer the
purpose of instruction, others that it would awaken the enthusiasm
of the Wild Irish (as they call them) to make any attempt of this kind,
and consequently that it might prove dangerous to the Government,
and others, that they had no desire to be taught in Irish, and that it
would be useless to send teachers among them for this purpose."

1 " Das Englische wird vom gemeinen Volke entweder gar nicht oder
sehr unvolkommen erlernt " (" Briefe Aus Irland," Leipzig, 1785, p. 214).

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 625

Dutton, in his statistical history of the county Clare, published
in 1808, says that almost all the gentlemen of that county spoke
Irish with the country people, but he adds, " scarcely one of
their sons is able to hold a conversation in this language. The
children of almost all those who cannot speak English are
proud of being spoken to in English and answering in the
same, even although you may question them in Irish. No Irish
is spoken in any of the schools, and the peasants are anxious to
send their children to them to learn English." This apparently
does not refer to the hedge schools of the natives, but to the
charter and other English schools. " I think the diversity
of language and not the diversity of religion," writes Grattan,
in 1811, "constitutes a diversity of people. I should be very
sorry that the Irish language should be forgotten, but glad that
the English language should be generally understood." * This
seems to have been also the position taken up by his great rival
Flood, who, when dying, left some ^50,000 to Trinity College
for the cultivation of the Irish language. Trinity College,
however, never secured the money, and its so-called Irish
professorship, lately established, in the fifties, is only an
adjunct of its Divinity School, and paid and practically
controlled, not by the college, nor by people in the least interested
in the cultivation of Celtic literature, but by a society for
the conversion of Irish Papists through the medium of their
own language.

In 1825, that is eighty-seven years after Madden's statement
that nineteen-twentieths of the population knew English, the
Commissioners of Education in Ireland, in their first report laid
before Parliament, state " it has been estimated that the num-
ber of Irish who employ the ancient language of the country
exclusively is not less than 500,000, and that at least a million
more, although they have some understanding of English and
can employ it for the ordinary purposes of traffic, make use

1 Grattan's " Miscellaneous Works," p. 321, edition of 1822.
2R

626 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

of their [own] tongue, on all other occasions as the natural
vehicle of their thoughts."

Lappenberg, a German who travelled in Ireland, reckoned
that out of a population of seven millions of inhabitants in 1835,
four millions spoke Irish " als ihre Muttersprache."

In 1842 Mac Comber's "Christian Remembrancer," dis-
cussing the possibility of " converting " the Irish, says, " there
are about 3,000,000 of Irish who still speak the Irish language
and love it as their mother tongue," and " that part of the
Irish population which still speaks and understands little else
than Irish " is " nearly a third of the entire population of
Ireland."

A German, J. C. Kohl, who travelled extensively in Ireland
in 1843, shortly before the famine, says that in Clare the
" children would run by the side of the car crying, * Burnocks x
halfpenny,' burnocks being an appellation applied to every
stranger, and ' halfpenny ' the only English that the little
rogues seemed to know." The neglect of the use of Irish in
the churches, which had even then set in, largely owing to the
teaching and wishes of O'Connell and his parliamentarians,
struck the German spectator as something astonishing, for
apparently he could not understand how an ancient nation
with whose fame all Europe had recently been filled owing
to the exertions of O'Connell, should be casting away its
national birthright. "The great city of Cork," he notes,
"which lies in a district where much Irish is still spoken,
contains only two churches where sermons are preached in
Irish. A short time ago the Irish prisoners in Cork gaol
petitioned the chaplain that he would preach his Sunday
sermon to them in Irish."

This acute foreign observer gives a very interesting account
of the state of the Irish language round Drogheda, a coast town
some twenty miles north of Dublin, which is worth quoting

1 " Burnocks " does not look like a real word. I have no idea what it
means or it is meant for.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 627

here since it accurately describes the condition of affairs over
the greater part of Leinster sixty years ago, but which is now
so absolutely extinct that few modern Irishmen could believe it
except on the most unimpeachable testimony. " Drogheda,"
he writes, "is the last genuine Irish town, the suburbs of
Drogheda are genuine Irish suburbs . . . and a great many
people are to be found in the neighbourhood who speak the
old Irish tongue more fluently and more frequently than
the English." Kohl was hospitably entertained by a priest
in Drogheda — whose name unfortunately he does not men-
tion, but who appears to have been a man of superior
intelligence. His house had several harps in it, and he was
delighted by a young blind harper who first played Brian
Boru's march for him, and then an air called the Fairy Queen.
At KohPs request the priest also sent for a reciter of Irish
poetry, who asked what he would wish recited. " If you
were to repeat all you know," said the priest, " we should
have to listen all night, I suppose, and many other nights as
well."

" The man," says Kohl, " began to recite and went on
uninterruptedly for a quarter of an hour. His story, of which
I, of course, understood not a word, but which my friendly
host afterwards explained to me, treated of a Scottish
enchantress named Aithura,1 who forsaken by her Irish
lover, Cuchullin, laid a cruel spell upon his son Konnell
which compelled him by an irresistible enchantment, and
entirely against his will, to follow, to persecute, to fight, and
at last to destroy his father, Cuchullin. At the last moment,
after stabbing his father to the heart in spite of the efforts by
which he struggled to resist the horrible impulse of his destiny,
his own heart broke in the struggle, and he and his father died
together, while the revengeful spirit of the cruel enchantress
hovered in exultation over the dying, repeating to her

1 This is a singular distortion of the story of Aoife [Eefy] and the coming
of her and Cuchulain's son, Conlaoch to Erin. See above p. 300.

628 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

treacherous lover the story of his inconstancy and her revenge."
u I was glad," adds Kohl, " of assuring myself by oral demon-
stration of the actual existence of Ossianic poetry like this, at
the present day. The reciter was, as I have said, a simple and
ignorant man, with a good deal of the clown about him, and
his recitation was as simple, unadorned, and undeclamatory as
himself. Sometimes, however, when carried away by the
interest of his story his manner and voice were animated and
moving. At such times he fixed his eyes on his hearers as if
demanding their sympathy and admiration for himself and his
poem. Sometimes I noticed that the metre completely changed,
and I was told that this was the case with all Irish poems, for
that the metre was always made to suit the subject.1 I also
heard that the most beautiful part of this ballad was the
dialogue of father and son upon the battlefield, but that
a prose translation would give me no idea at all of its
beauty."

The priest told him that "Ossianic poetry was very abundant
in the neighbourhood of Drogheda." " This," he says, " I
had heard before, and from all I heard in Ireland I am much
inclined to believe — which indeed many have also conjectured
— that Macpherson obtained the materials for his version of
Ossian's poems from popular tradition and ballads of the
North of Ireland. The whole Irish nation both in the
south and north, is certainly much more imbued with the
spirit of this poetry and still possesses many more traces
of it than the Scottish people, whether of the Highlands or
Lowlands." 2

1 This of course is a misapprehension.

2 It is curious to observe that Kohl found the race of harpers by no
means extinct in Ireland, and his testimony appears quite disinterested
and trustworthy. " I afterwards heard," he says, " that piece (The Fairy
Queen) on the pianoforte, but it did not sound half so soft and sweet as
from the instrument of this blind young harper. . . . We were very much
delighted with our harper who was certainly an accomplished artist, yet

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 629

Another very acute German traveller, Rodenberg, describes
the people of Kerry as always speaking Irish among themselves
in 1860, while their English was so bad that he could hardly
understand it. He notices, however, that several words of cor-
rupted English were interwoven with their Irish conversation,
which so disgusted him that he remarks, " everything about
these people is patchwork, their clothing, their dwellings, their
language." * He reports at full length a most interesting con-
versation which he had with a priest near Limerick, who
assured him that they had to pull down in order to build up,
that is, pull down the edifice of the Irish language in which the
people were denied education in order to build up a new educa-
tion in the English language. " Nor is it," said the priest,
" the first time that the Irishman has had to turn his hand

Ireland contains many of still greater ability and celebrity. The most
celebrated of all, however, is a man named Byrne, blind also if I do not
mistake. When, therefore, Moore sings —

" ' The harp that once through Tara's hall

The soul of music shed
Now hangs as mute on Tara's wall
As if the soul were fled,'

his lamentation must not be literally understood." He also mentions
that when he was in Drogheda "a concert was in preparation to be
given next week at which seven harpers, mostly blind, were to play
together."

An English tourist, C. R. Wild ["Vacations in Ireland," London, 1857],
mentions meeting a harper at Leenane in Connemara in 1857, who
requested permission to play to him during his meal. He describes him
as " an ancient man bearing a small Irish harp such as were common in
olden days ; ... the music produced was, for the most part, plaintive and
slow, and the tones particularly soft and melodious." The priest who
entertained Kohl had a number of harps in his house, but, unfortunately,
the German says nothing of their size or shape. From these instances
it would appear that the race of Irish harpers did not quite die out with
those who assembled at Belfast at the close of the last century when
Bunting secured so many of their airs, but that some lingered on till
after the famine. How far these latter harpers could be regarded as the
genuine descendants of the old race is doubtful.

1 " Wenn sie unter sich sind so sprechen sie immer das naturale Irisch,
aber auch das nicht mehr rein sondern mit corrumpirtem English durch-

630 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

against his most sacred things. Red Hugh of Donegal des-
troyed the house of his forefathers that the enemy might not
make of it a fortress against his own people, but he wept while
he destroyed it." *

In the Galway fish market Rodenberg could not hear a single
word of English spoken. The population of Connacht was at
this time a little runder a million, and the census of 1861
showed that about one-tenth of the whole population were
ignorant of English. The population of the city of Galway
in this year was 23,787, of whom 3,511 were ignorant of
English.

According to the census of 1891 something over three-
quarters of a million people in Ireland were bi-linguists, and
66,140 could speak Irish only, thus showing that in thirty
years Irish was killed off so rapidly that the whole Island con-
tained fewer speakers In 1891 than the small province of
Connacht alone did thirty years before.

This extinguishing of the Irish language has not been the
result of a natural process of decay, but has been chiefly caused
by the definite policy of the Board of " National Education,"
as it is called, backed by the expenditure every year of many
hundreds of thousands of pounds. This Board, evidently
actuated by a false sense of Imperialism, and by an over-
mastering desire to centralise, and being itself appointed by
Government chiefly from a class of Irishmen who have been
steadily hostile to the natives, and being perfectly ignorant of
the language and literature of the Irish, have pursued from the
first with unvarying pertinacity the great aim of utterly exter-
minating this fine Aryan language.

The amount of horrible suffering entailed by this policy, and

woben. Alles an diesem Volke 1st Fetzenwerk, ihre Kleidung, ihre
Wohnung, ihre Sprache" (" Insel der Heiligen," vol. i. p. 185. Berlin,
1860).

1 See Vol. ii. p. 9 for this interesting conversation in which the atti-
tude of the typical Catholic priest towards his national language is
shown.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 631

the amount of hopeless ignorance stereotyped in hundreds of
thousands of children, and the ruination of the life-prospects of
hundreds of thousands more, by insisting upon their growing
up unable to read or write, sooner than teach them to read and
write the only language they knew, has counted for nothing
with the Board of National Education, compared with their
great object of the extermination of the Irish language, and
the attainment of one Anglified uniformity. In vain have their
own inspectors time after time testified to the ill results of
denying the Irish-speakers education in their own language, in
vain have disinterested visitors opened wide eyes of astonish-
ment at schoolmasters who knew no Irish being appointed to
teach pupils1 who know no English. In vain have the school-
masters themselves petitioned to be allowed to change the
system, in vain did Sir Patrick Keenan (afterwards himself
Chief Commissioner of National Education) address the Board
saying, " the shrewdest people in the world are those who are
bi-lingual, borderers have always been remarkable in this respect,
but the most stupid children I have ever met with are those who
were learning English while endeavouring to forget Irish.
The real policy of the educationist would in my opinion be to
teach Irish grammatically and soundly to the Irish-speaking
people, and then to teach them English through the medium of
their native language." 2 All in vain ! Against the steady,

1 In spite of the well-known opposition of the National Board the
National Schoolmasters themselves as early as 1874 in their Congress
unanimously passed the following resolution : — " The peasants in Irish-
speaking districts have not English enough to convey their ideas,
except such as relate to the mechanical business of their occupation.
Hence they are not able in any degree to cultivate or impress the minds of
their children (though often very intelligent themselves), who consequently
grow up dull and stupid if they have been suffered to lose the Irish lan-
guage or to drop out of the constant practice of it." This is exactly what I
and every other spectator have found, and it means that the Board of
National Education is engaged in replacing an intelligent generation of
men by an utterly stupid and unintelligent one.

= Sir Patrick Keenan, C.B., K.C.M.G., who was for a time head of the
Educational system in Ireland, and was employed by the Government to

632 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

unwavering, unrelenting determination to stamp out the Irish
language which has been paramount in the Board ever since the
days of Archbishop Whately, every representation passed un-
heeded, and it would appear that in another generation the
Board — at the cost of unparalleled suffering — will have attained
its object.

This is not the place to discuss the bearings of this ques-
tion still less to drag in the names of individuals, but the
reader who has followed the history of Irish literature to
this will be perhaps anxious to have it continued up to
date, and so I may as well here place on record what I and
many others have seen with our own eyes over and over
again.

An Irish-speaking family, endowed with all the usual intelli-
gence of the Irish-speaking population, with a gift for song,
poetry, Ossianic lays, traditional history, and story, send their
children to school. A rational education, such as any self-
governing country in Europe would give them, would teach
them to read and write the language that they spoke, and that

report upon the plan of teaching the people of Malta in Maltese, reported
to Parliament that the attempt to substitute English or Italian for Maltese
in the schools was a fatal one. " Such a course would simply mean that
the people are to get no chance, much less choice, of acquiring a
knowledge either of their own or any other language." This is
exactly true of spots in Ireland, and after his experiences in Donegal,
Sir Patrick Keenan drew up the following memorial : — " i. That the
Irish-speaking people ought to be taught the Irish language gram-
matically, and that school books in Irish should be prepared for the
purpose. 2. That English should be taught to all Irish-speaking
children through the medium of the Irish. 3. That if this system be
pursued the people will be very soon better educated than they are
now, or possibly can be for many generations upon the present system.
And 4. That the English language will in a short time be more
generally and purely spoken than it can be by the present system for
many generations." When he became head of the National System of
Education, Sir Patrick found himself unable to carry out his own recom-
mendations without personal inconvenience, being probably afraid to
offend his colleagues, and nothing has been since done to remove the
scandal.

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 633

their fathers had read and spoken for fifteen hundred years before
them. The exigencies of life in the United Kingdom would
then make it necessary to teach them a second language —
English. The basis of knowledge upon which they started,
and which they had acquired as naturally as the breath of life,
would in any fair system of education be kept as a basis,
and their education would be built up upon it. They would
be taught to read the Ossianics lays which they knew by heart
before, they would be given books containing more of the same
sort, they would be taught to read the poems, and they would
have put into their hands books of prose and poetry of a kindred
nature. They had picked up many items of information about
the history of Ireland from their fathers and mothers, they
would be given a simple history of Ireland to read. All this
they would assimilate naturally and quickly because it would
be the natural continuation of what they already in part
possessed. But the exigencies of life in the United Kingdom
makes it necessary to read English poems and English books,
and to know something of English history also, this they
would learn after the other.

Will it be believed, the Board of National Education insists
upon the Irish-speaking child starting out from the first
moment to learn to read a language it does not speak * It is
forbidden to be taught one syllable of Irish, easy sentences,
poems, or anything else. It is forbidden to be taught one word
of Irish history. Advantage is taken of nothing that the child
knew before or that came natural to it, and the result is
appalling.

Bright-eyed intelligent children, second in intelligence, I
should think, to none in Europe, with all the traditional traits
of a people cultured for fifteen hundred years, children endowed
with a vocabulary in every-day use of about three thousand

1 For many years the schoolmaster was not even allowed to explain
anything in Irish to a child who knew no English ! This rule, however,
has been abrogated.

634 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

words * (while the ordinary English peasant has often not more
than five hundred) enter the schools of the Chief Commissioner,
to come out at the end with all their natural vivacity gone, their
intelligence almost completely sapped, their splendid command
of their native language lost for ever, and a vocabulary of five
or six hundred English words, badly pronounced and bar-
barously employed, substituted for it, and this they in their
turn will transmit to their children, while everything that
they knew on entering the school, story, lay, poem, song,
aphorism, proverb, and the unique stock-in-trade of an Irish
speaker's mind, is gone for ever, and replaced by nothing.

I have long looked and inquired in vain, on all hands, for
any possible justification of this system, and the more I have
looked and inquired the more convinced I am that none such
exists unless it be an unacknowledged political one. Its
results at all events are only too obvious. The children are
taught, if nothing else, to be ashamed of their own parents,
ashamed of their own nationality, ashamed of their own names.
The only idea of education they now have is connected
not with the literary past of their own nation, but with the
new board-trained schoolmaster and his school, which to
them represent the only possible form of knowledge. They
have no idea of anything outside of, or beyond, this. Hence
they allow their beautiful Irish manuscripts to rot2 — because

1 Dr. Pedersen, a Dane, who recently resided for three months in the
Arran Islands to learn the language that is there banned — at the present
moment the only inhabitant in one of these islands, not counting coast-
guards, who does not speak Irish is the schoolmaster ! — took down about
2,500 words. I have written down a vocabulary of 3,000 words from people
in Roscommon who could neither read nor write, and I am sure I fell
1,000 short of what they actually used. I should think the average in
Munster, especially in Kerry, would be between 5,000 and 6,000. It is well
known that many of the English peasants use only 300 words, or from
that to 500.

2 A friend of mine travelling in the County Clare sent me three Irish
MSS. the other day, which he found the children tearing to pieces on the
floor. One of these, about one hundred years old, contained a saga called
the "Love of Dubhlacha for Mongan," which M. d'Arbois de Jubain-

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 635

the schoolmaster does not read Irish. They never sing an
Irish song or repeat an Irish poem — the schoolmaster does
not ; they forget all about their own country that their
parents told them — the schoolmaster is not allowed to teach
Irish history ; they translate their names into English-
probably the schoolmaster has done the same ; and what is the
use of having an Irish name now that they are not allowed to
speak Irish ! Worst of all they have not only dropped their
Irish Christian names, but they are becoming ashamed of the
patron saints of their own people, the names even of Patrick

ville had searched the libraries of Europe for in vain. It is true that
another copy of it has since been discovered, and printed and annotated
with all the learning and critical acumen of two such world-renowned
scholars as Professor Kuno Meyer and Mr. Alfred Nutt, both of whom
considered it of the highest value as elucidating the psychology of the
ancient Irish. The copy thus recovered and sent to me is twice as long
as that printed by Kuno Meyer, and had the copy from which he printed
been lost it would be unique. These things are happening every day. A
man living at the very doors of the Chief Commissioner of National
Education writes to me thus : " I could read many of irish Fenian tales
and poems, that was in my father's manuscripts, he had a large collection
of them. I was often sorry for letting them go to loss, but I could not
copy the ^tti of them. . . . The writing got defaced, the books got damp
and torn while I was away, I burned lots of them twice that I came to this
country. ... I was learning to write the old irish at that time ; I could
read a fair share of it and write a little." That man should have been
taught to read and write his native language, and not practically encour-
aged to burn the old books, every one of which probably contained some
piece or other not to be found elsewhere.

Even where the people had no manuscripts in common use amongst
them, their minds were well-stored with poems and lays. A friend wrote
to me from America the other day to interview a man who lived in the
County Galway, who he thought had manuscripts. Not finding it conve-
nient to do this, I wrote to him, and this is his reply : " Dear sir, about
twenty years since I was able to tell about two Dozen of Ossian's Irish
poems and some of Raftery's, and more Rymes composed by others, but
since that time no one asked me since to tell one Irish story at a wake or
by the fireside sine the old people died. Therefore when I had no
practice I forgot all the storys that ever I had. I am old. Your most
Humble Servant, Michael B."

Another writes : " I have no written manuscript. I had three poems
about the dareg more [Dearg Mor] the first when he came to Ireland in
search of his wife that shewed (?) him, when Gaul [Goll] f aught him and

636 LITERARY HISTORY OF IRELAND

and of Brigit.1 It is a remarkable system of education, and
one well worth the minutest study that can be paid it, which

tied him he come to Ireland, a few years after, when he got older and
stronger, and faught Gaul for 9 days in succession the ninth day Gaul
killed him then in 18 years after his son called Cun [Conn] came to Ireland
to have revenge and faught Gaul, and after eleven days fighting he was
killed by Gaul. I had a poem called Lee na mna mora [Laoi na mna
moire] or the poem of the big woman who faught Gaul for five days, but
Osker [Oscar] kills her. I had the baptism of Ossian by St. Patrick the
best of all and many others of Ossians' to numerous to mention now, I
also had some poemes of Cucullan the death and the lady in English and
in Irish I had the beettle in English and Irish and when fin [Finn] went to
denmark in English and Irish and many other rymes of modern times.
I seen some address in the Irish times last year where to write to some
place in Dublin where Ossians poems Could be got but I forget the
Number. The people that is living Now a days could not understand the
old Irish which made me drop it altogether their parents is striving to
learn their children English what themselves never learned so the boys
and girls has neither good english or good Irish. Hoping your friends
and well wishers are well, fare well old stock. M . . . ."

1 This is the direct result of the system pursued by the National Board,
which refuses to teach the children anything about Patrick and Brigid, but
which is never tired of putting second-hand English models before them.
Archbishop Whately, that able and unconventional Englishman, who had
so much to do with moulding the system, despite his undoubted sense
of humour, saw nothing humorous in making the children learn to
repeat such verses as —

" I thank the goodness and the grace
Which on my birth have smiled,
And made me in these Christian days
A happy English child ! "

and the tone of the Board may be gathered from this passage, I believe,
which occurred in one of their elementary books : " On the east of Ireland
is England, where the Queen lives. Many people who live in Ireland were
born in England, and wespeak the same language, and arecalled one nation"
The result of this teaching is apparent to every one who lives in Ireland,
and does not shut his eyes. " God forbid I should handicap my daughter
in life by calling her Brigid," said a woman to me once. " It was with
the greatest difficulty I could make any of the Irish christen their children
Patrick," said Father O'Reilly of Louisburgh to me, talking of his Australian
mission. For the wholesale translation of names, such as O'Gara into
Love, O'Lavin into Hand, Mac Rury into Rogers, and so on, which is
still going on with unabated vigour, see an article by me in "Three Irish
Essays," published by Fisher Unwin,

IRISH AS A SPOKEN LANGUAGE 637

is able to produce these effects, but with even the smallest
philological regard for the meaning of words, it cannot be
called "education."

Ar n-a criochnughadh ag Rath-Treagh anaice le Diingar,
i bparraiste Tigh-Baoithin i gcondae Roscomain, an ficheadh
la Lughnasa, le Dubhglas de h-Ide, d'a ngoirthear go coitchionn
an Craoibhin Aoibhinn, de phor na nGall-Ghaedhal i n-Eirinn.

Buidheachas le Dia !
CRIOCH.

INDEX

A

Aldfrid of Northumbria, 220

Aldhelm, 221

Abil or aibel, meaning of, 407

Alexander the Great and the

Abbots and Abbesses of Kil-

Celts, 7, 8

dare, 460

Allia, battle of, 8

Academy, Royal Irish ; Irish

Altars, 55

MSS. in, xi ; neglects to

Alphabet, Ogam, 112

purchase MSS., 376, 592,

Allegorical poetry in Irish,

599. 6o5

596 ff.

Acta Sanctorum, 106, 576

Altus, the, of Columcille, 180

Accentuated verse replaces

Amra of Columcille, 405 ff.,

syllabic, 541 ff. ; not neces-

479

sarily derived from an

"Amras" on, St. Serai, and

English source, 544

Conall of Inskeel, 410

Adonic poem of Columbanus,

Ambicatus, a Celtic an d-righ

216

6, 12

Adamnan, St., 154, 234 ; his

Ammianus Marcellinus, 22, 92

life of Columcille, 182 ff. ;

Amergin, 8 ; his poems, 478 ff.

his work on sacred places,

Amergin Mac Amhalgaidh,

183, 219 ; his " Mystical

author of the Dinnseanchus,

Interpretation" and other

93

works, 197 ; attitude on the

Anchorites, Irish, 193

Boru Tribute, 236 ff. ; death,

Anglo-Saxons, flock to Irish

185

schools, 220; borrow rhyme

Adam, description of, in Sal-

from the Irish, 481, 485 ;

tair na rann, 416 ff.

translation, 268

Adventures of Dubh mac

Anglo-Normans become Irish,

Deaghla, 376

493-4 ; misrepresented by

Advocates in the Brehon

the later English, 557; their

Law, 585
Aedh Baclamh, saga of, 403
Aedh Guaire, 228 if.

pedigrees, 563 ; assume Irish
names 609; peers ignorant
of English, 610

Aedh Finnliath's sister a

Anglo-Irish rhyme, 540

poet, 441

Anderson's " Native Irish,"62o

Aedh mac Ainmirech, High

Antipodes, the, doctrine of

King, 489
Aengus Tuirmeach, High

familiar to the Irish, 224
Annals, Irish, early mythic

King, 64

history in, 371 ; reliability of,

Aed, bishop of Sletty, 151

38-43 ; list of the principal

Aedh Mac Aonghasa, 494
Aeneid, an Irish, 603

annals, 573 «•
Annals of Boyle, 581

Aedh Slane, 95

Annals of Clonmacnois, 206,

Aedh, High King, and Colum-

227, 426, 447

cille, 235

Annals of the Four Masters,

Agilbert, 222

573-578, 119, 138-151, 206,

Aimairgin, Whiteknee, 241

227, 232, 266, 409, 427, 430,

243-4
Aird-rinn in Irish metric, 483

441, 463, 493, 557
Annals of Inmsfallen, 213

Aitheach Tuata, 22, 27, 28 ff .,

Annals of Loch Ce, 479, 581

402

Annals of Tighearnach, 580,

Ailbe, 106
Aillinn, 117

see Tighearnach
Annals compiled by John

Aileran, St., 154; his books,

' O'Neaghtan, 597

197, 217

Annals of Ulster, 39, 210, 227,

Aileach, 169, 232, 527

265, 445 ; by whom com-

Alcuin, 206, 219

posed, 470; contents, 581

639

Anglicisation, 31
Antiphonary of Bangor, 41
Angus of the Boyne, 48, 78
Angus the Culdee, 130, 165,

173, 209, 217, 264-5, 268,

412 ff.
Animosus, Life of St. Brigit,

163

Ana, mother of the gods, 53
Anastasius, Roman Librarian.

218

Aoife, female warrior, 299
Aoibheall, the fairy, 438, 440,

602-3

Ap Harry, Captain, 610
Apollo, 79
Apuleius, 276
Aran, or Arran, "of the

Saints," 194; Caoilte's poem

on Arran, 506
Ardee, 57

Areion, steed of Adrastus, 351
Arnold, Matthew, 268
Art, history of Irish, 453 ff.
Art the Lonely, High King,

32,60, 119
Architecture, Irish, 458 ff.;

ecclesiastical, 460; of houses,

130, 132
Armagh, school of, founded,

134, 216; plundered for the

last time, 463
Argonauts, the, 58
Argonautics of the pseudo-
Orpheus, 20

Aristotle, 20; his descent, 78
Aries, Council of, 106
Arthur King, Irish histories

of, 572

Arthurian Stories in Irish, 572
Aracht, Athracht or Atracta,

St., 171; lost life of, 575
Aryan customs in Brehon

Law, 587
Ascoli, 607
Assimilation of words in Irish,

4J5

Assonance in Irish-Latin

poetry, 216
Athairne, the poet, 243, 245,

336-7

Athgabhail, or Distress, 584
Ath Comair, battle of, 402
Atkinson, Dr., 42, 172, 269;

Three Shafts, 559; Book of

Hymns, xvi

640

INDEX

Atticotti, the, 22
Augustine, St., 106
Augustine an Irish monk, 217
Aughrim, the Irish after, 592
Avienus, 20

Babington, Fallacies of Race
Theories, 217

Baile mac Buain, 117

Baithine, 173, 182, 187

Ballad, the, not cultivated in
Ireland, 510; nor the High-
lands, 549

Banshee of the Kings of
Munster, 438, 440

Bangor, the school of, 207 ff.,
215; abbots of, 41

Balor the Fomorian, 286 ff.

Bards, the, contrasted with
the files, 486 ; their num-
bers, 488; as peacemakers,
258; their power, 167, 194,
257 ff . ; their mode of recit-
ing stories, 277; their col-
leges, 490; their importance,
491, 495 ff. ; acts passed
against them, 493, 609; Saor
and Daor bards, 486 ff . ; their
metres, 487 ; their lack of
initiative after the Con-
quest, 465; hereditary, 465;
were not harpers, 496; arro-
gance of, 518; bardic fami-
lies, 465

Bardic schools, 239 ff., 260;
intercommunication be-
tween, 279, 496, 525; not an
unmixed blessing, 488, 525;
inside of a later bardic
school described, 528 ff. ;
bardic sessions, 600; their
break-up lamented, 522 ;
their end, 524

" Bardic Association," pro-
ceeding of the great, 260,
399, 411; Saga of, 403

Bard Ruadh, the, 476 ff.

Banba, name for Erin, 48

Barrett, Connacht poet, 605

Barron, Phillip, of Waterford,
620

Bavaria, origin of name, 19

Bealtaine — May Day, 90

Bede, 35, 39, 41, 106, 130, 137,
183, 198, 220

Bearla Feine, legal or bardic
dialect, 240, 405, 410, 580,
588

Bealach Mughna, battle of,
423

Bedell, Bishop, 618 ff.

Becfola, saga of, 403

Belanagare, poem to the
House of, 545

Bel, pagan god, 90

Beli, 90

Belgae, the, 2, 14

Bells struck, not rung, 189

Beg mac De, the prophet,
232, 441, 579

Bcllerus, Bellerophon, 292
Benedictines and St. Aileran,

197

Benignus, St., 154, 420
Bernard, St., 207, 209
Berchan, St., the prophet,

210, 211, 441, 611
Bertrand, M., xvi, 5
Betham, Sir William, 175
" Besom of devotion," 206
Bible translated, 618 ff.
Bishops of the Established

Church, 619

Bingham, cruelties of, 476
Bird, soul compared to a, 214
Blood, lapping, a sign of

affection, 352
Blackbird, monk's poem to,

485 ; of Derrycarn, 505
Board of National Education,

see " National Board "
Bobbio, Irish monastery at,

208

Bolgdun, battle of, 489
Boniface, Pope, 217
Bohemia, whence called, 19
Boher - na - breena, origin of

the name, 389
Bonefire, 91

Books, early multiplied in
Ireland, 220 ; iirst printed
in Irish, 571 ff ; translated
into Irish, 572 ; list of
oldest Irish, 263 ; of law,
590 ; lost books, 471, 575, 635
ft'., 592, 605, 606 ; Irish, in
German Monasteries, 450 ;
given as gifts, 520
Book of Acaill, 412, 584-588
Book of Armagh, 36, 91, 140,
147, 150, 184, 218, 267, 462 ;
described, 136 ff. ; contents
of, 140 ; two books of same
name, 265 ; on the druids,

Book of Ballymote, 59, 70, 86,

93, 108, 122, 240, 241, 246,

264

Bookshrines, 457
Book of Clamanald, 537, 568

ff., 57i
Book of Cluain - Aidneach -

Fintan, 557
Book of Cluain Eidhneach,

265

Book of Clonsost, 265
Book of Conquests, see " Book

of Invasions "
Book of Cuana, 265
Book of the Connellians, 59
Books of Cuchonnacht

O'Daly, 439

Book of Downpatrick, 265
Book of Durrow, 265
Book of Dubhdaleithe, 265
Book of Dimma, 268
Book of Epochs, 557
Books of Eochaidh O'Flana-

gain, 265

Book of Fermoy, 403
Books of Flann of Monaster-

boice, 265

Books of Flann of Dungiven

265

Book of Glendaloch, 266
Book of Howth, 210
Book of Hymns, see "Liber

Hymnorum "
Book of Invasions, or Leab-

har Gabhala, 27, 47, 245,

280 ff., 430, 441 ; various

copies of, 576
Book of Innis an Duin, 265
Book of Kells, 268 ; West-
wood on, 462 ; date of, 463
Book of Kilkenny, 198, 227
Book of Leinster, 70, 85, 93,

in, 129, 234, 241, 264, 278,

310, 316, 330, 341, 354, 380,

434, 444
Book of Lecan, 70, 93 ; when

copied, 670
Book of Lismore, 158, 164, 167,

180, 227, 239, 383, 512
Book of Lecan, the Yellow,

168, 197, 401

Book of Leithlin, Long, 26 s
Book of Mac Egan, the Red,

266
Book of Mac Murrough, the

Yellow, 266
Book of Saint Moiling, 210,

266, 268, 557
Book of Saint Molaga, the

Black, 176, 265, 266^ 557
Book of Monasterboice, the

Short, 265
Books of O'Scoba of Clon-

macnois, 265

Book of the O'Byrnes, 472 ff.
Book of Pedigrees of Women,

557

Book of the Provinces, 557
Book of Reigns, 557
Book of Rights, 73, 227, 420
Book of Sabhal Patrick, 265
Book of Sligo, 227, 232
Book of Siane, the Yellow, 265
Book of Synchronisms, 557
Book of Uachongbhail, 72
Berwick on Sts. Patrick and

Columcille, 185
Boru, or Borumha, tribute, 280,

689 ; historical truth of, 252 ;

remission of, 211, 234, 236 ;

Saga of, 393 ff. ; pronuncia-
tion of Borumha, 30
Bow, Mac Leod's, 543 ; the

bow in Montrose's wars, 570
Boyne, condition of the Irish

after the battle of the, 592-

597

Brady, Phillip, poet, 605
Bran's colour, 271
Bran mac Febail, Voyage of,

81, 97, in
Brash on Ogams, 120
Brehon, originally a poet and

historian, 240 ; liabilities of

a, 586
Brehon Law, 107 ; applied to

a dispute on books, 176;

survives till the days of

Duald Mac Firbis, 562;

INDEX

641

books, account of, 583-590 ;

Brunhild, or Bruni-Childis, 3

Cathaoir Mor, his will, 30 ; an-

antiquity of, 586 n.

Buchanan, 19

cestor of the great Leinster

Brendan of Clonfert, St., the

Buanann, 53

families, 31 ; of St. Fiacc,

voyager, 194, 196, 229

Bulls, cause of the tain Bo

152 ; of Columcille's mother.

Brendan of Birr, St., 196, 229

Chuailgne, 320 ff. ; 339 ff. ;

167 ; of Dermot Mac

Breagh, or Bregia, or the plain

description of the Dun Bull,

Murrough, 452 ; succeeded

of Meath, whence called,

479

by the Father of Finn mac

49, 206

Burke, ix

Cumhal, 366

Brennus, 262

Burns, 534

Cathal Maquire, Compiler of

Breas the Fomorian, 284 ff. ;

Burgundian Library, Irish

Annals of Ulster, 39

409
Breogan of Brigantia, 46, 49
Brethadh or Breithe Nim-

MSS. in, 574
Bute, Marquis of, 180
Byzantium, its influence on

Carew, Sir George, 476, 553,
56o, 564
" Catholic bishop but English

hedh, 73, 245

Irish art, 454

senator," 561

Brian Boru, or Boriimha, 140 ;

Catholic University of Wash-

where educated, 213 ; why

C

ington, xiv.

so named, 394 ; a lost life

Cauci, the, 9 n. I

of, 430 ; his tribute, 431 ;

Caesar quoted, 14 ; on the

Ceallach, death of St., saga,

his court described by Mac

druids, 82 ; on the Gaulish

395ft

Liag, 431 ; his generosity to
a bard, 433 ff. ; his death,

belief in a future life, 94 ;
on the verses of the druids,

" Cead-cathach," real mean-
ing of, 31

437 ff. ; verses ascribed to
him, 441 ; his statesman-

259 ; on the Gaulish mode
of fighting, 255

Ceile De, meaning of, 412
Celestius, 106

ship, 443 ; result of his

Calpornus, St. Patrick's father,

Celts, who were they, i ;

semi-usurpation, 552

142

name how pronounced, 3 ;

Brian, son of Eochaidh Mui-

Calatin, or Cailitin, the druid,

invade Italy, 6 ; their

ghmheadhoin, 33, 59
Brian, a Tuatha De Danann

327, 342 ; his children, 342 ff.
Callaghan of Cashel, 61, 404

archaeological remains, 2 ;
colonise Asia Minor, 9 ;

god, 47, 52, 287

Caithreim of Turlough

break-up of their empire, 9,

Brigit, St., her life, 156 ff. ;

O'Brien, 470

15 ; best understood by

fifteen Saint Brigits, 136 ;

Cairpre Niafer, High King,

studying the Irish, 253, 257,

inspires a book, 462 ; birth

337, 342

260 ; their ornaments and

foretold by a druid, 92 ; her

Cainnech, St., 168, 196

designs, 454

poems, 165

Caimine of Iniscaltra, 168

Celtic place-names, 2 ; speech,

Brigit, disuse of as a Christian

Caimin, or Caminus, St., 214-

extent of country over

name, 162

218

which it was spoken, 2 ;

Brigit, a goddess, 53 ; deriva-

Cairneach, St., 232

spoken in Galatia in fourth

tion of name, 53 ; her cha-

Cairbre Cinn-cait, 27, 29, 402

century, 14 ; extinction of

racteristics pass to St. Brig-

Cairbre of the Liffey, 32, 65,

in Gaul, 15 ; its influence

it, 161 ; inscriptions to, 262

66, 75, 246 ff., 376 ff.

on French, 16 ; allied to

Brigantes, the, 19
Brigantes, or Clanna Breo-

Cambrai sermon, glosses on,
267

the speech of Italy, n
Celto-Germanic civilisation

gain, 46, 67

Cameron, Dr., 303-4, 353

12

British Saints, influence of on

Campbells, the, 67, 508

Celtiberi, the, 3

Irish Saints, 193

Campbell, Iain, folk-lorist, 499

Cenn Cruach, 85 ff.

British Museum, catalogue of

" Cambrensis eversus," 554

Cetnad, an incantation, 241-2

Irish MSS. in, 521

Cambrensis, see " Giraldus"

Cennfaeladh, or Cionnfaola,

Britain, Irish derivation of the

Campion, 530

the poet, 266, 341, 412, 579,

name, 282 ; plundered by

Canon Phadraig, 140

581,584

the Irish, 22, 26, 33, 34

Candida Casa, 194

Celtchair mac Uthecair, 259,

Britons call in the Saxons, 23

Canterbury, School of, 221

322, 357

Bricriu, his feast, 254 ; raises

Caoilte, 243, 381 ff . ; poems by,

Cet mac Mugach, 357 ff.

strife, 357

506 ff.

Cearbhall [Carroll], King of

Brigantia, a goddess, 262

Carolan, or O'Carolan, 89, 497,

Leinster, 421 ff.

Broccan, or Brogan, hymns to

533, 598 ff.

Charles the Bald of France,

Brigit, 161, 163

Carmen Paschale, 106

218

Broccan's poem on the Boru

Carman, Fair of, 219

Charlemagne, 208, 448 ;

tribute, 394

Carthach St., of Lismore, 195,

triumphs of, in Irish, 572

Bronte, Charlotte, 258

211, 233

Chad, St., 220

Bruidhean, or hostelry, de-

Carlingford Mountains, 49

Chessboard, plundered by

scribed, 355, 388

Carthain, St., 268

Criomhthann, 27, 409

Bruidhean Da Choga, saga,

Cas, ancestor of the Dal-

Chariots among the Irish,

402

cassians, 62

255 «.

Bruidhean Da Derga, saga,

Castlepollard, 232

Chimaera, the, 292

26, 388 ff.

Caseys, the, 32

Christian names, Irish, be-

Brooke, Miss, Reliquesof Irish

Cathba, or Cathbad, the druid,

coming disused, 162

Poetry, 301, 361, 364
Bronzes, designs on Irish, 455

96, 302, 314, 336, 344
"Cathach" the, of the

Christian allusions in pagan
literature, 250

Bruadar, or O'Bruadar, poet,

O'Donnells, 195, 268

Chronicon Scotorum, 182, 204,

592, 615

Cathbarr O'Donnell, 175

227 ; its reputed author,

Brunn, Johann Adolf, 460, 462

Cathal, or Cathaldus, St., 211,

206 ; copied by Mac Firbis,

Bryant, Mrs. Sophie, 463

222

262, 581 ; account of, 581

2S

642

INDEX

Chrysostom, St., 106

Ciaran St., the carpenter's
son, of Clonmacnois, 167,
168, 173, 180, 195-6, 204 ff.,
219, 375

Ciaran, of Belach Duin, St.,

154
Ciaran becomes Piaran in

Wales, 5

Ciaran of Saighir, St., 176
Cian, ancestor of the

Cianachts, 32, 58
Cian's leg, leeching of, saga,

404
Cinaeth O' Hartigan, poet,

380, 429

Cimbaeth, 24, 42, 244, 430
Ciothruadh, a poet, 246
Cin of Drom Snechta, the, 70,

264
Cios, derivation of the word,

589

Cionnfaola,see"Cennfaeladh "
Civil power, conflicts with,

225 ff.

Civilisation, early Irish, 122 ff.
Claudian, 23
Clancys, the, 32, 67
Clanranald, 547 ; book of.

568 ff.
Clanrickard's brothers, 61 1 ;

memoirs, 528
Classical bards of Ireland,

515-536
Classical Irish metres, 530 ff.,

Classics taught in the Irish

schools, 215
Clan Creide, 206
Clanna Breogain, the, 46, 67
Clanna Rudhraighe, or Rury,

the, 66, 106
Clan system effected the

clergy, 234

Claudius, bishop of Turin, 208
Clerics, exemption of from

military service, 234
Cliodhna or Cliona, 49
Contarf, description of battle

of, 437 ff., 44°
Close, Rev. Maxwell, 376
Clonard [Cluain Eraird]

school of, 196 ff.
Clonfert, school of, 197, 204
Clonmacnois, description of,

204 ff., 219, 234
Clonenagh [Cluain Eidh-

neach], school of, 209
Cnoca or Cnucha, battle of,

258, 365

Cobhthach Caol-mBreagh, 25
Cnamhross, battle of, 381
Coffey, George, 123-5, °n

New Grange, 454 ; the

Coffeys, 67

Coelan of Iniscaltra, 164
Coin in Ireland, 125 ; French

coins found in, 220
Cogitosus, life of St. Brigit,

156, 159 ff., 163
Coirpne, the poet, 285
Collinses, the, 62, 64

Colgan, 107, 153, 163, 170, 171,

Consonants, Irish classifica-

180, 184, 189, 406 ; life and

tion of, 540

works, 574 ff.
Colloquy of the Ancients, 116,

Consonantal rhyme, 540
Corny, Florence, author, 571

130, 383 «-, 507

Connacht poems, 605

Colman, St., 154, 441

Conmees, the, 524

Colman Ua Cluasaigh, 202-3,

Contention of the Bards, 516

209, 212

ff., 530

Colman, Clan, 206

Continent, Irish scholars on

Colman, mac Lenene, poet

the, 448 ff.

and saint, 404

Conlaoch, Cuchullain's son,

Colgan or Colgu of Clon-

300

macnois, 206

Cooldrevna, or Cuil Drcmhne,

Columba of Tir-da-glas, 196,

battle of, 177, 182

213

Columbanus, 207, 215 ff., 219

Cork College, 212
Cork, Irish language in, 626

Collas the three, 33, 66. 430 ;

Cormac, son of Dima, the

their modern descendants,

voyager, 171, 172

67 ; burn Emania, 378

Cormac's glossary, 53, no,

Coll ciotach, or Colkitto, 568
Colours of the winds, 415

in, 381, 420, 589
Corca Laidhi, or Laidh, 67, 69,

Colours, a study of Irish,

213

wanted, 416

Coroticus, epistle to, 144

Columcille, 36 ; nobility of

Cormac, O' Lumlini, 204

his lineage, 36, 167 ; his

Cormac's chapel, 213

first teacher, 91 ; date of

Cormac mac Art, or Airt, 32,

his birth, 16 ; his life, 167 ff. ;

40, 65, 72, 75 ; his appear-

his poems, 180 ff., 409 ; lives

ance, 122; his court, 127;

of, 182 ; death, 186 ff. ; his

his instruction to his son.

farewell to Aran, 195, 234 ;
his conversation with Aedh,

246 ff. ; his Saltair, 264 ; his
date, 364 ; his part in the

High King, 235; visit to

Brehon Law, 584 ; enacts

Longarad, 264 ; makes Latin

special laws, 587

rhyme, 480 ; saves the Irish

Cormac mac Culenain, 234 ;

bards, 489 ; poetic prayer

his Saltair of Cashel, 265,

of, at Culdreimhne, 581

420, 557 ; his life, 419 ff. ;

Comgall, St., 168, 177, 207

his death, 424, 441

Comyn, Michael, author, 260,

Corcran, a cleric, rules Ire-

512, 601

land, 447

Comyn, David, 597, 60 1

Corb Olum, ancestor of the

Conall Cearnach, 58, 60, 69,

Eoghanachts, 27

95, 255, 300, 310, 315, 337,

Cormac an Eigeas poet, 428

35i ff-, 357, 360
Conan the Fenian, 258, 290

Coolavin [Ciil-O-bhFinn], 521
Copenhagen, Irish MSS. in,

Condon, David, poet, 266

536

Conang's tower, 282

Cork, Irish language in, 626

Conachlonn, in Irish prosody,

Court, description of High

414

Kings, 390

Conn, clan of, 206

Courtship of Etain, 401

Conn of the Hundred Battles,

Courtship of Crunn's wife,

31, 65, 66, 75, 368, 587

402

Conall Gulban, 36, 166
Conaire the Great, 26, 280,

Courtship of Becfola, 403
Courtship of Momera, 402

388 ff.

Cows in lona, 193

Connellians, book of the, 59

Crane and fox, 384

Conor [Concobar or Con-

Crann-tabhail, or sling, 325

chubhair] mac Nessa, King,

Crede's house, 130 ; lament

96, 243 ; death of, 69, 581 ;

for her husband, 383 ff.

father a druid 83 ; race

Creeveroe, 57

dies out, 69, 315 ; deprives

Crete, 45

the poets of the brehonship,

Crith gabhlach, the, 584

240 ; invited by Bricriu,

Crimhthan or Criomhthann,

254 ; name how pronounced,

High King, 33 ; saga of his

254 ; as depicted in the

death, 402

Red Branch saga, 295 ff. ;

Crimthann Niadhnair, 26,

visits mac Datho, 356

409

Congal Clairingneach,

Criminal jurisdiction of

Triumphs of, 401

priests, 14

Connellan, Professor Owen,

Cruithni, Cruithnigh, or Picts,

410, 412, 578

282, 292

Connla and the fairy lady,

Crom-Cruach, 85 ff., 134

100

Crowe, O'Beirne, 402, 407

INDEX

643

Crosses, Irish sculptured, 457

Cromwell, 497, 517, 562, 621

Crunn's wife, courtship of,
402

Cruelty of later English set-
tlers, 601

Cry of the deer, 146

Cuala, Cualann, 49

CuanO'Lochain, poet, 72,264,
441, 447 ff.

Cuana, author, 39, 265

Cuanna, St., 211

Cucoigcriche as a proper
name, 577

Cuchulain, 49 ; first cousin of
Conall Cearnach, 69 ; death
of recorded byTighearnach,
69 ; takes arms, 90 ; his
sick bed, 101 ; cuts ogams,
no; historical character
of, 252 ; his charioteer, 255,
350 ; his chariot, 256 ; son
of a god, 294 ; stories of, in
Red Branch cycle, 296 ff. ;
age, 341 ; slays Curoi, 245 ;
Louth version of his death,
627 ; leaves no descendants,
69

Culmenn, or skin book, 263

Culdee, 412, see " Ceile De "

Cumhal or Cool, 57, 365 ;
sailing of, 366

Cummain, or Cummian, the
tall, 168, 201 ff., 217

Cuimine or Cummene Finn
of lona, 182, 189 ; his
epistle, 203

Cumhsgraidh or Cumscraith
of the Red Branch, 322,

359

Curoi mac Daire, 245, 342
Currency, Irish system of, 125
Cursing of Tara, 226 ff. ; of
Cletty, 232 ; of Raghallach,
233 ; a saint's curse, 237
Curigh or Curoi mac Daire,

64, 245

Cycles, Roman and Alexan-
drian, 202

Cycles of story telling,various,
280

Dagda, the, 48, 78 ; called

Eochaidh the ollamh, 52 ;

figures in mythological

saga, 285 ff. ; dies, 80
Da Derg, 389 ff.
Daithi, expedition to the Alps,

403 ; ancestor of Mac Firbis,

562

Dagobert, n ; of France. 220
Dalrymple, Sir James, 183
Dal Araide, or old Ulster

tribes, 27
Dalcassians, the, 62, 63, 76,

428

Dal Fiatach, 27
Dal Riada clans, the, 34, 60,

68
Dalach, ancestor of the

O'Donnells, 64

Dalian Forgaill, poet, 380,
405 ff. ; his truculence, 410

Dana, the Paps of, 47

Dana, mother of the gods, 47,
286

Danes or Northmen, 209, 211,
212, 419; why aided by
Leinster, 394 ; called
"black" foreigners, 435;
their oppressions, 435 ; after
Clontarf, 442 ; despoil bards
and poets, 444; plunder
Armagh for the last time,
4°3

Dan Direach verse, 537

Dante, 198

Daniel Dewar, 624

Daor-chlanna or servile
tribes, 27

Darmesteter, M., on Irish
remains, 216 ; on the an-
tiquity of Irish literature,
253 ; on " the decadence,"
280

Date of Irish writings, diffi-
culty of fixing, 269

Daughter, eldest married
before younger, 393

David, St., of Wales, 193

Davies, Sir John, 585

De Mensura Poenitentiarum,
203

Dean of Lismore, see " Mac-
gregor "

De Danann, see " Tuatha "

Declan, 106

De Bourgos or Burkes, 606

Delphi stormed, 9, 262

Deaf Valley, 345

Deibhidh metre, 414, 446, 469 ;
meaning of the word, 483 ;
found in the oldest poems,
484 ; the official metre of
the bards, 530 ; in Colloquy
of the Ancients, 507 ; in the
" Contention of the Bards,"
530 ; used in Scotland,

547
Deirdre, 26 ; saga of, 302 ff. ;

various versions of, 304
Delbaeth, son of Ogma, 52
Denmark, history of, 78
Degrees, poetic, 242, 260
Dergthini, 63
Design, Irish, not all Celtic,

4^4
Desi, expulsion of the, 40 ;

saga of, 402
Desmond, kings of, 61
Destruction of books, 107
Derry, 169

Derrynane, etymology of, 213
Devonshire, etymology of, 283
Development, continuous, of

Fenian saga, 375
Devil appears to St. Brendan,

200
Diarmuid, High King, 93, 176,

206, 228 ff. ; saga of his

death, 403
Dialogue of the Sages, see

" Colloquy of the Ancients "

Dialogue of the two sages,
240

Diarmuid O'Duibhne, 380-1,
385

Diarmuid and Grainne's beds,
57 ; memorials of their
flight, 58 ; their elopement,
508

Diancecht the leech, 54, 286 ff.

Diarmuid, the Irish called
Diarmuids by the English,
5"

Dictionary,O'Naghten's Irish-
English, 599 ; Mac Curtin's
and O'Begley's English-
Irish, 599

Dicuil the geographer, 107,

222, 448

Dichetal do Chennaibh na
tuaithe, 241

Diefenbach, 21, 23

Diodorus, calls Ireland Iris,
21 ; on the Gauls, 94

Dionysius the pseudo, 218 ;
on the druids, 257

Dionysus, 79

Dinnseanchus, contents and
origin of, 93 : on Moy
Slaught, 85, 92; on Tara,
127 ; on Finn, 381 ; pub-
lished by Stokes, 557

Dinn Righ, saga, 401

Division of Ireland by Ugony
25 ; by Tuathal, 29 ; by
Conn and Owen, 31

Dog's flesh, 348

Domhnach Airgid the, 268

Donnelly the boxer, 294

Donn's House, 49

Donatus, St., on Ireland, 164

Donough O'Brien, ode to, 28,
5i8

Dorbene, scribe, 184

Dottin, M. Georges, 17

Dowth, 48

Downpatrick, battle of, 66

Downpatrick, St. Patrick
buried in, 190; Latin distych
on, 191

Dowden, Dr., bishop of Edin-
burgh, 181

Drama, nearest approach to,
in Ireland, 511

Drom Damhgaire, siege of,
402

Druim Ceat, Synod of, 234,
241, 489

Druids and druidism, 82 ;
etymology of, 89, 91 ;
functions of, 92 ; as inter-
mediaries, 101 ; schools,
240-1 ; as peacemakers
257 ; in Britain, 94 ; slain
by Cuchulain, 349 ; see also
"Cathbadh"

Dryden, 271

Dryhthelm, 199

Duachs, two, 71

Dubhthach, the Brehon, 152,
588

Dubhthach, father of St.
Brigit, 156

644

INDEX

Dubhthach, a fifteenth cen-
tury poet, 470

Dubhlacha, love of, for Mon-
gan, 403, 634

Dubdaleithe, archbishop of
Armagh, 414, 445

Duil of Drom Ceat, 265

Dun in place-names, 2, n. i

Dumbarton, 147

Dun- Angus, 459

Dungal, the astronomer, 207
ff., 222, 448

Dun-na-sgiath, 232

Dunraven, Lord, 459

Durrovv, monastery of, 170,
217, 234

Dutton's Survey of Clare, 625

Dyfed in South Wales, 40

Eachtra Giolla an Amarain,
603

Eagle, the, 541

Easter, the Irish, 202

Eber and the Eberians, 44, 58,
63-5, 140, 171, 204, 388, 515,
563

Eber Scot, 45

Eber of the White Knee, 46

Eclipses recorded in the An-
nals, 39

Eevil, see " Aoibheall," 602

Egyptians in Ireland, 219

Egbert, 220

Eire, or Erin, 48 ; whence so
called, 284

Elim, 29

Eleran, St., 164

Elphin, 508

Elysium, Irish, 100

Elizabethan English in Ire-
land, 494

Emania [Emain Macha] ,
founded byCimbaeth, 24-5;
taken and burnt, 33, 66, 75 ;
cursed by a druid, 314

Emer, Cuchulain's wife, 296,
343, 352 ff., 592

Enda, St., 194, 201

Enna Cennsalach, 75

English plunder poets, 470 ;
speak Irish even in Dublin,
611 ; wars in Munster, 470 ;
English language opposed
to Irish, 608 ft., see ch. xliv.;
works translated from, 572

Eochaidh Muighmheadhhoin,
xv., 33, 65; saga of his
sons, 402

Eochaidh, chief of the Desi, 40

Eochaidh, the ollamh, i.e., the
Dagda, 52

Eochaidh, son of Mairid, death
of, 402

Eochaidh, the poet, see " Dal-
ian Forgaill "

Eochaidh Feidhleach, 26

Eoghan [Owen], rival of
Conn, 31, 62, see " Owen "

Eoghanachts, the, 27, 62, 63

Eoghan, or Owen, Mor, 62

Epistle, Cummian's, 203

Epistolary style, 376

Epic, approach made by the

Irish to a great, 400 ; ma-
terial for an, 509 ff.
Ere, High King, 337, 349 ff.
Erimon and the Erimonians,

44, 58, 64, 204, 515, 563
Erigena, see " Scotus "
Erard, or Errard, see " Mac

Coise "

Ernaan tribes, 64, 388
Ernin, son of Duach, 71
Esru, 15

Escir Riada, the, 31
Etan, daughter of Diancecht,

54

Etain, wooing of, 102, 401
Etruscans defeated by the

Celts, 6 ; allies, 9
Eugenians, book of the, 59
Euhemerus, 51
Euhemerising tendency of

Cormac's Glossary, 54 ; of

Keating, 51
Eumenius, 22
Eusebius, 217
Evil eye, 290
Eve, description of, in Sal-

tair na Rann, 416 ff.
Evin, St., 153
Exaggeration in Irish style,

44°

Explosive consonants in Ger-
man, ii

F

F sound in dubh, 221

Fachtna, St., of Ross, 213

" Fair hills of holy Ireland,"

603
Fairy sweetheart or " bain-

leannan," 27, 440
Falba Flann, 61
Famine, effects of the great,

xii., 606
Faroe isles discovered by the

Irish, 224

Fasting on a person, 229, 233,
236, 242, 417 ; the Brehon
Law on, 587
Fe, no

Fearadach, 27, 28, 29 n. i
Feithlinn, fairy prophetess,

322

Fenius Farsa, 45, 581
Feis of Tara, 73, 126, 176
Feilire of Angus, 173-4 ; date

of, 265, 412 ff.

Fenians, the, 75, 116, 128 ; the
Fenian cycle of saga, 363 ff . :
origin of the name, 364 ;
who were they, 371 ff. ;
Keating on them, 372 ; entry
into the Fianship, 374 ; long-
extended development of
the saga, 375 ; kept for
guarding coasts, 389 ; help
Leinster against the High
King, 394 ; imitation Fenian
tale, 597

Ferdomhnach the scribe, 36,

138, 152
Feredach, in

Feredach, King, a poet, 246
Ferceirtne or Feirceirtne, 240,

244, 336, 408
Ferdiad, 327 ff.
Fergil or Virgilius, 224, 448
Fergus the Great of Scotland,

34

Fergus mac Roy or Roigh,
60, 69, 198, 245, 295, 311 ft.

Fergus mac Lride, death of,
401

Fergus Finnbheoil, Fenian
poet, 259, 512, 513

Ferguson, Sir Samuel, poem
on Crom Cruach, 87 ; on
ogams, 120 ; translation
from O'Gnive, 522 ; on the
Brehon Law, 586

Fiacc, or Fiach, of Sletty, 89 :
his Life of Patrick, 152
ft., 227 ; learns the " alpha-
bet," 112

Fiachra, brother of Niall of
the Nine Hostages, 93

Fiachaidh, 62

Fiachaidh Sreabhtine, 65, 75

Fiachaidh, High King, 29

Fiacadh.a Tuatha De Danann,
52

File, the, in Ireland, 486

Fierebras, chanson de geste, in
Irish, 572

Fiesole, 164

Finn or Fionn mac Cumhail,
or Cool, in topography, 57,
76 ; his grandfather a druid,
83 ; his fool, in ; goes to
the Lady Crede, 140 ; a poet
246, 270; fights with Goll,
258 ; two poems ascribed
to, 275, 408, 479 ; death of,
379 ; character of, 379 ;
helps Leinster against the
High King, 394, Ossian de-
scribes his favourite pur-
suits, 503

Finnen, or Finian, St., of Clo-
nard, 167, 194, 196, 204 ;
verse from his "office," 196

Finnian, St., of Moville, 175,
195, 209

Fintan, St., 209

Finglas, Baron, 210

Finnachta, King, 211 ; remits
the Boru tribute, 236 ff., 294

Finnbarr, St., of Cork, 212

Finan, St., of Innisfallen, 213

Finghin, a poet, 246

Finnabra Meves daughter,
334-5

Finghin, King Conor's leech,
337

Fingal, language spoken in
(perhaps Danish), 618

Fithil, a judge, 246

Firbolg, the, 47, 282 ff. ; Mac
Firbis's description of, 563

Fir Domnann, or Domhnan,
282, 328, 563

INDEX

645

Fire-worship, 455

Fitzgeralds, the, 473, see " Ger-
aldines "

Fitzgibbons, the, the Red Bard
on, 477 ; Fitzgibbon, Lord
Clare, id.

Flag in Gartan, 179

Flannagan, King, a poet, 427

Flann mac Lonain, a poet,
427

Flann of Monasterboice, 445 ff.

Fleming, John, 407, 603

Floods legacy to Trinity Col-
lege, 625

Fodhla, 48 •-•^X~X /v

Folklore, 93, 448 ; the otter
world in, 96

Fomorians, the, 51, 78, 282 ff.,

429- 563

" Fooboon," 526 ff.
Forchern, 244
Fortchern, Bishop, 196
Fonts Feasa, i.e., Heating's

" History of Ireland," 61
Forus Focal, poem, 470
Fothadh na canoine, 234
Fragments of Irish annals,

234. 237
Franciscans' convent, Irish

MSS. in, 513, 567, 575, 577
France, a refuge for the Irish,

553, 567

Frazer, Dr., on Irish gold, 124
French, the ; largely of pre-

Celtic race, 16
Frigidius, i.e., Finnian, 209
Furnival, Lord, 470
Fursa, St., vision of, 198

Gabhra, battle of, 32, 365, 366,
378, 383

Gaedhal, son of Niul, 45

Gaels, old, jealous of the Galls,
556

Gaelic spoken in Highland
regiment, 622

Gaethluighe, 46

Gaileoin, see " Fir Gaileoin "

Galls, the new and the old,
558-9

Gall, St., 197, 207; MSS. in,
267, 268

Gallia, as understood by the
Romans, 3

Galatians, 2

Galatia founded by the Celts,
14

Galway, 554 ; English in, 610 ;
Irish in, 630

Gartan Columcille's birth-
place, 167, 179, 180

Gaul becomes Romanised, 15

Gaulish upper classes re-
semble the Irish, 15

Gaul, Irish commerce with,
218

Geasa (or tabus), Cuchulain's,
301, 344, 347, 348 ; of the
Fenians, 373 ; of the Kings
of Ireland, 447

Geanan, clruid, 344

Gemman, a poet, 167

Genealogy, Irish, 59 ff. :
Welsh, 72; extended to
Noah, 78 ; great Irish books
of, 59 ; strictly kept, 71

Geography, Irish treatise on,
597 ; poem on, 213

Gerald, Earl of Desmond,
poet, 547

Gerald Mac Shane Fitzgerald
610

Geraldines of Italian lineage,
35, 473, 476

Germans, their relations to the
Celts, 8-10 ; defeat the Celts,
14 ; less intellectually cul-
tured than the Celts, 253 ;
unacquainted with rhyme,
481 ; their loan-words from
the Celts, 12-13

Germanus, St., 144

Gernon, Anthony, writer, 572

Gilbert, Sir John, facsimiles
of national MSS., 141, 463 ;
catalogue of MSS., 567

Giles, Dr. 183

Gilla Keevin, or Giolla Caoim-
hghim, the poet, 379, 44<5 ;
translates Nennius, 48 ;
author of the Book of
Reigns, 557

Gilla in Chomded, poet, 381

Giraldus Cambrensis on the
physical beauty of Irish-
men, 181 ; on Welsh pedi-
grees, 72 ; on St. Brigit, 161 ;
on Brendan's Voyages, 198 ;
on Moling, 210 ; on Irish
illumination and the Book
of Kildare, 461

Glam dichinn, a satire, 242

Glendalough, school of, 209

Glossaries copied by Mac
Firbis, 562

Glosses, the oldest Irish, 267

Gods, confusion between
them and men, 51, 79 ;
races trace their origin to,
77 ; they die, 80 ; come and
go in saga, 294 ; wounded
by men, 325-6

Goddesses of the Tuatha De
Danann, 53

Goibniu, the smith, 286, 289

Gold, wealth of in Ireland, 123
ff. ; Irish gold in Denmark,
125

Goldsmith, ix.

Goll Mac Morna, the Fenian,
258, 365

Gordons, the, 569

Gormly, or Gormfhlaith,
Queen, 421, 425 ; a poetess,
426

Gort, 168

Gothic art, 454

Grattan on the Irish language,
625

Grainne, Finn's wife, 380, 382,
385, 4°9

Graves, Rev. Dr., on ogams,

120 ; discovers date of the
Book of Armagh, 137

Grave of the three Patron
Saints, 190

Greeks, make alliance with the
Celts, 6 ; their topography
compared with that of Ire-
land, 58 ; belief in a divine
ancestry, 78 ; story cycles,
80 ; legend of the gold and
silver ages, 292

Greek taught in Ireland, 217
ff. ; alphabet used by the
Gaulish druids, 259 ; known
to some of the Munster
bards, 604

Greenwell on Irish urns, 126

Gregory, Pope, the Great, 215,
217

Grimm on the life of the gods,
80

Guaire, King of Connacht,
168, 395 «.

Guardsman's Cry, the, 197

Guinnesses, the, 66

Guy of Warwick in Irish, 572

Gwynedd, 105

H

Haddan and Stubbs "Coun-
cils," 141, 145
Halliday's Keating, 364, 558,

615
Hardiman, 221, 432-3, 472, 493,

555, 596, 597-9
Harlaw, battle of, 479
Harris's " County Down," 623
Harpers, race of, not extinct

in 1843, 628 ff.
Haughton, Dr., 434-5
Hawthorn tree, 242
Hebraic adulteration of Irish

legend, 47

Hebrew in Ireland, 217 ff.
Healy, Rev. Dr., 106, 135, 144,

160, 171, 197, 209
Hell, descriptions of, 200, 416 ;

cold, not hot, 504
Hellanikus, 51
Hennessy, Mr., 562, 581
Hennessy, Dick, EdmunJ

Burke's cousin, 621
Heracles, 114
Hercules, 79
Herakleitus, mot of, 79
Herminones, 59
Herodotus, 51, 79
Heroes confounded with

gods, 51
Hero's bit, the, 254 ff., 356 ff.,

589

Hesiod, 351

Hibernia, derivation of, 516
Hibernica minora, 267
Highlands of Scotland, poetry

of, 542 ff. ; written language

same as Irish, 54.7, 571 :

lyrical outburst in, 549 ;

lyrics compared with the

Irish, 605

646

INDEX

High-king-ship of Ireland,
the, 452

Hilary, St., 149

Himera, battle of, 6

Himilco's account of Ireland,
20

Hippocrates, 78

History, none written in Irish
before Keating's, 582

Hippolytus, an Irish, 403

Hogan, Father, 57 ; docu-
menta de S. Patricio, 75,
136, 144 ; Rosnaree, 342 ; on
Curtin,' 600 ; on the Irish-
speaking Franciscans, 612 ;
and Jesuits, 615

Holy wood, Father, 612

Homer quoted, in, 326, 351
366 ; translated into Irish,
600

Horace usesconachlonn once,
414

Hostelry, see " bruidhean "

Hound, Mac Datho's, 354

Howel Dda, 41

Howel, James, on the sound
of Irish, 613

Hull. Miss, her Cuchullin saga
xvi

Hyperboreans, 2

Hy-Brasil, 96

Iceland discovered by the

Irish, 223

Iconoclasts, the, 208
Idols in Ireland, 83 ft".
Illyrians beaten by the Celts,

Illumination of Irish MSS.,

462 ff.
Illusions caused by magic,

344 «., 347
Images, 55, 92
Imbus Forosnai, 84, 241
Immortality a Celtic doctrine,

06

Imchiuin," the happy other

world, 99

Incantation to idols, 84
Indaei, 52
Jngaevones, 59
Ingcel the Briton, 389 ff.
Innisfallen, school of, 213 ;

annals of, 65
Iniscaltra, school of, 213
Inscriptions, oldest, 107
Inscriptions, Celtic, 262
Instruction of a Prince, 247 ff.
Intoxication of , the Ultonians,

256
Inver Colpa, whence called,

49

lona, 1 80
Ir and the Irians, 44, 58, 64, 65,

68, 198, 204, 515, 563
Ireland, synonyms for, 525
Irish, writers of English, ix ;

literature still remaining, xi ;

proper names, xv ; Texts

Society, 190 ; monks and

scholars on the Continent,
448 ff. ; in Germany, etc.,
449 ; Brigade, Irish spoken
in the, 621 ; art, collapses
with the Normans, 453 ff.

Irish language.recent speeches
made in it, 180 ; why dying,
606 ; how far spoken in
Ireland at various periods,
see ch. xliv. p. 608-637 ;
begins to borrow words
from English, 618 ; ignored
by the Protestant bishops,
619 ; so-called professorship
of, in Trinity College,
Dublin, xiv, 625

Iscaevones, the, 59

Ita, St., 201

Ith and the Ithians, 32, 44, 58,
64, 65, 67, 204, 244, 563

Italo-Celtic period, 12

Italy, Celts appear in, 5

luchar and lucharba, 47, 52,
287

J

Jacobite poems of Ireland,
596 ff., 604

James I., commission on edu-
cation, 554

James II., rekindles hope in
the Irish, 593 ; an Irish poet
on, 594, 596 ; elegy on his
widow, 598

ames, the Pretender, 596
anus, 79
arlath, St., 195
asonia, 58

erome, St., finds the Galatians
speaking Celtic, 14 ; sees the
Attacotti, 22 ; his revision
of the Psalter, 176 ; on the
language of Gaul, 28

Jesters described, 392

Jesuits in Ireland, 615

Jews, 225

Jocelin's life of St. Patrick,
153

Joceline of Furness, 207

John Scotus Erigena, 218, 284,
448

John of Tinmouth, 189

Johnson, Mr., on Irish gold-
work, 125

Jonas, Abbot, 216

Jones, Dr., ""Vestiges of the
Gael in Gwynedd," 105

Jubainville, M. d'Arbois de, xi,
3, 10, n, 130, 215 ; on the
Cuchulain cycle, 252 ; on
the Irish language, 261 ; on
the word Tuatha De
Danann, 286; on the Irish
Sohrab and Rustum, 300 ;
on Cuchulain at Emania,
347 ; on the name of the
Fenian cycle, 280 ; number
of MSS. catalogued by him,
404 ; on O'Hartigan's death,
430 ; on Tighearnach, 580 ;
on the age of the Seanchas
Mor, 589

Juggler, a, described, 39!

Kavanagh, General, 622

Keating, on Buchanan, 19 ; on
the names of Ireland, 20 ;
euhemerises 51-2 ; on the
Cin of Dromsneachta, 70,
264 ; on the convention of
Uisneach, 90; on the
attendants of the Irish kings,
127 ; on the Tara assembly,
129 ; on Ciil Dremhne, 176 ;
silent on the cursing of
Tara, 227 ; on Raghallach,
233 ; on the Ulster and
Connacht wars, 318 ; on
the Fenians, 372 ff. ; on the
Danes, 444 ; on the number
of bards, 488 ; attended the
bardic schools, 551 ; life
and works, 551-560 ; his
language compared with
O'Clery's, 580

Keevin,or Kevin [Caoimhghin]
St., 195, 209

Keegan, Father James, 301,
401, 498

Kells, 170

Keenan, Sir Patrick, on the
use of the Irish language,
and on bilingualism, 631 ft".

Kelly, Michael, composer, 622

Keller, Dr. Ferdinand, 184-5

Kemble, Mr., 456

Kenneth, King of Scotland,
34

Kenneth, St., or Cainneach,
196

Killeen Cormac, inscription
of, 108

Kildare, church of, 158 ff. ;
decorative art of, 160 ;
round tower of, 160 ; book
of, 461 ff; Earl of, his
library, 611

Kilmacrenan [Cill mhic
Neoin], 167

Kilkenny, English in, 608 ;
confederation of, 613

Kilkellies, the, 33

Kings, number who reigned
at Tara, 42 ; prayer for Irish
king and army, 436 ; obliged
by law to retain bards and
ollamhs, 490

Kincora, or Ceann Coradh,
palace of Brian Boru, 431 ;
Mac Liag's ode to, 432

Kinsale, battle of, effects of,
566

" Knight," Irish for, 363

Knock Aine, 48

Knock Greine, 48

Knowth, 48

Kohl, J. C., a German traveller,
626

Kiittner, a German traveller,
623

INDEX

647

Labhraidh, or Lowry the

mariner, 25, 401, 408
Labialism in Greek, Latin,

Welsh, and Irish, 5
Laeg, 102, 331 ff., 350
Laeghaire, of the Red Branch,

255, 257, 357

Laeghaire [Leary], Lore, 25
Laeghaire, or Laoghaire

[Leary], High King, 75, 91,

196

Laidcend mac Bairchida, 243
Language, modification of,

according to date of scribe,

269 ff. ; see also " Irish " and

" English."

Languages spoken at Mar-
seilles, 218
Lanigan, 85
Lands set apart by law for

the bardic orders, 490
Lappenberg, a German

traveller, 626
Lasserian, St., 196
Latin language nearly allied

to Celtic, ii
Latin, first poems made in, in

Ireland, 149 ; familiar to

the Irish, 530 ; works trans-
lated from, 572, 598 ; the

late bards knew, 603 ;

rhymed verses in 482-3
Laurence of Durham, 164
Laurence O'Toole [or Tua-

thail], St., 211, 238
Lavarcham, or Leborcham,

303 ff., 343
Law, how administered in

Ireland,584ff.; see "Brehon";

specially enacted, 587 ; books

of, very numerous, 590
Laymen scholars, 455
" Lay of the Heads," 353
Layamon, 272
Leabhar Breac, the, 138, 150,

JS1* I57» !64, 173, 257 ; when

copied, 470, 489
Le gach boin a boinin, 176
Leabhar na Feinne, 499
Leabhar gabhala, 281, see

" Book of Invasions "
Leabhar na h-Uidhre, 70, 168,

264, 366, 380, 388, 405, 444 ;

when compiled, 207
Lecky, Mr., 623
Ledwich, 135-6, 185
Lecan, book of, 59
Lee, as a surname, 13
Leinster, book of genealogies,

59
Leinster, the Boru tribute

imposed on, 393 ff.
Leprechans, King of the, his

journey to Emania, 401
L'Estrange as a name, 577
Letters in Ireland, 105 ff. ;

ogam letters, 113
Lhuyd, 4
Liath Macha, the, 345, 350-

Liber Hymnorum, 146, 149,

Macha, 53, 54 ; her curse on

165, 180, 202, 444, 480, 485
Liber Dubhdaleithe, 39

Ulster, 294 ; saga of, 402
Mac Cathmhaoil, Hugh, arch-

Linche, Dominicke, 611

bishop, author, 571

Lindon, Patrick, poet, 605

Mac Ceibhfinn, poet, S4">

Lismore, college of, 211
Lisnacroghera, bronze sword-

Mac Con, High King^ 32, 60,
67

sheaths of, 455

Mac Comber's Christian Re-

Lives of the saints, 239 ; list

membrancer, 626

of them, 35 ; number still

MacConmara, Donough, poet,

extant, 574

602

Livy on the Celtic wars, 8
Loch Ce, annals of, 28, see

Mac Coise, poet, 434, 447
Mac Coise, tale of, 278

"Annals"

Mac Craith, wars of Thomond,

Loch Corrib, whence called,

466, 470, 582

48
Loch Derg, 467

Mac Curtin, Hugh, poet, 599
Mac Curtin, Andrew, poet, 49,

Lochlannachs, the, in poetry,

50, 546

499

Mac Curtin, Hugh, 6g, poet,

Logographers, the Greek, 51

470

Lombards, the, 208

Mac Cuairt, poet, 605

Lombard, Peter, archbishop of
Armagh, 560 ff . ; on the Irish

Mac Cumhaidh, Art, poet, 605
Mac Daire, src" Teig"

language, 617

Mac Datho's pig and hound,

Longarad, St., books of, 264

354

Lorica, St. Patrick's, 146
Lothaire, King of France, 208

Mac Davids, the, 62, 64
MacDermot,28; MacDermot,

Love of Dubhlacha forMongan,

Roe, 66, 599

403, 634
Lowry, or Labhraidh, the

MacDermots, princes of Moy-
lurg, 33, 66, 204, 527

mariner, 25, 401, 408

Mac Dermot, writes in Latin,

Lucan, 94

53O

Lucian, 79 ; description of

Mac Dermot, prince of Cool-

Gaulish god Ogmios, 1 14
Lugh the Longhanded, 47, 78 ;

avin, 575
Mac Donnell, John Clarach,

dies, 80 ; reappears, 81, 262 ;

600

in saga, 286 ff .

Mac Donnell, Captain Alexan-

Lughaidh [Lewy], son of Ith,

der, book of, 471

44- 244

Mac Donnells, the, 60, 546

Lughaidh, son of Curoi, 342 ff.,

Mac Donalds, the, 33

357

Mac Donaghs, the, 33. 66

Lughnasa— August, 48

Mac Donald, Alaster, 568 ff.

Lugudunum, or Lyons, 80,

Mac Dugalds, the, 33

262

Mac Egan, Flann, Brehon of

Lughar, a poet, 245
Lyons, see " Lugudunum "

Ormond, 421, 578, 615
Mac Eochaidh, or Keogh,

Lugusedon, 107

Donogh, poet, 475

Lynch, John, 554

Mac Finneens, the, 6r, 64

Mac Firbis, Duald, 52, 206,

M

421 ; his Book of Genealo-

gies, 73 ; its size, 562 ; on

Mac Adam, Mr., 375

the Irish historians, 74 ; his

Mac Allans, the, of Scotland,

life and works, 562 ff.

67

Mac Gee, D'Arcy, poem, 88

Macalister, on ogams, 120

Macgeoghegan, Connell, or

Macaulay, 511

Mac Echagain, Connla, 207,

Mac Auliffes, the, 61, 64

227, 616

Mac - an - Bhaird, or Ward,

Mac Gilla Patrick, 610

Father Hugh, 574

Mac Gilla Keefe, poet, 432 ff.

Mac Brodin, see " Teig "

Mac Giolla Meidhre, poet, 601

Mac Brody, Conor, historian,

Mac Gilla Cody, Richard,

578

author, 572

Mac Cabe, poet, 605

Mac Grath, Andrew, poet, 604

Mac Carthys, the, 32, 58, 64,
67, 205, 479 ; of Duhallow,

Mac Graths, the, 524
Mac Govern, poet, 605

61 ; Riabhach, 61 ; genea-

Macgregor, dean of Lismore,

logy of Mac Carthy, Mor,

271, 426, 492, 506, 508

61

Mac Hale, archbishop, 511

Mac Carthy, Cormac, King of

Mac Innes, Gaelic stories, 371

Munster, 213

Mackenzie's " Sar-obair," 543

Mac Carthy, Diarmuid, poet,
593

Mac Laughlin, P. O'C., 190
Mac Liag, poet, 428, 430 if.

648

INDEX

MacLeod, Mary, poetess, 543

Meath, book of, 59 ; made into

ff

a province, 29

Mac Leod, D. B., poet, 550

Memory for ancestors, 72 ;

Mac Mahons, the, 33, 67

Celtic memory is long, 271

Mac Murroughs, or Murphys,

Meehan, Father, 567

the, 31, 610

Menapii, the, 19

Mac Namee, Brian, poet, 520

Merlin the prophet, 210

Mac Neill, John, 559

Metempsychosis, Irish belief

Macpherson's Ossian, 628

in. 95, 381, 400

Mac Raicin, story of, 559

Metal-work, Irish, 456 ff.

Mac Regol, Gospels of, 268

Metre, poems dependent on,

Mac Ritchie, Mr., 371

273 ff.; no alteration of feet,

Mac Roth, Meves messenger,

beat, or stress, in Irish

336

metres, 408 ; metre of the

Mac Robartaighs, the, 175

Feilire, 413 ; of Saltair na

Mac Rories, the, 33

Rann, 414, 418 ; Droigh-

Mac Sweeny [Mac Suibhne],

neach metre, 479 ; metres

poet of Connacht, 605

of the bards, 487 ; classical

Mac Vuirichs, bards of Clan-

metres merge in popular,

ranald, 568

497 ; the Ossianic metres,

Machut, St., 199
Madden, Dr. Samuel, 623

510, 513 ; Dr. MacHales, id.;
Little Rannaigheacht, 526 ;

Maelruain, 209

Great R., 530 ; Roman

Maelsuthain O' Carroll, 141,

metres, 530 ; Seadna and

213

great Seadna, Ae-fri-slighe,

Maeldubh, or Maelduf, 221

Great and Little Deachna,

Maelfathartaigh mac Ronain,

531 ; how to read the classi-

death of, 403

cal metres, 532, 545 ; neces-

Maelsheachluinn, pronuncia-

sitate condensed thought,

tion of, 431

537 ; examples of late

Maelbrigte Ua Maelruanaigh,

metres, 548 ff.

scribe, 463

Metrical text books, 241 ff.

Maedhog, or Mogue, life of,

Meve or Meadhbh, 26 ; how

85

pronounced, 31 ; in topo-

Magennises, the [Mac Aon-

graphy, 57 ; in saga, 319 ff. ;

ghusa], 66

furious temper of, 323 ;

Maguires [MacUidhir or Me-
guidhir], the, 33, 60, 67,

fights like Boadicea, 335 ;
she and Oilioll receive the

522, 536

Firbolg, 283

Maguire, of Inniskillen, satir-

Meve's poem on Cuchorb, 273,

ised, 476

ff.

Maguire, Cathal, annalist, 470

Meyer, Kuno, Dr., 41, 86, 97,

Maguire, Cuchonnacht, lord

114, 301, 354, 411, 413 ; on

of Fermanagh, 519, 523
Maineach, [O1 Kelly's Coun-

Irish scansion, 232-3
Mi-chuarta or Midh-Chuarta,

try], 59

the house of, 32, 248

Mailmura of Fahan, poet, 427

Midir, 102

Malachy [Maoilsheachlainn],

Middle-Irish, 268

King, 447

" Midnight Court," the, 601

Malachy O'Monjair, 208

Migne, 203

Malcolm IV., of Scotland, 34

Milan, Irish MSS. in, 267

Manannan, 54, 81, 99, 102

Mill first, in Ireland, 32

Mangan quoted, 221, 432, 523

Miledh Easpain, 46

Mannus, 59

Milesius, Latinised form of

Manuscripts, illuminated, 461

Miledh, 17 ; his genealogy,

Maolmordha MacSweeny's

45 ; his son Donn addressed

house described, 520

as a god, 49, 50, 77

Marainn Phadraig, the, 148,

Milesians, different dates as-

270

signed to their landing, 17,

Marco Polo in Irish, 572

60 ; by what route did they

Maundevilles travels in Irish,

come, 18 ff. ; their charac-

572

teristics, 563

Marianus Scotus, 209, 449 ff.

Milton, 569

Martyrology of Tallaght, 151 ;
by whom composed, 209

Missal, ancient Irish, 436
Missionaries, British, in Ire-

Mary of the Gael, the, 162

land, 106

Marseilles, trilingual, 310

Missionaries, Irish, abroad,

Masters, see " Four Masters"

223, 488 ff.

Maud, modern form of Meve

Mobhi, St., school of, 168, 196

[Meadhbh], 26

Mochuda, St., or Carthach,

Masree, bardic college, 490

2ii, 233

Max Muller, 270

Modan, poet, 246

Moengal of St. Gall, 448
Molesworth, Robert, 621
Moling, St., 209, 210, 236 ff.

3Q4

Molaise, St., 174, 177, 178
Momera, courtship of, 402
Monasterevin, 153
Monasteries, rival, fight, 234 ;

established by Irish monks

on the Continent, 449, 451
Montrose's wars in Gaelic

568

Montelius, Prof., 124
Mongan, 99, 380, 403 ; Dalk'm

and Mongan, 410 ff . ; " Love

of Dubhlacha " for, 634-5
Moran, the jurist, 246
Moran, Cardinal, 198
Moreen ni Culenain, air, 549
Moore, Irish History, 65 ; his

melody, " Rich arid Rare,"

444
Morini's life of St. Cathaldus,

211
Morighan, or M6r-rigu, the,

war-goddess, consorts with

the Dagda, 288 ; assists the

Tuatha De Danann, 291 ;

is wounded by Cuchulain,

325 ; speaks to the Dun

Bull, 339 ; cry of, 478
Mountjoy, Lord, 476, 564
Moville, school of, 167, 209
" Mower, the," a poem, 604
Moy [magh] Bolg, massacre

of, 29

Moy Cullen, whence called, 48
Moy Leana, battle of, 31, 368
Moy Mell, 99, 199, 201
Moy Muirtheimhne, Great

Breech of, 326
Moy Mochruime, battle of, 32,

60, 355, 376 ; date of, 380,

382
Moy Rath, battle of, 382, 403,

4*3

Moytura, first battle of, 284
Moytura, battle of South, So,

116, 289 ff.

Moy Slaught or Sleacht, 84, 85
Mucaille, bishop, 158
Muiredach takes the surname

Mac Carthy, 61
Muirchu Maccu Machteni,

his life of St. Patrick, 136,

142, 148, 151
Muircheartach Mor mac Ear-

ca, 232
Muircheartach of the Leather

Cloaks, 428

Muirthemni, derivation of, 49
Muiredach Mac Robertaigh,

see " Marianus Scotus "
Munster, book of, 59 ; the two

Munsters, 29
Mura, St., 167, 182
Muratori, 149
Murough, or Murrough [Mur-

chadh], son of Brian Boru,

44°
Murough the Scotchman, sec

"O'Daly," 492

INDEX

649

Murphy, John, poet, 604
Murphy, Father Denis, 564
Murphys, the, see " Mac Mur-
rough "

Music, Irish, 463
Musicians in Ireland, 496
Myth, runs into history, 57
Mythology, Hellenic and

Teutonic, 78

Mythological cycle of sagas,
271 ff.

N

Names of Ireland, various, 20

Names, Christian, disused,
162 ; the Irish ordered to
adopt English names, 609 ;
the Normans change their
names, 609

"National" Schools, the, x,
xi, 220

National Board, unsym-
pathetic teaching of, 162,
179, 606 ; sets itself to ex-
terminate the Irish lan-
guage, 630 ff.

Navigatio Brendani, 198

Nechtan's dun, in

Neith, god of battle, 54

Neide, 240, 245

Nemedians, the, 47, 82, 280,

43°

Nemon, wife of Neith, 54

Nennius the Briton, 18, 46,
47 ; Irish translation of, 48

Netlau, Max, 328

Netterville, poet, 605

New Grange, 48, 454

Newfoundland, 603

Niall of the Nine Hostages,
33, 34, 60, 65, 71, 75, 166,
446, 452, 515, 527, 579, 603

Niall of the Black Knee, 35,
58, 425

Niamh, Cuchulain's sweet-
heart, 346

Nice, Council of, 202

Nigra, Constantine, 596 ; on
the Celtic invention of
rhyme, 481 ; on the monks'
ode to the blackbird, 485

Nile, the, Irish sail up it, 223

Ninian, St., 194

Ninnidh, St., of Loch Erne,
196

Nindid "the scholar," 161

Niul, son of Fenius Farsa, 45

Noli Pater, Columcille's, 181

.V 'on i ad, a measure of time, 84

Norman invasion, the, its
effects, 453 ff ; arrests Irish
development, 463 ; effect on
the bards, 491

Norman ancestry of Keating,
553- 556 ; Norman names
amongst the Irish poets,

493

Norsemen destroy the church
shrines, 457, see " Danes"

Normans, sec " Anglo - Nor-
mans "

Norwegians, or "white for-

O'Conors of Belinagare, poem

eigners," 435
Nuada of the silver hand,

to their house, 545 ff.
O'Conors of the South, the, 32

284 ff.

O' Conor Faly, 31, 610

Nugent of Delvin, poet, 492
Nugent, Robert, S.J., 612

O'Conor Turlough, High
King, 34

Nuts, mystic, 447

O'Conor, Charles, of Balina-

Nutt, Alfred, 88, 95, 635 ; on
the Fenians, 371, 379

gare, 341, 578 ; on the wars
of the Gael and Gaill, 434 ;

on Carolan the harper, 497 ;

O

on O'Curneen's poem, 546
O'Conor Kerrys, 66

Oak-tree, the, 169, 170

O'Conor, Roderick, last High

Oath by the elements, 25, 28,

King of Ireland, 34

88

O'Conor, Rev. Charles, 578,

O'Briens, the, of Thomond,

58o

35, 64, 452, 493, 518

O'Conor Don or Donn, 34, 65 ;

O'Brien, Turlough, exploits

the O'Conor Don, 65; his

of, 470, see "Caithrciin"

MSS., 471, 559

O'Brien Donough, earl of

O'Conor, Sligo, 545

Thomond.hangs three poets,

O'Connor, Dermot, translator

493

of Keating, 558

O'Brien Donough, fourth earl,

O'Connell, Daniel, physiog-

5i5,5i8

nomy of, 62 n. ; his descent,

O'Brien, Turlough, poet, 516

64, 65 ; failed to encourage

O'Brien, Murrough, 569

the national language,

O'Brien, Father E., theory on

626

St. Patrick, 137
O'Brien, Patrick, Irish prin-

O'Conollys, the, 35
O'Coileains or Collinses, 62

ter, 601-2

O'Cronins, 62

O'Bruadar, David, poet, 592,
6i5

O'Crowlevs, 6"?
O'Curneen, Father Patrick,

O'Byrnes, the, 31, 544, 610 ;

poet, 545

their poets, 472 ff. ; their

O'Curry, Eugene, xi, 116, 117,

generosity, 475 ; ode to, 46
O' Byrne, Rose, burnt alive,

137, 154, 211, 606 ; his list
of lost books, 265 ; on the

474

number of existing Irish

O' Byrne, Fiach, 475

sagas, 279, 358, 404, 426,

O'Callaghans, the, 32, 61, 64,

433 ; on some poems in

477

Book of Leinster, 471 ; on

O'Cassidy, Gilla Maduda, poet,

ocht-fodach metre, 544 ; on

441, 446
O'Cavanaghs, 60, 64, 68, 75,

Mac Firbis's genealogies,
564 ; his work on the

473

Brehon Law, 583

O'Carrols, the, 32, 58
O'Cainte, Fearfeasa, poet, 516,

O'Dalys, the, 62, 64, 544
O'Daly, Donogha Mor, of

535

Boyle, poet, 271, 466 ff.

Ocha, battle of, 579

O'Daly, Cuchonnacht, Book

O'Cleary's, the, 33 n.

of, 439

O'Clerys, or O'Clearys, anti-
quarians of Ulster, 154, 264 ;

O'Daly, Fergal, poet, 470 ;
Maurice, ditto, 470; Der-

poets, 524, 573

mot, ditto, 470

O'Clery, Lughaidh, poet and
historian, 516, 564 ff.
O'Clery, Michael, Book of

O'Daly, Angus, poet and
satirist, 473, 476 ff.
O'Daly, Murrough, poet,

Genealogies, 68 ; poem

568 ; story of, 491 ff.

copied by, 170 ; Feilire,

O'Dalv, John, printer and

231, 239 ; on the dispersion

publisher, 602 ; his " Irish

of the old books, 266 ; lives

Jacobite poetry," 596, 599

of the saints, 406 ; Book of

O'Deorans, the, Leinster anti-

Invasions, see sub voce ; his

quarians, 154

life and works, 573-580

O'Donnells, the, 35, 60, 64, 65,

O'Clery, " Adventures of Ed-

167, 516, 564

mund," 597

O'Donnell's Life of Colum-

O'Clery, Conary, 575 ; Pere-

cille, 157, 177, 189

grine, one of the Four

O'Donnell, present bishop of

Masters, 577

Raphoe, 180

O'Coffeys, the, 524

O'Donnell's Kerne, story of,

O'Coffey, Malachy, poet, 474
O'Conors of Connacht, the,

404
O'Donnell, Hugh, poet, 516

33, 60, 64, 204, 206, 452, 515.
527, 545

O'Donnell, Manus, 527
O'Donnell, Red Hugh, 564 ff.

650

INDEX

O'Donnell, John Francis,

English poet, 575
O'Donnell, General, 622
O'Donnell, John Clarach,

poet (read Mac Donnell),

600
O'Donnell's quarrel with

Murrough O'Daly, 491 ft.
O'Donnellan, Brian, poet, 520
O'Donoghue, of the Glen,

62 ; Mor, 62
O'Dogherties, the, 62
O' Donovans, the, 62
O'Donovan, John, 66, 72, 107 ;

his Satires of Angus O'Daly,

491 ; prosody, 540 ; his

edition of the Four Masters,

578 ft". ; his work on the

Brehon Law, 583 ; on the

word troithlighe, 475
O'Dowdas, the, 33
O'Driscolls, the, 58, 67, 535
O'Dugan, John, mor, poet,

469 ff.
O'Duigenan, one of the Four

Masters, 577
O'Dunn, Gilla - na - naomh,

O' Flaherties, the, 33, 60

O'Flanagan, Theophilus, 28,
310, 505, 5i7

O'Falvies, the, 65

O'Flannghaoile, Mr., 601, 603

O'Farrells, the, 66, 315

O'Flynn, poet, see " Eochaidh"

O'Gara, Friar, collection of
poetry, 471

O'Gara, Fergal, patron of the
Four Masters, 576, 578.

O'Gara, of Coolavin, 66

O'Garas, the, 32

O'Gallaghers, the, 65

O'Garvans, the, 62

O'Gallagher, bishop of Rap-
hoe, sermons, 600

O'Grady, Standish Hayes,
[Standaois Aodh O'Grad-
aigh] on Ossianic poetry,
499, 506 ; on the Midnight
Court, 602 ; his "Silva
Gadelica " quoted passim.

O'Gnive, poet, 522, 537

Ogam writing, 105, 107-
108 ff. ; 133. 458, 487

Ogma, the god, 113-15, 285

O'Gormans, the, 31

O'Haras, the, 32, 521

O'Hanlons, of Orior, the, 33

O' Harts, the, 35

O'Halloran, the historian,
525 ; his history of Ireland,

211, 364

O'Hartigan, Dunlang, 440
O'Hartigan,poet,see"Cinaeth"
O'Hanlon, Father John, Lives

of the Irish Saints, 198
O'Hehirs, the, 62
O'Heynes, the, 33
O'Heffernan, poet, 604
O'Higinses, the, 524
O'HigrinnTeig, [Tadhg] Dall,

poet, 519, ff., 537

O'HYginn, Conor, poet, 520

O'Higgin, or Higinn, John,
poet, 473

O'Huidhrin, poet, 469

O'Hussey, Maelbrigte, 612

O'Hussey, Eochaidh, poet,
474, 519, 523 ff.

O'Hussey, Bonaventura, poet
and author, 534

Oilioll, husband of Meve, 319
ff. ; 354 «•

Oirfideadh, a musician, not a
poet, 496

Oilioll Olum, King of Mon-
ster, 31, 58, 60, 62 ; a poet,
246

O'Keefes, the, 32, 62, 64

O'Keefe, Father, poet, 604

O'Keefe, Art 6g, 516

O'Keefe, Donal 6g, slain at
Aughrim, 64

O'Kellys, the, 60, 67, 205, 283,
612

O' Kelly, of Bregia, 35, 610

Ollamh, or Ollav, his in-
auguration ode to a prince,
28 ; training of an, 278,
401, 488 ; the head of the
files, 488

Ollamh, grandson of Ogma,
S2

Ollamh Fodhla, 245

O'Learys, of Roscarbery, 67

O'Longan, Micheal 6g, poet,
547

O'Looney, Brian, 546

O'Lochain, 441, see " Cuan "

O'Lugair, 273

O'Longan, scribe, xi

O'Mahony, John, the Fenian,
179, 364, 558

O'Mahonys, Finn and Roe,
the, 62 ; of Carbery, ditto.

O'Malone, 206

O'Mahon, a scribe, 228, 341,

O' Mellon, friar, narratire of,

568

O'Meaghers, the, 32, 477
O'Meehans, the, 62
O'Melaughlms, the, 206
Omens, Cuchulain's evil, 343,

O'Mores, the, 66, 315, 473,
610

O'More, Rory, 615

O'Moriartys, 62

O'Mullane, 62, 64

O'Mulconreys, the, 524, 545

O'Mulloy's prosody, 537, 572 ;
his " Lamp of the Faith-
ful," 572 ; grammar, id., 617

O'Mulchonry, one of the Four
M asters, 575

O'Mulconry, Maurice, aided
the Four Masters, 575

O'Mulchonry, Tanaidhe, poet,

O'Neill, abrogates his title,

527, 529
O'Neill's, the, 35, 58,60, 64,65,

74, 452, 515

O'Neill, Owen, 614-5

O'Neill, of Clanaboy, 623

O'Neill, Shane, 65

O'Neills, wanderings in 1607.
566

O'Neaghtan, John, poet, etc.,
597 ff-

O'Neaghtain, or O'Naghten
Teig, poet and lexicogra-
pher, 599

O'Pronty, Patrick, 258

O'Rahilly, poet, 604

Ordeal, druidic, 90

Orbsen, 48

Orders of Saints, the three,
192-3

O'Reillys, the, 33, 477, 527

O'Reilly, Father, O S F., 567

O'Reilly's "Irish "writers,"
221, 429, 433, 469, 470 if.,
524, 536, 564, 597

O'Regans, the, 35

Oriel, Book of, 59

Oriel.i.e., Monaghan, 67

Ormond, Duke of, born 1607,
614-15

Orthography of the Irish
Latinists, 185

O'Rorkes the, of Breffny, 53,
205, 527, 545

O'Rorke, Brian, poem to,
520

O'Ryans, the, 610

O'Seasnan, poet, 446

O'Shaughnessies, the, 33

O'Sheas, the, 65

Osgar an fieau [na suiste], 27

Ossian, or Oisin, Finn Mac
Cumhail's son, 364 ; his
daughter married to Cor-
mac Cas, ancestor of the
Dalcassians, 76, Macpher-
son's Ossian, 364 ; oldest
poems ascribed to, 381 ;
meets Patrick, 383 ; lives in
Tir na n-6g, 498, 601 ; dia-
logue with St. Patrick, 501 ;
complaint of, in his old age,
508

Ossianic poetry, 466, 498 ff ;
its subject matter, 499 ; half-
acted, 511 ; authorship of,
512 ; largely post-Danish,
513 ; list of poems, 513 ; imi-
tation Ossianic poem, 597,
601 ; orally preserved, 606,
628

O'Sullivans, the, 32, 62, 477

O'Sullivan, Teig Gaolach,
poet, 548, 602

O'Sullivan, Owen Roe, poet,
604

O'Sullivan, Bearers

Ota, 207

O'Toomey, the Gay, poet,
604

O'Tooles, the, 31, 473

Ovid of Ireland, the, 466

Owen [Eoghan], rival of Conn
of the hundred battles, 13,
62, 75, 153, 368; his "Sail-
ing," 369

INDEX

65'

Owen Mor, son of Duthracht,

Petty, Sir William, i =5,618

Psalter, the copy of in the

3'7, 358

Philip of Macedon and the

"Cathach," 175

Oxford and Celtic Studies, xii,

Celts, 7

Ptolemy Keraunos, slain by

414

Philomela, an Irish, 393

the Celts, 8

Phoenicians, 6

Ptolemy on the names of

P

Picts of Scotland, 34 ; or

Irish tribes, 19, 22

Cruithni, 282-3, 37 1

Pursuit of Diarmuid and

P, loss of the letter in Celtic,

Piers Ploughman, 486

Grainne, MSS. of, 385

4 ; rarely used in Irish, id.

Pindar, 51

Pyramids, Dicuil's account

note ; becomes c in Irish, 5

Pig, Mac Datho's, 356

of the, 222

Pagan element in Irish lite-

Pinkerton on Adamnan's

rature, 243, 251 ff.

Columcille, 183

Pagan Irish better artificers

Plague, the, of 664, 201

than the Christian Irish,

Pliny, 89

Q. The Indo-European gut-

456
Pale, the, 554 ; English con-

Plutarch, 79
Poets, originally judges also,

tural changed into P, 4

fined to, 609 ; Irish spoken

241 ; text books of, 241 :

universally in it, 612

antiquity of their text

Palgrave, Sir Frances, 199
Palladius, 106, 137

books, 243 ; oldest pre-
Christian poets in Ireland,

R passives, in Celtic 11 n. 3
Rafter}', a Connacht poet, 96,

Pan, 79

244 ; poet-saints, 413 ; Irish

605

Pantheon, Gaulish, assimi-
lated to Roman, 112

poets of Norman race,
493 ; see also " Bard "

Raghallach.Kingof Connacht

233

Pan-Celtic Society, lays and

Poems, the first written in

Rannaigheacht, Great, metre,

lyrics of, 191
Papists, judgment of the Bi-

Irish, 242, 273 ff. ; topogra-
phical, 469 ; historical, 445

418, 487, Little R., 526
Rathcoole, 57

shops concerning, 555
Paradise. MacGilla Keefe

Poetry more easy to date than
prose, 269 ; obligatory on

Rathkenry, bardic college of,
490

travels to find site of, 433

the Fenians, 373 ; mixed

Ratisbon, Irish monastery of,

Paris, life of Columcille found

with prose in the sagas,

449, 451

in, 189

399 ; early technique of,

Reality of the characters of

Parliament of Clan Lopus,
260

406 ff. ; in the " wars of the
Gael with the Gaill," 441 ;

the Cuchulain saga, 252
Reciter, Irish, described, 627

Partholon, 281, 429

anonymous more interest-

Red Sea, Irish on the, 223

Patrick, St., 35 ; life of in

ing than that by known

Red Branch, the, warriors of.

Book of Armagh, Father

authors, 448; tribal, and

66 ; House of, 295 ; saga,

Hogan's edition, 36 n. says

family, 472 ; development

cycle of, 293 ff. ; saga not

that the Irish worshipped
idols, 84 ; overthrows Crom

of, 479 ff. ; last specimen of
unrhymed, 479 ; well re-

materially altered after the
Norman Conquest, 466 ;

Cruach, 87 ; his Confession,

munerated in Ireland, 486 ;

connected with the Brehon

112 ; listen to the Fenian
stories, 116 ; date of his

allegorical, 597 ; Jacobite,

596 ff •

Law, 589; in topography,
56 ; " Red Branch Knights,"

landing, 134 ; his compa-

Pomponius, Mela, 21, 94

363

nions, 134 ; more than one

Poison, used by Elizabethan

Reeves, Dr., 41, 171, 181, 182,

Patrick, 136 : date of his

statesmen, 554, 567

218

death, 136 note ; confession

Pope, 271

Reeves' collection of Irish

of, 141 ; his life, 141 ff ; pro-

Pork as a food, 104

MSS., 375, 385

phesies to St. Brigit, 158 ;

Posidonius, 254

Reinach, Solomon, M., 5, 454

as a Christian name, 162 ;

Pot of avarice, 489

Reim Rioghraidhe, O'Clery's,

his advice to St. Carthainn,

Pottage, Columcille's, 174

576

268 ; made verses, 409 ; is

Pre-Danish poets, 405 ff.

Reincarnation, Irish stories of,

treated with banter in the

Priests of the early Germans,

95- 38i

Ossianic lays, 500 ; is made

*4

Religion of Celts and Ger-

to denounce Ossian, 501 ff. ;

Priests, early, their simple

mans different, 12, 13

birth of, recorded in Chro-

equipment, 135

Religious songs of Connacht,

nicon Scotorum, 581 ; re-

Printing press, Avant of in

148, 270, 467, 606

vises the Brehon Laws, 588

Ireland, 534

Renan, 225

Pavia, school of, 208

Presbyterian view of Church

Residences of the High Kings

Pedigrees, Irish, not for sale,

Government, 183

of Ireland, 232

69 ; importance of to the

Prince, advice to a, 247 ff.

Rethwisch, Dr. Ernst, 108

Irish and Welsh, 72 ; chant-

Prose mixed with verse, 260 rf .

Revue Celtique, 217, et pas-

ing of, an incitement to

399

sim

battle, 331

Proceedings of Great Bardic

Rhine, derivation of the name,

Pelagius, 41, 106

Association, 260

10

Penal Laws, 512, 554, 594
Persecution of Irish authors,

Prophets, the four great, of
Erin, 210

Rhyme amongst the Irish, 480
ff. ; when first met with,

560 ff.

Prosper's Chronicle, 106, 137

481 ; a Celtic invention,

Persian history, 78
Petrie, xii, his antiquities of

Prophecy, druid's, about St.
Patrick, 91

481 iff. ; perfect rhymes in
seventh century, 485 ; deri-

Tara, 447 ; on Irish shrines,

Provinces, different charac-

vation of the word, 485 ;

457

teristics of their speech,

" Irish rhyme," 539 ff. ; An-

Petronius, 276

617

glo-Irish rhyme, 540 ff. ,

6S2

INDEX

vowel- rhyme replaces con-
sonantal rhyme, 541

Khys, Dr. John, on the Crom
Cruach, 85, 87 ; on Ogma,
113 ff. ; on Ogam inscrip-
tions, 121 ; on the Lochlan-
nachs, 500

Ricardus Corinensis, 23

Ridgeway, Professor, on coin-
age, 125

Rinuccini on the Irish lan-
guage, 613

Rinn dird metre, 413

Rivers help to heal Cuchu-
laiu, 334

Rodan.or Ruadhan, or Lothra,
St., 196, 227 tf.( 231, 403

Rodenberg, a German tra-
veller in Ireland, 629 ff.

Rolleston, T. W., poem on
Clonmacnois, 205

Romans, their relations with
the Celts, 8 ; defeat them,
9 ; never invaded Ireland,
17 ; chase the Irish out to
sea, 23

Roman tax collector, the, 79 ;
Roman mission of St. Pa-
trick, 142; Roman metres,
530

Romanised Britons, the, 104

Romanesque, Irish, 460

Romance, or saga, in Greek
and Latin, 276

Rome stormed by the Celts, 8

Ros, or Ross, poet, 408, 588

Ross, the school of, 213

Rosg, the poetry so-called, 146,
47Q

Roscommon, 509

Round Towers, the, derived
from the East, 459 ff.

Royal Irish Academy, see
" Academy "

Rudricians, or Clanna Rudh-
raighe [Rury], 66, 388

Ruadhan, St., see " Rodan "

"Runs" in Irish, 277

Russel, T. O'Neill, 394

Ryan's history of the Co. Car-
low, 210

Sacra, Ireland called, 20
Sacred tree, 170
Sacrifice, human, 83, 85, 92, 93
Sadhbh, wife of Oilioll Olum,
31 ; how pronounced, 31,
32

Saints, three orders of, 192-3

Saints take different sides,

233-4 J figure in romances,

234 ; saints who were also

poets, 413 ; the number of

them buried in Aran, 194 ;

list of their lives, 574-5; three

works by Colgan on them,

577 ; Book of the Saints, 563

Sailing of Cumhal, the, 366

Sailing of Owen Mor, the, 369

Saga, or romance, in Greek

and Latin, 276 ; in Irish,
277 ff. ; unconscious de-
veloping into conscious,
378-9 ; list of mythological
sagas, 292 ; of Red Branch
sagas, 361 ; of Fenian sagas,
385 ;of miscellaneous sagas,
401 ff. ; golden era of the
Irish saga, 387 ; list of sagas
in Book of Leinster, 278,
287 ; all saga shot through
with verse, 399 ff . ; the great
number of lost sagas, 400 ff . ;
see also " story "

Salmon of knowledge, the, 448

Saltair of Tara, 72, 264, 555

Saltair of Cashel, 265-6

Saltair na rann, 414 ff.

Samhan's Day, 247

"Sancti Venite," 150

Satire on a prince, mode of,
242 ; power of, to raise
blisters, 328 ; the first satire
ever made in Ireland, 285,
409 ; Dalian threatens Mon-
gan with a satire, 411 ; the
satires of Angus O'Dalv,
476 ff.

Saxon invasion of Britain, 23 ;
Saxon chronicle, 23, 42 ;
Saxons flock to Armagh,
134 ; Saxon genealogies
given by Mac Firbis, 563

Saxo Grammaticus, 78

Scansion of Irish classical
metres, 532

Scathach, a female trainer of
warriors, 298

Schaffhausen, Library of, 184

Schools, curriculum in early
Irish, 215 ff. ; Anglo-Saxons
educated gratis in the Irish,
220 ; length of term in,
529; closed by James I., 554 ;
old Irish texts used in, 155

Schoell on Adamnan's Life of
Columcille, 184

Scots, Irish so called by
Claudian, 23 ; see also
"Highland"

Scottish race, i.e., the Irish,
164, 187 ; the Irish suffer
from the ambiguity of the
word "Scottish," 451

Scotia, Ireland so called till
the 1 5th century, 34 ; used
for Hibernia, 164 ; con-
founded with Great Britain,
106 ; Scotland called Lesser
Scotia, 34

Scots, absurd derivation of the
name, 4"?

Scotus Erigena, 218, 248, 448

Scota, daughter of Pharaoh, 45

Scott, Sir Walter, 400

Script of Adamnan's, life of
Columcille compared with
that of the Book of Armagh,
184

Sculpture, Irish, 457

Scymnus of Chio, verses on
the Celts, 6,42

Sea, "the seven daughters of

the," 242
Seanchus, or Senchus ,M6r,

character of, 88 283, 584 ff. ;

Seachnall, St., 147-8
Seasons, good or bad, caused

by good or bad rulers, 28

388

Sedulius of Liittich, 448
Sedulius, abbot of Kildare

217-8
Sedulius, author of Carmen

Paschale, 107
Seefinn, 57

Segienus, abbot of lona, 202
Senanus,or Senan,of Iniscathy

[Inis Cathaigh], 196, 213,

410
Sencha, the Nestor of the Red

Branch, 336, 589
Senchan, Torpeist, poet, 263,

411

Servile tribes, the, 27, 29
Seventh century, the golden

age of Irish saga, 387
Shield, Dalian's poem on King

Aedh's, 410
Shannon, origin of the name,

447 ; a Roscommon poem

on, 448

Siadal, or Sedulius, 107
Sidh [shee] mounds, or fairy

palaces, 96, 100
Sidhe [Shee] the, 284 ; the

Fomorians, so called, 287 ;

friends of Cuchulain, 327
Sigerson, Dr., F.R.U.I., 106,

133, 147, 216, 409, 505, 596
Silken, Thomas, 493
Silius Italicus describes the

Celtic Boii, 18
Siol [Sheeol] Carthaigh, 61
Siol nDalaigh, 64
Skene, 76, 371
Skriebentium, Irish monks at,

449
Slane, Dagobert educated at;

220

Sliabh Echtge, poem on, 428

Sligo, history of, 623

" Slender-with-slender," rule

of, 482

Slieve Luachra, 47
Slieve Bladhma, or Bloom, 49
Slieve Cualgni, whence called,

Slieve Fuad.i whence called.

Snakes, none in Ireland, 22, 45
Snedgus and Mac Riaghla,

voyage of, 403
Snow, fall of, described, 324
Socrates, his descent, 78
Solinus, 238

" Son of 111 Council," the, 260
Spain, overrun by Celts, 5 ;

the Irish take refuge in, 553
Spanish stories translated into

Irish, 572
Spenser, 557 ; on the Irish

bards, 494 ff.

INDEX

653

Spiral, the, in Irish art, 454

Sru, 45

St. John' i eve, 90-91

St. Gall, monastery of, 197, 485

St. Paul, in Carinthia monas-
tery of, 210

Stag laments for hind, 384

State, idea of the State absent
from the Irish, 252, 585

State papers, the, 474, 525,
567

Stapleton, Theobald, author,
571, 616

Steeds, Cuchulain's, 345, 350,
35i

Stems, the four great Irish
genealogical, 59 ; Teutonic,
ditto, 59

Stern, Ludwig Christian, 536,
54°

Stilicho, 35

Stone used in Irish buildings,
459

Stories, list of, in the Book of
Leinster, 278 ; number still
existing, 279 ; epitomised in
the older texts, 296 ff. ;
translated from foreign
languages, 572 ; see '"Saga"

Stokes, Professor G., 203, 214,
218, 222

Stokes, Dr.Whitley, on Seach-
nall's Hymn, 149; on St.
Brigit, 161 ; on the Sindbad
story, 199 ; on ogams, 113 ;
on the Feilire of Aonghus,
265, 413 ; on the mean-
ing of Dagda, 287 ; on
"rithim," 486 ; on the
Saltair na Rann, 414 ; his
Tripartite Life, 43, 154; Lives
of the Saints, 92 ; Dinn-
seanchus, 93

I Stokes, Miss Margaret, Six
Months in the Appenines,
451 ; on Irish art, 455 ;
on Irish Romanesque, 460 ;
on the arrest of Irish
development, 463
I Stowe MSS., the, 471
| Strongbow, 212

Strong-armed Wrestler,"the,
597

|Strabo on the stature of the
Celts, 18; calls Ireland
I erne, 21
[Strachan, studies on the Irish

deponent, 265, 405
[Strangers in Ireland, 219, 222
[Stuarts, sentimental affection
for the, 594

stuart, Charles Edward, 596

~ letonius, 149

["Sugar-loaf" mountain, the,
49

uibhne's madness, saga, 403
ullivan, Dr.W. K, 260, 399,512
in-worship, 455

iwift, Dean, ix, proposes to
exterminate the Irish lan-
guage, 621

have speech and

sensation, 291 ; sword " of

educated at Clonmacnois,

light,"39i ; make music, id. ;

206 ; silent about the curs-

juggled with, 337, 392

ing of Tara, 227 ; on Finn

mac Cumhail, 380 ; his

T

annals, 580

" Tabhal-lorg," or tablet-staff,

Timagenes, 94
Tirechan, 134, 136, 149; ac-

117

count of his work, 151 ff.

Tacitus on the Irish, 19, 21, 43

Todd, Dr., 202 ; on the Wars

Tadhg Mac Daire, poet, 28 ;

of the Gael and Gaill, 234 ;

see " Teig "
Taibhli Fileadh, 116
Taillefer, 337
Tain Bo Chuailgne, 7, no,

on O'Mahony's Keating, 556
Topography of Ireland, 56 ft.
Torna Eigeas, poet, 515
Tory Island, 282

260 ; oldest copy of, 263 ;

Towers, 459; see "round

the saga of, 319 ff. ; Dr.

towers "

Sullivan on its composition,

Translations from modern

399 ; nearly an epic, 400

languages into Irish, 572

Tailltinn, fair of, 48

Trench, Hon. Power, Arch-

Talti, 48

bishop of Tuam, 620

Tatnkhrgfikadh, 116

Tara, Feis of, 73, 126 ; cursed

Trias Thaumaturga, 153, 574
Tribal system, supported by

by St. Ruadhan, 226 ff.;

genealogy, 71

effect of this curse, 234 ; a

Trinity College, i.e., Dublin

college at, 245 ; Conall

University, xiii ; its attitude

Cearnach spares, 352 ; Cuan

towards Celtic studies, xiv,

O'Lochain on, 447 ; how

xv ; its so-called Irish pro-

built, 458 ff ; the Teach

fessorship, xiv, 625; its

Miodh-chuarta at, 127, 458

neglect to bridge the gap

Teach Mior Miodh-chuarta,

between the different in-

127, 129, 458

habitants of Ireland, 308 ;

Teagasg Riogh, 246 ff

indignation of the native

Technique of the Irish poets,

Irish at being excluded from

406

it, 561 ; founded, says Lom-

Teffia or Longford, 206

bard, " sumptibus indigena-

Teig [or Tadg] Mac Daire,

rum," 561 ; does not recover

poet, 515 ft., 564 ; death of,

Flood's bequest, 625

517

Trinity, Columcille's hymn

Teig, son of Cian, saga of, 402

to the, 181

Teig used to designate an

Tripartite life of St. Patrick,

Irishman, 504

107, 147, 149 ; described, 153

Teinm laeghdha or tenmlaida,

Tritenheim, John of, 107

84, 241 *

Troithlidhe, meaning of, 475

Telltown, miscalled, 48

Tuatha De Danann, 47, 51,

Temples, 55

52 ; their druids, steeds

Tennyson, 510

servants, etc., 524 ; the

Tethra, 101
Teudor Mac Regin, 40

names of their chief people,
52 ; believed by O'Donovan

Teutoni, the, 10

and OCurry to have been

Teutonic theogony, 13 ;

real people, 53 ; no Irish

mythology, 78
Theogony, Old Gaelic, 50 ; few

families descended from
them, 76, 563; their gods

names in common in Indo-

die, 80, 287 ; their druids,

European, 1411.

82, 83 ; history of, 280 ff. ;

Theodosius, 35

confounded with the sidhe,

Theft, spell for discovering

284 ; meaning of the name ;

241

286 ; aid Cuchulain, 334 ;

Thierry, 23

Mac Firbis on them, 563

Thor, equated with Taranucus

Tuathal, or Toole, 29 ; extorts

by Rhys, 13

the Boru tribute, 30, 393 ff.

Three Sorrows of Story-tel-

Tuan mac Cairill, 95, 381

ling, 279, 287

Tugcn, the, or poet's robe, 240

Thucydides, his descent, 78

Tuisco, 59

Thurneysen, 97, 153, 241 ; on

Tuireann, children of, 78, 287

Irish metric. 482 ff

Turin glosses, the, 267

Tibride Tirech, ancestor of the
old Ulster princes, 27

Turlough mac Stairn, tale, 260
Turpin's Chronicle in Irish,572

Tighearnmas, Fomorian cul-

Turgesius, 204-7

ture king, 78, 87

"Tutor of the saints of Ire-

Tighearnach, his date, 23 ; on
early Irish H istory, 24 ;

land," the, 194
"Twelve apostles of Ireland, "

books used by him, 43 ;

the, 196, 229

654

INDEX

Tyrconnel's viceroyalty, 593

U

Uacongbhail, Book of, 264
Ua Corra, voyage of the sons

of, 403

Ugony the Great, 25, 408
Uillinn, 48
Uisneach, hill of. 90
Ui Briain, the, 33, 34, 527
Ui Fiachrach, the, 33
Ui Neill, the, 35, 171, 204, 206,

232, 233, 452
Uladh, or Ulster, 66 ; Book of

genealogies of, 59
Ulster Journal of Archaeology,

Ulster monks in Germany,

44Q

Ulidians, or Ulstermen, 66
Ultan, Bishop, 151, 163, 164
University, anxiety of the

Irish for a, 550 ff. ; Dublin

University, see " Trinity

College "
Uraicept na n-Eigeas, or, na

n-igsine, 244, 487
Ursgeul, the Irish, or saga,

227, 277
Ussher, Archbishop, 554 ; his

"Antiquities," 211 ; on Cai-

min's Psalter, 214 ; attacks

Bedell, 619 ; anomalous

position of, 620

Valerius Maximus, 94

Van der Meer on Adamnan's

" Columcille," 85
Ventry Harbour, battle of,

Verse, used in the Tain Bo
Chuailgne, 260 ; inter-
spersed with prose, 260, 399;
the various frameworks of
verse amongst various na-
tions, 559 ; accentuated re-
places syllabic, 541 ff. ;

quoted in the Annals, etc.,
579- 58i

Vienna, Irish glosses in, 267
Virgilius, or Fergil, 224
Vision of Brigit on Ireland,

158

Vision of Baithin on Colum-
cille, 173-4

Vision of St. Fursa, 198
Vision of St. Patrick on Ire-
land, 193 ; of Dryhthelm
on purgatory, 199 ; of St.
Brendan on hell, 200 ; of
Adamnan, 200

Victor, St. Patrick's angel, 143
Vocabularius St. Galli, 420
Voyage of Bran, age of the
verses in, 485

W

Walah.rootof "Welsh" from
Volcaj, 4

Wards, the, 524

Ward, Father Hugh [Mac
an Bhaird], 574

Wars of the Gael with the
Gaill, 434 ff. ; analysed,
440 ff.

Waterford, endeavours to im-
pose English on the citi-
zens, 610

Welsh pedigree confirms Irish
Annals, 411

Welsh language, 613

Westwood on Irish art, 460,
462

Wexford, 615, 618

Whiskey, Carolan's ode to,

White, Stephen, S. J., 183, 184,

612

Wild, an English tourist, 629
Wilfrid, 221
Willibrord, St., 222
Winds, the colours of the,

415, 416
Winter night, Caoilte's poem

on a, 507
Windisch on St. Brigit, 161-3 ;

on the pagan element in

Irish literature, 251 ; on the

archaism of the sagas, 261 ;
on Irish scansion, 532 ; on
the language of Irish
copyists, 269 ; on Irish
metric, 483

Woden equated with Welsh
Gwydion, 13 ; accredited
ancestor of various races, 78

Women, not shunned by the
early saints, 192 ; shunned
by the later ones, 193 ; tar-
dily exempted from mili-
tary service, 234 ; King
Cormac's opinion of them,
249 ; Parliament of the,
260 ; as trainers of warriors,
296 ; enjoy their own dow-
ries, 32 ; their price is the
Brehon Law, 320 ; uncover
their bosoms before Cuchu-
lain, 348

Wood used in Irish buildings,
129, 130

Woodward, Dr., Bishop
Cloyne, 620

Wooing of Emer, 296 ff.

Workmanship of Irish
bronze, etc., 125 ff.

Wren, legend of the, 398

Writing materials of the early j
Irish, 116 ; art of writii
when introduced into Ir
land, 105 ff. ; druids
bidden to write their ve
289

Wurzburg glosses, 97, 267

Zeuss, 147 ; on the Celtic :
vention of rhyme, 480

Zimmer, 40, 97, 106, in,
152, 217 ; on the pa
character of Irish literature,
252 ; on the Tain Bo Chuai-
lgne, 263, 269 < on
Middle Irish MSS., 268 ; on
the Irish scholars upon the
continent, 449, 450-1; on<
Fiacc's Life of St. Patrick,
483 ; on the scansion of the
classical Irish metres, 532

UNWIN BROTHERS, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON.

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